Posts by humbled

35

The Label Of "Apostate" And It's Effects

by pale.emperor in

in my psychology studies we've been examining the use of "labels" and how they influence peoples behaviour.

i sometimes wonder if the gb or their helpers know exactly what they're doing when it comes to psychological manipulation.. it's been observed that by labeling someone or something it changes your entire perception of that person or thing.

it colours it entirely, quite unfairly in some cases.

humbled

Doc- I had to accept that someone in the highest level of the ivory towers of the watchtower KNOW that they are lying, conniving, and serving up fraudulent “spiritual food”.

The GB makes the centerpiece of the Religion all about being the “Truth” , being meticulous, convincing the r&f that they had “accurate knowledge”.

I sent some research that they looked over and agreed in every aspect. In accordance with their professed standards, this would have required changes. But instead they silence people. Throw it off and tell you you have a problem being”stumbled”.

They had no connection with God. No interest in God. Only crude power and control. It was amazing.

A Corporation

31

Do Witnesses Experience Racial Discrimination To Your Knowledge?

by minimus in

jw
friends

my experience in the kingdom hall was that racial discrimination and profiling was not typically practiced....that i know of.

i was in a diverse city with every type of skin color and nationality imaginable.. i’m wondering if the witnesses have changed due to the current affairs exposed by the media everyday.

are there discrimination issues in jw land??

humbled

Still in-

what did you understand when you left? Did none of the brothers talk about the problems you described until the CO came? Was there friendships between different races at that hall? How do you feel now?

here is a story this reminds me of:

l am a white haired white woman. I rode a bus from Fayetteville to Little Rock, Arkansas to see my sister this winter. A massive young man in sunglasses and a marine-style haircut, was driving us. He was perhaps 12 feet from me when my phone rang. I am a little hard of hearing and to hear the call l put it on speaker. l didn’t think it was so loud but then again lol—l don’t hear that well.

But this l did hear:

”Whoever has their phone on speaker is unbelievably rude. “ it was the bus driver bellowing at me”I don’t know where you learned your manners but that is about the rudest thing anybody can do on s bus. Whoever it is you better get that phone shut off right this minute”

If I had believed he did not know who he was talking to it wouldn’t have stung that much. Of course it was humiliating to be call down in such a demeaniing tone and loud! But the thing that was patently obvious was this young fellow had me in his crosshairs. There was no one else in the front rows of seats.

It was a pretty remarkable dressing down. I believe there’s no one on that bus that missed the lesson. Later at a rest stop a young woman stepping out to complained to me about his rude treatment of her st an earlier stop“ l don’t know why.” She said it really bugged her.

When l arrived in Little rock and waited for my sister to retrieve me, I watched this tall young man who had treated me like a third grader speak kindly and familiary to many of the people in the bus depot-and l realized they were all black.

I studied him sideways and saw that though he had pale honey gold skin he was “black” and, likely, had been treated “black”and seen his dear granny treated with unwarranted rudeness...as he had treated me.

l realized then that the young fellow had given me and the other aggrieved young (white)woman the Rosa Parks treatment.

I told that story to a my sister’s friend, a black woman a little older than myself when we got to her home in Hot Springs and we just shared those stories back and forth for hours. I felt it so briefly and she and her husband Paul were dealing all along the time l was there...but that’s another story.

31

Do Witnesses Experience Racial Discrimination To Your Knowledge?

by minimus in

jw
friends

my experience in the kingdom hall was that racial discrimination and profiling was not typically practiced....that i know of.

i was in a diverse city with every type of skin color and nationality imaginable.. i’m wondering if the witnesses have changed due to the current affairs exposed by the media everyday.

are there discrimination issues in jw land??

humbled

Hear, hear, Londo—Shirley W and Doc. (Edit: l was writing this while you other guys were posting. I went ahead with my post.)

“Do Witnesses Experience _______to Your Knowledge?”

The only way to know if someone experiences a thing is to believe them when they tell it.

Sex abuse in the congregations was not not done in the open. Racial discrimination and profiling would likely be covert as well. So someone who experienced that treatment would have to risk stepping forward now. And being believed.

We are all ex-JDubs here

.....No comments?

There you go.

Obviously, there was no racial discrimination or profiling.

