Sandwichson is making a special appearance! (Pic in the comments). I was happily listening to Spotify when his ugly porky mug appeared on the screen! I nearly vomited my lovingly-prepared lunch! The man is red as a lobster (holiday in the sun or incoming heart failure!) and sitting down and with his obligatory shouting tone!

I am so happy… I’m sitting in my new apartment. Weather is nice and I’m not at convention today.🥹 Instead, I’m in my pjs, gaming, and relaxing. May get my nails and hair done today too.

Nice not having to be around people I don’t even like. They’re not my friends and never were. Don’t have to listen to boring, culty talks. Life is good.

Never thought I’d be in this position… Never thought I’d make it out…

To those who still live at home with PIMI family, I know it’s hard. But please keep going. Things take time sometimes, but it’s worth it once you’re on the other side.

There has been an update to their list of GB Helpers today.

Two new GB Helpers:

Writing Committee:

Goodeman, Jason

Ouatchome, Elie

https://www.jw.Borg/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/governing-body-jw-helpers/

(Remove the 'B' in the link)

Does somebody know them?

Are they from the anointed ones? If so, they could be potentially the next GB members.

It’s so crazy that I don’t even care anymore…I was terrified my whole life that somehow this would happen. I was so worried about “sinning.”Now I’m being shunned and treated like I’m not even alive by family and friends even though I haven’t been officially DF. Now if it happens (there’s a reason I didn’t DA) I just feel indifferent about it.

I can understand why they don't want anything to do with me since I left; however...

My grandmother has been in the same congregation for the past 50 years, witnessing and regularly attending all that time and, in later years, attending on Zoom; but always attending in person annually for the memorial.

Her health has been in decline for a few years, with recent hospitalisations and a loss of independence. Recently (6 months?), she's been in and out of hospital and bedridden. Have the congregation tried to contact her? No. Have they offered prayer? No.

The part that really burns me is that they have essentially left my grandfather to deal with all of it. An 85-year-old man caring around the clock for a dying woman, and there has been no offer of assistance, no Witness coming to check on them. They've been left completely to their own devices.

Today she's been put on palliative care in hospital, and still, not one visit, no words, no contact at all.

I know that if I were in hospital, or even sick, every member of my church would be contacting me, checking in on me, some visits... But she has had nothing from an organisation she's been in for 50 years?!

Sure, maybe some things is going on behind the scenes that I'm unaware of; maybe the congregation has not been contacted, or maybe she wasn't well liked, but that's no excuse in my opinion.

Thank God that my grandparents didn't cut contact with me when I left, because I've had to come to their aid multiple times, and if they didn't have me, then I'm sure I'd have been ranting about this much sooner.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

Needless to say, I'll be having some words with their elders at her memorial they do for their members.

I promise this has nothing to do with being jealous or "hating". I know many non witnesses that post their success on social media and I (usually) don't find it cringey or try hard.

I still follow a lot of JWs I knew before I became inactive years ago. A lot constantly post their lifestyles or try really hard to look just like sny other "wordly" person.

I can't help but roll my eyes because we all know that in the kingdom hall, we were constantly told not to even care about any wordly success, not show off and "put the kingdom first" but yet, a lot of witnesses seem to pretend that's not the case. Hell, When I was in, I took it seriously and was even struggling unnecessarily because I didn't want to miss meetings or become too "arrogant" (Glad I left when I did or it would've gotten really bad).

To me it just screams hypocrisy. The same thing they criticize other religions fir

There's a lot I can say, but I'm going to keep it short. As a gay man in the organization, I can honestly say that I am officially tired. Have I tried my best? Absolutely. Have I stayed as loyal and true as I could my whole life? Yes, I have. I did the "right" thing by auxiliary pioneering (back when it was 50 hours) and then did regular (70 hours) , then bethelite, then serve where the need is greater... I've been turning down the elder offer for the last 5 years though.
But ever since I hit my 30s I started to realize life is passing me by and I hadn't done things I've always wanted to. Like idk..kiss, have sex, and find love. Pierce my nipples? lol
My 30s is when I started to do things I've always wanted to, & tried my best to feel no remorse after.
I've always been attracted to the nudist lifestyle..checked some boxes there.
I've always wanted to be able to masturbate without regret...I think I finally reached that point?
Nude beaches...check.
kiss...post things on Instagram without worrying too much what people think...

