Posts by fiddler

25

Depression & natural ways to deal with it

by love2Bworldly in

jw
friends

i was on prozac for about 10 years, and finally went off all meds about 18 months ago.

the prozac was causing me to have manic episodes, so they added a bipolar medicine as well as a sleep aid, and the bipolar medicine made me dizzy & nauseaus.

so now i work really hard at exercising regularly, i take a lot of natural supplements including natural lithium & megadoses of omega upon advice of a homeopathic doctor.

fiddler

I'm with HBH......Kratom!

I would add that exercise and good diet work hand in hand but the Kratom definitely takes the edge off anxiety on bad days.

42

Pets are false gods

by Rattigan350 in

i"m listening to the 2013 dc green bay saturday talk on false gods.. the speaker says no one would knowingly worship false deities.

but could we inadvertantly give jehovah less than exclusive devotion he deserves.. he said:you have not allowed this deception power of sin to sensual desires, material comforts, pets, technology, entertainment or food to become objects of devotion to you.. anything that interferes with our spiriutal routine has the power of eroding or weaking our relationship with jehovah.. .

my dogs can erode my relationship with jehovah.

fiddler

Dogs and cats could teach the GB a thing or two about love and life (cats mostly for the latter). We can learn so much from our furry companions.........so much more than the drivel that the Watchtower spews forth.

This just sickens me even more....................if there is a god............strike them with lightening NOW!

58

What do you think happens when we die?

by cognac in

jw
friends

i'm trying to figure it out.

if we are just dead then there is no point to anything i do.

i'd like to hope our energy goes somewhere... but, i'd like to examine what somebody presents as proof....

fiddler

Guess we'll find out when we get there but personally............I think there are multiple options. It's kinda like what the movie "What Dreams May Come" suggested........we get what we wished for.

17

When Did Dr. Alexander Hislops Become A Pariah to the Watchtower Society?

by ÁrbolesdeArabia in

i am going to be speaking to the 45-55 years old plus generation here.

i bought my first copy around 1980, it was the thing to do because it proved most of christendom's believes came from nimrod, and by the end of the 1980s the book and the name faded away into oblivion.. .

the watchtower use to print that book or distribute it, am i correct or has my memory gotten bad?

fiddler

I do remember reading very carefully and precisely the societies book about "Babylon the Great Has Fallen God's Kingdom Rules"............I was slightly obsessed with that book. I think now it was because it really set in the 'cognitive dissonance' roots that later grew to fruition ............well............at least it was part of it. I also remember feeling good that it had the backing of a 'worldly writer' Hyslop's 'Two Babylons'. Although I never took the book in hand I do know that the book was acceptable reading material in the JW approved library and many of the elders and old timers had it.

18

Trivia about the history of the beloved Governing Body

by Terry in

the very first legal governing body of (jehovah's witnesses) bible students were seven persons which included pastor c.t.russell, his wife maria, and his controversial ward, rose ball.. five men and two women.

these seven persons were also the directors of the watchtower bible and tract society.

this group set policies and practices for the rest of the religious followers of pastor russell.

fiddler

This has been a very interesting read for me especially when I consider my own family history on my dad's side. Ever since I was little my memories of my grandfather were that he was treated like an outcast; an apostate actually as I learned later. He died when I was around 8 years old but my aunts never had much good to say about him. What little I remember of him was that he was a nice old granddaddy and as a shy little girl I wasn't at all afraid of him. I never could understand the vitriol spouted against him even calling him a Satanist.

Of my dad's siblings only one out of the 9 was never a JW. She was the oldest. So last year I finally got to sit and talk with her. She's 90 years old but absolutely on the ball and active......one very cool and wise lady! I enjoyed my conversation with her so much but one thing came out that surprised me. I brought up her dad not expecting HER to be against him and she said in an irritated way, "he's the reason our family got caught up in that religion". She blamed him.

I said, "but he wasn't one of Jehovah's witnesses. The JW's in the family treated him terribly"

She didn't have much more to say on that except to reconfirm that HE was to blame. He introduced the religion to my grandmother and the rest was history.

