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AMNESIAN
Captivity: 7/1972 - 2/2001
AMNESIANO
JoinedPosts by AMNESIANO
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140
How do we set up a "Used New Bike Fund" for Terry?
by BucketShopBill inis there any way we can try to start a crowd-fund to help terry get some wheels quicker than he currently can?
with craigslist and a couple of bucks from a few members we can help terry get moving.
does anyone have any ideas how we can do a "theists for terry" bike fund raiser and challenge the atheists to a bucket-head challenge?
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AMNESIANO
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51
Modern JW Org
by Infowarrior inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzaw1xe8q70.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvqru9keiw4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlsfyfiyzgg.
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AMNESIANO
My head is exploding. Can somebody please help me out here?? What the hell am I looking at in that first video?? In all of them actually! From their dress I can see they are JWs, but beyond that...what's going on?? Singing, dancing-ish, merry-making in JW attire on what appears to be JW property...?
What gives? Did Jesus return? What, where, who...when did all this start...and why!??
All of you seem to know what this is about. I, though, am stunned and don't get it. Clue me in.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
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15
Are Jdubs going to put the elderly out to pasture with JW.org?
by Coffee House Girl init will be interesting to see how things play out...but one example which got me to thinking about this is my mother.
my mom is a 76 year old regular pioneer (she is one of those who believes that you are "nothing" if you are not a pioneer...the position is everything)-.
i am moving in two weeks to go to grad school, so i have been trying to go out to visit...say goodbye...do things for her before i leave.
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AMNESIANO
Excellent topic about which I think more and more these days. You've laid out the dilemma faced by many--if not most of-- the elderly faithful exactly so, as represented by your mom's circumstance.
Looking forward to this discussion and adding my own thoughts when I have time I don't at present. Thanks for starting it.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
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13
" Why did you leave the truth?", and, "will you come back ?"
by Phizzy inwhen in conversation with jw's those questions, or varients of them, often come up.
i have noticed though, that because of their fear of any challenge to their faith, they do not wish to hear the answers, so i have developed an answer which at least i hope accomplishes a couple of things.. what i say to the first question (why did you leave ?
) is "because i am a lover of truth", to the second,( will i come back ?
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AMNESIANO
JW Q: "Why did you leave the truth/stop coming to the meetings?"
My A: In order to obey the scriptural command at Revelation 18:4,5:
I don't quote the scripture. Instead I pause in order to give them time to recall for themselves the exact wording.
(Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Get out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues, for her sins have piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.")
As you all are well-aware this is one of the stock scriptures every JW has memorized to apply exclusively to churches of 'Christendom' and 'Babylon the Great.' I begin to smirk a tiny bit once it flashes across their faces that the implication has sunk in. They invariably stop dead in their tracks--dumbfounded, puzzled, and speechless--with nary a "yeahbut" comeback.
Great fun and the best part? It never fails.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
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33
VERY short day at the Arlington/Dallas International Convention-My Observations
by CaptainSchmideo inokay, some good takeaway:.
i have never been to a convention quite like this before.
a very friendly vibe all around, lots of banners and posters with sayings like "sending love to all our brothers", "see you in the paradise", "ecuador sends greetings", and "jehovahs-witness.net" (okay, i lied on that last one...).
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AMNESIANO
"What I've noticed in the Org. is that one food, when eaten, permanently kills a JW woman's sex drive everytime: wedding cake."
Obviously you need enlightening, so here ya go: if there's anything that kills the JW woman's sex drive, it ain't food.
It's JW men.
Glad to be of service. Pay it forward.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
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92
COBE cannot be 80 or more
by fader77 ina new letter no longer allows an elder to be cobe if hes 80 or more.
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AMNESIANO
Huh...??
"Of course, a co-ordinator of the body of elders who is not yet 80 years of age might also modestly decide that it would now be best to have another brother take on this role."
This sloppy wording would indicate that neither any male already 80 years of age nor any "who is not yet 80 years of age"--thus, every other male--should serve as the CoBoE.
Unless the breaking news is that women are to begin assuming these positions, one is left to assume the reference is intended for men imminently approaching 80, i.e., 79 year-old incumbent coordinators.
That is not, however, what it says.
Not trying to tell Jehovah how to run His organization, but perhaps completion of a freshman level "Introduction to Basic English Composition" course should be required for those He anoints as scribes to pen His holy communications to His faithful.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
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31
Memorial Attendance: The Single Most Impactful TTATT "Witness" to Family and Friends
by AMNESIANO inanyone who has awakened to ttatt and conscientiously left the organization--especially a once-prominent individual from a prominent multi-generational tribe of jws-- after decades of devout, high-profile "serve-us," who continues to put in an annual appearance at the memorial thoroughly subverts and undermines, by this one act, any hope s/he may entertain that his/her departure will stir family or former friends to question the whole watchtower bamboozle.
by this one concession s/he assigns him-/herself by every single jw to their handy and dimissive purgatory: the "spiritually-weak.".
nothing blasts a louder, clearer, and more deliberate message to the jws who personally knew you and those familiar with your jw bona fides that you are not merely "not making the meetings" or "spiritually-weak" but that there is a conscientious reason you have rejected the entire watchtower society life than choosing to forego what they know you know to be their one-and-only holy and sacred event of the year, the lord's evening meal.
