Posts by Hopscotch

as many know the wt society yearly puts out calls in their publications for witnesses to donate trust funds, wills, inheritances, estates, jewelry, cars and whatever else they have to promote the aleged " kingdom interests " in furthering the " good news " around the world.. personally i feel it's all been a scam to continue exercising control over witnesses by influencing them to financially deprive themselves so the wt society can continue it's operations.

Hopscotch

Hi Flipper

I personally know of an old sister that left her house to the local congregation who then sold it to my sister and her husband (his dad was the executor).

And we had a witness couple in our congregation that we were friends with who had a large piece of land that they donated to the local congregation to build a kingdom hall on. This couple had their own successful business but a few years after giving away that land they lost their own home due to a couple of big unpaid debts to their business. This couple are now quite elderly (he's 80 and she's 75) and have very little, meanwhile that block of land would now be worth millions.

Reading through the replies on this thread made me wonder if one of the reasons the society now seems to be going all out to disfellowship those who are fading or who faded/left (even if it was many years ago) is because they know from experience that in a lot of cases that parents will cut their disfellowshipped kids out of their will, which then opens up the possibility of the inheritance going to the WTS instead.

Hopscotch

PS - Hope you and Mrs Flipper are ok with the fires in the mountains

10

Out and feeling lost, with no friends? Have faith! (my uplifting experience :D)

by teel in

maybe not many of you remember my anguish through the last year since i joined jwn.

in the meantime i lost my wife (the official divorce is due in ~two weeks), lost all my friends (thank god no family though, except the wife), battled the wts and sort-of lost.

just like most of you when you got through this experience i was lost and confused, coult not found my place in life.. i owe much gratitude to this board for giving me the much needed information and support that i am not alone, and what i'm feeling is not something unusual.

Hopscotch

Thanks teel that is really an uplifting experience. I'm very happy for you that you have been able to find new friends and move on from the JW experience. It gives me hope.

All the best

Hopscotch

66

How did you choose your screenname for jw.net?

by Voices in

jw
friends

alright, i'm curious now cause i've been wanting to know how certain people go their screennames.

now some people have their names involved with makes sense and so forth.

but i guess i'll start out.

Hopscotch

I chose Hopscotch because it is the title of one of my favourite movies starring Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson. It is about a CIA agent who gets tired of the lies and dirty tricks going on and bucks the system. When they try to demote him he turns the tables on them and exposes them. It is a very clever and very funny movie. So I thought it was kind of an appropriate name then to use for someone who leaves JWs/WTS and then helps expose their lies and dirty tricks.

Hopscotch

43

Was the legend about Smurfs being demonic just an urban legend, or was it mentioned in the literature?

by IsaacJ22 in

jw
friends

i never heard about the smurfs being evil until i joined the forum.

but when i look in the volume library, the word doesn't come up.

i was wondering if anyone ever heard mention of it in the literature--as in, was it an official position?.

Hopscotch

Well the smurf legend even reached Australian kingdom halls. Many many years ago we heard the story (JW myth/legend) of the smurf toy being brought to the hall by a bible studies child or a witness kid and the toy getting up and shouting out during the meeting and then running out of the hall. So everybody got rid of their smurf toys and even years and years later it was 'known' that smurfs were demonised!

Hopscotch

27

Finally! We bought a house...

by Aussie Oz in

jw
friends

some of you may remember the drama we have had first trying to buy land, then an old community hall.

both didn't work out.... well to day we signed our mortgage papers at the bank!

it has been 4 weeks since we signed a contract and it took till today to finalize it...banks sure do drag the chain!.

Hopscotch

Sounds great Aussie. Take care with the chooks. A friend who lives in rural NSW just recently had all her chickens killed by quolls!

We're on 3/4 acre in QLD but would love more land. 3 acres is a really good size - not too big and quite manageable.

All the best

Hopscotch

27

Finally! We bought a house...

by Aussie Oz in

jw
friends

some of you may remember the drama we have had first trying to buy land, then an old community hall.

both didn't work out.... well to day we signed our mortgage papers at the bank!

it has been 4 weeks since we signed a contract and it took till today to finalize it...banks sure do drag the chain!.

Hopscotch

Good on you Aussie. Hope it works out well for you and your family. Having 3 acres will be great - are you going to do fruit trees/vegies/chooks on it?

Hopscotch

27

Hello!

by factfinder in

jw
friends

i'm new here, this is my first post.

have been reading so many comments from you guys over the past few months and now i can finally comment too!.

it is amazing how long it took me to see that jw's are not god's organization and that their teachings do not really find support in the bible.. now i'm not really sure what i believe.

Hopscotch

Welcome factfind - it's good to have you with us.

I can relate to what you mentioned about not knowing what to believe now but isn't it great being able to have the freedom to think for ourselves and be free from the control of religion.

All the best

Hopscotch

22

Is "The Truth" Killing You, Lurkers?

by metatron in

jw
friends

as an elder of many years, i was continually struck with the abundance of chronically ill witnesses whose disease appeared to be related to their own stress at trying to meet the endless demands of the "truth".

i am not a medical professional but i don't need to be a doctor to know that the depression and virtual self loathing ('i'm not good enough, i must do more, i'm a bad parent....") sets a stage for ill health.. and now science backs up that conclusion:.

http://www.amazon.com/when-body-says-understanding-stress-disease/dp/0471219827.

Hopscotch

I believe 'the truth' played a major role in killing my mother. She put off going to the doctors for many months because she wanted nothing to interfere with getting to the December 2003 international convention in Sydney. After getting back from the convention she finally went to the doctors, was diagnosed with cancer and was dead a year later. Who knows what might have been if she had gone to the docs early.

Hopscotch