welcome and prepare your self for a whole lot of emotions at once, your eyes are really going to open up, I wish you luck we are all here for you, and keep it in the low until you ready and strong enough to deal with your family turning against you and your fake friends in the hall....
i am a regular pioneer in my cong reading crisis of conscience.here goes...
by MsGrowingGirl20 206 Replies latest jw friends
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thetrueone
Reading Crisis of Conscience is a good start to realizing the inner working of the WTS. publishing house.
There are other avenues of information one can reseach as well and there are easily obtainable on the Net. somewhere.
Learning " The Truth" about the Truth is an eye opening experience for folks wanting to know why this devious coercive
publishing house got started and why it still exist today.
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Reopened Mind
A BIG WELCOME to you MsGrowingGirl20!
You are very couragous for daring to read the biggest apostate book of all time, at least in WT world. As others have said be slow and methodical and don't tip your hand until you are absolutely sure of how to proceed. You will find lots of good advice amd support here. You will find someone here who can relate to any aspect of what you are going through. "Crisis of Conscience" is definitely a good place to start to learn what's behing the Watchtower curtain. Steve Hassan's "Combatting Cult Mind Control" would be a good second book as it shows how insidious cults can be. It can also help you so you won't jump out of one cult into another.
I was baptised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses when I was 20 years old. I'm guessing from your poster name you are 20 years old. I married a JW, raised two boys in the cult, and like you served as a regular pioneer. My husband who posts on this board as TotallyADD served as a ministerial servant and an elder. He was the presiding overseer when I began researching the Watchtower. That was five years ago this month when I read an article in our local newspaper that led me to ajwrb.org. I carefully researched other sites online while tip-toeing around my husband. By this time my children were grown with children of their own. Very, very fortunately for me my husband had been to Bethel as a temp worker and was questioning things he was seeing there. It was he who asked me to order "Crisis of Conscience". When he read it he said he could relate to much of what Ray wrote. It had a definite "ring of truth". At this stage in our lives we find it extremely difficult to extricate ourselves from the WT without the very real possibility of not being able to see our grandchildren. By the way this is a sure sign of a cult.
So MsGrowingGirl20 we commend you for your bravery in beginning your journey of awakening at so young an age. You have the opportunity to make a life for yourself that can be fulfilling and rewarding. Please keep posting. We are interested in you.
Reopened Mind
p.s. Feel free to pm me.
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breakfast of champions
Welcome!
I remember feeling like I had lived behind the Iron Curtain my enitre life after reading CoC. Just the same, I found much of what it contained completely un-surprising, as I basically grew up in a "bethel congregation" and new a lot of the inside antics that go on. Enjoy your read.
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ziddina
"I never got past the 1st 10-20 pages BECAUSE it reminded me of a GB life story (which it is) But I may jump to Page 100 and try to read it again. ..." Darth Frosty
Ohhhh, Darth....
You have NO idea what you're missing!!!!
I've read COC at LEAST twice thru - I LOVE it!!!
Though reading it is both enlightening AND painful....
You've GOTTA finish reading it!!
Zid
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ziddina
"I left my copy laying around hoping my wife would pick it up... it disappeared and I found out later that she binned it! ..." Dmouse
Damm!! You think THAT'S bad, Dmouse!!!
I donated a NICE hard-back copy of the book to my local LIBRARY, with SPECIFIC instructions that they were to CALL ME IF THEY DIDN'T WANT THE BOOK.
Guess what happened???
Some GAWD-DAYYAMED dishonest person at the library THREW IT AWAY or TOSSED IT INTO THE DOLLAR BIN!!!!!
Three guesses as to what supposedly "honest" religion that person was a member of...
When I found out what had happened, I threw a hissy fit in the library, told them that they were preventing people from finding out about a destructive cult, and SWORE that I'd NEVER donate another book to that library!!!!
Morons....
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Londo111
Yes, I noticed when I was at the library the Proclaimers book, but nothing like Crisis of Conscience. That seemed strange.
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ziddina
"I personally, was around during this "purge" he speaks of. I wasn't at bethel or anything like that. I was still rather young, young teenager. But I remember the frenzy, I remember so much weirdness I didn't quite understand all that was going on. Reading Ray's book, all those gaps got filled in. ..." Blond-Moment
Yes, Blondmoment, I was around during that time, too - and I remember the weirdness, too - all the RUMORS flying around; how there were those practicing homosexuality at Bethel; "apostates" trying to slip misleading things into the literature, and so on...
Of course, when they were yammering about the "homosexual" problem at Bethel, my FIRST response was, "So THAT'S why the leaders are ALWAYS hollering for YOUNG, SINGLE MEN to serve at Bethel!!"
Needless to say, everyone was dismayed at how I missed the so-called "significance" of poor Ray Franz' so-called 'mis-steps'...
Oh, crud, and before I forget again...
WELCOME, MsGrowingGirl20!!!
Zid - the board's She-Devil...
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Azazel
Glad your here MsGrowingGirl20
My word of adviceto you as others have said is to tell no JW you have or read this book. Be prepaired for what's called "cognitive dissonance" in all honesty i hadn't heard of that word but believe me i feel its effect daily. It's the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that says, what if your wrong what if the JW are right? Then i have to just step thru the things i have researched about the WTS and the inconsistancy in the NWT bible and that feeling goes away .
Here is a link to a short documentary that explains why we have cognitive dissonance "Belief"
Good luck for you and remember discretion is the better part of valour.
Az
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NewChapter
Welcome MsGrowing. I haven't finished the book yet, but the information on the Malawi vs Mexican brothers was enough to throw me into an absolute rage. The suffering and pain these men are responsible for! We are here, as you read the book, because you may need to vent. It is not comfortable going from having all the answers and feeling protected, to being actually FREE. But it is exhilarating----yet painful. But EXHILARATING when you are able to embrace it.
So glad you're here.
NC