Posts by neverendingjourney

17

My Experience with Wordly Guys

by LaurenM in

sorry, two posts in a day..but i need to vent something: so far my experience with "worldly" guys has not been the best 1. my first guy experience was with a dude who left state and never came back 2. a coworker asked me to netflix and chill and i did 3. a guy wanted to sext me all the time but never took me out on a date and i did 4. a guy who took me on a great date but then asked me up to his apartment immediately after and then didn't call me after 5. finally, another great date, until after the guy texted me asking for nude pics..told him no!

so basically i've concluded that i had been giving off a vibe that i had no self respect and that was confirmed by me allowing them to use me as a sex object..but i'm hoping that not all worldly guys are like this, and when i start acting like i have self respect, they will treat me like that too?

is that a good assumption?

neverendingjourney

You need to decide what you're comfortable with sexually and set firm boundaries.

Most men will continue to pursue sexual escalation until you firmly indicate you're unwilling to go any further. This was probably not an issue with JW men, but that's the way the real world works. If you're unprepared for this reality or if you freeze up and don't set limits, men are likely to continue to escalate the encounter.

Does that mean they view you as a sexual object? Not necessarily. Some women are very openly sexual and have no hang ups with having sex on the first date. If that's the case, you won't find many men who'll refused to oblige if she's willing. It's up to you to indicate what you are and aren't comfortable with.

Best of luck to you.

46

Chaos at Brooklyn Bethel 12/2016

by James Jack in

this was how it was described to me yesterday by a brother who has been there for some 40 years.

"everyone is about gone; the governing body is set to leave within 2 months; the kitchen and laundry personnel are gone and i have to fend for myself now.".

"also the aggravation of 4 to 5 business men in suits with clipboards daily checking out the watchtower properties.

neverendingjourney

As obnoxious as a lot of those long-time Bethelites could be, it has to be terrifying for long-serving couples to face the prospect of being put out on the street after decades of Bethel life acquiring little to no real-world experience.

Seems like a matter of time before some of them begin to crack and lash out. It has to be incredibly difficult to suppress the feeling of betrayal.

13

Has Watchtower financial strategy taken a very dark turn?

by slimboyfat in

as shepherdless pointed out on another thread, the watchtower business model of using free labour to produce and sell books and magazines for profit started to break down when charging for the literature ended in 1990, and has now begun disintegrating completely in the face of the internet and declining donations.

over this same period there has been a noted increase in hardline rhetoric on disfellowshipping and pushing early baptism.

might these hardline trends actually be related to their money woes?

neverendingjourney

Or they could take a page out of the Mormon playbook and encourage their members to go to college. You know, so they can actually afford to contribute something.

Mormons have been doing this for decades, even constructing their own university, and they're growing at a higher rate than JWs.

44

Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

by cappytan in

jw
friends

[note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

neverendingjourney

@LevelThePlayingField

Funny how we used to just eat all of the propaganda up, no questions asked, huh?

44

Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

by cappytan in

jw
friends

[note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

neverendingjourney

This also reminds me of how I used to brag about the most trivial JW-related things.

They were building a Pentecostal church down the road from the kingdom hall. It took them a few months, but once built it became very popular in the area. A guy I'd gone to high school with was a member and became deeply religious.

One Sunday after the meeting I saw him and a group of his church buddies at a table in the same restaurant. I went up and said hi and mentioned that I'd seen how they had finally finished constructing the church.

"We just built a new kingdom hall, too. And it only took us FOUR DAYS!"

"That's nice. We're really happy with our new church. It's new, too."

"Yeah, but did you guys build it in four days?"

"Uhh...no, it took us a few months. I'm really happy for you guys. God bless."

I walked away with a smug look on my face as if cheap craftsmanship on a box building was somehow a sign of God's approval.

44

Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

by cappytan in

jw
friends

[note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

neverendingjourney

There was an elder at my old hall who had a crude, probably homemade, tattoo on his hand. He never had it removed.

