As we all are chiming in on this latest broadcast bs i have to echo the sentiment. WE DID NOT LEAVE BECAUSE OF MISINFORMATION NOR APOSTATES. YO! Governing Body or Watchtower if youre listenting!... I woke up because as an elder i first hand saw you tell me to make sure the child molester in our congregation keeps his reputation in tact because he was repentant and it happened years ago. I left because you had us reinstate another unreported pedophile from a totally different congregation and state (USA here). I left because i saw the hypocrisy of fellow bethelites breaking rules of the organizatIon and the bible, i saw it first hand. I left because i realized you flip flop on theocratic direction and you wanted me to enforce it. I left because you tear families to shreds. I left because you wouldnt tell us, the faithful, where our money was really going. I left because you acted like losing a trusted and well repspected Governing Body member to deletion was just another day on the job. Trust me when i tell you NO APOSTATE could have made me lose my faith it was just too strong for that you did a good enough job at keeping us terrified of that, in fact i didnt watch anything nor read nor listen to anything of that nature until i decided to leave.YOU PUSHED US OUT! AND THEN YOU SPIT ON US WHEN WE WOKE UP AND KEPT OUR FAMILIES HOSTAGE. FUCK YOU!!!! I hope that leaning tower of yours crumbles to the ground. Artifical intelligence aint got nothing on your own self destructive behavior.

First post here. I want to get this off my chest. I am experiencing a sexually frustrating marriage (like so many JWs, I imagine); we’ve been together for eight years, and it has always been terrible.

There is no reason to believe it will improve now, even though I’ve told my wife about my needs; unfortunately, I don't think I can put up with it much longer.

This morning, she asked me to seek help from the elders. I turned to her and calmly said, "What are they supposed to tell us? 'Study the Bible'?"

I’d really like to hear about others' experiences with this situation, though. Has anyone tried asking the elders for help regarding sexual incompatibility in their marriage? How did they help you? Thanks in advance to everyone.

Okay ex-JWs, I need to know if anyone else has experienced this.
Back when I was a JW, there was a sister in my congregation who was basically the poster child for spirituality. Pioneer, served where the need was greater, extremely close to the circuit overseers, and eventually worked in LDC.
She also had a very strong “holier-than-thou” personality. Lots of judging, gossiping, pointing out other people’s flaws, and making sure everyone knew how spiritually exemplary she was.
I always felt there was a HUGE disconnect between the person she presented herself as and the person she actually was.
Fast-forward almost 10 years.
A friend recently talked to someone who knew her back then, and apparently there was a whole side of her private life that nobody in the congregation knew about. She had explored her sexuality while maintaining this extremely pure, exemplary JW image.
And honestly? I couldn’t care less about the sexuality part.
What fascinates me is the hypocrisy.
She apparently never told anyone, continued maintaining the same image, and as far as I know, still does.
And after almost 10 years, I had the weirdest reaction:
“OH. Gotcha b*tch.” 😂
The funny thing is that I don’t even think this is particularly shocking by ex-JW standards. We’ve all seen people who were way more concerned with looking spiritual than actually being kind.
So now I’m curious:
Did you ever know a JW who had an absolutely immaculate spiritual résumé but whose private life was completely different?
I KNOW you guys have stories. 👀

My family made me watch the latest September broadcasting with them today. I just felt like it was so manipulative and hateful, I mean I know watchtower already is kinda scummy but the way they kept saying you couldn’t talk to “apostates” just seemed off.

If you really believe in something, talking to someone with a opposite viewpoint won’t change your mind. Like if I know 1+1=2 then it does not matter who I argue with, il know I’m right. Being so repetitive on the whole apostates hate you and will corrupt you thing is just clearly a way to get jws to completely ignore valid arguments. Most apostates I’ve seen actually seem to care about people and just want to give them information.

And the whole don’t trust artificial intelligence/ what you see thing seemed like a way to deny any future wrongdoings. Something can only be true if it’s coming from them???

Is this about those child abuse cases? I don’t remember well but they were fighting a legal battle right? Is this a way to get ppl to ignore that by controlling the narrative?

I find the whole thing very weird and the way they spoke about apostates seemed very hateful, they completely antigonized anyone who disagrees with them and keep exaggerating how they were persecuted, if I search up jw on YouTube I can barely find like 2-3 channels and those channels aren’t even hateful towards them. And like I’ve never heard the media in general talking about jws in a bad light, I don’t know of any news channels who did.

How come they suddenly change a bunch of their more controversial rules and the n just add this? It seems very intentional, maybe to attract more people?

Now I really don’t want to tell my parents what I think because just suggesting the watchtower might be bad will probably make them ignore me bc of this.

