Jehovahs Witnesses

I listened to a BBC radio program the other day about a woman whose father was a serial killer.  He had been dead for years and she had no idea about his past. Before she was born he had served years in prison for the murders of two young girls in a Welsh village.  Decades later he is considered the prime suspect in the murders of multiple women in London. Jehovah is purported to be our heavenly father, a loving, kind and benevolent parent who loves us all and wants for only our very best.  The serial killer's daughter believed her father felt the same way. The reality is Jehovah (if you believe in him) is the most prolific serial killer in history; a God whose record of murder is second to none.  Of course, his adherents will claim his killings are just and righteous; however what is righteous about the murder of babies, children, old people and innocent men and women whose only crime is to be uneducated, superstitious and naive? The imagined ideal of a ...

Every religion says the same things in different ways.  Every one of them asks for Gods help, His blessing, His confirmation that they are just and righteous in their actions because their enemies side with the Devil.  The problem is their enemies are asking God the same questions and favours.  Muslims plead with Allah to give them victory over the infidel Westerners while the Americans hold their hand to their hearts and declare that they are the greatest nation on earth and God is with them.  So who is God with?  The F16's that destroy both warlords and innocents or the so called terrorists that exact their vengeance by killing innocent 'infidels'?  In the end aren't they both terrorists?  How can God side with anyone who deliberately murders his children?  Of course, it isn't just the Americans or the Muslims.  Here in Britain, our ancestors are guilty of atrocities that beggar belief, all in the name of Christianity.  In fact no...

It's been ten years since I left 'the truth' and in that time the religion has changed beyond recognition. When I attended the Kingdom Hall the idea of JW television would have been ridiculous.  The notion of counting field service hours sitting next to a cart tantamount to cheating and the devotion to a blue JW.ORG badge would have been viewed as idolatry.  Recently they have removed online access to the vast majority of literature published by the IBSA prior to 2000.  Presumably this is to make it hard for anyone to discover the beliefs and teachings that the organisation once perpetuated but now don't sit comfortably with 'current thinking'.  The constant changes within the organisation fly in the face of the teaching that Jehovah never changes.  His justice and wisdom are supposed to be a constant, yet his so called religion changes with the wind. Yesterday I saw two elders from my local congregation sitting next to one of their carts.  They saw me ...

Last night JW's around the world celebrated the memorial.  They passed unleavened bread and red wine around the congregation to symbolise the flesh and blood of Jesus.  For most people the ceremony involves just passing the plate and glass to their neighbour however any that claim to have the 'heavenly hope' of being in the 144, 000 will take a bite of the bread and a sip of the wine. It's ironic that the religion requires its adherents to die rather than accept a life-saving blood transfusion yet they are happy to drink 'symbolic' blood. In recent months the religion and particularly the Governing Body have been less than honest about what they teach and how they treat former members.  The deceit of elders from the Australian Branch Office, as they tried to prevent Geoffrey Jacksons (Governing Body Member) from having to appear before the Australian Royal Commission, was beautifully exposed by Mr Angus Stewart; Senior Council of the Commission. ...

The July 2017 Watchtower has an article entitled;   Winning the Battle for Your Mind Once again the Governing Body are attempting to convince their congregations that Satan is behind the criticism of the organisation by, amongst others, the Australian Royal Commission and the British Charities Commission. They are claiming that it is all propaganda as you will see from this extract from the magazine; What is propaganda? In this context, it is the use of biased or misleading information to manipulate the way people think and act. Some equate propaganda with “lies, distortion, deceit, manipulation, mind control, [and] psychological warfare” and associate it with “unethical, harmful, and unfair tactics.”—Propaganda and Persuasion. How dangerous is propaganda? It is insidious—like an invisible, odorless, poisonous gas—and it seeps into our consciousness. Because we may not see propaganda for what it is, behavior specialist Vance Packard observed: “Many of us are ...

