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Category Archives: XJW Advice

Serious advice and opinions for former Jehovah’s Witnesses.

What’s The Biggest Reason Why Jehovah’s Witnesses Disapprove Of Ex-Witnesses?

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religious truthMany ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses have tried to justify their reasons for leaving the Watchtower Society to friends and family who are still loyal Jehovah’s Witnesses. Many ex-Witnesses not only fail to do this, but fail miserably. It seems that there are no acceptable reasons for leaving our former Kingdom Halls in the eyes of many Witnesses. But why? And more importantly, can we change their minds about it enough to keep their respect?

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Is That An Attack On The Watchtower Society Or Are You Just Criticizing My Religion?

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Picture
Sometimes, we see the
world through two
different pairs of glasses
and we don’t even know it.

Ever since I posted my series about the November AWAKE! articles on atheism, I’ve started seeing more comments from Jehovah’s Witnesses here on Atheist Geek News. Some Witnesses say they only stopped here because they saw my “attack” on the magazine and wanted to defend it (or defend the Watchtower Society by implication as the magazine’s publisher). I take exception to this and wanted to explain my position for future commentators.

Here’s the thing. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone posting a rebuttal or offering a criticism to something I’ve written. Especially if what I’ve written is factually incorrect. I just don’t think words like “attack” are warranted here. Unless every criticism against everything is also an attack, that is. At which point, both words become synonymous and it doesn’t matter which one you use.

I would agree that there are hate sites out there run by people who truly hate the organization and its Witnesses. Some of these people are very angry. Some have a reason to be. But I don’t think this is one of those sites. To me, Atheist Geek News is simply a pro-ex-Witness site, one that offers up stuff for atheists and geeks alike. (If you happen to be all three, why not take off your coat and search for a spell?)

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Screw The Podcast: Here’s A PDF Of My Essay Instead

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podcastAfter plugging away on my little essay for some time now, I had hoped to turn it into a podcast that readers could download and listen to. I had even hoped to enlist one or two other ex-Witnesses to help read a few of the parts. (I asked Moxie about that a while ago via email, though I never heard back from her.) But even with a USB connector, it seems I can’t get decent sound with my cardiod microphones anymore. There’s too much hiss, and using hiss reduction creates too many audible artifacts. So…

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Crap. And I was hoping to do a few of these in a series. I’m feeling cheap these days, too, so I don’t know that I’d care to get another microphone just yet.

For now, it seems you must settle for a PDF of my essay, which can be found here. Spread it far and wide, my friends. Complain about it. Etc. It comes complete with illustrations and links, plus a few comments from Austin Cline’s atheism web site.

Some day, I’d actually like to create a book with contributions from others. I’d probably end up giving it away as a PDF. But still, I was hoping to turn it into something like books written by the Daily Show’s staff, only for ex-Witnesses. (I’m talking about those books with Jon Stewart from Comedy Central’s Daily Show.) Maybe it’ll still happen. Ya never know.



When Jehovah’s Witnesses Try Reasoning With Us To Get Us Back In The Kingdom Hall

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The great crowdWhat do Jehovah’s Witnesses have over most ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses? A written narrative for almost any question you can think of, that’s what. Thanks to the Society’s narrative, Witnesses don’t have to think about their answers when a mean old apostate raises objections about the Society’s teachings. They can just quote the Watchtower’s narrative without using their own reasoning skills. That’s fine for them, but it’s a real problem when Jehovah’s Witnesses turn that narrative on the rest of us–especially if they’re trying to pressure us back into “The Truth” with pseudo reasoning. Not because they’re right, but because they can use that narrative as a hammer to shame former believers into submission. As always, the rest of us have to answer their rapid fire challenges the hard way: by reasoning on the spot for ourselves. Aggressive Witnesses probably won’t turn you back into a blood-card carrying member anytime soon, but it can sure leave you feeling like a dope. Or even ashamed.

So how can an ex-Witness deal with those Watchtower interrogation lights without feeling like a total chump? Here are some easy tips that even the most timid exxer can handle.

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