Posts by baldeagle

10

Interview with an Apostate - Scratchme1010

by scratchme1010 in

for what it's worth:.

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. i am one of 7 children in my family, three boys, three girls and me.

yes, i'm right in the middle, and i'm the pink sheep of the family (or at least the official one).

baldeagle

Thanks for sharing and enjoy your freedom.

66

Overlapping Generations

by JRK in

jw
friends

i remember when that came out, my mother didn't catch it in the original article in the wt.

it was in one of the review "do you remember" thingies that she caught it.

she asked me if it means what she thought it meant.

The retooling of the “generation” teaching in 1995, 81 years after 1914 was a red flag. This was a benchmark teaching that many Witnesses used to make crucial life-altering decisions. It was simply torpedoed out of existence and replaced. My lingering doubts were now crystalized that the leaders of this religion were clearly fabricating their doctrines. As the years and decades marched on with no end in sight, they were using a piecemeal approach to make modifications.

Regrettably, I remained active until the nonsensical teaching in 2010 that two groups of anointed from 1914, overlap to make up a continuous generation. I knew it was all a falsehood 15 years earlier, what was I thinking? Aside from the obvious fear of losing your entire family and social network in a heartbeat, something else is at play in the JW mindset.

It’s what is called herd mentality. This is defined as, “The inability or refusal to listen to one's own instinct or 'gut feeling' but to instead follow the majority for fear of being wrong, ostracized or ridiculed.”

While we are nurturing doubts, we feel guilty when we observe our fellow congregants and their apparent faithful lifestyle. We are surrounded by pioneers, elders, servants, CO’s and Bethelites etc. We go to large conventions and see literally thousands of people, many that we respect and admire that tirelessly soldier on in their JW activities. We wonder could all these families be duped and I’m right. On the other hand, could I be the one that is seeing things incorrectly?

Therefore, the direct anxiety of being shunned along with the “herd mentality” literally causes many years or even decades to go by, before we can break free from the grip this religion has on people.

The GB leadership whether today or 80 years ago has a lot to answer for; they have indeed ruined a countless number of lives of people who were mostly sincere and believed they were doing God’s will.

66

Overlapping Generations

by JRK in

jw
friends

i remember when that came out, my mother didn't catch it in the original article in the wt.

it was in one of the review "do you remember" thingies that she caught it.

she asked me if it means what she thought it meant.

baldeagle

66

Overlapping Generations

by JRK in

jw
friends

i remember when that came out, my mother didn't catch it in the original article in the wt.

it was in one of the review "do you remember" thingies that she caught it.

she asked me if it means what she thought it meant.

baldeagle

9

Interview with an Apostate - Passwordprotected

by passwordprotected in

father was raised catholic and converted to the jws in the late '60s.

my dad's side of the family are still catholics and are very nice to me.

my mum's side are all jws and they shun me (boo hoo).. were you a born in or a convert?.

baldeagle

Thanks for sharing passwordprotected I appreciated your openness and honesty telling it like it is. No one escapes this religion without some damage to his or her psyche.

For many it may be severe for others like a minor fender bender but there’s always some damage and regretful choices in one’s past for sure.

17

Interview with an Apostate : humbled : not-a-captive

by humbled in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. born in 1952 second oldest of the family of nine children.

as you see, my family was thoroughly catholic.

dad was in the army.. were you a born in or a convert?.

baldeagle

Thanks for sharing your life story humbled, enjoy your freedom.

9

Interview With an Apostate: Charonsdog

by charonsdog in

they raised my two younger brothers and me in the “truth”, and convinced some of their own siblings to join as well.

i married pretty early, raised two of my own in the “truth”, sad to say.

my parents are still in.

baldeagle

Thanks for sharing your life story Charonsdog, enjoy your freedom.

12

EXJW Fifth Interviews Jason Wynne - Founder of AvoidJW.org

by Wakanda in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bahseeaoof8.

simply fabulous.

ps.

baldeagle

Thanks to EXJW Fifth for hosting another great interview, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.

12

Interview with Giordano an Apostate

by Giordano in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.

my mother introduced me to her jw world when i was 12. i had to attend the weekly book study....boring!!!!

plus the disney tv show was on tuesday eve 8 to 9 and once a month they did a space show......no matter how hard i tried couldn’t get out of that bk study.

baldeagle

Thanks for sharing your life story Giordano, enjoy your freedom.

9

Interview With An Apostate: Pale.Emperor

by pale.emperor in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. 33yp guy from liverpool, england.

2nd generation, born in.

baptized at 19, left age 31. divorced with a 4yo daughter.

baldeagle

Another interesting life story thank you for your time pale.emperor.