after i decide to leave the jehovah's witnesses one day,i will not look for a new religion.
the damage that the wts has caused me leads me to mistrust all men and religion.. i trusted these men from the wts .
i gave up 35 years of my life to find out that the wts is just a printing and real estate corporation disguised as a religion.
Just a word to the wise from personal experience. Don't fall for the "don't get a religion, get a personal relationship with Jesus" sales pitch.
You will end up in a fully fledged religion with similar demands on your time, money and credulity as the borg.
I think it may be possible to have "spirituality" without religion if its what somebody wants but not in christianity. It is by definition a group activity complete with leaders and followers
many years ago i came across this painting in the national museum of scotland in edinburgh.
simply called "hagar" it was painted by andrew geddes in the early 19th c.. i was touched by the sadness of the subject.
at the time i was a loyal jw and my ability to read the bible through a filter that could justify anything was at its peak.. for the first time i was forced to face up to the scandal of how abraham and sarah treated their young slave girl.
I remember being captivated by it the first time I saw it. I never understood the power of art prior to this experience.
I have never been able to find it online apart from the smaller image above which was on a blog. I have scanned my postcard and I'm hoping this will be a clickable thumbnail.
many years ago i came across this painting in the national museum of scotland in edinburgh.
simply called "hagar" it was painted by andrew geddes in the early 19th c.. i was touched by the sadness of the subject.
at the time i was a loyal jw and my ability to read the bible through a filter that could justify anything was at its peak.. for the first time i was forced to face up to the scandal of how abraham and sarah treated their young slave girl.
Many years ago I came across this painting in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Simply called "Hagar" it was painted by Andrew Geddes in the early 19th C.
I was touched by the sadness of the subject. At the time I was a loyal JW and my ability to read the bible through a filter that could justify anything was at its peak.
For the first time I was forced to face up to the scandal of how Abraham and Sarah treated their young slave girl. No amount of words or arguments would have reached me in the same way.
I bought a postcard of the painting and have had it stuck on the wall of my office at home ever since.
hi everyone, another newbie here.
i've been lurking on this site for over 2 weeks now - love it!
the more i read the more ignorant i feel, but i'm learning... i've posted a few responses to others, and would like to say a big thank you to those who have already welcomed me.
Hi Bluegirl78 glad you found your way here. I think almost everybody who has left the Watchtower would agree that going back would be negative move. For many it is having children that is a motivation to get out and allow them to grow up with freedom from the high control of the organisation.
If you have not already read it you may enjoy Ray Franz' book "Crisis of Conscience", it will give you some honest insight into how the organisation works at the highest level. Personally I got involved in religion quite heavily after leaving. In retrospect I am much happier now with no religion in my life at all. Take your time, dont be rushed into doing anything. Especially dont be pressured by lies about "end times" that is all a delusion. There are lots of resources available online so you can investigate for your self.
there is always at least 2 or 3 really crazy persons in the kingdom hall.
the kind of person that when they raise their hand the speaker on stage knows he's taking a gamble if he calls on them - yet he can't discriminate.. anyhow, i remember one time a younger brother was doing sound and one of those crazy brothers was about to give his 5 minute talk (i forget what number that was, prior to them just reading scripture).
the crazy brother slipped the young brother doing sound a cd and said "play this when i get on stage".. well, he gets up on stage and all of a sudden hawaiian music starts playing... the man on stage just starts dancing.
Our PO was on the platform one Thursday evening in full-on preaching mode when his wife got up out her seat. As she was walking down the aisle towards the back of the hall she collapsed and was out cold. He never missed a beat, just carried right on with his talk while everybody else rushed around to look after her. What a weird man!
imagine that you are....an ex- [insert religious organization here].. you no longer believe in the hocus-pocus rituals and you can see that many stories from scripture have been twisted and mis-told.
you can see where agendas of power and control have been derrived from these teachings, using guilt and 'obligation to god' as a means of extortion of your time and money.. imagine that you suddenly lose your job; then you cannot pay the mortgage.
in the midst of all that you find out your child has a terminal illness and you have no health insurance.
I have seen some things that I have not spoken of.
I find that hard to believe
there is always at least 2 or 3 really crazy persons in the kingdom hall.
the kind of person that when they raise their hand the speaker on stage knows he's taking a gamble if he calls on them - yet he can't discriminate.. anyhow, i remember one time a younger brother was doing sound and one of those crazy brothers was about to give his 5 minute talk (i forget what number that was, prior to them just reading scripture).
the crazy brother slipped the young brother doing sound a cd and said "play this when i get on stage".. well, he gets up on stage and all of a sudden hawaiian music starts playing... the man on stage just starts dancing.
I was school overseer when the talk was assigned on masturbation. The bro who got the assignment started off with "OK if anybody does not have a problem with masturbation they can leave now" Everybody shuffled in their seats and stared at the pattern on the carpet. "Right then," he went on "it looks like we all need to listen to this talk"
He then went on to say that it was only a matter of time before it was a df offence, that got a few worried looks!
I can't remember how many Ws he got for that one.
there is always at least 2 or 3 really crazy persons in the kingdom hall.
the kind of person that when they raise their hand the speaker on stage knows he's taking a gamble if he calls on them - yet he can't discriminate.. anyhow, i remember one time a younger brother was doing sound and one of those crazy brothers was about to give his 5 minute talk (i forget what number that was, prior to them just reading scripture).
the crazy brother slipped the young brother doing sound a cd and said "play this when i get on stage".. well, he gets up on stage and all of a sudden hawaiian music starts playing... the man on stage just starts dancing.
A visiting speaker started his public talk by getting a camera out his pocket and taking 2 or 3 pics of the audience. I was expecting it to turn into some kind of illustration but it didn't. He just put the camera away and carried on with his talk like nothing odd had just happened
ok. me and friends are going to attend a memorial on 30 march.. what would be the best way to get our message across?.
should we just throw a hundred flyers into the hall in the middle of the memorial?.
should we drink the wine and eat all the bread and then stand up and say something?.
How about simply ....
Google Jehovah's Witnesses
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100304/sc_nm/us_dinosaurs_asteroid.
http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/impacteffects/chicxulub.html.
sounds counter productive to me..
Here is the latest theory on why the dinos went extinct