18

JW and communion

by Canadian Sunshine in

a few years ago i attended the kingdom hall during "easter" as my mother in law asked me to come to a service.

i was hesitant at first, being a christian and a believer in jesus, she told me that jw believe in jesus and to come see for myself.

i finally agreed to go.

humbled

4 These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed[a] from among men, beingfirstfruits to God and to the Lamb. Rev 14:4 NKJV

This is one scripture the elders agreed to look up with me before my final interview.

Questioning the FS teaching clearly created a great problem for me. But worse by by far was the bind the anointed faced in their obligation to also follow the Faithful Slave in order to follow the Lamb. But the scriptures show it doesn’t work that way- if you follow man you are not following the Lamb.

The scripture above states one of the identifying features of the 144000 : they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. The reference to being”virgins” is their not following man’s religion.

Any who claim to be anointed are compromised if they are false to the spirit within them that disagrees with policy yet follow it-essentially endorsing men ahead of the Lamb.

It is obvious that the Truth forces the anointed to lie and/or stfu. So this is God’s arrangement?

9

Interview with an Apostate - Wozza

by wozza in

born in the early 50’s in london england to non jw parents and when i was young we moved to adelaide south australia and there my brother was born .

i contracted tb on the ship over and was treated in hospital for months with a antibiotic which is banned for humans here now .

my father would tell me tearfully over the years how horrible it was for me and them .even then ,dad was told by doctors i may have nerve and brain damage from the treatment and an unstable temperament.. .

humbled

Wozza, you had an upstream battle from the beginning. Somehow you made it. And kept a kind heart..a braveheart.

That divination stuff. That stuff has always puzzled me because there are people I’ve known that l believe are sound in their mind and perceptions who tells stories such as yours. I don’t know where these stories fit in my own understanding. I certainly have had unusual and inexplicable events that I don’t honestly know how to fit into a worldview that rejects the possibility of something beyond what I can see. That’s as far as I can go towards describing something beyond my understanding but that l must admit it’s having occurred.

It is an uncomfortable subject. You are gutsy to bring it up. I respect it if you have nothing further to say on it. It is a topic my Welsh/ Irish Grandma introduced among others.

Wellsir, wozza. Thanks for your backstory.

9

Interview with an Apostate - Passwordprotected

by passwordprotected in

father was raised catholic and converted to the jws in the late '60s.

my dad's side of the family are still catholics and are very nice to me.

my mum's side are all jws and they shun me (boo hoo).. were you a born in or a convert?.

humbled

My dad's side of the family are still Catholics and are very nice to me.

Laughing. Your comment reminded me of my poor husband as l faced more and more hoops the WT trained us to jump...he said “ I wish you would just go back to being a Catholic so you could do anything you wanted to.”

I can’t be Catholic eithernow. But I wish to hell I haven’t put my family through the watch Tower stuff.

Thanks for this honest story.

26

Interview with an Apostate: Nic-MightyV8

by MightyV8 in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. male, single, 62 yrs old.

adult adhd.

married in victoria moved back to western australia to start our lives far away from her parents as possible.. two kids, son 37 yrs old, daughter 34. both are married and still jws.

humbled

What are you most proud of achieving since you left?
What we all have built inside of us genuinely helping people with not expecting something in return. e.g. was walking my dog and saw two ladies trying to load a huge sofa into a car that was not going to fit no matter how hard they tried, got in my ute and loaded it on, took it to their home they were so grateful, what a buzz it was to help.

I am glad you wrote this.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the JW pressure-to-preach was these small natural kindnesses so easily became calculated transactions.

No JW could afford the time to be just natural and kind—the WT translated our lives. To do anything such as you did for simple goodnesssake would be recorded and itemized as “ministry”. l mean—l mentioned it during a Watchtower study once: that scripture that said”Do not let your right hand know what the left hand is doing.”

Really fucked up.

It is great to be human again, eh Nic? Great to feel a buzz without a publishers report.

