i borrowed another tape recording from my mothers church.. in this sermon the pastor described how the jews were obsessed with their temple.
so much so that they really started worshipping the temple itself.
one obsession was how clean the temple had to stay.
I wonder how this 'cleansing the temple' bit could be sold to the rank & file JWs. I think it holds potential for rallying the 'friends'.
Think about it...
They don't have to directly question the WTS's position and authority, but they can acknowledge the poor procedures and leadership as events unfold.
im not sure if this has been discussed before but id be interested to read some comments from those who became jws later in life.
what caught your attention and sucked you in?.
my parents became jws when i was 5 years old, so it was pretty much the only way of life that i knew.
Born into it...
Somehow, from somewhere, got that gut feeling that my life could not continue as a JW. I bailed before baptism at age 17. I'm not the sharpest guy around, so I often wonder what tipped me off, especially at the green age of 17. I just knew that my life couldn't go on if I gave in to the pressure and got baptized; to continue that thought, if I knew I would never get beptized, why continue the facade any longer?
I told everyone that I was done with it all....finished! And so it was...
There were/are certain distinct advantages to leaving the JW farce BEFORE....BEFORE you get baptized, and that is the advice I give to the lurkers out there.
oh, by the way, if you're talking to hyperloyal.
bethelites and higherups, they don't like the word.
"downsizing" used in reference to headquarters.
Heh - let them call it whatever they want. The end result is the same, as with any other comapany in their position.
Yeah, there will be references to the 'greater number cooling off'. So what?! Again, how many JWs actually remember the organization's growth as 'proof' that Jehovah had their back?! You KNOW they do, and so do they. After all, it wasn't THAT long ago.
Let those 'barely' educated Bethel hopefuls come home without employment prospects, AND without those golden-city-stories about Bethel life. Let them come home dejected and without all the 'you-should-so-this' stories for the kids at the Kingdom Hall. The lack of those Bethel cheerleaders does more damage to the WT than we can ever hope to.
What happens when the Bethel heroes come home to tell the kids, 'Stay in school - go to College'? Ha! The WT did it to itself!!!!!!
did you ever secretly celebrate a worldly holiday in a way that did or didnt bother your conscience?.
for example on a different day etc?.
cousin allows her son to recieve christmas gifts from non j.w.
My JW grandma always has, and continues to, send birthday cards with money to my JW brother, JW sister, and me. Nobody has refused one yet. Somehow, grandma has decided for herself that she knows how to best help her grandkids, thanks anyways WTS. We love you, Grandma!!
We also do Thanksgiving dinner, altho I'm not even sure if that's as taboo as it used to be. Hell, turkeys are cheap then.....right?!
ok, don't think i'm nuts, but i have a rather personal question to ask you.
it's just that i saw a kid do this and i've never seen it in my life, and then a friend told me it happens to her too...every time.... ok, so the question is:.
do you shed tears and get a runny nose when doing number two?.
I've shed tears during the deed...it was the closest thing I've had to a spiritual experience.
it was great.. me and my freinds + brother stood at the back with our dffd freind talking, smiling and laughing at the po.. we then went to the pub, and go drunk.. brill.. josephus
Ya, I found myself there, as well...
A question for those in the know...does the WT Society dictate outline changes in the the memorial talk from year to year?
The reason I ask is this: I went last year as well, and last year's memorial talk actually impressed the hell outta me. If the WT Society wanted to mainstream the talk and make the JW religion friendlier and less cultish to outsiders, last year's talk was a winner. It was quite simple, it focused on the main points of mankind's sin from Adam, and Christ's sacrifice for redemption.
This year, the talk was a train-wreck. The elder stumbled around the blurry concepts of 2 class Christianity and faith vs works. It was not the simple and friendly message I heard last year. It was NOT the pretty talk to give on the night that members of the general public are likely there. Perhaps the difference was due to the fact that different elders gave these two talks. If that's true, I can accept that - it just seems that there's something more to it, so I was wondering if the WT Society tells the congregations which topics to stress from year to year. Can somebody tell me?
i was at a wedding last summer were i met an old friend.
he had been reinstated for 6 months, he was dfed for 4 years.. he had been an elder for 10 years before that, he had commited adultery with another "brothers" wife.
i asked him how it was going.
My old man is still informally shunned by a certain group of JWs.
What happened was, he left us when I was a kid. He left mom, brother, sister, and I, and the witnesses....he DA's himself. He did whatever he did...his pathetic excuse for a conscience bothered him at some point, so he returned to the cult. He married another woman, a JW (his 3rd. marriage), and now he's in 'good standing' (reinstated)with another congregation across town, but...
There's still this certain group of witnesses, mostly from 'our' original congregation who still view my dad as the dirtbag he is, and will not associate with him DESPITE the official-seal-of-approval from the WTS. It amuses me, because he's a worse asshole now than before he left...perhaps he believes that if the WTS says he's ok...then he really must be ok. Whatever....he'll never convince that group from our congregation.
hey all..... i recently heard the funniest prank..... a neighbour of mine came over, with a beer i might add.... nice fellow... and during conversation found out that i used to be a witness... he was asking me questions and then he got this funny smirk on his face... i thought it was something i said, so i asked him what i did.... he started laughing and said he was just remembering what he and a friend did about three years ago around christmas time..... i had been out of the borg for over a year at that point.... apparently, these two pranksters... of course whilst drinking deeply of the barley and hops laden waters of life.... went to a canadian tire, bought $75 worth of christmas lights (about $5 usd...lol) and in the wee hours of a sunday morning... put them up around my old kh and lit them up for all to see when they came in for the 10 am meeting..... i asked around and apparently it's true!
laugh!
i thought i'd die!!!!!
Consider it done, this December!!
just had a flashback i thought i would share.. i distinctly remember, when i was only about 8 or 10 years old, suddenly having what one might call an epiphany.. i thought that my entire life and existence was part of some huge social science experiment (of course i didn't use this language when i was 10 years old, but am simply trying to use the correct words to describe my childish feelings).. i felt that my parents weren't really my parents, but were part of the stimulii to provoke a reaction from me; a reaction which was intensely studied by unseen scientists who were watching me, 24/7.
i speculated about whether or not my school friends were "in on it" of if that was "real world" and only my home life was part of the study.. here's the kicker.
i thought that the whole jw religion was the centerpiece of the experiment.
Quotes,
Damn, you're creeping me out! I entertained the same line of thinking as a kid, but I recall it happening to me as an early teenager.
Thankfully, those doubts kept me from getting dunked as a dub, while my friends at the hall were doing the deed. The pressure was quite intense during those years, I don't know how I held out.
sociologically speaking as a religion, the jw's are at a threshold of continued cultishness and obscurity, or re-oriontation to a more 'mainline' christian religion with its own unique distinctiveness.
i say the wt will take the middle ground....
Care to expostulate?
What exactly is the 'middle ground'? I'm having a tough time imagining one.
