Posts by William Penwell

12

Need some advice Re: JW marking by a family member

by William Penwell in

so anyone that has read some of my posts on here over the years knows i have done the slow fade over the last 30 years.

i do not claim to be a jw and have not being in a kingdum hall now to attend a meeting or convention for religious reasons for almost 15 years.

now i know the discussion on here from this past dc was the rank and file dubs have being pressured to distance themselves away from family members that are no longer active dubs that they deem are not living up to wt bible principals.

William Penwell

Thanks so far for the input. I did suspect there was something up the last few months since their last DC as she has being rather cold toward me. I also suspect some family members might have being pressuring her to.

Her explanation is that I was baptised at one time and know what is right and wrong, even though I have not being attending meetings for the past 15 years. The way it was worded it sounded like she was getting advice from someone else. I am at a point where I don't care if she ever talks to me again when she puts the cult over her family. So I will add I do not take well to emotional black mail and passive aggression.

Even my GF doesn't understand why they are doing this and recognizes this as cult type of behaviour. She said to my sister, this is not the way of love and all you are doing is pushing your brother away even more.

18

Christians made me stop believing in the Bible

by jws in

i'm agnostic.

there could be a god, but i don't believe it's the god described in the bible.i grew up a jw believing in the bible.

after i left, i didn't want religion but was determined to be a christian on my own.. but things started to unravel.

William Penwell

Exactly! In addition, there are indigenous people living in remote, wild areas on this planet that we are just discovering. I am sure there are others we don't know about and may never know about. So, for all time, these people have lived without any 'preaching' (lucky peeps) and have survived quite well. Any pictures I've seen of these people they definitely do NOT look Christian.

And very happy to without the bible.

18

Christians made me stop believing in the Bible

by jws in

i'm agnostic.

there could be a god, but i don't believe it's the god described in the bible.i grew up a jw believing in the bible.

after i left, i didn't want religion but was determined to be a christian on my own.. but things started to unravel.

William Penwell

I recall as a five year old being explained the bible stories by my grandmother and even then it never made sense to me. I agree with what Heaven said that anyone with any logical sense cannot believe the bibles accounts. Growing up as a Jdub that anything that did not make sense you were supposed to pray and have faith.....In other words just follow along blindly and trust in the organization and Jehoo.

14

Memorial Attendances This Year

by steve2 in

have attendance figures at this year's memorial been released yet, including number of partakers?

sometimes the kingdom ministry (now called christian life and ministry) provided local figures say for the country.. for two to three years the worldwide figure has hovered around the 19 plus million, with a drop off in attendance last year.. just wondered if there has been any change this year or if the downward trend has continued?

.

William Penwell

my guess based on just the numbers:
2016 19,641,545 worldwide memorial attendance. 16,201 partakers

Ha ha The partaker numbers keep going up. Growing up I recall those number were supposed to go down as we get closer to the end. What about they were all supposed to be made up of the generation that saw 1914?

14

Memorial Attendances This Year

by steve2 in

have attendance figures at this year's memorial been released yet, including number of partakers?

sometimes the kingdom ministry (now called christian life and ministry) provided local figures say for the country.. for two to three years the worldwide figure has hovered around the 19 plus million, with a drop off in attendance last year.. just wondered if there has been any change this year or if the downward trend has continued?

.

William Penwell

Numbers the GB no longer wish to see:
1. Number of partakers
2. Number of memorial attendees
3. Number of years between 1914 and now

4. Number of years since the false 1975 prophecy of the end of the system, that according to the GB never existed.

26

Finding out that jws are not what they make out to be

by nomorepain13 in

*warning this is long* it all started on the last day of the "remain loyal to jehovah" convention.

a little background story, i've been raised as a jw, been in and out of the religon, never baptised but was made an unbaptized publisher about 3 years ago, always felt out of place in the congregation, blamed myself for this because if i had just went to meetings and did all the right things then i would have friends and not be in the mess that i was.

right after becoming an unbaptized publisher i met my now fiance, end up leaving my mother's house to live with him, elders haven't contacted me about my situation even though i'm sure they know as my step father is an elder...but anyway on the last day of the convention my fiance came with me as i was visiting my mother and had planned to go with her and her husband to the convention.

