Posts by Lost in the fog

21

Why the Catholic Church outlast Jehovah's Witnesses

by no-zombie in

many of us who are old timers in "truth", will clearly remember how we and the organization gloated when christendom began selling off their churches, as we saw many ending up becoming cafe's and art galleries.

i personally remember being told (both in general conversation and in print) that the fall of their congregant numbers meant that most churches were ultimately attended by the elderly and it was clearly linked to the "drying up of her waters" in reference to the fall of babylon and babylon the great..

how ironic, that this very situation has now befallen the society and our local kingdom halls..

Lost in the fog

Joe134cd, a most interesting post, thank you.

I have long been attracted to the Roman Catholic Church after reading books by Thomas Merton and watching EWTN in the past. Although I don't think I could embrace the Trinity doctrine....

The WTS says that the troubles of this world from 1914 came about because Satan was cast down from heaven in that year. I was always at a loss to explain the number of wars and massacres that took place prior to 1914, who was to blame? just evil people?

I enjoy visiting Anglican and Catholic churches because of their sense of sacred space and glory to God. I'm really glad to hear that you have found a home Joe in the RCC, I wish I could find somewhere else to go to for a sacred community, but I don't know if I can ever trust any religion again.

17

Wedding Rings.

by Lost in the fog in

we have long queried why so-called things of pagan or religious origin like christmas or easter are banned by the wts but the use of wedding rings were not.. i was talking about this with a friend who follows a wiccan path of belief and he has sent me the following information from one of his magic magazines.. quote: .

" why do we wear our wedding ring on our ‘ring finger’ ?

thus, to properly activate the ring finger we need to wear a golden ring on it.

Lost in the fog

We have long queried why so-called things of pagan or religious origin like Christmas or Easter are banned by the WTS but the use of wedding rings were not.

I was talking about this with a friend who follows a Wiccan path of belief and he has sent me the following information from one of his magic magazines.

QUOTE:

" Why do we wear our wedding ring on our ‘ring finger’ ?

Haven’t you always wondered? Why do we choose to put our Wedding Rings on the ‘Ring Finger’? Well, as you can understand, the name of the finger itself actually implies its participation in Wedding Rituals.

Why a Golden Ring on Ring Finger?

This part of Wedding Rituals actually dates back in ancient years. First of all, the Ring, symbolises the Wholeness and Unity. It’s the perfect shape of Alchemists and it’s linked with Ouroboros - the symbol of eternity.

Now why on the Ring Finger? This finger is associated with the Sun and Apollo, god of all blessings. When we ‘activate’ this finger we actually activate the power of the Sun and Apollo in us. As every ‘Planet’ is associated with one Metal, the Sun and Apollo is associated with Gold.

Thus, to properly activate the Ring Finger we need to wear a Golden Ring on it. Therefore, in Wedding Rings, we conjure the blessings of Apollo and the Sun, the bringers of timeless happiness. "

So WTS put that in your pipe and smoke it!

26

Speaking with Demons

by BereanThinker7 in

having learned more actual christian beliefs since awaking from the org, looking back we had such strange and unhealthy obsession with demons compared to any other denomination that i know of.

i recently remembered this article from when i was a kid.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/101986604?q=talk+to+the+demons&p=par#h=23.

Lost in the fog

I remember an elder in a Watchtower Study back in the 70s denouncing the TV show Bewitched as demonic and that he wouldn't allow anyone in his household to watch it.

Hilarious. Most of us had grown up watching it because it was a clean funny comedy.

But let an elder with a bee in his bonnet start denouncing TV programmes and where might it end? Tying guilty publishers to the stake and burning them outside in the KH car park. Hahaha.

9

Owners of Noah's Ark replica file lawsuit....

by TD in

...over rain damage.. i guess they don't make them like they used to.

.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/25/us/noahs-ark-replica-park-sues-for-rain-damage/index.html.

Lost in the fog

We had an elder who told people that Noah's Ark had a pitched roof to keep the rain off it.

And brothers would show him the picture in the Society's literature of the ark with a flat roof. But he insisted that the brother who studied with him said it was pitched. So it must have been an upturned V shape on the top.

Then it finally dawned on the others that the fool was mistaking a roof covered with pitch with the idea of a pitched roof.

Lol.

22

Dubtown - its nearly the end of the month, remember to do your reports

by Dubtown in

"everything we do in the truth is voluntary" ... something i heard many times.

does that include reporting ministry?.

https://youtu.be/chgdiof05bk.

