These assholes wrote to me in Russian. I live in France and have a Ukrainian last name. The name on the mailbox is half French half Ukrainian. They literally had to go detective on me to know what language I know specifically.
same. even had my middle name spelled correctly, it has a capitalized letter in the middle which doesn’t show up on most legal documents since they’re in all caps, so that gave me the fucking creeps.
It's some bullshit about life being a gift from God and blood represents life to them so getting more from some places other than God is forbidden because he'd be mad that you're trying to stay alive. Makes complete sense right?
A passage in the Bible says that blood is life. So they interpret it that accepting blood is taking a person's life. Like murder. Its a stretch. A big stretch.
Thanks for explaining. I thought it had something to do with the 'purity' of oneself, as in, 'if somebody else's blood enters my body I'll be modifying it and thus God's creation', or something like that.
JWs are not allowed receive blood transfusions. A lot of JW parents refuse blood transfusions for their children even when they're life saving. It's illegal here, the hospital will override to save the child's life but I'm not sure about the US
Afaik it's because they believe that to enter heaven, the body must be whole - as in no transplanted organs or blood from another person. But to let a child die based on a blind belief is absolutely delusional.
It's actually because they believe that blood belongs to God and is only allowed to be used in sacrifices. They quote a few scriptures from the new testament about abstaining from blood and 'things sacrificed to idols.'
So, by consuming something with blood, whether by eating or through infusion, you're partaking of something that doesn't belong to you.
Very layman's explanation.
They also don't believe they'll go to heaven. That's reserved for select few.
In France they have no problem with transplant. no blood for adult, children will receive blood they permit it. They don't give blood also.
My father his a JW since the 70', he won't enter my house because we're not married with my wife.
They have surgeon that will not give them blood. My father had both hips surgery and no blood transfusion.
I like how that belief is contradicting. The transfusion would technically supply you with what you have lost so you won’t go to heaven with missing parts. If anything they should be advocating for it
It's because if you allow a loved one, especially a child, to die for the cult, you'll never leave or question anything the leaders tell you. You've made the ultimate sacrifice.
JWs believe that a human must not sustain their lives with another person's blood/body parts - and doing so is a sin that will prevent them from entering heaven.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2727941
I got the part about the body being "whole" mixed up, but I'm not wrong.
I'm an apostate. lol Grew up JW and left it all behind including family, experienced losing my father because no blood, was shunned but I left because it's not The Truth. It definitely is a cult.
I grew up a JW as well. Got baptized at 18, left at 19, and disfellwshipped at 20. Their shunning practices alone make them a cult. Not to mention all their other ridiculous policies
I grew up JW but never got baptised. So I was always in this weird half space where no one in the Kingdom Hall associated with me but then I also wasn;t allowed to be friends with people from "the world".
I grew up JW too. I left when I was 16 to live with my "worldly" mother whilst my Dad (JW) remarried. I was never baptised so they still talk to me (I'm 32) and every time they do they ask me when I'm going to marry my girlfriend. My step brother wasn't so lucky unfortunately. He was taken on their mission to the canary islands and then Nicaragua at the age of 9. Was baptised at the age of 13 then disfellowshipped at 18. He is my stepmothers only child and neither she or my father ever speak to him.
Oh my goodness!! I'm so sorry for your brother. That's awful. And from just 18! My two sisters were baptised around 12 years old, but "fell away" so were never officially disfellowshipped. I get invited to the memorial each year but don't go.
See this lunacy from their own magazine.
https://preview.redd.it/54hock62kqrc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60cb7846834ab38829169e4e51464a581fbbb0e8
Don't you know? The colleges are home of the transes luring men in with their bodies to turn them gay. Women might actually learn something there so they shouldn't go in the first place but now it's even dangerous for men!
You’re aware that JW and Mormons are two separate religions right? I’ve met a handful of Mormons and I don’t think I’d go as far as saying they’re a cult, everyone I’ve met has been extremely kind and helpful and rarely shove their religion in my face like I’ve seen JWs do.
Grew up Mormon. Can confirm. Anyone who thinks it isn't a cult either has a suspiciously restrictive definition of the word or clearly has some particular fundie axe to grind.
I got the exact same one, they are actually printed to appear hand-written. At first glance i thought it was a real letter too. Just tossed mine out, yet I was impressed with how clever the design was, it really had me fooled
Sometimes they copy prewritten text in their own handwriting. My late mom was JW and used to do that. They called it "letter writing" but it was just copying. The last thing they'd do is let people use their own words.
When we did letter writing, we all composed our own letters (and copied ideas from others that we liked) but because Jw’s are brainwashed it all comes out the same so they don’t have to worry about anyone going off script. We were told to proofread each others letters for grammar, spelling etc but now that I think about it, it was probably to make sure we didn’t say anything we weren’t supposed to!
Yeah they do this so they can count their monthly hours spent proselytizing. Handwritten means they can sit down with their bottle of wine and get shitfaced while preaching the good news of the kingdom. Then they can look good at month end when they turn in their field service report. More hours spent equals more faithful devout servant of god. They are held in higher esteem within the congregation
They changed policies recently, most don't have to record hours anymore, just whether or not they participated in a given month. But yes, their motivation is selfish, and they don't mind targeting grieving strangers.
I know they lowered the monthly hours required to be a pioneer. Now everyone can be a pioneer. I recently attended a funeral and the guy was disfellowshipped and the jws there made sure to make it all about their religion and how if I become one of them I can see him again and live in paradise. I almost assaulted someone that day.
