Posts by neverendingjourney

50

My family has known I'm an apostate

by cognac in

jw
friends

i found out that my husband has not only gone to the elders, but has been going to members of my family about me over a period of a few years.

this piece of news is just so depressing.

i've been wondering how my family knew i didn't go and thats why so many of them have becoming more and more distant.

neverendingjourney

It's complicated. I betrayed my best friend by turning him in to the elders. Twice. The second time resulted in his being disfellowshipped.

Thankfully he didn't hold it against me because he knew I was coming from a good place and that I was deeply conflicted about how to proceed. We've both been out of the JWs for a while now and our friendship is still strong 10+ years later.

I remember being completely conflicted about how to proceed. At the time I felt I was in a position of having to either betray God or my best friend. The indoctrination compelled me to behave in a way that I would never have acted otherwise. The few weeks leading up to when I finally turned him in were horrible. I think I lost something like 20 pounds in five weeks worrying myself sick over the situation.

38

US Zone visit: disappointing, depressing, discouraging

by sir82 in

jw
friends

i will have plenty of "snark" to post later on, but please indulge me while i get this out of my system..... suppose you are the leaders...yes, the leaders...there are only 7 of you...for the one true religion in all the universe.. jehovah the god of the whole universe speaks to you, you alone, out of 7 billion+ people on teh planet.. you have an opportunity, thanks to the advancements in technology, to speak to 750,000 of your followers "live", and another 750,000 or so within 24 hours.. 1.5 million people!

hanging on your every word!.

this is the first time in history you can simultaneously, or nearly simultaneously, address so many of your adherents.. what message are you going to present for this special occasion?.

neverendingjourney

It's interesting to take a step back and see when things really got off the rails. As far as I can tell, this general attitude developed in the early days of Rutherford's reign. He was in a power struggle and was fighting off massive defections. He chose to purge the ranks and increase the control the religion had over its members in an effort to solidify his hold on power.

By the time the GB was formed in the early 70s, it was composed exclusively of men who had served under Rutherford and had adopted his view. Most revealing is a quote from Crisis of Conscience where Ray Franz quotes from GB meetings where the prevailing thought was that "brothers couldn't be allowed to decide" on various issues lest it lead to a complete collapse of morality (or something like that, it's been a few years since I read it).

What you have today is a group of men who came up under the tutelage of a group of men who learned from Rutherford. The groudwork was laid nearly 100 years ago and Rutherford's choices continue to impact millions till this very day.

23

Millerites, Jehovahs Witnesses and Purple Triangles

by Simon in

i came across this after posting another iq video to a different topic.

interesting how much the jehovahs witnesses are featured ... but it is because they are a millenial cult with failed rapture prophecies:.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chug6f0tnfg.

neverendingjourney

For us Yanks, a different YouTube video along the same line. Long but worth it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_c-PdT0SsE

40

I am JW.ORG

by LogCon in

famous quote from wuthering heights revised.. '... i am jw.org!

it's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than i am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.

so don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable...'.

neverendingjourney

If I remembe correctly, aside from the pagan-origin line of reasoning, the Society criticized the cross on the grounds that it was an undue symbol of faith elevated to such a status as to constitute idolatry. The same reasoning would apply to the fish, which isn't a pagan symbol (at least I don't think it is).

From that perspective, I honestly don't see the difference in wearing a cross as a symbol of your faith versus a jw.org button.

40

I am JW.ORG

by LogCon in

famous quote from wuthering heights revised.. '... i am jw.org!

it's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than i am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.

so don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable...'.

neverendingjourney

Any JW capable of the most basic critical thinking would have a hard time justifying how a crucifix is idolatry but all the nonsense pictured above is not.

51

a young 14 year old girl was disfellowshipped in my former congregation last week

by alexandre in

a baptized girl from my former cong.

was expelled out because she participated in more than one porn videos with classmates in the school and theses videos became public.

she is 14 years old and grew up as witnesses.but anybody knows she had many boyfriends and she-, but that thing was unbelievable!

neverendingjourney

Some of the most promiscous kids at my high school were witnesses.

48

Service meeting video....what a non-event

by sir82 in

jw
friends

at our service meeting we saw the video of a jw explaining his beliefs about 1914.. it was.....well, "underwhelming" does not do it justice.

what is below "underwhelming"?

"boringly tepid"?.

neverendingjourney

They get 7 times from Daniel 4:16

Maybe the "time, times and half a time" language "explains" the gap between 1914 and 1919 (when the the Bible Students were supposedly chosen by God). Like I said, it's been a while. I distinctly remembe studying the Revelation Grand Climax book and being unsatisfied by the explanation.

Edit: Not trying to hijack, but I found this in a copy of the old Revelation book:

How long did this respite for the seed of God’s woman last? Revelation 12:6 says 1,260 days. Revelation 12:14 calls the period a time, times, and half a time; in other words, three and a half times. In fact, both expressions stand for three and a half years, extending in the Northern Hemisphere from the spring of 1919 to the autumn of 1922. This was a period of refreshing recuperation and reorganization for the restored John class.

Three giant leaps of logic here: (1) Times means exactly two times (2) three and a half times means three and a half years (3) This prophesied a random period of time between 1919 and 1922, a period of "refreshing recuperation and reorganization."

48

Service meeting video....what a non-event

by sir82 in

jw
friends

at our service meeting we saw the video of a jw explaining his beliefs about 1914.. it was.....well, "underwhelming" does not do it justice.

what is below "underwhelming"?

"boringly tepid"?.

neverendingjourney

The whole thing is utter nonsense - but those 4 topics are the most nonsensical of all. And none of them were even hinted at.

It's been a while, but isn't part of the explanation that "a time, times and half a time" mentioned in the Bible means 3 1/2 times, but for some reason you double that and that leaves you with seven times? I seemingly remember a convenient interpretation of "times" to mean "2" when it could actually be any number from 2 to infinity, but the Society just simply said it meant "2." So time = 1, times = 2, half a time = 1/2, all of which added up to 3 1/2.

Does this ring a bell or has JW nonsene finally begun receding from memory?

40

news item...9 yr old baptised

by returnvisit in

grrrrrrrrrrrrr!.

check out website for dunedin, nzs newspaper www.odt.co.nz re the 9yr old that got baptised at the convention in dunedin this last weekend... can't you just hear everyone there gushing about it??.

as i said grrrrrrrrrrrrr .

neverendingjourney

So, which is it? You're mature enough at 13 to make the most important decision of your life, or you're not. If you were praised for making the right decision at 13, shouldn't you be trusted to make an informed decision 5 years more mature and wiser?

Dave Chappelle agrees:

How old is 15 really?

24

I Would Like To Know Exactly What JWs Believe Or Not Believe In

by minimus in

i hear people saying it is not the same religion that i knew.

what is the major difference?.

.

neverendingjourney

What is the major difference?

I haven't been involved with them in nearly ten years, but from what I can tell, it's more a shift in religious culture than actual doctrine. The doctrinal architecture is still there even if their eschatology is in shambles. But it seems the day of vehemently defending the faith and being doctrinal experts has come and gone. It's been replaced by a culture of docile obedience.