A recent regional convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses included interviewing a couple, the Suttons, who talked about raising three children in the strict atmosphere of what is typical with Jehovah’s Witnesses. This included attendance at their weekly meetings, Saturday morning preaching door-to-door, and another night for “family worship.”

The Suttons told of how one child grew up and took a job that meant associating with coworkers, which in turn led to her disfellowshipping, or excommunication from the religion. The Suttons then completely cut off all association with their child, as they said in the interview. This was no mistake; the Suttons had held this threat over the head of their child her entire life, as the mother related the words she had said to her children while raising them:

“I love you, I would die for you, but if you ever leave Jehovah, I wouldn’t be there.”

No, really. A mother said that to her children while raising them. She outright threatened them with emotional isolation and abandonment, to keep them in her religion.

Jehovah’s Witnesses being applauded for threatening their children with abandonment.

That’s Not Love; That’s Abuse

There are so many things wrong here, but first and foremost is the outright lie this mother told in saying that she loves her children. You don’t love someone, especially not your own child, if you require them to believe and practice a particular religion, and you don’t love a child that you threaten with emotional abandonment as they’re growing up. Not only is that not love, it’s outright abusive. How far would this woman take this type of threat? “If you become a lawyer, I won’t be there. If you marry a [black, Asian, poor] person, I won’t be there. If you ever become a vegetarian, I won’t be there.”

I might also ask, how far back did this threat go? When tucking her three-year-old into bed at night, did she read her a bedtime story, kiss her on the forehead, and then end the night with a lovey-dovey, “If you ever stop going to the Kingdom Hall, mommy will go away and never come back”?

Note too the outright lie in saying that she would die for her child. What she meant was that she would die if it were noble and applauded; saving her child from a burning building or donating an organ in a risky surgery. However, if mom’s religion says that she will lose god’s favor and be killed by him because of speaking to a family member who is disfellowshipped, then she would draw the line there. She wouldn’t be willing to die that type of death for the simple act of associating with her child.

If you’re still not convinced that the mother isn’t showing any love to her child by threatening her if she left her religion, consider if she took the opposite route and beat her child if she left. Would you think it’s loving to slap, hit, spank, or whip a child into staying in your religion? I would hope not, but you can see the similarity. Punishment and threats of punishment for leaving your religion are obscene and not loving, no matter the actual expression of that punishment.

Leaving Jehovah, or Your Religion?

What I’ve also always found to be interesting is that Jehovah’s Witnesses always equate their religion with Jehovah himself; if you leave off being a JW, then you’ve left off god. This is a dicey argument, as the leaders of the religion have shown time and again that they obviously have no divine backing or holy spirit guiding them; they have repeatedly failed in their predictions as to the end of the world and have had to change their thinking on different teachings time and again. Please visit JWfacts.com for more information on that.

As I bring out in this post, they also outright reject the ransom of Jesus and his words when he said he had “fulfilled” the law given to Moses by still keeping the direction in that law requiring a woman to scream when being raped. How can they claim to be directed by Jehovah’s holy spirit when they miss something so obvious? The religion is also riddled with domestic violence as I saw personally when I was growing up (this post), and is rife with claims of unchecked pedophilia. You cannot convince me personally that Jehovah’s Witnesses have some type of divine backing or guidance with these types of problems.

My point is, a person should have the right to make up their own minds about religion in the first place without threat of shunning from their family, but who is to say that a person leaving the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses has “left Jehovah”? Maybe they see all these failings of the religion and realize that it has no direction from the god of the bible, and are searching for the religion that does.

Hypocritical Liars

The lies from a parent are bad enough, but the lies from this religion itself are also inexcusable. On their website, Jehovah’s Witnesses outright claim they “work to build up families, both our own and those of our neighbors.” This obviously isn’t true; they work to force family members to stay in their religion and build up their own numbers, not families.

As you can see from the picture on the right, Jehovah’s Witnesses also say that no one should need to choose between their family and their beliefs, but obviously they mean no one who is considering becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. If you’re thinking of leaving the JW religion, then you can be prepared to lose your family, your friends, and everyone around you.