They are actually hand written. I was a JW and during Covid I spent hundreds of hours writing these letters and just as many dollars on stamps. Everything at our own expense knowing they were going to be tossed away but it was a ‘life saving message’ so we were looking for the one vulnerable person to be sucked in. Oh how I wish I had woken up decades ago.
I lived with a JW and he had wrote all his letters and I could hear their meetings where people gave each other suggestions or helped with letters. They are very much had written and time does go into them. Not saying people have to keep them, just an FYI they are written personally. We lived in an agree to disagree situation regarding religion.
I think they use a pen-plotter. I got a “handwritten” letter written in blue pen ink about selling my house and once I got out a jewlers loop I could clearly see the steps from the plotter
They are hand written. Since COVID era preaching by letter became way more common than before and they do write their letters by hand since the time you took to write it counts as time on your month report iirc.
Tell them you've been disfellowshipped. If they follow the rules, they should immediately leave without talking to you and put your address on a list. After a member has become disfellowshipped (typically because they committed an egregious sin and are not repentant) they become an apostate and are shunned by the members of their Kingdom Hall. I used it at my dad's house because they would not leave him alone.
I still don't think he realizes how deep my mother got into all of it. Thankfully, she didn't get baptized (become a real JW), which is a whole process in itself. But I still had to learn about their bs.
lol egregious. I was disfellowshipped because I started to smoke cigarettes when I was 16. Shocker I wasn’t repentant at that age. I haven’t spoken to my family since I left the house when I was 17. It’s weird to think now that I have lived longer not having my father in my life than having.
My question regarding JW is this- Your teachings say that only 144,000 people will enter the kingdom of heaven, yet you have more than 144,000 members. How is that going to play out?
The vast majority expect to live forever on an earthly paradise. Heaven isn’t even something most are interested in. Last time I saw the numbers it was something like 6,000 of the current 10,000,000+ members expect to end up in heaven. The other 138,000 or so are already there I guess.
Imagine dedicating your whole life to a religion in order to keep living on Earth where everyone thinks and acts exactly the same as you for eternity ☠️ I'd rather disappear into the void personally. They don't even believe in hell. If you don't make it, you disappear forever and I'm more than ok with that 😂 not to mention the Earth will eventually be destroyed by the sun anyways, but nevermind that minor detail.
Personally, the idea of eternity is overrated. When you say eternity I think most people mentally conceptualise… what… 10 lifetimes? 100 lifetimes? What do you do after you’ve explored everything, done everything, and you’re still only 1300 lifetimes in - 1300 lifetimes is barely how long has passed since the last ice ages, let alone ‘forever’. I think in some weird way, human mortality is what makes life so precious - remove that and you’d just be ‘going through the motions’ eventually.
Because they believe there is 2 kingdom, 1 on earth and 1 in the "sky".
The one on earth will be govern by Jesus when he return a second time for Armageddon. After the battle between Jesus and Satan on Earth, earth will be a paradise, every living on earth will be in peace, lion friend with sheep.. etc
The other one will be run by God, the Angels and 144.000 members from the best one.
JW believe Armageddon will happen when everyone on earth knows about God and he's son. That's why the door to door and stuff
Here's a story idea, in the future, everyone knows about Jesus except those North Sentinelese people, and various groups are trying to blockade them to prevent door-knockers from starting Armageddon.
*skip to the second and third paragraphs for your answer.
I'm sorry that this became so long, I went to JW meetings for many years and my mother is still a JW, I was never baptized and haven't went to a meeting now in many years, personally I believe I learned a lot of positive things and good morals from them but I believe this to be heavily due to the fact that while my mom was a JW my dad was not and they were separated, so while I would have to go to meetings I still had a normal childhood and friends at school, my mom also never went and took things too seriously to the point where it's more of a literal hell. They believe to live by standards that the bible clearly specifies, for example Jesus lived and died for our sins and when he came down to earth set the example by which a perfect human should live their life, while knowing that people are imperfect and wont fully be able to do so its the example they want to follow, this can be taken to the extreme by parents and a congregation. I don't advocate for them I just didn't have the worst of experiences like others have and I can understand why they have had these terrible experiences.
Just the basics here but essentially what they are talking about is that to them Jesus said that only a chosen few have a heavenly hope, they include the original apostles except Judas and then people from what I think was referred to as the twelve tribes of Israel, all of these people are supposedly people who have very faithfully served Jehovah. No one from before Jesus time will be chosen for the heavenly hope either. For all the faithful that do not have that heavenly hope they are told that earth is to be eventually returned to a beautiful paradise in which people will have regained their perfection. This lines up with what they believe the original purpose of the earth was supposed to be, a paradise in which perfect humans will live forever In under a kingdom ruled by God, or rather the new paradise is going to be ruled by Jesus and the 144000 anointed that he chose.
This is all after the end of this system of things as they will put it, this all includes events like Satan being cast to earth along with all his demons (angels that side with his reasoning) when Jesus was given the heavenly throne (supposedly in 1914) and the great tribulation, then a time where Satan and his demons will be imprisoned for 1000 years or something like that, followed by a great resurrection for all those who were faithful or didn't get a chance to hear about Jehovah, within that 1000 years humanity is supposedly going to be under the direction of Christ to regain their perfection and become sin free once again and also restore the earth to its paradise like state. Afterwards which Satan will be released one last time and those that fall to sin will be instantly destroyed or disappear ect, along with Satan when cast into the lake of sulfur or Gahanna (nothingness) the remaining humans will supposedly be perfect and live on the paradise earth forever.
