Posts by William Penwell

14

Why take it personally?

by stuckinarut2 in

jw
friends

a random thought occurred to me today.. i actually feel genuinely sorry for witnesses who cut contact with ones they feel are no longer "spiritual" .. they do this based not on anything that the person has actually done to them personally, but due to an imposed view from the society.. it must play havoc with their inner conscience as they try and reconcile that the person they cut off has not actually done anything to harm them, but they have to view them as evil.. it reminded me of this thread i started some time back.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5751633187176448/all-my-friends-organisation.

William Penwell

A random thought occurred to me today.
I actually feel genuinely sorry for witnesses who cut contact with ones they feel are no longer "spiritual" .
They do this based NOT on anything that the person has actually done to them personally, but due to an imposed view from the society.
It must play havoc with their inner conscience as they try and reconcile that the person they cut off has NOT actually done anything to harm them, but they have to view them as evil.

I am in this same situation with my family and you know it didn't bother me. I have had people come and go in my life and I just move on. If my family choose not to talk to me its their lose not mine. I can go on and be happy doing what I want to do without a conditional cult telling me what I should and shouldn't do.

39

The increasing WT magazine

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

apart from the interesting block color change for the title strip on the front page.... the new 2017 wt mag has some new (updated printing figures):.

2016: produced each issue: 58,987,000 available in 282 languages .

2017: produced each issue: 61,651,000 available in 294 languages.

William Penwell

Out side of lining a garbage can what good is this rag anyway?

80

Major Doctrinal Changes Must Be On The Way

by notsurewheretogo in

the statement in the article "who is leading gods people today?

" in the feb 17th study edition of the wt is very interesting.. it states: ""the g.b.

is neither inspired nor infallible" ..we can err .in doctrinal matters....".

William Penwell

If the GB is not spirit directed or inspired, why does the rank and file listen to them? This was always the hook they had on the rank and file. You are correct they will spin this one also to their advantage but I remember growing up we were always told the GB had a direct connect to Jehovah.

36

Why are JWs so sensitive to criticism?

by Half banana in

i remember a roman catholic priest acknowledging on the bbc that the outrageously anti-clerical tv comedy father ted was a humorous mocking of his church but an acceptable thing.. try mocking the jw religion to a believer and the result is so very different.. just why is it that jehovah's witnesses can never take even the faintest hint of criticism of their religion?.

William Penwell

I recall years ago someone made a joke about the dubs on a TV and my ex who is a staunch dub even laughed at it.

39

Why Is it the Girls who Hang in There?

by snugglebunny in

jw
friends

having seen many, many people leave the org over the years, i have to say that, when it comes to married couples, it's almost always the man who makes the first move to leave.

conversely, when it comes to being converted into the witnesses, more often than not it's the wife who joins up first.

although that wasn't the case with my own parents, my father became converted and my mother followed very reluctantly..

William Penwell

I know myself just in my own family that I think it is the women that are more attached as it is more of a social event for them than for the men. Myself I am just as happy sitting at home and watching a football game than sitting through a boring meetings just to full fill a social need.

33

Pyramid Schemes

by schnell in

several years ago, i was introduced to a "wonderful" company called fortune hi tech marketing by a brother and his wife.

they had been introduced by a former sheriff who claims he had researched the company and found no leins or judgments, and that former sheriff had been brought in by a pastor.

you can read what happened with fhtm on wikipedia if you so desire.. this whole new idea of multilevel marketing had my brain reeling, though, and soon enough, i actually signed up with none other than prepaid legal.

William Penwell

Years ago when I was young and naive I was tricked into joining Scamway. I was out of it in a couple of years when I figured out that it was just a glorified pyramid scheme. I attended a few of their rally s and you are correct these MLM's have a lot of cult type of behaviour. Like how the followers follow company with out question and act like it is a religion.

55

Let's Be Honest - You or One of Your Ancestors Was an Idiot

by Simon in

why were we ever a jw?

were we mad?

we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.

