Might be the case, but then one could turn around and use the scripture at Luke 17:2 It would be more advantageous for him if a millstone were hung from his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to stumble one of these little ones.
Tameria2001
JoinedPosts by Tameria2001
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"ToMo3's liquor purchase video actually PROVES Jehovah's direction!"
by stuckinarut2 inok, so i played the game of putting on my jw apologetic cap for a moment, and thought of how a devout jw could rationalize this whole liquor buying situation.. they could say:.
"this actually proves that jehovah is guiding his organization!!
he was bringing this activity of tomo3 to light, and it would also prove to be a loyalty test for all jws, to see if they would be stumbled right out of the truth!".
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Suicide; and Jehovahs Witnesses
by zeb inas one who has been personally affected by suicide i read just now of a posting here today the tragic note being "my bridesmaid hanged herself" which we gather she had been shunned... well over the past many months we have seen a library of information, which continues to grow, on the sex abuse saga and most recently the revelations with a myriad of escape clauses a new 'policy' pulled like teeth from the wt on that matter.
this piece of prose is made available to any jw who requests it so the wt says.
it is well revealed out of the carc that the % of abuse in the wt world is higher than outside it.. this brings me to the matter of suicide.. .
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Tameria2001
A few years back I knew a couple of active JWs who committed suicide, and it was a real shock when the news made it way around. The first was in a small town called Gas, Kansas, I don't recall the exact year but it was before I was married, so the very early 1990s. I had briefly met an elder from that congregation when I went to help build their kingdom hall, at the time I was a member of the Kansas Electrical Crew. I don't remember his name anymore. He seemed like a good fellow, good-natured, but then again I really didn't know him other than those four days I was there. Then a short time later, while he was at work, four men broke into his home and beat his wife to death (I had heard it was baseball bats.) By the time he returned home his wife was dead, and the criminals were gone. There were quite a few rumors floating around, including that he was behind her murder. He was eventually cleared of all charges and released. I don't know if he had made it to her funeral or not, but I was told he wasn't able to make it to her funeral. The first opportunity he was able he went out to her grave and by using a gun killed himself.
The second was someone that my husband knew very well, in Joplin Missouri. He was married and had two young school-age children. He waited till his wife and children left then hung himself in their home. It was his wife who discovered his body. My husband said that he was dealing with depression. My husband also told me that this person's father had also killed himself years before. I got the impression that his father was a JW as well because my husband said that family was something like the fourth generation witnesses.
When I was 16, I nearly took my own life, because of dealing with years of abuse, it just took me a while to work up the nerve to try it. I didn't like the idea of hurting myself or screwing up and permanently maiming myself so I decided to go the route of overdosing on pills. It was my baby sister who found me, and she alerted our parents. I was rushed to the ER and had my stomach pumped. Afterward, they did a complete workup on my blood to see if there was anything else going on, and there was. To make a long story short, attempting and failing at suicide actually saved my life. They had found that I was totally depleted potassium, and it was a matter of days before that would have killed me.
I took all this as a learning lesson, and with my knowledge, I actually prevented two suicides because I had recognized from my own pain and the signs they had given off. The first was a friend in school, she was not a JW, but was going through her own issues. And the second was my husband, and that was a very trying time because he wanted to wait until I left to do something before ending his life. There was a couple of times I had to take care of a few errands, but I didn't leave him alone. I had to have someone watch over him, and he was trying his best to get the other person to leave. My husband's issues at the time were temporary, and he sees that now, and he is very grateful that I cared enough and knew what to look out for. A good portion of his problem at the time was his parents, and siblings - all JWs who made him feel like he was a worthless piece of cr@p, and that was before we left the Watchtower. I am fairly sure that if we had stayed in that cult, he would have eventually found a way to end his life. I honestly feel that leaving the JWs saved my husband life, and made him want to enjoy the things that life has to offers, such as his children and me.
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Dating question from a bible student
by Biblestudent1 ini have done bible study for about four months now.
the married couple who do it with me are lovely.
i have attended meetings for about two months.
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Tameria2001
Sorry, I didn't know they baited 6-year-olds to take the dunk. The youngest knew was 8.
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Question
by asp59 ini just wonder about reasoning in this organization.
if you have arrangement that is not working and gods chariot has moved on.
and you have told every one there is only a biblical generation to do things.
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Tameria2001
It's simple - power and money. The longer they can keep those and keep it coming in, nothing is going to change. Once a JW finally starts thinking, and ask honest questions they are accused of apostasy. If they don't shut up about it they are kicked out. That's where their shunning comes into play because once a person is kicked out of that cult, everyone is to not speak to that person until they see the error of their ways, and come back, that is if they are even allowed to return to the fold. One of the famous sayings that J.F. Rutherford would say is that religion is a snare and a racket, and I strongly believe that he was including the Watchtower in that. -
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Dating question from a bible student
by Biblestudent1 ini have done bible study for about four months now.
the married couple who do it with me are lovely.
i have attended meetings for about two months.
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Tameria2001
I just want to say something as well. I don't know if anyone has discussed with you their shunning practice for those who leave regardless of the situation. Let's say you get baptized as a Jehovah's Witness, get married to this girl, and then you two have children. Later on in your marriage, if you decide to have children, and the Watchtower highly discourages this by telling their members to wait till the New System of Things, or something very similar. In short, they want their members to wait till after Armageddon to start their family. Some wait, but many do have children.