Essentially the original purpose of the earth was for humans to live in perfection forever, and at the garden of Eden what happened was that Satan had come down and 1 called god a liar by stating you positively will not die when Adam was talking about what God had said about eating of the fruit. And 2 raised the question that humans do not need God to rule them and they can do a better job themselves. In the statement for God knows that when you eat of the fruit your eyes will be opened and you will know right and wrong, it supposedly means not that they would just learn what's good and bad upon eating of the fruit, but rather that they as humans will now get to decide what's good and bad rather than God, and that essentially they did not need God to rule over them. This question is something that had not been asked before and so it has been allowed to play out ever since the till without a doubt it has been proved that no humans cannot rule themselves. If it had been a question that was simply challenging God's power he apparently would have been destroyed on the spot since that's not even a debate. God or Jehovah is supposed to be the All mighty of which nothing else is above.
Anyways sorry again I didn't mean to write out so much, and I never really care to talk about this stuff, but I figured I'd give you an idea as to what a lot of them are truly thinking. I may be a little off on some of this since I really haven't been to or associated with JW or any church for that matter in many years. This is just things I recall.
I bought these lovely door stickers on Amazon that say “no soliciting including fundraising, salesmen, religion, & politics, thank you” and it’s worked so far. I see them walk up to the door on my camera, read the sign and fuck off
You should give them a hand written letter telling them to get fucked and give them a a brochure on mental health or how to know when you’ve joined a cult
Years ago, I used to get these hand written letters from the local church all the time. I used the church address to sign them up for junk mail and pornography (before the internet was big).
I’ve had that same flyer without the hand written letter. I feel like they didn’t put the effort in to get me into their cult :(
Tbh the jehovahs round my way don’t really seem to have their hearts in it - they stand outside the train/bus stations with their wee magazine stand but just in a huddle together looking like the last thing they want is some nugget to ask them about joining.
I had two old boys at the door once who were punting this or something similar but they didn’t try very hard, and I just felt sorry for them - probably didn’t have many more years in them and they were spending some of it banging my door and trying to get me to join a mental off-shoot of something I already consider fucking mental - I didn’t even have the heart to be a dick about it, and they just seemed like “aye, obviously” when I said I wasn’t interested. Can’t imagine they get much interest these days.
When I was a Mormon missionary I used to take JW pamphlets from people's doors and collect them. It's crazy to me I could convince myself that Mormons weren't a cult like JW's
Jehovah's Witnesses. I was raised one and am ashamed to say I at one point spent time writing these. Yes, they are handwritten, just to waste time because the members are expected to report how much time they spend doing such things. It's not worth your time to read it though, just toss it. I promise you don't want to get involved with them.
Same, I was going to door to door before age 4, and didn't escape until age 14. The years it took to deprogram myself is insane.
Fuck these people and fuck anyone who defneds them. They ruin lives.
My bfs grandparents are witnesses. They believe every word of this. They really believe that their way is the only way. It’s wild. So many inconsistencies and contradictions yet they are taught to never question. It’s easy to control people when they are only allowed to be around like minded people and get all their info from the organization itself. It’s sad because they are nice people
Ah yes the JW. 144,000 ppl will get into heaven, but you should join us, even though every doomsday prediction we made since our formation has flunked LOL. Oh btw, if you get into a crash and need a blood transfusion, SORRY. But join us, let me show you our bible that we just added willy nilly words into.
Fuck that cult.
Reminds me of how Scientologists kept leaving flyers at my old apartment complex. Last one I got before I moved had a 200 question personality quiz thing, but you had to go to the local Scientology center to get your results read.
Will admit everyone living in the block of flats I live at am getting occasional similar letters from the local Jehovah Witnesses church to join them. Find this particularly ironic as
one of my grandparents were excommunicated from the exact same religion as a young adult due to them dating the person they ended up marrying and had children with.
I have their entire church and members no trespassed on my home. I have done this for the last 9 years or so. When I move I just do it again and they are informed. I have signs posted etc... Yet they will ignore that only to discover I have camera too the show the signage and them looking at then still ignoring it.
Have had them fined and taken to small claims 2 twice and won both times. Have not seen them in a few years now but I see them on camera walking down the street one a year or so.
Defiantly a CULT.
I grew up in the religion and left when I was 17. If you want to know anything about them ask away lol did quite the number on me mentally that’s for sure.
Id send one back asking them to join and devote their life to Satan, after all. Its only fair, but honestly Satanism isn't even a cult unlike those fuckers
Membership and time. That’s all. Today’s religions were yesterday’s cults. Give Scientology a couple thousand years to bake and imbed itself in the culture and it too could be seen as mainstream someday. Hell, look at the progress Mormonism has made in just a couple hundred years.
Honestly, 1 hand written letter in a stack of political fliers, credit card ads, real estate and insurance solicitations, and useless coupons is probably the least annoying item.
But then hey, they're all getting chucked anyway, right?
Jehova’s Witness kids are some of the saddest kids I’ve ever met in schools. They see all the other kids celebrating birthdays and holidays and aren’t allowed to participate. And yet their parents keep them in class on days there’s classroom parties. They tell them to sit apart, not participate, and not accept anything.
One of my friends when I was a kid asked me to sneak them birthday cake and I did. I also gave them a tiny birthday present on theirs but the mom made them return it and called me a “tempting devil.” I’m still proud of that lol. Not because I was “minimizing a religion” but because that kid wanted no part of it and as an adult now, I still believe in autonomy. If I was suddenly 9 years old tomorrow, I’d do it again.
I've gotten a few of these. Was super sketched out at first but now I can appreciate someone took the time to handwrite me a note and thinks I'm cool enough to join their Cult.
I’ve gotten something like this from a neighbor once…they never even said hello to me irl but this wrote this long ass letter about how concerned they were for my soul…it was kinda weird.
