one the how many exbethelites thread it was mentioned that some think one either leaves down the path towards apostasy or as a 100% true believer.
i'm curious what experiences did you face at bethel that woke you up (or started to at least)?.
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puffthedragon:
Yeah, I think it was Montague Street Video.
Like someone else mentioned, I got myself a Post Office Box with a quickness, because they would go through your mail. And they would ESPECIALLY go through your record/music collection. Remember getting called into Bethel Office once regarding questions about my music. If they found that you had rap, you were immediately dismissed.
one the how many exbethelites thread it was mentioned that some think one either leaves down the path towards apostasy or as a 100% true believer.
i'm curious what experiences did you face at bethel that woke you up (or started to at least)?.
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Anyone remember the video rental sting operation they ran in the 1990s? There was this video rental store (can't remember the name, but it was on Montague Street across from the Bossert) where many Bethelites would rent videos/movies from.
Anyhow, Bethel had this rule that you couldn't watch R-rated movies or you could get kicked out (mind you some of the greatest movies are R-rated = Godfather, Schindler's List, etc).
Anyhow, they were able to regularly obtain the rental receipts from the video store and any Bethelites checking out R-rated movies or worse were sent home. I remember them doing this 'sting' for at least a couple years.
ok, we've had some great posts about the universal sovreignty issue over the years.
i'd like to have this post be about powerful common-sense questions that get right to the core of unraveling it for the nonsense it is.
when i talk to jw relatives, i'm sticking with the strategy of just posing questions instead of arguing with them.
This goes up!
now that i've been away from the cult going on 4 years, one huge absurdity that sticks out in my mind is that we were doing things out of service to an invisible king.
let me repeat an invisible king, whose only proof that he existed was through a global public relations magazine distribution campaign.
no visible show of this king's sovreignty, no activity by this king to act on his campaign platform.
Theocratic Sedition: Oh my mom (who's a dyed in the wool JW) always says to me that I never made Jehovah real to me. My response was "If I have to make something real to me, chances are it was never REAL to begin with."
now that i've been away from the cult going on 4 years, one huge absurdity that sticks out in my mind is that we were doing things out of service to an invisible king.
let me repeat an invisible king, whose only proof that he existed was through a global public relations magazine distribution campaign.
no visible show of this king's sovreignty, no activity by this king to act on his campaign platform.
Now that I've been away from the cult going on 4 years, one HUGE absurdity that sticks out in my mind is that we were doing things out of service to an INVISIBLE KING. Let me repeat an INVISIBLE KING, whose only proof that he existed was through a global public relations magazine distribution campaign. No visible show of this king's sovreignty, no activity by this king to act on his campaign platform. No..........the only active thing to show that this king existed was you and me going from door to door trying to harass people into accepting magazines annoucing the fact that this king was ruling. ISN'T THE WHOLE POINT OF RULING TO SHOW THAT THERE IS SOME VISIBLE MEANS OF AUTHORITY??
And to think this KING has been ruling for nearly 100 years??!! And still NOTHING done by this KING to positively impact the world for the better...or worse (for that matter). In any given scenario, you would have had impeachment or a takeover or removal of this king due to inactivity, lack of getting things done. Right?
Now that I think about it, that may not be the most ABSURD thing looking back at the JWs in HINDSIGHT. After all, the fate of the universe and reality as we know it was determined based on the actions of 2 naked people, a talking snake and a piece of fruit.
What absurdities stand out to you now that you've left the MADNESS??
i was having a conversation with a jw relative recently i casually mentioned how much better the world is than a few centuries.
obviously the jw was incredulous.
the next day i found an email in my inbox listing a few qoutes from notable people saying how the world has gotten much worse since 1914 and that 1914 was a pivitol year.
Awesome thread! Bookmarking...........
why do christian religions continue to pretend that the hebrew scriptures (aka the old testament) is god-inspired and that it describes a loving god?
don't they see that the ot is largely an embarrassment to its believers?
please read my blog to see why i think christianity should dispense with the ot all together:.
Agreed! Great thread!
how many people existed before the biblical flood?
in the bible from adam to noah they have around 1600-1700 years.
adam had at least three children (one dies and not counting the daughters) in a 930 year life span.
Again, I ask WHY WOULD THE WHOLE EARTH NEED TO BE FLOODED?? Especially if humans were only living in a certain part of the earth. And if there were people living on OTHER CONTINENTS back then - HOW was Noah expected to PREACH to them without the benefit of modern day multi-continental travel?
how many people existed before the biblical flood?
in the bible from adam to noah they have around 1600-1700 years.
adam had at least three children (one dies and not counting the daughters) in a 930 year life span.
Why flood the WHOLE earth? This would have included the Americas, Africa, Mexico, North & South Pole, and other continents, etc. Were there people on these other continents? And if there were people on these continents - how did Noah preach to them without the benefit of modern day travel?
i know quite a few from both of these schools who basically crashed and burned once they got into their assignments.
graduates of these schools would be thrown into foreign territorities or remote areas without a good visible means of support and would get emotionally, mentally, financially burned out.
post your experiences or of those you know that went to these pitiful excuses for educational institutions..
I know quite a few from both of these schools who basically crashed and burned once they got into their assignments. Graduates of these schools would be thrown into foreign territorities or remote areas without a good visible means of support and would get emotionally, mentally, financially BURNED OUT.
Post YOUR experiences or of those you know that went to these pitiful excuses for educational institutions.
