here's a bit of back story on my dealings with this nice man, who i will call sparky:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/248936/1/an-elder-called-me#.uk4ykiami6m.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/249982/1/getting-serious-for-julia#.uk4zd4ami6m.
This is a wonderful thing to see. It gives me hope that a silent witness may bear fruit, even months or years later.
Two of my family members (my mother and youngest brother) are starting to talk to me after over twenty years of shunning. I wonder if all of these adjustments and new light are accreting in the minds of the faithful, and at some point a critical mass is reached in the congregations - 1975 II, Electric Boogaloo.
just wanted to point out something that another poster brought up in the thread on the agm rumours, the writing department included a photo of a cuneiform tablet in their article on the origin of languages with a caption that states it is from 3000 bc.
this would pre-date the global flood myth and the fanciful tower of babel story altogether, hah!.
The problem is, ancient civilizations (except for perhaps Greece and Rome, fleetingly) are no longer covered in public schools. In the US, you are lucky if you get American history and some scope of appreciation for current events.
This leaves the WTBTS wide open to put a lot of sweet-smelling historical garbage out there which the rank and file eat right up.
/history major
so i ran into an old friend (elder) from the hall at the supermarket.
he started off saying how much i am missed at meetings, etc .
then he asks if know what happend to sister gomez.
It enrages me to see the WTBTS selling their Brooklyn holdings for $800 million only to plough all of that and more into a huge facility in Warwick. If the Society had an ounce of Christian virtue, $799 million of their profit would have gone to those in need - as Doc said - AS THEY HAVE BEEN COMMANDED.
Pope Francis has made more of a gesture to the poor in the last year than the Witnesses ever have. How sick is that?
i think in this matter many times.
based in this, i think that the creative days not have the same duration.
for example, the 7th day can be 7000 (4 hrs celestial * 7) years long like and the rest of days, each 42000 years long (24 hrs celestial * 7).. .
Please, for God's sake, just work to leave this earth a bit better than you found it. If that gets you everlasting life, great. If not, you've made some people happy and will be remembered well.
If God is more concerned with adulation or magic words or dates or rule books than he is simple gentleness or kindness, then I doubt everlasting life is a club you want to join anyway. Why be stuck with a sanctimonious, nitpicking prick for all eternity?
how many here are (a) ex-jw, (b) non-jw with jw relatives or spouses, (c) inactive jw, or (d) active jw who stay in for your own reasons?.
Born in, essentially DA'd ("no longer an approved associate") in 1990. Family is still in. Awkward.
up to about 5 minutes ago... i still had the notion that maybe jw's predicted something and got it right... that the league of nations was going to rise and become the united nations.
i think that jw prophecies/predictions are like a shotgun: shoots many projectiles, one of them has got to hit.
you cannot predict 5 different things and then, when one of them gets partly fulfilled, drop the other 4.5 things, change the 1/2 thing you predicted that was right and make it seem like that was the only thing you predicted, and make the entire one point fit after the fact.. reading watchtower literature throughout the years (1879 till now), and then coming here and getting awesome explanations from people like leolaia and other researchers, i finally understand the claim that most apostate websites make: the wt has a 100% prediction failure rate.. they were lucky that something big happened in 1914... but now i am much wiser and i know that everything they predicted for 1914 did not turn out as they predicted... 1914 has been a date with many different hats... from the start of armageddon, to the beginning of the last days... etc.... thank you very much jwn for completely opening my mind.
This has interesting, significant parallels in the stock market.
Only a few advice-soliciting brokers gain fame and riches. Most would say that these brokers are somehow inherently better at predicting rises and falls in the market. Unfortunately, it's very possible that the few that achieve this reputation owe their fame and fortune exclusively to luck.
Let's assume a body of 144,000 brokers (heh) and reassess every two years. Those making money at the end start fresh for another two years, those losing money get fired. Between you and me, let's also assume a perfectly random distribution of positive and negative results.
After two years, 72,000 would be left.
