Open mind

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Posts by Open mind

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  10

  I had to control my laughter...

  by ILoveTTATT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  today at the meeting, during the prayer (to which i did not say "amen" to) the brother said "thank you for everything the faithful and discreet slave do for us.

  we know it is because they love us...".

  to which i had to really control my laughter cause i was about to burst out laughing... i just smiled, thankfully everyone else had their eyes closed and head down.... .

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  Open mind

  "(to which I did NOT say "amen" to)"

  On the rare occasion I'm present during the conclusion of a JW prayer I now say "Gay Men".

  I calibrate the volume of the "G" very carefully.

  om
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  42

  A question for elders and former elders who have served on JCs

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  based on your experience of judicial committees, how would you advise someone who is due to meet with the elders and has asked for the best way to avoid being disfellowshipped?

  is denying everything ever a successful strategy?

  does addressing a letter to the elders threatening legal action if they disfellowship ever work?

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  Open mind

  Sincere repentance.

  Once you've got faking that down, you're probably golden.

  om
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  67

  Another Suicide

  by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  there wouldn't have been any good way to hear the news i suppose.

  it's just so strange to recall the conversation yesterday.

  my "still in" parents are with me and my inactive sister having a pleasant conversation.

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  Open mind

  Billy said:

  "WT puts so much emphasis on perfection that it's unhealthy. For someone like AJ, he decided to end his life because he was convinced that he'd committed the "unforgivable sin". If he wasn't a JW, the incident would have just been embarrassing, certainly not criminal or anything serious. But all the crap that goes with being a JW convinced him that this was worth dying over, since he'd fallen from "perfection". And for me, the striving after perfection made for a life I didn't find worth living. I was supposedly doing everything right but I was exhausted and dissatisfied. Life was bland and everything I said or did was subject to scrutiny. "Perfection" came to mean a torturous, dull pain for me."

  So very beautifully and poignantly stated.

  You are VERY MUCH in my thoughts and those of my wife and children tonight Billy.

  Thoughts. Not prayers. We don't do that anymore.

  BILLY
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  79

  Role Reversal: Placing 1969 Awake with JW's Manning the New Portable Literature Displays

  by snapdragon4 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in recent weeks the jw’s here in the uk have been setting up their new portable watchtower literature displays in my local town square on a saturday morning.

  as they hadn’t knocked on my door for at least five years, and consequently feeling somewhat neglected, i thought that i would pay them a visit instead.. .

  the first thing i needed to do was arrange my literature.

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  Open mind

  Just out of curiosity I tried looking up the article on WT Library.

  For some strange reason, the Faithful & Discreet Slave has seen fit to only include Awake! magazine back to 1970.

  Hmmmm.

  I'm sure it's just a matter of megabytes. Couldn't be that they don't want rank-and-file JWs to read stuff like that.

  Very well done!

  om
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  12

  really cool video

  by Hortensia in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xgk84poeynk.

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  Open mind

  Guess I failed at making a pretty subtle, but what I thought was important, point.

  There's zero doubt that Sagan was referring to the JWs. But the fact that he didn't actually name them was important to my "scared of anything apostate" JW mentality.

  Done here.

  om (the nit pick)
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  9

  Yerba Mate: Drink of the gods (not including Jehovah)

  by JamesThomas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  preface: jehovah's past exploits excludes him from anything that may benefited all of humankind.. .

  please share your knowledge and experience of mate..

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  Open mind

  Mate, in all it's forms, is clearly not for True Christians.
  
  Consider:
  
  Check Mate
  
  Coffee Mate
  
  Marriage Mate
  
  School Mate
  
  and, probably the most dangerous one of all....
  
  UNBELIEVING MATE!!
  
  So, dear Brothers & Sisters, avoid Mate in all it's demonic forms.

  (Nice to hear from you James.)

  om
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  12

  really cool video

  by Hortensia in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xgk84poeynk.

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  Open mind

  Marking for later viewing with high-speed connection. Thanks hortensia!

  @ yadda yadda 2:

  I don't want this to sound nit-picky, and I hope it doesn't come across that way:

  Sagan never mentioned the JWs by name.

