Good point
lancelink
JoinedPosts by lancelink
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17
Something I never thought of when I was in
by doublelife inwitnesses use the term 'publisher' instead of 'preacher' to describe their position in the congregation.
that should be a dead give away that they are salespeople working for a book publishing company verses preachers who are working for god.
i can't believe i never saw something this obvious.
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Did you Have One " Power Controlling " Elder in your Congregations ?
by flipper ini believe many congregations had one, if not 90 % of the congregations i attended.
there seemed to always be one elder that dominated over the other elders and incredibly - in spite of the arrangement being called a " body of elders " many times it seemed that one elder would arise and take control over the other elders.
the other elders would roll over and bow essentially to these power elders.
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lancelink
"At least it appeared that way in the congregations I was in. I saw a lot of abuse of power by not only P.O.'s but other prominent elders committing injustice by appointing only their friends to elders or MS positions ."
Ah yes,,, the ever popular "good old boys club" It is very much alive and prospering in crystal lake, illinois.
How else could jeff renfrow be an elder ? For years he tried to move ahead at his old hall and they kept looking past him.
He moves into cl, become business partners with the po and bam! he becomes an elder almost overnight. And boy did he use the power given to him !
Support and nurture all the teenage girls, slam down all the teenage males. He had (or is it has) a reputation as a complete pedophile. And he is
married to a girl who is just about as clueless about reality as he is !
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As a JW Did you Feel " Guilted " to go to Meetings /Service if Injured /Sick ?
by flipper inmany people in the jehovah's witnesses , older ones, younger ones have been expected to pioneer, go in field service with physical disabilities and are even considered "martyrs" if they push themselves to their physical capacities beyond reasonableness .
thus many witnesses feel sick, exhausted, tired, and essentially fight depression due to high expectations to " burn out " for the wt society.
have any of you experienced this while in the witnesses ?.
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lancelink
Mr. pirate-flipper,
I really appreciate your thoughts and insightful comments !
Yes there were many times I put attending the meeting above everything else. The weirdest thing I did was when my oldest son was a baby.
He had a rattle that was attached to a large suction cup thing, (so it could be attached to a high chair and not fall off). And while playing with him
I stuck it to my forehead in order to get him to stop crying. It worked, but I had a #4 talk that evening and I had a ridiculous round- red welt right in the center of head ! (it looked REALLY bad)
I was going to cancel,(4:00 pm) but my "trained conscience" made me go through with the talk, by the time the meeting rolled around the mark was almost purple , but I gave the talk and stayed for the entire meeting. What an idiot I was.
Another time we had a new co coming, and my two young sons were sick with the stomach flu. it was the middle of january and we were in a really deep freeze.(-20 f) My wife was feeling guilty for not being more supportive during the week, (for christ sake , the kids were sick)!
Saturday evening the elders called on the phone, hoping to see us all there Sunday morning.
So we decided to take them out into the freezing weather while they were still sick, ice and blowing snow all over the roads, but hey we were supportive !
Sometimes I look back and wish that God had hit me with a lightning bolt, and make me aware of how I was living my life and affecting my childrens lives .
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Visiting brother gets fed today...
by garyneal ini suffered through 3 hours of jw-dom by going to the meeting with my wife because my daughter wanted to go and my niece was being carried too.
a part of me feels a bit obligated to go when my daughter goes out of protection for her and a part of me feels like i should go since my wife had two small girls going with her and my daughter alone is a handful.. a visiting brother in the neighboring city of suffolk, va gave a talk today and some of the people wanted to take him out to dinner.
my wife was invited to go along and she was real excited about that.
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lancelink
The Spanking Room TM
A Priceless, and true observation
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17
No natural affection? Jehovahs Witnesses fulfill this scripture
by jambon1 inanyone who can turn their back on their flesh & blood sons and daughters, mothers and fathers fulfill this prophecy perfectly.. people who do this are utterly unloving & cruel.
it has lead thousands of people to feel issolated, alone & in many cases suicidal.
how can such a thing originate with god?.
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lancelink
Thank you for this great thought !
It seems that I have felt and known this for years, but I never "connected the dots" like you did.