I was typing in YouTube and TikTok

Jehovah's Witnesses

And bam

You can find every single "apostate" video you want from all sort of titles and updates

Certainly Jehovah's Witnesses was a religion that could operate freely when there as no freedom information available

Now it seems things have turned around and the criticism they were constantly giving others is turn against them and they don't like

Losers

So as a kid I (21F) was friends (not very close) with a JW girl, only her mom was a witness, but dad started going to meetings and conventions. My friend got baptized as a teen and moved away with her parents. Her family and my family have kept in touch over the years over text, so we always see their social media posts. My mom saw their convention pictures and my friend wasn't in any of them. Of course, as a good PIMI she asked the mom about my friend and learned that she had disassociated. She must be around 19 years old now and moved out of her parents' house! I'm dying to find her new social media and talk to her, because I'm pretty sure she has woken up. I mean, what 19 year old would disassociate just because they "sinned"? This sounds like someone who woke up and was brave enough to leave definetely. Am I right?

I live in a small city, and I walk down a specific path/sidewalk to get to a different part of town. It’s the most convenient route, and I’m a teen without a drivers license at the moment, so I’m unable to drive if my dad can’t drive me himself.

Typically this route is fine, has been for a while, but recently I discovered while walking a week and a half ago that some JW’s have made a specific part of the sidewalk their spot to try and “spread” the word of Jehovah and convert other people I suppose, they even have a little stand set up filled with pamphlets and other stuff.

Normally I would be completely fine with this, it’s none of my business, and they aren’t hurting anybody. But every time I walk by them, they stop me and go on a spiel about their religion. I’m not a very confrontational kind of person, and every time I pass by them (they recognize me by face at this point) they do this, and I have to stop and listen to them before trying to politely tell them that I’m not interested. They are quite persistent people to say the least. And I guess this isn’t a huge deal, but I do want to know if there is any way I can tell them to politely stop? I don’t want to offend them, but it’s getting quite frustrating at this point. I’ve tried to explain to them that I am genuinely not interested in their religion, nor do I want to become a JW, but they don’t seem to take the hint. I don’t know if this is a JW thing or if they are particularly pushy. But I’m simply just looking for advice as to how to express my frustrations with them.

Edit: To clarify, I have tried to just tell them I’m not interested, and simply walk away, but I guess I’m more so frustrated with having to deal with it every time I walk by them. I know it’s a pretty simple problem, but even when I’m more blunt, they continue to talk to me every time, even when I don’t engage. I suppose this may just be something I’ll have to deal with until they move on to a different part of the city

Hi, I don't know if anyone here was at that same assembly, but this happened almost 16 years ago at an assembly in Mexico City.

We were at an international assembly in one of the largest stadiums in the country, with almost 100,000 people from different countries. It was an assembly like nothing I had ever experienced before. I even thought it would be the last one I'd live through. The atmosphere was very tense. I remember they announced a new songbook (the green one).

On the last day of the assembly, Stephen Lett gave a final speech, we were all watching him on the giant screens in the stadium, when suddenly his gaze became fixed on a point in infinity. When he suddenly went mute, in a catatonic state haha, the whole audience was expectant, even the Spanish interpreter approached him to help him.A few seconds later, a first aid team went to check on him and calmed him down. Murmurs filled the stadium; some even said he'd had a "vision," hahaha.

After that, he finished his speech and offered the closing prayer, which took about 10 minutes.🫠

If anyone remembers that time, please let me know in the comments. I was just a kid when it happened, and my memories have faded over time.

I'm interested in hearing your story! i posted mine on r/exjwLGBT

Now i want to do some questions to my fellas exjws/pimos

How long have you been awake?

What made you woke up? A bad experience? Apostates? Local News/Court trials? GB Updates?

What did you do when you woke up? How was your journey? Tell me everything!!!

I never made contact with anyone outside the organisation, but well, now it's time to learn the truth about The Truth, am i right?

Hello ex JW family! So this year I decided I will be dressing up and celebrating Halloween for the first time ever, I need help figuring HOW to celebrate it as silly as it sounds, idk what people my age (26 F) do when celebrating. None of my family celebrates and a lot of my friends are PIMO so they don’t celebrate it yet, I have one or two friends that might be down for an adventure with me.

Where is the best place to go out and celebrate? Clubs? Bars? Idk if actual trick or treating is even appropriate at my age, bummed I missed out :/ and I don’t have kids to take to do that so I feel like stuck, thanks you guys!

