Posts by scratchme1010

18

How/when did you become a jehovas witness?

by Lewis1998 in

so i've been a protestant for most of my life, it's how i was raised, but recently i started questioning my faith more and more and now i feel like my beliefs resemble that of a jehovas witness rather than a protestant.

i don't know any jehovas witnesses, so i was just wondering how a lot of you found the religion and adapted to it?.

scratchme1010

I don't know any jehovas witnesses, so I was just wondering how a lot of you found the religion and adapted to it?

I didn't adopt it. That's my mother's religion when I was born. If you look at our experiences here, you will see that there are very different ways and things that made people interested in becoming a JW.

Since that religion was imposed on me, and since I was never cut to be one, throughout my entire life as a JW there were lots of conflicts between that organization, my family and me.

Personally that organization doesn't do it for me, but if you relate to their teachings, give it a try. It may or may not be for you.

9

Who is "the faithfully and discreet slave"?

by Counter-Watchtower in

ive asked my jw friends that 3 times and never got an answer.. and can someone explain the jw class system?

and or point me to info on it..

scratchme1010

Who fucking cares. As I said, if you want JW info go to their website.

18

Did anyone here ever meet Stephen Lett?

by The Real Edward Gentry in

jw
friends

what is he like in person?

he seems deranged.

do people get irritated at being spoken to like a 3 year old when they hear him speak?.

scratchme1010

Fuck No!

22

Damon Wayans was apparently at 2017 Annual Meeting

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

from this post on reddit.com/r/exjw, damon wayans was at the 2017 annual meeting.

the wayans were raised as jw's but i don't think any of them stated.. strange to see him here.

this is the same man who defended bill cosby from all the sex abuse allegations..

scratchme1010

That explains the Wayans' stupid inappropriate offensive jokes.

15

Everlasting life on a stick

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i think the watchtower is the only organization that can promise a product (everlasting life) and never deliver it.. what fools we've been to believe this nonsense..

scratchme1010

I think the Watchtower is the only organization that can promise a product (everlasting life) and never deliver it.
what fools we've been to believe this nonsense.

You will be surprised to find how many religions and cults offer life forever in one form or another. There are quite a lot of those.

Also, "fool" is not a nice thing to call anyone including yourself. Intelligence has nothing to do with why people join and wind up believing that crap. Plus, there are people like me who didn't join. I was born in that organization, never had the choice.

The way life in paradise is framed is what makes the message attractive. Their promise is solving all people's problems that they have today, or making them irrelevant because of the everlasting life.

You will be surprised to find out how many people can't care less about living forever, but join because they are promised that all their current problems will be solved or are no longer important because they will disappear. That's the catch; that's what people fall for.

4

Child Baptism

by konceptual99 in

the latest round of changes to the magazines are yet further confirmation that the wts has lost it's way with the preaching work.

imho this is driven by the incessant prioritisation of fiscal goals but also by the fact the gb don't have a clue what is happening in the world and how it really relates to their traditional eschatology.. what they have turned to is child baptism.

i know the wts says it does not baptise infants but the drive to encourage children to get baptised at earlier and earlier ages knows no bounds.

scratchme1010

As I have said before, they can't care less about children; never have, never will.

12

Is it a once a week church now? Or can you skip that and listen on the phone?

by Xanthippe in

i would like to outline what exactly this religion is now because i've lost track of all the changes on here.

this forum's my only source of information as my family still-in shun me.

so what do jws do now?.

scratchme1010

...but they discourage the regular use of this facility by any one they deem not worthy.

They just don't effing get it. It would be funny if they weren't playing with people's lives and well being.

9

Contradicting Society directives

by stuckinarut2 in

with the agm changes, and the changes over the recent few years, it struck me just how contradictory and hypocritical the society is.. we were always told that "wonderful expansion" and growth in halls was proof of god's blessing.

now it is the other way around, and building expansion is halted.. we were always told that door to door is the best way to take the "life saving" truth to people.

now it is the cart work.... we were always told that the abundance of "spiritual food" in the form of publications was proof of gods direction and teaching.

scratchme1010

No, you didn't miss anything. They are contradictory and hypocritical.

74

The Watchtower's Real Crisis

by JeffT in

jw
friends

when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

scratchme1010

I think the Society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

I'm not sure if "running out of ideas" is the right way of characterize it. I think it's catching up with them the fact that they are just not believers of innovation. They insist in using the same model that they originally implemented whee they started in the 19th century, expecting to obtain the same results.

I posted this in another post, but this is what I believe now (and I admit, I was wrong when I express that they were in fact ok financially because of their real estate deals):

Unlike most-to-all other groups (religious and non-religious), the WT has this ridiculous archaic idea/model of making a lot of money out of people who they themselves discourage from making money. In the past, when in USA people could still make a living from unskilled labor or from some simple trade, that may have worked. Not so today. Yet, they still insist in having their people live with the minimum necessary. That's quite different from what other institutions (some of which even offer scholarships) do. To other institutions, their people are their biggest investment and asset. "It's OK to be a Doctor in my church, especially since I impose you give 10% of your gross income to it"; that's a better model than the ridiculous "Don't study, don't make money and it's ok to contribute when/if you can since Jehovah will provide" model.
When it comes to the WT reputation, it keeps crumbling. Constantly there are not only new lawsuits against the WT, congregations or JWs directly, but people are a lot more aware of the ones that have happened in the past. Lawsuits is only one of the many ways in which their reputation is crumbling. There are now quite a lot of ex-JWs out there, that they just cannot silence. There's no way that they can continue applying mental patches to people, especially those who start listening to them. And now with the ease of communication that technology brings, people can very easily get the full/better story and many sides of things that people and the media say about them, so they can make better informed decisions. Speaking of technology...
They are just horrible at managing technology. Their approach to the Internet alone has proven to be disastrous, again, trying to apply the same nonsense they tried with radio way back when, with TV way back when, with CB radio way back when. Those idiots just don't learn their lesson. If you look at the people who compose the head of that organization, you can see how technology dumb they are, that in combination with them attempting at making every single decision to suit them and their best interest, which seems to be obsessive around controlling the lives of their followers. That's how they end up mismanaging technology and advances.
Another idiotic approach has to do with their insane neglect and mistreatment of children. They do not consider children for anything they do, including the things that they talk about (and how) in their meetings and literature. Just look at their "Book of Bible Stories". Why does that matter? Because children grow traumatized and just leave as soon as they can. Furthermore, the treatment and approach to children comes from way back when they started, when in USA there were laws to protect animals, but not one law to protect children. Layers had to build a case that animal protection laws applied to abused children too. That's the school where they come from.

They are over a century outdated in their mindset and approach to managing their organization.

27

At the annual meeting right now . . .

by neat blue dog in

i'm at the recorded meeting right now.

trying to hide my disgust sitting up front listening to geoffrey jackson quibble about the pharisaical minutai of sanctification vs. vindication.

the audience is thrilled that they now have 'permission' to say god's name can be vindicated.

scratchme1010

Trying to hide my disgust sitting up front listening to Geoffrey Jackson quibble about the Pharisaical minutai of sanctification vs. vindication.

I'm glad that you are fortunate to have a way of expressing yourself while going through it. Thanks for sharing.