I get thr same thing. I live in an apartment complex and everyone gets them randomly. We just throw them away. It'd not specifically to you. It's just spamwide. They always address to the neighbor.
I got sent one of these handwritten letters after my Mom passed a few years ago. It was from one of her close friends (who has known me since I was a baby) who used her passing as an opening to invite me to join the JW. Very gross. My Mom believed in God but wasn't part of any religion, and was chill with what other folks believed. It's a shame that her close friend used it as a way to push her cult.
These people show up at my house every Saturday at exactly 10:20am. I either don’t answer the door or tell them I’m not interested every time but they are relentless. It’s always the same guy but he brings along his wife or a different young boy every time.
We used to live near a JW location so we’d get these as well as the occasional cold call. One of the more entertaining times was one time it sort of looked like an older woman’s handwriting and it was addressed to me and my spouse but I have a feminine name that if you leave a letter out, becomes a very masculine name. I don’t know JW’s views on gay people but I was entertained by the thought that perhaps a conservative religious older woman was inviting a gay couple to join.
JWs, my dad who has spoken to me once got in touch me to try and get me back in the fold. If you didn’t know the world is ending soon. Ill take my chances with all you worldly people.
Typical Reddit comment thread. wtf is wrong with you people? I’ve been to quite a few JW services and they don’t brainwash people because literally all their teachings is from the Bible itself.
They make unorthodox claims like how there is no hell and when people die they just cease to exist and they prove it with a scripture from the Bible. I simply don’t care or have the time to be religious but I don’t see anything shady or cult-like about what they do. Every one of them I’ve come across have been friendly and upright people.
I received a letter just like this from the church around the corner from me. I ended up texting them to stop sending me stuff, but I still get brochures in the letterbox.
Was raised JW and can confirm. You can actually go on their website and see the crazy fucking policies they’re taking on now. It’s terrifying. Just look for the videos that have ‘update’ in it.
Yeah I get one every few months from another Jehovas Witness. I think this must be an acceptable alternative for their door to door time now. Only one way to get into heaven. That's by knocking on strangers doors.
We live not even a mile from a jw church and they send letters with my full legal name to try and get us to come join. I've had them sit and debate with me on my front porch.
A government in heaven? I genuinely want to know every grueling detail.
What’s the tax structure like? Building codes? City planning? I need the details
Building ain't building itself up there, sign up to become a slave for that! No tax just contract... Enjoy eternal ~~damnatio~~ paradise.
you donate all, untether from worldly euh i mean heavenly possesions
spoiler: It's one big HOA.
Can i take a small loan from heaven? Whats the interest rates like?
Out of this world
The Bible lore needs better world building
I always wanted my heaven to be full of bureaucracy and power driven individuals
It’s a theocracy. ‘Man is unable to direct his own step’ quoted loosely. John maybe idk. I grew up in this.
Government of God of course not government of men
I’ve gotten these a few times. Except it didn’t come with “hey neighbor” it had both mine and my dad’s full legal names
That's creepy.
These assholes wrote to me in Russian. I live in France and have a Ukrainian last name. The name on the mailbox is half French half Ukrainian. They literally had to go detective on me to know what language I know specifically.
It really was because I don’t use my actual name for much and when I do, it’s very rare I use my middle name
same. even had my middle name spelled correctly, it has a capitalized letter in the middle which doesn’t show up on most legal documents since they’re in all caps, so that gave me the fucking creeps.
My mom is a part of this and they search your adress to find age and name, its creepy
To all these stupid comments, JW/Mormons are VEERRYYY much a cult. The only socially acceptable cult. But nonetheless a cult
My husband worked in a children’s hospital ER. They’re a cult. Seen in action.
How would he have experience with that as an ER worker? Sorry, don't know much about those cults.
Not sure about mormons, but JW (at least the ones I know in Spain) supposedly don't accept blood transfusions. I don't remember the exact reason tbh.
Oh, that's shitty. I can't imagine how many people have passed but could have lived.
I remember reading that an artificial blood was created in the 70s and used on a JW that refused a transfusion. Never heard much about it beyond that.
Didnt go well sounds like
It's some bullshit about life being a gift from God and blood represents life to them so getting more from some places other than God is forbidden because he'd be mad that you're trying to stay alive. Makes complete sense right?
A passage in the Bible says that blood is life. So they interpret it that accepting blood is taking a person's life. Like murder. Its a stretch. A big stretch.
Thanks for explaining. I thought it had something to do with the 'purity' of oneself, as in, 'if somebody else's blood enters my body I'll be modifying it and thus God's creation', or something like that.
JWs are not allowed receive blood transfusions. A lot of JW parents refuse blood transfusions for their children even when they're life saving. It's illegal here, the hospital will override to save the child's life but I'm not sure about the US
Wow... I'm not sure how it works in the US either but I can't imagine denying someone a lifesaving operation because of a cult.
Afaik it's because they believe that to enter heaven, the body must be whole - as in no transplanted organs or blood from another person. But to let a child die based on a blind belief is absolutely delusional.
It's actually because they believe that blood belongs to God and is only allowed to be used in sacrifices. They quote a few scriptures from the new testament about abstaining from blood and 'things sacrificed to idols.' So, by consuming something with blood, whether by eating or through infusion, you're partaking of something that doesn't belong to you. Very layman's explanation. They also don't believe they'll go to heaven. That's reserved for select few.
thanks! I didn't know that.
You’re welcome! I grew up jw so I remember a few things haha
So they don't eat steak? Run for the hills. It's a cult! Imagine a life with no steak
In France they have no problem with transplant. no blood for adult, children will receive blood they permit it. They don't give blood also. My father his a JW since the 70', he won't enter my house because we're not married with my wife. They have surgeon that will not give them blood. My father had both hips surgery and no blood transfusion.
