JW's Changing Tune

by SickofLies 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OUTLAW

  They keep trying to sell me this story that everything is different now, that I wouldn't recognize the religion if I came back

  

  JEHOVAH`S WITNESSES...
  

  
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  steve2

  Before I left in the 1980s, one of the more empathic elders who had ever bothered to contact me reassured me - even then - that the organization was changing and that the worst leftovers from Rutherford were being replaced. He claimed the organization was "kinder" to "troubled" brothers and sisters like me.

  Months later I was disfellowshipped and family and friends cut me dead - and, with an exception or 2, still have.

  The claim that the organization has changed is an old and tiresome line that reflects wishful, if not gullible, thinking.

  I suspect your parents never quite left the organization so when they realized life can be tough they slipped back to its fairy story promises.

  Religions work not because they are true or make sense but because they offer consolation over human suffering and the search for meaning.
  
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  David_Jay

  Forgive me if this sounds harsh--and it will because it is--but going back, regardless of what changes in that religion, is what Albert Einstein meant when he said that the definition of insanity was to do the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

  Leaving a cult leaves you with an ache that is never satisfied by joining a mainstream religion or merely stating you are now atheist or agnostic. The reason you feel something is missing when you leave is because being in a cult takes something out of you that isn't able to be replaced. It's like when a shark takes a bite of you--that hole it leaves has nothing that fits it. When you leave, whether on your own or not, you will be left with a constantly noticeable space. You can't get back what the shark bit off either. It's been chewed up and digested.

  What is this thing? It's called an emotional scar. The "love" and "friendships" and "always something to do and someone to do it with" has no equal out in the world. That's because those are the earmarks of a cult. It's not real love or real friendship because you only get this "love" if you officially join. You quit, and they immediately "turn off" the "love" like flipping a light switch.

  That is neither love or friendship. You can't turn those things on or off like that, not the real ones. Sometimes when ex-cult members leave one cult they end up joining another like a stupid ass. Why? Only a cult fills in a hole that was left you by another cult. Reality doesn't give you instant friends, lovers, and a life by joining some club, synagogue or church. You got to work for all those things like the rest of us do. You must earn friends, and real love know no denominational lines.

  Being in a cult is like swimming with sharks. You cannot swim alongside them peacefully for too long. They will take a bite out of you. And going back will not mean they will regurgitate what they chomped out before either. They will just take another bite out of you, leaving another scar.

  All of us who leave the Witnesses will have this hole that will ache and hurt and can't be filled by anything. It's an emotional scar. It takes something out of you forever, always gone. Cults are sharks that eat people, swallowing up their lives.

  And people who freely choose to swim with maneating sharks are stupid.
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  ScenicViewer

  ... it's more difficult for people in their 30's and older to make new friends. People by that age already have made their social circles. It's the one problem that is difficult to solve for those who leave the cult.

  It is by design.

  Watchtower keeps JWs isolated so that the only social life they have is with other JWs. The Organization plays on a very powerful human need, the need for socializing.

  If JWs were allowed to make friends outside of the Watchtower organization leaving would be easy, but Watchtower uses isolation as a tool to keep people trapped inside.

  (To me, this is a mark of a very high control cult religion.)

  I think there are many JWs who stay in for social reasons only, although they might not want to say it out loud, and even though the friendships are very artificial. In a way I don't blame them. Some people can cope better living life without strong social connections, while others need it desperately.

  But even if many stay in for social reasons, it still creates a weakened organization because their hearts are no longer in it, and usually neither is their money.
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  sparrowdown

  If want to find out how controlling and authoritarian they are watch the broadcasts and convention videos for 2016/17.

  I think you will notice that faders, drifters, weak ones and materialistic ones are still pieces of shit and to be avoided. DFed are still dead to them and apostates are still lying mentally diseased shit stirrers who they have a right to hate. Oh, and gay people are disgusting!
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  LostGeneration

  If they are preaching at your kids, how about a little coaching for them.

  Have them simply ask "Can I still celebrate my birthday if I become a Jehovah's Witness?" and let things go from there. The reply will either be somewhat embarrassed, if they realize how cruel it is to take away a child's birthday, or on the other hand, it will be so over the top ridiculous, your children will see what a silly cult these people belong to. Either way, you and the kids win.
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  DepthsResounding

  They are always really nice and understanding with new people or weak/inactive ones. My inactive sibling visits a meeting here & there with cleavage and short skirts and people run up to her and hug her. But the more involved you get, the more they try to exert control over your life. It's often through social guilt/shame tactics and other passive-aggressive means.

  When I was "weaker" spiritually, I never understood the complaints people had of witnesses being controlling, judgmental, cult-like, etc. When you are "weak", then you get "love bombed" so as to draw you in until you are involved enough (i.e. granted "privileges", centering your social life around it) that there is a lot to lose, and then they can exert pressure to make you conform over every little petty thing.

  I unfortunately see how I have done that... telling studies to come to the meeting in any clothes, not to worry about it...then knowing deep down the push for them to conform that will come should they make more "progress".
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  LongHairGal

  DAVID JAY:

  Your post is excellent. The analogy of swimming with sharks is excellent and the sharks don't look like sharks but are wolves in sheep clothing.

  I remember reeling from rude awakenings and bad experiences in the JW religion. You never expected it but your happy state of mind would turn on a dime with these people. I think when some people leave the JWs they tend to forget these bad experiences and cling to feel-good emotions they may have felt during the very few good times. These so-called "good times" for me in the JWs were fleeting to non-existent. I'm definitely better off out and I'd never again get close enough for anybody there to speak out of turn or do a number on my brain again.

  SCENIC VIEWER:

  They want to keep their members isolated so they have no friends outside. I believe this is also why they are against holidays. The paganism thing is to hide their real motive: they are afraid if JWs spend time around people who really care about them and who aren't judging them, they may see the contrast and leave the religion. Good guess because that's what I figured out.
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  ScenicViewer

  I believe this is also why they are against holidays. The paganism thing is to hide their real motive...

  I agree wholeheartedly with your remarks. JWs accept many pagan connected practices - wedding rings, sending flowers to a funeral, playing with pinjatas at a party, etc. Holidays get the pagan label, but as you say the real reason for condemning them is to isolate JWs from other people, even their own families.

  If you think about it, when do families get together the most? At holiday and birthday times, yet JWs are forbidden to participate in such celebrations, therefore requiring them to separate from family members that are not JWs.

  This is a hideous religion. Isolation and control is it's objective. If that isn't a cult I don't know what is.
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  wheelwithinwheel

  Last year's convention: Pioneer and you will get to pet lions, eat fruit on the beach and welcome departed loved ones to have fruit and pet lions.

  This year's convention: Pioneer or you will be turned into a pillar of salt.

  Sound any different?