Posts by done4good

29

Why do they never invite you for a meal but always encourage you to attend meetings?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

today, an elder in my hall phoned and left a message saying he would stop by with a memorial invitation.. this elder has never bothered to encourage me in the past when i was missing meetings, yet suddenly he remembers me in the run up to the memorial.. i got to thinking about this - a few in our congregation called us when they found out we were inactive, encouraging us to go back to meetings.

or they would say, "it's the co visit next week, you have to come listen to his talk.".

i would give these "genuine ones" their due - they made an effort - but, when i think about it what effort have they actually made?.

done4good

TS,

By now you know how these folks are. It's all they know how to do.

I have a very good friend. (you probably know who I'm talking about), who won't invite me or wifey over for ANYTHING, (He knows damn well I'm doing much better since I'm out). He is way too scared to hear the "real" truth. He probably knows the real truth.

I'm convinced that "knowing" doesn't matter. Peple stay in for various reasons, and those reasons don't have to make logical sense. There is no reason to bang your head into a wall over it. It's a matter of cognitive dissonance and other forms of warped psychology.

Do yourself a huge favor and move on. You are in a good place. Please believe that.

j

79

How Long Have you Been Out of the Witnesses ? Have you Moved On ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i have been out over 5 years now.

i feel we all start healing at different speeds depending on how much hurt we went through in exiting ; and how much we've educated ourselves about how and why we were sucked in by a mind control cult.

at first i felt anger towards the organization , but after learning about mind control within 3 years of leaving the cult i felt sorry for those who are still trapped inside the witnesses being deceived.

done4good

Mentally out by summer of '05, although serious doubts and emotional disintrest in the religion began in earnist in 2001. Walked away in Dec 2005, and never looked back.

Life is good. Good career, new wonderful wife, and family, and good true friends.

I don't miss the relationships at the hall in the least, anymore.

Jason V.

25

JW top a "Belief in demon activity" poll

by inkling in

a recent article in the new york times on bobby jindal's amateur .

exorcist experience.... http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/ .

quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups.

done4good

It's a common misconception amongst Christians that Jews believe in demonic entities the same way Christians do. For the most part, Jews do not believe in a literal 'Satan the Devil' in the same way Christians do. While conceding that there could be dark forces out there, they do not take the figure that was introduced in the Garden of Eden or in the story of Job as being literal.

Yeah, I guess this is somewhat new to me, and I am glad it came up.

But didn't the Jews of the Bible take those things literally? Jesus sure did!
(and I seem to recall him being somewhat Jewish...) And, he cast demons out
of Jews of his time, who clearly had no problem believing epilepsy was caused
by demonic possession...

So why did the Jews "grow out" of this foolishness, but most Christians have yet to?

[inkling]

This is where the whole bible thing all begins to fall apart. To better understand the ancient Hebrew period, do some research on two things:

Elohist

Jahwist

The whole disconnect concerning the early Jews, (and their connection to everything else that came later, including Christianity), will begin to make a lot more sense.

j

32

ExJWs either BAs or atheists -- do you agree?

by parakeet in

jw
friends

a week or two ago, a poster (i forget who; sorry) noted that exjws tend to fall into two camps -- born-again christians or atheists/agnostics.

there doesn't appear to be much of a middle ground, e.g.

joining a traditional, mainstream religion.. the observation has some merit to it.

done4good

I am agnostic. I don't consider that even similar to atheist. It's not some weak, mealy-mouthed position, as many atheists consider it to be, either.

It is honest. I don't know IF god or gods exist. Science and empiracal evaluation do not support the existence of such, but nor do they disprove it.

Life is a learning experience. Approach things that way, and you will realize what really makes people happy.

j

15

HOW LONG BEFORE JWS STOP GROWING?

by badboy in

jw
friends

any ideas?.

done4good

Most people forget that there was a jw "baby boom" starting in the mid '90s. Inasmuch as the borg only counts "publishers" towards their membership statistics, it is no wonder the membership is still on the increase in the US. Most of these kids are now old enough to be forced into becoming a "publisher" in one form or another.

During most of my years with the jws, (up until around the mid-'90s), it was basically considered taboo to have children, "in this dying system". That all changed with the generation change in '95, as well as the early '90s changes on higher education. Most jws today live lives as "normal" people, imo.

Normal people eventually leave the borg. The kids becoming pubs today are in that category.

j

39

Was there any particular song or music u were not allowed to listen to because it was inappropriate or it was deemed demonized?

by jetery in

jw
friends

i remember there was this heavy metal group called wasp.

some of the witnesses said it stood for we are satans people and that wasnt even true.

stairway to heaven by led zeppelin was a no-no because they said if u played it backwards it talked about worshipping the devil.

done4good

I saw them at Soldier Field the last time Jerry Garcia performed live.

Nope. My bud was at the Giants stadium show two shows before he died in 1995.

j

52

Snapped. It just occurred to me that I REALLY hate my life. Mostly all of it.

by easyreader1970 in

jw
friends

here lately, i have just been wishing that i could just fast-forward through my remaining years on earth and just die to get this nonsense all over with.. i have only myself to blame.

if i had gone through with my attempt to leave this hokey religion about sixteen years ago when i attempted to--before i got married and had kids--then maybe i wouldn't be teetering on the very slippery edge of sanity.

instead i punked out, buckled under the threats of shunning and guilt of abandoning family members, and so here i am--looking into the mirror every morning wondering when the nightmare is going to end.

done4good

"I can totally relate to how you feel. You say total and complete disaster would follow if you revealed your true feelings. But isn't that where you're at anyway? Having your own opinion is not being selfish. It's your God given right. There comes a time when you have to throw the cat amongst the pigeons. Things may seem bad at first but they'll get better. Life is short and you've already spent too much of it under the mind control of a misguided cult. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things while expecting different results."

Our friend from the Mighty Led Zeppelin said it best. There is not much I could add. Maybe this, remember you hold the key to your happiness. That is not being selfish, that's being honest.

j

56

What's Your Favorite Breakfast Consist Of?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i love breakfast!

and sunday is usually a laid back day to enjoy a good breakfast.

here's what i want tommorrow.

done4good

Eggs over easy, corned beef hash.

or

"Taylor" ham egg, and cheese sandwhich.

j

13

Do you collect vinyl records?

by JimmyPage in

jw
friends

what treasures are in your collection?

what album artwork do you like, inside and out, on the sleeves, and in the booklets?.

done4good

"Do they still make record players worthy of using? Is it simply a novelty? "

jws-

With the right equipment, (and if you have the patience for vinyl care), it is still a better sounding format. By "right", I specifically mean a $500 or better direct drive table with a good cartridge (better than $100),and phono "preamp", (this can get expensive for a good one these days). You could spend a hell of a lot more than that, but it the laws of diminishing returns tends to kick in around $2000. See the link below.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/16/ces.luxury.turntable/index.html

Some of the more "valuable" LPs in my collection:

Introducing the Beatles

The White Album, (with orginal poster).

ELO Live at Long Beach, (an early live recording of the band).

Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band (with run on groove after "A Day In the Life"

A really good ANALOG remaster of Queen's A Day At The Races.

Stereo copy of Surrealistic Pillow by the Airplane.

About 1000 other less valuable, but awsome records!

j

13