Yes, good post Daunt. I am not the poster to answer your thoughts on the same articulate level but I remember being bombarded by this created sadness of the world's so-called condition and feeling cornered into gulping down this view demon by demon. Just at the point in my life when I was seeing outside myself at the needs of the world I was fed the only answer was to wait on God to solve any of its problems. Meanwhile leave it to others to mistakenly try to help. I spent 35 years "taking care of my own" as the Witness motto goes and felt like I was doing my adult part in this world...after all who can fight Satan and the demons and a world gone mad in his hands? The gal who studied with me said the song "He's got the whole world in his hands" was wrong. God does not have the whole world in his hands, Satan does! I heard more about Satan and the demons in a kingdom hall than I ever did in the catholic church. "But that's because Satan already has the world in its grip. He doesnt want them to talk about him or be aware of his presence." I remember feeling sad when I heard two witness children talking about Satan the devil. Imagine children having to deal with these immensely sad, fearful and probably man made concepts to keep people under control and in fear. Alot of witnesses are probably tired of the routine and would love to leave the organization except they have now ingrained fear of the devil and armageddon and eternal death at the hands of Jesus and Jehovah. It works!!! It works very well!!!! Many of the posters here are not D.A'd or DF'd because of deep fear of these same things and of course losing access to their loved ones still in. Since making the break myself, it is a very freeing feeling to finally be free of the constant barrage of talk about Satan. I live on a mountain surrounded by beauty and wildlife up in the Santa Cruz Mountain range. I have been here 4 years now. Satan has not been mentioned once by the many deer and turkeys and peacocks that have visited me. Nor by the blue jays and squirrels and magpies. Why wouldnt they tell me if it was all true? Lies are created by man to keep other men under their control. When the family is finally resorting to threatening you with God's wrath instead of his love, it is time to really re-assess your involvement. You are getting a taste of what it is like to question the organization. If you did get baptized and sacrifice your career and many years of volunteer work for the Watchtower Society it would all add up to nothing if you ever start to question things in the future. They will accuse you of going to Satan's side and being a traitor to Jehovah's side. You will be condemned along with all the liars and fornicators and cowards and await final destruction at Gods hand. If you never get baptized, your family will always hold out hope of your entry into their spiritual paradise. They will always treat you carefully, always pray for you. The congregation will always perk up when you come into their hall as their special guest. But if you get baptized and later changed your mind you will be treated as scum and the devil himself and they will turn their backs when seeing you. How appealing huh? Many of us, if we knew then what we know now would never have fallen into their hands. It is terribly painful to go through Dfing after believing so strongly in the whole story. But, hey its not the worst thing in the world. And it may not be true at all that God is going to destroy the world and most of the people and lock up Satan and his demons. Satan and the demons may not exist. Or maybe the understanding of the Revelation is all wrong. Maybe it is just the ramblings and dreams of a senile old man? Anyway, it sure is peaceful up here on this mountain. The birds are chirpping sweetly and the crickets sing me to sleep all night. I like their religion.
Posts by anewme
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7Appealing to our Fears.
by Daunt inappealing to fear is a classic logical fallacy that has been used to justify things from killing jews to preaching door to door.
an appeal to fear (also called argumentum ad metum or argumentum in terrorem) is a logical fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for their idea by playing on existing fears and prejudices.
(from wikipedia).
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15
Divorcing
by sammielee24 in.
how many people know of someone in the truth that committed adultery for the sole purpose of divorcing?
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anewme
Sometimes people are put under extreme pressures for so long they will do just about anything to get away from those pressures. The question is: who put them under the pressures?????? Blame should be evenly dispersed.
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Exit from the JWs
by KAYTEE inmy exit from the jws, was roughly as follows-
our final letter to the congregation was in the form of a resignation.
we made at least 15 to 20 copies and sent the majority of them to so-called friends, 2 days later we sent the original to the body of elders.
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anewme
It hurts like the dickens at first.......but you will get over it and understand what happened better in hindsight. Its always good to think you did not waste anymore time in it than you did.
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Tiny Houses
by mrsjones5 incheck out this website:.
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/.
i want one of these houses!
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anewme
Those Tumbleweed homes are so darling. If I can get my hands on property I'd love to put one in the back for my husbands mother. I will show her the website this weekend. Thanks!
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JWs who were actually cool
by Black Man inwe always talk about the crazy j-dub fundy types, but i knew some cool jws (co, do, bethelites, pio) during my time.
this is kind of a "where are they now" post along with acknowledginig some jws who were cool and down-to-earth.
as with most "cool" and good people in the borg, most of them are either not jws anymore (burned out) or are not "serving" in responsible positions (funny how that works, isn't it).
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anewme
Lots of people back in the 70's were very cool.....real individuals...the ones who made the Watchtower meetings so interesting with their stories......all gone now. Incidently they dont allow you to embellish a comment with a personal touch anymore....just parrot the paragraph you read a minute before! Boring idiocy.
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Do you think that you're presently living the best moments of your life?
by JH in.
i feel as if i'm on top of a mountain, and things are going good.
things could always be better, but i can't complain.. how about you?
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anewme
Its all perspective really. I have known excruciatingly painful tearful agonizing tormenting dreadful moments I never want to relive. My life is so serene and calm right now. And I value these moments so much! But I believe the best is yet to come!!
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Is there something wrong with this quote about EASTER?
by badboy in.
`eostre was the pagan goddess of the spring'.
what do you think is wrong with that quote from the april 1 1996 wt?
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anewme
I am not celebrating easter. The beautiful canyon surrounding me does though, that is enough.
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Pat Robertson in the news again.
by Daunt inhttp://www.cnn.com/2005/us/08/24/robertson.chavez/index.html
this is robertson's explanation for the comments he made the other day.
first he blatantly lied about what he said, then he gives a crap appology.
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anewme
I have always felt that arrogant evangelist would love to be God's own executioner. It would make him look soooooo right! He has always given me the creeps with his constant grin. He may be going senile. His bad form and lack of political manners and tact and outright lies have angered and embarrassed the very politicians he has been "whoring" with spiritually. I hope these comments lead to his demise as a leader and bring his phony 700 Club lobby down.
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BLOOD --giving or taking
by m. kirov inso now that you've left the cult, have you ever given or taken blood?
have your opinions and/ or beliefs in this area changed?
much to my suprise, one of my very good freinds who is not out still feels the way he was trained to feel.
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anewme
Now that Im out what does it matter? Does my crossing my scriptural t's and dotting my scriptural i's get me anywhere now? If I need blood I'll be grateful to get it.
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As you got baptised a j.w., did you truly agree with all j.w. teachings?
by hubert in's that weren't born into the cult.. were there any teachings, doctrine, etc.
that you still had a hard time accepting, even though you were going to be baptised into the org.?.
which policies and teaching?.
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anewme
I felt I had found the truth I was searching for all my life.