Now you and your wife decide to have a family, either it is through a decision to do so or a happy little accident. One thing everyone will be pressuring that child when they are older to get baptized. Some children are as young as 8 years old, I was 17 when I was baptized. Once they get baptized they will be under the same rules as the adults, and they can get disfellowshipped if they have done some wrongdoing in the eyes of the religion, or some other form of discipline from the elders. Without their parents with them, they will have to face 3 elders in a judicial committee. As everyone knows teens can get quite rebellious, it's normal, because they are at a life stage they are trying to figure out who they are. Now if they have been baptized before this they will have to face the consequences, and it is quite harsh. If your child decides they don't want to be a Jehovah's Witness or is kicked out, aka, disfellowshipped or disassociated, you will be forced to shun them and treat them as if they have died. And if you decide you don't want to do this, you will face the elders in your decision to keep your children involved in your life.
Jehovah's Witness WILL NOT tell you this UNTIL after you are baptized. Oh and one other thing, they call this a "Loving Provision", so they can see the errors of their way and want to come back to Jehovah's Organization. I read somewhere that 2/3 that leaves or is kicked out don't ever come back.
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Jehovah's Witnesses = Satan's Organization.
by Finkelstein inafter some close scrutiny of the jws religion in its history and its associated organization the ibsa.
we can see a lot problems particularly regarding truthful and accurate bible interpretations.. there are a lot reasons for that, one being that the original builders of the these organizations were not academically trained bible theologians, they got their bible teaching theology from other novices.. .
what they did acquire was something they thought would be advantageous for the proliferation of literature and maybe build up some their own self adoration in the process.. they gave public talks on how christ has returned via by dating the measurements of a pyramid in egypt and supported their findings by quoting certain scriptures in the bible.. well they succeeded, c russell grew fame and popularity by his talks and books which displayed his dating calculation.. jesus has returned and new world order was about to commence.
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Tameria2001
When I sent my letter of disassociation my local elders, they came by to make sure I wrote that letter. I told them I did and brought up part of what you mentioned about being false prophets and the date setting. One of them actually told me before he left that I was correct, and bid me a good day.
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Any teens that are still “in” that live in Oklahoma?
by huniepie inwas wondering if there were any kids my age (17) in my area that are still in the organization because of their parents but want to get out.
would be nice to know somebody in the same boat as me
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Tameria2001
I was going to say the same thing as smiddy3, there have been predators who will say they are a teen just to trick a young person.
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Do Any Of You Dream About JW Friends You had ?
by smiddy3 inwhat prompted this topic was a dream i had last night where i was engaged in a conversation i had with an old friend where i was trying to prove where the jw`s were wrong from their own bible.. and this is not the first time i have had such dreams.. often times i have had dreams about people i have known in the religion .. remember i have been away from the religion for more than 26 years now and in a totally different part of the country .. i now wonder if any of them ever dream about my wife and i ?
but that`s something i`ll never know.. do any of you have any such experiences ?.
maybe i`m spending too much time on this site lol.
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Tameria2001
I don't dream about JWs that I use to know, but I do think about them from time to time and wonder if they eventually left as well. There was one sister (also a regular pioneer) that I use to know, and she raised her son alone. He did have a father, but he was not living with them. I had learned that her son eventually came out of the closet so to speak, she decided to disassociate herself instead of turning her back on her son. She was not the only one from that family who also left either.
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Teenager Advice
by Wagurl inwhat advice do you have for a teenager that is being raised as a witness but not baptized?
everyone is pressuring her to get baptized how to avoid that till they are 18 and they are 16?
how to stay sane in a household of religion you don´t believe in.
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Tameria2001
Totally agree with Onager on this. It depends on the family members and friends of this young person. Take for example my husband's cousins, they were all raised as JWs. Two got baptized, while the other three did not (all siblings). One is still going strong as a JW and has a very typical JW mental attitude about the rules do and don'ts. The eldest never got baptized, she would have been disfellowshipped for fornication if she was. She had a good relationship with all her JW family until her death due to cancer. The second did get baptized, but she did a successful fade, she too has a good relationship with all her family, including the JWs. The third girl also was baptized, and she is the die-hard JW, who doesn't have an issue shunning those who leave or are kicked out. The last two never got baptized, and don't even attend meetings, both of them lived with their partners for many years not married, and one even served in the military in Desert Storm. The active JW still has a very good relationship with all her siblings because they either never got baptized or managed to find a successful way in fading. Yet on the other hand, if my husband, who did make the mistake of getting baptized, even though he did not want to, but because of peer pressure, later dissociated himself. This same JW I am talking about grew up with him and spent quite a bit of time with each other as kids, does the typical JW shunning with him. He never did anything that would cause him to be disfellowshipped, he just disagreed with their teachings, and always has. The biggest mistake he has ever done was getting baptized, he said.
Me on the other hand - My mother told me that she would still shun me even if I never did get baptized. The witch would love to stone me to death if the law of the land would allow of it, and yes she told me that a few times and that was even before I left that cult.
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Teenager Advice
by Wagurl inwhat advice do you have for a teenager that is being raised as a witness but not baptized?
everyone is pressuring her to get baptized how to avoid that till they are 18 and they are 16?
how to stay sane in a household of religion you don´t believe in.
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Tameria2001
As others above mentioned, if certain individuals in the congregation are really pushing the matter of baptism, just have her tell them that getting baptized is a serious and life long decision and that they are not ready to make that decision just yet, and leave it at that.