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Jehovah's Witnesses


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Don't really know where to start with this thread but we have 2 friends - a male and female friend both in their 50s - not related and not sure if they even know each other- but both seem to be pretty messed up individuals and a lot of the time relate their problems back to been part of this organisation as children

our female friend was telling us at the age of 6 they came knocking and her parents joined up- all her birthdays and christmasses were taken away at this point- to cut a long story short she left home at 17 and has no contact with her parents as they are still part of the "church" - similar story with our male friend - torn between family loyalty and what we consider normal society life.

our female friend describes the set up as a "cult" that manipulates and controls on a large scale - if this is the case how can it be allowed to operate?

I have no experience of JW apart from this- does anyone else have any? good or bad?

this is not a thread about religion - so please don't let it drift in that direction

 

see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

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The best experience I have had with them is when I was visiting my uncle and some came calling. He stood at the door for ages and let them go through their whole speech about how only a chosen number of people will be let into heaven blah blah blah. After they had finished my uncle just said to them, "I have a question". They looked really enthusiastic, asked him what the question was, thinking they might actually have drawn someone in, and my uncle said, "If you recruit more people doesn't that make your chances of getting into heaven slimmer?" After they stood for a while, questioning everything they had ever believed, my uncle just said, "Nice talking to you", and closed the door in their faces. It was hilarious. 😂

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I worked with a Jehovah's Witness and she was okay, albeit with a few quirks. But like any religion, there are degrees of how deep you get into it, and how controlling various regional chapters are.

Then there's this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006T46K4Q/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 

 

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I used to work with a JW. She died following complications in surgery when around 50, due to refusing blood. 😢

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3 hours ago, Johnoco said:

They can’t have been very well versed in it then cos they would have known that heaven is for the select few and everyone else lives back on earth, in a sort of heaven/paradise. So not that big a deal really.

Jehovahs believe 144,000 people, known as the anointed, will ascend to heaven to live alongside Jesus while the rest of the Jehovahs will live forever on Earth as the other sheep or the great ones. The reason they do missionary work such as knocking on doors recruiting people is to show they are worthy of being one of the anointed. If they recruit more people there is a chance the new recruits will do more missionary work and do more to prove they are worthy of going to heaven and so that lessens the chance of the person who recruited them being one of the 144,000 and thus going to heaven. Recruit more people and you are ironically lessening your own chance of ascending to heaven. 

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I used to get the J-Dubz (as literally none of the cool kids are calling them) knocking on my door quite often around the turn of the century. I made it pretty clear I wasn't interested in joining, but I was curious about the day-to-day stuff and a few details of their religion and we had a couple of long conversations where I was asking more questions than them.

But once my curiosity was satisfied, I stopped answering the door to them. Two very pleasant guys, compared to the American evangelists who called one day and came across as grinning, almost-identical robots. That was creepy, but for some reason they assumed I was Jewish and said they wouldn't take up any more of my time. I didn't disabuse them of that notion, wherever they'd got it from.

The JW once did our street while a FIFA World Cup semi-final was on TV, and must have broken some kind of speed record getting from end to end.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Got one 3 houses down from me(real looneytune)

played rugby years back with one who were a great mate,he reckoned christmas wernt binned at all.it just ment he could buy the kids what they needed whenever he wanted to,some real strange ideas thou about life, dont do religion at all,but if there is this god almighty am gonna kick him in the nuts for all the hurt hes put on all the nice people, while scumbags are lapping it up out there skulls,

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It undoubtedly has all the culty vibes of scientology, latter day saints, church of science (one of those in the middle of Wakey) and the Mormons.

I suppose let people believe what they want so long as it doesn't infringe on others. It does start to become a bit of grey area though with kids being raised in non-mainstream versions of any belief system though.

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the reason i singled out JW is because other religions seem to be able to transform children to adults in their system without screwing their heads up in a really messy way. 

from what our friends have experienced JW don't seem to mind ruining peoples entire lives as long as they keep their deranged aims on track at any cost

see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

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10 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

the reason i singled out JW is because other religions seem to be able to transform children to adults in their system without screwing their heads up in a really messy way. 

from what our friends have experienced JW don't seem to mind ruining peoples entire lives as long as they keep their deranged aims on track at any cost

Probably still less toxic than the Scientology mob.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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While I'm sure there are many sincere members, there are a few aspects to the JW church that make it culty. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (and its subsidiaries) began pretty much as a publishing company. The organisation teaches a sense of superiority in its members over the rest of the world. It teaches devotion to the organisation itself, and the importance of the organisation continuing. It teaches that working within the organisation is of far greater value than working outside of it (in normal "worldly" jobs), and that education outside the organisation is of little value. It teaches that working in branch offices (which they call "Bethel") is the highest calling that a member can have, resulting in a strata of members who are completely institutionalised and completely incapable of living outside the organisation. It also teaches that members should shun those who leave it, and behave as if these people don't exist, which also applies to family members.