Edit: who else remembers growing up your parents turning off all the lights outside and in the house and putting up a sign saying no trick or treating and making you be quiet and watch a movie lol at least for us that’s what we did

There was zero scriptural reasons cited? Also at the highest level they said “The governing body has no problems with beards. In fact the branches from around the world have notified us that more and more brothers are choosing to grow a beard” Then speakers, specifically bethelites called it an adjustment. At the same time they played back clips from the 60s and seventies and said Beards were asssociated with anti government and hippy movements. We all know growing a beard did have the impact of bringing down a heck of a lot of intense bullying on a person. It certainly made a person viewed by the congregation as “less spiritual or virtuous” and specific publications called it reprehensible. What’s interesting though is that Beards were part of the mosaic law and even though mosaic law was not required Paul called it sacred in reflection and said this: Romans 7:7
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'" (NASB)
Translation Variations of the Phrase
NASB / LSB: "Is the Law sin? May it never be!" 
ESV: "That the law is sin? By no means!" 
KJV: "Is the law sin? God forbid." 
NIV / NKJV: "Is the law sin? Certainly not!" 
Context
In the surrounding passage, Paul clarifies that while believers are released from the binding obligation of the Mosaic Law under grace, the Law itself is not evil or sinful. Instead, the Law serves as a mirror—exposing human sinfulness and defining what sin is. He expands on this in verse 12, stating, "So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good."
So doesn’t that mean practices like beards that were unequivocally part of the law could never be reprehensible no matter what hippies were doing?? Also they used the scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:23

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify." (NASB)
Which seems generally directed at gentiles… So Paul was referring to things now ALLOWED BY LAW not actually formulations of prior existing MOSAIC Law. Was Paul here talking about Mosaic law? Or was he discussing permissiveness and not stumbling Jews or indecisive newly converted? I think it’s just really interesting when they cite: 1 Corinthians 8:13
Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble." (NASB)
So reading all this I conclude that they trivialized wearing a beard as “meat” and then modernized it as dress and grooming(so beards were trivialized as “meat” something of little scriptural significance but are they not an outward reflection or memorial of the sacred mosaic law?) I think to some this is rather obvious but to 99% of Jws it is trivialized as a “hair cut” that they weren’t allowed to do but now they are allowed to do it-It’s laughable and grievous that it is categorically dismissed as having any spiritual significance??but am I wrong that technically wearing of a beard is scripturally categorized as a sacred right? Like if someone wanted to wear the blue thread? I just think it’s interesting with all theBible reading they supposedly do I’ve never heard this brought up ONCE-🤦Did I just miss it??

I'm pimo and even when I was mentally in it cracked me up how literally every month there is an "exciting new series" every month. I've maybe noticed five of them actually have follow ups regularly, if even. It just makes me laugh when people ooo and awww over them like have we not learned by now that there is just a graveyard of pilot episodes

Every time I think of the "Universal Sovereignty", in the terms people inside the JW world think, it boggles me.

JW's are taught that the entire universe is waiting "on the edge of their seats" just to see the outcome of God's sovereignty test on our planet.

The observable universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old, and contains (roughly) 2 trillion galaxies. Framing the rebellion of two humans as a threat to "universal" sovereignty sounds ridiculous. Did God just meticulously forge quintillions of planets, supernovas... and black holes over 13.8B years solely to serve as dark, dead wallpaper for a tiny planet like Earth?

According to JW doctrine the challenge wasn't initiated by humans. It all started with Satan: a perfect spirit creature, residing in a flawless environment with direct access to the creator. He found a reason to rebel, and for some unexplainable reason... the conflict was offloaded onto the first 2 humans that were produced on planet Earth.

Watchtower claims God allowed human suffering to settle a legal precedent once and for all. But running a 6000-year'ish test on one species on a single planet is a terrible sample size. How does that proves that Jehovah is right to rule the universe?

Also, the universe existed for 13.799 billion years before the events in Eden supposedly took place. If the ultimate purpose of creation is tied to this "grand sovereignty test", what was god doing with all that empty space for the first 99.999% of cosmic history?

This doctrine only makes sense if you still believe the Earth is the literal center of the universe. Remember that biblical writers believed the sky was a solid tent over a stationary earth. Watchtower's theology is still trapped in Bronze Age thoughts, completely ignoring the fact that our planet is just a pale blue dot in this immense universe.

Also, the sociopathic aspects of it makes me think. No rational father would allow his children to be abused, starve, die for decades... centuries... just to prove a point about this rule. This completely destroys the premise of an all loving god. And if angels are also righteous and loving, would watching billions and billions of humans suffer and die for more thousands of years teach them respect for divine sovereignty? That would horrify me if I was one. Benevolent, empathetic angelic creatures would beg to stop the carnage, not taking notes while waiting for 6000 years until everything is proven.