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Dealing with reality after leaving the witnesses
by lancelink inthis afternoon i was reading newsweek, and smithsonian magazine online, and there were two video's on the sites that really caused a massive conflict in me.. one video was about the 3rd and 4th generations of children living in viet nam who had grandparents, and great-grandparents who had to deal with agent orange back in the 1960's.
sorry i can't find the video now.
then i was reading the smithsonian magazine and there was a vidoe about illegal wildlife trade in the world:.
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lancelink
This afternoon I was reading newsweek, and Smithsonian magazine online, and there were two video's on the sites that really caused a massive conflict in me.
One video was about the 3rd and 4th generations of children living in Viet Nam who had grandparents, and great-grandparents who had to deal with agent orange back in the 1960's. Sorry I can't find the video now. It was so horrible looking at the young children who never will have any type of a decent life because of the problems they inherited from this stuff.
Then I was reading the Smithsonian Magazine and there was a vidoe about illegal wildlife trade in the world:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Wildlife-Trafficking.html
Watch the video "African Ape smuggling" about halfway down the page
So needless to say, I was slightly disheartened about life after watching these two videos. A part of me wanted to do something such as send in some money, to help the kids and animals, but a little voice kept nagging me while watching that said "don't get involved, god will take care of these problems WITHOUT your help.
After being a witness for 30 years, I remember the mantra of focusing on the new system to end all the problems. Getting involved in any way would be a total waste of time. Don't send in money or get involved because jehovah will soon wipe away all types of problems like these.
Yet now I wonder what I could have done in other avenues of charity work if I had a bit more of a backbone in my earlier years.
No doubt I would have gotten involved in other areas such as local food pantries, big brother, and more animal welfare areas.
But even though I have been out of the jw religion now for around two years, that little voice from the wt organization still raises its ugly head when I think about helping someone/something in a charitable way.
I realize that I need to "break" the mold and move on, yet I am curious,,,,, how long did it take you to finally move on and be able to freely do something out of the feeling found deep within your soul and not have the wt diverting all of your thoughts and energies into what they wanted you to be focusing on ??
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bullfighting
by lancelink ina friend of mine recently returned home from a trip to spain.. one day he went to a resturaunt down the street from an arena where they have bullfights, the "plaza de toros".. in the menu were bull testicles, so feeling somewhat adventurous he tried them, thought they were a little tough and had little flavor, and another.
thing, they were big, almost the size of a pear each !.
he ate two and left.. .
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lancelink
A friend of mine recently returned home from a trip to Spain.
One day he went to a resturaunt down the street from an arena where they have bullfights, the "plaza de toros".
In the menu were bull testicles, so feeling somewhat adventurous he tried them, thought they were a little tough and had little flavor, and another
thing, they were big, almost the size of a pear each !
He ate two and left.
The day before he was leaving, he brought a fellow traveler into the resturaunt, and ordered the same thing.
The waiter came out with a platter on which were the testicles, but they were much smaller this time. Cofused he asked,
"why are these so much smaller, last week the ones I had were twice the size"?
The waiter looked at him and said, " sometimes in the arena the bull wins"
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JW Jokes - Post Your Favorites
by awaken2004 ina man arrives at the gates of heaven.. st peter asks, "religion?".
the man replies, "methodist.".
a third man arrives at the gates.. st. peter: "religion?".
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51
So, after I laughed my butt off,
by John Doe ini asked myself if this was cruel.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9kdr5-teio.
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lancelink
Boy,,, the scene where the cat realizes that the water is coming up from the floor is really funny!
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Switching congregations
by EmptyInside indid any of you start going to another hall if there were problems in your last congregation?
it happens a lot now.
when someone has an unresolved problem, they decide to go to a neighboring congregation..
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lancelink
Nope, My wife and I always stayed in one hall, we toughed out all the BS and backbiting that happened when a major problem happened.
But the downside to this was we s- l- o- w-l-y developed a major case of burnout.
After years of doing our best to support our local congregation, a long stretch of new crisises(is that a word) began to snowball together
and we quickly began to doubt why we kept trying to be supportive.
Flameout, and now we are both gone