Posts by Scully

39

I've done it: Christmas Lights Outside

by StephaneLaliberte in

lets see if that causes a problem.

i've been inactive for a very long time now (like 10+ years), so, i don't expect to hear anything from it, but my parents are worried i'll get df.

lets see what happens.

Scully

Hey Stephane

Glad you took the leap, and hope nobody bothers you about it. Honestly, they did us a favour when they announced that my (now) ex was No Longer One Of Jehovah's Witnesses™ because it freed us from the fear of being shunned. I honestly don't care if a JW shuns me, in fact I welcome it. My JW relatives have been fine, once they realized we were not going to try to change their minds about the JWs, and besides my parent sometimes needs help or just wants to keep in touch. JW stuff is a no-fly zone, I won't discuss anything related to it, *unless* they initiate the discussion. I keep it short and to the point, and then change the subject. They are beginning to realize that it becomes difficult to split hairs, so to speak, by including never-baptized non-believing siblings and excluding Inactive™ ones. Especially when they get 'forgotten' by their so-called Brothers™ and Sisters™.

Enjoy your Christmas lights. Enjoy the season. Putting up or having extra lights during the darkest part of the year is normal. It crosses all cultures, and perhaps has always been a way to ward off depression that tends to increase as the days have more darkness than light.

20

I need to vent sorry!

by KerryKing in

i couldn't get back to sleep last night, something my father said a few weeks ago popped into my head.. we were talking about obtaining citizenship, he doesn't need it, but was contemplating what benefits it could get him now he's a pensioner.. background : i've been disfellowhipped for 15 years, i was born in, he is an elder, very much pimi, he was also born in.. i said to him how citizenship would be difficult for him as it would require him to swear allegiance to the state?.

oh he said, thats just a crowd of people together in a big room for the swearing in event, it would be easy to just mumble or say nothing, nobody would know.. this has quietly been eating away in my mind, why did it bother me?.

last night it hit me, when i was in my first year of school, age 5, i came out of school one day with a balloon with two little pencils attached, a gift from a classmate who's birthday it was, every child got one.

Scully

What the WTS is doing is "straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel". They are fixated on miniscule details that should be personal decisions and ignore the more important principles. Citizenship affords someone a legal status that landed immigrants do not enjoy in the country of residence. Just being able to travel outside the country of residence was something that my grandparents couldn't do because they didn't get citizenship in the country they emigrated to. We knew plenty of JWs who had come from various parts of the world in the post WW2 era who became citizens, and then all of a sudden they're the ones trying to tell one of my parents that they couldn't get citizenship? Hogwash. If it's good enough for them (and allows them to vacation in the Caribbean, while they expect my family to suffer through winters in Canada) it should be okay for us too.

If there's one thing I can't abide, it's hypocrisy. Just mind your own d@mn business. Nobody is breaking any laws here.

18

Discouraging JWs From Calling

by NotFormer in

i was reading an anti cult reddit post where a woman (ex mormon) was trying her hardest to discourage the mormons from visiting her and trying to convert her back.

a few others chimed in about their various methods (coming to the door naked, pretending to be practicing black magic, etc.

) which they claimed would have the mormons and jws running away as fast as possible.. somehow, i doubt it.

Scully

@NotFormer

Yeah, remember that this was in the early 70's, there weren't the kind of reporting mechanisms that there are now. And, I imagine that what he did in his own home was his business, and the school/school board couldn't do much about his behaviour toward uninvited and unwelcome people at his front door. Kids had way too much 'respect for elders' even when it was not warranted. Everyone wanted to believe that other parents were good people, and pretty much everyone had close encounters with wooden spoons when they didn't behave at home.

Teachers got away with all kinds of abusive crap toward students. My grade 7 teacher hated me because my family was JW, and whenever we had an assembly and the national anthem was played, I was usually allowed to stay outside the auditorium until it was finished, but on one occasion, the assembly started with an announcement and I was in the auditorium. Before I knew it the anthem was being played and I had been told to remain seated if everyone else was standing and singing. This particular teacher came behind me and grabbed me by the hair and forced me to my feet, and held me standing until it was over, but in the meantime some of my classmates saw what was happening and (in solidarity?) some of them sat down, knowing that she couldn't yank them to their feet by their hair like she was doing to me.

All that did to me was reinforce the Persecution Complex™ that the WTS had predicted would happen to Jesus' True Followers™

18

Discouraging JWs From Calling

by NotFormer in

i was reading an anti cult reddit post where a woman (ex mormon) was trying her hardest to discourage the mormons from visiting her and trying to convert her back.

a few others chimed in about their various methods (coming to the door naked, pretending to be practicing black magic, etc.

) which they claimed would have the mormons and jws running away as fast as possible.. somehow, i doubt it.

Scully

My first presentation in Field Service™. I was around 10 years old, my partner was the daughter of the couple who Studied With™ my parents. A man came to the door, and yelled at me that if I ever showed up at his door again, he would get his gun and shoot me. I was terrified.

About 5 or 6 years later, I was in high school, first day of 9th grade. I went to the assigned classroom and after everyone was sitting at their desks, the teacher strolled in. It was the very same guy. Thankfully he didn't recognize me (or so I thought), but I was on my best behaviour in that class, barely spoke because I didn't want him to recognize my voice.

At the end of the school year, he approached me and asked me to babysit his kids, and I politely declined, saying that I lived too far away. He said something about thinking I lived in his neighbourhood, and that's when I realized that he remembered me, and I'd just confirmed to him that he was correct. I was even more terrified of him after that, but because I'd planned on taking the next level of the class he taught, I couldn't say anything. I just plugged away and got good grades in that class so he couldn't criticize my work.

