james_woods

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Posts by james_woods

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  36

  Should I admit to JWs that I am disfellowshipped?

  by jwfacts in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i know about 2000 jws in sydney, and have 50 that are tax clients, so barely a week goes by without bumping into someone i know.

  it seems that few of them realise that i am disfellowshipped because they talk freely to me.

  last week i accidently sat next to an elder on the train and we engaged in small talk for over 30 minutes.. should i admit to these people that i am not a jw?.

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  james_woods

  I agree with Drew - it's their trip, not yours. However, if one of them does try to do their number on you, wear your status like a badge of honor.

  We had a Down's syndrome boy in my former cong. I would always let him make a comment or two when I did the WT study on Sunday, and would kind of treat him like just another kid. (He couldn't really talk, but he obviously knew when you were nice to him). One day, I ran into him and his mom a year or two after I left in the 1980 blowup. Mom gives me that same look that startled nuns give Christopher Lee in a dracula movie, but Norman gives me his usual "arghgh!!" and runs up to give me the same old wrestler squeeze and handshake as old times.

  Mom leaves the Walmart crying.

  Maybe the ancient Greeks were right - these kids could very well be the children of the Gods?

  James
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  21

  The Watchtower Society Reforms! Would you go back?

  by Fleshybirdfodder in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i don't think i would under any circumstances.

  under what criteria would you?

  or wouldn't you?

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  james_woods

  I have heard that it is perfectly safe for single females to check into the Bates Motel, now that Norman has worked out that thing about his Mother - he might even ask you up to the big mansion for dinner...
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  14

  Did you ever find an abandoned animal?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  yesterday morning, while repairing the hose valve outside, i saw a cat in the garage.

  he came to me and was rubbing against my legs.

  since i already have a cat, and i happened to be at my parents house, and they don't want any animal on their lot, i just pet the cat once, and went inside.

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  james_woods

  I have a lost and found black & white cat named Li-Li. She kept coming around the back and I fed her smoked salmon & capers because that was the closest thing I had to cat food. She never left after that.

  I have a B!tch about the local animal shelter. My dog got loose about a year ago for dog romantic reasons. (He can jump about a 5 foot fence if given a good motive). I go to bail him out of the dog jail the next day - and I did not mind paying a fine. We also fixed the fence on his dog run.

  However, while I was there, a young girl came in with a very pretty male siamese cat. She explained that it had come up into her mom's garage and was obviously lost. They couldn't take care of it, so they were putting it up for adoption. The jerk at the desk questions her down as if it was really her cat and she was just dumping it. Then, they charge her $40.00 for the privilege of leaving it! She had no cash, so she had to write them a check. If I had been her, I would have told them it was their cat now and turned around and walked out of there.

  I can understand charging a fee if a persons own pet got lost and they retrieved it (like my dog). I can also understand charging a fee to adopt and having a yearly license charge to be sure the shots are done. What I cannot understand is the logic of charging this girl $40.00 for merely doing the right thing and in fact helping the animal shelter to do its job. I have verified that they will charge a homeowner even if you just call in a stray animal and they come and get it out of your yard. This is the dog-and-cat equivalent of small town cops running a deliberate speed trap on their short section of an interstate highway, IMHO.

  Obviously, this can only discourage citizens from ever standing up and helping to contain lost pets in the future. I am sure not going to go out of my way to help them after seeing this outrage first-hand.

  James
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  40

  To Honor 06/06/06... Music to Burn in Hell By!

  by Nosferatu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  okay, so it's burn in hell day.

  although this is not really linked to this day specifically, i made an mp3 cd of music to play when we've got the fire pit going in the back yard.

  however, it's quite fitting for listening to today.

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  james_woods

  In terrible bad taste, I know -

  but Great White came to mind because of that horrible night club fire...
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  13

  Strange experiences on the field

  by wozadummy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  has anyone had feelings or experiences on the field where what happened seemed only to be from one source - divine?

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  james_woods

  Thanks for the thread - it seems that the really strange ones are the easiest to remember after 30 years.

  I am pioneering where the need is great about 1968. My presiding overseer and I are calling on a half-way attending non-baptised family. P.O. has decided that they need a serious tuneup on the chronology of 1914 - one of his favorite subjects.

  He shows up fully armed with not only Babylon the great, several bound WT volumes, etc. and a rather valuable "worldly" historical reference book which had this one date about the fall of Babylon that he wanted to display. So we do about 45 minutes on this vital scriptural subject. The western Okla. family consisted of a single mother who barely had a high school diploma, and three bored and unruly little boys about 8-10.

  We might as well have been discussing the possibility of clean nuclear fusion power in our lifetime.

