It's always interesting when I tell people that I was raised in a religion that I wasn't allowed to have friends outside of the religion unless I was trying to convert them. "That sounds like a cult" is something I've heard often lol.
I wasn't JW but I was under the impression that's how all religions work... I was still part of a cult so I guess that's probably just my bias. That cult was never explicit about not having friends unless trying to convert them but it was heavily implied. Like you would hear from the pulpit that god wanted you to marry people from other religions because that way you can help them convert into the cult (before the marriage takes place) and help promotes the "right" version of Christianity, while also having people refusing to interact with you (much less accept gifts or food from you) if you or a close relative was in a relationship with someone from outside the cult. Although everyone seemed to be related to everyone in the cult because almost nobody actually dated people "of the world" so they all just kept marrying each other to the point it's perfectly acceptable for cousins getting married (they tried to set me up with my second cousin, I was at least allowed to choose between the pair of twins and they were even my age so I guess some people there would see that as a plus btw the parents of my cousins were also cousins)
@@Ares_VI don’t know what faith / cult that was, but how awful! I can only imagine how many severely disabled children live, or even die, in that cult. Founder’s diseases are a real and sad reality of insular communities. The baby’s graveyard in short creek is INSANE. I had no idea that it wasn’t normal for so many babies to die until I went out into the “real world”.
Isn't that true of nearly all of Christianity? I lost nearly all of my friends at my Catholic Highschool when I came out as Atheist during religion class.
so weird how they always demonize all the child characters. realistically, if a kid from india or any other country was new to an elementary school most of the class would be swarming them with questions thinking it was super cool.
Yep, didn't matter where they were from, for all of elementary new kids were super popular the first day in my schools. Didn't matter if it was the next town or another continent. How quickly it faded was another matter that really varied, some kids joined the "popular kids", and some got ostracized by the popular kids by day two.
Notice how in these videos, the Jehovah Witness kids are always designed to look clean and beautiful while the other kids look visually ugly and bratty? Uh uh, I see what they're doing.
Basic propaganda tactic - the "enemy" is always depicted as ugly and evil. They can't convince their cultists to hate the outsiders by using adult, logical arguments, so they just resort to ad hominem. And we both know that such argument is invalid.
It’s gross how they specifically pick the story line of an ostracized and vulnerable child, because that’s when theyre easiest to indoctrinate. A child who isn’t vulnerable or who has friends is less likely to want to please you or seek that “salvation”
The JWs almost exclusively have their propaganda in Chinese here in Australia. Why? There are heaps of International students that are vulnerable. Lonely in a new country, language barriers etc. It's totally calculated.
Not for nothing but it's exactly how pedophiles go after kids. They pick the vulnerable ones, the ones from single family homes, the ones with single mothers. The fact that they use the same strategies as pedos is very telling and it's no accident.
It is completely hilarious that the answer to the question Sophia left blank is 42 which is also the answer to the ultimate question in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Recently my partner’s grandfather passed away and her grandmother, who is a JW, decided to have the “funeral” at her Kingdom Hall. My partner and I, being biracial lesbians, stood out compared to everyone else and since we weren’t JWs it was very awkward. This was the first funeral I attended where you weren’t allowed to go up and speak about your loved one and the man that did speak about him only spoke for like 10 min then the rest of the time was trying to recruit new members. As soon as it ended my partner and I got surrounded by all these JWs trying to talk to us and we didn’t know any of them at all. That was the most uncomfortable funeral I have ever gone to.
Yeah the funerals suck. Every single one is "it's sad but they'll be in paradise and all of his loved here who aren't Witnesses could see him if they were but oh well too bad they're terrible people". Former JW, kicked out at 18.
Using a loved one's funeral as a recruitment drive is disgusting & psychopathic. Wtf. They're as bad as MLM Karens (probably why so many JWs end up in pyramid schemes).
More and more Christian funerals are getting like that. No eulogies, just some pastor trying to recruit members like the dearly departed _would have wanted._ The f@ck they would; you're just preying on grief, you vulture. I've known him for decades, and the only time religion ever came up was back in high school, when his mom didn't want him playing roleplaying games because _it was satanic._ That didn't stop him from playing, we just played there only once a week. The other sessions were at other people's houses. Man, I miss running Vampire Dark Ages three times per week, and still playing in other games on other days.
@@michelehemlokhexwhite4310 yep, it can be dangerous to eat while watching these videos. IDK, death by apple might almost have been worth it (I seriously was coughing for a few seconds on apple, I'm fine).
I always get flashbacks when i watch these videos. I started questioning the JW organization when I was 14 and officially stopped believing when I was around 18. The microphone being in sophia face was a throwback. There were so many time I had to say no to classroom activities concerning hoildays and say it was because of my "religion".
Sounds like me. Started questioning around that age, during the pandemic (I think that's the case for a lot of pimos/exjws,) and officially started calling myself a pimo a few months ago (once I found out what that was lol). I couldn't attend a lot of assemblies if they went against jw policy (Christmas, remembrance day, etc.) that made me feel really ostracized, along with not being allowed to have friends outside the religion. Although I'm a pimo rn, I'm glad I don't feel the pressure to preach to fellow classmates, and just let ppl believe what they wanna believe.
@@lavender4658 I hope you can get more freedom soon, religiously. That really sucks. No kid should ever be forced into a religion just cuz their parents are in it... coming from a questioning Mormon Also happy for you that you can make up your own mind. Best luck to you and don't let others convince you of something that goes against your gut instincts, either direction
Lol i started questioning at 12 and stopped believing at 14, now Im 19, if i dont go with my mom, i will never set foot there by myself, but i stay cuz my friends are there (they are not like indoctrinate, some of them are baptized but they are like any other teenagers, like they dont try to indoctrinate every person they see, they're just chill)
“Don’t make friends outside the religion” Me who’s a Christian who’s friends with multiple Atheists, Muslims, and other Christians: “Nah, I don’t really feel like it”
Same here as a Muslim myself and I'm not bothered by other beliefs or opinions. That's why I still enjoy Telltale and respect him. I'll admit there are some extreme Muslims who say having non-Muslim friends is forbidden (I obviously don't agree with this) and sadly every religion has issues with extremists. I just focus on myself rather than what some preacher says.
@@bestrafung2754 True, and it sucks we both have to deal with extremest, I follow Jesus, who understood that we can’t all be perfect, but that we can be perfect in our own way, and respect others with kindness
Love that attitude, and it’s one I try to keep now, but I can tell you as somebody raised by fundamental Christians that they are not all so accepting, at least not when it comes to their kids. I couldn’t hang out with any friends who weren’t approved by my dad, which meant anyone who wasn’t from a christian family that my dad already knew. I realized I was stuck in a bubble and moved out as soon as I was able to, only been able to talk to him again recently and he still won’t admit he ever did anything wrong.
@@elilane8627 I’m sorry to hear that, not all parents are perfect, my parents realized how much negativity they spread, most likely when they figured out my older brother was gay
I do have lot of gods in my setting, in a way similar to Shintoism who personifies elements of nature. The Jehovah witnesses think that God, a fictional entity, is real. But religion is fiction and shall stay as it is, because all good beliefs matter.
Was raised in Witnesses. Them constantly saying "Bad associations spoil useful habits" Anytime I tried to be friends with other kids at school really messed me up. By the time I finally decided I wasn't going to be a Witness when I was my senior year of high school I was so far behind other kids socially I had no idea how to form connections and never quite caught up. It has basically effected my whole life since. Their whole organization is garbage.
not just in politics. Christmas used to be one of my favorite times of the year, but all the commercialism put a huge damper on it with all the ads bombarding us with some variation of "Want to show your loved one you care? Get them this expensive item!"
Didn’t start ‘these days’-it’s been there all along. We have examples of it going back to Babylon. “King Whoosis went forth on his mighty horse and slew 400,000 of the enemy! Hail Whoosis!” Reality: his soldiers killed ten guys from another country who stumbled across the border.
I went to a charter school where every student came from a radius of a mile from the school. Everyone knew I was a witness and would occasionally ask about some fringe belief they’d heard somewhere. I’d almost never bring it up, but held up our traditions and they all noticed. I tried my best to just assimilate while upholding those weird standards. I lost out on so many cupcakes you guys, it was traumatizing
It is. They’ll intentionally do it. After my aunt lost her husband, they zeroed in on her and took the opportunity to convert her during a time she was looking for comfort and camaraderie.