Another hypocrisy in this experience is how the mother threatened her child that if she ever “left Jehovah” then she wouldn’t be there, but mom also goes on to say that it was the “missed association with the family” that brought the child back to their religion. In other words, this child didn’t return to the religion for the sake of the religion itself, for their god, or because of thinking that the religion was “the truth.” She came back just so that she could be with the family again. That child’s heart may still very well be outside the religion and nowhere near belonging to their god and their beliefs, but she’s just going through the motions in order to be able to talk to family again. The mother even openly admits that the daughter came back to associate with the family, and yet says nothing about how the daughter feels about the religion and its teachings, nor does she say anything about the daughter’s relationship with Jehovah.

How can this be pleasing to their god, from any point of view? God wouldn’t accept the worship of someone who doesn’t really believe in him and is just faking it for the sake of being able to talk to family, I would assume. I would also assume that he can’t be happy with a family that is still associating with someone who is just putting on an act, if that god wants you to shun people who don’t love him. “Hey, that person doesn’t love me! Why are you associating with her?” “Because god, she’s making it look like she loves you.” “Oh well, okay then. As long as she’s putting on a good show.”

In truth, wouldn’t it make more sense to not shun someone who leaves so that if they do come back, you know it’s because they sincerely believe in the religion and its teachings? Wouldn’t it make more sense to show your child an abundance of love no matter their choices, so that they can be impressed with how your god and religion actually do create strong family bonds, rather than proving that your god is harsh, draconian, and outright abusive to families, and your religion is just hypocritical and full of lies?

Watch the video and decide for yourself:

74

Jehovah's Witnesses 2015 Regional Convention Saturday PM experience parents shunning children

by Watchtower-Free in

clip 3 minutes long.

ron and brenda sutton ................warwick 3 children

it was the missed association with family that brought them back.

Watchtower-Free

Clip 3 minutes long

Ron and Brenda Sutton ................Warwick 3 children It was the missed association with family that brought them back. I always told my children that I would die for them but I would not be there if they left Jehovah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ-kzaIK_UA

70

2015 Convention

by wifibandit in

pixel, cappytan, and wifibandit present for your consideration:.

https://youtu.be/g16_p3tncxq?list=plrw9u-n1z2m-_z5_a55vmqj1biuwnslhq.

the saturday program will be added tomorrow, followed by the sunday program the next day..

Watchtower-Free

Well said Wi-FI .............................This secretive cult hates not controlling their info.

3

yet another "jw" site

by zeb in

jw
friends

last night i came across another site that looks at all thing wt.

its called jw alumni.

good grief how many are there?

Watchtower-Free

http://jwalumni.org/2015/06/05/jehovahs-witnesses-attack-apostates/

Jehovah’s Witnesses again verbally abuse former members, call criticism ‘gangrenous and empty’

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By Misha Anouk on 5. June 2015 in Jehovah's Witnesses, News

Jehovah’s Witnesses are famous for resorting to name-calling when faced with criticism. For example, former members have been labeled “mentally diseased” publicly by JW.org in the past. In today’s Daily Text, they do it again. Why don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses respond to criticism with arguments instead of libel? Find out in this article.

Screengrab from: Examining the Scriptures Daily, by JW.org

Examining the Scriptures daily is a little brochure produced by the Watchtower Society. It is supposed to be part of Jehovah’s Witnesses daily morning routine: For every day of the year, there is a selected Bible scripture which is accompanied by JW.org’s very own interpretation. This brochure is read by every Jehovah’s Witness around the world.

Today’s daily text on June 5, 2015 is taken from 1. Thessalonians 5:8: “Let us keep our senses and have on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation.” How do Jehovah’s Witnesses interpret this scripture?

Once again, they use a Bible text to defame critics, resorting to name-calling instead of countering different opinions with facts and arguments.

