Posts by undercover

67

KingDumb Halls Want Court Order To Keep Pedophile Documents Secret!

by Country Girl in

congregations want court order .

by jim mcbride.

jehovah's witnesses congregations in amarillo and dumas are seeking a court order protecting them from releasing documents in a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims a former church elder sexually abused her.

undercover

While Kelley was a Dumas elder, church officials learned he was sexually abusing children in the congregation but did not report the abuse to authorities or warn other church members.

This strikes me funny. That congregation is full of dum(b)as(s) elders.

Seriously though, the allegations, charges and lawsuits are starting to snowball. The WTS has a real issue on their hands. If they continue on with their hardline stance and denials, it will only land them in hotter water. Hopefully many of the dubs who were quick to condem the Catholic church for it's child abuse problems will have their eyes opened to the hypocrisy in their own religion and question the validity of it.

64

Infidelity amongst JWs

by YellowLab in

does there seem to be a higher incidence of infidelity amongst the jws?.

my brother, who is an active jw and ministerial servant, has an elder friend who was recently disfellowshipped for having an affair with another sister in the hall.

it turns out this sister was divorced a few years earlier from a "worldly" man who had an affair on her.

undercover

Contrary to the other posts, I would have to argue that there is probably less infidelity amongst JWs. Due to their strict DFing policy, many are too afraid to cheat on their mates.

Contrary to that is the fact that the no sex before marriage rule is so strong, many JWs marry before they are ready, to people who they really aren't compatible with. A few short years later, after the bloom of youth, they realize they made a mistake and look for a way out. In the organization, infidelity is the only way out. They can only divorce if one or the other is unfaithful.

63

Teacher "ruins" lives of first graders by saying Santa is illogical

by Gopher in

should this teacher be teaching first-graders?

mom objects when teacher blows santa's cover

associated press published december 4, 2003

undercover

To believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny or the Great Pumpkin is all well and good, up to a point. I think it's harmless for very small children to enjoy the fantasies perpetrated by parents, tradition and capitalism. But when we unleash our children into the world by means of school we need to prepare them. Allowing them to head off into this brave new world still believing in fairy tales is setting them up for embarrassement and humilation.

Just my opinion. I don't have kids, so I'm no expert.

63

Teacher "ruins" lives of first graders by saying Santa is illogical

by Gopher in

should this teacher be teaching first-graders?

mom objects when teacher blows santa's cover

associated press published december 4, 2003

undercover

Aw, c'mon. Six years old and still believes in Santa? It's time he knew anyway. A teacher's job is to teach. A class full of students ponders on what's real or not. The teacher teaches them the truth. Would you rather have your child lied to? Their lives weren't "ruined". They were taught a life lesson.

30

This Is So Weird----We Don't Miss Even A Little Bit----Our Being Witnesses!

by minimus in

jw
friends

my wife and i were talking today about how we just don't miss the meetings, the service, the association..... we miss nothing.

she's been a jw for over 25 years and i've been for more than 45 years----and once we simply stopped going, there was no sadness, no questioning our decision.

it's almost like we are carrying on as if we were never witnesses.

undercover

I'm gonna buck the tide here a little. Let me say this and then I'll be interested in everyone's thoughts:

I don't think we've "gotten over" being a witness or being duped or mislead or whatever you wanna call it as long as we continue to show up here and post on a regular basis. I'll go away for weeks at a time and think I'm done, I've gotten it out of my system. I can go on with my new life. But something will happen that brings back some of the feelings that I had when trying to come to grips with the whole deception thing. When that happens, I come back here and become a semi-regular again, posting on subjects that interest me.

I know that I have been here a very short time compared to many others and I don't want to offend anyone, but I feel that this is a great place to learn and to use to help yourself heal, but at some point, to completely heal, you have to leave not only what hurt you, but the place that helped you get over it. It's like getting hurt and going to the hospital. At some point, you are healed and you must leave.

I'm now open to entertaining differing opinions. I'm not trying to start a flame war, I'm being truly honest in my thoughts here.

44

Were There ANY Advantages To Being a Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

...didn't have to buy any christmas presents......

undercover

They taught me that religion is a "snare and a racket".

Seriously. I loved that quote as a young person. Even as a JW, I never considered myself a really "religious" person. I was raised as a JW and I tried to follow it as best I could, but I wasn't going to kill myself doing it either. Learning as a JW how hypocritical other religions were was one of the few things that kept me believing that the Witnesses were right. When I learned about their deceit and hypocrisy, I knew that all religion was a crock. If the religion that I grew up with was a "racket" and I already recognized the hypocrisy of the other religions, where did that leave me? Free. Free from the oppression of religious leaders looking for power or money, free from superstitions based on a theory of teaching based on an ancient book and free to be myself and no longer feel inferior because I wasn't living up to a set of standards that I one time thought were from God.

