dear friends,.
a few weeks i am thinking about what's going on with the religion we are focust on, jehovah's witnesses.. what i see is:.
- a rebranding of the religion's organization: just like rutherford rebranded the bible students into jehovah's witnesses,.
Gorbatchov
I agree completely. I must say, however, that many companies that decide to rebrand have experienced tremendous blowback and have paid dearly. Case in point, CocaCola and their desire to "update" the taste of Coke. It was a disaster plain and simple. I believe many of the changes the ORG is making and the many more to come as a result will be too much for a lot of people. We will soon see.
SOP
sheri sheppard spoke about this as a ex jw how it affects a person to be dfd,you feel like you loose your identity, its very difficult, i see my son struggling, i wish this practice can be done away with,so hurtful for everyone..
Hopefully his new friends will soon take the place of his supposed "best" friend.
I thought it was a group of old bakers!
"there was a kid who turned down a college scholarship so he could pioneer.
how stupid!
i would do anything to have a scholarship.
"Out of the mouths of babes!"
a little background, i faded in 2007 and have been out ever since.
i started studying at 18 and have no jw realitives.
i'm returing because my life is heading in the wrong direction.
I encourage you to take whatever path you wish. If you felt comfortable as a JW and you miss it, then by all means return. With regard to the negatvity in your life, simply a point of view, if things were that good in the JW's when you were in, why would you have left?
It may well be that you need to address some deeper issues, we all have them. Those demons that move us in the self-destructive patterns that we learned in our formative years. My suggestion would be...before entering, excuse me, "reentering" a high control group, determine precisely why you feel the need to be controlled.
Just a thought,
SOP
as i fade further from the jws, i'm finding it increasingly hard to maintain faith in god.
i've been exploring many alternatives from atheism, agnostic, apathetic, pagan, and satanism (not devil worship, but the promotion of self-indulgence) to name a few.
i'm thoroughly intrigued to learn how those of you who remained christian managed to maintain your faith in god and christ, especially after enduring all the lies that we've been told about them.
I have had a very, no, VERY difficult time with faith once I saw the org for what it was. Being raised and indoctrinated to the highest degree, my world view was built on the foundation that the org was the "only true religion" and the FDS was the "only true channel." And this, of course, was built on the premise that EVERYONE else and EVERYTHING else was a sham, plain and simple. It is all quite nefarious actually, quite cultish. If one builds their faith on this premise of "us against them" and "true against false" and that foundation crumbles with the realization that it is not what it is purported to be, then faith in anything after that transcendental moment is almost impossible. At least for me. Good luck to all of you who haven't become as jaded....
Just a thought,
SOP
this is a very strange thing for me to do.
i have been an active witness for over 25 years.
i currently serve as an elder and i conduct the watchtower study.
I can understand your apprehension. Posting on here for the first time is difficult for those still in. As an elder, your assessment of what might happen lest you be found out is correct. Please tread lightly when it comes to your concerns regarding the ORG. Many, even those you think might agree with you, are so captive that they may throw you under the bus,
I, for one, served for quite some time. I got to the point, like you, that I could no longer teach something I did not fully believe. In time, unfortunately, the disbelief became intolerance and now I literally become sick by the salesmanship of the ORG. I see through the veil and veneer.
As for your feelings, the reality I have seen in my case is...once you do not accept it, it all begins to unravel. Little things that you mentally covered over begin to peak through your subconscious and poke at you, sometimes incessantly. I feel for you and your situation. What you may begin to experience, if you are anything like many of the ex-elders on this forum, may well be a systematic breakdown of your belief system. Be patient. Be careful. Be resolved.
Kind Regards,
SOP
dear forumites, i need your advise please.. i would like to write a letter to the world headquarters of the jehovah's witnesses regarding a subject that i've published an article recently.
i would like to draw the attention of the gb to said article, which i will send in print form (therefore, no attention would be drawn to the website where it was published).. naturally, because i am a jehovah's witness in good standing in the congregation and what i'll be discussing in my letter will be a dissenting view from the official doctrine/practice, i want to protect my identity and i don't want to be harassed by elders or subjected to any sort of judicial investigation.
nevertheless, i would be very interested in reading their response (if any) to my letter.. how can i do that?
I agree with everyone else's comment.
The procedure for a letter to Bethel is quite simple. Goes to a mail clearing house. Sorted through to which department. If it does not specifically state which department, then someone opens it up, starts to skim through it, identifies where it should go and forwards it. If it is committee related, it will go to the service desk, someone will open it and decide how it should be handled. Typically, it will be pushed aside if it is simply a letter trying to address some mistake of the organization. Typically, it will NEVER get to the GB even if you addressed it to them personally. The service desk, if the letter is perceived "apostate" or "contrary" will flag it for follow up NOT to the individual, but to his/her elder body to determine if the person should be dealt with and how.
So, I applaud your desire to make your position known, but the hierarchy is well defended from the laymen.
just a thought,
SOP
this is a reply ireceived from a poster on another forum.
"actually the vast majority of interpretations of prophecy are absolutely spot on.. .
people harp on over this and that that was wrong 50 years ago, but today jehovah's witnesses have all the bible's prophecies pretty much figured out in their entirety.. .
"So what if they were wrong?" Listen, if I am investing my life savings with a financial planner, I try to make sure that he is competent (or she). If he is "wrong" than all my life's savings is in jeopardy of being lost. With the org, if they are wrong than my life is in jeopardy of being wasted. Being wrong is unacceptable and should be for God's one true channel.
SOP
it seems like lots of people have big dreams of 'destroying the watchtower'.
it's usually linked to a story of how they were wronged and want some revenge.
do these 'in your face' attempts to convince people that the truth isn't the truth really have an effect?.
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of the soulless conditions.
It is the opium of the people." Marx
I think everyone here would agree, Simon, that while they were in, they were typically "all in." They accepted the doctrine, even those aspects of the doctrine that made little or no sense because of the "package deal" that Jehovah's Witnesses offer. Other than those raised and indoctrinated to believe (or forced to), those that accepted the doctrine did so, typically, because they were disillusioned with something or other. Their faith in their own religion, their faith in society, their faith in commitment, something arose in their life that moved them to become susceptible to the peculiar nature of JW's. They wanted to believe, they wanted to belong, and learning about "eternal life" and being "special" was exactly what they needed at that time to answer that particular longing.
So, when you ask, does any of this stuff work to get people out? I would say typically no. However, just as there existed susceptibility to move one to accept, there must also exist susceptibility to move one to question. When one starts to see through the "veneer," as Franklin Joseph Rutherford so aptly called it back in the 30's, then the dulling nature of this particular "opiate" loosens its grasp on the believer and they either move to agnosticism or complete disbelief in God.
Just some thoughts,
SOP
