LisaRose

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Posts by LisaRose

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  17

  the Remnant

  by Esse quam videri in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when was the last time anyone recalls hearing the word 'remnant', in meetings or conversation?

  is it something still discussed?

  [i haven't attended in 20 years, so no idea].

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  LisaRose

  It think it was used describe those anointed who were around before they introduced the idea of the earthly hope. It was probably assumed they would all be gone by now, the word remnant implies the end of something, so it's sort of an embarrassment that they keep getting new anointed ones, they aren't really a remnant anymore are they?

  
  
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  70

  "Most women would prefer to be stay at home housewives. Women's lib did alot of damage to women!"

  by purrpurr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the above is a quote from a jw female relative.

  this was in response to a discussion about the suffragette movement ( and the movie about it that's currently in cinemas).

  she seemed to think that it would be so much better if women were just daughters/ wives/ mothers and didn't go out to work and have career's?

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  LisaRose

  I will suggest a book, if you are interested. It's a fiction, by essayist and philosopher Marilyn French, called The Women's Room. It's one woman's experience of life as a new divorcee who returns to college. She is traditional in her thinking, and very down with life. She is the wife who supported hubbie through college, and got ditched for the new model. But that is just an intro to the character Her journey is a good read for the story, and also has deeper undertones. It changed my life. *shrugs* It does show how powerless a 30-something divorcee was in the mid-20th century.

  I will have to read that. One of the things that helped me break free from the religion was the abysmal way women were treated. I was a typical subservient JW wife, and since my first husband was disfellowshipped I had zero status in the congregation. I was fine with that at first, I totally believed only men could be leaders, I never even wanted to work in the first place, I was forced into because my first husband couldn't keep a job.

  Then I started working for a company that had a lot of women, as women seem to gravitate towards auditing and finance. As I began to work my way up in the company and got more responsible positions, I saw competent women managers, senior managers and directors and it started to make me aware of how stupid it was to treat women as if they were incapable.

  I was promoted from admin to auditing then to a systems analyst and within two or three months was promoted two levels to a Senior Systems Analyst, even though I had not one college credit to my name. It was explained by my manager, a woman of course, that as my work was as good as anyone else's she could not justify paying me any less. I made the same as any man in an equivalent position, it was a good feeling and such a change. Then I would go to the meetings and become either stupid or invisible. I would go to the meeting for service and watch the young brother struggle with assigning car groups and it was hard not to think I could have done that job better, But I didn't have a penis, so it could never happen, no matter my skills or intelligence.

  I never looked down on women who chose not to work outside the home, but that doesn't mean it's the right choice for everyone. People are generally happiest if their knowledge and skills are utilized to the fullest, for some women that may be child care and running a home, but others are better as different things. I believe the Watchtower devalues women whether they work or not, but they seem more distrustful of working women, strong independent women are a threat. Women could do a lot of the jobs at the Kingdom Hall, there is nothing that makes men inherently better at any of an elders duties, so they are basically wasting the talents of half their members.
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  34

  The lord of the rings

  by BlackWolf in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  now that i've found out ttatt i've been indulging in a lot of so called "spiritistic" entertainment lol.

  i recently watched all of the lotr/hobitt movies and man were they awesome!!!

  who knew spiritism could be so much fun lol.

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  LisaRose

  I read the LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit back in high school, which was probably before a lot of you were born. For some reason I never saw the last LOTR, I'll have to remedy that.

  The exorcism was very scary to me, but it's been a long time since I've seen it and I was a JW at the time so that was probably part of it. I only saw Rosemary's baby a few years ago and it was actually quite good and far better than a lot of the current movies of this type. The shinning is also very good. I've been to the Stanly Hotel in Estes Park Colorado, which inspired the hotel in the book, Steven King stayed there while writing it.

  It's kind of fun to do things that were once forbidden, isn't it? I've even had my fortune done, because it was such a major taboo, sort of exorcising those demons, so to say. The fortune teller managed to get a lot of things right, but she was obviously just good at picking up clues by my body language. She actually gave me some good advice, it was fifteen bucks well spent. Absolutely nothing happened of course, because there is no such things as demons. Interested to try a Ouija board, just for fun.
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  34

  Why do people just give their money to the Watchtower?

  by WireRider in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  what do they contribute to humanity?

  what do they contribute to any part of society?.

  why are people paying for a scam?.

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  LisaRose

  Fear, guilt and obligation.
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  11

  I need some friends!!

  by BlackWolf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i literally have 0 friends, actually i've never had any close friends.

  its really started to get to me.

  i homeschool and my parents keep me super isolated and all the other kids at my hall are complete a**holes!!