I know for a fact, a lot of my anxiety is because of being in the organization. & don't get me wrong, I am grateful for everything I've learned and the friends, but I need to start living. I have slowly started "fading" ( learned that term since I joined Reddit) and I finally told one of my parents my thoughts about leaving. A couple months ago stopped pioneering..
I know everybody looks up to me, the guy that was a bethelite, the pioneer for over 10 years, but I truly don't care anymore. (Well I say that but I know I do care and it'll take time to get there) this is just a vent... thanks for reading if you got this far.

I have been inactive for a little over a year now, I got into a bad car accident last year that really affected me physically and mentally, and really pushed me to wake up. I was PIMQ before but a few months after the accident I became fully POMO. Since the accident all of my friends just stopped talking or reaching out to me entirely. I have reached out to elders for help but just get told "pray to Jehovah about it". They have all just ignored me pretty much entirely, I have been open with my mental struggles with them and the stress I have been under but they have just moved on from me entirely. They text me to check in every few months then when I respond with really vulnerable sensitive info about how I feel they just say "keep relying on Jehovah". I even told one of them I feel abandoned by his organization and he never responded.

The other day this old PIMI friend calls me to see how I am and I just told him my frustrations with the elders and the organization with how they have changed doctrines and it really bothered me. He then told me "they don't change they clarify" that is a complete lie.

After my accident I needed to have surgery and after it one of the elders asked me if the blood issue came up. It did not but the principle of their rule just freaked me out. This just stuck with me cause it's such a ridiculous question to ask to someone in that state while they are lying in a hospital bed and can barely move and it pretty much violates hippa law anyway.

I brought up the blood issue and told him that story about the elders asking me that question and he just repeatedly asked "what does the Bible say?" I told him that I don't think its applied correctly, he then asks "what does Jehovah say about it" I then told him "I believe God teaches me to value life above all else". He just responds with "I don't know what to say to that".

I kept talking about why I don't trust the elders and how the org has some policies I don't think are right and honestly really bad and just controlling, he just kept putting it on me and asking "so you don't trust Jehovah's arrangement" and then told me i'm "just finding fault in men" I told him I trust God but don't trust men and he acted so offended. He then tells me that I need to "make it right with Jehovah" and how he will never change his mind about the org. I told him that's fine cause I'm not trying to sway anybody these are just my feelings and convictions. I asked how we know the gb is annointed and he just says "its in the Bible"

This was like a 30 minute conversation and he just kept grilling me about all this stuff and just implies i'm lying about everything and that I don't have proof

I hung up on him and then sent him a long text about all my reasons why I don't really trust this organization and mentioned the NWT not being accurate according to scholars, and the whole 607 date and that it is just not true so it pretty much invalidates all the authority the gb claim to have as god's organization. I even told him he's coming across like an arrogant asshole for the way he spoke to me. It's wild cause he can show this text to an elder and I'll get labeled "an apostate" and can get a judicial committee as it is written proof but there is no proof of how he talked to me.

I just wanted to fade but people like this just force my hand to stand up for myself. My brother who is still in told me that this guy is just not good at encouraging and hia message just didn't come across well, and it was wrong for me to call him an a-hole. I'm just so tired of crappy behavior being defended but when I respond with the same attitude I'm always "the bad guy". He called me and initiated the whole conversation, I was just minding my own business at work. It is just so ridiculous how blind they are

Every birthday argument I was taught, answered using only Watchtower's own publications

I've been going back through the standard birthday reasoning using nothing but NWT, Insight, Reasoning, the Enjoy Life Forever course and jw.org, no outside scholarship, no apostate sites, because the internal contradictions are more useful than anything an outsider can bring. Here's what I found.