William Penwell

My grandfather was converted soon after he came out to Canada about 100 years ago. My mom knew of the religion through her dad but never took a stand till after she was married. By the time I was born she was a baptised dub. I had no choice as I was dragged to the meetings every Sunday, so that is the only thing I knew. I had doubts at a young age as some of it made no sense. Growing up in the 60's and early 70's I was in the middle of all the 1975 hype. I think looking back I had mentally checked out and started to question the truthfulness of the cult after 1975 but I married into the cult so for the next 18 years I just put on a pretence, going a long with it although my heart was not in it. I was DF'd about 22 years ago and that even though I got re-instated, I have never considered myself as a dub. I do not blame anyone as my parents did what they thought was right. I have never being happier than I am now as I am living life each and every day to the fullest.

So of course the WT Society is right there to offer their scam of imaginary " eternal Life " and imaginary " you'll never die or be sick again " - and people just eat this shit up- I swear. So I think that's what happened to my dad and mom . Now in their early 90's and late 80's they are too invested with my older adult siblings still in the JW cult- they feel they can't leave. And like you I look at my folks situation with pity. Like all of us- they will die eventually , sooner than later - and they were promised they'd never die. One reason I'm constantly calling the WT Society a criminal organization that uses people's lives up, then spits them out and just moves on as a corporate monster. Pretty disturbing. Mind control is powerful. As well as false promises. Lots of JW's and other cults alive and well due to these facts. Peace out, Mr. Flipper

I can relate to what you are saying as this sounds so much like my experience.

18

Are Jehovah`s Witnesses of today, aware, or even care about their early history of the 1800`s ?

by smiddy in

in the 1960`s when i was a new convert , a 20 year old , i devoured the book "jehovahs witnesses in the divine purpose" outlining the early history of the restoration of true christianity in the world.it helped to convince me then that this was indeed the true religion......not that i remember much of the details it contained nowadays .. i understand there was a poor attempt to mimic it with the " proclaimers " book a much sanitized version of the early history of the jw religion.

what reputable organization in the world ,secular ,religious or otherwise ,doctors their own early history/ beginnings unless they have something to hide or are ashamed of.. how many jw`s today would know that they were formed as the " international bible students association" in the late 1800`s , or that their first president of that association was none other than w.h.conley ,and not c.t.russell.. does it even matter ?

does anybody really care ?.

William Penwell

Some may have read the whitewashed version in the Proclaimers book...but most are satisfied I'm sure with, the "fact" that Jehovah now has cleansed His organization from previous errors....

This is how it was explained to me growing up that the early Bible Students practised things that were not scriptural in the beginning but that the light gets brighter and that is why they did away with these false teachings. Although this gets back to, if the WT is spirit directed how can they make mistakes in the first place?

I once asked my mother about the early Millarite influence on the early Bible Student movement but she was not aware of this either.

21

RUSSIA: Many meetings raided and evidence planted

by ZAPPA-ESQUE in

raids on jehovah's witness premises now take place more than three times per month.

these raids on doctrinally pacifist* religious communities often involve many heavily armed and camouflaged officials, with the "discovery" of apparently planted banned "extremist" literature.

legal dissolution of communities can follow.. http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2228.

William Penwell

Russia has being a repressive country and will probably continue to be like this in our life time.

13

Memorial observance screwery.

by Darkknight757 in

had a thought about the memorial observance that is held at the kingdumb hall every year.

there are a few youtube videos of people partaking of the bread and the wine and then making some grand speech before being escorted off the premises.

instead of that, has anyone tried getting a group of buddies together and when receiving the bread or the wine, just eat or drink it all?

William Penwell

I second kairos, I looked at all apostates as nutcases and it had no effect on my beliefs at the time, plus just disrespectful. I allow JW's to believe what they want without trying to influence them, as I don't want them pushing their beliefs down my throat either, even thought I used to be one.

It does take away from our argument that we would like them to respect our right to believe whatever we want to believe, when we can't even respect their rights to believe what they want to believe.