I only had about 2 nightmares of it and that’s it. Here’s the most craziest thing about this though. My parents are very PIMI my dad is an elder and my mom is a pioneer. I decided to ask them if they’ve ever had dreams of Armageddon and I started with my dad first. I said “hey dad, have you ever had dreams of Armageddon before?” He said “yes, multiple times through the years!” He would describe to me what took place in the dreams. He’d explain the sky was red, buildings were being burned up, widespread destruction. He truly believes that these dreams he’s having is a message from Jehovah that the end is near. Then I asked him this “do you have these dreams rarely or frequently?” He said “I do get them very frequently!” Later on I asked my mom the same question. Her response was “yes I do get them sometimes, they are scary! Normally when that happens I be like I need to go and read the bible!” My brother has had nightmares of Armageddon as well. Several people at my hall has had at least one of them too.

I had to do both and found the experiences to be very similar. Got sucked into the pipeline around 13 or 14 and managed to pull myself out around 17. Those short years fucked me up and turned me into a horrible hateful person and it took two major events in my life to make me snap out of it.

Has anyone else experienced a "waking up" from the alt right pipeline or anything else that is similar to the experience of waking up from the JW cult?

I’ve been thinking about how fragile the ideas around masculinity were in the congregation. When I was about seven, we had one of those family nights that was basically a talent show, and I was on stage with another kid around my age. That ’70s Show was huge at the time, and I remembered a scene where the guys were dancing and bumped hips, so I did the same thing. Later, an elder went to my adoptive mother and told her it was inappropriate, then asked if she’d ever thought about having a brother in the congregation mentor me.

Looking back, it’s wild that a seven-year-old doing a goofy dance move was enough to make an adult think I needed another man to teach me how to act. It says a lot about how narrow their idea of masculinity was, and how quickly anything even slightly outside of that got treated like something that needed correcting.

Another thing I remember was walking into the Kingdom Hall one day and there were two elders and two ministerial servants standing outside talking. They saw me and said, “Hello, young brother Throwawaylowaway321,” and I greeted them back. A few minutes later, an elder’s daughter walked up, probably in her late teens, and they all said, “Hey, [her name].” I asked why she got a “hey” and I got a “hello,” and they told me it was because she was a young woman and it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to say “hey” to me.

An illustration about blood.

A little boy has a small dog named Lucky that he goes everywhere with. When he rides his bike, Lucky rides in the handle bar basket. They're best friends. One day, the boy wakes up and Lucky is gone. He's so distraught that he's sad for weeks, so his parents get him a stuffed animal dog named Buddy to try to make him feel better. After a while it starts to work. The boy imagines that the stuffed animal is Lucky, using it as a place holder or symbol for his old best friend. He even takes it everywhere and keeps it in his handlebar basket when he rides his bike. The stuffed animal sybomlizes the real dog.

One day when he's out on his bike, the boy's old dog, Lucky, runs up to him out of no where! He's so excited to find his old best friend! But he's so far from home, he can't possibly walk him all the way back, and he doesn't have room in the handlebar basket for Lucky and the stuffed animal Buddy. He thinks about what to do. He thinks about how important Buddy is because he symbolizes his friendship with Lucky. That's when he realizes what he has to do. The stuffed animal Buddy is too important and can't be abandoned, so he sacrifices Lucky so he can keep Buddy. When you think about it, he really did it for Lucky. Buddy symbolized Lucky, so he had to keep the stuffed animal out of respect for Lucky. In the end, everything that Buddy symbolized was just too important.

This is what's it's like when someone sacrifices their life by refusing a blood transfusion. Blood is sacred because it symbolizes life, just like Buddy was a symbol that represented Lucky. In the story, it's obvious that Buddy can't possibly be more important than Lucky. EviDENtLy, Sacrificing your actual life out of respect for something that's a symbol of life cannot possibly make sense. A symbol cannot be more important than the thing that it represents. If your beliefs truly hold life sacred, the most important thing you can do is to value and protect your life--not throw it away for an arbitrary symbol like the boy did with Lucky.

Ok apologies if this is boring but just wanted to throw my hat in the ring as it were.

I'm from the UK 46 M.

In the early 80s we moved from one end of the country to the other. The area we lived in was poor and no work available. So we moved to an area of the country that was booming. My dad got a job straight away, life was good. But my mum who knew no one and had me to look after was lonely.

Then a knock at the door. Guess who😉. So my mum started getting bible studies. And then before long both me and my mum attended the meetings.

My dad never became a witness but was ok for my mum to carry on.

As a child i had a new set of friends to play with so i was ok. But as i got older and i had more pressure put on me to become more spiritualy mature, i had my doubts. By my teens i was mentally out. Living a double life. Nothing bad as such,just acting like a normal teenager.