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  LisaRose

  Sorry you are so lonely right now. My daughter went through much the same experience in high school. Many times people who are different in any way struggle in the religion, it's just hard to fit into the borg when you are intelligent and the type that questions things. You will have the last laugh though, when the kids at the hall are jumping into an early marriage and getting their window washing jobs, you will be out there living a better life, maybe going to college and then on to a great job. You will also meet other intelligent people who like to question things, and they will be friends who won't dump you because you decide to not be a JW. My daughter has a fantastic job in IT and is happily married, so very revenge of the nerds.

  Hang in there, it will get better, high school doesn't last forever.
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  12

  My beautiful 7th grade daughter just finished her Christmas Concert tonight.

  by PaintedToeNail in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my lovely daughter played in her orchestra's concert tonight, in spite of her father who tried to make her feel guilty about it.

  he went to the kh tonight, while my youngest child and i went to listen to joyous music played by the local kids at our town's school.

  my girl was front and center and she did a great job.

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  LisaRose

  Good for you both, it's one step away from Watchtower silliness and toward a normal life. Christmas music is lovely, it's one of the things that makes this time of year so special. I am glad your Grinch didn't steal your Christmas.
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  28

  Give us more faith WT

  by Formerbrother in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  what a picture in this sundays wter.

  the go bag is there and they have to turn all the lights out and have their meeting in secret.. .

  in our congregation we are really being pushed hard to get your go bags in order for every member of the congregation, with at least 3-5 days food and water.. .

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  LisaRose

  The cognitive dissonance is strong in this one.

  Do they know what pictures like this do to impressionable young ones? My daughter used to obsess about being put in a concentration camp, Armageddon and starvation due to this crap. They just love to stoke the Armageddon paranoia.
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  26

  Old, Faithful and Forgotten...

  by rrb2016 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  had a conversation with my jw mother the other day.

  she has been baptized for over 50 years.

  i've been out for 30 years, but because both my mother and mother-in-law are jw's i keep up with all things jw.

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  LisaRose

  I think you can get a kindle fire now for around fifty dollars ( the older version which is perfectly good) , so that might be an option for some folks. They 're quite simple to use, easier to maintain than a pc and you can do just about anything you could use a pc for. An advantage for older ones is that you can make the font any size you want. If they cannot afford the internet they could use a local library or coffee shop WiFi to download the literature to read later.

  But It's so sad that no one seems to care about these folks that don't know or can't afford the technology.
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  475

  What is the alternative to JW?

  by Formerbrother in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i mean this with all due respect, i would like to hear from genuine people who think jw have it wrong and then what is the truth?.

  im not talking about silly little quibbles here and there.. is jehovah real?

  the the bible is word?

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  LisaRose

  Former Brother, you have left "the truth" but "the truth" has not left you, you are still being controlled by the organization. Many, many things that are taught by the organization are simply factually untrue, others are exagerations. It's normal when you leave a high control religion like the JWs to still believe in much of it, most of us were like that when we first left, including me. I knew I could not be a JW anymore, but I believed they were good people who still got many things right and were closer to the truth of the bible than any other religion.

  But as time when on and I started doing more research I realized that most of it was hogwash that did not stand up to scrutiny. I then challenged myself to reconsider everything and finally realized that very little the JWs teach is right. It was hard to admit that I had been so wrong, but it is what it is.

  The Watchtower uses various means to keep people in the dark and to stop them from questioning things. The statement that they are the only group showing love to all races and are all over the earth is one of the "thought stopping" methods they use. You see some thing that bothers you about the religion but then you think "but they are the only group that is all over the earth, so they must be right". First of all they are not all over the earth, there are hardly any JWs in mainland China for example. Secondly, other religions are in many countries as well, and lastly, that doesn't excuse the bad things that they do.

  You need to look at this with fresh eyes, question everything and then look at the facts. The failed date predictions, doctrine flip flops, troubling history they have covered up, child abuse cover ups, lies and deceptions are not excused because they may have gotten some doctrines right.
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  45

  Closest to the truth?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i know many jws that state that the watchtower corporation is the 'closest to the truth'.

  thus they quiet their cognitive dissonance.. i don't have access to a corporation library any more.

  is this a stance that the watchtower corporation has actually claimed?.

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  LisaRose

  I don't remember if they used that specific term, but it sounds like reasoning they would use. It's sort of an all purpose thought stopper if a person sees issues or problems in the organization. No matter what happens that may cause them to doubt, they think "people are imperfect but it's still the organization that is the closest thing to the truth".

  I remember a Watchtower article in the late nineties that basically said that even though mistakes may have been made by Jehovah's organization, they were the only ones to teach the truth about hell fire and the trinity, so they were still far better than false religion. I know now that about that time growth had slowed down quite a bit, perhaps they noticed an increase in people leaving over their failed date predictions or other issues. This line of reasoning actually worked on me for a short time and kept me stuck for a few years, not really in and not really out.