Posts by Freeandclear

13

1st Year not attending RC

by BeautifulMind in

jw
friends

i feel relieved to spend that time doing anything else but sitting in a stadium for 8 hours with only an hour break listening to the same talks i've been hearing since i was a child.

not to mention trying to keep my young boys quiet so i wouldnt get the evil looks in my section😂😂.

lot of walking was going on for us to try and tire them out.

I remember my last "convention" or whatever they call them nowadays. It was a one day thing, Circuit assembly??? Anyway, I hadn't been going for a good while due to guilt and just living my life, decided to get back in da troof and went. It was good for a bit, then I was falling asleep. Got up walked around, no one but my closest friends was talking to me because of my past I assume....marked? I had bought a new suit and shirt and felt uncomfortable as hell...you know how it is..... When the end finally came I was so happy. Went out to dinner with some friends afterwards (the best part of these days right?) After that I got DF'd and to be honest, it was the best thing that could have happened to me because once DF'd I felt free to really start doing some research and what I found freed me from the slavery to the WTS. Thank you JWfacts.com

Now when it's a Sunday like today I love the freedom of it. When I drive by the old Hall I just think to myself how glad I am not to be a part of it anymore. Yes I miss my friends but the relief of not having to go and feel guilty and no longer to follow all the silly rules (hey, I look so much better with a beard anyway! who knew?) is just incredible.

63

You know, I've yet to meet a JW who can explain this

by Lady Zombie in

i know that has probably been covered ad infinitum on jwd.

so...... if jehovah is omnipotent, then there is nothing he can't do and nothing he doesn't know.. and, according to jws (as well as most other religions), god is love.

therefore he had to have known, even before creating all of creation, what would happen.

Freeandclear

The more I read and look for answers the more I am convinced that none exist. This leads me to one seemingly logical conclusion: there is no God. We are here alone and when we die it's over.

27

Hi everyone!

by cognac in

jw
friends

was just listening to a song that made me think of the jws so thought i'd say hi and see how everyone is.

i'm doing ok. kids are fine.

i'm good, making tons of friends, very successful in my career, bla bla bla.

Freeandclear

Great song! I was blown away the first time I heard it and continue to be so. I'm doing well. No JW issues other than the typical existential crisis we are all going through as humans. On a lighter note, I've stopped drinking and feel good about that change. My mind is getting clearer every day and my liver no longer aches lol I'm taking out a new girl this Saturday night so fingers crossed.

46

45 Minute Bethel Video about Changes (downsizing) at Watchtower

by OnTheWayOut in

i don't see this posted elsewhere, and i don't have the links besides this facebook one.. but here is a 45-minute long bethel talk about the changes at bethel including addressing the hard feelings of people who were given the axe.

basically, everything must change.

we gave remaining bethelites saturday off to do our bidding in "the field" and we give bethelites over 70 an extra day a week off (if you can find any such bethelites).

Freeandclear

Absolutely disgusting. I'm so glad I'm awake now and done with this fucking cult...... True Christian love in action..... what a joke.

32

Are the anointed really "lovely people"?

by purrpurr in

i've personally never met any of those who claim to be anointed but the other jw's who have are always unanimous in their praise of how lovely and what wonderful people they are.

and i don't mean the gb i mean common or garden anointed.

i was told that when they speak about being in heaven that they almost "seem to glow".. is this right?

Freeandclear

I only ever knew one personally and he was very odd. I mean, like creepy odd, like don't let your young kids around him odd. I'm not saying he ever acted on anything like that but I did see him a couple of years ago out at a restaurant in a dirty t-shirt and having dinner with a very young man.....didn't know what that was all about but it sure looked like a date. Then I ran into him a few months back at a local hot dog place and he talked to me for a bit, I asked him if he was still going to meetings, he said "Oh yeeesssssss......." He was one of those types who would partake one year then not the next, etc.... I guess all "annointed" are flip floppy. lol

14

Excuses for God

by xelder in

i am amazed at how people will go to extreme stretches of logic to explain or justify the supposed actions of their god (lower case g intentional, no upper case deserved).

i have seen people with wonderful bullshit detectors in normal life, throw all of that ability away in order to retain their hope of a creator who cares for them.

i am agnostic, certainly not atheistic, since i think atheism is not provable.

Freeandclear

God if he/she/it exists has no and I mean ZERO interest in how we serve "him". If he did there would absolutely NOT be 100,000 different religions on the planet. Can I get an Amen? lol

10

If you "chose" this religion, as I did, do you remember the moment you "bought" the religion?

by Muddy Waters in

if you "chose" this religion, as i did, do you remember the moment you "bought", or believed, the religion?.

for me, it was during one of my studies with a knowledgeable, lovely pioneer sister who looked like her life was so perfect and wonderful.

i was coming out of a terrible situation in my life, very vulnerable, being abandoned by a husband during my pregnancy and with other little children to look after too.

