ET on April 5, 2019. . Sitting through hours upon hours of talks and Watchtower studies is not going to help them with many of the emotional and social challenges theyre grappling with. (Rutherford must be having a meltdown in his grave). I have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the Watchtower organization in recent years. Jehovah's Witnesses believe these men are anointed as the voice of God on Earth. It made them revered. Press J to jump to the feed. In the spring of 2015, Stephen Lett asked for donations after stating that JW.org had more money going out than coming in. In 2017, Russia banned the denomination, whose members believe in nonviolence and refuse to take up arms in war; Russia . Doomsday images from Jehovah's Witnesses publications. This religion contains more rules on what you cant do rather than what you can do. These doctrines made perfect sense to me!. Watch Tower Headquarters asked branches to sell as much equipment as they could liquidate including heavy equipment, printers, etc. We have far more than they realize we have, and there is nothing they can do to stop the flow of information outside of headquarters. Copyright 2023 Jehovah's Witnesses. Two years later he founded Zion's Watch Tower and Tract Society, which was incorpo-rated in 1884 in Pennsylvania. They believe that salvation is impossible outside of the Watchtower. Tony Morris declared on multiple occasions that he was incensed with European trousers for men, designed by the homosexuals he hates so passionately and followed this tirade by producing a side by side photo of what proper trousers look like versus tight pants. A life of meaningless sex, drugs and alcohol is often woven into this picture. The Watchtower organization is like a restaurant that keeps serving the same bland menu even though many of the patrons dont like the food and arent coming back. If the religion continues to have to pay out millions of dollars to the victems of child abuse, and it they continue to loose new converts simply because theyre finding out the real truth about the religion, then theres no way that it will be able to remain standing. I began a life where I could decide what to believe for myself, and I wasnt afraid of someone telling me I couldnt. Jehovah's Witnesses do not provide a dignified resignation process for members who wish to leave. It should be noted that the Soviets used the same methods of argumentation and reasoning claiming that nothing was lacking in Mother Russia. She listened and protected her faith and the teachings of the Jehovahs Witnesses until her beliefs could no longer defend her. And you have no promise. They believe that ony 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses will go to heaven. ITV Dancing On Ice's Christopher Dean issues Jayne Torvill health announcement. Within ten years, a Therefore, if young people are uninspired, bored, or unmotivated to engage in the theocratic treadmill, Jehovah's Witnesses can simply blame it on the influences of MTV, high school, or on their favorite buzzword: the world. The verdict has since been overturned, but the case is still being litigated. The organization of Jehovahs Witnesses is not Gods organization and never ever will be either. Andrea embraced its teachings and followed all of JWs beliefs to a T. She didnt celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, or any other holidays, and she avoided birthday celebrations. Should you Disassociate and Sample Letters, The Hardship of being a Gay Jehovah's Witness. Am I an Apostate? (Translation they are on their own: no health care, no jobs, no training. When these programs do address the children directly, it usually only entails an assembly drama about Samuel, or the promise that very soon, they will be able to play with tigers and elephants. However, none of that is really working and people are still waking up from this brutal North Korean type religion. Followers famously wont accept blood donations - nor do they celebrate birthdays, claiming such celebrations displease God. With all the false end of the world predictions that they have done in the past, theyre still crying that Armageddon is coming soon, and that they will be the only survivors of the battle. I was very well versed in the Bible. I eventually left the faith at 18. Steven Lett said that when people walk up to admire a little baby, they often would say, Look at that little angel! Steven then went on to say, more accurate, look at that little enimy of God. This statement has circulated round the Internet and has appeared in many YouTube channels and so on. A man who pleaded guilty to raping two underage girls he met through the Jehovah's Witness congregation they all belonged to has been sentenced to . No religion can claim that. Its the reason they emphasise the dangers and repercussions of searching for answers to faith-related questions in any place except their own literature, calling anything outside this apostasy. End of the Home Book Study Arrangement Brummies happily shopping and going. Many teenagers in the organization have issues that require a little more remedy than sitting with a notepad at the assembly and counting with tally marks the number of times the speaker says Jehovah. Youre taught by the organisation that once you leave you will become corrupted by the outside world and inevitably descend into selfishness, meanness and false happiness. 