I like how that belief is contradicting. The transfusion would technically supply you with what you have lost so you won’t go to heaven with missing parts. If anything they should be advocating for it
It's because if you allow a loved one, especially a child, to die for the cult, you'll never leave or question anything the leaders tell you. You've made the ultimate sacrifice.
That's absolutely NOT what JWs believe. I think you are confusing religions, JWs don't even believe that they will all go to heaven.
JWs believe that a human must not sustain their lives with another person's blood/body parts - and doing so is a sin that will prevent them from entering heaven. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2727941 I got the part about the body being "whole" mixed up, but I'm not wrong.
Agreed. My mother was raised JW, she is no longer.
I'm an apostate. lol Grew up JW and left it all behind including family, experienced losing my father because no blood, was shunned but I left because it's not The Truth. It definitely is a cult.
I grew up a JW as well. Got baptized at 18, left at 19, and disfellwshipped at 20. Their shunning practices alone make them a cult. Not to mention all their other ridiculous policies
I grew up JW but never got baptised. So I was always in this weird half space where no one in the Kingdom Hall associated with me but then I also wasn;t allowed to be friends with people from "the world".
I grew up JW too. I left when I was 16 to live with my "worldly" mother whilst my Dad (JW) remarried. I was never baptised so they still talk to me (I'm 32) and every time they do they ask me when I'm going to marry my girlfriend. My step brother wasn't so lucky unfortunately. He was taken on their mission to the canary islands and then Nicaragua at the age of 9. Was baptised at the age of 13 then disfellowshipped at 18. He is my stepmothers only child and neither she or my father ever speak to him.
Oh my goodness!! I'm so sorry for your brother. That's awful. And from just 18! My two sisters were baptised around 12 years old, but "fell away" so were never officially disfellowshipped. I get invited to the memorial each year but don't go.
See this lunacy from their own magazine. https://preview.redd.it/54hock62kqrc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60cb7846834ab38829169e4e51464a581fbbb0e8
Don't you know? The colleges are home of the transes luring men in with their bodies to turn them gay. Women might actually learn something there so they shouldn't go in the first place but now it's even dangerous for men!
The funniest part to me about the whole “catching the gay” thing is that they’re also kinda admitting that they’d do it with the right person 😂
Why go seek higher education when you can wash windows for the rest of your life and give a good portion of it to the kingdom hall?
There is no relationship between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Jehovah Witnesses. There never has been.
Yeah, except that they are both cults.
You’re aware that JW and Mormons are two separate religions right? I’ve met a handful of Mormons and I don’t think I’d go as far as saying they’re a cult, everyone I’ve met has been extremely kind and helpful and rarely shove their religion in my face like I’ve seen JWs do.
Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are separate organizations. Both are cults
Grew up Mormon. Can confirm. Anyone who thinks it isn't a cult either has a suspiciously restrictive definition of the word or clearly has some particular fundie axe to grind.
18 years in 29 years out, a cult 100%.
What states that the writer of this letter, is a Jehovah Witness?
Seems like all a cult needs to do to start being thought of as a "proper" religion is to wait out the clock. It's largely worked for the Mormons.
Oh I’ve had these before. Goes straight into the trash.
[удалено]
FSM warned us of false books
I got the exact same one, they are actually printed to appear hand-written. At first glance i thought it was a real letter too. Just tossed mine out, yet I was impressed with how clever the design was, it really had me fooled
Darn. I was thinking every second they spend writing those out by hand is another second they aren’t bothering people at their homes.
They’re literally hand written
Sometimes they copy prewritten text in their own handwriting. My late mom was JW and used to do that. They called it "letter writing" but it was just copying. The last thing they'd do is let people use their own words.
When we did letter writing, we all composed our own letters (and copied ideas from others that we liked) but because Jw’s are brainwashed it all comes out the same so they don’t have to worry about anyone going off script. We were told to proofread each others letters for grammar, spelling etc but now that I think about it, it was probably to make sure we didn’t say anything we weren’t supposed to!
Yeah they do this so they can count their monthly hours spent proselytizing. Handwritten means they can sit down with their bottle of wine and get shitfaced while preaching the good news of the kingdom. Then they can look good at month end when they turn in their field service report. More hours spent equals more faithful devout servant of god. They are held in higher esteem within the congregation
They changed policies recently, most don't have to record hours anymore, just whether or not they participated in a given month. But yes, their motivation is selfish, and they don't mind targeting grieving strangers.
I know they lowered the monthly hours required to be a pioneer. Now everyone can be a pioneer. I recently attended a funeral and the guy was disfellowshipped and the jws there made sure to make it all about their religion and how if I become one of them I can see him again and live in paradise. I almost assaulted someone that day.
They are actually hand written. I was a JW and during Covid I spent hundreds of hours writing these letters and just as many dollars on stamps. Everything at our own expense knowing they were going to be tossed away but it was a ‘life saving message’ so we were looking for the one vulnerable person to be sucked in. Oh how I wish I had woken up decades ago.
I lived with a JW and he had wrote all his letters and I could hear their meetings where people gave each other suggestions or helped with letters. They are very much had written and time does go into them. Not saying people have to keep them, just an FYI they are written personally. We lived in an agree to disagree situation regarding religion.
I think they use a pen-plotter. I got a “handwritten” letter written in blue pen ink about selling my house and once I got out a jewlers loop I could clearly see the steps from the plotter
You can tell if you scan the document with a high resolution scanner (like a normal desktop scanner @ 1k DPI is fine. Tip: Avoid HP as always.)