So now I think I know............he was a Russlelite originally and one of the 75% that fell away. My grandmother, aunts and my dear old hard nosed father that chose to shun me completely when he was dying were of that 'tough, feisty and cocksure' bunch.

That explains a lot. Thanks for that information!

106

WT SHUNNING POLICY: What has it done, or could it do to you?

by flipper in

jw
friends

hi y'all, this is mrs. flipper.

please share your experiences with this, or possible consequences of being outed.. this recent controversy and resulting arguments all stem from people being outed - possibly losing friends and family because most jw's will blindly follow the watchtower's rules to shun them.. among people i know and experiences read here, the grief and loss caused by this is terrible, and maybe now is a good time to put up some experiences here, and put the focus on the worst villians of all - wt policymakers..

fiddler

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Flipper AND Clarity. I know that I am not alone in this but I also am so thankful to be able to share with others online and know that I'm not the social outcast that the GB would like us to feel like we are. It truly does do a number on ones self esteem and daily outlook though. In the days before Internet the isolation had to have been even more terrible and probably why a lot went back into the frey and why others committed suicide.

I have to relate just a little bit more on the responses from my students when I returned. One, a 30 year old High School teacher and a devout Catholic, asked me how my father was. I had decided I'd just tell any who asked exactly what happened and why and when I told her I never got to see him or speak to him once she just started crying. I was kind of beyond tears but they came back into my eyes and she hugged me. She really couldn't understand how the JW's could treat a person like that and call themselves Christian. Others heard the story and one word came out of so many mouths........CULT! My students range from various Christian faiths to Hindu, agnostics and atheist but I have to say, they all have so much more compassion and fellow feeling than any of the JW's do at this time.

I really do believe that this policy that the GB is pushing is really damaging the psyches of the witnesses who are trying to carry this huge weight that's been put upon their shoulders. Some ARE cracking under it I'm pretty certain and not in any good way. I think we're seeing more and more tragic news stories that have JW connections to them. It doesn't matter what the congregational standing of perpetrators or victims was at the times crimes were committed but it does tell a story of a lot of mental problems in this one little group. I dare say that it may be a disproportionate number compared to the general population.

11

Was Jonathan Holt baptized or not!!

by DATA-DOG in

i got into a discussion with a family member about this subject recently.

they brought it up, mentioning the young woman who was murdered, saying that she was a jw.

i said, " so was her murderer.

fiddler

Over the Memorial Day weekend another item hit the Oregon news http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Two-dead-one-injured-in-Hillsboro-shooting-209118911.html

I knew all three of the individuals in this case and I feel terrible about it and for the daughters of the Van Pattens. The strange thing is how quickly this news item went silent. I'm wondering if BECAUSE it involved JW's maybe it was shut down. There was no mention of JW's in the article and in fact, I'm thinking that the family had left the religion already but the fact of the matter is, all three WERE JW's at the time I left 14 years ago.

Are the news agencies a bit leary of keeping news items involving JW's up for comment? I noticed that at least one of the news reports had NO space for comment. Maybe they learned from Whitney Heichel case not to give too much air time to these people or their detractors............that is my take on it at the moment anyway.

That the witnesses used this incident as a POSITIVE in their DC is just more proof of how delusional they are IMO.

50

If money were no object where would you live?

by usualusername in

jw
friends

my money is on tuscany, italy at the moment..

fiddler

I would be a gypsy traveler and the globe would be my home!

106

WT SHUNNING POLICY: What has it done, or could it do to you?

by flipper in

jw
friends

hi y'all, this is mrs. flipper.

please share your experiences with this, or possible consequences of being outed.. this recent controversy and resulting arguments all stem from people being outed - possibly losing friends and family because most jw's will blindly follow the watchtower's rules to shun them.. among people i know and experiences read here, the grief and loss caused by this is terrible, and maybe now is a good time to put up some experiences here, and put the focus on the worst villians of all - wt policymakers..

fiddler

I wrote a big long story about the ways I've been hurt these past few years over the shunning policy but hit the wrong key and lost it all..............so here goes again.

