Posts by 144thousand_and

23

If You Can't Face A Witness Funeral Again..

by Englishman in

jw
friends

i posted recently about how i attended a humanist funeral for my pal knocker john.

no prayers, no hymns, just a natural goodbye that, in itself, contained a healing element that somewhat counteracted our feelings of grief.. then i think back to the funeral of my dad in the 80s.

it was, quite simply, nothing more than a commercial for the witness religion.

144thousand_and_one

Eman,

New Years day, 2000, I attended the funeral of a JW family friend who was one of the earliest "authority figures" in my life. The funeral was at a kingdom hall and the only speaker was an elder.

The decedent was a devout JW elder, who gave his life to the JW cause. He was an extremist in every sense of the word. The talk focused not on the decedent as an individual; rather, it focused on why we all must live like he did if we want "everlasting life."

I could have summed up the message in a much more concise manner than the speaker. If you want the hope of living forever with a bunch of Jehovahs Witnesses, you must slave away every minute of your present existence in service to a corporation based in New York. There was no talk whatsoever about any aspect of the decedent's life other than his witnessing activity. Nothing about family, hobbies, friendships, social activities, etc. Nothing but "you need to spend more time going from door to door so that you can have everlasting life like Brother X." It is shameful, to say the least, to use a funeral as a forum for delivering marketing messages and service commands to the faithful.

The JWs were very friendly with me and no direct comments were made to me regarding my departure from their faith (I guess that's because I was never DF'd or DA'd). It's so sad; many of these folks are wonderful people who are deceived by a cult but nevertheless zealously practicing what they believe to be right. I hope that some day the organization is weakened sufficiently to enable these folks to see the organization in its true light.

When the time comes, Eman, you can honor your mother's wishes and maintain your own self-respect by having the funeral at a neutral place (i.e. not in the kingdom hall), and inviting an elder to give the main talk. This way, you can control the content, by scheduling speakers such as yourself and any others you want to eulogize your mother, in addition to the Witness speech. I've been to a funeral that was done in this manner, and the elder who gave the talk stuck to a scriptural message rather than a "do more for us" message. It worked out well.

23

My Original Identity?

by Cassiline in

i just purchased, combatting cult mind control by steven hassan.. while reading i came across this comment,.

usually i am able to assist a person in making a dramatic recovery to his original identity.. -steven hassan.

i reread that statement over and over.

144thousand_and_one

(((Cassiline,)))

I was also born and raised in the JW cult. But my perspective differs greatly from most of the other similarly situated individuals who have posted on this thread to this point. I NEVER bought what the JWs sold; I was an unwilling participant from day one, subjected to physical and emotional abuse as a result of my defiance. Sure, I feigned cooperation and belief in order to minimize the abuse, but my heart was never part of that cult. At the age of 14, I rejected it all and stopped attending meetings/field service, and paid the price for it. It just got to the point where listening to the endless streams of verbal effluent that spewed from the mouths of idiots at the podium was far worse than anything my parents could dish out.

Therefore, I have neither a "pre-dub" nor a "post-dub" identity. I'm just a guy who survived a horrible childhood disease known as Jehovah's Witnesses.

In some respects, I owe much of my success in life to the Jehovahs Witnesses. I used the extreme anger and negative energy they created in me to motivate me to excel academically, professionally, and physically. However, the WTS shouldn't be expecting a "thank you" card from me. Although most of that negative energy has since been consumed and used in a mostly positive manner, I still have some residual effects that surface on occasion and cause unhappiness.

Personally, asking myself "what might have been" serves only to exacerbate that residual negative energy, so I avoid asking that question and instead focus my energy on my future.

165

DATELINE: BLACK ART OF PROPAGANDA

by You Know in

hardly anyone has an honest opinion about anything of importance that wasnt craftily pre-packaged and handed to them by someone else whose job it is to craft public opinion.

the intention of the media is to present the illusion of impartially informing, all the while pandering to prejudice and ignorance in order to persuade to a particular point of view.

datelines presentation of the watchtowers child abuse issue was a case study in the black art of media propaganda.. from the very beginning of the presentation dateline was intent on giving the public a negative impression of jehovahs witnesses by portraying us all as oddball crackpots whose religion revolves around the doctrine that we dont celebrate birthdays and that all non-believers are possessed by the devil and that we want them all to die.

144thousand_and_one

Aramaya25:

You are a perfect example of what happens when folks adhere to the Society's admonitions against education. Go back to your corner and put your dunce cap back on. Your literacy does not meet 5th grade standards.

11

Dateline Dissapearing Act?

by cornish in

jw
friends

im just starting to get this suspicious feeling.. .

why is it that there is no mention of last tuesday's sceening on the dateline page?.

all other recent shows have some sort of mention,and are even on streaming audio,prehaps they will get round to doing it for this one,but i,m sure they had the highlights to last weeks show up and running by saturday.. why am i suspicious?.

144thousand_and_one

I forgot to mention one very important consideration. The media is more powerful than any lawyer could ever be. If the WT sued NBC, NBC would most likely retaliate by, among other things, using a team of investigative reporters to uncover additional news stories that would adversely impact the WT's public image.

I don't like the WT, but I'll give them credit for being wise enough to avoid a hopeless battle with the media.

11

Dateline Dissapearing Act?

by cornish in

jw
friends

im just starting to get this suspicious feeling.. .

why is it that there is no mention of last tuesday's sceening on the dateline page?.

all other recent shows have some sort of mention,and are even on streaming audio,prehaps they will get round to doing it for this one,but i,m sure they had the highlights to last weeks show up and running by saturday.. why am i suspicious?.

144thousand_and_one

Gopher, the show was indeed a ratings success. The operative word here is "was." Why would Dateline want to continue to advertise a show that has already aired?