JW.ORG is announcing the imminent ban of the religion in Russia.  It states; On March 15, 2017, Russia’s Ministry of Justice filed a claim with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to label the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia as extremist and liquidate it.  The Governing Body are said to be so concerned at the situation that they are encouraging all eight million Witnesses to write to the Russian authorities to protest the ban.  One of their spokesman made this interesting comment; “The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses wants to heighten attention to this critical situation,” states David A. Semonian, a spokesman at the Witnesses’ world headquarters. “Prosecuting non-violent, law-abiding citizens as if they were terrorists is clearly a misapplication of anti-extremist laws. Such prosecution is based on completely false grounds.” The Russian Ministry of Justice filing used the words: 'extremist' while the JW spoke...

Many years ago, when I was a little boy, I was in the 'ministry' with my dad and we met a Bishop. I remember his annoyance as my dad started talking to him about the Kingdom and the Bible. He laughed at my father's beliefs and informed him that Jehovah's Witnesses were fools to believe all the scriptures as the Bible contradicted itself all the way through. My dad challenged him to show one example, however, the Bishop had decided he had spent enough time discussing religion with a JW and shut the door. My dad took this as a moral victory and he often used the experience in his talks. Of course, being brought up a JW, I believed what I was told; that the Bible books complement rather than contradict each other. How quickly we learn not to believe everything we've been taught when we wriggle free of the mind control that the Governing Body exert over the organisation. Of course, the Bishop, who in my dad's version of the story was an arro...

It's memorial season again and most of us will get an invite.  To JW's it is viewed as the most important meeting of the year and effectively it is the only celebration that they actively encourage. Witnesses view the memorial as a celebration and as kids growing up in the 'truth' we were taught the significance of the emblems and the importance of the ransom sacrifice.  However, from being a youngster, I have always questioned the whole concept of both the memorial and (apostasy alert) more to the point, the reasoning behind Jesus ransom sacrifice.  Here is the basic premise of the memorial;  It's a formal ceremony that acknowledges the sacrifice of a perfect man, Jesus. That sacrifice was made as payment to God for mankind to regain the privilege of Gods blessing which had been lost by another perfect man, Adam. So let's now break it down.  Adam was created by God (apparently) as a perfect creature.  However God, in his infinite wisdom...

It might seem a bit left field, accusing the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses of having anything to do with the porn industry.  After all, this religion is so sexually repressed, it goes as far as to designate what sexual positions are acceptable and which are not.  (Basically missionary is OK if you really have to and all others are Satanic).  However there is a very clear link between the two; just consider the following. Pornography denigrates women.  Okay, I'm sure some will argue that there are now women in the industry who are fighting the tide, however most pornography is designed to show women as a 'commodity' a thing to use (and abuse) a piece of (ass) rather than a sentient human being. If you doubt me just listen to a group of men while they are watching porn; the combination of viewing sex whilst in the company of other men, brings out an animalistic and deeply disturbing view of the male psyche.  This makes me sound like I am a d...

I live very close to Sheffield in Yorkshire, England.  To those of you that don't know Sheffield it's famous for steel, the finest cutlery in the world, silver plating, The Human League, The Arctic Monkeys, Jess Ennis-Hill, Sean Bean and the world snooker championships - oh and the film The Full Monty - plus lots, lots more. It is a fantastic city - Mclaren build all their car body shells in Sheffield, Rolls Royce build jet engines in one of the many industrial sites, it has more theatres than any UK city outside of London and it has a fantastic University.  It has the second largest Chinese population in the country and it has spawned numerous highly successful music bands. However this is not a Trip Advisor guide to Sheffield.  This blog is about the University and JW's attempt to subvert the kids that go there for a fantastic education. Most students enter Sheffield by train and the city station is superb.  The station itself is very easy to n...

The Governing Body are keen to warn all Witnesses to avoid any questions from non-Witnesses that begin with the line; Is it really so? They maintain that these type of questions are designed to undermine faith rather than build up strong confidence in Jehovah and his organisation.  The party line is that these 'sly and undermining questions' are one of Satan's tactics as he tries to draw people away from the 'Truth' I have to agree with them.   Yes, there is at least one thing that JW's and I agree upon! You probably know people who love to cause trouble by malicious gossip and insinuation, I certainly do and as I surf the internet I get annoyed that so many ex-Witnesses and JW detractors use this method to attack the Society. What is the point of playing straight into their hands when there is so much hard evidence that can be used against them?   What I'm saying is the Governing Body keep warning the congregations about questions that und...