I always told my parents, "why would I work hard in school when i could be eating lunch when Armageddon comes" and that completely ruined my motivation because my parents, being devout witnesses, had no counter and didn't know what to say to inspire me when my grade would plummet that didnt go against the JW memo. They cant say, "in case it doesnt happen" cause that means I can leave the religion "in case Armageddon doesnt happen". So my grades were actually shit in school cause i never turned in homework, just did the tests. I got into my schools ap classes when i took the tests but didnt take them cause why would i? Even started learning chinese in second grade
I remember that I was invited to a Baptist church in the late seventies. They were welcoming and not offended by my long hair. They preached a bit more than I was used to being Episcopal. My mother always encouraged me to experience other religions. I've been to Synagogue and Catholic services as well. I've even been to a Southern Baptist tent revival. There are a few more extreme religions (cults) that I'm more worried about. Mormon, evangelist Christians, as well as Seventh Day ( not so much) and...JW. Scientologists can be easily included in the danger group too.
It's good they did that but I'm surprised as a lot of Baptist churches in the US are extremist. I think more people should be like this, both religious and non-religious.
I can only imagine that it must be difficult say the same things again and again. But there are always new viewers, or long-time viewers in a different mental state or circumstance. So these things NEED to be repeated. Keep going Mr. Morgan, you're doing well.
I had a friend in elementary school who was some sort of Evangelical. I was 12 and raised in a very atheist family that also taught about religion. She suddenly started trying to convert me. (I'm guessing from some sort of push from her family.) After several attempts by her, I ripped her arguments to shreds and she ended up crying and the friendship ended. I feel bad now because I was her only friend and she'd been kind of ostrasized. (And I wasn't some sort of prodigal Hitchens. Her arguments were extremely naive and basic and anyone with even a fundamental understanding of science and religion could have pulled apart her arguments.)
This kinda reminds me of when I attended a mega church's youth group and this one kid my age kept talking to me about Jesus, faith, and how he spends hours praying or reading the Bible. Later I went to a retreat with the church and was emotionally manipualted by the worship night, and was further manipulated into baptism the following morning. I never came back to that church.
Growing up Jehovah’s Witness, I never shared at school because we were forced to go in service every Saturday and cover our own territory at five and six with my sister. The only good thing that came of it is I’m OK speaking to people and publicly speaking more than the normal person. I’m so glad School was never given to me as a territory.
I also had this issue growing up as a jw kid. I was always afraid that I'd run into classmates on service days (that did happen a few times, actually. most weren't my friends tho, so it was chill) nad get made fun of for being a jw. Kids had already ostracized me for being Black, so I didnt wanna add smth else on top of that. I always felt bad about not tryna convert my classmates, but I didn't wanna bother them. I had already tried doing that a few times to no avail, so I just gave up. When kids get to high school, they're told to take a stand against the teachings of evolution, because 'that's what god would want,' but I never did that. I was already struggling in that class, so I wasn't gonna add another burden on my shoulder. I honestly just wanna live my life in peace and not bother anyone, so being raised as a jw did not help me. I'm glad you're ok with public speaking, but for me, I get so hyperfixated on what I'm saying and how Im being perceived that I just don't say anything if I don't have to. I can't wait till I can just fade so I don't have to worry about this anymore...
It didn’t start off that way for me. I had to do lots and lots of therapy for more than a decade to get to the point I’m at. Don’t give up ever you’re worth the effort.
@@lavender4658 You should not have been expected to convert your classmates to the JW faith. That is not an easy task and most children are not that interested in religion, especially if it was a minority religion, like JW was in your school. Those children would have told to get lost if you had tried to convert them.
Children like Caleb and Sophia would fare better in a Jehovah's Witness' school. What broke my heart here is that Sophia secretly wants to be friends with Priya, but another girl talks her out of it. This is a terrible lesson for children, as it makes them timid and easily manipulated. Sophia should befriend whomever she wishes.
@@Manbearpig444 Even if you knew each other, the fact that you had the confidence to walk up to a girl and strike up a relationship with her shows that you have more courage than you think, so do not put yourself down.
I didn’t grow up JW. But grew up in the church of Christ then moved to the evangelical church. Regardless, home life was full of restrictions and I was encouraged to not talk or make many friends who didn’t have the same faith I had. It was very lonely. I remember once those, that there was a JW in our class who was standing outside because we were doing something fun I guess…it wasn’t a holiday. Probably something fun the teacher had organized to reward the kids for the good work or something like that. I was allowed to participate. But they weren’t. I remember asking the teacher if they were in trouble but she only said no and that their family didn’t allow them to participate. Which I found unfair. So I brought something out but they denied it and didn’t even try to interact with me. Later on I guess the kid got taken out or moved elsewhere because I never saw them again. But even so, I could relate a little bit because of how much the church’s I was apart of harped so much on me not having friends “of the world”. I soon just found school to be terrible regardless. I did try to make some friends-in that my mom was basically my only supporter. But everyone else thought if I had friends outside the religion I’d get led astray and tainted. They often treated me like an outcast no mater because I was different anyway. But no matter how perfect I tried to be from what they taught me, there was always something wrong with me. This was one of the many things that led to my doubts that would eventually lead me to deconstruct and eventually deconvert from Xainity. So to sone extent I can relate what some of the JW kids go through even if I was never a JW. But even now, I feel sorry for them..
hey owen, appreciate you and this channel. i’m an ex-jw, only had the courage to leave this year (i’m 25 now) this one breaks my heart because i was never allowed to make ‘worldly’ friends but was never accepted by kids in the congregation so as you probably know from experience, life is extremely lonely. this year especially. heres to hoping it gets better! hope you’re doing well :) 🖤
"Over a five year period you _will_ be visited by Jehova's Witnesses." I'd love to hear how they decide who to _not_ visit. It only took me a couple visits being friendly and actually talking to them to stop getting visits. After that they would literally sneak up to the door and leave a Watchtower then hustle off down the street.
Same. I don't know if they were JWs or Mormons, but I ran into two of them wandering around my uni campus looking lost during some sort of new or prospective student tour weekend. I approached to see if they needed directions (I'd already given so many directions that day because apparently people can't read maps or any of the 2,000 signs) and they immediately started in on their spiel. After about 15 seconds I "just so happened" to shift my jacket to expose my pronoun pin and OMG I don't think I've ever seen anyone shut up that fast. They choked on their words and just *left!!* I did feel bad for them though.
Intergenerational friendships are good, actually. The problem here is that (1) they're being restricted to the religious in-group, and (2) they're offered as an alternative to the peer relationships that are also important and probably more socially central. But in themselves, we don't get enough contact with people outside our age groups, it's a pity, and encouraging it safely is a worthy endeavor.
23:00 If a child from a cult, tried to convert my underage child in school of all places, I'd lawyer up and do anything necessary. Let them feel persecuted. Stay away from people's kids!
my mom wasn't a part of the religion but for a while she was learning from the witnesses (no longer). It trickled down to me as an 8 year old and I began lessons. I was super into it bc I was just a kid and couldnt think for myself. (I was also told to preach at my elementary school and I always cringeee when I think of it) the lessons stopped when I was like 11 but the things they said still haunt and follow me to this day. I dont associate with or believe their teachings anymore but having them beat into me and having been shown horrifying armaggedon imagery as a child I cant help but still have that looming over my head when I do something "wrong" its awful what they do to these kids psychologically.
I wasn't raised Jehovah's Witness, but I was raised religious. I guess we were probably what's considered Evangelical today but the only word we ever used to refer to our religion was Christian, and I was always strongly encouraged to go and make friends with people outside of the church, but the reasoning given was so that I could invite them to church so they would be saved, which looking back would have led to really shallow, unfulfilling friendships. I would have said at the time that we were just regular Christians, but since leaving the faith I've learned that there are a lot of people who consider themselves Christians and who put a lot of importance in whatever Christianity is to them who do not consider that normal or acceptable behavior. My church would have said that those people weren't real Christians and that they were only pretending to be Christians in order to lead real Christians astray or to keep potential Christians from finding real Christianity. Weirdly, the Christians I grew up around were really against attaching yourself to any particular denomination but at the same time had a super narrow definition of what a Christian actually is. I never did make friends to try to turn them into Christians. I knew I was supposed to, but as a weird autistic kid I didn't really know how to make friends (honestly still don't as a weird autistic adult) so I wasn't sure how to go about roping my schoolmates into going to church with me. Also, as unpopular as I was, I knew that openly being a weird religious kid would make me even more unpopular, so I mostly kept that aspect of my life to myself and constantly worried that Jesus was mad at me for that. Not being a Christian anymore and not having to worry about things like that sure is nice. And when I mentioned being a weird autistic kid earlier, that wasn't just an expression that I've noticed certain shitty people use these days, by that I meant that I actually am autistic.
Would they put you on a "do not call" list if you answer the door naked? I didn't do that to JWs, but I did do that to a couple of Mormon "elders." The astonished looks on their faces were priceless.
Either one: day you ate the other one. They will leave and hopefully will cross you off the list. Please keep your clothes on-kids are out on the street.
