... the group sold the space because of an aging and diminishing congregation due to people moving away.
Riiigghht! I bet it had nothing to do with JWs leaving the Watchtower in droves!
Wild_Thing
JoinedPosts by Wild_Thing
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Wild_Thing
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Hello All
by Jeremiah1958 inhi to everyone, my name is jerry, i am 56 and i live in tralee, kerry ireland.
i will not bore you with the all too familiar details, suffice it to say i was a prime candidate for indoctrination/ brainwashing.
the surprising aspect is that my wife, a staunch catholic started a study soon after i did.
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Wild_Thing
Nice to meet you! Shunning is so cruel, especially when it is your family. Give it time. You never know which of your family members will wake up. When I left, I was the only one out. Now there are four of us! :)
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In the News: How being a teen mum, growing up as Jehovahs Witness and my kids prepped me for Masterchef fame
by Wild_Thing infrom australia: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/how-being-a-teen-mum-growing-up-as-jehovahs-witness-and-my-kids-prepped-me-for-masterchef-fame/story-fni0cvc9-1226974154930.
renae smith with her two daughters kyah and paris who had to agree before renae went onto masterchef.
picture: richard dobson.
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Wild_Thing
I always heard the Califonia JWs were the wild and crazy ones!
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Where to go from here...
by Patrickday ini'm new around here, but i've been browsing the site the last few days in hopes of finding the answer to the situation i've been going through, so hopefully you can help me.
i met this girl in highschool, but never really spoke with her until about a year after i graduated.
she's three years younger (however it's legal where i'm from, don't fret) and still a teenager.
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Wild_Thing
RUN .....
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Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses Wisconsin and Midwest
by Watchtower-Free inso who's from wisconsin and the midwest usa.
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Wild_Thing
Missouri here!
If you plan a Mid-West meet up, I will come to Wisconsin dressed up in a costume to respresent my state. You all can give me homemade crap with JWN on them as gifts!
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ROFL: Video of Drama. Looks SO ghetto
by baltar447 inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvyaa08taou.
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Wild_Thing
Seriously? Do they not know how to use a green screen? Elementary students know how to use a green screen! The backdrop was horrible! Part backdrop and part blue wall? It looked like they were just standing in front of a giant painting! <smh>
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In the News: How being a teen mum, growing up as Jehovahs Witness and my kids prepped me for Masterchef fame
by Wild_Thing infrom australia: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/how-being-a-teen-mum-growing-up-as-jehovahs-witness-and-my-kids-prepped-me-for-masterchef-fame/story-fni0cvc9-1226974154930.
renae smith with her two daughters kyah and paris who had to agree before renae went onto masterchef.
picture: richard dobson.
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Wild_Thing
I must say it is unique that she walked away from the JWs, made a successful exit, and is not bitter. Quite different. It makes me question how much of a JW she really was, but then again, that may be MY bitterness talking! I wish I wasn't bitter.
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Why did Ray Franz leave the Organization? Your Opinion Matters!
by SanLuisObispoTruthSeeker inwhat would make a man throw away all his earthly riches to expose the cult?
what did ray franz have to gain by leaving in total poverty?
if ray franz had stayed in place, he could have lived like a god, why did he leave?
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Wild_Thing
Conscience ruled over "worldly desire", to use a JW term. Have you read "Crisis of Conscience" yet? If not you really should.
Another thing I wonder about him leaving is ... did he know how tough it was really going to be leaving? I think back then it would have been hard to foresee. No one so prominent had ever spoken against the society since the original schisms when Rutherford took over. I wonder if he knew what he was in for.
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In the News: How being a teen mum, growing up as Jehovahs Witness and my kids prepped me for Masterchef fame
by Wild_Thing infrom australia: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/how-being-a-teen-mum-growing-up-as-jehovahs-witness-and-my-kids-prepped-me-for-masterchef-fame/story-fni0cvc9-1226974154930.
renae smith with her two daughters kyah and paris who had to agree before renae went onto masterchef.
picture: richard dobson.