William Penwell

When I was an active JW, I had the unhealthy fear that I would be destroyed at Armageddon. Yes, JW's believe that their so-called "loving" god would rather destroy you even if you are a good person simply because you are not doing enough in "the truth"! So while JW's teach that God is love, their actions and beliefs speak otherwise!

I am going through this right now with my family. I am at a cross roads but I know which way to go. Even my own immediate family are starting to put pressure on me because they feel I am not living the right life even though I have had much to do with the cult for the last 30 years and haven't attended a meeting for the last 15 years. The only reason why this has not come to a head is while my parents were still alive. Now they are both gone I really don't care. If they decide they do not want to talk to me any more that is their issue not mine. I find they all don't know what unconditional love is but are passive aggressive, emotional blackmailers. I am just ready to send my family member a response to her email and I am afraid will not be holding back anything. Even my GF thinks it is crazy and I warned her, this is why you don't get involved with them as once your in you can't leave and if you try they keep trying to pull you back in.

26

Finding out that jws are not what they make out to be

by nomorepain13 in

*warning this is long* it all started on the last day of the "remain loyal to jehovah" convention.

a little background story, i've been raised as a jw, been in and out of the religon, never baptised but was made an unbaptized publisher about 3 years ago, always felt out of place in the congregation, blamed myself for this because if i had just went to meetings and did all the right things then i would have friends and not be in the mess that i was.

right after becoming an unbaptized publisher i met my now fiance, end up leaving my mother's house to live with him, elders haven't contacted me about my situation even though i'm sure they know as my step father is an elder...but anyway on the last day of the convention my fiance came with me as i was visiting my mother and had planned to go with her and her husband to the convention.

William Penwell

The dubs can be so judging of a person before they even know the whole story. They claim they aren't but they are the most judgemental people I have come across.

You are right that the average Dub is very gullible and take people at face value when it comes to dealing with wordly people. I learned this the hard way when I left and went on my own.

What did it for me was the fact that the Watchtower has predicted the end of the world many times, always incorrectly, but still act as if they possess special knowledge about the end and still pretend that Armageddon is just around the corner.

Not only that the WT did not even have the decency to admit they mislead the rank and file after 1975 but blamed it all on some overzealous dubs. For anyone that came in to the organization or was born after 1975 don't understand this. I was there and seen it first hand. That was the beginning of the end for me.

18

Requesting a few dozen copies of any edition of Watchtower and/or Awake!

by Pete J in

i need maybe 2-5 dozen copies of any edition of the watchtower or awake!

magazines to distribute to family, friends, and neighbors.

any reasonable condition.

William Penwell

I would think 99% of the magazines that are placed at the doors goes into the land fill. With the advent of the PC and Tablets most Dubs don't carry around with them magazines out side of placing them at the doors.

22

Coming to a Kingdom Hall near you

by FatFreek 2005 in

putting it simply, kingdom halls are no longer the property of a local group of the folks that paid for and constructed it.

the lender, the watchtower society, now says that once a mortgage is satisfied, that congregation must then declare a resolution which says it will continue to make payments, usually equal to the amount they were paying on the mortgage.

and they must do so indefinitely.

William Penwell

can you imagine---- dubs who may have donated for years towards building a kingdumb hall----and understandably feeling a close bond with it-----only to have the ownership taken by the watchtower-------whilst still having to donate the same amount!

I know a lot of them that would go along with this without question. The WT would spin it that the money is needed to go where the need is greater and most of the rank and file dubs would go along with it.

I know the WT does not tithe but they put a heavy guilt trip on to the members to contribute as much as they can to the KIngdum work. My parents would give a fair amount from the pension money to the Kingdum work.

12

Need some advice Re: JW marking by a family member

by William Penwell in

so anyone that has read some of my posts on here over the years knows i have done the slow fade over the last 30 years.

i do not claim to be a jw and have not being in a kingdum hall now to attend a meeting or convention for religious reasons for almost 15 years.

now i know the discussion on here from this past dc was the rank and file dubs have being pressured to distance themselves away from family members that are no longer active dubs that they deem are not living up to wt bible principals.

William Penwell

Just a curve ball here - are you and your girlfriend likely to get married?

No plans right now and I do not want to do it because it would make someone else happy. I was married once and as a dub I married for the wrong reasons.