Posts by darkuncle29

32

Concerning the "born again" thread

by startingover in

jw
friends

potentialjwconvertwife said:.

well, as you know, i never was a dub.

but i am and have been a born again christian for many years.

darkuncle29

From the national or regional distribution of religion resulting from the post-Reformation settlement (cujus regio, ejus religio) Europe has followed a formally very diverse (from the violent separation of Church and State in France to a smoother evolution of traditional institutions in England or Germany) but steady course of secularisation ever since the Enlightenment. America has built its own type of "secularisation" on the "freedom" of religious and sectarian communities under a unifying discourse of rational Deism, which rather recently turned into transconfessional Theism...

This was interesting.

The bottom line is that, here, religion is really a private matter and people are not expected to pose as "believers" in public space. In such a context a strong religious commitment is rather the exception than the rule, requiring genuine conviction, and the high level of atheism and agnosticism simply reflects the majority's lack of such conviction in the absence of social constraint. Weren't people expected to declare themselves "believers" in America it would not be so different, I suppose.

I really like this comment, especially the last part. Expectations and appearances: are we really a bunch of codependant hypocrites?

7

hi all.... i started reading and posting here some years ago, as my stepchildren were being raised jw's by their mother, and at one time in my misguided life i had studied w/the jw's.. anyway, time went by and we had less and less contact with the kids...until a couple of weeks ago.

my stepdaughter j swung by the house and we noticed something very different about her.

she was lively, talkative, fun!

darkuncle29

That is so great!

99

It is official. I am an elder now!

by outofthebox in

jw
friends

it happened last night guys.

i got early to the kh and the boe came to talk to me.

they ask me to read the bible and asked me a couple of questions.

darkuncle29

I can't bring myself to say "Congrats!", but I support you. Do what you feel you have to. Do what good you can. We each have our own path, don't second guess yours.

7

SATIRE: If it works for The Flood...

by VoidEater in

belief in fire is widespread, and there is a culture-spanning panorama of equating "earthly fire" to "heavenly fire" (encyclopedia britannica, "nature worship").. the divine source of fire is found in many mythos; a small sampling:.

greek prometheus, a giant, steals fire from the the god zeus.

cherokee the thunders, spirits from the above world, bring fire.

darkuncle29

Anybody got a match?

22

Is Customer Service/Common Courtesy a dinosaur ?

by AK - Jeff in

i have lamented for a long while about the lack of customer care in our area.

fast food restaurants have taken the fast food out it while the price keeps moving up.

service stations no longer exist - replaced by self fuel bays in front of a so called 'convenience store' - and typically manned by a grumpy cashier.

darkuncle29

I hear ya. I also was in a service job for over ten years.

If you still need to have satisfaction or closure, write a letter to their corporate office. Write exactly what you wrote here, simple and short. That WILL get results.

While I was in the grocery biz, I did recieve a few complaints that were written to corporate, and I had to explain my side of the story to the store manager each time. I also received dozens of good letters from customers, and these were often passed down the chain of command so to speak and I eventually got them. I still have them. I hated that job, it was not who I was meant to be, but those letters from customers were a positive thing for me.

I write one or two letters a year to businesses or corporations about their service, some good some not. I do not easily take offense, and I try to even allow that a good person can have a bad day.

I think your question of common courtesy is the heart of the problem.

7

SATIRE: If it works for The Flood...

by VoidEater in

belief in fire is widespread, and there is a culture-spanning panorama of equating "earthly fire" to "heavenly fire" (encyclopedia britannica, "nature worship").. the divine source of fire is found in many mythos; a small sampling:.

greek prometheus, a giant, steals fire from the the god zeus.

cherokee the thunders, spirits from the above world, bring fire.

darkuncle29

If I light my farts, do I contain the power of god?

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

darkuncle29

You've had an eventful life, with alot of pain. The 'broken people picker' comment seemed to offend you, I don't think that was the intent, but to me your reaction means that that is close to the target issue. My sister has been alot like you in her life since she was a child. She would come home from school with a new 'best friend' and within a week, they'd be fighting and causing trouble. This happened repeatedly. Of all the kids on the playground, why would she always pick the absolute worst? She also seemed to never learn the lessons from past mistakes. It is sad.

I think therapy would be very helpful, as would exploring other spiritualities.

This is the problem guys...i'm not dissilusioned with Jw's my exploration of other Christian faiths had led me to realise that problems/failings are similar for all of them that got established.

As I already mention, why stick with only 'christian' belief systems? I would recomend for you to stay away from any other Abrahamic based religion. But what about Bhuddism? Taoism? Or just meditation?

I'm right now reading "The Power of Now" and just read "A New Earth". The latter is on the OPrah book list, but despite that they are both very interesting reads.

Good luck in what ever you do.

37

boycott Ebay due to their bad policies

by reneef in

jw
friends

i don't know if anyone else here buys or sells on ebay.

i'm thiking some do.

ebay has announced dramatic new policy changes to begin in may 2008 which spell disaster for many honest and ethical sellers and buyers such as myself who have given their blood, sweat and tears to make ebay what it is today.