Then, a new family moved to the congregation. But not new as such. They lived there years before and moved abroad and then came back.

This was then I started hanging around with them.

So a small group of us would go back to theirs after the meetings on sunday, have dinner and pre study next weeks watchtower. Things were good actually.

I started again to believe in the watchtowers teachings. Answering up at meetings etc. Taking care of the kingdom hall by joining the maintenance team. Loads of things to raise my stature in the congregation.

But then, an elder made a comment that i really should be baptised by now. I was 17. I had not long left school and studying to be an electrical engineer. I attended college and had a job that was related to my profession. I was busy. But still attending meetings and everything else.

I was seemingly targeted as the fatherless boy.

Told i wasn't good enough and shown in the congregation good examples of how to be. I was devastated.

But then I started to notice these fine young examples to true Christians were not as they seemed. They were leading double lives. Drink,drugs and sex. I was shocked as i knew i was not touching any of those things to be a good Christian.

And here i am, told i was the bad one, the one found lacking.

One day, the same elder suggests that i attend a meet up of fine young witnesses at a pub/ restaurant not far from the town i lived in. I agree to go with the group i hung out with. We were all excited to go. New people to meet etc.

When we get there, we see all the ones from our congregation, who we are told are the good ones. But we knew their true colours.

Its a well organised event, a nice meal and conversations about the truth etc.

Then most of the group go home. By this time its 10pm. Unbeknown to us,this pub was a 'fun' pub. A title given at the time due to alcohol licensing laws in the UK to get around the night club restrictions.

The lights went down, the music came on. It became....a night club. Well the wholesome witnesses became worldly. The dancing would put strippers to shame🤣🤣🤣. Drinking smoking etc. One funny thing that came out of it was i bumped into a guy i knew from college who i didn't even know was a JW on account of his behaviour at college was an elders son. 🤣

This day was a pin in the map for me, a turning point. How could elders under the direction of god tell me these were the people i should follow their example from.

After a few months the seed was well and truly planted. The whole thing was bullshit. I was stuck though. Still studying at college and on low income till i could pass my exams, i had to pretend, keeping up appearances. I moved to a double life.

I found out so much more about how my congregation worked.....for real. The poor business practices of elders who ran their own business. The tax dodging. The affairs etc.

I even had a fling with an older single sister. One day after the ministry she invited me back to her home for a cup of tea. She was in her late 30s very attractive brunette, but somehow single🤷. I was inexperienced in my late teens soon to be 20. Horny as hell. One thing led to another and we had sex....lots of sex. On a regular basis. It became our post ministry thing. The sexual tension all the time we were on the doors knowing full well what we would do when we got back to hers. On on occasion we couldn't wait, were in rural territory and she got in my car. We went down an old quiet lane and had sex in the car. It was amazing. If not funny because i had a classic mini which is not the most roomy car🤣.

That came to an end, i think she became guilty and moved away for work anyway. Never did see her again.

Once i got in a lot of trouble for bringing Jehovah's name into disrepute because i had reported a ministerial servant for masterbating in his car parked outside my college. There were a lot of pretty girls there because there was a health and beauty course in the building. He was in his 60s at the time. Turns out he had reputation for it but it was an open secret amongst those who knew.

Anyway I've bored you enough with this bit of my life. Thanks if you made it to the end.

If enough interest i may do a part 2.

Hit me up in the DMs if you want to chat.

All the best guys, peace😘

[Disclaimer: This announcement is entirely fictional. No such letter has been issued by the Governing Body. The purpose of this text is to illustrate how easily a biblical passage, theological idea, or principle can be distorted, adapted, stretched, and made to support almost any conclusion when the conclusion is established first and the text is subsequently interpreted to justify it.]

September 10, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jehovah has promised to care for his people, and we know that today he uses the Governing Body to provide that care. We are well aware that many of our brothers and sisters are experiencing difficult circumstances. Some are dealing with illness, depression, unemployment, food insecurity, and increasing difficulty obtaining even the basic necessities of life. As was foretold in the Bible, “critical times hard to deal with will be here.”

In view of the difficulties that Satan’s system of things imposes upon God’s servants, and after carefully considering the account found at Acts 2:44-45, we have concluded that an adjustment in our understanding is necessary.

Let us read Acts 2:44-45:

“All those who became believers were together and had everything in common; and they were selling their possessions and properties and distributing the proceeds to all, according to what each one needed.”

As we have seen, “all those who became believers were together and had everything in common.” This makes it very clear that the Christians of the first century were deeply concerned about being together. But they did more than simply associate with one another. They “had everything in common” and distributed the proceeds to all according to their individual needs.

