Posts by DanaBug

i grew up as a jehovah's witness from the age of 9 until i fought my way to freedom at age 18. i recall children as young as a year old being beaten repeatedly for not sitting still during services...some sessions, called assemblies, were 6 hours long and lasted for 3-5 days in succession.. my nephew was one of many who felt the literal sting of the watchtower's stance of "spare the rod, spoil the child.

DanaBug

If we fell asleep during a meeting, we had to stand at our chair until the song.

This is something I avoid thinking about or even talking about. I don't think I had the worst of it, by no means. But I just can't imagine putting my daughter through the same. And it hurts to think my parents did it, and thought it was best for us. Honestly, I'm getting pissed off that anyone would even defend this. I'm taking a break.

50

Child Abuse At The Meetings

by Hairyhegoat in

please read and i will tell you now this was it was like for me !.

kingdom halls are a hellish memory for me.

i grew up as a jehovah's witness from the age of 9 until i fought my way to freedom at age 18. i recall children as young as a year old being beaten repeatedly for not sitting still during services...some sessions, called assemblies, were 6 hours long and lasted for 3-5 days in succession.. my nephew was one of many who felt the literal sting of the watchtower's stance of "spare the rod, spoil the child.

DanaBug

DY,

There's a world of difference between an animated cartoon and listening to an adult speak in a monotone about things you're not concerned about in the least.

and yes, if the parents are smart about it, they'll find better ways. But apparently our experiences were not unique. So where did all of our parents get this idea from? And again why is there nothing like a Sunday school for children? Something that will engage them and keep their attention. Go sit in on a kindergarten class. Is that anything like a hall meeting?? Why is that?

50

Child Abuse At The Meetings

by Hairyhegoat in

please read and i will tell you now this was it was like for me !.

kingdom halls are a hellish memory for me.

i grew up as a jehovah's witness from the age of 9 until i fought my way to freedom at age 18. i recall children as young as a year old being beaten repeatedly for not sitting still during services...some sessions, called assemblies, were 6 hours long and lasted for 3-5 days in succession.. my nephew was one of many who felt the literal sting of the watchtower's stance of "spare the rod, spoil the child.

DanaBug

As the mother of a 3 yr old, I have no idea what other way there is to make a child sit quietly through a 2 hour meeting. There's no WAY my daughter could do that or that I would even expect her to. There's no way I could beat her to do it either.

I only vaguely remember most of this. I remember my father telling a story about how he had me in the bathroom because I was acting up, and I climbed up, grabbed the sides of his face and put my face in his face. I guess this was before I could speak (and I was an early talker too!). But anyway, it gave him the idea that I was telling him off or something so he bent me over his knee and continued the "discipline". Another story I remember is my grandmother trying to stop my father from taking one of us to the bathroom during a meeting. He told her he would discipline his children his way as head of the family (or something similar) and she best get back to her seat or she could take it up with the elders. My dad also had a metal pipe, prob 3" in diameter, that he would joke was his "rod", in reference to spare the rod, spoil the child. I remember him doing that at book studies in our house. He never used it on us though. We usually got a belt or spatula at home, and a hand at the hall. But these are stories or jokes he would voluntarily tell in front of other JW's.

And as I remember, we got spankings after almost every meeting until I was about 9. My dad was an elder and almost always had a part, there were four of us and my mom. How do you think that scenario always played out?

I know I didn't have it nearly as bad as others and I don't think this kind of "discipline" is unique to JW's, but other churches have Sunday schools and such for children. They understand that it's unreasonable to expect an infant or toddler, or even just a child, to sit through boring talks for hours. It just baffles me! Why haven't they done something for the children? Why??

47

Why believe the bible?

by digderidoo in

why believe the bible?

why is it god's word or not?.

DanaBug

And even if God exists, he would not transmit his word through a collection of obscure texts.

This is what I think too. I don't think the Bible was inspired, I think it's ancient man's understanding of the way things worked. The creation account told me that. It's exactly parallel to the Babylonian account of creation. If it's inspired, wouldn't it be clearer? Wouldn't there be less room for different interpretations, since it's a matter of life and death?

There are some very good things we can learn from the Bible, especially what Jesus taught. But alot of other religions teach the same thing. H.H. the Dalai Lama says a lot of the same things and they come across as a lot more relevant to me. Personally, I don't see any reason to believe the Bible as opposed to any other religious text. Certainly, we can learn something from all of them. But when it comes down to it, I think they're all the same: someone's/a culture's answer to the questions that we all ask.

6

Be Glad You Nations With His People

by Clint Bussey in

no jehovah's witnesses are singing the kingdom melodies on youtube.

so i decided too.

check out the video of song 14 from the old songbook.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm5tn3wy8nc.

DanaBug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm5tN3wY8nc

Clint, I love it! Especially the beard, lol!

12

Remnant Check by WTS

by Band on the Run in

there is a debate about the nature of the eucharist once consecrated, a church mouse appears and runs off with the host.

is it still christ's body?.

when i was a witness, only a literal handful could be annointed.

DanaBug

Maybe these newly partaking witnesses are reading the NT and understanding that the heavenly hope is open to them. Maybe they choose to partake in silence rather than point out how the teaching is wrong, has been wrong all along. I don't know really. I do know that reading those chapters in Rev, one time w/o any previous ideas about them, proved to me JW's were wrong about it.

I don't think it's egotistical either. Remember, the anointed are below the elders in the JW pecking order and barely above a baptized publisher. And JW's tend to think of anointed as a little crazy, especially if they don't fit their idea of what an anointed should be. A person would have to be crazy to want to be in heaven instead of on a Paradise earth, that's the attitude I remember.

50

What would you hate about the Paradise...

by Butterflyleia85 in

jw
friends

well i was thinking... kinda random stuff this morning.

there was on the news of volcano eruption in brussel and it was so cool looking.

no injuries were found but i got to see the lava and thinking how beautiful it was.

DanaBug

while the people surviving would be JW idiots with no intelligence or culture. I would detest it. No ballet, opera, Beatles, R & B, jazz.....Only the JW songs. No fashion. No great works of literature, only WTS publications.

This too! Most of my favorite things, music, and books would not be JW-approved. Imagine a world with only JW culture. Ugh. No thanks.

50

What would you hate about the Paradise...

by Butterflyleia85 in

jw
friends

well i was thinking... kinda random stuff this morning.

there was on the news of volcano eruption in brussel and it was so cool looking.

no injuries were found but i got to see the lava and thinking how beautiful it was.

DanaBug

Cheeseburgers. Big, fat, greasy cheeseburgers. I would miss those.

And there's a kind of ying/yang balance to life now. Like you said in the first post, experiencing the bad makes us appreciate the good. If it's all good...well, that just sounds really boring. Besides how can we continue to grow and get better personally, if there's no bad to help us do that?