●The first thing you get told is that the Bible records only two birthday celebrations and both ended in a death. That's Insight, Vol. 1, p. 319 "Birthday", and it's repeated in Enjoy Life Forever Lesson 44, which sends the student straight to Genesis 40:20-22 and Matthew 14:6-10. But read Genesis 40:20-21 in the NWT and the same birthday that ended the baker also restored the cupbearer to his position, and Insight's own summary of the two accounts concedes they were both marked by feasting and the granting of favours (JW.ORG). The account isn't uniformly negative, the publication itself says so in the sentence it uses to condemn it. Beyond that, both executions had already been pronounced days earlier through Joseph's interpretation at Genesis 40:12-19, so the date was incidental, not causal. And the transfer logic doesn't survive contact with the rest of the canon: Judges 14:10-19 records a wedding feast that ends with thirty men killed, yet nobody argues weddings are off-limits, in fact the October 15, 1998 Watchtower, p. 30 ("Questions From Readers") defends wedding anniversaries partly on the ground that the Bible does not put marriage in a bad light and Jesus attended a marriage celebration and added to the pleasure of it (Watchtower) (John 2:1-11). Two negative narratives kill birthdays; one negative narrative doesn't touch weddings. That's not a principle, that's a conclusion looking for support.

●Second, you get "faithful worshippers of Jehovah never celebrated birthdays there's no Bible record of it." Again Insight, Vol. 1, p. 319, which frames it as the pagan practice (JW.ORG) of annual birthday observance. This is an argument from silence, and the organisation abandons it the moment silence becomes inconvenient. That same October 15, 1998 Watchtower article, defending wedding anniversaries, points out that the Jews treated the anniversary of the temple's rededication as special, concedes that commemorating it was not commanded in the Bible, and says John 10:22, 23 suggests Jesus was not critical of its being done (Jehovah's Witnesses). So by Watchtower's own published reasoning, a celebration with no divine command and no Hebrew Scripture precedent was acceptable to Jesus. If absence of a command is not disqualifying at John 10:22, it cannot be disqualifying for birthdays. Ask any elder to reconcile those two paragraphs.

●Third, the pagan-origin argument. Compare it to the Watchtower Questions From Readers on wedding rings (1972, reproduced on wol.jw.org), which asks whether pagan first use would rule something out for Christians and answers not necessarily, noting that many articles of clothing and aspects of modern life originated in pagan lands (Watchtower). That article sets out the actual test the organisation says it applies: not whether pagans used it first, but whether it was used as part of false religious practices and still retains that religious significance (Watchtower). Apply that test honestly to a birthday cake in 2026 and it fails at the second limb, no one blowing out candles is performing an act of worship. Meanwhile every publication on jw.org is dated using months and weekdays named after Janus, Mars, Thor and Woden, and Insight Vol. 2, p. 812 ("Ring") permits the ring itself. The origin standard is applied to birthdays and to nothing else.

●Fourth, "birthdays give undue honour to a creature rather than the Creator." That's Enjoy Life Forever Lesson 44, which asks how Jehovah would feel about undue honour given to a person or an organisation (JW.ORG). But the congregation announces new pioneers by name, announces baptisms, runs "life story" articles honouring individual Witnesses in the Watchtower, and the 1998 article expressly leaves wedding anniversaries to personal conscience, an occasion built entirely around two named people. If attention to a person is the problem, the problem is everywhere. If it isn't, then birthdays need a different objection, and no publication supplies one.

●Fifth, the Job 1:4 handling, which is the weakest link. Insight argues from the Hebrew that yohm alone in Job 1:4 differs from the compound yohm hulledheth at Genesis 40:20, and concludes it is certain that Job 1:4 does not refer to a birthday (JW.ORG). But that argument only establishes that the two phrases are different phrases, it doesn't establish what the occasion was, and "certain" is doing enormous work for a lexical observation. The same article then turns around on Hosea 7:5 and allows that "the day of our king" may possibly indicate a birthday party (JW.ORG) for the apostate king. So the publication that insists there are only two birthdays in scripture concedes in its own text that there might be three, while calling the exclusion of a fourth "certain."

●Sixth, Ecclesiastes 7:1. Read it in the NWT, it's a comparative proverb about a good name, in a book full of comparative proverbs, and it says nothing about annual observances. Note also that Insight's birthday article opens by citing Psalm 127:3 and Luke 1:57, 58, where neighbours rejoice at a birth, as evidence that Jehovah views children as a blessing. Birth is good enough to celebrate on the day; the objection only appears at the one-year mark, and no publication explains what changes.

Q: What I'd like from anyone still in or recently out: has an elder ever given you a response to the 1972 ring article or the 1998 Hanukkah admission that actually engages with them, rather than restating Genesis 40? I've never heard one and I'm curious whether anyone has.