2020-06-14 - NATALIE O'BRIEN. The lawsuits are piling up, the fines are compounding, the public awareness of Watch Towers dangerous and controlling cult influence on followers will become a spectacle in 2018. Sylviane is a relationship coach for women . In Namibia, the government has denied Watch Towers plea to remove itself from employer status, since this forces Watch Tower to pay social security benefits to all full-time workers such as Bethelites. Jehovah's Witnesses detained in inhumane conditions June 4, 2021 Number of Jehovah's Witnesses on trial in Lipetsk grows June 2, 2021 Christian attorney gives advice for staying on good side of law June 1, 2021 Crimean Pentecostals fined for violating Russia's anti-evangelism law May 31, 2021 American prayer breakfast figure feted by Ukrainian . Drunk driver smashed into family car on M6 - while sipping cider, Jehovah's Witnesses denies telling abuse victims not to call the police, BBC Breakfast star Charlie Stayt halts show to warn Lenny Henry 'you shouldn't say that', Charlie was hosting BBC Breakfast on Thursday - but warned Lenny: "You really shouldn't say that. They tell you that you need to follow these rules in order to receive salvation and so on. They thought the end would be here now with the old generation teaching. Additionally, it has been noted by many of us that when there is a family in which the father does not hold some kind of office, the family is often left out on the periphery without much social support. In 2017, Russia's Supreme Court declared the group an extremist organization, lumping its. This is human nature. People are finally not afraid to talk, and the very massive Ex-JW community is really having a huge affect on Watchtower and on those still inside of it. Feeling deceived by the teachings of the Jehovahs Witnesses, she confronted her grandmother. Growth is pretty much stagnet in America and other countries like Great Brittan, Austrialia and other English speaking nations. The Witnesses still experience growth, but at a huge expense. Yes, one would think so, but this would involve the Watchtower leadership reinventing, and rethinking matters that they are convinced have already been settled. "The minister who was teaching my Bible lessons (in the Church Of Christ) mentioned the "Let God Be True" book in my studies, and he asked me if I knew that the doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses had changed over the years. Theres absolutely no room for error within the organization. And instead of just forgiving you of your sin, this evil shunning practice is what they do to you until youre reproved and brought back into good standing which by the way can take a very very long time. Evolution & Creation Misrepresentations As a result, most young Witnesses grow up sequestered in their homes and their congregations, fearful of anything outside those boundaries. Besides me, at least 75% of the kids I grew up with in the congregation are out for good. World. While I tried to maintain the utmost respect for their beliefs and not attempt to preach my own, they refused to extend me the same courtesy, and many assumed Id left so I could experience more freedom for worldly things. 726 Followers. it is one to really be avoided at all costs and it is really dangerous. It will be 1 friend out of 6 shunning rather than all of them - not nearly as effective. The more that they grit their teeth, lash out at dissenters, and shake their fists at the internet, the more they motivate their disenchanted young people to satisfy their curiosities about what is on the net. When curious JWs find communities like this one, they realize they're not alone and there's hope/life for them outside the borg. Why are you doing this? Andrea was upset. This has happened in other countries as well. Authorities have also been accused of failing to look into allegations by whistleblowers that Jehovah's Witnesses may be hiding its money . By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Once that happens, shunning will have very little power over JWs. They worship the organization in which theyre a part of. A big part of the JW organization's power comes from keeping dissenters isolated until they give in due to loneliness. Its this picture of the world the word they use to refer to anything outside the faith that was painted for me as a child, and I was warned away from cultivating any close friendships with non-Jehovahs Witnesses for this reason. Last night, I was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the Watchtower. By the time many young Jehovah's Witnesses reach their teen years, not only have they been conditioned to associate worshipping Jehovah with great displeasure; but they still don't have any groups or programs tailored to them as teens, or which meet their needs. Abuse allegations? When commenting on the young people who leave the organization, another common tactic that the organization uses is to cynically compare them with the ungrateful Israelites who found Jehovahs manna to be undesirable. It there is a large turn-over in the congregation, it must mean that Satan is working overtime; not that that anything could ever be wrong with the organization itself. Its what we dont post. There simply isnt anything designed or built into the programs that work with the attention spans of young children. Those eight men up in New York are worshipped because they follow every single word they say. Jamie Bamber plays Archie Hughes in Beyond Paradise on BBC One. Jehovah's Witnesses can now be found in Birmingham city centre. (source: Pew Research: https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/jehovahs-witness/) and https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/26/a-closer-look-at-jehovahs-witnesses-living-in-the-u-s/). I have just loaded my spiritual cannon, and I am about to fire away! Imagine if Ford was blaming the consumers - saying that consumers had poor judgment for not wanting to buy the Pinto anymore. Governing Body member Geoffrey Jackson Theres absolutely no evidence of that at all. It is quite funny when the Watchtower wants to shut down somebodys YouTube channel because they said something bad about Watchtower, but at the same time, Watchtower sees absolutely no problem bashing other religions out of their mouths online during their dramas, talks and other programming that they put out. The