Keeping track of your field service hours, men not allowed to wear beards, the slit in the back of a woman's skirt 'stumbling' others, & masturbation (although JW's aren't the only ones who damn this particular pleasure).
Charms
JoinedPosts by Charms
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23
What JW doctrines (topics) are NOT in the New World Translation ???
by run dont walk inwhat doctrines and beliefs do jw's stick to, that are not mentioned anywhere in the new world translation ????.
i thought of a few ........ 1) christ returned invisibly in 1914 .
2) heavens doors were closed in 1935.
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32
Which was scarier... the torture scenario or the Armageddon scenario?
by Gopher infor those of us who grew up in the jw's, there were a couple of scary scenarios presented, one supposedly to happen before armageddon, and armageddon itself.. before armageddon, all jw's were going to be chased around by worldly nations because they would be the only religion left on earth, satan's system having destroyed "babylon the great" (all religions outside jw's, we were told).
so as part of that, jw's would be persecuted worldwide for being religious and proclaiming the "kingdom".. now -- connect that with the actual persecution that happened to the jw's as documented in the annual "yearbook" and in the pages of the watchtower magazine.
sometimes the details of what happened to jw's when in confinement were quite graphic and frightening.
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Charms
Those nightmares you describe were almost exactly as mine were. Black and red clouds in the sky and me frozen in fear and waiting to die for being such a disobedient teen. How does a religion that supposedly preaches love instill fear in people, especially children?
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Which was scarier... the torture scenario or the Armageddon scenario?
by Gopher infor those of us who grew up in the jw's, there were a couple of scary scenarios presented, one supposedly to happen before armageddon, and armageddon itself.. before armageddon, all jw's were going to be chased around by worldly nations because they would be the only religion left on earth, satan's system having destroyed "babylon the great" (all religions outside jw's, we were told).
so as part of that, jw's would be persecuted worldwide for being religious and proclaiming the "kingdom".. now -- connect that with the actual persecution that happened to the jw's as documented in the annual "yearbook" and in the pages of the watchtower magazine.
sometimes the details of what happened to jw's when in confinement were quite graphic and frightening.
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Charms
Armageddon had to be more frightening for me. The way it was described in talks was that worldly people would be tortured and trying to kill themselves in order not to suffer from Jehovah's wrath, but unable to die by their own hands (that one confused me, btw). They wouldn't be able to hide from Jehovah's legions of angels coming to kill them.
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JW perception of Armageddon's Iminence
by FirstInLine ini am wondering how iminent did armageddon seem when you were jws?
how iminent does the wts feel it is today?.
i recall that for me it seemed that it could happen at any moment.
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Charms
I was scared that I would never live to be old. It was to the point that whenever a large earthquake hit somewhere or a war started, I would wonder if that was a sign of Armageddon. When I stopped going to the Memorial, she started trying to scare me back in by implying that Armageddon may start this particular night and I wouldn't be in the safety of the KH. I used to have nightmares about Armageddon as a teen.
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Inactive and Immune
by new light indid you know that page 99 of "pay attention...." (the elders' manual) states that a person who has not associated for a while is basically exempt from discipline?
essentially if you attend a judicial hearing or respond to the elders you are admitting accountability to the "christian congregation.
" therefore, if you walk away from the congregation and simply ignore the elders for long enough and exert no influence on the members, they don't have to pursue you, even if they hear of serious sin.
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Charms
I figured as much. That explains why I've never been hounded by any elders after 'fading' out. My mother gets the occasional inquiry (they don't know where I live), but that's about it.
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JW 'urban legends'
by Steve Lowry ini was thinking about some of the old jw urban legends that we grew up with and believed in as jws.
most of the ones i remember revolved around stories about demons, and jws being "attacked" when they would do something wrong.
some of these legends scared the crap outta me when i was little.
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Charms
I forgot another story. A friend of mine told me once that her family was attacked by spirits. It seems that her father was cheating with the woman who lived across the street. This woman was into spells and stuff and was practicing a particular curse in order to make him leave his family and be with her. She said they clung to each other in fear as all these lights floated all over their house, etc. The elders came over to pray for their house or something.
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JW 'urban legends'
by Steve Lowry ini was thinking about some of the old jw urban legends that we grew up with and believed in as jws.
most of the ones i remember revolved around stories about demons, and jws being "attacked" when they would do something wrong.
some of these legends scared the crap outta me when i was little.
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Charms
At my mother's first bible study (I was forced to attend them until she was baptized), her bible study teacher told her about 'deminz' flipping up the floorboards in her house when she first began studying and other sorts of things happening. But according to her, she continued to study and they went away. This woman has some signs of mental illness, by the way. I was about 11 years old and was past the 'monster under the bed' phase. Nevertheless, her stories really f---ed my head up for awhile. I had nightmares from this point on about invisible presences and I am finally recovering. When I awoke in terror and went to my mom's bed, she would just tell me it was just 'deminz' and to pray to Jehovah to make them leave. Does anyone remember the magazine that was put out dealing specifically with evil spirits? It had that story with that woman in Suriname in it or something. That mag didn't help matters at all.
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Were you psychologically abused into going to meetings/service ???
by run dont walk inwe have all read and watched so many of the child abuse / sexual abuse scandals, and it makes us all sick to our stomachs, i want to touch on a different kind of abuse, i am not trying to draw a parellel between child abuse and being abused.
the abuse i am talking about is just as bad but so different.
i remember growing up a jw, basically having no choice, whether i wanted to go to the meetings or in service, and i always resented this in my parents.
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Charms
In some ways, my mother was pretty relaxed. I was allowed to have worldly friends (the other jw kids were pretty unfriendly) and she didn't discourage me from college. But I remember being beaten for not wanting to go into field service. And she was adamant about me attending those boring meetings, even though we both slept through them. I will never forget the first time I refused to go to a Memorial service. She told me that Jehovah would have all of the witnesses gather at the KH for safety from Armageddon and that I might end up being destroyed if I kept missing meetings. After she left for the meeting, I had an awful feeling of dread and contemplated suicide. In my mind, I felt that I had failed Jehovah miserably, even though I was already living a double life. This freaked me out and I started having Armageddon nightmares. Who the hell knew that passing around wine and crackers that no one could eat would be so important? I am so happy to be free of the guilt and mind control. I made a personal vow never to be a part of a religion that holds people hostage with guilt and fear and strives to keep its members in darkness. Sorry to ramble, y'all.
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Help!! I opened my big mouth..........
by fairy inon a site i said the following....... "just say that they asked you to do something that you know if you did it there was a very likelyhood that you would die for doing it......and they said that it came from god....would you do it" and someone replied ......".you mean like a blood transfusion?
"that person also said that the elders reckon that all that stuff about abuse is a lie now i dont know what to say!
any ideas how i could answere that?
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Charms
As a matter of fact, I remember an article back in the late 80's or early 90's(can't remember if it was in the WT or Awake! magazine) blasting Catholics about the child molesting scandals and talking about how much money they were paying to abuse victims. All the while, there were JW's doing the same thing and they kept hush hush about it. What a bunch of hypocritical scumbags.
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Sad again at the Service Meeting
by Euphemism inthe service meeting on thursday was really saddening, particularly the last part, about preaching with boldness.
it was about overcoming nervousness, shyness, etc in the ministry.. all these people gave their experiences about difficulties they had in the ministry.
a regular pioneer (and elder's wife) admitted that she used to just pretend to ring the door bells; service is still really difficult for her, but she does it just because she feels obligated to.
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Charms
That almost made me fall outta my chair! LMAO!!!!