i was a born-in, and in for over five decades.
in the comparatively short time since leaving the wt for good, for good in both senses !
, i feel i have become a very different person, in quite radical ways.. how do you feel you have changed ?.
Oh - ongoing, I hope! Great topic Phizzy.
Growing up & being a teen in the JW cult I felt split in two - the real me & then the me I had to be as part of a JW family & cong. I was fortunate in that my parents were not very active, so I imagine it was worse for other ex-JW's & for current people stuck in now.
The real me wasn't evil by any means - I just happened to have a personality, with likes and dislikes, passions and hopes.
Now I can express them.
gorgia
while this always bothered me ,i still wanted my 2 boys to be baptised as soon as practical so they would survive the big a or else get a resurrection into the new system of things.thats how indoctrinated i was.both my boys were baptised in their early to mid teens.neither have ever been disfellowshipped or disassociated themselves ,however both have nothing to do with the religion today.
(thankfully ) .
how many family lives have been ruined because children/minors have been baptised at a young age and in the majority of cases have committed trivial offences against watchtower policys/rules .sometimes with tragic consequences .. teenagers have a difficult enough time as it is dealing with changes to their bodies and coping with new emotions as they transform from boys to manhood and from girls to womanhood .. here in australia you cant get a car license and drive on your own till your 18 yrs old ,vote at elections , or drink alcohol at a pub.and many people will argue,that is too young to start doing those things as they are not mature enough .. yet the wtb&ts / jehovahs witnesses put life and death matters in the hands of minors / children ,as regards the use of blood and blood products ,fractions of blood ,what is currently acceptible ,and what is not.. an adult witness would find it hard to keep up with what is current and what is not current in the ever changing policy regarding the blood issue ,let alone a minor/teen who is expected to make a life or death decision at a critical time.. a teenager /minor does not have that capacity to make such an enormous decision about life or death ,when the wtb&ts acknowledge they often fail to make right decisions in trivial matters ,hence the disfellowshipping of thousands for trivial rules imposed by the governing body ,man made rules at that .no birthday celebrations,no smoking,no associating with a disfellowshipped baptised witness,no questioning what the governing body has said,accepting a blood transfusion,formerly a disfellowshipping offence , now stated ,you disassociated yourself from jehovahs witness teachings so you disfellowshipped yourself .
Yep - that'd be a cult. I was seen smoking a cigarette (!!!!) when I was a teen. I was crouched down low in the middle of an alley-way, surrounded by (worldly) friends, & yet I still managed to be 'caught' - some Witness went to the elders. I was very fortunate not to ever have been baptised. I remember a Witness friend of mine getting into a whole lot of bother when she was a teen, for a skirt that fell too high above the knee - she was spotted somewhere also.
I don't know how teenagers in this cult manage these days where there is scant privacy to be had and so many more opportunities for people to spy on them; they must be getting into trouble all the time. I hope this rubs some Witness teenagers the wrong way as it did me and cause them to realize that these people who spy and tell tales - though there may be some Witnesses who do it out of genuine worry for the teen's possible demise at the big A - do it out of sheer love of gossip and pious snobbery.
Because it's a cult.
gorgia
i guess tickets will be given to those who qualify.
i am usure if all in the congregation are invited, or just a selected group within selected congregations.
i am guessing that it would be selected individuals from certain congregations.
Data-Dog,
That is so true! How ridiculous they are.
gorgia
i'm just curious if jwn is as busy as it was even a year or two ago?
.
sometimes it seems this place buzzes and other times, not so much....but maybe it's all in my head..
As CrazyGuy posted; I hope all the veteran posters stay, they are very important to this site I believe & respected by all us newbies. And to think of how many lurkers there are on any given day, hopefully getting a little braver each time they visit - without the JWN veterans, there would be a lot less inspiration here for them.
gorgia
so, unexpectedly, the final talk was announced today and to my surprise and evil glee, they announced gerrit loesch as the speaker!
first off, at the beginning of his talk, he interrupted himself in the middle of his sentence to scold the microphone brother to lower my mike it's right in my face.. anyway, it was the talk on inspired truth, vs. inspired falsehoods.
he went through 6 expressions inspired by the demons.
Thanks Goatshapeddemon. A couple of years ago, when I had no option but to see my JDub relatives on a few occasions, they all insisted it was perfectly fine now in JW-land to pursue further education, thinking this would have me racing to the nearest KH. I didn't believe them.
gorgia
well i have been up and down this year with this current company i work for.
from the time they employed me they have paid me late, without explanation.
i have been miserable coming in here.
Congratulations LouBelle!
x gorgia
i found all the 2010 dc talk outlines including the the last talk about "this generation" update.
would anyone be interested in them?.
very interested, thanks.
gorgia
well i have been up and down this year with this current company i work for.
from the time they employed me they have paid me late, without explanation.
i have been miserable coming in here.
LouBelle,
Hope it went well & congratulations on your new job!!!
gorgia
Bangalore,
Wow. Thanks so much for posting this WTS example of - ah, not quite sure how to describe it; unparalelled hypocrisy, maybe?
gorgia
well, i'm back on jwn so i may as well start a new thread!.
this story caught my eye on sky news recently.... http://news.sky.com/story/1104007/google-balloon-project-gets-off-the-ground.
it's basically a new initiative from google to bring the internet to far flung parts of the earth including parts of africa that are simply not wired up to the internet yet.. i'm not sure how the accessibility will work in terms of subscriptions etc, but google seem serious about it and early tests have been positive.. so, the question raised in my mind was, could this turn the tide against the watchtower?
Cedars,
Yes, exactly - seeing as it is these vulnerable people the GB are now targeting to bolster their JW numbers and plump the Tower money-bags - access to the internet would be WONDERFUL in stemming the new-JW tide in developing countries.
gorgia
