just dawned on me that i couldn't do my job if not for leaving.
i'm a director of marketing for a telecom company and travel the country constantly, different city and state every three months or so.
part of the job is "having" to take people out for drinks and dinner, etc all the time.
I absolutely do have a better career! I was a part time gardener as a JW and now look at me: A fully qualified and registered clinical psychologist. But I'm much too professional to sound too pleased and proud with myself about the transition. Yeah right!
The words of my JW family will forever ring in my ears (circa 1970): "There's no point in getting a university education. We'll be in the new system by the time you graduate". These people are truly fulfillers of self-defeating prophecies.
i was raised roman catholic but stopped going about 25 years ago.
i was talking with someone i work with who is a jw and suggested i might look into it.
so here i am.............
Mark Anthony you said it all in two important words that I could apply more specifically to the JWs:
stopped going
hey, .
does anyone know if any of the 144,000 has left the jw's due to a change in beliefs?
what was the reaction of their hall?
Haven't the JWs usually stated that the reason the number of memorial partakers fluctuates from year to year is because some still do "fall away from the truth" (I hate that expression).
I remember that in my local congregation, two JWs habitually took the wine and bread at the memorial, claiming to be of the anointed, but they were discreetly never counted. These two were viewed by the brothers as benignly eccentric. I wonder how much of this goes on so that if every single person taking the wine and bread were literally counted with no questions asked, the actual number of memorial partakers would be who knows how much larger.
we stayed at a door talking bad about the householder and they were listening for 5 minutes.
what's that scripture?
about a birdie and a king??
Oh, about an hour or two, then I reluctantly concluded that the householder mustn't be home. Perhaps a more riveting question would be, What's the longest you ever stayed once the householder allowed you inside? Length of time: Please be specific; Details of activities: Preferred but optional.
you may remember i posted two days ago about a ten-page jw tsunami report that was e-mailed to me.
it consisted of about three separate letters.
since the report was so long, i tried to copy and paste some of the quotes from a word document and only got two out of seven.
Hell, increasing numbers of JWs don't go to meetings when they're home. Why should they go when they're on vacation?!
As for the tendency to feed off the bad things in the world to promote "commitment" to a religion: at least the JWs have this penchant in common with the media. TV viewing and newspaper sales increase during disasters. There ain't nothin' like a bit of pain and misery to keep church and kingdom hall seats warm!
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i am pretty sure this is what i am.
i would love to chat with anyone else who might want to sort some stuff out with me.. many thanks!.
I'm a born again Personal-Responsibility Taker. In my view, the most important thing that anyone who leaves an authoritarian religion can do is: Begin to sort out what you can be reasonably expected to take responsibility for in your own life. There is a tendency for people to "hand themselves" over to someone or something else, rather than learn how to cope with their life situation, and then to close their minds to other ways of being in the world or judging other ways of being. Rigidity of thinking is the hallmark of the kind of thinking that flourishes among people be-deviled with mental illness.
I had thought at one time that only the JWs had mental health problems; or that their experience of mental health problems was somehow unique. How wrong I was. As a clinical psychologist working with clients who have severe mental health problems, I have noticed that no religious outlook, whether organized or personal, is spared from mental health problems.
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i heard from my bethel contact that the magazines are to be published monthly from 2006 and 2007. only 12 mags a year, but 46 pages each with no colour illustrations.has anyone else heard about this cut back?
i also heard there is to be a new song book in the summer so that witnesses no longer sing about "sheep and goats" and other "old light".
By the way, your honesty was far more interesting than the rumor. Say more.
I with Poztate and jgnat on this. I'm looking forward to your honesty much more than the other stuff that's made up.
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i heard from my bethel contact that the magazines are to be published monthly from 2006 and 2007. only 12 mags a year, but 46 pages each with no colour illustrations.has anyone else heard about this cut back?
i also heard there is to be a new song book in the summer so that witnesses no longer sing about "sheep and goats" and other "old light".
Hey slimboyfat
You don't need to be either a JW or an apostate to make things up. You can just be yourself and still make things up. Hey - well done: You're doing it already!
Now, just because you can do it with evident ease, you can certainly throw out some comments about others doing it as well, if it makes your little club less lonely.
I look forward to hearing from you when you can fully "own" your posts and not need to align others to your opinions or views. It's called being a grownup - but you may not be ready for that yet.
during class the teacher asks "who all plan to go to college?
" and you shrink down in your seat in an effort to become invisible as everyone in the class raises their hand.
-doodle-v. your turn!
You know you're a JW teenager if, (the year is 1970) you want to be a journalist (or some other tertiary level position), but your JW family tell you that you cannot do that because the new system will be here real soon.
jws and the wts have policies in place for the sole purpose of discriminateing against and harass people who do not believe the same things they believe.
they hunt down anyone who exercises their freedoms or speech and religion so that they can destroy the person's family... now they are getting a small taste of what they do to other people... how do they respond?
they cry "foul".. .
How about me? Third generation JW - Indoctrinated from birth.
Hey stevenyc I agree with you. Kharma is one difficult belief to embrace. I can see a link between one's immediate actions and consequences; but the more spiritual/mystical stuff eludes me. Besides, if kharma is a universal law, we would conclude that children who have been sexually abused (including JW children) brought in on themselves. Kharma may be plausible with adults, but children? Come on, Franklin! And, if you have to make exceptions, why stop there. Kharma is Khrazy.
