LOL at “Viviane”! Now that is a good holistic remedy which works wonders when stuck at the old Kingdumb Hell. It does tend to put everything in a better perspective.
Posts by SAHS
-
25How do you get through the memorial?
by Gorbatchov infor family reasons, gorby and his wife and children has to visit the hall at april 14. our family accept that we are faders, but don't accept if we do not visit the memorial.. so, it seems a small investment: one evening love bombing for a year peace and rest.. but i hate the visit.
headache.
meeting the people knowing it's all fake love showing.. how do you get through it?.
-
-
-
8
FINE-TUNING our thinking by clarifying our VOCABULARY of conscience
by Terry inare you confused?.
is your thinking and reasoning ineffective because of ambiguity?.
do you sometimes find yourself unclear about what certain words mean?.
-
-
SAHS
A poignant example of confusing a word (which certainly all of us here are too well aware of) is the use of the word “TRUTH” by presumptuous religious groups. We all remember how the Watchtower organization has kept drumming out such provocative phrases as: “We’re in ‘the truth,’” “How long have you been in ‘the truth,’” “The light of ‘the truth’” gets brighter, and “So-and-so has left, or gone out of, ‘the truth.’” Of course in all these examples, the reality is that the term they use – “the truth” – should really be read as “OUR truth” (or at least “our truth of the day”; i.e., check again tomorrow).
In terms of the Watchtower being “FIT,” it may be “fit” in the sense of being able to continue keeping afloat and financially solvent enough to exist based on its unique “corporate” structure model (i.e., free labor and tax-free revenues!), and it may also be “fit” in terms of the effective power it’s able to secure over its members through its authoritarian machine of fear-based coercion and streamlined control. But, does that parochial, fundamentalist, draconian, and terminally capricious organization FIT into the evermore progressive human society of today’s world? I mean, generally the first things people readily associate with the Jehovah’s Witnesses are the words “blood,” “shunning,” “celebrations” (as in not), “control,” “pedophilia,” “Armageddon” (also as in not, . . . or at least not yet), and, of course, “cult.”
So basically, looking at it with a pair of reality glasses, the Watchtower organization has “truth,” but it is THEIR truth, and it has “fitness” enough to continue surviving (at least for now), but it still just doesn’t FIT into the world around them. And things that just don’t fit into human society eventually end up being pounded or melted (morphed) into fitting as they ought, or they end up just being discarded as more of society’s unnecessary baggage.
-
16
This weeks WT "Let Your Kingdom Come"
by Legacy inso the wt states "the horsemen have made their appearance".
in 1914, jesus christ is pictured as riding a white horse-was given his heavenly crown.
rev.
-
-
SAHS
I like the quote from “LostGeneration” in the above-mentioned thread link (http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/265547/1/Jan-2014-WT-study-more-vomit#.Uz8xGl6cxQE):
“You know, broken clock theory. Gotta love revisionist history.”
Speaking of broken clocks, when you think of it, it’s somewhat impressive that the WTS is supposedly correct ten times every millennium.
-
19
Anyone Else Feeling Forced to Go to the Memorial?
by PaintedToeNail ini refuse to go to any meetings, assemblies, conventions, special talks or the like...however, i get coerced into going to the memorial every year.
because it keeps the peace at home with hubby and also makes my parents, who live elsewhere, have hope that i will come to my senses and become an active witness again.
there is no chance in hell of that happening, but it prevents the ties to my family from being severed.
-
-
SAHS
“Clambake”: “Last year then they started to pass the bread and wine I just sat in the bathroom for 20 minutes.”
Maybe next the attendants will be instructed to check the bathroom stalls to see if there is anyone in there to be passed the emblems – just to be thorough.
-
28
When You Were A Witness Did You "Misbehave" ?.....
by minimus inand did you always seem to get caught?.
my daughter told me that all her teenage friends used to smoke tobacco, pot, do drugs, get drunk and "misbehave" with other kids all the time..
-
-
SAHS
“punkofnice”: “At Twickenham CONvention I used to nip out. Get the tube and go on a pub crawl . . .”
That reminds me of when I used to go to bars and drink during the district conventions when they were held in Hamilton, Ontario. Once I had a few glasses of wine with my lunch and then had some beer at another bar, and then I bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked a couple or so. I actually got on the local transit bus and went for a nice ride to fill in the time. Then I returned to the rest of the afternoon sessions and sat with my parents with booze on my breath. One other time I went to a different district convention to make up a day I missed while sick (like a good boy). I arrived a bit late and decided to do a little session at the nearby bar. When I went into the convention stadium, I reeked so much of booze that the attendants called the convention organizer over the two-way radio, and they ended up actually calling my dad to come and pick me up. (Not a very proud moment for the family.)
What else besides heavy drinking and some cigarette smoking: impaired driving (not now, though), lots and lots of masturbating with bizarre fantasies, sex play with other kids (way back when I was a kid, of course), “playing around” with animals (especially dogs), swearing in an extremely irreverent (and creative) manner, watching the worst R-rated movies there are. . . . . Although, come to think of it, I wasn’t really all that bad per se. I mean, I didn’t hurt anybody. And I’ve quit drinking (again).
