Jehovahs Witnesses

My last post highlighted the Feb 2017 Watchtower article that states that the Governing Body are not inspired and not infallible.  This same claim has now been made by a governing body member on JW.ORG Yet they still claim to be the only organisation that is approved by God and the only one providing real enlightenment about bible truths.  In fact at one point the member of the governing body states that though early Christians were directed by holy spirit and were inspired, they knew less than the modern day Governing Body. I have made this point before so if you are a regular reader of these blogs please excuse my reiteration but; if Witnesses are not inspired and not infallible, what is the point of perfect holy spirit? Further, if we are right at the end of Satan's system and they (Jehovahs Witnesses) have been given the task of saving humanity from everlasting destruction, why would God not use divine inspiration now, at a time when we all need it, when ...

In a recent blog I referred to a piece on the JW.ORg site entitled: Is Homosexuality Wrong? The writer of the piece made the following claim about JW's;  Attitudes about homosexuality may vary from one culture to the next or from one time period to another. But Christians aren’t governed by popular opinion or “carried here and there by every wind of teaching.” (Ephesians 4:14) Instead, they base their view of homosexual conduct (and any other kind of conduct, for that matter) on the standards set forth in the Bible. This is a bold statement because basically what they are saying is that they stick to their stated beliefs regardless of public opinion and changing attitudes.  However, this pious statement has no basis in fact, because when you investigate the history of Jehovahs Witnesses you will see regular changes to their stances on a variety of subjects. Take racism as an example.  In the 15th April 1900 Watchtower the writer stated; "Reading matter distribut...

Do you ever feel that you are constantly picking away at your reasons for leaving Jehovahs Witness? It's like a scab on your knee when you were a kid.  You just can't help picking at the edges, no matter how disgusting it is and even how much it stings.  You keep easing it up, making the skin bleed a little here and a little there.  It smarts, sometimes it even hurts but you keep worrying at it, pulling, prodding, teasing it until you can see the raw, red skin beneath. Today that scab is in your mind after you've exited the religion that has controlled your every thought for years.  You find yourself reading blogs like this or web surfing for ex-JW websites dishing out all the dirt on your former beliefs.  You scour the internet for magazine and newspaper articles about the Governing Body and the religion as a whole, happily reading and re-reading any that show the Witnesses in a bad light.  One day you realise that you're spending more time an...

There is an interesting article in the study copy of the Feb 2017 Watchtower.  In it the Governing Body claim that they are neither inspired nor infallible.  Yet they still attempt to justify the claim that they are being directed by 'perfect' Holy Spirit.  If you want to read the article in full please copy and paste this link in your URL: https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-february-2017/who-is-leading-gods-people-today/#?insight[search_id]=95313a02-507e-49c4-a154-06a2341a2ac7&insight[search_result_index]=3 The following is taken directly from the article; Who Is Leading God’s People Today?  THE WATCHTOWER (STUDY EDITION) FEBRUARY 2017 “WHO REALLY IS THE FAITHFUL AND DISCREET SLAVE?” 12 The Governing Body is neither inspired nor infallible. Therefore, it can err in doctrinal matters or in organizational direction. In fact, the Watch Tower Publications Index includes the heading “Beliefs Clarified,” which lists adjustmen...

Today I am taking my wonderful wife to worship at the temple of Anfield!  She's never been to a premier league football match before (she doesn't like football) but some occasions transcend the sport and this is one of them.  Sometimes you just need to experience the atmosphere to enjoy something that usually doesn't float your boat.  There is something electric about the atmosphere at Liverpool Football Club, something that makes the hairs on your neck stand up as you listen to fifty thousand people singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' in unison. Don't get me wrong, that atmosphere isn't unique to the Reds of Liverpool.  If you are a Man U fan or Chelsea, Southampton or even a different sport like American Footballs Giants, Raiders, Bears, you will understand what I am describing.  There is something special about being in a stadium with tens of thousands of likeminded fans, watching the best of the best play their sport. For ninety minutes to...

