Speakin of that I know many JW's who feel that there literally is a "at least one demon ruling over every nation" ie China has one, America has one, etc ...
What crazy thinking ... but then again I used to belive it too!
ok its time to recount all your favorite crazy jw urban legends, ill start i remember this one was told to me after i had left the org, there was a newly married couple, they were good little dubs, evil mother in law lived with them, she did not want to convert or study, well time went on they had a baby, and mother in law was into some spiritual stuff, unknown to jw mommy and daddy.
anyway jw mommy wakes up one night to find little baby dub sitting inside the fish tank with most of the water taken out and there was some kind of evil spirit present, mommy dub yells out jemimas name and breaks free with baby dub.
evil mother in law is asked to leave their happy home.
Speakin of that I know many JW's who feel that there literally is a "at least one demon ruling over every nation" ie China has one, America has one, etc ...
What crazy thinking ... but then again I used to belive it too!
many years ago now i remember hearing harold king sing the song he had composed whilst incarcerated for his beliefs in china; it was called "house to house".. nowadays it doesn't seem as though it's in favor.
notice its own description of its ministry which the wts has placed on its website:.
jehovah's witnesses are probably best known for their person-to-person ministry.
RIGHT ON!
The theocratic response from all the people I have seen around LA regarding the "life saving information" is ZERO. For some reason only people near the "financially depressed areas" will listen to us ... and even they eventually get tired of us run on at their door and say "Well we have our own religion..."
Field Service Before = Alive and Well
Field Service Now = On life support near DEAD
well, the norco assembly for jws around los angeles is coming up soon.
for the crenshaw congregation and most of los angeles it is on december 15 and the 16th of 2007. for the sake of your hounding family still in, keeping the peace, a slow fade still in progress, personal guilt, nothing better to do etc.
how many of us will be attending?.
Well, the Norco Assembly for JW’s around Los Angeles is coming up soon. For the Crenshaw Congregation and most of Los Angeles it is on December 15 and the 16th of 2007. For the sake of your hounding family still in, keeping the peace, a slow “fade” still in progress, personal guilt, nothing better to do etc. … how many of us will be attending?
I will be one of those in attendance because all my family will expect it, they still think I believe it all … just last week two brothers said I was “making fine spiritual progress for a young man my age (I am 20 now), “Brother Hounder” (who happens to be my uncle) will be on my ass if I don’t. I was raised to be as JW as you can possibly be. My mom came in first and is the most nutty JW you ever want to meet – true she works and brings home a real decent salary but besides that she fully devoted to the WTS. My uncle who came in second is the P.O. of Crenshaw Congregation (He also is the one who told me that Satan Devil has his demons around college campuses inducing “immoral behavior” i.e. Don’t go to college) He brought all of my immediate family from Virginia to Los Angeles in the 1970’s and within two years CONverted them all. His wife is now a full time pioneer. She slowly brought all of her family from DC to Los Angeles and one by one CONverted them until there is only one left now (BTW the lone “worldly” sister “J” is the only cool one I remember from childhood). From early childhood I knew something was up with this cult. Growing up I saw and kind of envied witness kids who at least had some family not in … you know like a little break that you got when visiting them … well I don’t … oh well …
Several things will keep me alive (though maybe not awake)
1. Doodling on the program
2. Intermission lunch is always a treat
It feels kind of “devious” (in a good way) knowing that I am going in “undercover”. Being raised in “The Truth” from youth up, having my childhood regulated by the JW mindset, and ultimately the severe confused/guilt feelings and thoughts I felt when I first left. About a month after I got out it hit me - I had recurring visions that “no matter what evidence is against the JW org it still is right because all negative evidence originates from “the bird catcher (Satan)” who has “superhuman intelligence” to mislead you away from the only true org. But I still knew it wasn’t so I sucked it up and moved on. I no longer have any fear whatsoever anymore ... sometime slight anger for the years wasted. I view myself as having earned the right to be called an apostate. I have no guilt or fear that Armageddon will suddenly come while a brother is in the middle of giving his talk and then Jehovah will strike me down.
From my personal perspective it kind of sucks ass to see some of the wild brothers / attractive sisters who I know came in from the world slowly start to loose the “wordly” drive and attitude they once had. I have been in so long I have seen this happen enough times - the progression from their first assemly to how they act at their next - until some are just a shell of their former selves.
