there are many cultural differences between the general population of the us and europe, what about jws?
i have heard about such things as beards being allowed, movies that a jw cant watch in the us or would be frowned upon watching being ok, same with tv shows, and even the way they dress in public.
seems more laid back over there if this is true.. any truth to this?
happen to know several witnesses from the US, while it still depends on the local congregation, in general, it seems in the US all is more for rules and regulations than here in Europe.
Funny though, that even in Europe, the more north you go, the more relaxed things seem to be...
i know the question is long, but it has occured to me that there are a lot of newbies here but before that, many ex elders, some co and do's that are no longer jw's.... did the publishers comments at a jc about the misconceptions,dates, and lack of holy spirit, etc.
make sense to you and did you start thinking about the failed prophecies, fudging the "new light" etc.
which caused you to slowly fade away.. .
oups, sorry just realized the typos, writing too fast while working
i know the question is long, but it has occured to me that there are a lot of newbies here but before that, many ex elders, some co and do's that are no longer jw's.... did the publishers comments at a jc about the misconceptions,dates, and lack of holy spirit, etc.
make sense to you and did you start thinking about the failed prophecies, fudging the "new light" etc.
which caused you to slowly fade away.. .
I remember my first JC, I was more nervous than the poor sister, she was accused of adultery, her husband already forgave her, and i have to say, the presiding elder of the JC was quite compassionate and did not go into details. However, I still felt weird, three brothers judging over one sister...
Then I had a couple of other porneia cases, where the bros/sis confessed and more or less wanted to establish their relationship to jehovah. in those cases the JC was more for comforting than judging them.
However, in one of the elder school I attended the title of a program part was about how to judge with justice, and I thought by myself, that Jesus said, we should not judge. i hateed elder schools anyway, and this part in particular.
Then I had two different cases, which were steps to my waking up ( I needed more steps, since I was deep asleep ;-)
One was my first case, that ended in disfellowshipping. there was really no room for a decision otherwise, since the sister lived togther with someone, and had no intnetion to break up her relationship. However, I felt really bad afterwards for a long time, thinking, who am I to make such a decision...
The other case involved a young brother, babtized as a a child, and becomeing a teen, he kind off faded form the meetings, and started his own life. Actually the elders would have not pressured him, but his parents, uber-witnesses, wanted clearance and turned him in. He refused to attend a meeting, but he was kind of pressured to write a DA-letter, which results in a formal JC. In this situation I refused to be even part of this formal JC out of conscietous reasons, because he was too young when he was babtized. My fellow eldersa accepted my stance, however, i doubt they really understood, what i meant. They perhaps thought, i was handicapped, because I was close to this young brother, which was true to some extent, but this was nt the reason of my refusal.
All this expereince in time showed me, there is something wrong with the whole concept, but I didnt know what. Only information on the internet lifted the veil completely.
any gamers out there?
i love a good game.
to me a great game is like a great book!
Love games, like skyrim, gothic, mass effect, drago age, but also strategy like total war series...
play on PC and PS3
gives me soo much more than simply watching TV...
i can't come out until the summertime.
in the mean time, i have to feign interest like i want to stay so i don't end up homeless.. .
i can't sit at the meetings without getting visibily irritated.
"*some names have been changed ;-)" LOL
so i was working at my 2nd job today in a store and i was the cashier for most of the day.
it's been about 2 weeks since i've been to a meeting & i hadn't shaved so i had a somewhat hipster-ish stubbly beard going on.
also my hair has gotten slightly longer, nothing noticeable to the world but something that would turn a few heads at the kingdom hall.
nice story, and always a good thing to remember, that most uf us here were just as delusioned as this man...
has anyone heard quiet rumblings of new light on the meaning of the 144,000?
to look for 144,000 congregations of jehovah's people as there are now almost 112,000 congregations?
has anyone heard this?.
the only change I would ever see considering 144000 is being symbolic,
this other idea is just even too crazy for the GB
now that you realise how idiotic some of the jw beliefs are/were, do you feel ashamed of how gullible you were to believe them?.
if anything my past as an adult jw makes me understand how easily manipulated people are by the people and environment around them.
and that even intelligent people can be influenced beyond what is rational..
yes, very much so, i even thought, for me, there to believe something I need to have enough proof.
So I thought, becuase I only followed the reasonings of the WTS, hardly looked at "the other side".
However, in time, some things didn`t click, but I buried all the doubts under the "wait for jehovah" thought-stopper.
what the title says.
do you think the wts doctrine that says that christ was made king in 1914 is about to change?
if you think that's being orchestrated and prepared, do you see signs of that already?
Where I live, I see lots of attetion from media given to 100th anniversary of 1914, with lots of documentaries in TV, or magazins, books etc..
Mostly they will agree, what big chances 1914 brought for people back then, with influence even to our time.
All this actually will be used by the WTS to support their stance regarding the outstanding year 1914, and will probably stress how history proofs the bible, or at least their interpretation of the bible, which in turn proofs, that they are the one and only true religion. Russel and friends foretold 1914 right ? Doenst matter what he exactly foretold, but he mentioned the magic date 1914, therefore he was almost insipired, even though not anymore the FDS.
Will they drop 1914 ? Yes, eventually, but not in the next couple of years....maybe decades...
reading the first couple of awakes for 2013 i think there is a pattern developing.. they have the regular "could it have happened by chance" article on something amazing in nature but they are also interviewing a scientist who is also a witness.
this is a pretty interesting tack on a number of levels.. firstly it is sending out the implicit message that "look, this educated person accepts creation, the flood and every other account that is at odds with generally accepted science, so that should give you confidence that you are right as well".
secondly, as a magazine designed for public comsumption is suggests to non-witnesses that there are many well educated people who accept the bible.
answer for "breakfast of champions":
sorry for the late answer, I didnt have access during weekend:
However the sisters name does not start with "G".
Greetings,
inbetween