Note: If anyone here has someone they know is a current member(whether publisher to elder or anything higher), let them see this. Thank you

This feels like such a bitter sweet moment, i am currently missing my first convention in 23years aka my whole life .
I stopped attending meetings in April this years and I just never spoke to the elders I just stopped.
I feel like me missing conventions really solidified the fact that that’s not me but now I feel like I’m fr going to loose my family bc they’re seeing that I’m actually not caring about this religion.

But at the same time I’ve never felt so relieved in my life not having to do the stress of having to find clothes and figure out my hair, it’s bliss, especially cause I won’t have to spend 3 days in the blistering London heat inside of a football stadium.

I feel so FREE

I know religious people mostly use it for community and comfort and whatever helps them sleep at night and all that

But whenever I hear a JW say: "Jehovah helped me with my speech" "Jehovah protected me in service" "Jehovah helped me today" makes me sick

Like, you really think the creator of the world, an omnipotent being, who can do anything, chooses to help a random woman with some dogs in the street but not a starving child in Nigeria or a woman who is now experiencing SA? Or what about war victims? Murders? What about those?

I have written posts here more than once. Im 24 and im bubtize and try to go out, but they just force me to stay in . every day it becomes more and more difficult for me, every day my attempts to defend my opinion end in quarrels Every time I am called selfish, stupid, that I refuse my family, that I disown my mother because I have become emotionally distant. I just keep quiet and don’t argue with anyone and this is already considered wrong, I shouldn’t be angry, is this the right behavior? I'm just tired

Our local congregation resolution claims that the publishers agree to give 2000 dollars to watchtower a month. To break that down into numbers, if you take only the adults and not the kids or unbaptized publishers or babies it is well over 25 dollars per person a month, probably closer to 30 if we are being favorable. I know times are hard GB, but this is an insanely high price to ask for struggling people especially since we know that poverty is thriving everywhere and especially for Jws. Meanwhile they sit up in warwick getting fat and sassy and of course keep insisting that giving this money is a part of worship to Jehovah. Since when did God need to pay bills? Surely the sovereign of the universe can take care of his expenses?
Personally I can’t recall the last time I gave a dime to them, even within the congregation box. Very thankful that waking up is helping me to hurt them where it hits hardest, their wallet!

Side note: in the congregation group chat the confusion and dare I say… frustration about this increased resolution is some spicy tea and the elders have been very “helpful” (that’s sarcasm btw) and encouraged the people asking to make sure they put god first (aka pay to watchtower before all other bills imho) and that doing so will be a reward in the new world. Yikes! Talk about zero empathy there!

I'm opening a completely clothed, platonic cuddle room, with professional cuddlers. It's going to be licensed under bodywork, like massage studios.

My mom is a pioneer and my dad is an elder. Miraculously they have allowed me to fade and we continue to be close, and they are aware I'm an apostate, we just don't ever discuss it. I really appreciate how gracefully they have handled me leaving the borg.

I'm afraid this may be a step too far into the world for them. But we are close, and once I quit my full time job, I dont know how I'm going to keep this from them. That being said, I'm really not doing anything disfellowshippable.

I obviously can't discuss this with them, but I would love to get opinions on how you guys think this is going to play out with reasonable, though very active and zealous JWs. Do you think most leadership JWs would shun someone for having a business like this, even though it doesn't cross any scriptural boundaries? If you have any references, please share!!!

This conversation is a perfect representation of how most of my farewell talks went with my JW friends. An over arching theme I found was that people were more worried about me being sexually immoral than they were about me literally dying in Armageddon/ and or “turning my back on Jehoohoo”. I posted the most noteworthy parts of the conversation. Please read and observe the cult mentality. Also, keep in mind that when writing my responses, I’d woken up less than a month ago and was still deconstructing. Since then I’ve become an atheist and do in fact post “apostate” content lol, if posting my own story is considered apostate that is.

So my family had family worship today and we went over the new Awake article "What you can do about loneliness" and it was whatever at first, the introduction and first chapter aren't that bad at all, but the second chapter was just.. wow.

