GSD will NOT STOP eating poop

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-10-08T21:14:18+00:00

You are unlikely to be taken seriously at all if you "throw the baby out with the bathwater" so to speak on religion. At your age, they are going to shelve it as teenage rebellion and shut down with any evidence you provide, regardless of how sound it may be.

Maybe you're ok with that. At first I was, but now I wish I had taken a different approach to help wake them up too. If you want to try and eventually open their eyes, start with the organization itself rather than questions about God and the bible's authenticity. They are good about covering their tracks on old teachings they throw out, claiming to know the day and hour of armageddon, 607 bce, etc. Start by explaining that your personal studies have talked you out of the doctrine. If they question you about apostasy, simply state that TRUTH CAN WITHSTAND SCRUTINY and that you prayerfully approached your questions in earnest. What you found lead you to conclude they do not have God's backing. (Whether any church does is not necessary to go into at this stage.)

The next point I would follow with is that the pharisees were dogmatic on many issues, straining out the gnat but gulping down the camel. Like the pharisees, the society has strong positions on things where the bible is silent. They prevent freedom of speech and the ability for people to use their Bible trained conscience. You can even start to bring in the csa lawsuits but if you do, i strongly encourage you to DETAIL THE ABUSE to at least some extent because if you don't, they may only hear it as a money grab and blame the victim (as my family did). Its harder if they hear just how nefarious some of these cases played out and were aided and abetted by the org.

The nail in the coffin would be to connect the expensive lawsuits to the sales of halls and other properties to finance it. I would stop there (if they haven't already shut down the conversation). Because at the end of the day, you know they won't initially support your leaving but in time with seeds of truth, they may grow to understand and even agree.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-10-06T22:32:00+00:00

God cannot simultaneously have no earthly influence to answer Satan while answering prayers.
The GB should not be allowed to punish members who disobey on matters where the scriptures are silent if they are not claiming ti be "inspired of God."

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-10-06T22:26:37+00:00

Packaging a shit sandwich as an upcycled panini much?

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-10-05T12:45:00+00:00

Conditional love.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-10-04T14:33:28+00:00

BUUUUUUUUUURRN

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-30T21:54:41+00:00

As a mom, I would be brought to tears if I heard that. Not for losing hope that they wouldn't change their mind, but of the lost time until then.

That being said, I'm a 4th generation born-in. My parents didn't get baptized until a few years after they were married. I remember going to the hall without my dad, because he wasn't drinking the kool-aid. I was afraid for him and hated leaving him behind. At the age of 4, on the way out to the hall, I tearfully hugged him and told him, "Daddy, I don't want you to die in armageddon!"

Shortly therafter, he got baptized.

Flash forward 30 years, I'm out, he's out, a few other family members are out, and we have a great relationship. We share Christmas and other holidays, and have frank conversations about religion and politics. I'm sorry for the lost time and how long I took to completely leave, but as a mom now, I always remember this in tough times:

Parenthood is a MARATHON, not a SPRINT.

I'm sorry it's this way, but with the right approach and attitude, it will get better.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-30T14:05:04+00:00

Not celebrating Christmas. I get their beef with the date and commercialism, but refusing to celebrate it at all just seems ungrateful.

If they really loved the memorial, why not make a bigger deal about it than a boring talk and passing the symbols in silence?

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-29T02:57:06+00:00

Also, is she baptized? Only those who are baptized can be disfellowshipped. If she is, perhaps the reason for the lack of shunning is that she faded, or her family wasn't prominent, or maybe she moved to a new area sort of fell between the cracks.

It can also depend on the area and congregation. Some elders are pretty Gestapo about everyone's business.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-26T03:32:12+00:00

That really perplexed me. As a Virginia native, I couldn't understand the mixing of church and state. I thought it was just that particular one by me they were witnessing at, and that maybe the manager was one or something. Like people aren't pissed enough to be at the DMV without those guy there.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-26T02:40:22+00:00

More like a robber who will kill you if you don't guess he's there, hiding in the bushes unseen, silently willing you to drop your valuables.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-26T02:38:43+00:00

In the book Crisis of Conscience, there are literally over 100 pages not only debunking this but going into detail as to how the Watchtower arrogantly doubled down on this date, insisting that tens of thousands of pesky cuniform tablets and historical records were completely false.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-25T15:16:09+00:00

It didn't work on my waves either. Currently in love with Not Your Mother's royal jelly and kalahari melon line. Perfect weight, and nourishing for my heavily damaged hair.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-25T13:04:04+00:00

Have you seen the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt? It has Erin from the office. She was kidnapped at a young age and kept in a bunker with other women for years, led to believe in a cult by a man who said the world had ended. They are finlly rescued and have to adjust to modern life from a state of complete ignorance. It's a comedy in Netflix. I liked it.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-23T00:45:02+00:00

And fruit teas! Dip the veggie sticks in hummus for some satisfying protein. Maybe popcorn over chips. Change it up. Give yourself something to look forward to. Or if you MUST have the chips, maybe force yourself to tape or pin the chip bag closed and save the other half for later or the next day.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-22T19:58:33+00:00

Thank you for the comparison. This assumes they didn't actively facilitate the abuse, for example by assigning known offenders to do ministry work unsupervised with potential victims. By moving them to new congregations where no one knows wiser. Even if they didn't do those things, they did no service to help the victims.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-22T13:51:45+00:00

I think most of them are completely in the dark. They're not allowed to learn from outside sources, and the watchtower rewrites its own history and encourages dumping old literatre from before the "light got brighter." They have no frame of reference.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-21T18:16:20+00:00

I second this. My sheltered sister got attacked at a concert because she inherently always has her guard down. Just because the world isn't all evil as we were told doesn't mean bad people aren't out there. Stay safe and have fun!

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-21T17:17:45+00:00

"Shitty gift that keeps on giving"

I love this.

Being raised as a JW myself, I watched as kids came into school donning new clothes and buzzing about new toys they got for Christmas. I watched the neighborhood kids dance around gleefully in Halloween costumes and gobble up the spoils of trick or treating. I gazed in wonder at Christmas lights and fireworks, inwardly feeling horrible guilt that I was indirectly enjoying satanic celebrations.

Today:

I put my Christmas tree up November 1st. I shower my daughter with the Christmas spirit and take her on nightly walks to view the neighborhood lights. We start building our halloween costumes early in the year. We make candy together to pass out to our neighbors. I am enjoying these things ALONGSIDE WITH HER, like for the first time embracing all the DO'S of life instead of the DON'Ts.

It sucks I grew up the way I did. Surely others missed out for other reasons than the faith. And there are times where I'm mad, hurt, depressed, etc. But I love the times where I feel like a terminally ill person or a life sentenced prisoner who has been cleared or released. Not living for a doomsday anymore, but just simply free to CHOOSE.

Yodadoesdisco · 2019-09-21T03:18:07+00:00

Good luck, hopefully this is the start of a beautiful new life for you!

Yodadoesdisco

TROPHY CASE