so what are the signs that indicate that people are in a "toxic relationship"?.
particularly in relation to those stuck in the org still..... .
I have been in toxic relationships.
If you are not being treated with respect, if you are being abused in some way, then you are in a toxic relationship.
My experience has been that you have to leave these because the other person or persons exacting the abuse will never change or stop. They have issues they need to deal with and usually do not.
sorry for the long post but i need help.
ive been a jw for 20 years - still active and attending meetings, baptised at 18, i have recently become very dissillusioned.
a few reasons: ill treatment of my kids by a prominent 'assembly speaker' elder, then my son left the truth at 15 (not baptised) and was 'dropped' instantly, despite this community having been his whole life for 15 years.
LHS, Welcome to the forum. You and your family have been through a lot. You are starting to see that their claims are not aligning with reality, reason, and logic. You are being intellectually honest with yourself. This is what happened to me as a teenager.
I think you have a number of valid concerns. Your first priority should be to the protection and well-being of your family.
If you are thinking of taking a month off, DO IT. Maybe take that time to research the religion, for starters. Researching the history of the Bible is probably not a bad idea either.
Good luck and let us know your progress (if you want).
i am a member on new testament scholar bart ehrman's blog, and the professor is currently outlining a new book he is writing about false memory and the life of jesus.. an interesting post occurred today in which he gives an example of a very famous scripture,.
example of a false memory of jesus teaching i turn to a famous passage in the gospel of john, jesus dialogue with nicodemus (john 3:1-15).
nicodemus is said to be a jewish leader who comes up to jesus and affirms that jesus must come from god because of the great things that he said to have done.
menrov said: ...have to be born again is just as confusing as have to be born from above.
I agree. Both statements are also complete wack-a-doodle... fantasy ... and cannot be taken seriously.
from the nwt, of course.
none of the other versions make it sound any better, either.
2 timothy, chapter 2 has been used and abused to suppress women everywhere.
I have to agree with many of the Old Testament scriptures as being horrific. I've had a lot of Christian's argue that the OT is not really relevant, we don't focus on that one now, it's the Jewish Bible, etc. so I am going to take a scripture from the New Testament. One I find particularly revulsive is:
Matthew 10:35: "For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law". - NIV
Yes, Jesus, the new convenant, the 'nicer' god, is gonna break up families. What a dick.
it's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.
i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.
it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.
The Hebrews and Christians have very different ideas about God. The Hebrews believed God to be all things, both good and bad. They believed that bad things happened when you did not obey the one true God, Yahweh. And he needed appeasing... lots of appeasing.
But the 'Hebrew Bible' doesn't read very well if you want to call Yahweh our 'father' and 'loving'. The logic of his actions doesn't flow.
Logic and reasoning debunk the moral ideals of Yahweh, as well as all religious dogma and doctrine that has sprung up out of interpreting holy foundational materials such as the Bible and Qu'ran that are not accurate accounts of history or the natural world, and which are largely based on myth.
You have to abandon these disciplines to make any sense of the holy realm.
just thought i would share what i learned today sitting for several miserable hours at the circus assembly.. while i took "notes" i just cannot stand trying to type out all the details.
so suffice it to say the entire program can be covered with these few observations.. do more!
give more!
Of course the normal whines about showing self-sacrifice and contribute to the substantial expenses of this wonderful assembly provided by "the slave".
Perhaps the constant influx of court cases are starting to affect their financial situation.
The double down on disfellowshipping is really a noodle scratcher for me. I'm just not certain what it is really accomplishing.
It's a fear tactic to keep people in line. But it has long term negative effects that I think ultimately harm the group as a whole. If outsiders know about it, they won't want to join. So I get where you're coming from pa2. Alas, their mentality is still living in the 1st century.
ok, so i politely let an elder in our cong know how i felt about the gossip and slander that has been levelled at me.. he has been pushing to find out how i feel about the events of the last few months.. i calmly replied: .
"well, i know that it was foretold that oppressive wolves would enter the flock and treat many harshly.
i stood up to such harshness against many in our cong, then i was turned on and had accusations levelled against me!
I always like it when one can use Botchtower's own words against them.
loyal pooch protected my identity for more than a decade, time for a rest old pal.. yep, that's the real me in my new avatar all stubbly and snoozing in the afternoon sun.
call me nic' or call me mike, it's all good.
Snoozing in the sun... one of my fave pastimes.
seriously.....even when you were 100% in "the truth", did you really believe in living forever?
?
Of course I did. Children believe everything their parents tell them.
I also believed in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus. When I was a child my Mom was getting involved with the JWs, but my Dad was not. We did actually celebrate Easter, Hallowe'en and Christmas when I was younger.
But then I grew up and realized a lot of my childhood was full of fantasy.
loyal pooch protected my identity for more than a decade, time for a rest old pal.. yep, that's the real me in my new avatar all stubbly and snoozing in the afternoon sun.
call me nic' or call me mike, it's all good.
Although I do love Gromit, your new Avatar is very good as well.