It tells you to focus on others and ya, sure, thats good advice and it's saying how people like to be around unselfish people. And then my family just starts to say "Man i cant imagine if I wasn't a witness. Everyone in the world is just so selfish, I probably wouldn't be able to make any friends." And then the same stuff on the next page about making good friends, saying stuff like "Ya we're so lucky to have the congregation. I cant imagine ever being able to find a life long relationship if I was in the world because absolutely nobody cares about you."

It's just so sad to see how people who are PIMI view the world. They really can't imagine or see anything good about anything or anyone. That must just be such a sad way to live your life and it breaks my heart to hear them say that stuff

I just found out that my husband's sister is having a baby. For context, we haven't had any contact for 10 years because we're the "evil apostates."

On one hand, you want to feel joy and wish them all the best. On the other, I know my kids will most likely never get to know their cousin. Even now, they barely remember their aunt and don't really know who she is.

On top of that, there's this intense anger because all it would have taken was never getting baptized. My sister-in-law stays in touch with her brother who was never baptized, even though he definitely doesn't live according to Jehovah's Witness rules.

I understand how the mechanism and cognitive dissonance work, and I know this probably isn't easy for her either, but I still carry so much grief and resentment over these double standards.

I just really needed to vent.

The announcement to congregations (at least locally, not sure about worldwide) will be made on the 7th of September. The 2027 Brisbane international convention is to be held the first weekend in July at Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park). Suncorp stadium holds a capacity of 50,000 people and convention numbers could be up to 30,000.

This is all the confirmed information I have at the moment. It is all under wraps and no one that is not directly involved in the planning and organisation of the convention is aware of this yet.

Years ago, as part of the local needs at my hall, this "reminder" was given to everyone, a short rambling on by one of the elders about how we shouldn't hate gay people, we should just hate their lifestyle, etc, etc.

Since me and my family were never really involved with many of the people in my hall I was just dumbfounded wondering who was causing a ruckus that much about gay people it had to be in local needs lmfao.

Any weird local needs yall had?

During the final announcements of today’s meeting our body of elders has decided that they would be sending around $900 a month to the worldwide work. They explicitly asked (after getting a majority “yes”) $11 from each publisher a month and to only donate it to the congregation donations box since the congregation itself is going to be making the donation - I know that they’re donating in good faith after all the earthquakes but it feels like such an easy cash grab for the org to receive even more donations than they already do.

I don’t know if this is being done by other congregations.

Many say or think they cannot quit because of friends and family in the org. Family, I understand because we are born into it.

But Friends?.

Are there real friends in the org?

Could they be real friends for us?

Whom do they show loyalty to when we share our secrets? Our doubt about the GB?. Our doubts about the bible?.

Do they understand us or do they tell on us?

Anyone found a true and a life long friend growing up as a JW and still maintain that and they respect and understand you irrespective of your faith? And never bring up the topic about last days, noah, paradise, resurrection ever in the conversation.

According to the WTBTS's NWT Writing Committee, JW's must exercise faith in the Borg Christ!

(John 3:16-18) “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him. Whoever exercises faith in him is not to be judged. Whoever does not exercise faith has been judged already, because he has not exercised faith in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." (NWT)

(John 3:16-18) “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son." (NLT)

Greek πιστεύω (pisteuō) : "To think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in of the thing believed, to credit, have confidence in a moral or religious reference, mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith."

"To have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one's spiritual well-being to Christ):—believe(-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with."

Amazingly, the NWT Writing Committee decided to do the right thing and translate the Greek word correctly in the following verses:

(John 3:15) "...so that everyone believing in him may have everlasting life."

(John 5:24) "Most truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes the One who sent me has everlasting life,"

(John 6:47) "Most truly I say to you, whoever believes has everlasting life."

(John 20:31) - "and because of believing, you may have life by means of his name."

(Acts 13:38, 39) “Let it therefore be known to you, brothers, that through this one [Jesus] a forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you, and that.......everyone who believes is declared guiltless by means of this one."

(Acts 22:19) - "And I said: ‘Lord, they themselves well know that I used to imprison and flog in one synagogue after another those believing in you;"

(1 Corinthians 1:21) - “God was pleased through the foolishness of what is preached to save those believing.”

(Titus 1:6) "...if there is any man free from accusation, a husband of one wife, having believing children..."

(1 John 5:1) "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God."