@Steve - You make a great point. I can remember when I started learning about empathy, a quality that I did not possess for much of my life. One of the things that really struck me was thinking about my brother that had been disfellowshipped for so many years. I had never in my life thought about what it must be like for him. Years later in my awakening process I had an awful conversation with my mom after she had done and said things that were completely tone deaf to what my brother and his wife might have experienced. It was eye opening to me. They just cannot see others whatsoever. As you likely know there's a term in psychology called "perspective taking" and they have no ability to do so. They cannot mirror people, cannot see them and what they are going through. They've been conditioned to see only one side, the side that they've been brainwashed with. Good points about their propaganda.
dubstepped
JoinedPosts by dubstepped
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28
THEY act like the ones who are hurt??!!
by stuckinarut2 init really amazes me when jws act like we are hurting them!.
many of us have found that if we stop associating with them for valid reasons, they act all upset and hurt that we would be "so cruel as to limit our association or cut them off".
i know of friends here on the forum who have been told by parents that they "will shun them if they leave jehovah" , and yet when the shoe is on the other foot and our awake friends shun them first, the parents cry and bemoan the situation and say how "cruel it is to deprive them of their company".
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28
THEY act like the ones who are hurt??!!
by stuckinarut2 init really amazes me when jws act like we are hurting them!.
many of us have found that if we stop associating with them for valid reasons, they act all upset and hurt that we would be "so cruel as to limit our association or cut them off".
i know of friends here on the forum who have been told by parents that they "will shun them if they leave jehovah" , and yet when the shoe is on the other foot and our awake friends shun them first, the parents cry and bemoan the situation and say how "cruel it is to deprive them of their company".
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dubstepped
Narcissists make everything about them. It really is as simple as that. The organization is narcissistic, it breeds narcissists, and attracts them as well. These are often broken people with such pain that they can't see past themselves. Humanity and empathy are bred out of them. They are victims of their own victimhood.
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There is No Way Out For Me
by Addison0998 ini have come to the conclusion that there is no way for me to ever leave.
although i have some friends at work, my whole social structure are witnesses.
even if i move congregations, my parents have contacts everywhere who will tell them if i’m not active.
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dubstepped
There is always a way out. Life comes down to choices. You can choose to stay in and be miserable for family. You can choose to blow it all up and disassociate and be done with it all in a week, but you'll lose those people. You can do a long fade but you'll have to keep playing painful JW games to maintain it. You have choices, but all involve pain. That's life. There is always a price to be paid for something good. Want to be healthy? You can't eat everything you want. Want to be in great shape? Work out, no pain no gain. There is a yin and yang to life.
You have to choose the good you want with the bad you're willing to endure. We were all put in unfair positions by the people that got us into the cult mess. For us the decision was to rip off the bandaid, disassociate, and move on with freedom. We had our own set of circumstances and our own needs and wants. Yours may differ. You'll find all types on here. You do have choices. Life is all about choices and none of us get to escape that, nor the pain that comes with it, but we can choose what we ultimately want, the good and the bad.
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226
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality
by SecondRateMind ini am interested in the approach this forum takes to money.
apart from sex, (which i am quite relaxed about) it seems to me that wealth is the surest divider between those who are moral, and those who are not.. it seems jesus thought so, also.
luke 16:19-31 kjv describes well enough his dusty attitude to the rich who do not succour the poor.. and this world has many poor: so many, it might seem that we can do nothing about it, and twist his words; 'the poor ye shall have always with you, but me, ye shall not have always.
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dubstepped
What you see as an ad hominem, I see as questioning you the way you are questioning others. It is easy to get on your high horse, to determine what you think is moral (seemingly from a book that features a God that goes against his own morality), and then to hold others to arbitrary standards of your own. It doesn't feel good to have others question your motives and priorities, right?
You're operating here under a utopian image that does not and can not exist. Humans aren't wired that way. People here have shown you that over and over. Is this post just a hope and a wish? You say that you aren't judging but are you not labeling those with different views than you, or perhaps the wealthy, as immoral? Is that not a judgment?