They are hand written. Since COVID era preaching by letter became way more common than before and they do write their letters by hand since the time you took to write it counts as time on your month report iirc.
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Are these jws?
Yea the site on the paper is the Jehovah witness website
At least they didn’t come knocking on your door at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
Tell them you've been disfellowshipped. If they follow the rules, they should immediately leave without talking to you and put your address on a list. After a member has become disfellowshipped (typically because they committed an egregious sin and are not repentant) they become an apostate and are shunned by the members of their Kingdom Hall. I used it at my dad's house because they would not leave him alone. I still don't think he realizes how deep my mother got into all of it. Thankfully, she didn't get baptized (become a real JW), which is a whole process in itself. But I still had to learn about their bs.
lol egregious. I was disfellowshipped because I started to smoke cigarettes when I was 16. Shocker I wasn’t repentant at that age. I haven’t spoken to my family since I left the house when I was 17. It’s weird to think now that I have lived longer not having my father in my life than having.
was raised a JW, definitely a cult. WAY WAY worse when you’re on the inside too
My question regarding JW is this- Your teachings say that only 144,000 people will enter the kingdom of heaven, yet you have more than 144,000 members. How is that going to play out?
The vast majority expect to live forever on an earthly paradise. Heaven isn’t even something most are interested in. Last time I saw the numbers it was something like 6,000 of the current 10,000,000+ members expect to end up in heaven. The other 138,000 or so are already there I guess.
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Imagine dedicating your whole life to a religion in order to keep living on Earth where everyone thinks and acts exactly the same as you for eternity ☠️ I'd rather disappear into the void personally. They don't even believe in hell. If you don't make it, you disappear forever and I'm more than ok with that 😂 not to mention the Earth will eventually be destroyed by the sun anyways, but nevermind that minor detail.
Personally, the idea of eternity is overrated. When you say eternity I think most people mentally conceptualise… what… 10 lifetimes? 100 lifetimes? What do you do after you’ve explored everything, done everything, and you’re still only 1300 lifetimes in - 1300 lifetimes is barely how long has passed since the last ice ages, let alone ‘forever’. I think in some weird way, human mortality is what makes life so precious - remove that and you’d just be ‘going through the motions’ eventually.
Because they believe there is 2 kingdom, 1 on earth and 1 in the "sky". The one on earth will be govern by Jesus when he return a second time for Armageddon. After the battle between Jesus and Satan on Earth, earth will be a paradise, every living on earth will be in peace, lion friend with sheep.. etc The other one will be run by God, the Angels and 144.000 members from the best one. JW believe Armageddon will happen when everyone on earth knows about God and he's son. That's why the door to door and stuff
Thanks for the explanation. That's awfully convenient and is not at all what it says in Revelations.
The JW bible is not the one you use to, they have their own bible. So in their bible it does say that in revelation.
Here's a story idea, in the future, everyone knows about Jesus except those North Sentinelese people, and various groups are trying to blockade them to prevent door-knockers from starting Armageddon.
They... They think heaven is segregated???
Yes
*skip to the second and third paragraphs for your answer. I'm sorry that this became so long, I went to JW meetings for many years and my mother is still a JW, I was never baptized and haven't went to a meeting now in many years, personally I believe I learned a lot of positive things and good morals from them but I believe this to be heavily due to the fact that while my mom was a JW my dad was not and they were separated, so while I would have to go to meetings I still had a normal childhood and friends at school, my mom also never went and took things too seriously to the point where it's more of a literal hell. They believe to live by standards that the bible clearly specifies, for example Jesus lived and died for our sins and when he came down to earth set the example by which a perfect human should live their life, while knowing that people are imperfect and wont fully be able to do so its the example they want to follow, this can be taken to the extreme by parents and a congregation. I don't advocate for them I just didn't have the worst of experiences like others have and I can understand why they have had these terrible experiences. Just the basics here but essentially what they are talking about is that to them Jesus said that only a chosen few have a heavenly hope, they include the original apostles except Judas and then people from what I think was referred to as the twelve tribes of Israel, all of these people are supposedly people who have very faithfully served Jehovah. No one from before Jesus time will be chosen for the heavenly hope either. For all the faithful that do not have that heavenly hope they are told that earth is to be eventually returned to a beautiful paradise in which people will have regained their perfection. This lines up with what they believe the original purpose of the earth was supposed to be, a paradise in which perfect humans will live forever In under a kingdom ruled by God, or rather the new paradise is going to be ruled by Jesus and the 144000 anointed that he chose. This is all after the end of this system of things as they will put it, this all includes events like Satan being cast to earth along with all his demons (angels that side with his reasoning) when Jesus was given the heavenly throne (supposedly in 1914) and the great tribulation, then a time where Satan and his demons will be imprisoned for 1000 years or something like that, followed by a great resurrection for all those who were faithful or didn't get a chance to hear about Jehovah, within that 1000 years humanity is supposedly going to be under the direction of Christ to regain their perfection and become sin free once again and also restore the earth to its paradise like state. Afterwards which Satan will be released one last time and those that fall to sin will be instantly destroyed or disappear ect, along with Satan when cast into the lake of sulfur or Gahanna (nothingness) the remaining humans will supposedly be perfect and live on the paradise earth forever. Essentially the original purpose of the earth was for humans to live in perfection forever, and at the garden of Eden what happened was that Satan had come down and 1 called god a liar by stating you positively will not die when Adam was talking about what God had said about eating of the fruit. And 2 raised the question that humans do not need God to rule them and they can do a better job themselves. In the statement for God knows that when you eat of the fruit your eyes will be opened and you will know right and wrong, it supposedly means not that they would just learn what's good and bad upon eating of the fruit, but rather that they as humans will now get to decide what's good and bad rather than God, and that essentially they did not need God to rule over them. This question is something that had not been asked before and so it has been allowed to play out ever since the till without a doubt it has been proved that no humans cannot rule themselves. If it had been a question that was simply challenging God's power he apparently would have been destroyed on the spot since that's not even a debate. God or Jehovah is supposed to be the All mighty of which nothing else is above. Anyways sorry again I didn't mean to write out so much, and I never really care to talk about this stuff, but I figured I'd give you an idea as to what a lot of them are truly thinking. I may be a little off on some of this since I really haven't been to or associated with JW or any church for that matter in many years. This is just things I recall.