I wonder how he feels after reading this fine example in the yearbook. Why did he never feel the same urgency to get it removed?

23

"Theocratic Warfare" still alive and well within Watchtower in 2016!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

it seems like the watchtower is still encouraging "theocratic warfare".

in the no.1 watchtower of 2016, they (ironically) printed an article on honesty.here is something they said:"lyingwhat is it?

saying something false to someone who is entitledto know the truth.

neverendingjourney

If they conclude a court of law is not entitled to know the truth, will Jehovah protect them from perjury charges?

33

Creative day 7000 years, is this correct and how did the Org come up with this idea?

by Crazyguy in

any body know?

neverendingjourney

Later, they said creative days were "several thousands of years" long, so old JW'S would think "Yeah, 7 thousands" and young people with access to science at school would think "millions" and Watchtower would never admit they were previously wrong.

That's exactly what happened to me. The blue Creation book was instrumental in getting me to buy into the religion. I read it in the mid-90s and thought it was consistent with science, which taught the universe was billions of years old. I'd never heard of 1975 or the 7,000 year creative days it was premised on.

It wasn't until after I got dunked that a JW pointed out that the literature didn't say millions, it said thousands. He then specifically tied it to the former 1975 teaching. I was dumbfounded since being able to reconcile science and the bible had been the primary reason I'd bought into it. I was a naive and stupid teenaged at the time, but that's a separate story altogether.

This JW was an adult convert and really had no business being familiar with the 1975 debacle. He converted in the 90s and had no JW family. He must have been doing his own research on the side. A year or two later he moved away and faded. He was a smart guy. In hindsight it was probably inevitable.

63

Watchtower crackdown on anointed expansion - are they reaching for a solution to the expanding numbers problem?

by slimboyfat in

if this has been discussed i missed it.

i think the january study watchtower is a concerted attempt to reduce the numbers claiming to be anointed.

but i love the sneaky way they go about it this time.

neverendingjourney

If there was no sealing of anointed in 1935, what's the point in counting them? Their decline used to be one more way to show the end was getting nearer. Now it's a relic of a bygone era/old light.

I think it's a matter of time before they stop publishing the figure. It's embarrassing and no longer serves any purpose. Fifteen thousand or fifty thousand... makes no difference under current teaching, especially since the FDS is now only the GB.

22

Years ago son raised a few years as a JW. Now struggles with depression

by Check_Your_Premises in

background:.

i spent some time here awhile back as an unbelieving mate of a jw wife.

i learned a lot, and was able to be supportive and understanding when she decided to leave the jw.. unfortunately, my son seems to have internalized many of the jw teachings.

neverendingjourney

He seems to be unable to shake the idea that they have "the truth". He doesn't live as a JW though, so he seems trapped in an intolerable state between thinking the JW are the way to go, but unable (and having no desire) to live as one.

This is, unfortunately, an incredibly common problem. There was a guy at my hall who had been disfellowshipped for decades and later returned. He would often talk about the agony of being out and knowing he wasn't living in conformity with "the truth." I believe a lot of the destructive behavior common in DF'd youths is about them beating themselves up over not being strong enough to live up to the "the truth."

I was in this state for a short while, something like a year and a half. What changed? I found this website. I read enough here to lose the fear of reading "apostate literature" and after a few books any lingering doubts about whether the witnesses had the truth disappeared. Don't get me wrong. The programming runs deep and even today, ten years later, I still find myself responding to some situations according to the programming, but I don't agonize over whether I made the right decision.

Without knowing your son, it seems the only thing that can help him get over this hurdle is for him to come to realize on his own that there is no truth to the religion. My best friend when I was a witness stopped going to meetings around the same time I did and I swear he's in your son's position. He won't admit it to me because he knows I'm 100% out, but it's evident by his demeanor and some of the choices he's made. That no-man's land of being 99% out but having those lingering doubts isn't a healthy place to be.

I wish you all the best.