That’s very sad that for children, not being allowed to have “outsider” friends must be SO confusing and must feel so wrong to try and manipulate people just so they can be friends. It’s disturbing to think about the growth of their brain under these conditions.
So, by itself, teaching kids to talk with/visit older people should be a nice message. Older members of our community can have a lot to teach us, and discrimination against the elderly or the exclusion of older people is really sad. This message should extend to include all members of the community though. People of any age, faith, race... everyone! It would be nice if this had been a cartoon about learning that older people have interests and experiences and might like to share those things instead of just a message about how your only friends should be the people who go to the same church as you- Sophia should have friends her own age.
I think its hilarious that they end off that episode with the kids asking Priya “whats it like where you live?!” As if she hasn’t immigrated to the US and she doesn’t live down road from the school….. Oh yeah, priya STILL lives in the jungle…. Not sure if i should chop that up to stupidity or ignorance. I know they meant to say where she comes from, but they totally slipped up and showed some casual racism…
Thank you for sharing these videos, so much of my childhood makes sense now. My mom is JW and my dad isn't, I never went to birthday parties and was only allowed to play with my sister. Dad signed us up for community sports so we had time to socialize with other kids. The microphone pole brought back memories, except only one brother had a long pole with a microphone taped to an end. I got in trouble for flinching when it went past me. I stopped going because I embarrassed mom because i asked too many questions and think too much. Mom wanted to take us out of school, and knew dad would never allow it.
As a Puertorrican who went to New York with his father as a vacation trip… Yeah Im amazed by the diversity of New Yorks culture. It was surprising seeing and hearing people speak my native tongue.
Something else to note about the making friends video, is Sister Elsa's backstory. In most of the episodes she's in, Elsa's history of being persecuted in Berlin by the Russian's is brought up. It's just adding to Jw's persecution complex.
That's not false tho. They are actually persecuted in Russia. People are very glad to call out persecution of other religious minorities in some other situations like the falun gong under China, even when they're also basically dangerous cults.
I have been watching the Darth Magog series wherein a gentleman who holds a master’s in ECE with a trauma informed modality and have truly been enjoying it. I do hope that, if Owen is going to go back over the whole series, he places all of the episodes into a playlist so that we can follow along. I have tried to catch all of the past C&S episode analysis videos, but without a dedicated playlist they can be hard to locate all of them. I’m really happy to see the topic being reinvestigated - especially with Owen now looking at them through the eyes of a parent to a child approximately the same age as Sophia. That will definitely give him some new, deeper perspectives on the series, as he was older when the videos first came into use. Owen cannot experience them as a child, but allowing us to experience them with his input as a dad is really valuable.
The ending of the last one was literally: You know how things that you like exist in the world? That means you should do whatever the governing body of jehovas witnesses says. Kthxbye
To be fair, Latter-day Saints allow for education, medical intervention and at least in my case help pay your rent and food if you don’t have it. Even if you can’t afford tithing, they’ve helped me.
I think the mormons at least like to have fun. It may be g rated but they still have holidays and parties. That's in their favor. Other than that they are almost the same. And mormons don't shun as hard as the JWs.
When I used to live in apartments I never heard people honking their horns, but then I moved to a trailer park. It seems like a lot of people are too lazy to get out of their cars and knock so they just honk their freakin' horns. It's real annoying.
Something I have always wondered about as a non Jehovas Witness: does door knocking even work? Does it ever happen that people are actually interested and will join the religion because someone knocked on their door? Or is it just to keep the members busy and isolated? I can imagine that it hurts to always be rejected at every door and that it might confirm the idea that outsiders are rude and "evil"?
i had a witness parent and i was forced to go preach with them, and yeah sometimes it works. they occasionally had people they would return to for bible studies.
a lot of people get surprised when i tell them that i didnt have a birthday party until i was 9 years old bc of the jw's. i was such an outcast in elementary school lol and the only reason i was able to break away was bc my mom wasnt brainwashed by the bs. my family basically ostracized us after we moved away lol i guess its just a lil trippy that i found this video, i used to religiously (get it??) watch caleb and sofia with my brother (who stopped trying to please our grandparents waaaay before i did, smart dude). but yea, thats me lol.
I meet a girl since school when I was a child and we loving each others at the time. Many years later that she now refuses to see me because she from JW and that was she already saying to me when i ask if she want to go to a restaurant with me. I read about Jehovah’s witnesses that they cannot see or contact with outsiders
Ok so i'm 19 now and my mind is just blown by learning more about this religion from different videos and realizing I was a grade A target to preaching in 5th Grade from a girl in my class named Doris who was a Jahova Witness. I was very shy in elementary school and had no friends so she must have thought I was an easy target. She gave me a whole new Bible, read Bible verses to me after class, told me to visit Jahovah Witness websites, invited me to the Kindom Hall, etc. I'm tellin you everyday before and after school was straight up church and I would lie about reading the Bible at home when she asked me if I read the chapters she told me to. I felt bad but she was really shoving it down my throat 😂
57, alone with autism, try not to let it get you down, I find it much more tolerable now than when I was younger. It's not much help but it slowly got "better" for me and I hope it does for you as well. Not broken, just different !
They don't.... people aren't against you but they are definitely for themselves. "Fitting in" required that I "pretend" to be what I am not so I gave up on that and tried to be myself in other ways. I don't have any answers but I do have an idea how you feel. My childhood was way more painful than when I got older because kids can be vicious about being different but adults are way too self absorbed to care about much of anything besides their careers, social status and net worth to care about much else. I've decided that I'd rather just be alone than feel like I don't belong. I do find great comfort in having animals, they are pure beings without alterior motives, so I take care of their needs and they help me get over the rough parts. Best of luck finding your own path and try to remember that being alone doesn't mean you are alone.
@@wheressteve I most certainly would rather have human company than live with a bunch of cats Although Most of my generation are mentally backwards A holes so why not just live for myself just like everyone else no family no relationships no worries at all. Thats my middle finger to this world and all its worst living in it
@@wheressteveI completely agree with your take on this. I know quite a few autistic people who are quirky and wonderful and have so much to offer. It's not the world or even most people that hate autistic folks, it's just harder to read people, very exhausting is what it seems. I agree with your comment about animals. I have a companion parrot who goes most places with me, and talks and flies to me, which is a joy. To the original commenter, please don't give up on friendship. It IS easier as you get older, as you develop coping mechanisms and get to know yourself better (I am bipolar, and that certainly was how it was for me). By blocking out friendship, you give yourself the finger rather than giving it to the world. All the best, autistic friends ❤
I am Jewish and we still have so many ways to spell and say the name of god. When I went to Jewish school and was more into the religion, I would spell god like G-d. When I went to public school, classmates and teachers were kinda like wtf so I stopped doing that. Now I am more of an atheist who still identifies with the cultural aspect of being Jewish as well as Jewish philosophy and such. Anywho, I'd say adonai is the most common name for god, as well as Elohim/eloheynu. And in the Torah and other religious texts, they do put YHVH or just YY for god's name and we say it as one of the above or something different.
Not an ex-JW or even an ex-Christian, but I was raised in a really sketchy church with major Fundamentalist values and was placed in said church's school. It truly shattered my childhood. I had no social skills or friends, and the few friends I could make were short-lived because I was so possessive. We also had to attend chapel each Wednesday on top of the church's Wednesday night and Sunday services. Pretty typical, but some of this is really reminiscent of that, particularly the lessons listed here and how they were taught. It's... an odd feeling to say the least.
12:17 aaa I remember going to these and it was always so awkward. I don’t remember any children there and it was always old people!! When I used to go to the Kingdom Hall things there would be a kid there that was 3 years younger than me that I tried to be friends with, but she was always on her iPad. I was only allowed to color, and my parents said it’s because the kid was younger than me, Wich was BS bc I was never allowed to when I was her age-
I have a friend who got out. Not easy when you've missed out on culture outside of the church and the church is the only thing you know. The video was interesting.
Poor kids. Shame upon shame is being heaped on these children. And then they're taught they are different from other kids when kids desperately want to fit in. It's child abuse.☮️🇺🇸
There was a girl in one of my highschool science class and there was a group of 4 of us, 2 boys, 2 girls. We used to group up on projects. I thought she was super nice, I kinda liked her. She started talking about JW's and what she/the religion does or w/e to one of the boys. He was enamored by that. But that was the first time I knew I didn't want to hear more. I have my own Christian church, and we like birthdays and believe in Blood transfusions.
Even though these are about Jehovah's Witnesses, I relate to them so much growing up as a Christian Fundamentalist. I wasn't allowed to have friends of other religions. I went to a private religious southern US school. Everyone was raised Christian as well. I was taught that evolution was a myth and couldn't be real, only new world creation. In middle school, one of my friend told me they think evolution may be true and I tried my best to convince them only young earth creation makes since. Now I am an Independent Spiritualist who is very separate from Christianity for the most part.