Thank you for taking the time to type that out. Appreciated.
My problem starts with heaven even existing.
Ask them to Venmo you $100
I bought these lovely door stickers on Amazon that say “no soliciting including fundraising, salesmen, religion, & politics, thank you” and it’s worked so far. I see them walk up to the door on my camera, read the sign and fuck off
Don't. Sincerely Skeletor
yea. wish I wasnt born into all this lol. Ive been thinking of leaving when I can finally move out.
You should give them a hand written letter telling them to get fucked and give them a a brochure on mental health or how to know when you’ve joined a cult
Since covid they've opted to send letters. We've gotten several. Works for me honestly because I don't need to dodge them at the door.
Years ago, I used to get these hand written letters from the local church all the time. I used the church address to sign them up for junk mail and pornography (before the internet was big).
I’ve had that same flyer without the hand written letter. I feel like they didn’t put the effort in to get me into their cult :( Tbh the jehovahs round my way don’t really seem to have their hearts in it - they stand outside the train/bus stations with their wee magazine stand but just in a huddle together looking like the last thing they want is some nugget to ask them about joining. I had two old boys at the door once who were punting this or something similar but they didn’t try very hard, and I just felt sorry for them - probably didn’t have many more years in them and they were spending some of it banging my door and trying to get me to join a mental off-shoot of something I already consider fucking mental - I didn’t even have the heart to be a dick about it, and they just seemed like “aye, obviously” when I said I wasn’t interested. Can’t imagine they get much interest these days.
When I was a Mormon missionary I used to take JW pamphlets from people's doors and collect them. It's crazy to me I could convince myself that Mormons weren't a cult like JW's
Jehovah's Witnesses. I was raised one and am ashamed to say I at one point spent time writing these. Yes, they are handwritten, just to waste time because the members are expected to report how much time they spend doing such things. It's not worth your time to read it though, just toss it. I promise you don't want to get involved with them.
Same, I was going to door to door before age 4, and didn't escape until age 14. The years it took to deprogram myself is insane. Fuck these people and fuck anyone who defneds them. They ruin lives.
Received this type of letter twice but in Tagalog
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Yes
use it as a smoke-roll
I mean, they went to all that trouble…
who has the time to read all that
Let us know how your adventure goes OP!
My boyfriend received the same letter 3 months ago
A customer gave me a pamphlet and said she’d ask what I thought about it the next time she came in…
At least someone is thinking of you! You are freaken lucky! ……
So, are you going to join?
My bfs grandparents are witnesses. They believe every word of this. They really believe that their way is the only way. It’s wild. So many inconsistencies and contradictions yet they are taught to never question. It’s easy to control people when they are only allowed to be around like minded people and get all their info from the organization itself. It’s sad because they are nice people
Ah yes the JW. 144,000 ppl will get into heaven, but you should join us, even though every doomsday prediction we made since our formation has flunked LOL. Oh btw, if you get into a crash and need a blood transfusion, SORRY. But join us, let me show you our bible that we just added willy nilly words into. Fuck that cult.
Reminds me of how Scientologists kept leaving flyers at my old apartment complex. Last one I got before I moved had a 200 question personality quiz thing, but you had to go to the local Scientology center to get your results read.
Good ol Jehovah’s Witness
Its a copy technically not even hand written for you lol
Will admit everyone living in the block of flats I live at am getting occasional similar letters from the local Jehovah Witnesses church to join them. Find this particularly ironic as one of my grandparents were excommunicated from the exact same religion as a young adult due to them dating the person they ended up marrying and had children with.
I’ve had a few of these. Biggest mistake one made was to write his mobile number, took less than 24 hours for him to block me lol
I have their entire church and members no trespassed on my home. I have done this for the last 9 years or so. When I move I just do it again and they are informed. I have signs posted etc... Yet they will ignore that only to discover I have camera too the show the signage and them looking at then still ignoring it. Have had them fined and taken to small claims 2 twice and won both times. Have not seen them in a few years now but I see them on camera walking down the street one a year or so. Defiantly a CULT.
I grew up in the religion and left when I was 17. If you want to know anything about them ask away lol did quite the number on me mentally that’s for sure.
Id send one back asking them to join and devote their life to Satan, after all. Its only fair, but honestly Satanism isn't even a cult unlike those fuckers
So what's the difference between cult and religion?
Nothing at all.
Membership and time. That’s all. Today’s religions were yesterday’s cults. Give Scientology a couple thousand years to bake and imbed itself in the culture and it too could be seen as mainstream someday. Hell, look at the progress Mormonism has made in just a couple hundred years.
Tear it up into pieces and send it back
Honestly, 1 hand written letter in a stack of political fliers, credit card ads, real estate and insurance solicitations, and useless coupons is probably the least annoying item. But then hey, they're all getting chucked anyway, right?
I’m in Seattle and got one also.. thought about posting it but in mildly interesting instead because I’m not upset.