Lost in the fog

The whole thing about reporting sickened me. It is because they are a business organisation that they set monthly targets.

I knew one sister who suffered from social anxiety and was hounded over her reports being so low. She was dragged out in the FS and elders worked with her to encourage her. In the end this personal attention and a couple of family issues caused her to leave the religion. It was a crying shame because she had gifts for helping older ones, even taking time off work to help them redecorate their home. But such true Christianity was not reportable so the elders ignored such good deeds.

I remember too my mother who was a long time pioneer in her younger days saying that if you didn't get your full hour allowance in (I think it was 120 hours a month in those days of the 1940s/1950s) then headquarters refused to send you your monthly cash allowance - which led to hardship and difficulty paying the rent in your accommodation.

It was a mind control really to force them to do the full amount of hours demanded by HQ, with no one taking into account such restrictions faced by all females such as heavy periods etc.

On the flip side we know of an elder who sits at a table covered in literature at the weekly town market for 8 or 9 hours on the Saturday (mostly ignored by shoppers so he'll read the papers sitting there) and count 5 weeks x 9 hours =45 hours, he then does another 5 hours door to door and qualifies as a regular auxiliary pioneer doing his 50 hours a month. As a result he gets used on convention programmes. The days of only knocking doors to aux. pio were hard going, I know because I did it!

These days its all make-believe. I reckon 90% of the reports submitted are works of fiction except for the old timers who are suffering guilt for not being good enough. I feel so so sad for them.

14

Love Among Yourselves?

by Lost in the fog in

you have to wonder why a congregation which claims to have love among itself would not do something to help this poor off member of the congregation.

oh wait a minute, they preached to him, got him in, so now he's on his own - just like all the rest of them!

https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/disabled-man-s-housing-fears-in-brent-1-6066131 .

Lost in the fog

You have to wonder why a congregation which claims to have love among itself would not do something to help this poor off member of the congregation. Oh wait a minute, they preached to him, got him in, so now he's on his own - just like all the rest of them!

https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/disabled-man-s-housing-fears-in-brent-1-6066131

5

Please don't give them new ideas!

by Lost in the fog in

spotted this question on another site.

my first thought was "please don't give the local elders another excuse to badger those leaving.

" mind you we haven't signed non-disclosure agreements like this person did.. https://www.cultnews101.com/2019/05/can-i-be-sued-by-former-cult-i-was.html?m=1 .

Lost in the fog

Spotted this question on another site.

My first thought was "please don't give the local elders another excuse to badger those leaving." Mind you we haven't signed non-disclosure agreements like this person did.

https://www.cultnews101.com/2019/05/can-i-be-sued-by-former-cult-i-was.html?m=1

6

Do not record any not at homes!

by Lost in the fog in

apparently the letter was read out to all uk congregations at the mid-week meeting this week a friend of ours said.

.

https://truthandtransparency.org/news/2019/5/15/jehovahs-witnesses-overhaul-proselytizing-procedures-in-response-to-eu-regulation.

Lost in the fog

Apparently the letter was read out to all UK congregations at the mid-week meeting this week a friend of ours said.

https://truthandtransparency.org/news/2019/5/15/jehovahs-witnesses-overhaul-proselytizing-procedures-in-response-to-eu-regulation

4

Hypocrisy

by BourneIdentity in

hypocrisy in the org.

just off the top of my head, i came up with a bunch of examples showing the jw's hypocrisy.

any others to add?.

Lost in the fog

Christians should be Christian 24/7, why are you expected to count the minutes you give a witness to others?

The hypocrisy is evident when the Kingdom Ministry once responded to a question about family studies that said parents could only report 1 hour and 1 return visit for the family study per week, although the family head clearly spent much more time with his family as a Christian parent.

Hours = targets, and are used to differentiate between promotions eg Auxiliary Pioneer, Regular Pioneer, Special Pioneer etc.... And rather than trusting the workers they make them report so that low hours workers will be hounded by the elders etc. The whole shebang about counting your time made me sick.

8

How to Become a Jehovah's Witness - Nine Easy Steps

by Sea Breeze in

wow, that's a lot of steps.

.

(by wikihow).

Lost in the fog

Don't forget Step 10 a short while after Step 9.

https://m.wikihow.com/Leave-Jehovah%27s-Witnesses