hey everyone.
i don't post here often, but i lurk pretty much everyday.
i just created the following infographic based on the recent yearbook stats.
Wow....the numbers are very telling but of course JW's will put the decrease in number, down to the fact that the preaching work is nearing the end and only "sheep like ones" in developing nations are remaining. However, to say that is also to say that it is a foregone conclusion on their part, that young ones and newborn children in western lands, won't ever accept "the truth".
(I've reposted the Graphic in a smaller form because for some, the original version may have been too large to see.)
i suppose after lurking around for a few weeks i thought i might share my own personal story, as i think it would probably be a very freeing experience for me right now.
to start off, at 23 years old i'm actually a third-generation jw, my grandparents were baptized (my grandfather is actually an elder) when my mother was only a toddler, she was raised as a witness, then of course, married a witness and thus myself and my two brothers were born-in's.
growing up my mother was always very careful about what she taught me, all the good things for sure, about how we would live in a paradise earth and i could pet all the animals that i wanted and not worry about growing old, and she'd ask me who in the bible i'd love to see and talk with - my grandparents however, were a different story and the cause of i think, most of my childhood trauma.. they really drilled home the fact that we were the only people who were going to be saved, we were the only people that were going to survive and that everyone else was going to die horribly - that i shouldn't try to make that many friends in school because they would never be "real" friends unless they were fellow jw's and they would die anyway.
Welcome...
I was a fellow Watchtower kid with PTSD until I got informed about the religion. A lifetime of anxiety disappeared in a matter of weeks once I knew the whole story.
One of the things I always wondered about as a kid was the flood and the dinosaurs and why God had to kill most all of the animals on the earth just to get rid of the comparatively few humans that populated the earth at the time.
I also wondered why he used angels to kill off the Egyptian first born babies but kept having the Israelites form an army to kill off the Canaanites and other battles. Why not use a few angels to do the Job?
Anyway, once you've come to fully understand the JW region and it's history and understand how cults and cult like religions use F.O.G. (fear obligation guilt) to control you, you'll be well on your way toward freeing yourself of the needless anxiety you've suffered and the anxious thinking you've had ingrained into you since childhood.
another reason to stop social isolation..
I think if a person was a lifelong JW and found him or herself in the position of being shunned, they could very well succumb to the kind of loneliness and isolation that could trigger depression and depending upon their age, even send them into early onset dementia.
Life long JW's often don't have the skills or courage to go out and make new friends. On top of that, they may actually still believe that worldly people are all evil and the world is going to end any minute. They may believe they deserve to be punished and often their self worth is at a low ebb just when they need it the most.
if the end is oh-so-very-near why the exhortation rammed home during the convention to "don't give up.
if humankind is poised right on the knife edge of the end, the sense of urgency in the organization would be breathtakingly palpable.
urgency?
To say "Don't Give Up" is to say that people are indeed giving up, and it's happening to the extent that we have to build an entire assembly theme around it.
there was a recent thread on another site where posters maintained that many of the *most* long-standing jw's don't believe at least one official watchtower doctrine.
i've even read reports from bethelites saying they've heard bethel overseers say they don't believe some watchtower theology.
this made me think - i believe there are a few official doctrines that are common for many jw's to be either in denial about or simply not really believe ( often one and the same thing).. i'd say these are pretty high in the ranking:.
By their actions, most JW's demonstrate that they don't really believe that the end is as near as they say they do.
Anyone who truly believes that they are literally living in the last days, doesn't go on vacation or spend the weekend at a outdoor rock festival. (as a random example)
another reason to stop social isolation..
Is this the study you were referring to?
i've just been watching a youtube video that reveals the new assembly hall in orangeburg, sc.. two things struck me when watching it.... firstly, everything is attributed to jehovah, right down to deciding the location where the hall is to be built.
"we examined over 300 properties," said one interviewee, "we were reminded that jehovah knew where the site was, we just had to keep looking and show him that we were persistent.
" other workers interviewed throughout the video attribute everything to god, as though it is impossible to build anything without divine direction.. here is the video.... .
I was impressed by everything, the pool, the technology, the building, landscape, everything, until I saw the chairs. 3 days sitting on that? Yiiiissshhhh.
Folding chairs.....very smart. When they sell the building they can fold them up and go and the whole place is wide open for whatever new use anyone wants. Meanwhile, the JW's can feel as if they are enduring something and martyring themselves for the cause by sitting in uncomfortable chairs.
Once again, (not that there's anything wrong with having a luxurious meeting place) but in the past, we were told that these things originated with Christendom. Gone are the days when humble, simple and practical is the goal.
There is also the sense that one gets, that they are narcissistic enough to think they personally developed the technology that was employed in building this facility and that it's existence indicates they are being directed by God himself. The Mega Church down the street had all the same things 10 years ago.
https://www.facebook.com/traslapados/videos/1470101566382318/?hc_ref=otherwhat do you think of this video?.
do you think they're imitating evangelicals?is this happening in other places?
?.
@PeteZaHut, but why do you think the JWs in the 40 plus age group don't see the irony of it all? (I know why, but still!)
I think it's a case of not seeing the forest for the trees (or a case of not wanting to see it)
It's like aging or seeing a child grow. You only notice the difference in the person when you've been away from them for a time. We are seeing these changes from a distance, for current JW's the changes have been subtle enough and gradual enough and (fun enough) that the ones who are in it for social reasons or other non fact based reasons, have drifted into them somewhat seamlessly.
i have a very xjw type problem, i am invited to my cousin's 70th birthday party, and really don't know what to buy him.. i only met him a couple of months ago, as my jw parents never encouraged the non-jw side of the family, so i don't know much about him, except that he is retired and his hobby is sailing his boat.. i don't have contact details for his kids etc to ask them for ideas, so could you come up with something please ?
not too extravagant, i am a poor pensioner !
but, it is his 70th.. thanks in advance for any tips !.
I recently received a $50 gift card for Starbucks coffee. I have really enjoyed it.
i would like to share my brief experience about my life from liberal jw to a ex-jw.
as i told you in my first post, i'm from juarez, mexico.
i'm second generation born-in, well not really... my mother knew jwland in 1968 and a year later, she got baptized.
Hola Ironsnake,
Thank you for sharing your story. We're glad you made it through your own personal "crisis of conscience" and thanks to your education in human psychology, were able to find your way back to a healthy state of mind. Most JW's use the societies literature as their guide through these kinds of problems and end up prolonging their suffering and even dying.