I have had JW's lie straight to my face before about past doctrine or mistakes of their own. They knew they were lying and so did I but they knew that there was nothing that could be done about it and they knew that as well ...
there have been a few posts lately on the board where people are giving their experiences in talking with jws they meet in day to day life.
this got me thinking of something i've never seen a post about on this board.
because of a number of different factors it seems that jws have a very unbalanced approach in the way they deal with criticism.
True ... and I just might do that!
another thought provoking article from "the faithful and discreet slave".
the sociopaths in the writing committee are at it again.... .
are you ready for jehovah's day?.
The WTBTS is losing it's young ones left and right (I'm one of them) and it KNOWS it.
These kids today are far too smart to fall for that crap ... so they attack the last source they hope is still foolproof:
The Parents
The parents, poor souls still beliving in this cult, will try to enforce these evil rules and one of two things will happen
A) The kids will know this organization is BS and play it out until they turn 18 (Hopefully all with VERY, VERY oppressive JW parents like I did will choose this one)
B) The kids will buy into it, become guilt/fear ridden through the different forms of mind control that the society uses, and consequently end up just the way the Watchtower wants them to be ... a sad "40 Year Old Virgin" or "Mentally-Broken-With-No-Backbone" textbook case ... because that way they can ensure they have yet another member for life (and possibly their money when they die) ... and this my friends is all they want from a "loving member of their so-called "Loving Christian Brotherhood".
what we need: a themea "resolution"a dramaa list of talkssome publicationsinterviews
ideas?
suggestions?
I would willingly pay top dollar to attend this ... if it were real.
as you know i still attend all meetings with my still-in family.
last sunday a bethel speaker came to our hall (crenshaw congregation) and gave two talks.
one on "avoiding satan's snares" and the other on "showing patience towards jehovah and his organization.
As you know I still attend all meetings with my still-in family. Last Sunday a Bethel speaker came to our hall (Crenshaw Congregation) and gave two talks. One on "Avoiding Satan's Snares" and the other on "Showing Patience towards Jehovah and his Organization."
The first talk was a guilt ridden talk for the youth. It mentioned how Satan uses sex, bad association, and possibly college as a snare. He said "I know many of you young ones in here are thinking about going to a 4 year. Your getting all these applications and offers. But dont do it. Jehovah loves you and wants you to serve him during your youth. Maybe make Bethel or the pioneer service your goal. You see in the new system there will be no need for doctors, or lawyers, or crooked lawyers. We are THIS CLOSE (while making a closing hand gesture) to the end."
My blood was boiling because I knew one young sister has already taken this sort of advice. We all know how these talks come up year after year. Well "Young Sister" fell for the one given last year. She was going to UC Merced but dropeed out to pioneer while living with her mom. (After MUCH talking to in private after I found this out I convinced her to at least attend a Community College ... which she is doing ... So I got halfway!)
Then to my suprise during the "Patience" talk he admitted that the society was wrong about 1975 and that in 1995 the doctrine of "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" was wrong. For a second he had gained some respect. Then he blew it. He said that the society uses "TACT" (aka B.S.) to help the society move on when they've been wrong. He brought up the case of a man in his forties who blew his whole retirement in 1974 because he thought the end was coming. Now he is as the brother said "still paying it back to this day ... But remember that you still need to wait on Jehovah. DONT beg off from Jehovah. Remember Satan was an independent thinker and well we know what happened to him!"
MIND YOU all this is coming this overzelous brother that (like so many others) found "the truth" much later in life - around his late thirtie and after he got married - instead of being rasied in. This is from a brother that I know served in the USMC during Vietnam in his youth (around 1969) and used his GI bill/Military Service Background to get a college degree and then buy a house. Most JW's in my KH can barely pay the apartment rent. This is a brother who back in his younger years used to beat the crap out of people in bar fights and (supposedly) sleep with alot of women.
The funny part to me was that after the meeting a sister asked him during Q&A session what were the names of the GB. He could only name three.
hey guys,
i am pissed and need to vent.
so i have been df'd for 5 years now.
I agree with you 100 % though my JW stories are different than yours.
due to the way i was raised a jw i constantly felt guilt for trying to act like the other guys and it made me stand out even worse.
to this day, due to this, i nowdays become somewhat physically ill whenever i hear a brother give a talk where he says (many here have heard it in different forms) "if jehovah was looking at you youths in the congregation during school could he tell the difference between you and a worldy person.
