there was a special convention yesterday, a branch visit in ghana with david splane as the guest of honor..
http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/no-expense-spared-governing-body-members-do-fly-business-class
If you trust that jwsurvey did indeed receive their unpublished proof of the above story, then it looks like the GB do fly first class. I've read many here talking about the entourage that GB members travel with as well - I wonder if they all fly first class too. That could really add up...but what do they care, it's not their money.
my heart goes out for all people stuck in all high control groups, either with insight into the falsehood of their beliefs or none.. to remain a member whilst knowing it false however, must be soul destroying.. my question is, would you carry on living the lie if you discovered that we get one life, one go at existing.
it's short, it's fragile and nobody in 100 years will care we even existed..... .......if you came to that realisation would you quit?.
.......if you had children, would you leave in order to set them an example in strength and appreciation of the short time we enjoy?.
I don't think most who've found TTATT plan on staying in indefinitely. People just stay in until they can get out, or in an effort to get loved ones out with them. While we only have one life to live staying in the cult for a time is no different than other sacrifices we make. We work, do chores, etc because we need to pay the bills and these things, while unpleasant, enable us to achieve some goal that ultimately makes it worthwhile (hopefully).
Of course there are some that are beaten down and think that a life outside the cult is unachievable for them. Like an abused spouse their self-worth may be low and they may overestimate the difficulty of moving on. For these folks, I suspect a pep-talk about having one life to live probably won't make much difference. Hopefully any in this situation will eventually find their way here or somewhere similar to find the support they need and see all the examples of people who have made it out and live rewarding, genuine lives in spite of facing the same challenges that they do. That's probably going to be what gives them the push they need to make a change in their life.
interesting debate between lawrence krauss and greg epstein.. watch the debate on al-jazeera.. what do you think?.
eden.
I think both groups do good and we should have people that are confrontational and debate in a manner that holds their opponents accountable for using fallacy and cheats to defend their case (ala dawkins/harris/hitchens). Folks like that, that didn't back down, played a huge role in planting doubts in me early on because while I still held on to the JW lies for some time, I knew that many of the terrible things they said about god really had no defense that was intellectually honest. Some people are ready to be held accountable for their lack of logic. At the same time, others will be much more likely to be won over by different approaches like establishing atheist groups that demonstrate that atheists are no less moral or purpose in life than theists.
I say let everyone fight against the insanity of religion in their own way and they'll reach different groups of people. One group may turn off a few people to atheism, but they'll reach others that would otherwise been content to stay put were atheists only seeking to "form alliances" with them. One group may turn people off, and the other will reassure them. One group may fail to reach some due to their pulling punches, the other group will find them. There's a time and a place for both points of view and both strategies.
very long story.
i've been away from this site for a while.. basically, i tried to leave.
handed in my disassociation letter, it kicked up a storm and 2 weeks later i was disfellowshipped.
Just terrible, I'm so sorry how this has gone for you. Being betrayed by a spouse for leaving the cult is a tremendously difficult thing. No one deserves to be treated like that. And having your daughter in the middle of it - I can't imagine how difficult that makes it.
Make sure you record everything - all the times your wife needs you to watch her, all the times that your wife goes back on agreements for when you get to see her, etc. Talk to a lawyer. IMO don't try to go back - show your daughter that you stand strong and have integrity and she'll follow. I wish you the best of luck whatever you do.
having watched many jc youtube videos one question that gets asked is "where else would you go?".
in other words if not jehovah's witnesses then what other religion or organisation would you go to?.
it's one that i have trouble answering, what would you say?.
If you're in a burning building, you first worry about getting out. No one stays in the building because they don't know where else they'll go to find shelter from the elements. When revelation tells us "get out of her, my people" there is no equivocation and no allowance for delay on the basis of planning your next destination. Clearly the only right course is to first get out, then start worrying about where to go next.
she turned one today, and 36 earlier this week.
we planned a big party, big for two people that have never thrown a party before.
we rented a church fellowship hall because 1. it was nice and big and affordable and 2. it was kind of awesome to throw a party in a place we would have never ventured in our previous life.
Congrats! Though it's not a party until the beheadings start. You guys will get the hang of it eventually.
if you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing about jws would you do it?
and what would you choose to say to yourself?
do you think you could have convinced yourself not to get baptised if you chose the right thing to say?
I'm pretty sure the misquotes and associated lies in the creation book would've done the trick for me. I always valued truth over everything else, I was enamored with the idea that I had the absolute truth and I put that ahead of everything else.
The timing might matter somewhat - if I could talk to a 17/18 year old me, I have no doubt I'd be able to wake myself up. I was really close to leaving, but hadn't gotten past the apostaphobia enough to do the research to prove to myself that it's a cult. If I had just one little push, I would've been out for good then. What i wouldn't give to do that so I could've started building a normal life in college instead of in my 30s, way behind the curve.
here is an idea i tested.
works at both assemblies and conventions.
i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.
Assuming you don't want anyone to actually connect, is there a way that you could create the hotspot as an open network but still prevent connections? I'm just thinking about it because a lot of people have their phones set (I think in many cases, it's the default setting) to alert them when an open connection is available. So you might get more people checking it if you broadcast something that doesn't require a password.
i saw this on my feed this morning and i had to share:.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/billboard-seeking-to-reunite-broken-scientology-families-coming-to/2285112.
the billboard says: to my loved one in scientology...call me.
When I was a Witness I would have thought this was terrible, but never associated it with shunning. After all, WTS was the "true" religion, and its shunning was right to do.
Same here, at least when I was at my peak cultiness. Scientologists are horrible! They shun family members just so they can hide from the truth that they're in a dangerous cult! Nothing like JWs, we lovingly encourage people to return to Jehovah by demonstrating our loyalty to him above all else.
Looking back, it's disturbing how deluded I was.
i had a thought this morning and i am putting it out for discussion.. when a christian is a nutjob we call them fundamentalist but a nutjob muslim is "radical".. doesn't one detach the person from the religion while one puts them square at the root?
shouldn't we call radical muslim terrorists "fundamentalist"?
.
I think the difference is you can be fundamentalist without being radicalized. You can believe your holy book is the infallible word of god and is to be taken literally (fundamentalist) without going out and killing people (radical) because of it. That's my take on it, anyway.
Though, in the case of Islam it becomes much more difficult to be a fundamentalist without being radical just due to the very nature of the religion so the two become somewhat more interchangeable.