Jehovahs Witnesses originated as a branch of the Bible Student movement, which was founded by Charles Taz Russell, a Christian Restorationist minister. Is the Book of Daniel Prophetic or Historical? Now that their arrogance has has gotten the better of them and they mistakingly feel theyre better than anyone else to sit in front of the camera and pontificate, we see how bad they are. Photo courtesy of Jehovah's Witnesses Public Information Desk Mandee Reid and her son, Charles Reid, of Kansas City, Mo., like Jehovah's . With all of the new doccumentaries being produced about this organization, YouTube channels and other types of media being produced, Watchtower doesnt stand a chance at survival. At that time, a small group of Bible students who lived near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States, began a systematic analysis of the Bible. For them to stay in the organization and have an approved standing, they will have had to squash their inner self, and adopt an organizationally-created identity. . It isnt about the children. This was not a tax, it was a fee paid because New York owns the underground and the airspace. The Watchtower organizations sole purpose is to proselytize, whereby all of its human capital must be channeled into that goal. "Overseers of Jehovah's People", an article in the group's publication called the Watchtower . The new Toyota Drove! Most people who currently identify as Jehovah's Witnesses (65%) also were raised outside that tradition. By contrast, about two-thirds of those who were raised as evangelical Protestants (65%) and Mormons (64%) still say they are members of those respective groups. Moriah Hughes, 24, filed her lawsuit last month in. But now members are heading into the city to try and reach out to more people. Watch Tower has dispatched a team of elders to correct their thinking and their accounting procedures. When Andrea learned that the re-emergence of the Church Of Christ is clearly found in the Bible, she looked into the origins of JW and found that there was no Biblical proof to support JWs establishment. There are also members with experiences of Catholicism, Mormonism, the Exclusive Brethren, the Mennonites, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and the Falun Gong movement. Im astonished at the totally creepy nature of the GB Videos I have seen lately. young ones leaving. But it's a way of thinking that is ingrained in you by the faith, and it's this mentality that makes it so difficult to leave. The Internet's most comprehensive resource for ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, a community for support, recovery and a few laughs along the way. In the book, they [JW] taught that Jesus Christ is a Mighty God. He [the minister] handed me the Bible, and he told me, From now on, when we look up a scripture, I want you to look it up, and I want you to read it. And that was the biggest help for me in reaffirming me that what he was telling me was the truth. There's a limit on how long you can tell people that the world is about to end for so long before they get sceptical. I would love it if the young ones were leaving in droves, and I believe because of the Internet this will happen, but I don't see a great deal of evidence at present. The shorter the expected time left, the higher the growth. Well, the reason for the recent increase is simply due to a change in tactics, according to our sister title the Chronicle. This is an area where I believe the Watchtower leadership shows an astounding lack of insight. I have several observations to add to this. The rules just keep right on getting tighter and tighter due to the fact that theyre in full damage control, and they want to keep as many people in the organization as they possibly can. I went to university, where I made even more friends who showed me that being in the world is completely fine, and that debate and discussion is also OK. And then from that day, I never looked back. When curious JWs find communities like this one, they realize they're not alone and there's hope/life for them outside the borg. His wife's parents are among the 130,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine. There is absolutely nowhere in the Bible where Jesus disfellowshipped anyone. Watch Tower must pay these benefits. According to the organisation, there are currently more than 70,000 Witnesses in Australia. You know what its like to have no hope. Just because they make the claim doesnt make it so. *my Opinion * / Nostradamus Predictions For World War in 2020 . , Productivity Hacks for the Creative Christian, Three (Unexpected) Life Lessons from College, Dear Teenage Self: Finding God Changes You. Raymond Victor Franz (May 8, 1922 - June 2, 2010) was a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses from October 20, 1971, until his removal on May 22, 1980, and served at the organization's world headquarters for fifteen years, from 1965 until 1980. Other programs that would make for a much stronger, robust, and enthusiastic membership are pushed aside and dismissed due their possibly interfering with proselytizing. She converted a lot of people to that religion.. I also believe this is an area where they are also profoundly disconnected from reality. The Internet is what is really hurting the Watchtower organization bigtime because in the past, information could be controlled and managed. The minister who was teaching my Bible lessons (in the Church Of Christ) mentioned the Let God Be True book in my studies, and he asked me if I knew that the doctrines of the Jehovahs Witnesses had changed over the years. The Holy Spirit is the name of God's active force in the world. Since then, four Ukrainians from occupied Crimea have been sentenced to six or more years' imprisonment: Serhiy Filatov; Artem Gerasimov; Viktor Stashevsky and Igor Schmidt. Find some websites which you believe are honest and