Posts by TonusOH

If he'd tried to do it ethically, that would've been fine. What he tried to do amounted to theft, and his attempts to deflect from that just made the situation worse. It's a behavior you can see from him frequently-- minimize his actions in any way possible. Either he will say that he didn't do anything truly awful or he will wonder aloud why you aren't criticizing someone else for what they did. Anything to avoid having to answer for his actions. It's a prominent part of his 'narcissist's toolkit.'

38

Replacing God?

by punkofnice in

we seem to be if a more secular society here in the west, these days.

i'm speaking from the uk.. with the lack of belief in god/s, i'm wondering if all the seeming (note: i said seeming!

), deification of people like greta thunberg, george floyd and celebs amongst others, if people who have no real belief system, are filling the gap left by god with people?.

TonusOH

I think we have a strong subconscious desire to belong in groups, and one of our instinctive behaviors is to protect the group from outsiders. Many animal species display this same behavior, and some ape species will even form groups that will physically attack (and even kill) outsiders from the same species.

You can see how strong this impulse is, in the way we easily form groups to support almost any person or cause. Around the world, people will belittle and insult one another because they support a different sports team, to the extent that some people have been physically assaulted and even killed over something that should be utterly trivial. Religion is perhaps our most extreme example of this form of tribalism, in that we deliberately coded in the life and death consequences of our choices. It's what makes it a particularly dangerous form of that behavior.

But I feel that it is inevitable that we would have invented religion. In some ways, we are programmed to act religiously.

31

Latest jw broadcast referring to allegations of protecting pedophiles

by jonahstourguide in

hi folks.. i put this in abuse as i thought it relevant.. a physically in mentally out friend that considers our friendship greater than religion told me that on the latest broadcast steven lett alluded to satans voice being behind people that claim the organisation protects pedophiles.. my friend then went on to say they must be in damage control.. he added, but that is correct, they are hiding their internal records.

is not that construed as protecting the accused?.

if i get the inclination i may post a snippet of what was actually said.. sadly my friend is trying to protect his family relationships and so goes along with the charade.. his situation weighs on me but, as many of you here know, it can be a difficult road to travel.. jtg.

TonusOH

Smiles: Lett then makes weird facial expressions to convince you his threat is sincere.

It always looks like his face is trying to pull itself away from his skull. I think his lips are actually a symbiotic organism that is stuck to his face.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

"When the person you're criminally suing for defamation..."

Does he understand what he wrote? lol

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

ForeverAlone: I was thinking that they could hire Croatian lawyers to try to counteract what LE's lawyers are possibly doing unchallenged by any defense representation.

I don't think they need to. Keep in mind that, since this is a criminal case, the local prosecutor must determine if he will allocate resources towards a case that will go nowhere. Getting judgments in a case like this is meaningless to the court and to the local jurisdiction. At best, they might rubber-stamp a piece of paper with no intent of following up, because they have limited resources and are not in the habit of indulging every idiot with a hang-up and a social media presence.

17

Tried to warn another mum

by DarleneGatus in

the thing that broke me was that i tried to warn another mum in the congregation about a brother who was inappropriate with my son, which upset me, and so i called her to talk about it since we both knew him and i had also seen him pin her daughter down on the sofa and slap the girl's bottom.

i called it inappropriate, but i never accused him of anything beyond that.. unfortunately, word got back to him and i had to go in front of 3 elders, including the brother who i felt had been inappropriate.

because they came down on me for trying to stop the behavior, and not on him for being the cause of upset, i felt very hurt and started questioning more things.

TonusOH

DarleneGatus: I know that the above probably sounds very minor compared to what some have suffered

Actually, what you are describing is what has happened to a lot of people and prompted them to leave or at least become PIMO. They expressed a valid concern and instead of being listened to, they were effectively harassed by elders who would rather pretend that child abuse is not going on in the congregation and are not interested in protecting children. I don't think it is very minor at all. I'm sad that people have to suffer through things like this. Good for you for trying and for seeing them for the terrible people that they are.

22

How Many Of You Knew Something Was Really Wrong Growing Up JW? What was Your First Clue?

by Sea Breeze in

this is directed to born-ins.

around age 10 or 12 is when it first hit me.

i started asking questions about how the world worked and i really wanted an honest opinion from my parents.

TonusOH

I was born and raised in it and bought into it for a long time. I think what finally began to make me stop and think was when they would admit that obedience was more important than being right, using examples of people who were removed as apostates, only for the organization to adopt their views later on. And they would say it directly- the important thing was obeying the organization, more than being right about Biblical interpretation. Even though I told myself that this was right and okay, there was apparently some level of my brain that could not make that square peg fit into a logical round hole.

Even so, I think I fought it until I finally came to the realization that I didn't believe in God. At that point, with the presupposition removed and giving myself the permission to think freely, lots of what they taught fell apart. It was at that point that I started to read stuff like CoC and learned that they'd been hiding all of their dirty laundry from us, and there was an astounding amount of it.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

A prostitute is defined as someone who exchanges sex for money. To the extent that the term has a negative connotation, it is because the act itself of offering sex for money is usually seen in a negative light. I occasionally will use the colloquial term "hooker" although that term does imply more than just the business transaction and unfairly blames the woman who is offering something that men are willing to go to the street and pay for. I avoid the term "whore" since it takes that implication to another level, though I may occasionally refer to a person as a whore if I think it's an appropriate descriptor (ie, someone who offers up their dignity on the cheap- see "politician").

The term "sex worker" seems to be an attempt to legitimize the profession, if you will. If we believe that prostitution is damaging and harmful to the people who are involved in it (frequently not of their own will), then legitimizing it with a less offensive description would seem to be harmful to them as well. I would not refer to enslaved or compromised people as "workers" in any other context, after all. I believe that there are contexts in which the term sex worker is appropriate, but using it to sanitize prostitution doesn't seem like one of them.