26

THIS IS MY STORY (And I'm Sticking To It)

by snowbird in

i joined this forum on 1may2007 with a promise that i would tell more about myself as time went on.

well, here goes.. i was born and raised in the black belt of alabama in wilcox county.

it is supposedly called the black belt due to the color of the soil, but i have a strong suspicion it is also due to the fact that there is such a heavy concentration of black people in the dozen or more counties that make up the black belt.. my parents were sharecroppers which was simply a form of whitewashed slavery.

humbled

May 11, 2018

Dear Snowbird,

We are back to the future! Thanks for letting me find this time capsule. You wrote it before l had walked out of the JWs.

Thanks for writing this. Lots of questions, comments.

Did your daughter stay JW after college?

I read about tenant farming. One book about a black tenant farmer Nate Shaw. Get ahead in that world? Never meant to be. If you started to prosper..watch out.

About that many children – – you were number 12! O your mama!

I was fixing breakfast with a new sister-in-law . ..comparing family experiences.She was one of 13 . I was one of nine. I remarked “We always would ask my mom ‘how many do l get? ‘ when she made anything: sausage, or eggs...”

Sil- “yeah? We would ask “ Do l get any?”

ha!

And....did you ever write your story ? Has your perception of God/ spiritual things changed since this long time past?

10

An Interview with an Apostate - Truth B Known

by truth_b_known in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. i was born in the mid-1970s in the midwest part of the u.s. my parents were about to enter gilead when i arrived.

my father converted to jw in his late 20s/early 30s.

he was raised a catholic, but became an atheist/agnostic.

humbled

Glad you told your story!

I love that your kids have a life free of cult memories .It seems you pulled a pretty good life change! Thanks for telling this :

At age 19 I was working in the Accounts Department at a Circuit Assembly. During one of the talks there was a change in policy. In the past, accepting non-military alternative service in lieu of conscription into the military was prohibited. Now it was ok. The Elder that was the Accounts Overseer was visibly distressed by this. He spoke about how he was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, though not a Witness at that time, and accepted service with the US Postal Service in lieu of being drafted into the military. He did know many Witnesses who were offered the same, but went to prison.

This story damns the WTS. They never apologize nor explain their rulings. They have no right to tell a person what their conscience should “say” . So good to be gone!

Take care.

17

Interview with an Apostate : humbled : not-a-captive

by humbled in

tell us a little about yourself and your family.. born in 1952 second oldest of the family of nine children.

as you see, my family was thoroughly catholic.

dad was in the army.. were you a born in or a convert?.

humbled

Hello! I woke early to get to my spot at market and wondered if any of you neighbors had popped in since l cracked open the door to my life.

Home! l will sip my tea and visit.

scary21– let’s hope we get to relate along quieter lines now! All the color and drama need a quiet interval for any sense to come of it. Did you ever feel like that?: Just too much happening to figure out “what just happened here?”

Xanthippe- You named things that even if they are ordinary still they are big things to wrestle: raising a big family, marriage problems, earning a living.

My husband and l have some lovely history together and we have issues that are nearly explosive. Maybe need a bomb squad to go in ahead of us. (He’d prefer that to counseling)

That CO visit prepared me for the worst. When l introduced myself he said “You’re the sister who wrote that letter. I read part of it...Do you know who the Faithful and Discreet slave is?”

”Yes l do. But there is...”

”Do you know who the Faithful and Discreet Slave is.”

””Yes, brother, but..”

”Listen— if you know who the Faithful and Discreet Slave is and there is a problem—you know who is the problem is.”

I was pretty ticked off at that point. I knew this guy was an ex-catholic the same as I was. So I told him

”Brother, l know you were raised Catholic same as I was and when somebody says that over and over that really raises a red flag for me.”

Thanks for encouraging me.

MightyV8–l am glad you found it interesting. It has been my life—so far. This board is where l have peeled my skin a few times, changing a little with each molt. I am glad to meet you.

punkofnice- thanks for stopping by. Yep, l laid that burden down!

I’d have beer with you but all l’ve got is tea. You going to Canada🍁? Lucky you! Keep us posted.

Sylvia- welcome in! Have you taken the plunge yet ?The interview format is well done- (Simon!?) It is a mind massage to answer the questions.

Truth_be_known- you know l am glad l lived long enough to be free. I had cancer 5 years ago and as l recovered from treatment and the cancer seemed to have been destroyed l had this emended gratitude for surviving both the cancer snf the JWyears. Still healing... from the religion.