Introduction (page 5)

baltar447

Welcome! Your sentiments and where you are at mentally are very similar to my own feelings right now. I look forward to reading your posts and the discussion, so far this has been a great example of a good thread, hopefully no trolls ruin it!

tenyearsafter

Welcome and thank you for an excellent first post! I will echo what several of the previous posters have said and encourage you to finish "Crisis of Conscience". I would also recommend you read "In Search of Christian Freedom", Ray Franz's follow up book. I would very much look forward to hearing your thoughts on things after completing your readings.

Keep on posting!

TYA

mouthy

Welcome to the board. I too LOVE Jehovahs Witnesses,
My daughter & grand daughter are still there.
They of course must not speak to me as I dont believe Jesus came invisably in 1914
Do you beelive that?I also made 10 other people JW's Some died that way.
But you see I dont believe MY GOD!!! & MY SAVIOUR Jesus Christ .Cares about
religion. HE is the GOD of LOVE!!! He examines Hearts NOT WORKS
The only works he requires is "do unto others as we would like done to us"
Love even our enemies, look after widows & children.& KNOW him ,that is when
we ask HIM to come into our lives & then we are BORN AGAIN>>> Adopted kids.
I also believe we should use out minds.. You sound very intelligent ,so you have
kept part of yours it seems.But really if your honest ,you are NOT supposed
to THINK INDEPENDENTLY!!!! are you!By the WT orders.
I was under their control for 25 years. My hubby would beat me to stop being a
follower & as you stated I was encoureged to stay as I might win him over
As he lay dying,he wanted me to pray with him NOT BECAUSE HE BELIEVED the WT
teaching but as he told me repeatedly then,Because my LOVE looking after him
was angel like....So it was my LOVE NOT DOGMA!!!!!
Yes I am MOUTHY on Board 83+ & JESUS CHRIST is THE WAY! TRUTH & LIFE For me
Pity for you it has to be rules & works... But I am SOOO pleased NOW that I was DF
At the time I wanted to kill myself...But since leaving we have had a support group of
over 700 exJW all living healthy happy lives .With Children who love GOD!!!!
May the LORD be with you in your journey....

Grace Goughhttp://exjw.weebly.com/

wasblind

" @only me....I don't really view "bastard" as a derogatory term in this instance. Look it up in the dictionary. Hey, it's in the King James Bible! :) "

Good Morning DPL,

Just a friendly warning, people don't take too kindly to derogatory names towards innocent children

all children aren't raised in a traditional setting now days, but that does not make them less than anyone else

the last time I heard the word Bastard used was in a talk given by a brother, there were quite a few

single mothers in the cong I attended, and he didn't even stop to think, about how this derogatory

word that's in the dictionary and Bible would make that child, who had no control on how they came to be....... feel.

Me Myself and I

Hi guys,

I have been reading on and off ever since our small family stopped attending the meetings 4 years ago. Reading your comments "Dont...lit" I have taken the step to actually register on here, specifically to post on your thread.

All i can say is that the comment from Broken Wings summs up in a nutshell the "true" fact of the congregation "love".

Broken Wings: "Christian love" (JW love) is conditional. You want to see how conditional it is? Stop attending meetings, stop going in service. See how much the "brothers" want to associate with you. You might not be doing anything "unscriptural". But you will be judged, no doubt about it.

I too have been a MS and was seen as a "one to watch" comments by many of potential CO, DSO, etc, due to my zeal and enthusiasm for the "truth", cringeworthy now looking back, so I am coming from a position of being where you are, however similarly, I had doubts, the doctrines were on one side, it was the behaviour and attitude of the actual brothers and sisters and supposed rocks that were the "annointed by jehovah" elders that really ripped the rose tinted glassed off.

I was bowled over initially with the percieved love that I hadnt experianced from my own family, let alone the world when I was first contacted and started mixing with the JWs. I stayed in the org for 10 years, brought my wife and two young daughters from birth into the religion. I couldnt believe how loving and wonderful and perfect these people seemed to be, I was blinded for years, not wanting to see the glaring flaws and underlying things that were wrong....after all were all imperfect etc etc.

Suffice to say, I have a story to tell, and will no doubt share it at a later stage. What I will say is, none of us are disfellowshipped or dissasociated and we have not had a visit, text, phone call for 4 years since I resigned my MS position and bought Crisis of C, read it in one night and then challenged my so called brothers who at the time I wouldve given my life for in the blink of an eye, the brothers I had given my love to, supported financially, emotionally, and in a heartbeat dropped us with no other friends because I dared to ask some questions that due to reading cofc had raised. The JW is CONDITIONAL.....the bible tells us of the story of the shepherd leaving the 99 to find the one......NO ELDER invited us to the memorial....we got an invite of one old lovely sister and have done every year (who incidentally many laugh at behind her back for smelling musty and giving rambling non sensical answers) she had a heart of gold and if you wanted an example of real christian love, she was it.

In a nutshell, You must not question the organisation or think for yourself, despite the bible saying question you faith to see if its true. If you do you will be dropped by all around you immediately. Heaven forbid you stop going to the meetings.....labels such as weak etc are then pinned to you, which is soooo bizarre as I would alight buses and start offering magazines and literature and do a mini talk on one occasion believing I was doing jehovahs bidding of trying to save everyone before the end. Weak?......no one can ever call me that...Naive...you bet.

Welcome to this board, please take of your rose tinted glasses for a moment, it will be uncomfortable, because you will realise that there are many brothers and sisters who have been REALLY SERIOUSLY HURT that find comfort here and sometimes their hurt spills out in the form of anger, disgust, frustration etc which is quite natural when you hear their heartbreaking stories. Many of us gave large chunks of our life of unreserved devotion to this organisation genuinely believing it was jehovahs organisation on earth, so despite being trained to be judgemental of others, please open your heart and mind to the same brothers and sisters who were all once part of the same mindset.

mouthy

MEMYSELF&IWELCOME,Dont want to steal the topic. But want you to know

A BIG WELCOME

Judge Dread

It sort of scares me to be a member of a forum where such a demonstration is praised and lauded by so many.
"Richie Rich" popped into my head for some reason.
JDW

pirata

Welcome! Glad to have you on board!

The term "rank and file" is used to indicate members of an organization, exclusive of it's leadership. I don't think it's a derogatory term. Some examples:

*** w94 8/15 p. 11 par. 2 This Good News Must Be Preached First ***
Perhaps some religious groups send some “missionaries” for a two-year stint into certain areas, but their rank-and-file members do not participate in any such ministry.

*** w92 12/1 p. 7 par. 1 The Blessing of Jehovah Makes Rich ***
In 1992 even the affluent West experienced a recession, and executives as well as rank-and-file workers found themselves out of work.

*** w86 9/1 p. 28 Must You Be in the Limelight? ***
Some individuals are used quite prominently, but others play rather inconspicuous roles as rank-and-file publishers of the Kingdom message.

ThomasCovenant

Hi to 'Me Myself and I' too.

Ding

Welcome!

Keep reading Crisis of Conscience and the Bible itself without WT books and magazines to "explain" what it means.

If you'd ever like to discuss anything with me by way of PM, feel free.

You access PMs by double clicking on the little envelope in the upper right corner.

If you get an error message, try again.

Best,

Ding

Introduction

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