I don't remember any jehovahs witnesses in my school but I remember a grown man coming to sit with me like once a week when I was in middle school waiting for my bus. He kept bringing me watchtowers but specifically finding the ones related to music because I had a large instrument case with me when I was going to school. I always found it so creepy how hard he was trying to bring this like 12 year old girl into a religion, even after I told him I was community of christ.
9:25 Post pandemic JWs have largely switched to handwritten, _Dear Neighbor_ letters, only going to houses that respond. I've gotten two letters in the past six months, from different people.
They're even having the kids do the letters and, at least for one I got, not proofreading them. So many spelling and grammar errors, as well as just extremely simplified not quite correct English that made me almost positive a child wrote it. Though I'm 100% sure whoever wrote it was dyslexic. So many swapped, flipped gq, and backwards letters- p instead of q, db, un....
I wouldn't say they're not biased though. Most of the ones I know and the ones online tend to like calling religious people dumb for having a religious belief.
@@Volundur9567 But that's not all atheist I don't think religious people are dumb the only criticisms I have of religion is forcing children to hold religious beliefs at a young age
@@Volundur9567well i doubt most do that, i dont do that and i think barely no atheist does. i pity christians and other people with magical beliefs, i would never call victims of brainwash stupid for something they could not control, they were unknowingly forced to believe all that garbage and were fed with it by society with a silver spoon. its like calling an abuse victim stupud- even if for most christians, it is the case cause theyre abused and groomed into this horror stuff.
That part, when Sophia complimented Priya's clothes reminded me, what i saw yesterday in underground. One woman started complimenting and asking about other woman's vest, then she showed her some pamflet with JW's logo. They know, how to seem "friendly". Preying on the random people. Thanks God for my earbuds.
I once read through the whole bible in a year. One day I read part of it outside at a lake. A JW approached me and said "I can see you're reading a religious book. Wanna talk about it?" Her calling the Bible (!) a "religious book" put me off so hard I immediately rejected.
My best friend from junior school was a JW. I was so ssd that she couldn't come to lunch with me (they had sandwiches) assembly.schook trips or anything to do with birthdays or Christmas .this gorl was so intelligent . Yet hardly went to secondary school so fell behind and lost touch of her after we left .sge never tried to convert me !! Always wondered what happened to her and i doubt she ever left because she had 12 brothers and sisters and her parents were quite high up In the JW and went around the world withtheir job !!
I can’t believe it, I had to stop the video to respond to the door, and it was Jehovah Witnesses. I guess they don’t know I’m shunned cause I changed neighborhood 😂 they didn’t pay me a visit in like more than ten years I think, here they might not recognize the surname, as I also never saw their faces before. Gosh, I hope they can escape too, the boy that talked seemed also pretty young and it’s so sad to see. I wish everyone that escaped the cult an happy and fulfilling life.
I have two JW girls in my workplace and one of them just avoided me from the start, while being friends only with one girl, also a JW. I had no idea what's going on, does she think I'm bad or she hates my guts but now I know why. I'm Catholic and she knows. She was raised in this cult.
When you said JWs can't enter closed communities, I chuckled a bit. Here in Puerto Rico, they're granted a beeper to enter due to religious freedom. Ngl, it's annoying.
one of my best friends was a jehovahs witness and enjoyed debating with him used to irritate his younger brother so much we both knew we weren't likely to change each others mind but enjoyed debating think he made me a better debater I'm an atheist by the way but am now on the black list after talking to them and getting into why I felt the god of the bible was petty
I liked exactly zero of the kids my age from the hall. It was mutual. I think perhaps we were ALL stunted and unable to have genuine relationships. My mom kept trying to arrange friendships but I wonder now if perhaps we were the bad seed family.....
There's a place where I buy games... and to get to it I pass a Kingdom Hall. I've seen them working on cleaning up the parking lot... including teenagers and kids. Given that I tend to go on Saturdays, I could imagine kids wanting to be doing something else.
6:37 Yeah they had the microphones on poles when I was a kid. I was ten when they started using mikes handed to you for commenting. I hated those poles.
The first child to integrate schools happened in 1960 and her name was Ruby Bridges. The school was William Frantz Elementary school in New Orleans, LA.
I remember one of the guys kinda tripped while bringing the mic to someone 😩😅 I was silent laughing and my whole body was shaking🥴 Kingdom Hall memories
When children watch this who are beaten whenever they disobey, they understand these videos are how to be obedient and please their parents. You can be “happy” like Caleb and Sodia… if you follow the regime and never step out of line.
Didn’t Daniel get thrown into a pit of lions? That’s what my Bible says. Ancient Roman quote: ‘Too many Christians, send more lions.’ Daniel wasn’t a Christian.😂
All through primary and secondary school 2 of my best friends were JW. They never tried to convert anyone and were never ostrisized either. The only way you knew that something was different is that yhey left the room for the National Anthem. They never seemed to care that I didn't believe in any god.
This rule and the rule about not dating outside the religion completely screwed me over since I'm an introvert anyway so forming relationships with anyone is difficult enough to begin with.
It's always interesting when I tell people that I was raised in a religion that I wasn't allowed to have friends outside of the religion unless I was trying to convert them. "That sounds like a cult" is something I've heard often lol.
I wasn't JW but I was under the impression that's how all religions work... I was still part of a cult so I guess that's probably just my bias.
That cult was never explicit about not having friends unless trying to convert them but it was heavily implied. Like you would hear from the pulpit that god wanted you to marry people from other religions because that way you can help them convert into the cult (before the marriage takes place) and help promotes the "right" version of Christianity, while also having people refusing to interact with you (much less accept gifts or food from you) if you or a close relative was in a relationship with someone from outside the cult. Although everyone seemed to be related to everyone in the cult because almost nobody actually dated people "of the world" so they all just kept marrying each other to the point it's perfectly acceptable for cousins getting married (they tried to set me up with my second cousin, I was at least allowed to choose between the pair of twins and they were even my age so I guess some people there would see that as a plus btw the parents of my cousins were also cousins)
@@Ares_V holy sh*t man that sounds insane! glad you got out!
@@Ares_VI don’t know what faith / cult that was, but how awful! I can only imagine how many severely disabled children live, or even die, in that cult. Founder’s diseases are a real and sad reality of insular communities. The baby’s graveyard in short creek is INSANE. I had no idea that it wasn’t normal for so many babies to die until I went out into the “real world”.
Isn't that true of nearly all of Christianity?
I lost nearly all of my friends at my Catholic Highschool when I came out as Atheist during religion class.
@@Manbearpig444 I'm so sorry. I really hope you can find some good friends soon. I found some at work.
so weird how they always demonize all the child characters. realistically, if a kid from india or any other country was new to an elementary school most of the class would be swarming them with questions thinking it was super cool.
Yep, didn't matter where they were from, for all of elementary new kids were super popular the first day in my schools. Didn't matter if it was the next town or another continent. How quickly it faded was another matter that really varied, some kids joined the "popular kids", and some got ostracized by the popular kids by day two.
Right, they don't show the truth when it comes to a classroom full of kids.
Stephen Lett does say children are enemies of god. Seriously. So it does make sense.
Yep, really drives home that all kids are bad kids unless they believe the “right” things about God and are willing to go tell others to do the same
This kind of reminds me of an abuser who isolates their victim from the outside world and anyone that could help.
That's because that's exactly what it is.
🎯🎯🎯
Congratulations, you just described every Jehovah's Witness ever.
@@doommaster956 I wouldn’t go that far, not all Jenovah Witnesses are like this
Exactly. It’s a much used tactic from corporations down to one on one abuse.
Notice how in these videos, the Jehovah Witness kids are always designed to look clean and beautiful while the other kids look visually ugly and bratty?
Uh uh, I see what they're doing.
Funny how these "saints" do all the demonizing LOL
Basic propaganda tactic - the "enemy" is always depicted as ugly and evil. They can't convince their cultists to hate the outsiders by using adult, logical arguments, so they just resort to ad hominem. And we both know that such argument is invalid.
Facts
I’ve found that if the JW trick r treaters show up, invite them in and tell ‘em you study the Bible. Never had one come in.
Go figure 😂😂😂😂
@@bauhnguefyische667 having a dog sitting in front of your house also helps lol
It’s gross how they specifically pick the story line of an ostracized and vulnerable child, because that’s when theyre easiest to indoctrinate. A child who isn’t vulnerable or who has friends is less likely to want to please you or seek that “salvation”
People raised as Jehovah's Witnesses usually bring them up as Jehovah's Witnesses, Monasaurus, vulnerable or not.
