You are going to lose many people and it is going to hurt.
In a cult, friends are instantly made and instantly lost.
this is my first post and hopefully i can get some advice and input.
i have been actively involved with the organization for a little over 10 years now.
i began studying in high school, got baptized and my family fortunately did not.
You are going to lose many people and it is going to hurt.
In a cult, friends are instantly made and instantly lost.
according to the great apostate, who spent time with police officers at the protest, they informed him that it was not watchtower who called the police in but another exjw who briefly attended the protest and subsequently disapproved of the protesters methods...claiming they were being "violent".. i find this very difficult to understand.
anyone who saw the bravery of the women who stood up in the kingdom hall and told the story of their abuse and rape could not fail to feel compassion and offer their support.. i know there are posters on this forum who disagree with me.they worry that such protests play into watchtowers "persecution" complex, and naturally i understand their position.. but really, how long do we have to fear their power over their members, and through their members, us.. many jw's simply do not know the extent of the paedophile problem,.they do not know about malawi, the un, the bloodless surgery guinea pig deaths ( thank you orphan crow), the suicides....i simply don't believe that protests don't work....if there are enough of them, and they are organized, and most of all if we are united...we shall make a difference, and that difference may be your loved one.. https://youtu.be/ffhr9onbdrk.
Plenty of JWs, especially elders, end up "fighting" each other.
There was nothing to "get away" from, expect information, especially in regard the safety of children in the JW organization.
Even though I disagree with the method, the protests were peaceful. JWs were safe from the protestors.
i don't think anyone else has raised this point.
below i set out the case that the jw demographic in usa has a steadily decreasing combined income, and as a consequence, has less money to donate.
not only is the flock not growing, the flock is producing less wool for the borg to fleece.
The Pew poll shows a huge demographic shift in terms of ethnicity of JWs in the US, which unfortunately reflects financially disparity. This would mean less donations going to Watchtower HQ.
if someone believes they're being plagued with demons or they have problems with hauntings, things moving by themselves or hearing voices or footsteps, who they gonna call?
i know they take demons very seriously, so who in the congregation do they go to when they need to bring out the big guns?
do they try to handle it themselves or is this a job for the elders?
The JW teachings on this is that miraculous gifts ceased after the death of the apostles, this would include casting out demons.
With that in mind, a JW remedy would be say Jehovah aloud, which the demons are said to be adverse to hearing, and to look for any activity or item recently purchased that might be associated with "spiritism" and to get rid of it. For some reason, burning a suspected item is often a go to solution. The elders might be called, but they would likely do more of the same.
according to the great apostate, who spent time with police officers at the protest, they informed him that it was not watchtower who called the police in but another exjw who briefly attended the protest and subsequently disapproved of the protesters methods...claiming they were being "violent".. i find this very difficult to understand.
anyone who saw the bravery of the women who stood up in the kingdom hall and told the story of their abuse and rape could not fail to feel compassion and offer their support.. i know there are posters on this forum who disagree with me.they worry that such protests play into watchtowers "persecution" complex, and naturally i understand their position.. but really, how long do we have to fear their power over their members, and through their members, us.. many jw's simply do not know the extent of the paedophile problem,.they do not know about malawi, the un, the bloodless surgery guinea pig deaths ( thank you orphan crow), the suicides....i simply don't believe that protests don't work....if there are enough of them, and they are organized, and most of all if we are united...we shall make a difference, and that difference may be your loved one.. https://youtu.be/ffhr9onbdrk.
The words of the OP were aptly, “According to”.
I do not know anything about the modestly named “The Great Apostate”, but are there any independent sources?
Some of the crowd at this event often play fast and loose with the truth (take the Johnny the Bethelite fiasco), that it makes me not want to take anything anyone says at face value.
And even if one of the protestors did call, how do we know it was this ex-Bible student person?
It could well be true, but before making accusations, I definitely think we need to factcheck.
i'm just curious to get people's views on this.. the bible students seem to start of as quite a liberal group under charles taze russell, albeit he had some whacky teachings going on.
obviously things began to change under rutherford.
but what decade did it become abundantly clear that the society was indeed high control religion or even labeled a cult?.
1952 was when disfellowshipping (with shunning) was introduced.
It was then that the final piece was moved into place.
a growing discourse on this forum has been around what "the end" means.
as jws, many here spent varying proportions of our lives waiting for the end when an unsettling realization was that the end that approaches is more likely to be from old age than the world's end.
through the centuries, group after group, has claimed it has "inside" information on the end of the world, drawing in the desperate-for-comfort like moths to flames.
I will also have to vote for 1995 as well. Not only because of the Generation change, but it was also around that time that the Internet began to make inroads into people's households.
i'm just curious to get people's views on this.. the bible students seem to start of as quite a liberal group under charles taze russell, albeit he had some whacky teachings going on.
obviously things began to change under rutherford.
but what decade did it become abundantly clear that the society was indeed high control religion or even labeled a cult?.
1952
in case the picture didn't load.... i'm referring to an elevator with a (quite common) weight capacity of 1,500 lbs.. would the 7 members of the governing body exceed this weight limit??
david splane: 195 pounds.
stephen lett: 205 pounds.
They've enough hot air. The elevator might rise like a balloon.
let the reader use discernment:.
i was disfellowshipped in june of last year.
while i've been awake for nearly a year, i still often feel groggy.
Thebrokenkite: Thanks for the honest review of the event.
I agree with the assessment of Morpheus.
One of the big turn offs were some of the central figures of this protest.
Before I woke up, I remember happening upon scary looking websites or videos of foaming at the mouth, ranting people. It kept me in.
Today, there is a whole new generation of those. Instead of being fact based and sticking to what can be confirmed, they indulge in wild speculation and unsubstantiated claims.
Along with this, they loudly air personal grievances of other exJWs, ranting into the camera sometimes for more than an hour or more. Sometimes they loudly read private messages. And of course, these make extreme unsubstantiated claims of criminal behavior. Despite some of these claiming to be Christian, there is nothing in the way of forgiveness or the “fruitage of the spirit”. No amount of apologies will do for these folks.
They seem to be all for tyrannical governments throwing rank
and file JWs, who are already victims of Watchtower, in jail. They ignore that
had they been citizens of these governments, and still JWs, they would be the
ones going to jail.
I’m so glad I woke up before this new generation. It was the calm reasoning of Ray Franz helped me tremendously when I was ready. He was against being disruptive or disrespectful. Nor did he broadcast personal grievances.