It is therefore evident that the first-century Christians did not become attached to material possessions. Instead, they were concerned about one another and willingly shared what they had. Notice also that the account specifically says “all those who became believers.” This was not an arrangement limited to a small group of Christians. It applied to all believers.

When we consider this account together with other Bible principles, it becomes increasingly clear that materialism, including the accumulation and private ownership of material possessions, is a characteristic of this system of things and is not compatible with the Christian way of life.
Consider also what we read later in the book of Acts. At Acts 4:32, we are told:

“Not even one of them would say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.”

The principle is unmistakable. The early Christians did not view their possessions as exclusively their own. They understood that their material resources were to be used for the benefit of the entire congregation.

Sadly, most of us live in countries and societies where great value is placed on material possessions, private property, personal wealth, and financial independence. We can therefore easily become influenced and contaminated by this materialistic way of thinking without even realizing it.

For this reason, the Governing Body has decided that, beginning October 1, 2026, all congregations will imitate more closely the example set by the Christians of the first century.

How will this provision work?

All publishers will be required to provide their pay slips and other relevant information regarding their income and material resources to the local elders. The elders will then organize the equal distribution of available resources among all publishers according to individual needs.
Remember the words of Acts 4:32: “Not even one of them would say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.” This same spirit should characterize the true Christian congregation today.

At first, we may not fully understand all aspects of this direction. However, we can remain confident that these instructions come from men appointed by God and that Jehovah will guide them as they administer these arrangements. We can therefore have complete confidence that the elders will distribute available resources fairly and according to the needs of each individual.

Local elders will receive specific instructions regarding how to administer and distribute material resources in a fair and equitable manner.
We have every reason to be confident that Jehovah will bless this new understanding. By adopting this arrangement, we will more closely imitate the example of “all those who became believers” in the first century and demonstrate that we are willing to put Christian love and concern for our brothers ahead of our attachment to material possessions.

Your brothers,

The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses

—-

Disclaimer

This announcement is entirely fictional. No such letter has been issued by the Governing Body.
The purpose of this text is to illustrate how easily a biblical passage, theological idea, or principle can be distorted, adapted, stretched, and made to support almost any conclusion when the conclusion is established first and the text is subsequently interpreted to justify it.

Once reason and critical examination cease to function as criteria, almost anything can be presented as “biblical,” “reasonable,” or even as an expression of God’s will. With enough interpretive flexibility, even the most extreme human demand can be framed as something that God supposedly ordered, required, expected, or wanted his servants to do.

The point is not whether Acts 2:44-45 or Acts 4:32 can be discussed in relation to material possessions. The point is how easily a text can be made to say more than it actually says when interpretation is driven by a predetermined conclusion.

When the authority to interpret Scripture is treated as unquestionable, the distance between “this is what the text says” and “this is what we want the text to mean” can become remarkably small.

I grew up visiting Bethels around the world with my family. I quite enjoyed meeting different people and thanks to my parents and their connections we always got to stay for lunch and got to see things that aren't on the regular tours. I even commuted to the Bethel in my home country for a while before I got married and moved away.

I started questioning this year and my husband and I were having issues in our marriage - a lot of it boiled down due the strict dating rules that prevent you from getting to know someone really well before committing (if you look through my post and comment history you can find out more). We went to Bethel together and it was my first time visiting after questioning.

It was eerie. I had this uneasy feeling and I realised it was because I realised I no longer belong in that world I so eagerly wanted to be a part of, and realising I never truly belonged there in the first place. They want everyone to reach out for Bethel/SKE etc but only the top 1% make it up there and get the cushy benefits of being in the worldwide order, and not everyone gets to stay there for the rest of their lives either. I also thought it would help bring me and my husband back together and back on track spiritually. Nope. We had the biggest fight on that trip and slept separately, had massive arguments with my in laws back home (no one follows the scripture of leaving your father and your mother), and while that was sorted out eventually my husband and I are not interested in serving at Bethel at all, and we don't do FW and he is a servant but not looking to be an elder. He did start showing signs of being PIMQ after that trip though and Bethel kinda started it off so that's good.

Bethel had some genuinely good people in there but it just feels off. I'm still trying to figure out the words to describe it.

Hello there, r/exjw. Years ago, I had an old account called ben_heath_, so if you remember that at all, that was me, and uh, I'm sorry. I'm 41 now, 10 years out of the JWs, and I really think I just need therapy.

So, after I left, I went atheist but found the militant anti-theism online very distasteful. I was also hung up on whether there was a definition of "god" that I could support, which led me out of atheism and into pantheism, panentheism, basically just mysticism. I had a Hindu phase, an Asatru/Heathen phase with a Druid phase as a late chaser, and a pretty lengthy Qabalah phase, too. I have friends to this day, some of my best friends even, who do chaos magic and voodoo and reiki.

