Posts by MrMonroe

15

Singer finds her voice after leaving JW's

by Gopher in

good story about rene marie.

she speaks frankly about a good effect she found by joining the jw's, and how and why she left never to look back.

http://www.pacpub.com/site/myzwire.cfm?newsid=15292956&brd=1091&pag=461&dept_id=343157&rfi=6

What keeps a JW in the religion? A new angle.

by Hobo Ken in

there are many reasons why but i wonder if there could be a dominant mental mechanism at work?.

i've done a bit of research and written this article on the subject.. the comparisons between stockholm's syndrome and jw behaviour are striking.. what keeps a jw in the religion?.

matt.

I started thinking about Stockholm Syndrome again this week after reading some comments on the talk page behind the Wikipedia article on Jehovah's Witnesses (where I spend some time). The discussion was about shunning, and prompted by a user's claim that use that word in relation to JWs' codes of discipline was wrong because it was a pejorative term.

A user, who I think is Czech, joined the conversation with his own take of disfellowshipping:

The term shunning means that someone is ignored, not spoken to. Disfellowshipped JW are treatet like that. The Witnesses do not greet them. BUT, if there would be any need for help, (nursing, feeding, help out with personal finance, or working as colleagues) than the Witnesses do talk to them, but just about the basic needs or about the job. That does not fall under the term Shunning.

Disfellowshiping means (At least on what the witnesses self understand) that do not socially gather, and talk with eachother in terms of friendship.

In all cases where someone gets disfellowshipped, witnesses will not greet them, sit down with them. If a DFS is in need, he/she approaches the elders, who can point out members to help, or family members can help out with some basic personal need (Finances, Health care, or in case of dissasters, building houses again, etc. Black Cab, being an EX-JW can vouch for this. I myself have worked along side with a DSF JW. We didn't lunch together, but we discussed our work on daily bases. That is allowed. But I would not greet him on the streets.

The reason is this.. The DSF JW has done something which was against the rules of the bible or the society. He therefore gets punished.

Like a child at school, who had to stand in the corner, faced to the wall. Why? Otherwise the others would get the Idea that it is okay to do something wrong. But when he falls, he would be helped up again. This is the principle which has been practised long before Jehovah's Witnesses existed.

Shunning is something else. A member of a community, who gets expelled, is neither helped, or spoken to. The community turns their back at this expelled person. The meaning of the word Shunning and Disfellowshipping are quite simular. Never the less, there are differences.

It's sad that people who are so indoctrinated scramble so hard for analogies that defend and justify the harsh and unchristian policies of those who run their religion. "Like a child at school who had to stand in the corner" My God, these are adults we're talking about, not children in a 19th century schooling system that relied on humiliation to extract obedience. "We discussed our work on daily basis. But I would not greet him on the streets. He has done something which was against the rules of the bible or the society. He therefore gets punished."

Indoctrinated Germans living under the Third Reich would have found some way to defend the barbaric conduct of their tyrannical masters, and JWs inevitably find justification for the vice-like grip in which they're held by the JW leadership through policies of disfellowshipping and informing on congregation members.

Monty Python's Piranha Brothers sketch summed it up well:

Interviewer: I've been told Dinsdale Piranha nailed your head to the floor.

Stig: No. Never. He was a smashing bloke. He used to buy his mother flowers and that. He was like a brother to me.

Interviewer: But the police have film of Dinsdale actually nailing your head to the floor.

Stig:(pause) Oh yeah, he did that.

Interviewer: Why?

Stig: Well he had to, didn't he? I mean there was nothing else he could do, be fair. I had transgressed the unwritten law.

Interviewer: What had you done?

Stig: Er... well he didn't tell me that, but he gave me his word that it was the case, and that's good enough for me with old Dinsy. I mean, he didn't *want* to nail my head to the floor. I had to insist. He wanted to let me off. He'd do anything for you, Dinsdale would.

Interviewer: And you don't bear him a grudge?

Stig: A grudge! Old Dinsy. He was a real darling.

Interviewer: I understand he also nailed your wife's head to a coffee table. Isn't that true Mrs O' Tracy?

Mrs O' Tracy: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Stig: Well he did do that, yeah. He was a hard man. Vicious but fair

39

May I enter?

by Eclectic in

it is a pleasure to read some of the topics posted in this forum.

finally i decided to register.

i have now the certainty that when i am sitting down at the kh listening to teachings i do not accept i am not alone in this world, maybe thousands feel the same way.

MrMonroe

Hello Eclectic, welcome. I left the JWs three years ago after 22 years on the inside, recruited at the doors, believe it or not! I believed it completely for many years, then began to look around me and wonder. Even when I realised I didn't enjoy it at meetings and conventions because a lot of what was said and written was self-congratulatory, self-affirming stuff, I felt I still could not break my ties completely.

The turning point, as it was with many ex-JWs, was reading Ray Franz's "Crisis of Conscience." Franz, if you;re unaware, was a member of the Governing Body who, like you, became uneasy with what was going on in the organisation. He began to think, and reason, and then question. For that he was punished and publicly vilified. Many JWs still believe he is the devil incarnate.

His book, however, (easily obtained) is a very sincere and fair examination of the highest echelons of the religion from the inside, and reading it rips back the curtain on how the religion has become what it is and why it treats people the way it does. Once you've read it, it's very hard to see the religion in the same way.

Be warned: Franz was disfellowshipped and therefore Witnesses are forbidden to read it. But you must ask yourself if a "Christian" organisation has the right to determine what you read in order to make informed decisions about your life. What do they have to hide?