Mormons use the same tactics. They actually tell their missionaries to look for vulnerable individuals because they're easier to convert.
The JWs almost exclusively have their propaganda in Chinese here in Australia. Why? There are heaps of International students that are vulnerable. Lonely in a new country, language barriers etc. It's totally calculated.
Not for nothing but it's exactly how pedophiles go after kids. They pick the vulnerable ones, the ones from single family homes, the ones with single mothers. The fact that they use the same strategies as pedos is very telling and it's no accident.
It is completely hilarious that the answer to the question Sophia left blank is 42 which is also the answer to the ultimate question in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Lol, I didn't catch that, that's hilariously perfect
Because JW's don't have the answer to any important questions
😂
@@myheartismadeofstars AYOO
🤣😂
Recently my partner’s grandfather passed away and her grandmother, who is a JW, decided to have the “funeral” at her Kingdom Hall. My partner and I, being biracial lesbians, stood out compared to everyone else and since we weren’t JWs it was very awkward. This was the first funeral I attended where you weren’t allowed to go up and speak about your loved one and the man that did speak about him only spoke for like 10 min then the rest of the time was trying to recruit new members. As soon as it ended my partner and I got surrounded by all these JWs trying to talk to us and we didn’t know any of them at all. That was the most uncomfortable funeral I have ever gone to.
Yeah the funerals suck. Every single one is "it's sad but they'll be in paradise and all of his loved here who aren't Witnesses could see him if they were but oh well too bad they're terrible people".
Former JW, kicked out at 18.
Using a loved one's funeral as a recruitment drive is disgusting & psychopathic. Wtf.
They're as bad as MLM Karens (probably why so many JWs end up in pyramid schemes).
Eww. Sad and gross.
It's a cult.
More and more Christian funerals are getting like that. No eulogies, just some pastor trying to recruit members like the dearly departed _would have wanted._
The f@ck they would; you're just preying on grief, you vulture.
I've known him for decades, and the only time religion ever came up was back in high school, when his mom didn't want him playing roleplaying games because _it was satanic._
That didn't stop him from playing, we just played there only once a week. The other sessions were at other people's houses.
Man, I miss running Vampire Dark Ages three times per week, and still playing in other games on other days.
'Pleasuring Jehovah, like a good boy should' XD Dead
Yep. That slayed me, too. Fantastic take, yet again, by Owen!
Sky Daddy 😩
@@michelehemlokhexwhite4310 yep, it can be dangerous to eat while watching these videos. IDK, death by apple might almost have been worth it (I seriously was coughing for a few seconds on apple, I'm fine).
I always get flashbacks when i watch these videos. I started questioning the JW organization when I was 14 and officially stopped believing when I was around 18. The microphone being in sophia face was a throwback.
There were so many time I had to say no to classroom activities concerning hoildays and say it was because of my "religion".
Sounds like me. Started questioning around that age, during the pandemic (I think that's the case for a lot of pimos/exjws,) and officially started calling myself a pimo a few months ago (once I found out what that was lol). I couldn't attend a lot of assemblies if they went against jw policy (Christmas, remembrance day, etc.) that made me feel really ostracized, along with not being allowed to have friends outside the religion. Although I'm a pimo rn, I'm glad I don't feel the pressure to preach to fellow classmates, and just let ppl believe what they wanna believe.
@@lavender4658 I hope you can get more freedom soon, religiously. That really sucks. No kid should ever be forced into a religion just cuz their parents are in it... coming from a questioning Mormon
Also happy for you that you can make up your own mind. Best luck to you and don't let others convince you of something that goes against your gut instincts, either direction
Lol i started questioning at 12 and stopped believing at 14, now Im 19, if i dont go with my mom, i will never set foot there by myself, but i stay cuz my friends are there (they are not like indoctrinate, some of them are baptized but they are like any other teenagers, like they dont try to indoctrinate every person they see, they're just chill)
“Don’t make friends outside the religion”
Me who’s a Christian who’s friends with multiple Atheists, Muslims, and other Christians: “Nah, I don’t really feel like it”
Same here as a Muslim myself and I'm not bothered by other beliefs or opinions. That's why I still enjoy Telltale and respect him. I'll admit there are some extreme Muslims who say having non-Muslim friends is forbidden (I obviously don't agree with this) and sadly every religion has issues with extremists. I just focus on myself rather than what some preacher says.
@@bestrafung2754 True, and it sucks we both have to deal with extremest, I follow Jesus, who understood that we can’t all be perfect, but that we can be perfect in our own way, and respect others with kindness
Love that attitude, and it’s one I try to keep now, but I can tell you as somebody raised by fundamental Christians that they are not all so accepting, at least not when it comes to their kids. I couldn’t hang out with any friends who weren’t approved by my dad, which meant anyone who wasn’t from a christian family that my dad already knew. I realized I was stuck in a bubble and moved out as soon as I was able to, only been able to talk to him again recently and he still won’t admit he ever did anything wrong.
@@elilane8627 I’m sorry to hear that, not all parents are perfect, my parents realized how much negativity they spread, most likely when they figured out my older brother was gay
Religion is supposed to teach friendship, now I wonder why the Cult doesn't.
Just wait until Priya tells Sofia about her millions (that’s not hyperbole) of gods
Tbh as an atheist the idea of millions of gods is so much cooler than just one.
I do have lot of gods in my setting, in a way similar to Shintoism who personifies elements of nature. The Jehovah witnesses think that God, a fictional entity, is real. But religion is fiction and shall stay as it is, because all good beliefs matter.
Was raised in Witnesses. Them constantly saying "Bad associations spoil useful habits" Anytime I tried to be friends with other kids at school really messed me up. By the time I finally decided I wasn't going to be a Witness when I was my senior year of high school I was so far behind other kids socially I had no idea how to form connections and never quite caught up. It has basically effected my whole life since. Their whole organization is garbage.
Thank you for exposing and explaining how propaganda works. We see a lot of it in our politics these days.
not just in politics. Christmas used to be one of my favorite times of the year, but all the commercialism put a huge damper on it with all the ads bombarding us with some variation of "Want to show your loved one you care? Get them this expensive item!"
Didn’t start ‘these days’-it’s been there all along. We have examples of it going back to Babylon. “King Whoosis went forth on his mighty horse and slew 400,000 of the enemy! Hail Whoosis!” Reality: his soldiers killed ten guys from another country who stumbled across the border.
@@clydewill2340 HAH good point. I never thought about that lmao
I went to a charter school where every student came from a radius of a mile from the school. Everyone knew I was a witness and would occasionally ask about some fringe belief they’d heard somewhere. I’d almost never bring it up, but held up our traditions and they all noticed. I tried my best to just assimilate while upholding those weird standards. I lost out on so many cupcakes you guys, it was traumatizing
Zoe is the child who was sad that her grandmother died, right? Looks like preying on a grieving child is an effective recruitment tool, I guess.
It is. They’ll intentionally do it.
After my aunt lost her husband, they zeroed in on her and took the opportunity to convert her during a time she was looking for comfort and camaraderie.
@@BionicPig95interesting! Thanks for sharing!
I always told my parents, "why would I work hard in school when i could be eating lunch when Armageddon comes" and that completely ruined my motivation because my parents, being devout witnesses, had no counter and didn't know what to say to inspire me when my grade would plummet that didnt go against the JW memo.
They cant say, "in case it doesnt happen" cause that means I can leave the religion "in case Armageddon doesnt happen". So my grades were actually shit in school cause i never turned in homework, just did the tests. I got into my schools ap classes when i took the tests but didnt take them cause why would i? Even started learning chinese in second grade
I hope my daughter doesn't see this comment. She already has a laundry list of excuses not to do her homework lol. Also sorry about your home life.
The Babylonians seeing Daniel and deciding that he’s too hot to be a slave is so real of them
I remember that I was invited to a Baptist church in the late seventies. They were welcoming and not offended by my long hair. They preached a bit more than I was used to being Episcopal.
My mother always encouraged me to experience other religions. I've been to Synagogue and Catholic services as well. I've even been to a Southern Baptist tent revival.
There are a few more extreme religions (cults) that I'm more worried about. Mormon, evangelist Christians, as well as Seventh Day ( not so much) and...JW. Scientologists can be easily included in the danger group too.
You're right. I mean. At least Mormons preach about education
@@s0fia872but it’s an education they completely control, especially in Utah.
You probably won't ever interact with a scientologist....most of us are too poor to be a part of them 😂
It's good they did that but I'm surprised as a lot of Baptist churches in the US are extremist. I think more people should be like this, both religious and non-religious.
@@Afmedic85Loony Scientologists can be found in any city center in the west.