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9 minutes ago, CrushersForever said:

While I'm sure there are many sincere members, there are a few aspects to the JW church that make it culty. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (and its subsidiaries) began pretty much as a publishing company. The organisation teaches a sense of superiority in its members over the rest of the world. It teaches devotion to the organisation itself, and the importance of the organisation continuing. It teaches that working within the organisation is of far greater value than working outside of it (in normal "worldly" jobs), and that education outside the organisation is of little value. It teaches that working in branch offices (which they call "Bethel") is the highest calling that a member can have, resulting in a strata of members who are completely institutionalised and completely incapable of living outside the organisation. It also teaches that members should shun those who leave it, and behave as if these people don't exist, which also applies to family members.

Change a word or two, and this almost belongs on the cross-code forum. :kolobok_wink:

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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23 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:

our female friend was telling us at the age of 6 they came knocking and her parents joined up- all her birthdays and christmasses were taken away at this point ......

Did her parents tell her that the ice-cream man played a tune when he'd run out of ice-cream ?

Sounds like a novel money-saving wheeze to me.😂

"We'll sell you a seat .... but you'll only need the edge of it!"

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21 minutes ago, CrushersForever said:

While I'm sure there are many sincere members, there are a few aspects to the JW church that make it culty. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (and its subsidiaries) began pretty much as a publishing company. The organisation teaches a sense of superiority in its members over the rest of the world. It teaches devotion to the organisation itself, and the importance of the organisation continuing. It teaches that working within the organisation is of far greater value than working outside of it (in normal "worldly" jobs), and that education outside the organisation is of little value. It teaches that working in branch offices (which they call "Bethel") is the highest calling that a member can have, resulting in a strata of members who are completely institutionalised and completely incapable of living outside the organisation. It also teaches that members should shun those who leave it, and behave as if these people don't exist, which also applies to family members.

I was watching a load of videos on YouTube yesterday about North Korea, change members to citizens and organisation to country and you could be describing said country there. 

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Quite a sensitive subject this as the M-I-L is. I actually went to see her baptised at the FD arena in Leeds. 

Before I went I didn't want her to be, and afterwards I had no words. I was baffled with what they were suggesting about the way they should live there life. It was one of the most negative experiences in my life. 

A JW said to me, it's okay if you don't understand it - as a lot of us don't. Crazy thoughts. 

There's a lot of things I would love to go into, but it's most certainly not for me and the impact it has on my wife is not worth mumbling on about.  

It's her decision at the end of the day, but one I don't agree with.

 

2008 RFL Wakefield & District Young Volunteer of the Year

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45 minutes ago, Chris Taylor said:

A JW said to me, it's okay if you don't understand it - as a lot of us don't.

Cue recurring joke about this belonging in the cross-code forum.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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On 14/03/2021 at 16:59, graveyard johnny said:

the reason i singled out JW is because other religions seem to be able to transform children to adults in their system without screwing their heads up in a really messy way. 

from what our friends have experienced JW don't seem to mind ruining peoples entire lives as long as they keep their deranged aims on track at any cost

But they still screw their heads up.

There are many religions that screw with kids mentality, many of them get away with it without being singled out. JW's are as harmless as any of the others.

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Pre-Covid we used to regularly get JW's come knocking. At first I was quite polite in getting rid of them but the more they came the more frustrated I got.

I've got very noisy dogs who sound like they'll kill anything (truth is they're actually quite soft), but the last time the JW's came round I said if you turn up again i'll let the dogs out - quite amusing watching the look of terror on their faces 😂. Time will tell if they do ever come back. 

On a wider religious note, I couldn't give 2 hoots what religion (or cult) people choose but the moment anyone starts to try and impose their beliefs on me, and particularly ones who come to my home it really pees me off, and these people are likely to get short shrift from me !!

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I used to get regular visits at the previous Shadow towers which was in a fairly well populated area, since we moved into a village in the Forest 6 years ago I think we've only seen one set. That said I also work from home a lot less than I used to so I'm not there in peak evangelising time.

I sort of miss them, fielding dodgy phone calls from "Amazon" and "Microsoft" help desks don't have the same satisfaction levels as exposing the logical fallacies in the JWs arguments.

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I can’t say I’ve seen evidence of myself or kids having the views of JWs rammed down their throats. I just tend to nicely decline their offer of a discussion if I don’t want it. It seems the sensible and polite thing to do, even though some of the stuff they share I find somewhat strange.  I’ve got to admit though, since we’ve installed CCTV, it has become much easier to hide, knowing who is at the door! 😂

I think computer games have far more potential impact of (false) indoctrination for kids these days, but that seems to be an accepted norm in many parts and you don’t even have to open the front door to expose them to that. 

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