Freeandclear

When I was very young, like 3 or 4 my mom read me the story of Abraham and Issac and I remember thinking to myself that I would do that for God if he asked me. So I guess I'd always had a deep spiritual need and wanted to please God.

I come from a broken home. No dad to speak of, he was a real pos and never did anything with us kids except berate us and put us down and make us feel worthless. My mom remarried a guy when I was 12 and he and I didn't see eye to eye at the time, so I really had no father figure.

About the age of 13 I talked to a lady who was just studying at the time and she told me all about the paradise earth and I thought that sounded great. That was the first seed planted.

I was not a popular kid in school. Very much a nerd and a teachers pet. My mom never showed me the dark side of life only life through Rose colored glasses, so I had a lot of trust for everyone and took everyone at their word.

Enter the JW's. They came to my door, a study was started and I really looked up to the man who was studying with me. Little did I know I was viewing him as a father figure of sorts.

I was very trusting, very hurt by life (I'd just gotten my heart crushed by a girl in hs who I dearly loved at the time), I had no father and I had this deep desire to please god.

All these factors pushed me right into the JW religion.

The moment I bought it was at a District Convention in Pittsburgh PA in the old 3 rivers stadium. It was hot, I was miserable, I was sitting all alone way up in the nose bleed section. I didn't want it to be the Truth. I wanted to live my life, be free, love someone, travel, go to college, etc..... but as I sat there it just all made so much sense. Everything was proven from the bible and I believed it all.

7

Moment of awakening?

by Freeandclear in

i just recalled something from my past that i've not thought about in a very long time, but it did have a significant impact on me whether i knew it or not at the time....... i have a sister who was born when i was 15. my family are not jw's thank the universe!

but me as an uberdub at the time convinced my young sister to have a study.

she was about 14 or 15 at the time i'd guess.

Freeandclear

I just recalled something from my past that I've not thought about in a very long time, but it did have a significant impact on me whether I knew it or not at the time......

I have a sister who was born when I was 15. My family are not JW's thank the universe! But me as an uberdub at the time convinced my young sister to have a study. She was about 14 or 15 at the time I'd guess.

We were going along in the Bible Teach book I think it was.....and she was full of questions. Now my sister was a very outgoing young lady with lots and lots of life in her. Very much the type to go off and explore the world (much like I was before becoming a Jdub and how I am once again) and at some point in our study and her going to meetings she expressed to me something along the lines of "But what do you DO?" in other words, she was seeing just how repressive this cult is. She saw that if she continued in it she would have nothing. None of her dreams would be fulfilled and all her desires would just be trashed. Startlingly I actually saw this too and for a split second I too asked myself "Yes, what indeed do we DO?" and the answer was "nothing". It was one of my first moments of Cognitive Dissonance and I quickly talked about how we do all this for Jehovah, blah blah blah.......

The funny thing was when she decided to stop studying and attending meetings deep down I was actually happy for her. I knew she'd made the right decision for herself.

It's funny I just thought of this. I never really thought I'd had any CD moments. For me reading CoC while I was taking a break from meetings (due to the overwhelming guilt feelings) was what I always thought of as my moment of awakening, but really looking back this was the first glimmer that something wasn't right.

I'd love to hear your first moments of awakening if you'd like to share.

14

Would you have done what Adam did?

by thinker11 in

every religious group know the story of adam & eve.

for me, i understood what they did was wrong but i never felt they were bad people and considering that they never murdered anyone and seemed to live normal lives after being kicked out, i found it hard to accept that they deserved to die forever and that we would be responsible for suffering for their mistakes.

i personally feel like i might have done the same thing adam did when eve offered him the fruit.

Freeandclear

Well of course all of this is just fairy tail nonsense but here is my thought.

I've always thought of Adam and Eve as the greatest love story ever told.

A man loved a woman more than anything else, even eternal life and happiness and was willing to give that all away to be with her. Pretty powerful actually. But again, just a made up story.

There is no God, or if there is It's certainly not a God who cares at all about what we do or what we believe since no crystal clear direction has been given.

88

What was there before the Big Bang?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpuhj98vjoa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hik8hj0_t9q.

Freeandclear

Great discussion, one to which we will most likely never know the answers to.

My thought. The universe is a small sphere sitting on the desk of a child in his realm of existence. Nothing more than the snow globe sitting on my bookshelf..... Forgotten and rarely looked at.