Steve Lowry

Joined

• started 35 topics
• posted 423 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Steve Lowry

• 
  61

  What should I do?

  by Scorpion in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have pioneered for over four years.

  i have three children and a wife who at times has severe back problems.

  i have worked two jobs just to stay ahead of the bills and provide for my family.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  Scorpion,

  Have you considered another possibility? Does being a JW make you truly happy and give you inner peace? Perhaps this would be a good time in your life to reevaluate your personal ?map?, as it were. Is the ?map? you?ve been following, taking you to where you want to go?

  Scorpion, you don?t need the Watchtower Society to have a good working relationship with God. People have been experiencing God in their lives for centuries, long before the Watchtower was ever thought of! Dare yourself to think outside of your current paradigm. God will never leave you because YOU leave the Watchtower Society. That?s a lie perpetrated by those in power over you. Countless people have left the Watchtower Society and gone to enjoy rich fulfilled spiritual lives, and without all the guilt and pressures and nonsensical rules placed on them by the Watchtower Society. It?s a man made, man run and man orchestrated religious institution. That?s all it is.

  Let me ask you this question Scorpion. You say your children are little. Would you deny them, a life saving blood transfusion if the need presented itself, or would you allow them to die? If you would allow them to die, then you?re not a good parent. And if you would allow them the blood transfusion, then you?re not a good JW. Which is it my friend?

  Steve lowry
• 
  22

  Are you really who you think you are?

  by Mindchild in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i recently enjoyed reading another post on an ex-jw board about how our past experiences as witnesses have shaped our lives and made us who we are.

  there is obvious truth to the effect that our past experiences do effect how we see our selves now, but i think many people who leave the borg are still enslaved to the idea that they are the same person they were then.

  i disagree and think things are a little more complex than that.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  If there’s one thing I have gained from the Watchtower experience, is that I can never again take for granted as truth, the things I "see". Because of the (Watchtower) experience, I have come to realize that damn near everything is perspective, or maybe I should say, perception. While I understand (at this year of my fortieth) that I am the culmination of my life’s experiences, I also realize I can’t allow even that to overly effect my perception of ‘reality’. I try to apply the following principles to keep me on track, as it were:

  Resist giving in to the comfortable.

  Continue to re-evaluate everything.

  Always get as much information as possible and from multiple sources, before "buying".

  Never disregard your ‘inner core’ feelings. Take the time to examine them.

  Just about everyone and every group has an agenda, most of the time.

  Don’t be afraid to go against the "popular" view.

  Controversy is where the sparks of truth are very often born.

  Ultimately, what we wind up doing, is what we want to do the most, for whatever the reason(s).

  There isn’t always an answer for everything. Don’t be pressured into making a decision when all the ‘facts’ aren’t yet in.

  Resist the temptation to take another person’s word for ‘it’. If there’s work involved in finding the answer, that probably means that is where the truth will be found.

  There are probably more little principles I now try to live by, but these are at the core of them that I believe. Someone else can read these words, but it takes years of living and many life’s experiences to help a person to understand them completely. I am still just practicing them.

  Steve . . .
• 
  22

  Do you still love your relatives/friends who shun you?

  by HadEnuf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as i was participating in my daily duties of domestic slavery i got to ruminating about my mom, sister and brother who are shunning me (even though i am neither df'd of da'd).

  i got to thinking to myself that i don't really miss them all that much.

  in fact; i almost feel that i have lost the abundance of love that i once felt for them...well, except for my brother who i have never gotten along with anyway.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  My sister cut herself off from me 20 years ago. I never got a letter or a postcard or phone call in some 15 years. My two nephews and baby niece grew up without their uncle (me), all because of this stupid (albeit effective) cultic protectionism thing called ‘shunning’. Eight years ago when I had a little girl of my own, all of a sudden my sister wants to be all "family" and stuff. The hypocrisy of it disgusted me. I let her know through my JW mother I didn’t want anything to do with her or her family. I wonder how SHE feels to be shunned? I’ll never have anything to do with her no matter what the circumstances.

  Been about nine months since I’ve heard from my mom. Guess she’s joined forces with the Watchtower losers. Well, I don’t need her either.

  I gotta simple rule that works well for me. If’n you don’t wanna have anythin’ to do with me, I don’t wanna have nothin’ to do with you.