Sam, how do you know that JW legal works for free? Have you seen their financial statements? They don't disclose them, and I bet that if they did you would find that many of the people you and many others thought were volunteers are highly compensated. This would explain their refusal to publicly disclose this information.

Yes, a WT legal challenge is certainly a possibility. But they would most likely lose, and spend a lot of money doing so. Baseless speculation about the power of the WT legal team serves to intimidate apostates from exercising their rights to freedom of expression, and helps the Society's cause.

11

Dateline Dissapearing Act?

by cornish in

jw
friends

im just starting to get this suspicious feeling.. .

why is it that there is no mention of last tuesday's sceening on the dateline page?.

all other recent shows have some sort of mention,and are even on streaming audio,prehaps they will get round to doing it for this one,but i,m sure they had the highlights to last weeks show up and running by saturday.. why am i suspicious?.

144thousand_and_one

William, thanks for the words of wisdom!

Folks, the WT corporation is an insignificant ant compared to NBC. If NBC had doubts about its legal position, they wouldn't have aired the show.

How many people that you meet are really interested in the Jehovah's Witnesses? For the vast majority of the public, Jehovah's Witnesses are nothing but fodder for jokes, or an occasional nuisance. NBC bases its decisions on ratings and profits, not fear of a cult's legal department.

The JW legal department benefits from this sort of hysteria. Let's not help them out.

22

Who's Saying What?

by Psychdigg in

i have been reviewing my tape of the dateline program and i will make some comments in depth.

however i have a question?.

in the call to the legal department at the watchtower did the person representing the watchtower identify himself by name?

144thousand_and_one

After seeing him [Bill Bowen] in the Dateline program he reminds me of everything that is wrong with Jehovah's Witnesses. -- Psychdigg

Psychdigg, you're right. How wrong it was of Bill Bowen to speak out against an organization that allows child molesters to go from door to door preaching about morality. What a rotten thing Bill Bowen did by standing up to an organization whose policies appear to have protected pedophiliacs at the expense of their victims.

Psychdigg, have you ever engaged in any inappropriate conduct with children?

29

Why is Jehovah allowing his name to be disgraced?

by IslandWoman in

jw
friends

jehovah's name, the very name associated with jehovah's witnesses is being disgraced, trampled upon as never before in the organization's history!!.

in the past jehovah's witnesses have been reproached for standing up in defense of jehovah and his word.

jehovah's name was sanctified at all costs and it appears from their history books that jehovah was making a good name for himself by means of their integrity.

144thousand_and_one

This is what has happened today to the Watchtower!!
Why Jehovah has withdrawn his support from them is for them to determine. -- Island Woman

Withdrawn? What makes you think Jehovah ever supported these clowns? Is it all the false predictions? The Miracle Wheat? The Judge? What?

20

DATELINE VIEWERS BEWARE!!!

by 144thousand_and_one in

jw
friends

to all those who watched the dateline episode regarding the handling of child molestation incidents by the jehovahs witnesses:.

your television is now demonized as it received signals from satan himself.

you must get rid of it immediately.

144thousand_and_one

Please note:

Once an inanimate object has been demonized, there is no remedy that will excise the demon(s) other than destruction of the affected property. Destroying a television can be hazardous. Accordingly, while Elsewhere's service might provide temporary relief, the only way you can be sure that there are no demons in your home is to remove all possesions that have been exposed to the demons.

Upon receiving your television set, you can be assured that I'll take the necessary action to see that it never becomes part of your life again. However, I do insist that you pay the shipping costs and no CODs are accepted.

Remember friends, Armageddon is "just around the corner." Do you want to enter the great tribulation while possessing a demonic television set? Don't miss out on this limited-time opportunity to purge your household of undesirable demonic elements!

165

DATELINE: BLACK ART OF PROPAGANDA

by You Know in

hardly anyone has an honest opinion about anything of importance that wasnt craftily pre-packaged and handed to them by someone else whose job it is to craft public opinion.

the intention of the media is to present the illusion of impartially informing, all the while pandering to prejudice and ignorance in order to persuade to a particular point of view.

datelines presentation of the watchtowers child abuse issue was a case study in the black art of media propaganda.. from the very beginning of the presentation dateline was intent on giving the public a negative impression of jehovahs witnesses by portraying us all as oddball crackpots whose religion revolves around the doctrine that we dont celebrate birthdays and that all non-believers are possessed by the devil and that we want them all to die.

144thousand_and_one

All I can do is try and encourage my fellow Witnesses to try and get over the stumbling blocks and trust Jehovah when every thing seems to be going wrong. / You Know

You Know,

What you characterize as "stumbling blocks" are actually facts that should awaken the mentally enslaved to the true realities of the Jehovah's Witness cult.

More facts about the Jehovah's Witnesses need to be publicly disclosed, including, but not limited to, their encouragement of child abuse (e.g., beatings for kids who can't stay still at meetings, and no child care provided, "spare the rod spoil the child," beatings taking place on kingdom hall property with the tacit approval of the local congregation, 2 witness rule for child molestation, etc.) and the exploitation of children (e.g., parents encouraged to compel their children to perform uncompensated marketing services on behalf of the cult - "field service," parents encouraged to compel their children to give uncompensated speeches -- "talks" for the benefit of the local congregations, etc.).

It is laughable that you would characterize the news show "Dateline" as the "black art of propaganda." The Jehovah's Witnesses owe much of their very existence to the propaganda disseminated by the WTS and it's historical plethora of false prophets. You do a great job of presenting another example of the pot calling the kettle black.

Did you apologize to Ray Franz yet for the ostensibly libelous comments you posted about him on this site?

144thousand_and_one

Posts by 144thousand_and_one