I can only imagine that it must be difficult say the same things again and again. But there are always new viewers, or long-time viewers in a different mental state or circumstance. So these things NEED to be repeated. Keep going Mr. Morgan, you're doing well.
I had a friend in elementary school who was some sort of Evangelical. I was 12 and raised in a very atheist family that also taught about religion. She suddenly started trying to convert me. (I'm guessing from some sort of push from her family.) After several attempts by her, I ripped her arguments to shreds and she ended up crying and the friendship ended. I feel bad now because I was her only friend and she'd been kind of ostrasized.
(And I wasn't some sort of prodigal Hitchens. Her arguments were extremely naive and basic and anyone with even a fundamental understanding of science and religion could have pulled apart her arguments.)
This kinda reminds me of when I attended a mega church's youth group and this one kid my age kept talking to me about Jesus, faith, and how he spends hours praying or reading the Bible. Later I went to a retreat with the church and was emotionally manipualted by the worship night, and was further manipulated into baptism the following morning. I never came back to that church.
Growing up Jehovah’s Witness, I never shared at school because we were forced to go in service every Saturday and cover our own territory at five and six with my sister. The only good thing that came of it is I’m OK speaking to people and publicly speaking more than the normal person. I’m so glad School was never given to me as a territory.
I also had this issue growing up as a jw kid. I was always afraid that I'd run into classmates on service days (that did happen a few times, actually. most weren't my friends tho, so it was chill) nad get made fun of for being a jw. Kids had already ostracized me for being Black, so I didnt wanna add smth else on top of that. I always felt bad about not tryna convert my classmates, but I didn't wanna bother them. I had already tried doing that a few times to no avail, so I just gave up. When kids get to high school, they're told to take a stand against the teachings of evolution, because 'that's what god would want,' but I never did that. I was already struggling in that class, so I wasn't gonna add another burden on my shoulder. I honestly just wanna live my life in peace and not bother anyone, so being raised as a jw did not help me. I'm glad you're ok with public speaking, but for me, I get so hyperfixated on what I'm saying and how Im being perceived that I just don't say anything if I don't have to. I can't wait till I can just fade so I don't have to worry about this anymore...
It didn’t start off that way for me. I had to do lots and lots of therapy for more than a decade to get to the point I’m at. Don’t give up ever you’re worth the effort.
@@lavender4658 You should not have been expected to convert your classmates to the JW faith. That is not an easy task and most children are not that interested in religion, especially if it was a minority religion, like JW was in your school. Those children would have told to get lost if you had tried to convert them.
The organization is the perfect environment for raising socially awkward kids.
As well as horribly misinformed kids. And for kids who were sexually abused with impunity by elders, emotionally broken kids.
Children like Caleb and Sophia would fare better in a Jehovah's Witness' school.
What broke my heart here is that Sophia secretly wants to be friends with Priya, but another girl talks her out of it. This is a terrible lesson for children, as it makes them timid and easily manipulated. Sophia should befriend whomever she wishes.
@@Manbearpig444 But you managed to get married and have children. That is a start.
@@Manbearpig444 Even if you knew each other, the fact that you had the confidence to walk up to a girl and strike up a relationship with her shows that you have more courage than you think, so do not put yourself down.
I didn’t grow up JW.
But grew up in the church of Christ then moved to the evangelical church.
Regardless, home life was full of restrictions and I was encouraged to not talk or make many friends who didn’t have the same faith I had.
It was very lonely.
I remember once those, that there was a JW in our class who was standing outside because we were doing something fun I guess…it wasn’t a holiday.
Probably something fun the teacher had organized to reward the kids for the good work or something like that.
I was allowed to participate.
But they weren’t.
I remember asking the teacher if they were in trouble but she only said no and that their family didn’t allow them to participate.
Which I found unfair.
So I brought something out but they denied it and didn’t even try to interact with me.
Later on I guess the kid got taken out or moved elsewhere because I never saw them again.
But even so, I could relate a little bit because of how much the church’s I was apart of harped so much on me not having friends “of the world”.
I soon just found school to be terrible regardless.
I did try to make some friends-in that my mom was basically my only supporter.
But everyone else thought if I had friends outside the religion I’d get led astray and tainted.
They often treated me like an outcast no mater because I was different anyway.
But no matter how perfect I tried to be from what they taught me, there was always something wrong with me.
This was one of the many things that led to my doubts that would eventually lead me to deconstruct and eventually deconvert from Xainity.
So to sone extent I can relate what some of the JW kids go through even if I was never a JW.
But even now, I feel sorry for them..
hey owen, appreciate you and this channel. i’m an ex-jw, only had the courage to leave this year (i’m 25 now)
this one breaks my heart because i was never allowed to make ‘worldly’ friends but was never accepted by kids in the congregation so as you probably know from experience, life is extremely lonely. this year especially. heres to hoping it gets better! hope you’re doing well :) 🖤
"Over a five year period you _will_ be visited by Jehova's Witnesses." I'd love to hear how they decide who to _not_ visit. It only took me a couple visits being friendly and actually talking to them to stop getting visits. After that they would literally sneak up to the door and leave a Watchtower then hustle off down the street.
Same. I don't know if they were JWs or Mormons, but I ran into two of them wandering around my uni campus looking lost during some sort of new or prospective student tour weekend. I approached to see if they needed directions (I'd already given so many directions that day because apparently people can't read maps or any of the 2,000 signs) and they immediately started in on their spiel. After about 15 seconds I "just so happened" to shift my jacket to expose my pronoun pin and OMG I don't think I've ever seen anyone shut up that fast. They choked on their words and just *left!!* I did feel bad for them though.
i really want to think that Sophia gets out of the cult eventually. thats my headcanon now and you cannot change my mind.
Plot twist she gets out and marries another woman 💅
Intergenerational friendships are good, actually. The problem here is that (1) they're being restricted to the religious in-group, and (2) they're offered as an alternative to the peer relationships that are also important and probably more socially central. But in themselves, we don't get enough contact with people outside our age groups, it's a pity, and encouraging it safely is a worthy endeavor.
23:00 If a child from a cult, tried to convert my underage child in school of all places, I'd lawyer up and do anything necessary. Let them feel persecuted. Stay away from people's kids!
my mom wasn't a part of the religion but for a while she was learning from the witnesses (no longer). It trickled down to me as an 8 year old and I began lessons. I was super into it bc I was just a kid and couldnt think for myself. (I was also told to preach at my elementary school and I always cringeee when I think of it) the lessons stopped when I was like 11 but the things they said still haunt and follow me to this day. I dont associate with or believe their teachings anymore but having them beat into me and having been shown horrifying armaggedon imagery as a child I cant help but still have that looming over my head when I do something "wrong" its awful what they do to these kids psychologically.
I wasn't raised Jehovah's Witness, but I was raised religious. I guess we were probably what's considered Evangelical today but the only word we ever used to refer to our religion was Christian, and I was always strongly encouraged to go and make friends with people outside of the church, but the reasoning given was so that I could invite them to church so they would be saved, which looking back would have led to really shallow, unfulfilling friendships.
I would have said at the time that we were just regular Christians, but since leaving the faith I've learned that there are a lot of people who consider themselves Christians and who put a lot of importance in whatever Christianity is to them who do not consider that normal or acceptable behavior. My church would have said that those people weren't real Christians and that they were only pretending to be Christians in order to lead real Christians astray or to keep potential Christians from finding real Christianity. Weirdly, the Christians I grew up around were really against attaching yourself to any particular denomination but at the same time had a super narrow definition of what a Christian actually is.
I never did make friends to try to turn them into Christians. I knew I was supposed to, but as a weird autistic kid I didn't really know how to make friends (honestly still don't as a weird autistic adult) so I wasn't sure how to go about roping my schoolmates into going to church with me. Also, as unpopular as I was, I knew that openly being a weird religious kid would make me even more unpopular, so I mostly kept that aspect of my life to myself and constantly worried that Jesus was mad at me for that. Not being a Christian anymore and not having to worry about things like that sure is nice.
And when I mentioned being a weird autistic kid earlier, that wasn't just an expression that I've noticed certain shitty people use these days, by that I meant that I actually am autistic.
Would they put you on a "do not call" list if you answer the door naked? I didn't do that to JWs, but I did do that to a couple of Mormon "elders." The astonished looks on their faces were priceless.
Are we a guy or a gal? I need to know for my mental picture. 😂
Not a good idea. They often bring kids with them.
@@capitolqueen8176yeah, don't catch a pred charge!
Damn…that’s a confession.
Either one: day you ate the other one. They will leave and hopefully will cross you off the list.
Please keep your clothes on-kids are out on the street.
That’s very sad that for children, not being allowed to have “outsider” friends must be SO confusing and must feel so wrong to try and manipulate people just so they can be friends. It’s disturbing to think about the growth of their brain under these conditions.
