Posts by Syme

21

What steps did you take to free yourself from the cult? mentally or physically?

by HereIgo in

first i ignored all of the elders phone calls to send my recommendation letter to my new congregation, truth is i had already started my fade and moved across town and didn't have a new congregation.

i deleted all jw friends on facebook.

i also threw away all of my public talks recorded on cd, all literature, even my book bag and my bible.

Syme

I stopped going to field service.

I stopped going to meetings.

I got rid of all WT publications, though I didn't actually throw them to garbage, but stored them in a deep corner shelf away from my library. I only kept a Bible, but not NWT translation. Of course, when I moved, I did not take the publications with me.

I threw away or even shredded to pieces all personal notes from conventions, meetings, letters and stuff.

I deleted the bulk of jw friends from facebook, though I kept a few inner-circle ones that know of my stance and kind of accept it, or at least do not oppose it. But I probably will delete them as well in due course.

I started doing DF offences, without advertizing it, but without fear of what will happpen if they found out either.

I refused to even remotely apologize to any high or low ranking jw for my fade. I refused to have any official conversation with the CO, being steadfast without being rude.

I moved to another town, with no jw contact here. I gradually stopped responding to text messages and answering phone calls from 'concerned' jws.

Those methods were successful so far, because I didn't let for a second any jw, no matter his rank, to think he has any authority over me. I didn't allow them any space for intrusion, so they didn't intrude.

52

Is shunning unscriptual?

by MrTheocratic in

international version 1 cor 5:11. but now i am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.

do not even eat with such people.. if shunning is wrong.

.how does one explain this scripture?.

Syme

The issue in the year 2016 AD is not if shunning is "scriptural". It could well be scriptural, depending on the reading of the Bible; the stoning of adulterers is also "scriptural". So is the burning at the stake for witchcraft practitioners and apostates. The whole process of the Inquisition was scriptural. So what?

The question is if shunning even remotely humane and has any place in a society where human rights and human dignity are held high. The answer is a big no.

32

Shooting in the foot (homophobic video)

by Syme in

with the newly released homophobic video by the wts, it gets clearer that those people can't stop shooting themselves in the foot.

they are already under examination and de facto trial by the australian committee; more and more people and officials in western democracies inquire into their abusive tactics and put them under the microscope, and what do they do?

they release a video which confirms those worries.

Syme

No, they don't just believe that homosexuality is wrong. They preach that everyone who is homosexual will be killed at Armageddon. They conceal (or are ignorant of) the fact that homosexuality is NOT a choice, plus it appears in the rest of of nature (500 species), thus is not "unnatural", so one cannot just "change" to being straight in order to avoid being toasted in Armageddon. That is the definition of homophobic speech.

Of course, they answer that a homosexual could avoid being roasted in big A, as long as he doesn't practice homosexuality; which is like telling a straight that he must remain celibate all his life to avoid being executed. This is the definition of oppression.

So, we have homophobia plus oppression. If speaking against homophobia (and other forms of racism and hate speech) and oppression is "stigmatization" and "frowning upon", well...

32

Shooting in the foot (homophobic video)

by Syme in

with the newly released homophobic video by the wts, it gets clearer that those people can't stop shooting themselves in the foot.

they are already under examination and de facto trial by the australian committee; more and more people and officials in western democracies inquire into their abusive tactics and put them under the microscope, and what do they do?

they release a video which confirms those worries.

Syme

With the newly released homophobic video by the WTS, it gets clearer that those people can't stop shooting themselves in the foot. They are already under examination and de facto trial by the Australian Committee; more and more people and officials in Western democracies inquire into their abusive tactics and put them under the microscope, and what do they do? They release a video which confirms those worries.

It reminded me of a book about the Holocaust I read recently: when Hitler and his Nazi gang were losing the war, they didn't stop killing Jews, even though it was completely pointless (and damaging) in their war effort. Loads of trains packed with wounded German soldiers, stood on the ground to give way to the trains headed for Auschwitz and the rest of the death camps. Jews in the ghettos who were used as slave labor, were sent to death camps, even though that meant that whole factories which were used for the war would close down. The point being that their "ideology" and their fanaticism took the upper hand in their deeds and took priority over the practical goal of winning the war.