-
22
Legacy of being brought up a JW: Weird hang-ups
by Really?! indo you have any weird hang ups that you think are related to your history?
public speaking i hate hate hate any form of public speaking.
job interviews, presentations (for job interviews or in the work environment), telephone interviews etc.
-
-
SAHS
I still feel a bit funny around “worldly” (non-JW) people, and in the back of my mind I have this fear that I might end up running into some kind of ax murderer or violent gang person or drug dealer or Mafia person, or otherwise some kind of explosively violent person like they have on America’s Most Wanted. That’s always a fear that I have, not just because of growing up in the WT religion but being shy, timid, and only 5"5' tall. The feeling that “worldly” people are apt to hurt me by beating me up or stabbing me or even stuff me into a car trunk or something is always fostered and nurtured within the JWs, but lately I’ve been realizing that there is really nothing to fear or worry about – at least not really any more than some of the average JWs themselves. (I’ve heard of some JWs turning out to be surprisingly criminally-minded and a bit unhinged.)
-
6
JW Library app is available for Kindle -- ALL the reviews are *****5 stars!
by Faithful Witness inthe few reviews i read were mostly about how long it was taking amazon to provide the app for kindle... jws were threatening to ditch their kindle and buy ipads instead.
then there are the reviews like "finally!
i can study god's true word on my kindle fire!
-
-
SAHS
That would be great if the apps on Amazon showcased under the heading “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” included some apps by former JW members!
I think that there should be an app called something like “JW TTATT” which includes books by Raymond Franz, M. James Penton, Carl Olof Jonsson, and, of course, our own Terry Walstrom. Wouldn’t that be awesome if an app like that showed up every time somebody went to Web pages like Amazon and Kindle with the “JW Library.” That would carry our message even more effectively than we could in the convention picketing days. We need a computer geek among us to get something like that off the ground. (Almost makes you giggle like a school girl just at the thought of it!)
-
17
"The Joy of Sect", Simpsons Episode...
by juanvazquez88 inlast night, me and my wife were watching some the simpsons episodes.
we both laugh and enjoy that serie.
but just in this one, my wife face was serious and even uncomfortable.
-
-
SAHS
I found a link to watch/download the full “Joy of Sect” episode on The Simpsons. It is episode no. 191, which is the 13th episode of season nine.
Apparently it aired on February 8, 1998. “Plot: A cult lures in most of Springfield to toil for ‘The Leader.’ After Marge escapes and has the family deprogrammed, Homer exposes the man behind the spaceship.” – www.watchtvanywhere.me. (I couldn’t find any of it on YouTube other than a 17-second clip, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4VFGsD4Uhg.)
Here is the link I found:
http://www.watchtvanywhere.me/2012/09/02/the-simpsons-season-9-episode-13-the-joy-of-sect/
-
44
Newcomers to TTATT: Beware of "New Study Mode"!
by Londo111 inweve all heard it.
a person starts studying with jehovahs witnesses and love what they are learning so much that they cant stop talking about it.
bubbling with enthusiasm, they spill everything they are learning with their friends and family...or anybody who will listen.
-
-
SAHS
“Dismissing servant”: “Facts just scare the sh*t out of them. Thats the core of cognitive dissonance.”
Unfortunately, I must say that you are right in that respect. Although logic is at the forefront of humanity’s spectacular physical achievements and emperical scientific knowledge, it is apparently the emotional part of the brain’s functioning (i.e., lower-order, primal, and often somewhat nonesensical cognitive functioning) which actually ends up winning out and getting the upper hand. I learned fairly recently from a documentary relating to the brain that we may think that it is the logical, prefrontal cortex that is “running the show,” but, in fact, it is really the emotional components and systems (such as the limbic system, the fear-based amygdala, the hippocampus, etc.) which actually drive us. And often these emotional elements – the fight/flight survival response, the libido drive – override and win out over logic and self-restraint.
In the case of the JW promoter, the compulsion to be part of the group and seek its approval, as well as the fanciful desire to actually live forever petting those panda bears with their resurrected loved ones, tries to stifle the logical reasoning and comparison skills of the emperical part of the brain.
Sometimes, though, there can eventually be a break between logic and emotion, which can allow the facts to come pouring in – and be acknowledged. This certainly can, and does, happen. After all, it DID happen to many of us.
-
44
Newcomers to TTATT: Beware of "New Study Mode"!
by Londo111 inweve all heard it.
a person starts studying with jehovahs witnesses and love what they are learning so much that they cant stop talking about it.
bubbling with enthusiasm, they spill everything they are learning with their friends and family...or anybody who will listen.
-
-
SAHS
“Dismissing servant”: “. . . when a JW apologist writes something on this board, he/she gets bombarded with facts about the UN scandal, false prophecies etc........and he'll get scared back to the borg.”
That is one possible outcome. The other (desirable) outcome is that the “JW apologist” will get jolted enough by discovering the numerous pieces of information which the WT tries so hard to hide that he/she will be forced to acknowledge it to himself/herself and forced to make a decision in his/her own mind. At least being presented with the facts will allow the “JW apologist” to make some kind of personal decision, because their brain on some level will simply be forced to make some kind of sense of it all. The hope for them is that pure logic will at least eventually win out. After all, much of us folks on here have had to go through such a decision-making phase. And it’s a darn good thing too, because we’re here and able to impart some clarity and contribute some support for each other.