A classic tactic of abusers. Isolate your victims so they have noone else to support them. Leave them no choice but to rely on you.
So, by itself, teaching kids to talk with/visit older people should be a nice message. Older members of our community can have a lot to teach us, and discrimination against the elderly or the exclusion of older people is really sad. This message should extend to include all members of the community though. People of any age, faith, race... everyone!
It would be nice if this had been a cartoon about learning that older people have interests and experiences and might like to share those things instead of just a message about how your only friends should be the people who go to the same church as you- Sophia should have friends her own age.
"Not gonna lie, those sandwiches look metal af" Go make yourself a sammich, Owen!🥪🥪🥪😆
I'm imagining that they're fancied up fried bologna sandwiches 🤤
@@laurendaryani4893 now I want a fancied up fried bologna sandwich. I don't have bologna, but I do have bacon.
I think its hilarious that they end off that episode with the kids asking Priya “whats it like where you live?!”
As if she hasn’t immigrated to the US and she doesn’t live down road from the school…..
Oh yeah, priya STILL lives in the jungle…. Not sure if i should chop that up to stupidity or ignorance.
I know they meant to say where she comes from, but they totally slipped up and showed some casual racism…
They also kept playing stereotypical music when she would walk, show up in class or something.
Yep, like if they asked "What's India like?" that would make sense.
Just a small nitpick, it's not "chop that up", it's "chalk that up"
Sorry, but I think she said "lived", not "live"
As a linguistics nerd I can say that you explained the origin of the word “Jehovah” PERFECTLY well
Thank you for sharing these videos, so much of my childhood makes sense now. My mom is JW and my dad isn't, I never went to birthday parties and was only allowed to play with my sister. Dad signed us up for community sports so we had time to socialize with other kids.
The microphone pole brought back memories, except only one brother had a long pole with a microphone taped to an end. I got in trouble for flinching when it went past me. I stopped going because I embarrassed mom because i asked too many questions and think too much. Mom wanted to take us out of school, and knew dad would never allow it.
As a Puertorrican who went to New York with his father as a vacation trip…
Yeah Im amazed by the diversity of New Yorks culture. It was surprising seeing and hearing people speak my native tongue.
Something else to note about the making friends video, is Sister Elsa's backstory. In most of the episodes she's in, Elsa's history of being persecuted in Berlin by the Russian's is brought up. It's just adding to Jw's persecution complex.
That's not false tho. They are actually persecuted in Russia. People are very glad to call out persecution of other religious minorities in some other situations like the falun gong under China, even when they're also basically dangerous cults.
I have been watching the Darth Magog series wherein a gentleman who holds a master’s in ECE with a trauma informed modality and have truly been enjoying it. I do hope that, if Owen is going to go back over the whole series, he places all of the episodes into a playlist so that we can follow along. I have tried to catch all of the past C&S episode analysis videos, but without a dedicated playlist they can be hard to locate all of them. I’m really happy to see the topic being reinvestigated - especially with Owen now looking at them through the eyes of a parent to a child approximately the same age as Sophia. That will definitely give him some new, deeper perspectives on the series, as he was older when the videos first came into use. Owen cannot experience them as a child, but allowing us to experience them with his input as a dad is really valuable.
The ending of the last one was literally: You know how things that you like exist in the world? That means you should do whatever the governing body of jehovas witnesses says. Kthxbye
I'm still not sure who are worse: JWs or Mormons (The second M is silent).
To be fair, Latter-day Saints allow for education, medical intervention and at least in my case help pay your rent and food if you don’t have it. Even if you can’t afford tithing, they’ve helped me.
@@LDSkyknightIF the bishop APPROVES it ONLY. BOTH the JW and Mormons are cults.
The second M is silent. LMFAO.
JW’s seems to be worst to me with the absolute control the Governing Body have over their followers, constantly bombarding them with propaganda.
I think the mormons at least like to have fun. It may be g rated but they still have holidays and parties. That's in their favor. Other than that they are almost the same.
And mormons don't shun as hard as the JWs.
“Don’t make friends outside the religion”. Hmmmmmn. That’s a CULT!!!!!!
When I used to live in apartments I never heard people honking their horns, but then I moved to a trailer park. It seems like a lot of people are too lazy to get out of their cars and knock so they just honk their freakin' horns. It's real annoying.
Something I have always wondered about as a non Jehovas Witness: does door knocking even work? Does it ever happen that people are actually interested and will join the religion because someone knocked on their door? Or is it just to keep the members busy and isolated? I can imagine that it hurts to always be rejected at every door and that it might confirm the idea that outsiders are rude and "evil"?
The real question is how the JWs retain the people's attention span. People are more impatient nowadays.
i had a witness parent and i was forced to go preach with them, and yeah sometimes it works. they occasionally had people they would return to for bible studies.
It works much more for convincing JWs themselves that the world hates them and therefore influencing them more
Hi just wanted to say you're one of my favourite channels keep up the good work dude
They just came to my house yesterday. That’s what brought me back to your channel
"Bullies like to smack their lips when they chew", well I know that I do!
a lot of people get surprised when i tell them that i didnt have a birthday party until i was 9 years old bc of the jw's. i was such an outcast in elementary school lol
and the only reason i was able to break away was bc my mom wasnt brainwashed by the bs. my family basically ostracized us after we moved away lol
i guess its just a lil trippy that i found this video, i used to religiously (get it??) watch caleb and sofia with my brother (who stopped trying to please our grandparents waaaay before i did, smart dude). but yea, thats me lol.
26:30 this one actually says "a prison for mind and heart" and i am freaking agreed with it.
I meet a girl since school when I was a child and we loving each others at the time. Many years later that she now refuses to see me because she from JW and that was she already saying to me when i ask if she want to go to a restaurant with me. I read about Jehovah’s witnesses that they cannot see or contact with outsiders
Good or bad Owen, you being a JW and not being a JW made you who you are. Thanks for being strong Owen. I imagine it's tough to break free
Ok so i'm 19 now and my mind is just blown by learning more about this religion from different videos and realizing I was a grade A target to preaching in 5th Grade from a girl in my class named Doris who was a Jahova Witness. I was very shy in elementary school and had no friends so she must have thought I was an easy target. She gave me a whole new Bible, read Bible verses to me after class, told me to visit Jahovah Witness websites, invited me to the Kindom Hall, etc. I'm tellin you everyday before and after school was straight up church and I would lie about reading the Bible at home when she asked me if I read the chapters she told me to. I felt bad but she was really shoving it down my throat 😂
21 alone and has autism here
Being a lone wolf is not that great at all
57, alone with autism, try not to let it get you down, I find it much more tolerable now than when I was younger. It's not much help but it slowly got "better" for me and I hope it does for you as well. Not broken, just different !
@@wheressteve
Why does this world hate us so much
They don't.... people aren't against you but they are definitely for themselves. "Fitting in" required that I "pretend" to be what I am not so I gave up on that and tried to be myself in other ways. I don't have any answers but I do have an idea how you feel. My childhood was way more painful than when I got older because kids can be vicious about being different but adults are way too self absorbed to care about much of anything besides their careers, social status and net worth to care about much else. I've decided that I'd rather just be alone than feel like I don't belong. I do find great comfort in having animals, they are pure beings without alterior motives, so I take care of their needs and they help me get over the rough parts. Best of luck finding your own path and try to remember that being alone doesn't mean you are alone.
@@wheressteve
I most certainly would rather have human company than live with a bunch of cats
Although Most of my generation are mentally backwards A holes so why not just live for myself just like everyone else no family no relationships no worries at all. Thats my middle finger to this world and all its worst living in it
@@wheressteveI completely agree with your take on this. I know quite a few autistic people who are quirky and wonderful and have so much to offer. It's not the world or even most people that hate autistic folks, it's just harder to read people, very exhausting is what it seems.
I agree with your comment about animals. I have a companion parrot who goes most places with me, and talks and flies to me, which is a joy. To the original commenter, please don't give up on friendship. It IS easier as you get older, as you develop coping mechanisms and get to know yourself better (I am bipolar, and that certainly was how it was for me).
By blocking out friendship, you give yourself the finger rather than giving it to the world.
All the best, autistic friends ❤
I am Jewish and we still have so many ways to spell and say the name of god. When I went to Jewish school and was more into the religion, I would spell god like G-d. When I went to public school, classmates and teachers were kinda like wtf so I stopped doing that. Now I am more of an atheist who still identifies with the cultural aspect of being Jewish as well as Jewish philosophy and such. Anywho, I'd say adonai is the most common name for god, as well as Elohim/eloheynu. And in the Torah and other religious texts, they do put YHVH or just YY for god's name and we say it as one of the above or something different.
When we were kids Me and my brothers had friends who weren't witnesses. As did my best friend. We always played with the neighbourhood kids.