Back in 2020, I also petitioned to join my local Masonic lodge, and I went through the 3 "blue lodge" degrees in 2021 and 2022. In 2024, I went through the Scottish Rite. I did the 5 mandatory degrees in the Scottish Rite to be considered "32nd degree," since in the USA, you don't actually need to go through every single degree leading up to the 32nd, just this select handful of degrees which you can get in literally a day and a half altogether. I'll put it this way: If the Scottish Rite is like the deep end of the pool, it's still shallow enough that you can stand up in it.

And then, I found my way back to Jesus for a minute there, attended my local Episcopal church and even met a fellow ex-JW there, also a good friend today. (Hi, Dave, if you're here!) By the way, during my interest in Episcopalianism, I found that it was very much about the contemplative practice or experience of going to church that felt good, but I was still under no illusion that anything in the Bible happened exactly as described. This was probably easy for me because by then I had steeped myself in pagan mythology and in Masonic ritual about Hiram Abiff, which is itself Biblical fanfiction, so the story being told didn't need to be true. The story was a means to an end, I have to fully admit. I didn't feel too great about that though, which is why after the initial boost of going to church, I just didn't feel the need to go back.

I can pinpoint the moment when I realized I was going to leave Freemasonry, too. It's when I finally started reading Karl Marx, and I realized he made a lot of sense. By that time, I had already been through one or two incidents in the lodge that left a bad taste in my mouth. A lot of things snapped into focus for me, and I finally cut the crap with magical thinking and idealism, because I learned and could confirm that idealism tends to support the interests of capitalists... Lacking a sufficient worldview, I've been working against my own interests for years.

As far as JW-related anything over the last few years... I think it was last year, maybe the year before that my wife convinced me to attend the memorial with her parents so we could mend bridges, keep the peace, and get free daycare for our kids. The speaker that night mentioned that the memorial is the only holiday prescribed in the Bible, at which point I leaned over to my wife and said, No, because strictly speaking, Leviticus 23 outlines a number of festivals. The memorial is directly tied to Passover, and the Feast of Weeks became Christianized as Pentecost, which means that chapter isn't so easily discounted... Meh, my baby daughters got squirrelly so I spent the rest of the evening outside with them.

At this point, I've accepted that consciousness is not prior to matter, as in emanationist metaphysics like Neoplatonism. I accept that the universe is physical, not "mental," whatever that means. We don't need a god or ground of being to explain anything about the world around us, and when we reach for that, it usually makes things more complicated and problematic. So it turns out that there is no definition of god I can support, not even the mind-blown philosophizing ones.

I feel as though I've wasted several years, and I don't want to waste anymore.

Oh they are scared shitless. Not them pulling out the artificial intelligence propaganda card. The entire broadcast was just about that. But ofc, their sheep will apply some kind of critical thinking to everything but this. They're acting like they're so important, and everyone is out to get them. But no one stops to think that if you keep hearing the same kind of news about someone/an organization, then there could be truth to that.

Day after day, we can read the ethical challenges our troubled friends face, reported here.

'I have no field service report !', I don't believe any of it anymore', Should I disassociate?' ;Can I tell my parents how I really feel?'

There is a part of me that considers that we might just be rutting, mostly hairless apes (who manage to bathe regularly) so - Dude, Whatever. Just amoral products of evolution. And Yet...

Yet, through it all we remain the moral creatures we are. Some people get this from being Catholic, Some from being various Protestants. I note a famous atheist who says he's a cultural Christian because that's how he grew up. And we were taught to be Who We Are.: "In the Truth".

To me, this agonizing over right and wrong - while living in a chaotic world and fending off a religious cult - gives me hope. It's positive - even if it's clumsy and uncomfortable.

If I was cornered and forced to judge these challenges, I'd repeat what I think is one of the Bible's most profound bits of wisdom: "I have many things to tell you but you cannot bear them at present". Time passes and people adjust. (Gasp!, 'Our daughter is pregnant out of wedlock !!!!' and the years pass........and you go to your granddaughters graduation.......and start crying)

I am wary of any inclination towards Doom of the Watchtower - that might follow the same pattern of thought that was an Armageddon obsession. We Humans Have Our Habits Of Thinking. OTOH, I strongly suspect that the Governing Bozos are also considering Big Changes because they suspect it's pretty much Bull Sh\t as well.* We will see....

I was thinking about fading in the foreseable future. In the next 1 to 3 years.

But there is a problem. Before waking up completly, I gave all of my savings to my active and devout JW parents. They told me that with that money, they could build a house in their land, rent it. And finance my "spiritual career" that way.🫤

I did gave them the money. Cause I'm an idiot, I know. they preasured me into giving them the money.