This is what they write:

With a good helmet, a soldier in Bible times could survive blows to the head without suffering serious injury. We build hope in Jehovah’s saving acts by studying his Word. Strong hope enables us to resist apostates and their gangrenous “empty speeches.”

Notice the pattern: Jehovah’s Witnesses not only call former members who voice objective criticism “mentally diseased” – they also utter “empty speeches” that are gangrenous. JW.org continues to build on the “illness narrative”. In other words: Former members of Jehovah’s Witnesses are allegedly contagious and should be avoided.

To get a grasp of the scope: Every Jehovah’s Witness is encouraged to read this brochure daily. There are over 8million Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide. So, today, Friday 5th, over 8million Jehovah’s Witnesses will go about their daily affairs conditioned to view former members – friends and family – as something sick, infectious, to be avoided at all costs. Is this kind of hate speech the hallmark of a true religion?

But how does Jehovah’s Witness hate speech match up to reality?

– Please excuse this short commercial break –
– Thank you. Enjoy the rest of this post! –

So-called “apostate websites” like JWAlumni.org, JWsurvey.org, JWfacts.com and others strive to never insult Jehovah’s Witnesses. To the contrary: It is my aim to expose Watchtower failure through evidence-based debate, using their own literature and scientific facts to debunk their teachings. You can take a look at any article on JWAlumni.org. Whether it is an article

questioning Jehovah’s Witnesses claim to being the true religion
criticizing their shunning policy
explaining their association with the United Nations
or illustrating how Jehovah’s Witnesses do indeed ask for money

every post published on JWAlumni.org substantiates its claims with proof from Jehovah’s Witness literature or other evidence. And even if it is very personal subject (like my mission statement) I always aim to stay fact-bound, without having to insult Jehovah’s Witnesses.

What do we learn from Jehovah’s Witnesses’ name-calling?

The logical fallacy of abusing one’s opponent is known as argumentum ad hominem, or abusive fallacy, and is described as

“Attacking the person making the argument, rather than the argument itself, when the attack on the person is completely irrelevant to the argument the person is making.”

It is interesting to note the tip given at the bottom of this definition:

When others verbally attack you, take it as a compliment to the quality of your argument. It is usually a sign of desperation on their part.

Thinking Jehovah’s Witnesses should therefore ask themselves:

If “we apostates” are wrong, why should one avoid their writings if the claims can be so easily debunked?

At least the Watchtower Society got one thing right: Truth is contagious. In fact, truth is highly viral, as this video of a brave former Jehovah’s Witness High School student shows that has been seen the world over. When you watch it, note the difference between her discussion culture and that of Jehovah’s Witnesses: No hate speech on her part, just arguments, plain and simple. What do you take from this?

70

2015 Convention

by wifibandit in

pixel, cappytan, and wifibandit present for your consideration:.

https://youtu.be/g16_p3tncxq?list=plrw9u-n1z2m-_z5_a55vmqj1biuwnslhq.

the saturday program will be added tomorrow, followed by the sunday program the next day..

Watchtower-Free

75

Our hall is asking for money...

by thedepressedsoul in

i guess the branch isn't happy with the amount being sent each month since we are way lower than our loan amount.

we now have to another financial survey to see the max amount that can be given.

it is "encouraged" for all to be in attendance and give much forethought and consideration to the amount you can donate each month.

Watchtower-Free

3

yet another "jw" site

by zeb in

jw
friends

last night i came across another site that looks at all thing wt.

its called jw alumni.

good grief how many are there?

Watchtower-Free

Its a critical site .

Watchtower-Free

Posts by Watchtower-Free

Jehovah’s Witnesses Publicly Applaud Shunning Family to Blackmail Them Into Returning to the Religion

Jehovah’s Witnesses again verbally abuse former members, call criticism ‘gangrenous and empty’

Once again, they use a Bible text to defame critics, resorting to name-calling instead of countering different opinions with facts and arguments.

But how does Jehovah’s Witness hate speech match up to reality?

What do we learn from Jehovah’s Witnesses’ name-calling?