  I am sitting on the couch playing grab the corner of the watchtower with a tiny little white and tan baby kitty that they had. Little kitty suddenly gets a funny look on its face, starts a tell-tale episode of heaving, and deposits a good healthy stomach contents heave right into the center pages of the historical reference book! Panic ensues, the BS is ended, and we try to paper towel off the damage as much as possible.

  Presiding Overseer would hardly ever go back to this family - he just kept growling about their "pukey old cat..."

  At least it got the worldly book instead of the precious WT food -
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  50

  New JWD members on the Horizon!

  by Sign oTimes in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  soon (if they haven't already) local congregations of jws will welcome newly disillusioned former members of the bethel family.

  the most potentially dangerous have been paid off already (but what do you mean?

  weren't we all given severances equally proportionate to our years of devoted service?

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  james_woods

  Thanks for you support, ENLcynic!!!

  I am not totally sure that our theory was the only reason, but it probably was a big factor. I also wondered if maybe they took the elders titles so that they couldn't protest so much on who got put on the cut list first, etc...while they were still at Bethel.

  Going further with the great theory as posted on the original thread -

  Does anyone have a current count of how many have been let go from the various US and Canada facilities? Is it up to a hundred or even several hundred now?

  Thanks, James
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  50

  New JWD members on the Horizon!

  by Sign oTimes in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  soon (if they haven't already) local congregations of jws will welcome newly disillusioned former members of the bethel family.

  the most potentially dangerous have been paid off already (but what do you mean?

  weren't we all given severances equally proportionate to our years of devoted service?

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  james_woods

  Welcome, Sign of the Times -

  Your post makes a lot of sense to me. Even if these displaced people can whistle watchtower tunes in the dark for a while, they cannot help but really be disillusioned and that will come out in time.

  We had a thread a while back on the mystery of why they would just dismantle the "bethel elder" position. Nobody had a really logical answer, as I recall. It was just something the society did to prepare for the downsize.

  Now I am starting to wonder if this was not to remove the special standing of the those "bethel elders" that got sent home. That way, they could not excersize any undo influence on the outside congregations - even if they remained loyal Dubs, they could really wreak some havoc in an established body of elders! - and just think what a few of them could do if they became verbally protestant to the Societies orders!!!

  James
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  108

  Does the Rainbow Covenant Disprove the Flood?

  by Severus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the story goes that god provided the rainbow as a symbol of his promise to never again destroy the world by flood.. noah and his family saw the rainbow after they left the ark.

  after the waters had receeded.

  after it had stopped raining for months.... yet a rainbow is simply sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets.

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  james_woods

  Shizm, I have heard this:

  "Living well is the best revenge"

  Part of this living well for me is having fun with dogma...

  In good humor, James
• 
  108

  Does the Rainbow Covenant Disprove the Flood?

  by Severus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the story goes that god provided the rainbow as a symbol of his promise to never again destroy the world by flood.. noah and his family saw the rainbow after they left the ark.

  after the waters had receeded.

  after it had stopped raining for months.... yet a rainbow is simply sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets.

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  james_woods

  Shizm - yes, we (mostly) do understand that it is funny...but sadly, many do not even think about this legend objectively.

  So I must rant on: what were the greater and lesser luminaries created for if you are just going to cover them up with a blanket?

  Why were there bromeliad plants made specifically to catch rain and save it in their leaves?

  Weren't there any mountains and waterfalls or snow before original sin?

  aaaaaarghghgh!
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  108

  Does the Rainbow Covenant Disprove the Flood?

  by Severus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the story goes that god provided the rainbow as a symbol of his promise to never again destroy the world by flood.. noah and his family saw the rainbow after they left the ark.

  after the waters had receeded.

  after it had stopped raining for months.... yet a rainbow is simply sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets.

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  james_woods

  So, if Adam and Eve had never sinned they would have lived on forever in the ever-expanding garden,

  - and mankind would thus never have seen the sun, moon or stars (let alone the rainbow) for ever? Or ever even felt rain (only just a little dew in the morning)? Or ever heard thunder or seen lightning? All beautiful things, IMHO.

  - but what would have prevented those evil angels from messing around with the daughters of Eve anyway? That cloud cover???

  - and if God didn't plan to flood everybody from day one of creation, what was that cloud cover up there for in the first place??? Is it coming back in the new system? To protect us from the sin of astrology, perhaps? Will resurrected ones miss the stars at night???

  - and if God did plan to flood everybody from day one, isn't that a sort of mean-spirited look into the future of some pretty helpless creations?

  Not to be mean spirited myself toward those who believe it literally, but there are a lot of holes to be filled in this ark...

  James