These are the seven men that currently run Jehovahs Witnesses; Samuel F. Herd  Geoffrey Jackson  Mark Stephen Lett  Gerrit Lösch  Anthony Morris III  Mark Sanderson  David H. Splane     These seven men control an organisation of 8 million people worldwide.  There are no women on this board of directors and there is a solitary black man. Would it be cynical to suggest that he is in place to appease the large percentage of black Witnesses?  The remaining six are old white men. It is claimed that God, by means of Holy Spirit, directs the Organisation through these men.  A claim that begs the question; If God is directing a worldwide organisation why would he choose a board of old, predominantly white and predominantly American, English speaking men to represent a religion of which more than half the members are women and a very large proportion are either black, Asian and / or Spanish speaking? The cur...

In recent months the Governing Body of Jehovahs Witnesses have persistently made claims to their followers that no other organisation does more to protect their children and that media claims that they covered up child abuse within the congregations are 'utterly ludicrous'. If these claims are true why are so many historic child abuse cases within the religion now coming to light?  Cases where the elders disciplined the offender but did nothing to prevent them abusing again. Why are the Organisation fighting legal battles in the UK and the USA to prevent their documentary evidence of these crimes from being passed to relevant authorities?   A UK Charities Commission spokesperson described the legal battle by the WTBTS to block a Charity Commission inquiry into how Jehovah’s Witnesses (a registered charity) handles allegations of abuse; " The extent of the charity’s challenges and the length of time they have gone on for are unprecedented in recent times....

Logic damages Jehovahs Witnesses credibility more than any other intellectual argument and nowhere is this more evident than in the practice of child baptism. The JW.ORG website has a number of articles that feature baptism for children as young as ten and they are very clear that the Bible doesn't give any direction about how old a person can be before they dedicate their life to Jehovahs. Before we use logic to turn that claim on it's head I need to explain why the subject of child baptism is important.  Since last years 'shunning' convention many ex-Witnesses have found themselves completely cut off from their families.  However there are exceptions.  If a child is raised in the religion but never gets baptised the family are able to have a normal relationship with them.  If another child from the same family does get baptised and then subsequently leaves the religion, they are to be shunned. It is a requirement by the Governing Body that is dest...

When the internet first became a common feature in most homes the Governing Body of Jehovahs Witnesses bombarded the congregations with warnings about its use.  It was described from the platforms, on more than one occasion, as Satan's tool, a method to introduce worldly thinking, pornography and false teachings into the very heart of the christian home.  They warned of the wasted time spent on surfing the internet that could be better spent on bible study and field service. Elders and CO's would solemnly recite examples of members who had been enticed away from the 'truth' by things they had seen and heard on the Web. Today the Governing Body have embraced the internet with open arms.  In fact, if you didn't know better, you could mistakenly believe the organisation was called 'JW.ORG'!  The logo is emblazoned on Kingdom Halls, badges and their magazine / book stands.  Maybe I am mistaken but I thought they were supposed to highlight the name of th...

Jehovahs Witnesses are getting all excited (again) because the world appears to be turning to crap.  IS are killing people, Britain is leaving the European Union, America has voted to elect an idiot as leader of the free world and beards are in fashion. They look at these situations (other than beards or course) and come up with the conclusion that this is all in fulfilment of bible prophesy and Armageddon must be imminent.  However what they fail to remember is the world has been a far scarier, far more dangerous and far more violent place in the past.  Millions died during World War 1 and they were convinced that it would herald Armageddon - it didn't. World War 2 came and went with millions more dying, this time many of the dead were civilians being bombed in their homes and murdered in concentration camps.  It still didn't preceded Gods war. In the sixties, seventies and early eighties we went through the Cold War, a period in history where we were...

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...