John Lennon had the right idea. Imagine a world without religion.

5

JWs do NOT try to be separate from the world - AND a rant on "government"..

by somebodylovesme in

if jws are trying to be separate from the world, then why do they do a lot of wordly things?

why do they watch tv?

isn't that "worldly" influence?

undercover

Why do they socialize with worldly people? Okay, this one is probably more sanctioned than the first, but come on. I was never a Witness, but growing up, my two best friends were Witnesses. (Which, coincidentally, is how I met my now-husband, how is now an ex-JW) ... I was taken along on vacations with their families, for pete's sake. The Witness parents loved me. Me! A worldly girl! gasp! At least around here, it is very common for Witnesses to have wordly friends.

What's taught and encouraged isn't always what's practised. Associating with "worldly" people outside of what is absolutely necessary(like school, work, non-JW family) in purely social settings is majorly frowned on. 1Cor. 15:33 - "...bad associations spoil useful habits..." is the key scripture that is repeated over and over like a mantra when it comes to warning JWs about the evils of worldly people. A lot of JWs faithfully adhere to this teaching while others flirt with associating with worldly friends. Then some just plain out ignore it and do as they please. These are usually considered "weak" or "unappreciative" of the teachings from Jehovah.

Out of the handful of meetings that I have been to in the last year(all Sunday public meetings), the one that stood out the most was a public talk on association and recreation. Mind you, this is the Sunday talk, one that is usually aimed at trying to increase interest in Bible teachings among interested ones while still being instructive to all the active JWs. This talk, though, was aimed straight at active JWs and was a damning tirade on the evils of associating with non-JWs, television, movies, books, the Internet, etc. It came across as a warning to JWs that any association with worldly ideas, be it in person or by media, would affect them in a bad way. Forty-five minutes of grown adults being told that they could not decide for themselves who or what is appropriate to associate with or watch. Listening to this talk as a detached observer really showed me just how much power the WTS tries to exert over their followers. Anyone using their own complete facilties, without prior influence from the WTS, can see right through this rubbish.

17

disassociated without baptism

by detective in

jw
friends

i believe there was a topic about disfellowshipping an unbaptized person awhile back but i can't remember enough of the details to find it.. i was speaking with a friend yesterday who was disassociated as a young teenager, complete with a reading to the congregation and shunning, despite the fact that this person was never baptized.. (i tipped my hand a bit by blurting out that they aren't supposed to be able to do that if you aren't baptized.

way to go, smartie!

nice way to play it cool with how much research this non-jw has done, but that's beside the point.).

undercover

You mean JWs are allowed to "fart"????

Only if they don't smell. Remember, as a Jehovah's Witness, you're shit don't stink.

26

Master & Commander - Movie/Film

by BluesBrother in

i do not generally post in this section, or go to the cinema very much, but this film opened here this week .

it was utterly brilliant!.

dont go if you are prone to sea sickness, it is the most realistic experience of being on a sailing ship .. held me transfixed ...... superb historical drama.

undercover

I don't think it was a Moby Dick rip-off at all. It was based on the series of books called Master and Commander(can't remember the author).

I enjoyed this movie very much. The action sequences were very good, special effects excellent. I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn't just "another action movie". There was actually a story behind the characters. While I was glad to see some character development, in my opinion that's where the movie lost some of it's punch. It took me awhile to really become involved with the characters and feel like I was onboard with these people. Once I became wrapped up in it, it sailed along effortlessly, but getting to that point was a little sluggish. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

51

What have you replaced religion with?

by logansrun in

jw
friends

(obviously this question is for those who are non-religious in any conventional sense).

what have you replaced religion with in your life?

(by that i mean the religious life with it's rituals, worship and group identity) what is your raison d'etre?

undercover

I have replaced the JW religion(doing what someone else tells me to do) with my own religion(doing what I want to do). Sundays are for watching NFL football or enjoying the outdoors. The time spent at the hall on the two meeting nights are now spent at the local bar with my neighbors drinking a few beers and watching a ballgame on the bar TV. Saturday morning, I sleep late. When I eventually get up, we go out for breakfast with our newspaper.

Invariably about the time we get to our favorite breakfast spot on Saturday morning, the service group is just getting there to take a break.

My religion is superior, especially on that day, because I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn, dress up for a funeral, sit in a cold hall while some FE(future elder) admonishes everyone on how to keep a not-at-home record, go knock on doors where either no one answers or they are rude and unreceptive. By the time that the people from my former religion have arrived at break and by the time that I have arrived for breakfast in the same place, we have both accomplished the same thing; nothing. I, though, got at least two extra hours of sleep and I didn't have to shave and get all dressed up.