He died a couple of years ago and it was announced on my high school's FB page, and a long forgotten burden came to mind, and then was gone. I'd outlived the bastard.

33

Historian and former JW Jim Penton dies

by slimboyfat in

i don’t know a lot about james penton but i think he deserves a better thread than the one currently on offer.

james penton, who died recently, grew up in a jw family in canada and served as an elder.

unusually for a jw, he studied liberal arts at university and became a history professor.

Scully

I had the pleasure of welcoming him as a guest in my home for several days in the late 1990s. He was so knowledgeable about JW history and the shenanigans of Rutherford and others at HQ. I think he was a tad disappointed that I realized that I was atheist, but he never criticized me for not being "Christian".

He leaves behind a great legacy of shared knowledge of JWs, the Organization™ and its history.

24

Voting, why make it easier to vote??

by moomanchu in

democrats are always harping on and on about voting rights and how the ability to vote should be easier and access unrestricted.

the most progressive ones want to allow prisoners, and illegals with no voter id the ability to vote along with the criminals, drug addicts, and uneducated low lives who already can vote.. .

after they push for everyone and anyone to be able to vote they then tell us it is a sacred privilege, a duty and honor, and a big responsibility blah, blah ect..... if it is all those grandiose things are true i think it should be harder to vote not easier.

Scully

moomanchu wrote:

If I had my way there would be criminal background checks, intelligence test, cognizant tests, drug tests.

What boggles my mind is that someone with 30+ criminal convictions/indictments can still run for president. If that's the case, then why not open up voting to criminals in prison, ex-cons and others who you deem unworthy of their right to vote.

10

found a picture of my first wife

by stan livedeath in

.

Scully

Stan, Rosie O'Donnell played Betty Rubble in The Flintstones movie, later on she had an afternoon talk show.

64

Ages of each user here?

by ukpimo in

jw
friends

i'm interested to know the age demographics here.

it must be significantly different to other exjw forums.

it would be a damning report for watchtower if most of us appear to have left for decades.. you don't have to mention your exact age, you could always say "in my 50s".. i am in my 70s.

Scully

My folks were contacted by the JWs when I was 5. Within 3 - 4 years, they were both Baptized™. By the time I was 30 I could smell that the ORG was rotten to its core, and it took another year or so of research, and gently asking Mr Scully questions that eventually got him to realize it was NOT The Truth™, nor anything even close to it. We started fresh on January 1, 1995, before the overlapping Generations crap was published - I'd even said that the GB had to come up with something to explain how, more than 80 years after 1914, the end had not yet come.

So I'm coming up to 30 years OUT since leaving the JWs, plus 5 years before the infestation began in my family. We had a fairly successful fade. I joined JWD shortly after 9/11 and just before the UN/Library Card scandal was revealed.

It mostly doesn't affect me anymore, but the CSA cases are triggering for me. The only thing that kinda helps is knowing that what happened to me wasn't an Isolated Incident™ and that there are other people who understand the shame and the gaslighting that was inflicted on all of us. It disgusts me that pedophiles in the ORG are only just in the past 20 years being held to account for their CRIMES against children.

26

So What Religion do You Claim to be when Entering Hospital?

by mikronboy in

i've had a few medical procedures.

once, i had a massive loss of blood and needed 6 units of blood to replace the loss.

however, i'm curious as to what ex's state to be their religion when filling out the required paperwork when being admitted into a hospital.

Scully

BTT

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but I have to let people know (again) that the Hospital Liaison Committee™ Elders™ would be able to access printouts from the hospital of current in-patients who have JW listed as their religious affiliation. It is IMPERITIVE that you have *ANY* reference to your past JW affiliation REMOVED from your chart if you want to avoid contact with HLC people pretending to provide "pastoral care" to patients in hospital.

I learned this from my own hospitalization over 30 years ago - prior to my admission, I had signed a declaration that I did not want nor need visitation from pastoral services following the birth of my youngest child. Somebody ignored that document: an Elder™ who had access to my CONFIDENTIAL information due to his "Pastoral Care" status. I asked him how he found me and he disclosed that he obtained a list of JW patients who were currently hospitalized. At the time I was a JW in Good Standing™, but I didn't see the need for a visit, since I wasn't sick and was going to be discharged with my baby in 48 hours. The door to my private room was closed. My curtain was pulled. He didn't knock. He didn't announce his presence in my room. He swung open the curtains to find me with my upper body exposed, breastfeeding my baby. He did not excuse himself, nor did he turn away.(*pervert*) In no uncertain terms, I told him that I did NOT WANT nor NEED a Shepherding Call™ because I wasn't sick and I was going to be discharged in a couple of days. He knew I was on the Maternity Ward, and he disregarded my specific written request for privacy. I told him off and gave him shit for interrupting me feeding the baby, and I reported him to the nurse who was looking after me, and she took it very seriously.

If you DO NOT WANT them to find you, YOU MUST UPDATE your hospital records ASAP, before you have a surgical procedure or are involved in a traumatic situation where having a blood transfusion may be vital to your survival.

18

Another Sad Shunning due to homophobia by J.W's !!

by Phizzy in

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Scully

When I worked at the hospital many moons ago, the nurse educator - an evangelical christian - made the comment to me "If my son chose to be gay, I would be very disappointed." I responded thoughtfully, saying "You know, I don't EVER recall making a choice to be heterosexual, do you?" She didn't say another word, but she looked like she'd been hit by lightning.