61

What made you leave "The Truth"?

by Chemical Emotions in

for me it was many things.

most concerned certain teachings that invloved genders, children, sex, sexuality and sexual orientations, disfellowshipping, apostates, blood, rape, and few other things, as well as the jw's unloving attitude toward so many people..

MrMonroe

Resentment that a faceless group of men was controlling my life and taking up all my time without a valid reason. I became sick of living in the pocket of soulless, gossiping, small-minded people who claimed to "love" me but didn't seem to actually like me. And, after I read Crisis of Conscience, the stark realisation I'd been lied to for more than two decades about it being "God's organisation". Once I realised there was no God in Jehovah's Witnesses, the fear of consequences of quitting disappeared.

30

What do you think of the pictures (both illustrations and photos) in WT literature?

by Chemical Emotions in

jw
friends

i used to really like the drawings as a kid.

the artists, i think, are usually pretty good, not so much at portraying emotions but in technical ways.

the photos always seemed silly to me.. so what do all of you think?.

MrMonroe

The depictions of "worldly" pursuits -- gambling, clubbing, gangs, crime, flirting -- were always embarrassing because they were so obviously used with good Dubs pretending to be baaaaad.

I remember being distracted at a Watchtower study one Sunday morning by a picture of Noah and his sons building the ark in which horizontal planks of timber along the side of the vessel were being joined at a point between the verticals. In other words the ends of those horizontal planks weren't fixed to anything, they just butted up the next one. I guessed that whoever drew (and approved) that illustration had never built anything of timber. Maybe they'd gone straight to Bethel instead of trade school.

101

The Most Insane Thing Ever Printed by the Watchtower?

by Leolaia in

i found this while perusing through old golden ages at the new york public library.

it is so patently ridiculous and offensive, i thought i'd just post the thing without comment.

*** g27 11/30 pp.

MrMonroe

Funny how "in modern times" God has only ever been interested in guiding the destiny of one country on earth: the United States. How his "restoration of true Christianity" took place in that same country and all members of his governing body came from that same country. Is God American?

33

2011 District Convention Beware of Apostates Sound Clip Youtube Video

by andys in

i don't know how to embed youtube videos on here but heres the link:.

.

http://youtu.be/hjgzlpbjilw.

MrMonroe

"Ungrateful murmurers who became bitter, feeling they were being mistreated." That's probably what the Pharisees and Jewish leaders said about the Christians when they walked away from their corrupt religion.

"The beliefs they disagreed with were biblical principles they didn't want to follow." In the case of "apostates" (active opponents) I would say they disagree with peculiar Watchtower interpretations of biblical principles; interpretations that twist and pervert those biblical principles and go far beyond what the Bible says. Those apostates have "carefully examined the scriptures to see whether these things are so" and decided the WTS is lying in an affort to gain control over the lives and consciences of people they beat into submission.

"They are led back to the nauseating teachings of Babyloin the Great." How many "apostates" join another church? Many give up religion entirely in disgust. Many may still accept JW positions on the trinity, etc, but reject the perverted leadership of the WTS.

"They speak abusively of glorious ones ... congregation elders and the faithful slave." Maybe that's because they resent being hounded and bullied and controlled by elders whose job is to maintain members in the firm grip of a cult. "Apostates" don't speak abusively of the faithful slave because they know there is no such thing. All doctrines are established by the religion's seven-man Governing Body, based on human reasoning. The GB is so deceptive they try to invent another layer of decision makers (the FDS) to create the impression it's somehow God directing doctrines.

"...forgetting from whom they learned these sacred things." The fact that JWs accepted certain teachings does not mean they are bound to accept them for life. The WTS forbids members from examining their teachings with other sources or listening to contradictory arguments. Once JWs gain the courage to disobey that command and discuss their concerns about illogical, contradictory doctrines with outsiders (and former members) they have every right to decide they were tricked and walk away.

A typically twisted piece of propaganda that claims dissenters are driven by pride and ambition, bent on dividing congregations. They create stereotypes, place labels on honest, sincere people who cannot conscientiously remain in a religion that lies to them and tries to control them. Dishonest, manipulative bastards.

61

I hate JW jargon!!! (Alternatives please!)

by VampireDCLXV in

all of us who have any ties to the jws know that they have their own vernacular, their own slang.

sure, there are formal titles that we can't really get away from: pioneer, ministerial servant, elder, ______ overseer, governing body, the (watchtower) society, etc.

but there are plenty of other bits of parlance they use that i can do without.... for example:.

MrMonroe

"The convention was encouraging" = "I attended the convention. Right now I can't think of anything I learned or was actually interested in. But I want you to know I was there."

"They're blinded by Satan" = "They just won't swallow this shit like I did."

"Immorality" = "Screwing around"

"Self-abuse" = "wanking"

"Wait on Jehovah" = Shut the fuck up.

"A test of our faith" = "A test of how far you'll stay obedient to us when every sense of logic tells you it's bullshit."

"Marry only in the Lord" = "Marry another JW. That means if one of you does the wrong thing, we'll always have an informer."

"The slave" = "Your ruler."

35

Elders came to visit...

by pubtruth in

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MrMonroe

(Sorry, iPad and JWN don't work well together).

How ludicrous that their solution for anyone who doubts that the JW cult is the truth is to go out to the public to try to draw them into the cult as well.

35

Elders came to visit...

by pubtruth in

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