Posts by OnTheWayOut

25

WT shooting themselves in the foot, or rather the mouth, finally

by oppostate in

"stop the presses!".

awesome blog article at bereans.net !.

http://beroeans.net/2017/08/07/stop-the-presses/.

OnTheWayOut

Just hold your horses here. Let me sum up the "Other Sheep" thing from the Governing Body point-of-view-

"We invented the other sheep when we needed a doctrine to explain having more than 144,000 members. We used gobbledee-goop as our explanation and threw in some scriptures. Now, it has been established for so long that we can stop even acting like we invented them, but that it comes from Jehovah. If we happen to tweak a few old doctrines here and there to set ourselves up for radical changes, the sheep won't understand the first gobbledee-goop nor the new gobbledee-goop, so we're still good."

"Oh, but if some legal or money issue forced us to abandon the "other sheep" label, then the whole conversation is moot."

11

My head hurts

by Akid48 in

so i still have to go to meeting etc and my head hurts its just im trying to wake up and the teachings are getting shoved back in my head or with field service im giving people papers i want to rip it in my hands.. now its like i need a smoking break i have to just walk out the kingdom hall and get my mind back together.. just something thats new for me.

OnTheWayOut

There are no easy answers for under-aged ones. Do your best to run through other stuff in your mind during JW stuff. Don't try real hard at "recruiting." Just go through the motions.

Sorry, don't have a real good answer.

34

My mums dying she refuses blood transfusion...the horror.

by Witness 007 in

mum has a mild form of lukeimia if she took blood like normal people she could live to be 100. but no, anointed sisters dont compromise jehovah wont allow it.

so here i am moving to sydney for one month going to hospital everyday putting my life on hold to watch my mother die slowly.

watching her gasp for air, struggle to breath.

OnTheWayOut

My deepest sympathies. Your outlook really shows you cared.

34

Really struggling to go on

by Isambard Crater in

jw
friends

so, so much has happened in my life over the years and continues to happen, but i won't go into the details as it would take a long time.. i don't really know why, but i returned to "the truth" 15 years ago.

in 2012 when the tv broadcasting station launched, i started to develop doubts.

the australian royal commission and other scandals made me angrier, and i now don't believe most of the core teachings.. the only reason i show up at 5 or 6 meetings each month is to keep in contact with my parents and a few other family members.. but it's killing me, literally.

OnTheWayOut

It can be a balancing act to become PIMO. If you feel like jumping in front of that train, then you may need to be more OUT than IN. If you are miserable and suffering through meetings to maintain your family, then there are a couple things you need to think about-
1. Is it worth it?
2. Will you actually lose them if you were to skip the meetings entirely?

The point is that you will be happier regardless of consequences if you just stop attending meetings. And as a bonus, you just might retain some family.

I can't do this for another 20 years!

You already know you need to stop being physically "in."

51

What kind of toppings do you like on a Pizza?

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

i want something different on my next pizza!.

OnTheWayOut

I am part of a crew that makes homemade pizzas about once a month or so. We make them with traditional sausage, pepperoni, onions, olives, basil, etc. But we often make one with leftover rotisserie chicken using bbq sause instead of tomato sauce. That one typically gets red onions and green peppers and lighter cheese.

We also make a Mexican pizza with taco-seasoned ground beef, cilantro, diced tomatoes with mild green chilis, green onions, a light amount of jalapenos, cheddar or other Mexican cheese, and have sour cream available when eating it.

10

CounselIling for Ex Cult Members

by Disassociated Lady 2 in

i wanted to ask those of you who were born into the jws and eventually left as an adult, whether any of you have had any counselling?

i know from experience that being programmed by a cult since birth does not give us the social skills and knowledge to function and interact with people in the outside world as we were taught to avoid it.

those of you that have had counselling, do you feel that it has helped you?

OnTheWayOut

Great advice from OneEyedJoe.