After four years, 36,000;
After six, 18,000;
Eight, 9,000;
Ten, we can reasonably expect about 4500 are left standing out of 144,000. A little more than three percent of our original number.
Ten years have passed and these 4500 brokers look like they can do no wrong. Money flies in under management in the expectation that this small group has the knack to make money. But no - two more years pass and we can expect 2,250 of these alleged brainiacs to lose your money.
That's why we hear the disclaimer: "Past performance does not guarantee future results." In fact, I would submit one may have absolutely nothing to do with the other.
Same thing with the Witnesses, which I see as one of the very last Millerite religions standing. In a religion which makes sole claim to The Truth, they have been somewhat right...maaaaybe once. Certainly they've been wrong before and after 1914, and you have only to look at the reversals and counter-reversals in dogma from Russell on down to pop the infallibility bubble. The Witness insistence that they alone possess The Truth is not just nauseatingly hubristic, but demonstrably false, however the reversals might be dressed as 'new light' or a 'finer understanding'.
Wrong is wrong.
it's 1am and i'm halfway through a glass of brandy.
i've been cleaning out the closet (literally), and reminiscing about old times and decisions i didn't make.
it's times like these i regret being brought up as a witness the most.
This is an excellent thread.
In high school, I had a massive crush on a worldly girl. We've kept up our friendship over the last twenty-five years even when we lived on different coasts. We'd sometimes come tantalizingly close to being together, but my Witness upbringing (which I had just about abandoned when we met) has always been too much to overcome. I am convinced no one escapes the Organization without permanent emotional damage. There are too many scars from guilt and shame, too many bizarre perspectives on love and duty, to be anything otherwise.
But it is never too late to leave a sick relationship, whether that's a marriage or the always-sick relationship with the Organization.
My father-in-law has finally found freedom at age 71. It was not a slow fade. He ran from everything - his controlling, manipulative, sick wife, his just as manipulative and sick congregation. He dropped everything and moved a thousand miles away, setting up in a small apartment near my worldly sister-in-law, with little more than the clothes on his back. He will spend the last few years of his life away from sick people and sick influences. He may not make the best choices, but they will be HIS choices. I am so, so very proud of him.
Please do not look at years you spent figuring things out as squandered. This was merely time you needed to learn what was important, and sometimes that takes almost a lifetime to get past the indoctrination and guilt and lies. One year, one month, one day of freedom is worth it.
Pronomono and Diana - I wish you deep peace and love in the time ahead.
hi all, i've posted here in crisis a few weeks ago.
i recently have finally taken the time to write out my entire story.
i knew i had to come out to my parents and family about everything, my sexuality, and my issues with the jehovah's witnesses.
This is beautifully written. Thank you so much for opening your heart and sharing this.
As someone who has been shunned for 24 years, I can say this (and perhaps I'm borrowing a phrase): It gets better. And although it hurts immeasurably now, you will someday find people in your life who deserve your beautiful heart and your beautiful love.
I'm sorry this is happening to you but I am so happy you are walking away from this cult.
i was listening to the radio, a religous show.. the speaker started talking about how the holy spirit is the third person of the godhead.. they just assume that everyone understands what a godhead is, and it is a manmade term.
that is what makes their point of view so ridiculous.. is it like a godfoot, godear, god elbow?.
they have their scriptures to link the holy spirit with the trinity, and jws have their scriptures to unlink it, and never they two shall meet.. .
Not sure about Godhead. I have, however, experienced Goodhead.
hey guys.
don't really post here much, mostly just lurk around.
so here's just backstory: in 2012, after about half a year of research i decided to leave the organization.
I'm with Oubliette on this one. You don't owe them a thing, much less an explanation. They want you to hang yourself with your justification or your pain, and that plays right in to them being able to keep their "in group" in. Just as sinister as Scientology's "What are your crimes?"
Don't give in. Don't ever give in to their demands.
The best thing you can do is walk away and live a good life unencumbered by their lies.
