i would have to say that ray franz was the biggest influence for me.. when i first got on this board, a poster by the name of james, a former bethelite and organization heavy, helped me understand a lot of the inner workings in the upper echelons of the society.. .
and of course, farkel's common sense approach was (usually) helpful..
When I first came to this site I wondered how everyone seemed to know so much inside info. Then I read CoC and realized it all came from Ray.
Also a huge reason I kept coming back here was for the humor. People like Outlaw, Farkel, Sacolton, etc.
I'd say the person who influenced me the most to go from believer to atheist was LeavingWT. He always challenged my thinking and I appreciate that now.
back when i was preaching that this generation of 1914 would by no means pass away, that they were all very old, having been old enough in 1914 to understand the significance of the events of that year...it was just me running ahead.
i made it all up!
running ahead with ideas of my own.
Hey, and even if you were wrong, that doesn't mean you weren't right. You were just awake and alert while Christendom was asleep! Good on you.
about 4 months ago i pm'd poster "emma" because i noticed she was from the same state i grew up in.
i told her about myself and where i grew up, i was not a jw growing up but she was.
as we communicated we eventually realized that we were from the same neck of the woods and then even from the same high school and graduating class.
When I first started coming to this site I saw a poster who used his real life picture as his avatar. I recognized him immediately. We grew up together in the same congregation but hadn't seen each other in years. We've gotten together on more than one occasion since. It was a real encouragement to me when I saw him on JWN.
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20131115/seven-shepherds-eight-dukes/.
paragraph 17.
"at that time, the life-saving direction that we receive from jehovahs organization may not appear practical from a human standpoint.
Makes dubs think, "They know something we don't. They must really be Jehovah's true representatives on Earth."
have you ever heard a jw say, after someone calls them brain washed, that: "well, my brain needs a good washing???".
share your account & experiences.
I did hear this from the stage. At the time I thought it was pretty funny. I'm so glad I'm awake now.
he just can't seem to stop himself taunting "these muslims" or "some muslim or other".
among his favourite taunts are:.
"all the world's muslims have fewer nobel prizes than trinity college, cambridge.".
Dawkins himself has pointed out the Quran's clear calls for death to those who do not embrace Islam. There is a saying that Muslims have bloody borders. Christians have perpetrated their share of bloodshed too, of course. But which religion would you say has, for example, evolved to a higher respect for women in general? Which one seems to be more embracing of tolerance? Which one would prefer to remain stuck in the past? Let's face it, all religions are dangerous. But should we really be surprised when Muslims get singled out as the worst of the worst? A more appropriate question might be, are Muslims giving themselves a bad name? (I might add too that there is almost a bullying of anyone in Islam who tries to forge a more peaceful path. It's comparable to the way the Governing Body treat "apostates" times ten.)
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20131115/seven-shepherds-eight-dukes/.
paragraph 17.
"at that time, the life-saving direction that we receive from jehovahs organization may not appear practical from a human standpoint.
I'm almost certain a similar statement was published around 2005-ish and it was related to the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. The truly frightening part is that when I think back to that time I was excited and ready to do whatever the Watchtower Society asked me to do. I'm so glad that I know TTATT now. I just wish my wife would wise up. We have children and statements like this are truly scary. They conjure up images of Jonestown, Waco, and Heaven's Gate for me as well.
i have recently been using the expression "people not of our faith" and it shocks me to be corrected everytime by, "you mean worldly".
i dont really like the word worldly because i feel it is a degrading word to describe people we love so much that we try to find them in the ministry.
below are a couple of quotes from recent watchtowers that really give us the esscence of the word worldly as far as the watchtower is concerned.. janusz, who lives in eastern europe, became engrossed in his gardening business.
How many times does the word "worldly" appear in the Bible?
when i first came to this site.
whenever i would try to talk about somethign from the bible that the jw's got wrong or reason on a scripture that had so much feeling you would stomp all over it.
talking about "flying spaghetti gods" and laugh at what seemed to be my expense and then leave the thread never to return and add any substance.
I went through a few phases myself when I came to this site. For a while there I still believed in the Bible and even wondered if I needed to get baptized in a real church to please God. But posters like LeavingWT really got me to think. I read books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. I saw "Religulous". I read up on evolution. Now it's hard to believe I ever accepted Hebrew mythology as truth.
i'm a secondary school teacher and i've spent a lot of time at school this year since i've left jws simply observing student dynamics.
i do a lot of playground duty and have the opportunity to observe the kids at play and in the classroom.
i've especially had the opportunity to observe middle school kids, that is, kids between 12 and 15 in my state.. my observations of these 'worldly' children are:.
One friend wrote in my high school annual: "I really enjoyed playing with you in grade school. Then it seemed like you kind of disappeared in high school." Looking back, kids from school were started to hang out at my house and invite me to parties until my parents put a stop to it around sixth grade. I then felt more awkward around the other kids when I was at school. I definitely think my growth as a person was stunted. But I always played sports at lunchtime. In grade school it was pickup football games and in high school it was pickup basketball.
