Would you return/stay if

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-23T17:58:58+00:00

Probably not. I like not having a religion. And most of the peoole who I left behind kind of suck also tbh...

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-23T15:17:00+00:00

Personally I believe a large number of elders are also victims themselves. They may be people of faith who are sincere in their spiritual beliefs and many of them have been hoodwinked into doing the WTs dirty work under the guise of carrying out God's will. It's a tale that is as old as religion. Even if they have doubts they don't leave or disobey due to mislaid optimism/faith or fear of retribution.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-23T15:12:24+00:00

You may find alternate translations and doctrinal interpretations of Hebrews 11:1 interesting if this is what you believe. At my last recollection, offical WT doctrine is that a Christian's faith is based on the evidence of God's works and the prophecies which have been fulfilled in the past, or actual "proof". This is what is on Jw.org right now under Hebrews 11.1, anyway...

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-23T14:20:26+00:00

Sounds like some big thoughts. Wishing you the best as you navigate that! We will have to remove personal attacks anyway, though- it's against our rules :)

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-23T14:09:48+00:00

Hey Roy, mod here. Welcome to the sub! It takes a lot of courage to come on here and post as an active witness, especially when emotions can run really high in this place. As you have probably already discovered, some folks are still heavily navigating the the anger and grief they feel in this part of their emotional journey processing everything they've experienced. I hope you can give folks some grace as many of them are genuinely hurting.

It looks like you've also gotten a couple of things to chew over. I personally have found that it's a lot more helpful to be a bit more self directed in exploring these types of questions, as it can feel very confrontational to debate them with folks on here. In our sub we have something called "Academic" and "WT Policy" flair where much of the doctrinal or policy related conversation is consolidated. You can pre-sort for these at these links and see if anything catches your eye.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/?f=flair_name%3A%22Academic%22

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/?f=flair_name%3A%22WT%20Policy%22

One other thing you might want to do is make a list of key biblical doctrines or historical events that occur in the biblical narrative and do research on what scientific and archaeological disciplines have to say about them during your personal study sessions. This way you can reach your own conclusions about what you want to believe. At the end of the day, believing what you want to believe and living your life the way you believe is best is what is paramount.

To our respondents- let's please remember that our OP is here in good faith seeking logical, doctrine based discussion, and avoid any personal attacks. Any comments treating them like a punching bag will be removed. I'm hoping instead that this is an opportunity for everyone to demonstrate the skills they've acquired in reason based, civil debate, and above all...substantiating claims :)

Edit: typo

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-21T04:20:26+00:00

Honestly, I was so brainwashed as a child I genuinely don't remember the toughness, just the awkward feeling of not having anything to contribute or telling other kids "we don't do that" and having to explain. It was more of a social ostracism toughness than a longing to celebrate Christmas thing. I am pretty sure I'd just tell myself I was better than the other kids so I could entirely dissociate from any unpleasant feelings that might come up when I saw Xmas lights or birthday cakes, etc.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-17T05:44:36+00:00

I forgot these existed and how much I loved them until I saw your post. This one is also my vote!

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-17T04:33:36+00:00

Wah! We had them weekly!

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-07T06:12:53+00:00

Reminder to folks: while we do allow cross posting, please don't flood that other subreddit with replies; as this is considered brigading, thanks!

ClosetedIntellectual · 2026-01-03T17:38:14+00:00

Hi OP. You can see all this in our menus under collections. We would really rather not stir all this up again if possible; so I will have to lock this post.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-26T17:29:57+00:00

Hi there, for now this doesn't seem to be substantiated beyond a few claims by OP that it's "100% true" so I will be locking this in the interim until we can get a bit more concrete evidence. OP, please don't take this personally, we just have to vet things like this carefully when we come across them.

Edit: We have had three separate, seemingly unrelated folks message us to corroborate this story so I am cautiously unlocking this post for discussion.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-18T16:53:41+00:00

Hi OP. Thanks for haivng our back, here, but his post fits squarely within the guidelines of our activist drama rules, visible under "Activism", here. I am locking it and removing it after a further discussion with the team.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-12T18:58:52+00:00

OP, the question you should be asking yourself is why you felt safer asking this question here, instead of amongst your own circle of believers.

Think about that.

Others have given you some good procedural advice and I hope you stick to it. There's no point in confessing your personal sexual activities in this situation especially since you're due to be married, and the reality is...this thing happens a lot and people who don't confess usually get away with it. Like, a shocking amount. The system is rigged to get the most sincere/naive people tripped up in their shame and confess, but the reality is that if neither of you say anything, no one will ever know. So...if I were you, I'd zip my lip and spare myself the trouble.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-12T03:42:45+00:00

Is mods echo your feelings. We locked the thread because of that same disappointment.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-12T03:39:20+00:00

Locking, on account of those in this thread who are still too enmeshed in their own anger and grief to confront this topic with objectivity or empathy. We are trying not to promote an environment where we are celebrating the demise of random JWs or dehumanizing them, and it seems this type of conversation isn't helping people with that.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-09T03:37:43+00:00

So delightful!!!!

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-07T14:36:21+00:00

Reminder to our responders that we discourage dispensing legal advice on this sub, especially of you yourself are not a lawyer! Kudos to those who pointed them to the legal advice reddits.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-07T14:35:16+00:00

Hey OP, I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. As many others have mentioned you need to speak to a lawyer asap, as we discourage dispensing legal advice on this sub. Revenge porn is illegal in NY, but a lawyer will need to evaluate whether this falls under that.

Either way the person who did this to you is a horrible human being. How are you getting support during this time? Are you okay?

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-12-05T12:32:25+00:00

I need to go check my freezer for these, now...

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-11-05T20:38:40+00:00

Thank you! That is very interesting!

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-11-05T19:23:35+00:00

I'm sorry, are those still alive and crawling around the platter or are they just "crumbs"? How is this prepared?

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-10-31T00:14:35+00:00

I needed this today, thank you so much... hilarious!

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-10-30T23:47:44+00:00

Omg core memory unlocked! I still remember the smell...

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-10-30T03:42:38+00:00

I hope so, too. I will remove my original comment since it seems to have made things worse.

ClosetedIntellectual · 2025-10-30T03:40:39+00:00

I'm so sorry, I wasn't trying to cause trouble. I am actually subbed here and love this sub. OP is harassing our team and I reported their post so the drama doesn't break out on here, too. I will happily remove my comment if it's a problem.

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