" myself and most of the other jw guys during middle school and high school did not have the confidence or the "rough and ready to fight" type of body language so we tended to get picked on.
I sure did for a while. Due to the way I was raised a JW I constantly felt guilt for trying to act like the other guys and it made me stand out even worse. To this day, due to this, I nowdays become somewhat physically ill whenever I hear a brother give a talk where he says (many here have heard it in different forms) "if Jehovah was looking at you youths in the congregation during school could he tell the difference between you and a worldy person." Myself and most of the other JW guys during middle school and high school did not have the confidence or the "rough and ready to fight" type of body language so we tended to get picked on. I finally decided to "pretend" and send the message to the other guys in the locker room that I knew what I was doing my working out. By the end of my Senior Year I had pretty well defined muscles and got picked on a lot less ... but no one knew that I still didnt know how to defend myself.
To this day I cant throw a single punch ... but now am considering taking up some martial arts in secret so I can at least protect myself should a unfortunate situation arise.
and ... This week in my JW Land ... (I still attend most meetings only because all of my family and extended family are JW's - though I no longer believe any of it)
Questioning Motives (May or may not be harmless…)
A bethel speaker is coming to my hall this Sunday - November 11, 2007 to give his “timely bible based talk” Which I think if I remember correctly is titled “How to avoid traps from the Devil.” Most in the hall are so overjoyed at the though of the upcoming spiritual food from a bethelite - but I am thinking kinda … why now?
Having a Dissonance Moment
Just last week my mom was picking up my aunt from our Kingdom Hall (BTW it’s been 20 years – as old as I am – and she still has no car due to excessive pioneering and no college). Through the ride we pass by that mega church near Crenshaw. When “Bernice”, known by us and around the hall for being the balance of mean yet overly zealous, passed by it she said loudly “See if Christendom here would just get on the ball (which really means to start serving the WTBTS) and stop serving Satan we would have more of these huge buildings for ourselves to worship Jehovah in convenience since Woodland Hills got torn down and sold … but nooo.” I swear it took everything I had in me to not scream back “BUT WHY SHOULD THEY IF THEY DON’T WANT TO AND YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DON’T HAVE TO - AND GUESS WHAT THEY WOULD BE RIGHT NOT TO!” I restrained myself because I knew if I said anything remotely like this it would be “Game Over” between me and my family. In truth, trying to leave this org has taught me to be stronger instead of weaker. The literature always taught me that leaving the org will cause you to enter into “Satan’s system which will break you down.”
Thinking about WTS Doctrine
The Society has a lengthy history of other doctrinal mistakes and medical blunders such as not allowing vaccinations and considering organ transplants in the not so distant past. These mandates were wrong when they first came off the presses and they were wrong many years later when finally reversed. To attribute these flip-flops to "the light getting brighter" is just not just irresponsible but dumb. If God was real – Jehovah would make sure to never change his mind like this. He is a "God of truth"... "Who cannot lie". Imperfect men lead of blindness in positions of oversight have made these doctrinal decisions, which have caused lives of well meaning people to be cut short without any justifiable reasons. There were no apologies made either. This poor historical record of mistakes only makes the current blood transfusion policy even more suspect. Blind trust in an organization that has a track record of mistakes and errors like this is both foolish and dangerous. Especially when we must force these policies on younger, inexperienced, helpless ones. To be forced into "practice sessions" with the little kids in my hall just so they can make a better stand simply does not sound right to me.
Just Noticed …The Irony!For the first time in five years I actually bothered to look at the name of the church of “Christendom” that was a block across from our KH and guess what … it was a Seventh Day Adventist! Maybe it was like a “sign” for me all along ... because as some know the JW's somewhat a breakoff from them.
Love Bombing New Potential Recruits AKA “The Desperate Vulture Syndrome”
It is so sickening now to see how every Sunday when a new “interested person” comes to hear the talk the door greeter has to give out his canned “welcome and don’t stop coming”, the friends all rush over like zombies at the end to say “well, well, well, well, what didchathink?!”, and the occasionally interjected “this is the truth!” No wonder, and I am serious, there have been ABSOLUTELY NO new people come to our hall since 2005.