There's no analogy here of course; it just reminded me that the leaders of WT are so blinded by their own "ideology" (which includes, of course, homophobia), that they just can't stop posting such material, even when it's damaging to their supposed goal of winning converts, and even though they know it!

26

I think my Sunday speaker is awake

by Yondaime in

hi guys and gals,.

its been a long time since i've posted here, i've been caught up with school and work so i've never had the time to post on the forum, but i've still been reading through some articles on here.

now that finals are over i have some time to breath.

Syme

That the Bible Students expected Armageddon to come in 1914 is no secret; it is written in the Proclaimers books, among other publications. The 'faithful' ones don't consider this a counter-evidence of divine guidance. They consider it as just a fact that showed how deeply and truly the Bible students were longing for Christ's coming.

The thing with him not reading any Bible verse is a bit curious, though. At least a few years ago when I was active, the orders were to read from the Bible directly, especially in a public talk. But, Bethelites tend to bend the rules for themselves.

9

2016-3-20-BOE!

by Atlantis in

2016-3-20-boe.

.. to applicants for the school for kingdom evangelizers.. http://we.tl/byfdshrdfc.

.. .. atlantis!.

Syme

LOL, the time span for abstaining from pornography has now gone up to 2 years! Hilarious!

26

Looking back,"That was crazy, moment"

by MarkofCane in

i got baptized later in life.

i was around 21, i had left and went out into the world should of listen to my gut back then, but instead i disowned myself and came back into the fold.

before i could get baptized, the elder who studied with me said i needed to get rid of everything that was contaminated by this world: music, books & clothing,everything.

Syme

No worries, that was the rule back in the '70s and '80s. Everyone burnt stuff with their teacher before they got baptized. Not only youths, with rock 'n roll stuff etc. Older folks would burn stuff that supposedly contained magic or spells. My own grandfather burnt an artifact that was bound up using spells (allegedly). Until this day, he insists that that was the day he "got free" from spells. Others burnt things like their wedding crowns. That was back in the '70s, of course, but it seems that the burning habit carried on much later.

An example of countryside superstition and illiteracy being tied with a high-control extremely superstitious cult.

14

Overlapping "Kinds"...Coming soon to a Watchtower near you?

by juandefiero in

putting on my carnac hat here.. let's say the evidence for evolution becomes so overwhelming that the society eventually has to accept it due to much turmoil in the congregations.

how do they do so without saying they've been wrong?.

why, redefine a word, of course!

Syme

Of course, they can't ever drop the Ransom teaching, which is the central point of jw theology, so they'll never accept human evolution. However, they could in the future accept evolution for the other animals, but say that man was an exception.

The stretching of the "kinds" definition is already happening. In the 2010 Life brochure, they implicated that the biblical "kinds" could refer to genuses, instead of species. So, it could be possible that they stretch it even more.

All of these, nevertheless, is fighting the facts in vain. "It is hard for you, Saul.."

34

How far will they go?

by careful in

i've been drawing back lately and looking at the big picture going on in the org, somewhat like slimboyfat has also been doing, but i am wondering about different possibilities.

so the current gb has modernized recently in various ways.

they have done a strong and sudden about-face regarding the electronic world, from viewing the whole thing suspiciously and condemning bros. use tablets from the platform to suddenly embracing them and causing the r&f to do so to such a degree that old ones are spending hundreds of dollars to buy devices that they have no clue how to use; they have heavily embraced this media for their message, very much like the churches have been doing for years, especially with their jw broadcasting and their caleb and sophia animations.

Syme

While shunning is practiced, no "modernization"; only Dark Ages. All the other minor things are tricks.

13

The book of Ruth... destroys the bible

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

lets pretend two things:.

1. god (yhwh) exists.

2. the bible is his word.. now we follow genesis to judges ok... judges resets at chaper 17-21 but for the purposes od this posts lets ignore that.... ruth we are told lives in the time of the judges... ok no problem/ until the end.

Syme

Yeah, I remember that point. There's an attempt to address it in that blue book, "All scriptures". Well, when I say "attempt", it was something like "yes, we know it's a long time, but it would appear that Jehova miraculously made those ancestors have offspring at a very late age, like in the case of Abraham".. something like that.

I love those phrases the WT uses when they're going to make up some lame interpretation: "It would appear that..."