Trauma. This video brings up suppressed memories I forgot I had
Not an ex-JW or even an ex-Christian, but I was raised in a really sketchy church with major Fundamentalist values and was placed in said church's school. It truly shattered my childhood. I had no social skills or friends, and the few friends I could make were short-lived because I was so possessive. We also had to attend chapel each Wednesday on top of the church's Wednesday night and Sunday services. Pretty typical, but some of this is really reminiscent of that, particularly the lessons listed here and how they were taught. It's... an odd feeling to say the least.
Ever notice how buff the dad is (like Superman or something). When does he have time to work out? Isn't that time supposed to be devoted to Jehovah?
he lifts for Jehovah 😹
12:17 aaa I remember going to these and it was always so awkward. I don’t remember any children there and it was always old people!! When I used to go to the Kingdom Hall things there would be a kid there that was 3 years younger than me that I tried to be friends with, but she was always on her iPad. I was only allowed to color, and my parents said it’s because the kid was younger than me, Wich was BS bc I was never allowed to when I was her age-
I have a friend who got out. Not easy when you've missed out on culture outside of the church and the church is the only thing you know. The video was interesting.
Or when your family and close friends in it
Poor kids. Shame upon shame is being heaped on these children. And then they're taught they are different from other kids when kids desperately want to fit in. It's child abuse.☮️🇺🇸
There was a girl in one of my highschool science class and there was a group of 4 of us, 2 boys, 2 girls. We used to group up on projects. I thought she was super nice, I kinda liked her. She started talking about JW's and what she/the religion does or w/e to one of the boys. He was enamored by that. But that was the first time I knew I didn't want to hear more. I have my own Christian church, and we like birthdays and believe in Blood transfusions.
The girl with pigtails looks like chiyo-chan from azumanga daioh
Even though these are about Jehovah's Witnesses, I relate to them so much growing up as a Christian Fundamentalist. I wasn't allowed to have friends of other religions. I went to a private religious southern US school. Everyone was raised Christian as well. I was taught that evolution was a myth and couldn't be real, only new world creation. In middle school, one of my friend told me they think evolution may be true and I tried my best to convince them only young earth creation makes since. Now I am an Independent Spiritualist who is very separate from Christianity for the most part.
Isn’t there a bigger problem with encouraging children to “befriend” adults…?
I don't remember any jehovahs witnesses in my school but I remember a grown man coming to sit with me like once a week when I was in middle school waiting for my bus. He kept bringing me watchtowers but specifically finding the ones related to music because I had a large instrument case with me when I was going to school. I always found it so creepy how hard he was trying to bring this like 12 year old girl into a religion, even after I told him I was community of christ.
2:11 "If your not pleasuring jehova like a young boy should" BRO WHAT.
9:25 Post pandemic JWs have largely switched to handwritten, _Dear Neighbor_ letters, only going to houses that respond.
I've gotten two letters in the past six months, from different people.
They're even having the kids do the letters and, at least for one I got, not proofreading them. So many spelling and grammar errors, as well as just extremely simplified not quite correct English that made me almost positive a child wrote it. Though I'm 100% sure whoever wrote it was dyslexic. So many swapped, flipped gq, and backwards letters- p instead of q, db, un....
My fav thing about atheist communities is that they arent biased and say the actual origins of gods (like how jehova/yahweh was pagan orginally)
I wouldn't say they're not biased though. Most of the ones I know and the ones online tend to like calling religious people dumb for having a religious belief.
@@Volundur9567 But that's not all atheist I don't think religious people are dumb the only criticisms I have of religion is forcing children to hold religious beliefs at a young age
@@Volundur9567well i doubt most do that, i dont do that and i think barely no atheist does. i pity christians and other people with magical beliefs, i would never call victims of brainwash stupid for something they could not control, they were unknowingly forced to believe all that garbage and were fed with it by society with a silver spoon. its like calling an abuse victim stupud- even if for most christians, it is the case cause theyre abused and groomed into this horror stuff.
@@micahscott3895 and that's a fair argument.
That part, when Sophia complimented Priya's clothes reminded me, what i saw yesterday in underground. One woman started complimenting and asking about other woman's vest, then she showed her some pamflet with JW's logo. They know, how to seem "friendly". Preying on the random people. Thanks God for my earbuds.
I once read through the whole bible in a year. One day I read part of it outside at a lake. A JW approached me and said "I can see you're reading a religious book. Wanna talk about it?"
Her calling the Bible (!) a "religious book" put me off so hard I immediately rejected.
My best friend from junior school was a JW. I was so ssd that she couldn't come to lunch with me (they had sandwiches) assembly.schook trips or anything to do with birthdays or Christmas .this gorl was so intelligent . Yet hardly went to secondary school so fell behind and lost touch of her after we left .sge never tried to convert me !! Always wondered what happened to her and i doubt she ever left because she had 12 brothers and sisters and her parents were quite high up In the JW and went around the world withtheir job !!
Uh, Soviets had East Germany 😂. Your moment of frustrated realization was hilarious.
2:10 do not take that out of context💀
I can’t believe it, I had to stop the video to respond to the door, and it was Jehovah Witnesses. I guess they don’t know I’m shunned cause I changed neighborhood 😂 they didn’t pay me a visit in like more than ten years I think, here they might not recognize the surname, as I also never saw their faces before. Gosh, I hope they can escape too, the boy that talked seemed also pretty young and it’s so sad to see.
I wish everyone that escaped the cult an happy and fulfilling life.
Holy crap you were one of the microphone holders my brothers never even got the privilege of doing that 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
…and Caleb and Sophia grew up, cut off their parents and left the cult to live happily ever after!!
I have two JW girls in my workplace and one of them just avoided me from the start, while being friends only with one girl, also a JW. I had no idea what's going on, does she think I'm bad or she hates my guts but now I know why. I'm Catholic and she knows. She was raised in this cult.
It's like it says in the Bible, when Jehovah said the greatest commandment was to shun thy neighbor.
When you said JWs can't enter closed communities, I chuckled a bit. Here in Puerto Rico, they're granted a beeper to enter due to religious freedom. Ngl, it's annoying.
one of my best friends was a jehovahs witness and enjoyed debating with him used to irritate his younger brother so much
we both knew we weren't likely to change each others mind but enjoyed debating think he made me a better debater
I'm an atheist by the way but am now on the black list after talking to them and getting into why I felt the god of the bible was petty
I've recently switched from K-Y Jelly to EVOO for backdoor entry 😎
I liked exactly zero of the kids my age from the hall. It was mutual. I think perhaps we were ALL stunted and unable to have genuine relationships. My mom kept trying to arrange friendships but I wonder now if perhaps we were the bad seed family.....
There's a place where I buy games... and to get to it I pass a Kingdom Hall. I've seen them working on cleaning up the parking lot... including teenagers and kids. Given that I tend to go on Saturdays, I could imagine kids wanting to be doing something else.
Yeah! After a tough week of school, kids need their sleep! So, the parents should allow them to sleep in on the weekends
29:00 Oh! Golem became a Jehovah's witness? "Let mee talk to you about myyy precccciouuuus, Jehovah!"
I did the microphones for about 2 weeks and then I got the "privilege" taken away
6:37 Yeah they had the microphones on poles when I was a kid. I was ten when they started using mikes handed to you for commenting. I hated those poles.
The first child to integrate schools happened in 1960 and her name was Ruby Bridges. The school was William Frantz Elementary school in New Orleans, LA.
My best friend at primary school was a JW and she used to let me chest on her spelling test every Monday morning 😂😂
I remember one of the guys kinda tripped while bringing the mic to someone 😩😅 I was silent laughing and my whole body was shaking🥴 Kingdom Hall memories
When children watch this who are beaten whenever they disobey, they understand these videos are how to be obedient and please their parents. You can be “happy” like Caleb and Sodia… if you follow the regime and never step out of line.
Didn’t Daniel get thrown into a pit of lions? That’s what my Bible says.
Ancient Roman quote:
‘Too many Christians, send more lions.’
Daniel wasn’t a Christian.😂
Imagine failing a final exam cause you were studying a religious manual instead of your school notes 😂
I know this is a serious topic but I lost it when you talked about the lip smacking LMaooooo!!!
If you look closely: pria's reaction is "oh wow, someone wants to be my friend!" While Sofia feels more like "oh wow, someone to convert!"
All through primary and secondary school 2 of my best friends were JW. They never tried to convert anyone and were never ostrisized either. The only way you knew that something was different is that yhey left the room for the National Anthem. They never seemed to care that I didn't believe in any god.
This rule and the rule about not dating outside the religion completely screwed me over since I'm an introvert anyway so forming relationships with anyone is difficult enough to begin with.