i voted this morning for the first time.
at 32yo i wondered in a church of england parish hall with no idea what i was doing.
everyone else knew how to do it.
Being a JW meant constantly wrestling with guilt, but once the lightbulb turned on and I woke up, nope!!!
I voted for the first time in 2012...and have voted in every election, big or small, ever since. There's a governor primary coming up next week, I'm hoping to do that as well.
The first time I wasn't guilty...but I was anxious some JW would spot me and report me to the elders. Didn't happen.
there were many addressed to me.
for example, i once had a sister tell me i was gambling because i liked playing skill crane (the machine where you have to try to pick up prizes like stuffed animals) at the arcade.
i then fired back a her: "you saw the r-rated movie 'backdraft.
A blessing in disguise.
interesting article.
3,800 words long.
so it's a 'long read'.
That cancer cure thing really makes my head spin.
something that has often struck me in my morning musings is: why should “god’s people” ever need to hide or flee in fear?.
there are numerous accounts recorded in the bible, both ot and nt, where prophets, kings, apostles and others have either been told to flee and hide or have just experienced that normal human feeling of fear and have fled and hidden instinctively.
even recently, the wtbts has produced vivid images in the wt magazine and videos of “god’s people” hiding out in bunkers to avoid detection.. is it just another broken promise from jehober that he will “without fail” protect “his people”?
i have been out for nearly 40 years now - baptized at 14 (although not to the org), but faded away.
but i am wondering about this:.
aside from the obvious power they wield, what's is in it for the gb?
Where else would they go?
The consequences of being wrong is too great to reconcile.
i left the religion back in the early 2000's, tell you the truth it's been so long now i've been out i don't remember exactly when i left.
i definitely used this site a lot when i first left and it was a great asset.
when i left i somehow managed to get my parents to come with me.
They are rebranding to the point it's almost not the same religion anymore. But in regards being authoritarian, they are just as much if not more so.
The packaging is changing, but when you open it up, it's still a cult and a toxic environment.
I think the bottom line is: in a cult, "friends" are easily made, but it is an illusion. In the everyday world, it's more difficult for people in their 30's and older to make new friends. People by that age already have made their social circles. It's the one problem that is difficult to solve for those who leave the cult.
activism or any kind of push back really is not about the size of your emotion, your disgust, or the feeling of powerless frustration at the religion.being an ex-jw is about one of two things and two things only:1. being effective.
2. being ineffectiveto which i add: effective at what?1.
not identifying yourself as the foaming at the mouth, demonic, mentally diseased piece of shit the watchtower has framed you out to be in the minds of their captive slaves.2.
Terry: I couldn't agree with you more.
I really don't get the mindset of those who are aggressive. It's as if they've forgotten what it's like to be a JW or they just don't care about helping them.
londo111 » each congregation has a “talk coordinator”.
talk coordinators will coordinate with other talk coordinators in order to find speakers to give the public talk on sunday.
typically, they come from the general area: the circuit or a nearby circuit.
ColdSteel:
Perhaps the LDS church is a better environment than the JWs and has nowhere near the extreme control. Since I'm never been, I cannot say.
However, the way you describe former Mormons (and their websites, books, ect...) sounds allot like how many JWs would describe former JWs, including this forum here.
i thought this deserved its own topic.
it is a thought that occurred to me as i read the wt rag that i took to be polite.. it is the public one about the 4 horseman, and it struck me that they are still 100% reliant on their false 1914 doctrine to hang everything on.. if 1914 is proved wrong, what can the credibility of their doomsday message hang on ?.
we all know how to disprove the old 2520 years nonsense, but they seem to at last be hiding that, and simply claiming that world events prove jesus slung the devil out of heaven in 1914.. so, what has that old devil done since 1914, 103 years ago ?.
Indeed. 1914 is the key to the entire theology. That mountains of evidence that prove 587 BC as opposed to 607 blow the 2520 year equation out the water. The improving world conditions show these have been the best time humanity has ever had...whatever problems there are, in the past, prior to the 20th century, they were a whole lot worse. People in the middle ages had a better case for being in the last days.
Of course, without 1914, the year 1919 becomes insignificant as well. And it deals a huge blow to the idea that Jesus appointed the leaders of the Watchtower as his "faithful slave". The Governing Body's claim to authority is rendered meaningless.
londo111 » each congregation has a “talk coordinator”.
talk coordinators will coordinate with other talk coordinators in order to find speakers to give the public talk on sunday.
typically, they come from the general area: the circuit or a nearby circuit.
If it were some sort of Bible study with the intent to convert the non-JWs, perhaps it would be okay. But only two JWs would be able to "count their time".
However, even a one-time meetup of independent Bible research, if come to attention of the elders, would likely result in them talking to the person. And a mixed theological discussion (JWs and non-JWS) might be viewed as "interfaith": a huge no no.
A non-religious meetup (book club,ect) would not bear that kind of stigma. However, most likely, a JW would be counseled at having unnecessary association with non-JWs and 1 Corinthians 15:33 would be trotted out.