  Steve
• 
  10

  Have you ever been compelled to talk someone into STAYING a JW?

  by amac in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my jw father in law was recently stumbled over something rather silly.

  this has happened before and he seems to think when he has a personal problem with someone that he'll show em by just not going to meetings and assuming that jws can't be right if people like those he has issues with are part of it.

  normally this would be great, but when this happened in the past, he was just a grumpy work-a-holic and his wife was miserable.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  "Well anytime you aren't sure which course is correct I believe staying out of it is the best course."

  Wish that I had read this before typing my response. It’s probably the best advice you’ll get in this thread.

  Steve . . .
• 
  10

  Have you ever been compelled to talk someone into STAYING a JW?

  by amac in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my jw father in law was recently stumbled over something rather silly.

  this has happened before and he seems to think when he has a personal problem with someone that he'll show em by just not going to meetings and assuming that jws can't be right if people like those he has issues with are part of it.

  normally this would be great, but when this happened in the past, he was just a grumpy work-a-holic and his wife was miserable.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  "So I have a choice between an active JW father-in-law who is happy, social and gets along better with his wife or an inactive JW father in law who is grumpy, always working, and whenever we're with them we have to listen to him and his wife bicker.

  Which would you choose?"

  Well, actually the choice is his to make and no one else’s. However, if you feel you could somehow sway his thinking, then choose the truth (not the "Truth").

  If it meant, that as I looked back on my life, and someone who knew better than me (in this case that would be you) didn’t share that view with me cuz it made it easier for me to be around, I would be very disappointed in my friend for not informing me of the truth. Now, if someone who is very late on in years happened to be in this position, then I may not be so inclined to sway him or her out of their comfort zone. But if they are simply middle aged, then life still has much to offer, even if it comes with a price.

  Steve
• 
  10

  Have you ever been compelled to talk someone into STAYING a JW?

  by amac in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my jw father in law was recently stumbled over something rather silly.

  this has happened before and he seems to think when he has a personal problem with someone that he'll show em by just not going to meetings and assuming that jws can't be right if people like those he has issues with are part of it.

  normally this would be great, but when this happened in the past, he was just a grumpy work-a-holic and his wife was miserable.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  "But the fact is, if they left over petty reasons, (or maybe even with cause) would their lives go to hell again?"

  Maybe, maybe not. But, a person shouldn’t justify living a ‘lie’ in any aspect of life (including religion), just because that ‘lie’ may" be the lesser of two evils. Sure, people who leave the Watchtower Society may loose their moral compass for a time, but according to my life’s experience, generally and usually folks find their ‘way’ as to who they are. Most people have enough survival instincts to survive the journey. I’ll tell you what I have many others and that is, freedom comes with the price of making wise and good decisions and this is a learning process.

  Steve
• 
  19

  There are three kinds of people.

  by qwerty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello everyone, i have not posted for what seems like ages.

  i have just start in mlm.

  it's a bit like getting involved with jw's again but this time i am starting to earn money!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  Uh, there are actually only two kinds of people; those who believe there are two kinds of people and those who don't! (LOL)
• 
  11

  If you could tell a dub something straight from the heart..................

  by BLISSISIGNORANCE in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  don't hold back.

  whether it's an elder, a co, a family member, a friend, a witness who dobbed you in, someone who shunned you yesterday at the mall, anyone at all who you would like to tell!

  vent!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  I would say:

  * There's life after the Watchtower!

  * You don't need the Watchtower organzation to know God.

  * Jesus is all you need. Oh, and by the way, Jesus IS Jehovah.

  * I wish you could know the freedom, I know.

  * The Watchtower needs YOU to survive, not the other way around.

  * You don't have to be afriad of anything.
• 
  31

  Would You Change The Way You....

  by Frannie Banannie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  would you change the way you made your exit from the org and if so, how?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  Yes,

  SOONER!

  Steve
• 
  55

  haunted houses

  by free will in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so, that spooky season is almost upon us again.

  how many of you, will go on haunted house tours or delve into anything spiritistic?

  i mean we don't want the demons to attach to us, do we?!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Steve Lowry

  Hamas,

  So, it wouldn't be any different for you if you were to stay in a 'known' haunted house, way way out in the backwoods of some desolate place all by yourself, verses say, a nights stay at a Ramada Inn in town? Really? You wouldn't be even just little bit more on edge staying in the 'haunted' house?