In many ways it's easy to dismiss the teachings of JW's when you finally realise that they have been deceiving you for years.  When other ex-JW's (like me) point out the obvious flaws in their arguments and the contradictions that litter their publications it only takes a little courage to finally come to the conclusion that they don't have the 'Truth'. However for most ex-Witnesses there is always that slight nag, that tiny voice in the background that keeps asking the question - 'what if they are right?' That voice isn't the voice of reason, it's the residue of mind control, the result of years of brain washing and, whether you admit it or not, it means that every time something significant happens in the world, a tiny part of your mind wonders if this is the start of the 'Great Tribulation', or is this how Armageddon starts?  It isn't just when things happen in the world, it can also be when things happen to yo...

Amongst the people who work for my business there is a young man who is working as an apprentice.  He came to us fresh out of school, very enthusiastic and of course his knowledge of his chosen trade was extremely limited.  We pay him a wage and for four and a half days a week he comes into work and learns his trade from our experienced technicians.  Once a week he goes to the local technical college where he is tested on both his practical and theory knowledge until one day he will pass his final test and become a qualified motor mechanic.   So far he has been with us for almost a year and month by month we have seen his skills develop. He's still a long way off being able a viable financial asset to the company but he is a long term project.  In a few years time all the effort and expense we are investing in him will hopefully pay off for both the business and for him.  We will have a fully qualified mechanic trained to our standards and he will h...

Recently two young women have died in Canada because they refused to have blood transfusions after they haemorrhage d during childbirth.  It is national news in Canada and, as you can imagine, many ex-JW sites are also headlining it. The problem is, so many of these ex-Witness sites are making claims that are simply not true and, as a result, all of us who are trying to show the religion up for what they really are lose credibility with Witnesses who are wavering in their beliefs. I read one websites interpretation of the events and it made me cringe.  They portrayed the Hospital Liaison Committees as some sort of death squad, forcing JW's to refuse blood and preventing their relatives from contacting them whilst they fought for their lives in hospital. This is utter rubbish. JW Hospital Liaison Committees are JW elders trained by the Governing Body to make Hospital Management and surgeons aware of Witnesses stance on blood and to act as representatives ...

Many years ago I was called out to a nursing home in Newport Pagnell (in the UK) to repair a piece of equipment.  It was fairly late at night, around elevenish, and after I had finished my work the night manager, a thick set lady in her mid fifties, made me a very milky coffee.  We sat in a long narrow dining room with a set of double doors at one end and a dark kitchen at the other.  The kitchen door was open and though the room was in darkness it was possible to make out a stainless steel fridge close to the door and a white mug on the top of it. As the manager and I chatted I noticed the white mug moving.  It was one of those moments when you think your eyes are playing tricks on you and I did a double take.  Suddenly the mug lifted into the air and hovered.  I suppose my face must have been a picture because the night manager cackled at my open mouthed expression. "Have you seen our resident ghost?" She laughed. I pointed towards the kit...

JW.ORG are running an article entitled;  Jehovah’s Witnesses Help to Beautify Rostov-on-Don On May 20, 2015, the head of administration of southern Russia’s largest city, Rostov-on-Don, issued a letter of gratitude to Jehovah’s Witnesses, commending them “for very active participation in the springtime beautification of the city.” The article describes how local JW's from four congregations helped with clearing rubbish from city pathways and riverbanks around the Russian city of Rostov.  At first glance it seems an innocent enough piece of editorial and lets be honest, highly commendable.  Of course the cynical side of me wants to believe that the Witnesses in Russia are looking for ways to generate positive publicity because they have experienced years of bad press and anti-Witness sentiments. My main reason for this cynical view is that in forty years of being a part of the Organisation I never once saw or heard of any group of Witnesses actively ...

I was talking to an ex-Witness on Facebook yesterday and the subject of regression therapy came up which reminded me of a conversation I had with an elder (a particularly prominent elder in the UK) about fifteen years ago.  He talked about 'false memories' being implanted by Satan and the Demons in Witnesses.  This conversation was just before the start of the first media revelations of the extent of child abuse within the JW religion. The elder said that they had been warned by Bethel that there were a number of Witnesses who claimed that they had been abused as children but there had never been any abuse, the accusations were as a result of demonic sources creating false memories. Of course subsequent revelations have revealed very real abusers but I began to wonder how many of us who were brought up as JW's from childhood are suppressing bad things that happened.  I know that I was never sexually abused, in fact I know that in their own Borg like way my ...

