I'm glad to have found this thread, confirms I'm not insane for keeping away from my toxic still in parents, who would do nothing but ruin my life if they had the first chance and tried that before. It's hard to talk about family with normal people, I have to go undercover and pretend I'm 'normal'. Close friends and even ex-jw friends who know I've had problems with my family that they have not had don't seem to be able to get it, though. So I am happy to find vindication in your story.
alecholmesthedetective
JoinedPosts by alecholmesthedetective
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76
Family is now reaping what they sowed and they don't like it.
by Gemmel ini resigned from the jw's in my 20's over 30 years ago, i was immediately shunned by my entire family and it's remained that way with a few exceptions ever since.
one of those exceptions was being contacted by a cousin a few years back and during that conversation i discovered that my mother had been and still was the prime mover in my complete and continuing shunning.
i then used what contacts i had left to confirm it.
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What Does A Examination The Classic Response By The Watchtower's Responce To The News Media About Child Abuse Cover Ups : "They Abhor It" ?
by Brokeback Watchtower ini think to the world in general it is fucking stupid but what about the every day jw?
is that all that they can say and is this type of public statement commonly known to the r&f?
their statement they abhor it.
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alecholmesthedetective
In 2018 few things can still shock me, but Ted's arrogance in the video, and the Watchtower's arrogance on this issue to this day never cease to amaze me.
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What changes would stabilize JW membership?
by StarryNight9 ini've seen many topics about how things are changing or might be changing in jw doctrine/culture.
some have extrapolated how those changes would result in declining jw membership.
i'm curious to know what changes others think would stabilize those numbers.
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alecholmesthedetective
Let women wear pants to the meetings.
Let women wear tight pants to the meetings.
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MUST WATCH! Watchtower's Shocking Admissions
by Newly Enlightened inwatchtower's shocking admissions.
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alecholmesthedetective
I love your 'brand of insanity' Kim and Mikey, ignore the haters.
The more light you shine on the WT the more JWs you help wake up. Keep up the good work and never lose your passion.
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Do You Typically Accept The Press As Being Unbiased And Honest?
by minimus inthere is more “ yellow journalism “ than ever before!
newscasters and writers that you thought were trustworthy often miss the mark.. do you generally accept the “news” as being honest?.
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Do You Typically Accept The Press As Being Unbiased And Honest?
by minimus inthere is more “ yellow journalism “ than ever before!
newscasters and writers that you thought were trustworthy often miss the mark.. do you generally accept the “news” as being honest?.
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Are YOU Shunned By JW Family or Friends?
by minimus insome who are not disfellowshipped are still shunned i also know there’ are disfellowshipped ones that family still associate with..
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alecholmesthedetective
I preemptively shun JW family and friends since dropping out of the map. Like many I had run-ins with the elders but I've never met with any of them anywhere, not even when one tried to lure me for a coffee in a public place. I just totally left. After six years I'm sure they know I'm not going back, even if I had been a regular pioneer and when I left was still a ministerial servant.
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alecholmesthedetective
Td, thats where i have to break with you. Jw’s dont “forbid” anything, nor do they have the authority to forbid. They have no power their membership dosent willingly grant. Your free to leave anytime. Your family and friends dont have shun you, its a choice they make. I realize this is an unpopular opinion but we all have choices even if those choices are influenced by a high control religious group.
Morpheus I believe I disagree with you about the circumstances some of us find ourselves in when it comes to high control religious groups but I do not disagree with you when it comes to personal responsibility and choice.
I was a born-in, the indoctrination was imposed on me. It took me more than two decades growing up in the religion to see it was a load of bollocks. Then, I had to decide upon leaving how to survive when my entire social network was made up of JWs. Surviving hasn't been easy.
My point is I didn't stand a chance. Years and years of my life and a lot of energy were simply just wasted. I also failed to invest in my education at an earlier time thanks in part to those godawful belief systems. Had I been born in a mainstream religion in a family that was not made up of zealots I would have had better odds to be freer. The Catholic Church today is less detrimental to freedom in the West than Islam is, even though it can hardly be argued that it does more good than harm.
Having said that I believe Thomas Jefferson had it right when he famously wrote that the government "should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."
Though some of us didn't have a choice banning a cult is not a long-term solution. More freedom is necessary, not less. A free press that would report the truth about any religion without any bias, an uncensored Internet that would allow for dissent from all sides on any issues, and a government not meddling with individual freedoms.
At the end of the day, people need financial freedom to survive. They also need to take full responsibility for themselves if they are going to survive in the real world after leaving a cult if they were born in it. Governments should spend more time fixing their education systems and their economies than banning religions, so their citizens can be truly educated, have access to jobs, and are then able to make a positive contribution to society. If a JW leaving the cult can get the access to education that they need and can support themselves financially even after losing all his family and his entire social network, leaving becomes easier. I am not even mentioning the psychological support needed to leave as well.
Those are my feelings, yet I can't help feeling a tingle of schadenfreude hearing that the Watchtower was banned by the Russian government.
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Is There Life After Death
by Brokeback Watchtower ini think this is a well developed discussion, of ian stevenson's work in investigating people's past lives claims.
it's a little long.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0attm9hgcdw.
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alecholmesthedetective
Our consciousness doesn't survive anaesthetic so how can it survive the complete destruction the brain?
Do you mean to say we 'die' each time we are unconscious? I genuinely don't understand what you meant.