Leaked footage of Jehovah’s Witness Circuit Assembly shows a cult in decline

reverse uno card

music from Luigi’s Mansion, Super Monkey Ball, PilotWings 64

Ambient wooshing via David Lynch, and Angelo Badalementi

check out my channel for pop culture video essays: @SystemFailing

live streams @AltWorldlyLive

00:00-04:40 what’s a circuit assembly?
04:40-15:17 Ship of Onesiphorus
15:17-20:47 Demo #1: Two Dads, One Cult
20:47-28:17 Demo #2: please just do better :)
28:17-35:17 Demo #3: think of the children
35:17-37:35 Demo #4: more child brainwashing
37:35-41:27 Are these anecdotes even real?
41:27-48:14 Malenfant projecting in IMAX
48:14-56:46 persecution complex
56:46-1:00:52 the greatest reality

[astarajarvis]

As someone who at the age of 14 was chosen to give an experience on an assembly, these experiences are highly coached.

Brief story: There was a brother who had a part on the assembly and he had searched high and low apparently for a young one who had the experience of being tempted at school but they had resisted temptation. He finally got in contact w my elders and one of my elders recommended me and that I might have a story, since I was such an outstanding example of faith in the congregation. When he initially contacted me I couldn't think of anything, however, after I got off the call my grandma pushed me to think of something. And finally she remembered this brief interaction I had told her about months ago.

Essentially this kid at my school who i was friends with had asked me out and I had told him no bc I only date JWs. That was the whole story.

However when I was telling this brother about it he kept asking things like, "Did you view this as a test from Satan?" The answer is no. However he clearly wanted me to say yes, so I said yes.

"How did you think Jehovah would feel if you had said yes to this young man?" I hadn't thought at all about how Jehovah had felt. I just knew JWs only dated other JWs. However the answer I gave the brother was, "I knew Jehovah would be very disappointed in me if I said yes."

"Were there any Bible principles that came to your mind that helped you to know how to respond." No there weren't, however I told the brother the principal about being unevenly yoked.

"How did you feel after you did the right thing and rejected your classmates advances" The truth was that I didn't feel any type of way. In fact I didn't think about that incident again until this situation happened and this brother was asking me all these questions.

The answer I gave was, "I felt happy knowing that I had made Jehovah's heart rejoice."

The whole point was that it made me seem a lot more spiritual than I actually was and that I had put a whole lot more thought into this interaction than I actually had. However, it served it's purpose because it taught me that this is how much I should actually be thinking about my day to day interactions.

[bethany]

As a jw kid that grew up and left, thank you for blurring the kids face and voices. I would be so embarrassed if someone had me online spouting this crap I was forced to believe

[slimfadey]

They are encouraging witnesses to stand up for the religion, kinda like Geoffrey Jackson did at the Australian Royal Commission. The hypocrisy is astounding

[dustystarr]

They literally talk to their members like they are children

[jaredt.murphy]

The longer I'm out, the weirder it looks.

Cudos to you for hiding identities of "real JW" minors. You're doing a better job protecting them then the org.

[matrixnavigator]

It's interesting how they tell people how to feel with that weird wording technique: "WE don't feel ashamed... do WE? That would be absurd...Isn't that how WE feel??" I remember hearing that type of phrasing as a kid and realizing in the back of my mind that I didn't initially feel that way, but I guess that's how everyone else around me feels, so I should probably go along with that if I don't want to get into trouble. Lookinig at it now, I see that it's a subtle form of psychological manipulation to get the listeners to comply.

[skepticsandscoundrels]

28:27 - Ah yes, I remember doing gayssignments back when I took Gay 101.

[lavablue-rmtt]

You’re so good at breaking down how heavy it is to have every thought, feeling, and interaction be portrayed as a cosmic battle, and how it warps and hampers development. Feelings I had for many years before I could articulate it

[tonyblock]

The governing body is only capable of making straw man arguments. Their writing is juvenile.

[ThatGirl]

How many families today don’t even talk, text, etc. to each other because of the WATCHTOWER JEHOVAHS WITNESSES RELIGION!?!? SHUNNUNG!

[kittykatrock]

This is why I am so hesitant to teach my son anything about religion until he gets older. I don’t want him to be brainwashed by any kind of religious ideology that could cause him to just shut any other opinion or view down. Watching this now that I’m fully out of the JW religion really makes me realize just how brainwashed and confused I really was as a child. It’s fear mongering.

[tay]

FUCCCCK YEAH. I’ve been rewatching all the streams and couldn’t wait for the next one! Happy holidays to you, Christina, and Peaches!

[RamonBenitez-cx]

35:10 A good teacher would never impose their beliefs on a student or question the student's own beliefs. As a teacher, I would have simply acknowledged the student's request for another assignment by saying, 'OK, ' without asking for justification. I firmly believe that, as a gay man, my presence in their lives can be a positive influence—one that challenges the stereotypes and misconceptions often portrayed about people like me.

[peachykeen]

I remember when the school brochure was out in the 80s and they expected us as 2nd and 3rd graders, elementary school kids to place one with our teachers at the first day on school and explain how we will not be saluting the flag, participating in birthday and holiday parties. THE PRESSURE. And if you didn’t do it, parents would demand answers. I was ALWAYS At all times embarrassed of this religion.

[yawoada]

even with the voice filter, that kid giving his experience abt supporting gay people sounds almost exactly like i did when i was a preteen / early teenage boy. looking back on this now (mid 20s, trans, lesbian) really hurts in a way that i wasnt expecting. i feel so bad that kids like him are being pushed to believe and proclaim all this from such a young age

[JaeRae]

The words watchtower, field service, Awake magazines don’t appear in the Bible either, but here we are.

[Pomo-Sapien]

William Mallyfally is so proud of that anecdote about the brother in Brooklyn telling the gay man, "It's because God loves you that He tells you your lifestyle isn't good for you." What a big brain take 🤯

I'm a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I survived the first 30 years of my life in the cult, and I've never considered that God knows me better than I know myself, and that I should just believe the JWs and ignore my own intuition because my heart is treacherous 😂 What a fresh way of looking at the situation! It’s rhetoric like this that kept me depressed and loathing myself for years.

Thanks for another great video Jake!

[toomyconne]

Old white men talking about the end of the world for 200 years lol 😂😂😂

[tea_time_t]

35:00 I don't think that most public school teachers would even go that far. They might say "Okay, I need to get a written form from your parents about it being against your religious beliefs for our records, " but most teachers aren't going to argue like that about religious beliefs. That would bring hell down on them for promoting a specific religion.

[clarissascidmore]

I'm a 5th grade teacher, so here's what I imagine: Student has to research a supreme court case or something that has to do with gay marriage. The cases are randomly assigned. The research products were going to be displayed outside the Social Studies classroom. The kid says "I can't do this one because of my religion, "and the teacher lets him pick a different case to research. The end.