I've recently joined an ex-JW Facebook group and some of the people who contribute to it have made me realise just what a journey it is leaving the Organisation.  As you read their experiences and their (often) open-hearted pleas I am constantly reminded that all of them, in some way or another, are echoing my own feelings and experiences. There is a lyric in the wonderful Aerosmith song 'Amazing' that says; Life's a journey not a destination .  It is a sentiment that until recently I never truly understood but now I realise that leaving a religion that has controlled and manipulated you for a lifetime is a journey that never really ends but it can be incredibly rewarding and fulfilling if you allow it to be. Even years after you leave there will be moments where you are suddenly transported back to the Kingdom Hall, whether by a word, an old face or even a TV program.  Every time it happens the hurt, resentment and anger bubble to the surface, however wh...

The latest JW.ORG has an article entitled; The Truth About Halloween It explains the origins of the celebration and links it to witchcraft, supernatural spirits, the occult and of course their old favourite paganism.  The article then goes on to use their interpretation of the bible to condemn the tradition:  "There must never be anyone among you who . . . practices divination, who is soothsayer, augur or sorcerer, who uses charms, consults ghosts or spirits, or calls up the dead.”—Deuteronomy 18:10, 11 What Jehovahs Witnesses and their Governing Body never really appreciate is that everything is linked but everything changes.  To illustrate just consider the atomic bomb.  It was designed by the Americans and used on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an attempt to force the surrender of Japan in the second world war.  It was a vile, evil weapon that not only killed tens of thousands at the time but also caused pain, suffering and death to hundred...

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the Aberfan disaster in which 144 people died, 116 of them children between the ages of 7 and 10, when a huge, manmade mountain of coal waste buried a school and houses in the little Welsh village.  It was one of the single most horrific disasters in post war British History, made all the worse by the tragic loss of so many very young lives. At 9.15am in the morning those children and their teachers were starting the last school day before the half term holiday.  Eye witnesses describe a roaring sound like that of a jet engine as the huge slag heap began to collapse.  Beneath it one of the teachers told the children in his class not to worry, the sound was only thunder he reassured them.  Seconds later one hundred and fifty thousand tonnes of mud and slurry engulfed the building, burying teachers and children in seconds. Today the people of Aberfan, especially the families of those killed in the avalanche, still b...

JW.ORG are at it again! Once more they are teaching their young members the righteous benefits of homophobia, this time using worksheets for them to fill out!  When will some authority have the courage to prosecute them for hate crime? This is their approach;  “Bible standards are out-of-date!”   BEFORE REPLYING, CONSIDER: Sometimes when people say that the Bible is out-of-date, what they really mean is that its standards differ from theirs. Do you think the person you’re talking with feels that all Bible standards are outdated—including its prohibition of theft, adultery, and murder? —Romans 13:8-10 Here they are suggesting that homosexuality is equivalent to being a thief, a murderer or cheating on a marriage partner.  Remember this is an organisation that has protected child abusers for decades! The next worksheet is no better. “Homosexuals can’t change the  way they are—they were born that way.” BEFORE REPLYING,  CONS...

When I was a kid I loved going to my grandparents houses.  They lived a long way from us and so it wasn't a regular thing, maybe a couple of times a year visiting my mums parents who lived close to London and maybe once every eighteen months for my dads parents who lived on the South coast. My sister and I loved those visits and we would look forward to them for weeks beforehand.  Each set of Grandparents were very different, in fact they were chalk and cheese, but both loved us and looked forward to seeing us in their own way.  Looking back now I recognise the tension in my mums parents house but as a kid the adults shield you from all that crap and attempt to propagate the fantasy that everything is wonderful all the time. The common denominator between the two sets of Grandparents was that three of them were Jehovahs Witnesses.  My mums mother, the exception, was a chain smoking, potty mouthed Catholic who didn't suffer fools and challenged the worl...