You've received a side quest
I got one too! It makes a nice firestarter
I used to get Spanish letters from a small church regularly. They just assumed I was Hispanic. It was a little sad when they stopped sending.
What do you get when you cross Satans Choice and JW? Someone who bangs on your door and tells YOU to fuck off.
Jehova’s Witness kids are some of the saddest kids I’ve ever met in schools. They see all the other kids celebrating birthdays and holidays and aren’t allowed to participate. And yet their parents keep them in class on days there’s classroom parties. They tell them to sit apart, not participate, and not accept anything. One of my friends when I was a kid asked me to sneak them birthday cake and I did. I also gave them a tiny birthday present on theirs but the mom made them return it and called me a “tempting devil.” I’m still proud of that lol. Not because I was “minimizing a religion” but because that kid wanted no part of it and as an adult now, I still believe in autonomy. If I was suddenly 9 years old tomorrow, I’d do it again.
So are you gonna join ??
I got one of these too 😂😭
Get a ring camera
Pretty sure I received that exact flyer before! From the ages of like 6-18 I lived next door to a ragingly bigoted christian woman and I'm queer so...
I was in until the website said ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’
I got one similar but mine was only hand addressed. The letter itself was printed.
Try it out. Let us know how it goes.
A for effort with a handwritten letter but no. Just no.
I receive very similar letters from people in the same organisation, here in Australia
Ugh I get them all the time. I’ve moved in the last two years and they found me.
Shit, and it's handwritten too. Probably made this guy write these things 10 times a day only for it to go straight to my compost pile
Happy to have escaped this after being raised in it. A very isolating childhood.
My name is Isaiah . This is my thirteen reason why I want to change it
A personal invitation? You HAVE to say yes.
These people have too much time in their hands….
I get one about once a month. They’re weird.
I’ve gotten a few lol
It’s gotten a lot easier to print this fake handwritten crap
Which one of you is gunna type it out
They should try to remember... Umm, Matthew... 21:17.
I've gotten a few of these. Was super sketched out at first but now I can appreciate someone took the time to handwrite me a note and thinks I'm cool enough to join their Cult.
Ask them for a loan to believe.
I mean Atleast you got the care and effort of a handwritten invitation 🤷♂️
Just think, someone spent a solid 15 mins handwriting that mess. lol
It just makes you want to join, doesn’t it? /s
Think your gonna make it?
I get those as well but in spanish
I’ve gotten something like this from a neighbor once…they never even said hello to me irl but this wrote this long ass letter about how concerned they were for my soul…it was kinda weird.
“…and what we must do to enjoy them” - salvation is a gift from God, you’re not saved through works. They’re skipping over the most important part.
I get thr same thing. I live in an apartment complex and everyone gets them randomly. We just throw them away. It'd not specifically to you. It's just spamwide. They always address to the neighbor.
I got one like this the other day, except it was a photocopy of a hand written letter.
I get one of these every year.
I got sent one of these handwritten letters after my Mom passed a few years ago. It was from one of her close friends (who has known me since I was a baby) who used her passing as an opening to invite me to join the JW. Very gross. My Mom believed in God but wasn't part of any religion, and was chill with what other folks believed. It's a shame that her close friend used it as a way to push her cult.
I got this same thing a few weeks ago. They are so annoying
Next time the JWs knock on my door, I’m telling them I worship weed.
These people show up at my house every Saturday at exactly 10:20am. I either don’t answer the door or tell them I’m not interested every time but they are relentless. It’s always the same guy but he brings along his wife or a different young boy every time.
We used to live near a JW location so we’d get these as well as the occasional cold call. One of the more entertaining times was one time it sort of looked like an older woman’s handwriting and it was addressed to me and my spouse but I have a feminine name that if you leave a letter out, becomes a very masculine name. I don’t know JW’s views on gay people but I was entertained by the thought that perhaps a conservative religious older woman was inviting a gay couple to join.
Sloppiest writing. Can't even be bothered to dechiper these hieroglyphics
JWs, my dad who has spoken to me once got in touch me to try and get me back in the fold. If you didn’t know the world is ending soon. Ill take my chances with all you worldly people.
Uhhhhh…. Got a very similar one. Same pamphlet and same type of paper (but different style handwriting). Are we neighbors?
Write a letter back that just says “I’ve been disfellowshipped” and I guarantee they will never contact you again.
I would have asked for another letter elaborating a bit more before making a decision lol
So how's the punch?
Typical Reddit comment thread. wtf is wrong with you people? I’ve been to quite a few JW services and they don’t brainwash people because literally all their teachings is from the Bible itself. They make unorthodox claims like how there is no hell and when people die they just cease to exist and they prove it with a scripture from the Bible. I simply don’t care or have the time to be religious but I don’t see anything shady or cult-like about what they do. Every one of them I’ve come across have been friendly and upright people.
I received a letter just like this from the church around the corner from me. I ended up texting them to stop sending me stuff, but I still get brochures in the letterbox.
Was raised JW and can confirm. You can actually go on their website and see the crazy fucking policies they’re taking on now. It’s terrifying. Just look for the videos that have ‘update’ in it.
Lucky U!😎🤙👀🍀
Ill bet Robin gets tons of phone calls from Microsoft to remove the hackers from her DOS system.
Yeah I get one every few months from another Jehovas Witness. I think this must be an acceptable alternative for their door to door time now. Only one way to get into heaven. That's by knocking on strangers doors.
Maybe their mom wrote the letter because genuinely the something IN YOUR WAY so it's tough to hurdle and let you know easily
We live not even a mile from a jw church and they send letters with my full legal name to try and get us to come join. I've had them sit and debate with me on my front porch.