I am a mother of 4 and my oldest daughter is still JW. I left over 14 years ago but had at least some contact with her although not as close a relationship as we had had. About 4 years ago she found out that her husband was cheating on her and so she left him and moved in with her best friends family in my town. I began to see her quite a lot more and offered her the support of a mother and actually was starting to feel like I had my daughter back again (the religion always put up a barrier between us once I decided to leave). After about a year, her husband 'repented' and begged for her to come back and since she was desparately wanting to get pregnant (and missed sex) she returned to him. Her best friend and many of the JW's disapproved but I just told her that I wished her happiness and tried to be supportive of her.

She went back and immediately got pregnant. Her husband at this time is disfellowshipped but going to meetings working towards reinstatement. This was about when the society started it's stepped up shunning campaign.

During my daughters pregnancy I visited her at her place a few times and my daughter was always adamant.......fearful even.......that I leave before her husband got home. I did but I told her I though that was strange since I had been the only one that didn't diss on him and supported their choice to get back together. I am ever the optimist...........

When the time came for the birth my daughter had complications and had to have an emergency C-section. I was not told and although I had tried to at least get text updates, none were given until my younger daughter texted and asked that they please contact me since I was very worried............Her words were twisted into something just so out of line with what she actually said (I kept the transcript) that I could see then how her husband was trying to manipulate Heather away from her family. It was just crazy.

I saw her and the baby only a handful of times and the last time was (unbeknownst to me at the time) the farewell visit by my daughter. My grandbaby was 6 mos. old at the time. He's almost 2 now.

I tried to at least send an 'I love you' text once a month to my daughter which never was responded to and the couple of times that I was responded to it was with curt unfeeling replies. So unnatural.

Last year I also lost my father..........for good. He died. But before he got sick he had been in contact with me for the past 5 years. Although the religion would come up we always had our 'discussions' and agreed to disagree. My dad was good with that. I might add that contact with dad started when my stepmother left him. It's so strange but they were both JW's going to separate congregations during that time and it was somehow OK.

In January of 2012 I had called my dad hoping maybe he could talk to my daughter and soften her stance a little. He wouldn't go there and said it was her choice............THEN he asks me why it is that I hate the organization so much and why don't I go back to meetings?

Um let me count the reasons! I wasn't disrespectful but carefully tried to speak of things I knew he'd remember......things like back during Rutherford's days and WWii and the general feelings of urgency of those times and also the 'hitler letter............couldn't leave that out'. Anyway, in the end, we again agreed to disagree.

It was in March that he got the diagnosis of stage 4 stomach cancer. He asked me to come out and see him. I was already booked to go to Hawaii and see my son and suggested I drop that and go immediately out to Arizona. Dad told me to go and enjoy visiting with my son and to come out afterwards.

While I was in Hawaii my dad got reunited with my stepmother and I will add here that even when I was a JW, she hated for him to have contact with any of his kids from his first marriage, moi included even though I was the only JW! So..........that attitude was still there and now she was armed with all the latest shunning articles which I'm quite sure she held in front of his face for that first week (for a week was all it took) before he'd acknowleged that he shouldn't be having any contact with me. I still couldn't believe my dad would totally shut me out at a time like this so I got a one way ticket to AZ as soon as I got home. My brother called me just before I was to leave and told me that dad told him to tell me.......................that I wouldn't be welcome at his home since I was 'an apostate'. My brother thought this was all terrible and he and other family members tried to reason with dad but to know avail.

I was down there for over a month and never got to speak to dad or see him once! My mom is down there too as well as siblings so the visit wasn't a total wasted effort but there it is!

Dad died in October of 2012.

I have ranged from extreme sadness to anger over these losses but life goes on and generally, I have good family time with my other children and relatives. Still.......I hope that Gandhi's words prove true (saw this on another thread)

"First they ignor you, Then they laugh at you, Then they fight you, Then you WIN!"
I hope so.

25

Is the story of the Garden of Eden simply a Rabbinical puzzle of SQUARING the circle??

by Terry in

1.man's nature as homo sapien is to pursue knowledge for survival.

fiddler

Terry, thank you for your illustration of the 'squared circle'. I had heard somewhere that most Jews understand the Bible to be made up of, let's call them fables, created for educational purposes. Is it any wonder that so many Jewish people are highly educated AND agnostic/atheist? (at least, that has always been my observation)