accurate and share them. Now if they all say this, surely not all of them could be the truth huh? Find some books which are truthful and sincere and share them. Im grateful every day for my education and my desire to learn and think independently, a skill that fostered in me those initial doubts about Jehovahs Witnesses, and enabled me to have the strength to search for answers elsewhere in non-biased literature. By Brendan Cole On 7/28/20 at 11:09 AM EDT News Russia Intensifies Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses with 110 Armed Raids The. The leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses has never admitted that any valid reasons to leave the religion exist. There are millions trapped inside a mental prison, but we can help them. She has never found a discrepancy between what is written in the Bible and the teachings taught in the Church Of Christ. She met George, his family, and a few others from the Church Of Christ, including Brother Eddie San Gabriel, a Minister of the Gospel. It was these friends who became my support network and showed me that people from the world are just the same as people from the faith there were as many lovely people as there were horrible people, as many happy people as there were sad. The church shares some traditional views with the Catholic church but holds several unique ones, including the belief that there is one God, not a Trinity. Are Watchtower reasons for being the only true religion valid? But fortunately, after having been out for a number of years, many of us are getting to know who we really are and what gives our lives meaning. They compared the doctrines taught by the churches with what the Bible really teaches. An organization that has established itself as the sole possessor of truth and the single place of refuge from the coming apocalypse cannot divert time and resources to anything that is not related to its recruitment activities. I knew the Bible back and forth. To this day I search, I study, and I read. And the more she embraced the truth, the more her family tried to stop her. (We already know that growth has become stagnant and more and more people seem to be waking up than previously.). Meanwhile, Watch Tower purchased four $8,000.00 scanners. On the heels of a $35 million jury award to a woman who alleged the congregation mishandled her childhood abuse, other . Brummies happily shopping and going about their day to day business have seen them in their droves. It isnt Christian and it isnt Gods organization. I was one of them. And its peppy acceleration will get you far and away from Zeb and his feisty cart crashes!. We are so inured to the concept that it has become meaningless. Jehovah's Witnesses are among the most racially and ethnically diverse religious groups in America. What we see from regimes like North Korea is a disregard for many of the societal endeavors that make a nation stronger, such as infrastructure, good universities, economic freedoms, and democratic processes. Beside simple boredom, what we also see in the Watchtower organization are many emotionally troubled people and single parent families who join the religion for the promises of relief that it holds out for them. Other churches give single parents some relief by offering activities and programs for their children to get involved in and bond with other young people. 100 years is a pretty long time to wait. A few weeks later, the Jehovah's Witnesses closed on a $200 million sale of that building to the private equity firm Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors, which plans to turn the property into . Nothing can be allowed to take any time away from the Watchtowers sole purpose of existence: proselytizing. Jw.org Website At what point do they begin to ask themselves if there is something that THEY are doing wrong? Are you inspired? I was born into it which means of course that I completely missed my childhood and early adulthood. What are you doing? It is more like Satans group simply because of the harsh and inhumane rules and regulations that they harbor in their midst. Its hard to say. 2. They are not allowed to question the Watchtower leadership or teaching. 1. But its a way of thinking that is ingrained in you by the faith, and its this mentality that makes it so difficult to leave. My father and i have discussed this. In Canada, United States, Ireland, Australia, the Netherlands and multiple other countries, the government and media are taking notice of the public outcry for justice justice for abuse victims to victims of imposed and mandated shunning. The problem is that former Jehovah's Witnessesand others who've left cults or religionshave had to filter out the language of cataclysmic ending when seeking a secular life. Believers honor Jehovah, the God and Creator of all things. I have two beautiful children that I adore, that God blessed me with, and are very active in the Church. This raises the issue of whether any benefits will ever be paid to other full-time JWs across the globe, who deserve them equally. She learned she couldnt get that from being a Jehovahs Witness. Branches around the world are struggling to keep up with their own accounting procedures. With the recent crack-downs on college education, the Watchtower is looking less and less like a spiritual paradise, and is looking more like North Korea. The present study of 50 Jehovah's Witnesses admitted to the Mental Health Service facilities of Western Australia suggests that members of this section of the community are more likely to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital than the general population. Updated at 12:25 p.m. Globally there are about eight-and-a-half million Jehovahs Witnesses. In 2015, the court hit Watchtower with a $13.5 million verdict after the organization failed to turn over documents and provide witnesses in a lawsuit filed by Jos Lopez.