I went to extensive counseling, but I did not find a "cult expert." To make a long story short, I had unresolved issues concerning a suicide attempt that I thought didn't need addressing because "Jehovah" rescued me and gave me purpose in life and YADDA YADDA. So I got depressed when, more than 20 years later, that all turned out to be not true. My counselor aided me through my issues and we simultaneously (but mostly after dealing with the 1st issues) dealt with the JW's.

My point is, if a person leaves the JW's, they may have issues- their lifelong beliefs were a lie, they lost family and friends, they feel they wasted their life, etc. A good counselor will help you face your issues. If you are asking about counseling, you probably have issues. If you are distressed by your issues, get to a counselor. If you are not sure about the whole thing, read what OneEyedJoe suggested first.

81

Gerrit Losch Claims JW's Attending College Are Spiritually Weak

by pale.emperor in

https://www.facebook.com/jw.0027/videos/799049613609936/.

the video was posted directly to a pro-jw facebook page.

i cant believe what i'm hearing... actually, nothing surprises be about this cult anymore.. didn't they say to the judge in the arc that they dont discourage college?.

OnTheWayOut

Didn't they say to the judge in the ARC that they dont discourage college?

Yeah, but that was said to people they deem "not worthy" of the real truth of the matter.

Plus, these guys always cover both sides of a subject just in case they feel a need to change course. Like good economics means people are not seeking God and are distracted by Satan so the end is near, while bad economics means it is getting close to a time of panic among the nations and the end is near. We can go on and on how all opposites mean the same thing or how things are good while they are also bad.

27

Another example of the smothering and high control nature of JW husbands

by stuckinarut2 in

i have noticed another popular pattern of behaviour amongst witnesses in recent years.. many, and i mean lots of ones with instagram accounts have closed the wife's account, and have started a "couple's" account instead.

also, for families.

the children's accounts have been closed, and the husband starts a "family account".. it is mainly on the husband's device, and seemingly under his control.

OnTheWayOut

Ditto to Flipper's comments about control.

I can see the cult wanting control on social media, so none of this surprises me. They already have to steer everyone to the internet for jwdotorg so they have to watch out for the double-edged sword biting them in the ass. (Really, I think we all know enough to skip elaboration on that.)

That said, I do have a facebook account and I have to guard against JW's coming in. I am just faded, so I want to be free to be myself without worrying about being reported. I have to watch the back door- friends of friends. But I don't watch it religiously, I just will deny being that person if it were to ever come up. But I don't tweet or instagram or snapchat. If one of those becomes the dominant social media, I probably will take it up, but with the same cautions.

43

New Announcement At The 2017 - DF'd People To Sit At The Back Of The Hall

by pale.emperor in

has anyone else heard this?

a poster on another thread said it's a new rule brought in at this years convention.. last year they were told to shun even non df people and now this?

a religion cant force someone where to plonk their ass surely?.

OnTheWayOut

pale.emperor, your link leads to "(according a video at the 2017 RC)."

I am sure it was put in there for Nazi elders to enforce, but it is not official policy if some video suggests or even says it directly that it is so.

As pointed out, if DF'ed ones want congregation approval, they will cooperate and sit in the back. If you go to a Kingdom Hall and don't want reinstatement, there is no "rule" about this.

I recall someone DF'ed saying "I'm not supposed to talk to you (JW's)." But that isn't true either. THEY are not supposed to talk to the DF'ed one. S/he can talk to whomever they please if they are not kissing asses seeking reinstatement.

51

What are your beliefs now, religious/non religious?

by Jules Saturn in

what are your convictions now that you are no longer one of jehovah's witnesses?

are you a born again christian?

have you joined another denomination of christianity?

OnTheWayOut

"If none of this is true, then there is no truth."

That is not so.....kind of, sort of. There is an absolute truth. There is a way that life, the universe, and everything came about. We just don't know it. Even there, I would not say "the truth is unknowable." It just is not currently "known."