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Wild_Thing
... it was quite happy and lovely.
What???? The JWs Aussies must have it a heck of a lot better than us JW Americans! Ha! I doubt she was even baptized. It doesn't sound like it. No mention of being disfellowshipped.
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In the News: How being a teen mum, growing up as Jehovahs Witness and my kids prepped me for Masterchef fame
by Wild_Thing infrom australia: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/how-being-a-teen-mum-growing-up-as-jehovahs-witness-and-my-kids-prepped-me-for-masterchef-fame/story-fni0cvc9-1226974154930.
renae smith with her two daughters kyah and paris who had to agree before renae went onto masterchef.
picture: richard dobson.
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Wild_Thing
Renae Smith with her two daughters Kyah and Paris who had to agree before Renae went onto Masterchef. Picture: Richard Dobson
- Renae Smith was pregnant at 18, divorced at 22
- ‘Doorknocked every week with her family’
- Persuaded to marry by her church
- Moved on to unhappy new relationship
- Wants to open a kitchen to teach young people
AFTER emerging from a strictly religious childhood, Renae Smith has had a startling and at times harrowing personal journey.
But the single mum from Masterchef is determined to show her daughters — Kyah, 12, and Paris, 10, that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
Smith, 31, has opened up about her childhood as a Jehovah’s Witness, revealing she and other family members “did doorknocking every single week”.
People think ‘oh it’s a cult’ but for me it was just a way of life and although we had a really strict upbringing, it was quite happy and lovely“It’s a not a bad upbringing, a lot of people think ‘oh it’s a cult’ but for me it was just a way of life and although we had a really strict upbringing, it was quite happy and lovely,” she said.
However, Smith was pregnant and married by 18 — and divorced by 22, with two young daughters.
Renae Smith has had a long journey to the Masterchef kitchen.
She said the religion’s rules about romance were strict: “you can’t hold hands or be alone with a person before you’re married”. But she fell pregnant after dating a fellow church member for only four months.
“Obviously that got me in a lot of trouble, and they do recommend — although you don’t have to — that the best way to deal with that is to be married, because you’ve made a mistake and you need to be willing to prove to God that you accept that. I was 18,” she said.
Smith said her marriage was a quiet and straightforward one, but described their situation “as more like flatmates”.
The couple went on to have their second daughter when Smith was 21. But Smith broke up with her husband a year later, after deciding to leave the church.
She eventually moved on to a different man, which led to one of the toughest periods of her life.
The Newtown-based Mum became openly emotional when discussing the behaviour of an unnamed male partner, which she says turned into a nightmare.
“I found myself in a relationship with someone who would tell me what to wear, if I went to the city I had to bring my parking tickets back to show where I was,” she said. “But I didn’t see it, I thought ‘he loves me so much’ rather than having a realisation of ‘that’s not normal’.”
After gaining the blessings of her two daughters Kyah and Paris to participate in Masterchef Renae’s dream is to start a kitchen and school in Redfern to teach young people how to cook. Picture: Richard Dobson
Smith alleged she was eventually physically attacked by the man. “I was, I definitely was, it got quite bad,” she said.
“It’s something I guess hasn’t come out [publicly],” she said. “It’s something I’ll talk about a little bit, but not too much, because of my kids obviously.”
Smith said she left the relationship but it irrevocably changed her and how she approaches life. “I made a commitment then that I wouldn’t be with anybody and learn who I was, what I liked ... what I wanted to wear,” she said.
Her goal of appearing on Masterchef — to achieve her dream of opening a cooking school for disadvantaged kids — came only after Smith’s daughters agreed to the idea.
“I couldn’t go on the show unless it was a decision I made with the kids,” she said. “For me, it came down to having that open conversation with them”.
Smith, who runs her own brand management company, hopes to open a kitchen and school in Redfern, so that she can teach young people how to cook — and see the benefits flow into their family lives.
Originally published as Renae Smith’s rocky road to fame
People think ‘oh it’s a cult’ but for me it was just a way of life and although we had a really strict upbringing, it was quite happy and lovely
