OTWO is right. I too thought my wife was a diehard JW. Turned out she was a scared girl who resented most of what the WTS had done to her. As soon as she realized she could open up without and fear of being criticized she started her exit.
drew sagan
JoinedPosts by drew sagan
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22
I would like to know if you have succeeded in helping your friends or family SLOW DOWN in their zeal as a JW
by BonaFide ini have read thousands of posts on this forum, and i am finding with all your experiences that however hard we try, it's difficult to actually get a family member or friend to disassociate themselves.
after all, some of us are still "active jw's", right?.
but, i have been noticing that some seem to have accomplished enough with questions and comments that at least their family members or friends are less active as jw's.
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I would like to know if you have succeeded in helping your friends or family SLOW DOWN in their zeal as a JW
by BonaFide ini have read thousands of posts on this forum, and i am finding with all your experiences that however hard we try, it's difficult to actually get a family member or friend to disassociate themselves.
after all, some of us are still "active jw's", right?.
but, i have been noticing that some seem to have accomplished enough with questions and comments that at least their family members or friends are less active as jw's.
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drew sagan
Yes. My wife left the Watchtower after about one year of slow progress.
Some suggestions:
- Detach your emtions. This is not a game of "proving" that you are right and they (WTS) are wrong. This is about letting people think for themselves.
- Find ways to agree about the Watchtowers problems, before you ever voice one concern over doctrine. If they do not believe you are challenging the foundations of the group, they may just join in. My wife did all the time. Here is what we talked about:
- Meetings are out of touch with the membership.
- Nothing for kids, services to rigid
- Local needs usually consisted of an Elder trying to shame the congregation
- Ministry ineffective, most people just going through the motions
- I many times talked about programs and activities found at other churches. I never said that these things were better, but did highlight the differences. This allowed me to make the point that focusing to much on the end of the world distracted the WTS from reaching out to people in other ways. We would talk many hours about how these sorts of things could actually improve the kingdom hall.
- I never focused on doctrine, but did stress that the past was important. I never stressed that the past was important because it proved the WTS wrong, instead I stressed the past was important because of the supposed divine selection of the Watchtower in the past.
- Give the person space. It's all about letting that person come to their own conclusions about the WTS. If you try to force things on them you are asking for disaster.
- If at all possible, take as much time as you can. The slower the better. Many people who leave the WTS want out as soon as possible and make many mistakes in the process. They can't stand being "in" any longer and get sloppy (arguments, fights, insults, sarcasm).
- Recognize that you may have not fully recovered from leaving. You are no expert. You are just some guy that gotten out of a cult. Be open and kind, but don't try and "fix" everything with your new facts and logic.
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The cult freaks want to stop by to "encourage" me
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drew sagan
Yeah. His comment out-of-the-blue about selling porn subscriptions made my troll radar beep.
For me it was more like 'loser' radar...
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"The Wonders of Creation Reveal God's Glory" DVD -- watch on YouTube!
by inkling inok, so out of boredom and curiosity, i have unleashed the new.
dvd "the wonders of creation reveal god's glory" on the.
unsuspecting public!.
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drew sagan
I enjoy how many of the settings are cgi creations.
I'm going to go out on a limb and take a guess that not all of the work done on this video was by watchtower artists. They probably purchased a lot of stock footage from production companies.
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The cult freaks want to stop by to "encourage" me
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drew sagan
Hmmmm,
Your an older guy that has moved back in with Mom and Dad. To get by you resell porn subscriptions on the internet.
I hope they encourage the hell out of you .
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Revelation Climax, page 52, Kindly Respond
by compound complex indear readers of revelation,.
i have been reminded that a simple question is more effective than an elaborate presentation.
i have become very careful about what i say and how much i say to most people.
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drew sagan
You should take a lookat the art in Rutherford's Rainbow series as well as the cartoons in the Golden Age. They aren't even as good as the work of a high school art student.
I think the style of some of those cartoons fit with the era. Not great, but not exactly awful. Just kind of junkie. The climax book stuff is just sloppy beyond all belief. There is one pencil drawing I can think of that is especially terrible. Very bad shading. Looks like it was done by a art student reject after he finished working on a pencil sketch of his favorite musician.
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Apostacloset: BIG NO NO!
by White Dove ini made a mistake when talking to a df'd person i used to know in my old congregation.
she was super pioneer at the time, and i just found her on fb and found out she's df'd.
i used the word "apostacloset" when explaining that i'll come out of it when the time's right.
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drew sagan
Many df'd people carry the belief that the organizaiton is still the truth, and that they are simply not good enough to live up to those standards. Nothing surprising considering the amount of conditioning that goes inside of the Watchtower world.
I know that some ex-jws find it shocking that the experience of disfellowshipping doesn't wake people up about the "truth" of the organization, but that' just how it goes. Not everybody has an enlightening experience after they leave (or get kicked out of) the Kingdom Hall.
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Things you wouldn't admit to when you were a JW
by startingover inremember when the speaker from another congregation didn't show up?
i can still feel the good feeling it gave me at the thought of being able to go home early.
and all through the wt, every time the door opened i remember subtlely sneaking a peak to see if it was the speaker, and when it was just a latecomer, it kept my hopes up that he wouldn't show.
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drew sagan
I guess we were more open that you startingover. I know that me, my wife, and her family would usually show a little bit of happiness (albeit sarcastic so as not to be to forthcoming about our joy).
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Revelation Climax, page 52, Kindly Respond
by compound complex indear readers of revelation,.
i have been reminded that a simple question is more effective than an elaborate presentation.
i have become very careful about what i say and how much i say to most people.
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drew sagan
You did not need to limit it to that watchtower publication, it is all of them!!!
I should clarify. While all watchtower books have bad art in them to one degree or another, the revelation climax book is different in the amount of bad art that seems to have been rushed into production.
From a technical standpoint, many of the drawings are very sloppy. Some are just pencil drawings that appear to have been drawn by amateurs. Many of the newer drawings and paintings they use are very refined, devoid of style, but refiend none the less. The revelation climax is the worst example of watchtower art I have ever seen. It's as if the art department couldn't handle the work being given to them, and ended up just pushing to press many poorly drawn images they wouldn't have used otherwise. Time was possibly a factor, but I don't really know.
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TMZ has a photo of Paris and her brother at the kingdom hall Tues night!!!
by Pandoras cat11 ini know, i know, more michael jackson news.
this for some reason has got me ticked off.
if you go to the tmz website you will see a photo of paris and her brother holding the "sing praises to jehovah" songbook.
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drew sagan
The JW experience will be nothing but casual for these kids. It's provides an intersting story, but that's about it.
In fact, they will have a JW experience that is particularly unique and unpredictable. Any of the standards that are applied to these kids from our personal experiences is strained. None of us were ever the children of a world renound pop star worth over a billion dollars.
There really is no way of knowing how much the JWs will really influence these kids. Speculation is pointless. Worrying about them is even more pointless...