But as we develop a further understanding through science of what is absolute, we start to bog down on it with arguments of faith. I will state a simple truth now, and it will be argued to death- human life evolved from less complex life forms on earth.

Immediately, someone says I cannot know that. Yes, we can know that. So they then attack the exact details of that, which are theories that we may never know the specifics of.

And I don't mention this so we can get into an argument on evolution. I mention it to say that if we cannot even agree on known scientific truths from evidence found on earth, how are we going to get to the truth of how the stars and the universe formed? It's only going to happen slowly for the individuals ready to cast aside their preconceived notions. It's going to take skeptics who are willing to say that "faith" is not automatically a good thing.

Here was my basic path-
1.If JW's are a lie, then "Christendom" probably has the truth. But I learned how to research and be skeptical so let me continue researching the Bible the same as I researched JW's- not to convince myself that it is a lie, but to prove it or disprove it to myself.
2. Archaeology and inconsistencies from the Bible started showing me that there were problems. And science definitely nailed down the fact that we cannot take Genesis seriously.
3. Switching to the thought that the Bible is "a story" from God to teach us, I had to look at this God fellow and meditate upon his existence. It was like the novel, The Brothers Karamazov. I asked the big questions concerning God and concerning mankind. Do we have free will? Does God exist? Why do humans suffer so terribly? Are there limits to human reason? Are we bound by moral laws? Can we do better with our own morals than those put upon us by religion? What is the path to happiness?

When I took this path, "God" of the Bible was found to be a jealous, bitter, warrior who did not condemn slavery and "He" approved of killing those who opposed him. He allowed the rape of little girls after "His people" just killed their parents as their enemies.

And it didn't change in modern times. The world wars and the disasters showed that either the God of the Bible could stand by while innocent children were killed or hurt (in the case of the Indonesian tsunami- by the tens or even hundreds of thousands) and many parents were left alive to suffer the loss, or else this God did not exist. Just as The Brothers Karamazov pointed out- the price of worship was too great. I couldn't imaging such a monster existed. (Note- that is not a fact or "a truth" but if he did exist, he was not worthy of the worship people say he demands.)

4. Since I did all that research and meditation from the Christian standpoint, I at least owed a bit of a look at belief outside of Christianity. But not so much, as any gods of any belief system still stood by for the tsunami or were not there. I enjoyed Buddhist and Tao thoughts. But I think many of the people within were missing a point. These belief systems focused originally on letting go of everything to achieve inner peace. There was no requirement to believe in a god. One could even reject or say "I don't know" concerning their beliefs in a rebirth cycle. The best thought I got from looking into this was the specific thought that if one was to "see Buddha on the road, kill him." The meaning was that we were not supposed to be "followers" of a man who achieved inner peace (and possibly Nirvana- you are on your own to decide what that means). We were supposed to find our own path to such, and if following the Buddha distracted us, figuratively kill him. SO I KILLED HIM and retained the positive things I found from eastern thought without the religious bullshit.

5. I continued down the path of science. Again, even the known facts are argued against, so I had to find my own path and ignore those following their "Buddha." God is an invention of Man. If anything "higher" exists, it is not existing with higher morals. Sin is an invention of religion to make us feel guilty about stuff so that religion can gladly take our money or our servitude and say that our guilt is forgiven. The god of men's invention is a god of the gaps- an answer to the unknown, getting smaller as we know more.

6. I am a confirmed atheist. But I hate such broad labels. I am only "militant" where it is appropriate. In face-to-face life, if believers are not in my face with their insistence on their beliefs, I am not in their face calling them ignorant or blind. On the internet, when called for, I will take up the flag for the nonexistence of that hateful god who allows the rape and vicious death of children. But hey, most everyone is just seeking inner peace. If you try to kill their Buddha in front of them, their attempts at inner peace are disrupted. So I learned to let that go. Children love the pagan celebrations of Christianity and I am a big kid, so I freely join in sharing gifts during that late December fake holiday and say "Merry Christmas" with the rest of them.