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226
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality
by SecondRateMind ini am interested in the approach this forum takes to money.
apart from sex, (which i am quite relaxed about) it seems to me that wealth is the surest divider between those who are moral, and those who are not.. it seems jesus thought so, also.
luke 16:19-31 kjv describes well enough his dusty attitude to the rich who do not succour the poor.. and this world has many poor: so many, it might seem that we can do nothing about it, and twist his words; 'the poor ye shall have always with you, but me, ye shall not have always.
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dubstepped
I'm just trying to figure out how 2RM justifies time spent online when he should be spending that time making money to send to the poor. That internet connection and web capable device must cost too. Seems like they're pretty rich compared to some. Even the poor in developed nations are in the top percentage of wealth comparatively. Put your money up and start being equitable. Take the lead.
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Mother is terrified over talks of peace.
by Searching injust spoke with my mother about the summit for north and south korea, her face turned a ghastly pale and she refused to talk to me about it afterwards.
i know exactly what is on her mind, and i'm not sure if i can say or do anything to assuage her fears about this being a fulfillment of prophecy.
any suggestions on what i could perhaps tell her to try and steer her from her line of thinking?
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dubstepped
Is this the whole cry of peace and security thing? I always had issues with that. I could see god stepping in if the world devolved into chaos by throwing it into even more chaos to prove a point (???). I never could understand it when they started saying that maybe it would look like men were achieving peace and then the big g would drop in to mess them all up. WTF is that supposed to prove? It's all just the JWs hedging their bets over predictions made from a nonsensical old book.
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226
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality
by SecondRateMind ini am interested in the approach this forum takes to money.
apart from sex, (which i am quite relaxed about) it seems to me that wealth is the surest divider between those who are moral, and those who are not.. it seems jesus thought so, also.
luke 16:19-31 kjv describes well enough his dusty attitude to the rich who do not succour the poor.. and this world has many poor: so many, it might seem that we can do nothing about it, and twist his words; 'the poor ye shall have always with you, but me, ye shall not have always.
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dubstepped
Greed works on all sides, the rich and the poor. I think it's great to help people that want to do better and that just need a hand up. I'm not in favor of hands that are just out.
If you make it, it's yours to decide what to do with. None of my business.
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226
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality
by SecondRateMind ini am interested in the approach this forum takes to money.
apart from sex, (which i am quite relaxed about) it seems to me that wealth is the surest divider between those who are moral, and those who are not.. it seems jesus thought so, also.
luke 16:19-31 kjv describes well enough his dusty attitude to the rich who do not succour the poor.. and this world has many poor: so many, it might seem that we can do nothing about it, and twist his words; 'the poor ye shall have always with you, but me, ye shall not have always.
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dubstepped
Nothing is stopping anyone right now from giving whatever they want if this is all voluntary. If someone wants to, do what you want.
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226
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality
by SecondRateMind ini am interested in the approach this forum takes to money.
apart from sex, (which i am quite relaxed about) it seems to me that wealth is the surest divider between those who are moral, and those who are not.. it seems jesus thought so, also.
luke 16:19-31 kjv describes well enough his dusty attitude to the rich who do not succour the poor.. and this world has many poor: so many, it might seem that we can do nothing about it, and twist his words; 'the poor ye shall have always with you, but me, ye shall not have always.
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dubstepped
How is it just, fair, and equitable to take what one person earned and give it to another? Reaping and sowing is also a Biblical principle, no?
I grew up poor and watched people do stupid things instead of doing anything to remedy their situations. It's one thing to help people in countries with zero opportunity, but another to enable bad behavior.
If you distributed all money equally throughout the world and let things be, eventually it would probably flow back to the same situation. Lottery winners often end up bankrupt.
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Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia Interrogated by Masked Police
by pale.emperor inhttp://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-ban-police-903021?utm_source=quora.
i guess the gb's idea of writing to the russian government last year didn't help?
now they have their names and addresses in which to raid their homes.. i sometimes wonder if the gb knew this would happen and wanted it to happen to ensure they'd be persecuted thus creating their own fulfillment of prophecy..
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dubstepped
Oh wow, I feel for them too. It's like they were set up. Ugh.