We're survivors from our perspective, but ultimately we were victimized by the cult and that's what we survived. Since the message is one given publicly it's probably more from the victim standpoint to highlight what they do to people more than how we've moved on hopefully to better things. I think that's why it's named so, but I get where you're coming from as one such survivor.
dubstepped
JoinedPosts by dubstepped
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7
Watchtower Victims Memorial Day
by dubstepped inanybody here doing anything for it?
i just learned of it's existence and its a cool idea.
apparently it's today.
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Direction to elders on handling rape
by purrpurr infrom the shepard the flock book.
"discernment is needed in considering claims.
of rape, taking into consideration such factors as the.
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dubstepped
I do know of a sister that claimed rape and wasn't raped. She was young and got pregnant, then cried rape. The elders told basically all of the family heads what was up so that nobody was stumbled or wondered what was up when she started showing. I was a ministerial servant then, I think.
Anyway, turns out she had been dating a Mexican guy on the down low, and her claims of being raped by a Mexican man ended up with her married to the guy down the line, trying to help him get legal, working with my mom cleaning houses, my sister baby sat for her, etc. She and her husband seem to have a good marriage. I mention the fact that he's a Mexican because in the area I lived then there was a paranoia about these Mexicans that didn't speak English and were kind of mysterious to the good ol boys. So there was a bit of a built in narrative already.
You can see why someone might claim rape in such a situation. So much is at stake, and being pregnant she probably just went that route not knowing where the relationship was going but knowing that she'd lose all relationships if she was disfellowshipped while pregnant. She did end up disfellowshipped. I do believe it was for the duration of her pregnancy and beyond. It was quite the scandal.
Ultimately those men shouldn't be handling cases of criminal activity like rape anyway, but you can't just take claims of rape at face value, which is why there are professionals trained in that way (to actually help legit victims, which elders don't do anyway, and to investigate whether or not there's enough to bring charges on such a matter). Unfortunately such claims are made falsely at times and innocent people's lives are ruined. It's way beyond the pay grade of an elder.
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Watchtower Victims Memorial Day
by dubstepped inanybody here doing anything for it?
i just learned of it's existence and its a cool idea.
apparently it's today.
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dubstepped
Thanks for the link stuckinarut2! I can't believe I missed your thread. I always just look at the latest and I even went back and looked. I guess obsession isn't always fail proof, lol. Glad to see that at least someone else noticed it. I've seen very little action regarding it and I think it could be a really cool thing if we could ever get enough people to participate.
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Watchtower Victims Memorial Day
by dubstepped inanybody here doing anything for it?
i just learned of it's existence and its a cool idea.
apparently it's today.
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dubstepped
I like the idea. I gave thought that it would be cool if all of the shunned went back to the KH on a specific Sunday just to sit there for the meeting (if they could stomach it, not sure I could) just as a statement of "we're still here".
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Watchtower Victims Memorial Day
by dubstepped inanybody here doing anything for it?
i just learned of it's existence and its a cool idea.
apparently it's today.
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dubstepped
Anybody here doing anything for it? I just learned of it's existence and its a cool idea. Apparently it's today.
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Finding new friends or a new congregation in Germany
by Gideon90 inhello dear jw community,.
i'm looking for new friends or a new congregation in the area of germany/berlin.
i grew up in the truth, but some circumstances have made me not taking the faith seriously.
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dubstepped
Answers are indeed what you need. Welcome!
The spirit that you saw is just the tip of the iceberg of issues. Research the Australian Royal Commission and the issues with child sexual abuse. Go to a site like JWfacts.com and start examining the doctrine through the publications. It's easy to overlook massive problems that lie underneath. And I do mean "lie" because it's not "the truth".
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Water on Mars (Possibly life)
by pleaseresearch inthis has been an interesting story in the news recently.. just thinking, if in a few years time they drill down and discover water on mars and also some form of life.
does that for you destroy the bible in anyway?.
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dubstepped
I'm not sure why that would destroy the Bible in any way. There are a ton of other reasons that actually pertain to it to destroy it from my point of view. Space life would seem to neither prove nor disprove it.
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You are NOT alone !
by stuckinarut2 inthis post is mainly for our new forum visitors and members.
perhaps even those who are just lurking or visiting here but have not yet signed up.
maybe you are in the initial stages of researching and finding out the earthshattering and life changing information about the religion that you once held dear and called “the truth”.. it can be a very stressful period of time as you realise that your whole foundation has changed and that the people in your life that you call friends or family may not take kindly to the things you have discovered.
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dubstepped
Well said! The religion wants us to leave and feel alone but we don't have to. This was the first place I came to when I was leaving, and I've met so many nice people through it.
Life gets so much better when you're free. I have so many more friends, they actually offer support instead of control, and we don't have to agree on every little thing in life.
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Do Circuit Overseers outrank Elders? Why can't they talk to disfellowshipped people?
by garyneal inlast sunday, our family went to the kingdom hall and i realized that this was the week that the circuit overseer was in town.
when we sat down, i noticed he came over and talked to her then he walked away i guess to talk to others.
a few minutes later, he returned to tell her that he could not talk to her because he was informed that she was disfelloshipped.
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dubstepped
The elders don't talk to disfellowshipped people on a friendly level either. Only when it's necessary as part of the person coming back or not being allowed to come back or whatever. They're just as aloof as anyone else. I don't see anything odd here. Shunning is what they do. Why expect anything else? It's what they believe that they're all supposed to do. You play with snakes, you get bit, don't be surprised.
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New Shunned VIDcast #3 - Comparing Ourselves To Others
by dubstepped injust released a new vidcast on the youtubes for "shunned" about comparing ourselves to others.
you have to at least watch the first 30 seconds for my sweet sweet new theme music.. in this vidcast i drop a sweet new theme song, followed by a serious discussion of how we view ourselves and our stories after leaving the cult of jehovah's witnesses.
comparison isn't typically healthy, and i discuss how it goes awry and how we can help give proper weight to our experiences.. subscribe to my podcast here, on itunes, google play, your podcast app of choice, and/or visit my site at http://shunnedpodcast.com for more information.. https://youtu.be/qo0n69vme-o.
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dubstepped
Well, everything changes when you have kids. Mere surviving, not thriving, is the expectation sometimes and if you compared yourself to other parents (and they were honest and not putting on airs) you'd probably find that most of your experiences are normal.
Comparing ourselves is so difficult. I see people on Facebook and I'm like wow, I wish I had their life. Not really. We know the ugly parts of our lives. We end up comparing our lowlights to someone else's highlights. Or our internal game to someone else's external game. We all know from being in a cult that outward appearances can truly fool people.