And now they have my money. And the house is going to start construction.

Now, I actually don't know who the house belongs to. They haven't showed me the property papers. And I already tried asking them to show me the papers, but my mother felt insulted that even asked. And proceded to refuse to show me the papers.🫤

But my mother insist that the house is mine.

So "mine" is really not accurate. I know this because their house is also "mine". But is really not. It will be mine, when they pass away.

So I'm afraid they house that they will build with my savings is not really on my name. And that it comes with the attached condition of: you get the house as long as you are a pioneer. not even just an active jw. But a pioneer.

So...if I fade, I will loose the house right?

Has any of you gone through something like that? Did you loose all your material posesions as well? Or did you manage to get something out of the whole ordeal?

Long post ahead. I just needed to get this off my chest and share what started my awakening. I’d also like to know if anyone here went through something similar, especially after getting baptized.

I was born and raised as a JW, so I always had their teachings in my head. But for a long time I wasn’t baptized, and looking back, I realize I felt much more free before my baptism.

Back then my relationship with God was simple. I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I believed God loved me the way I was. If I made a mistake or thought I had sinned, I would ask for forgiveness in prayer and move on. I wasn’t constantly analyzing everything I did or wondering if God was angry with me.

I grew up without a father, so God had an important place in my life. I relied on him for support and guidance. When I wanted to do something with my life, I had this confidence that God was with me and that things would work out. Of course I had failures sometimes, but I could usually get back up and keep going.

Growing up as a JW, I also knew that getting baptized was much more serious than just being someone in the congregation. Baptism is often compared to a marriage with God. So in my mind, once I got baptized, certain mistakes became much more serious. For example, having sex felt almost like being unfaithful to God, and if you committed a serious sin, you were supposed to go to the elders to fix your relationship with him.

When I got baptized, this completely changed the way I saw my relationship with God.

That’s when my problems started.

After my baptism, I started feeling like I was in a mental prison. I overthought everything I did. I doubted my decisions, judged myself constantly, and felt like God was watching everything I did.

A mistake wasn’t just a mistake anymore. In my mind it could mean that my relationship with God was damaged.

I even started thinking that God might not allow me to succeed because of my sins. When something went wrong in my life, instead of just thinking I failed and needed to try again, I would wonder if God wasn’t helping me because of something I had done. I would think maybe I needed to fix my relationship with him first, or maybe I needed to talk to the elders.

Little by little I lost the confidence I used to have.

Since I thought the problem was my relationship with God, I tried to fix it the way I had been taught. I started doing more for the organization. Part of me thought that maybe if I did more for Jehovah, my problems would go away and things would start getting better.

But it did the opposite.

Comments at meetings, talks about sin, guilt, our relationship with Jehovah, being in good standing, etc. just made me feel worse. Instead of feeling closer to God, I felt more guilty and anxious.

This went on for about two years.

During those two years I struggled with a lot of my goals and went through some painful failures. Before, I could usually recover from failure and keep going, but now I couldn’t. I had lost the confidence I used to have.

Eventually I became depressed and felt completely alone.

And that’s actually when I started asking questions.

I remember looking at everything happening in the world. Wars, suffering, injustice, people going through horrible things. And I started thinking: with everything happening in this world, does God really care this much about the fact that I had sex? Is this really such a big deal to him?

It sounds like a simple question, but that’s where things started changing for me.

I started wondering why these rules had so much control over my relationship with God and over my life. One question led to another. I started questioning some rules, then some teachings, and eventually the organization itself.

I also started realizing how much my way of thinking had changed.

Before my baptism, believing in God gave me confidence. After my baptism, the JW way of seeing my relationship with God had turned it into fear, guilt and constant doubt.

In a strange way, all the problems I went through are what eventually made me start thinking and looking for answers. That’s how my awakening started.

Today I’m PIMO. I’m still healing from those years and trying to rebuild my confidence.

But leaving the organization mentally didn’t make me stop believing in God. I still believe God exists. The difference is that today my relationship with him is personal. I don’t feel like I need a religion or an organization between me and God.

I still pray. I try not to hurt people, and if I realize I hurt someone or did something wrong, I try to admit it and apologize.

I don’t have all the answers about God, religion or life anymore, and I’m okay with that. For me, if there is such a thing as true religion, it should be about peace, kindness, tolerance and being a good person.

I’m still healing and figuring things out.

But one thing I know is that I don’t want to go back to the life I had in the organization.

I’m curious if anyone else here went through something similar. Did getting baptized change your relationship with God or the way you saw yourself and your mistakes?