  You did put brackets around [Watchtower Society] and [Jehovah's Witnesses] so hopefully most readers will know that Sagan did not actually mention either one by name.

  I remember reading Broca's Brain as a JW and as I read the quote you referenced, I knew it must be the JWs that Mr. Sagan was talking about, but I felt safe continuing to read as long as he didn't specifically mention my cherished little cult by name.

  Anyway, here's the full quote with no omissions or additions:

  One prominent American religion confidently predicted that the world would end in 1914. Well, 1914 has come and gone, and - whole the events of that year were certainly of some importance - the world did not, at least so far as I can see, seem to have ended. There are at least three responses that an organized religion can make in the face of such a failed and fundamental prophecy. They could have said, Oh, did we say '1914'? So sorry, we meant '2014'. A slight error in calculation. Hope you weren't inconvinenced in any way. But they did not. They could have said, Well, the world would have ended, except we prayed very hard and interceded with God so He spared the Earth. But they did not. Instead, the did something much more ingenious. They announced that the world had in fact ended in 1914, and if the rest of us hadn't noticed, that was our lookout. It is astonishing in the fact of such transparent evasions that this religion has any adherents at all. But religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. The fact that religions can be so shamelessly dishonest, so contemptuous of the intelligence of their adherents, and still flourish does not speak very well for the tough- mindedness of the believers. But it does indicate, if a demonstration was needed, that near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry. [Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain]

  As well as a link to a bunch of other great Carl Sagan quotes:

  http://atheism.about.com/library/quotes/bl_q_CSagan.htm

  Cheers!

  om
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  29

  Anyone busted on apostate site. JCs how are they handled.

  by joe134cd in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm just wondering has any body ever been busted on an apostate site because someone was able to identify them because of something they wrote.

  why i ask this question is because how would this be explained at a jc.

  because the person who reported it to the jc was reading something that they shouldn't of.

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  Open mind

  I think Undercover's advice of deny, deny, deny could even work if someone did post:

  "HI! My name is _Open Mind____ and I attend the __Uber-Dub_________congregation in Hicksville USA",

  JC: "OM, what do you have to say for yourself?"

  OM: "It looks pretty clear that someone is trying to besmirch my reputation. Anyone with a computer and some knowledge of my life could easily have posted that apostate poison and signed my name to it. Two witnesses please?"

  JC: "OK, well do you think the F&D Slave is the greatest thing since sliced bread?"

  OM: "Of course. I also think they should take their spirit directed talents and branch out into areas where their pinpoint accuracy could really benefit more people. Let say, oh I don't know, maybe aircraft design or neurosurgery." (Bites tongue hard to hold back smirk.)

  om
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  87

  Do you think "Blondie" is addicted to reading Watchtowers and Awakes?

  by booker-t in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember when i was a "devout" jws i could not wait to get the new watchtowers and awakes from the wednesday nite theocratic ministry school.

  i would actually salivate thinking of the new information jehovah had in the magazines for us.

  i was "franatical" and i would go home still in my three piece suit and devour the magazines that very nite.

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  Open mind

  Well, I don't think this was what the OP intended, but I will echo the sentiments of everyone else:

  Three Cheers for Blondie!!!

  om
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  26

  Manhattan Project Arrives in London

  by scotinsw in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  last friday and saturday i saw the new manhattan project carts in a few places in london.. one, smack back in the middle of the street outside one of the busy central london train stations is asking for trouble!

  situating it in the middle of the pavement!?!

  are they crazy?

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  Open mind

  There is a November 24, 2012 BOE letter giving directions re: how this work is to be done. It specifically says that while Bibles should not be given out indiscriminately "if someone requests a Bible or demonstrates sincere interest in the truth, then a Bible may be offered to the person."

  So, JWNers, don't forget to "request a Bible".

  "BIBLES! GET 'CHER RED HOT BIBLES RIGHT HERE! HOT OFF THE PRESS!"

  And, of course, make sure it makes it's way to the nearest recycling bin.

  om