graven images are so thoroughly criticized in the bible....totally forbidden.
yet any idols made where powerless...just a piece of wood you can also cook on.
yet god sent out zillions of vipers (thanks dude) to bite everybody....and actually has a scary viper impage made an put on a pole....with some serious power attached.
Its great how they take about 6 lines in the bible about some ancient snake curse and draw a picture of it and have us teach it to our kids (nice bedtime story) so that they know that if you disobey God he will send snakes to kill you.
(Why don't we make a story about St. Patrick in Ireland chasing off the snakes too. Has about as much credibility.)
with this new light, i am starting to try and figure out what to do with my life and my time... now that the world is opened up for me to finally explore.. i have been wondering if i will return to celebrating the holidays with my 'worldly' relatives.
my parents, brother, and in-laws are all witnesses.
i have pretty much rejected the holidays say for 25 years.
Yes, and I find that I have to be careful, because sometimes I go a little overboard. I'm living vicariously through my kid. His birthday parties are great and we don't dare miss his friends parties!!!
graduating from college right next to bethel........and a gilead grad......too much.........and did you guys know he is the valedictorian.....like top score there.........awesome!.............inspirational!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but you may want to slow down a bit dammit.............oompa.
you are now a serious pain in the ass for wt.........college and bailing on your gilead skills......hope that does not need two l's bthw.
so the po confirmed what many on this board already know.
at latest round of co to elders meeting, the co quoted from the society outline.
any elder or ms who encourages college for his kids or others or who allows his children to go to college will no longer qualify.. he then asked if i was going to take the cos encouragement and reach out again to be an elder and get my hours on the ministry up.. i replied "i will never be an elder again - i strongly approve of further education and college and have been through college myself.
Outrageous!! Amazing!!! I am in shock that they went that far. I have never been much of an "avatar" kind of guy but I would like to borrow OTWO's.
I think this may be the start of a great implosion. Or the furthering of a great dumbing down.
I am more resolved than ever to make sure and innoculate my kid against this mind control cult (There I said it- been resisting for a year- but this is really shocking to me.)
i was speaking with a dfed jw tonight and he wants to return to jw land.
he believes they have the truth.
well, i asked him if he felt that everyone else except jw's would die at armageddon.
Oh- its a great double think- they (we formerly) go to meetings, go in service, run ourselves ragged out of fear of being destroyed at Armageddon- but when pressed, they will all say- "We don't believe that everyone who is not a Witness will die at Armageddon" WTF- which is it? Do you die for not going to meetings or not???
after hearing the stupidity of last sunday's watchtower about trusting the bible over science, no matter what, i'm ready to educate myself.. science wasn't one of my strong subjects in high school; didn't like formulas and all that, but i'm ready to learn now.. so, where should i start?.
I'm reading this right now:
http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171
It is a summary of the history and status of science of every branch- astrophysics, quantum mechanics, particle theory, geology, biology, age of the earth, age of the universe, shape of the universe, dark matter, etc, etc, etc. It is written by a journalist- not a scientist- so its not too dense and written for the layperson.
well the co asked me to reach out again to be an elder because the organization needs men like me - i am serious - that is what he said.
if only he knew.
so all i need to do is get my hours to average 12 or better per month.. no chance.
Well... are you encouraged now???
could someone scan the lapel badge for this years convention and put it up for download?
many thanks
I quit wearing them 9 years before I faded. Primarily because they are quite dangerous when you are holding a newborn. (Sharp plastic corners, etc.) Then when that was no longer an issue, I felt like I had a "Hi my name is....." tag on. I decided that I had not been in elementary school for some time and if someone wanted to know my name they could ask.
it actually was no big deal.
there was only 1 scriptures read and it was in psalms.
btw, i was kidding about spiking there drink, lol.
This has also been my experience. Most elders really do not want to get into it. A few stories, show some love and out the door. Maybe some "comforting words." But don't make them work.
does anyone know if the wts' lawyers are witnesses who work (volunteer for free) in bethel?
or are they non-witnesses lawyers who charge the wts for their legal service?
if the latter is the case, then, isn't the wts stealing from the dubs.
There is a legal staff at Patterson of live-in Bethel lawyers (volunteers). Somewhere between 10 and 20 of them. They have a decent support staff of paralegals and secretarys. They also have attorneys who are not regular bethelites and have private practices but who volunteer for them on a regular basis. They also outsource to attorneys who are not bethelites. Of course, where possible, they try and find witnesses that will do the work pro-bono.
Sooo, not to much in the way of legal costs. (At $150-$450/hour on the outside- they can outlast just about any legal team)
