The trilogy complete

Who is buying the movie rights?!?!

Thanks for taking the time to write it all out Coach K

CoachKirby is done! My prayers have been answered.

EDIT: Just finished. I really appreciate the copious amount of time you've put into this and for a glimpse into the JW way of life. Thank you.

Thanks for the kind words.

To be honest, all these positive responses are making me wonder whether or not I should just go through what I've been wanting to do for awhile and publish the full story in a book. Like they say, you gotta write what you know.

cheers, coach.

you should write a book about the JW's, why not. you're obviously smart and literate enough. e-books are very easy to publish and you might even make a few bucks. i'd buy it.

plus, what would hitchens want you to do? if you can help free just one person from their chains the endeavour will be worth it.

An amazing read! I truly and honestly thank you for taking the time.

And I agree with everyone else about you writing about your experiences. While reading just this three-part summary of your shift to the non-religious, I was riveted and connected to the sentiment you conveyed. I would for sure buy up your reading material.

Thanks for posting Kirby, amazing story.

Coach Kirby: "I listen to just about everything, and this had always been a problem for me because I didn’t agree that rap music is evil. I went to see many rated-R movies, which is also a very big deal for the Witnesses."
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While I disagree with JW theology quite a bit, I think they got this right.

The JWs know disloyalty starts in the mind. The world can plant a lot of seeds of disloyalty through planting images in your mind without you even knowing it if you're not paying attention.

Kirby, I especially liked the bit where JW literature espoused the virtue of being a bird imprisoned in a gilded cage, that's a poignant image right there. I mean it's one thing to have atheists point it out and another to have the church itself openly advertising the fact.

Yeah, in hindsight that was a true WTF moment, and I remember being disturbed by this idea, but it's amazing what your mind can rationalize as normal when everyone around you is feeding you the same opinions and there is no open discussion or debate. The reasoning portion of the brain starts to atrophy, and if I hadn't been such a big reader of 'worldy' books (mostly political opinion, history, economics, and occasionally philosophy), then there's no way I would have had the reasoning capability to think for myself.

As a JW you have a carefully crafted version of reality, and when something shows up that doesn't jive with that, you just ignore it, but it's still there in the back of your mind, occasionally reappearing to give you trouble. It's a good thing I was such a disobedient kid when it came to what I read and listened to, otherwise I'd still be there right now.

Awesome, awesome read, Kirby.

On a side note, if this thread isn't a clear indicator that you should have certain people on your ignore list....

By all means kb teach the Coach to tune out God's words...Let the devil have the Coach's mind.

Very few people get that the bible is a book that deals with the battlefield of the mind. One of the ones who did is Swedenborg though he's not a very well known theologian.

But they all want to scream how unfair God is....my, my...

Look at how silent Jesus Christ was while the crazy mob screamed "crucify Him". Do you think all of those people ever heard Jesus Christ speak?

How can God be unfair if you won't even get control of yourself long enough to listen to Him?

.

If I remember the story about the Garden of Eden correctly, the devil is the bad guy for letting the humans think for themselves, and bringing self awareness, introspection, and critical thinking to mankind.

Sounds like a decent fellow if you ask me.

The devil doesn't bring that.

To develop all of the above you have to have proper mental boundaries set and God's the one who gave the law setting the boundaries.

The world is always taking a swing at dirtying people's minds with all kinds of bad ideas. Porn, for instance. Try googling on the connection between porn and crime. I'm sure you'll get a lot of hits. Ever wonder how many marriages porn broke up? How many pedophiles it created?

Freedom can be unhealthy if taken to certain extremes.

Setting Reasonable Boundaries
http://www.christianworkingwoman.org/node/1276

Setting Reasonable Boundaries Part II
http://www.christianworkingwoman.org...daries_part_ii

How come you had to write a letter to the JW's?

seriously? you're going to go there?

i'm sure that porn has ruined the marriages of many sexually dysfunctional people and it has enhanced the marriages of many normal people.

pedophiles? really? i've got a two word response for that: catholic priests.

the data is inconclusive either way but there is plenty of data that shows a reduction in sex crimes with an increase in internet access.

fun fact: which state watches the most porn? utah, of course.

the church should have learned by now that the sexual repression route is an epic fail. time to evolve.

The correlation between porn and something like sex crimes is actually the inverse: more pornography, less rape.

That is a fun fact!

You've limited your own thinking to stereotypes: Catholic priests???????? Is that all you can ever say. Are some Catholic priests the only sexual deviants in the world?

Why don't you try checking with someone who debunked Kinsey's studies and reveals his mistakes:

http://www.drjudithreisman.com/

There are bad effects on the human mind from watching porn. It's not a harmless activity.

Rape isn't the only thing to consider.

Also there could be differences among porn types. I've read of a number of cases where subjects engaged in hard core porn and went on to horrific crimes and there's no link between those activities? When you read the cases it's pretty clear there's a link.

You've substituted your desire to win for your reason.

And studies can be rigged. Like Kinsey's were.

There's a correlation between more pornography and a general reduction in sex crimes; it's not just rape.

Somebody needs to learn the difference between correlation and causation.

I looked up that woman you linked. Her PhD is in communications.
She is motivated, self-admittedly, by a personal vendetta against porn.
She literally has no authority on this subject, other than self-processed.

I agree Kinsey's methodology was flawed, and the scale arbirtray.

But the idea of a scale is true, and the claim that you implicitly back up (that paedophilia and harmful sexual perversion is now higher than it ever has been) is explicitly not true.

WTF does kinsey have to do with anything?? Its such an obvious attempt to derail an incredible thread.

Anyway there have been innumerable cases where the subjects engaged in christianity, other religions, and other philsophies- take Anders Brevik, the man who killed all those in Norway. He advocated christian teachings being increased, right wing populism, etc... Yet that shouldn't be linked to his heinous crimes??

i know it's upsetting to think about the thousands of priests who molested and raped little boys but try not to get too mad.

you're the one who brought up pornography and pedophiles so don't get upset when someone points out that the most notorious sex scandal of the last 20 years was committed by a band of holy men.

you would think that god might have something to say about that, but just like in every other atrocity that mankind encounters, he's nowhere to be found.

any rational person will agree that the catholic priest sex scandal deals a heavy blow to the religious view on sexual repression.

i'm not interested in what judith reisman has to say, she works for liberty "university" and a conservative think-tank.

hopefully you can find a pornography hater who works for a university that doesn't deny evolution and i might consider what they have to say.

Unfortunately augie and asd think they have to jump on posts not directed to them.

My post was to Coach Kirby.

Breivik suffered from xenophobia (a mental condition) last I heard.

Who made the pedophiles pedophiles?

Not the Catholic church even if there was incompetence or a cover-up.

Imo porn is like tobacco smoking. A lot of first hand user damage and a lot of second hand damage to society. It's just society isn't as currently aware of porn dangers as it is of cigarette smoking.

If you pollute your mind with porn there are consequences.

Oh and Judith Reisman's daughter died early from trauma from a porn induced rape so that makes her a legitimately concerned citizen.

Are you seriously implying people that are injured aren't capable of tracking down and understanding the causes behind their injuries?