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AMNESIANO
I couldn't resist a few additional thoughts.
While I steadfastly object to attending the Watchtower's annual Lord's Evening Meal precisely because of its sacred significance to Witnesses, I make a concerted effort to attend the funeral/memorial service for any of my former friends who die. Besides wanting to express my genuine condolences, I believe these to be critical opportunities to demonstrate emphatically that:
- It is the WT organization and its leadership and teachings that I have rejected and not their victims
- I am perfectly willing and able to enter a KH for that occasion which has meaning for me (which says obviously the Memorial does not)
- I have not been "stumbled," nor am I depressed or in shame-faced, self-imposed seclusion
- I have not left "the truth" in order to pursue a life of geriatric(!) debauchery
- I am perfectly at peace, not for one moment believing in or in fear of some so-called wrath of Jehovah at Armageddon...or Harmageddon...or back to Armageddon again!
- Finally, I have no desire or intention to ever return (which is another impression encouraged by Memorial attendance)
(By the way, I make it a point to always wear a pantsuit on these occasions. Always, without exception. I positively delight in the gasps and tsk-tsking that virtually ripple through the building! Again, message delivered--without utterance.)
Now, you may wonder if my strategies have netted any verifiable results, i.e., other escapées? While I have no empirical evidence I can produce to prove they have, I do have reasons to strongly suspect ( I won't disclose what they are--you'll just have to take my word for it) that my course has caused certain ones who knew me best to conclude that mine was a conscious decision deliberately made, one for which I have absolutely no regrets.
And they ponder the reason, which is all I intend. The rest is up to the individual.
As as for my husband, there is no mistaking the fact that he no longer believes the FDS--whoever they claim to be on any given day--has any unique or special standing with God or that JWs are "true Christians" in sole possession of some infallible "truth." For that I take unapologetic credit. H e stays in out of habit. Inertia mostly. It's his way in everything, not just religion --the course of least resistance. And, frankly, but for the occasional dust-up on the matter, I'm fine with it. Neither of us is young anymore so it's not like I've some great aspirations I am prevented pursuing because of his cult indoctrination. We each make concessions where willing and go our separate ways when we cannot or will not (as tonight when he'll be attending the Memorial, which I never ever will do again).
Again, respectfully, I believe it possible to convey a distinct, unambiguous message to thinking Witnesses, given their unique indoctrination and JW-centric world view, only by rejecting the entirety of their dogma and rituals, especially their one and only sacred and most holy ritual. Any appearance of "nibbling" at Jehovah's so-called "spiritual table" garbles your message disastrously, demeans you and squanders a precious opportunity.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
Last Memorial attendance: April 8, 2001
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31
Memorial Attendance: The Single Most Impactful TTATT "Witness" to Family and Friends
by AMNESIANO inanyone who has awakened to ttatt and conscientiously left the organization--especially a once-prominent individual from a prominent multi-generational tribe of jws-- after decades of devout, high-profile "serve-us," who continues to put in an annual appearance at the memorial thoroughly subverts and undermines, by this one act, any hope s/he may entertain that his/her departure will stir family or former friends to question the whole watchtower bamboozle.
by this one concession s/he assigns him-/herself by every single jw to their handy and dimissive purgatory: the "spiritually-weak.".
nothing blasts a louder, clearer, and more deliberate message to the jws who personally knew you and those familiar with your jw bona fides that you are not merely "not making the meetings" or "spiritually-weak" but that there is a conscientious reason you have rejected the entire watchtower society life than choosing to forego what they know you know to be their one-and-only holy and sacred event of the year, the lord's evening meal.
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AMNESIANO
AMNESIAN - will your own husband be attending the Memorial again this year?
Yes, gingerbread, he will attend with members of his birth family, as he has since I stopped in 2001. He's nothing approaching the true-believer he once was, but he's also not one for change of any kind. So he'll be there quite cynically asking himself "who really is the faithful and discreet slave??"
Who indeed.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
Last Memorial attendance: April 8, 2001
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31
Memorial Attendance: The Single Most Impactful TTATT "Witness" to Family and Friends
by AMNESIANO inanyone who has awakened to ttatt and conscientiously left the organization--especially a once-prominent individual from a prominent multi-generational tribe of jws-- after decades of devout, high-profile "serve-us," who continues to put in an annual appearance at the memorial thoroughly subverts and undermines, by this one act, any hope s/he may entertain that his/her departure will stir family or former friends to question the whole watchtower bamboozle.
by this one concession s/he assigns him-/herself by every single jw to their handy and dimissive purgatory: the "spiritually-weak.".
nothing blasts a louder, clearer, and more deliberate message to the jws who personally knew you and those familiar with your jw bona fides that you are not merely "not making the meetings" or "spiritually-weak" but that there is a conscientious reason you have rejected the entire watchtower society life than choosing to forego what they know you know to be their one-and-only holy and sacred event of the year, the lord's evening meal.
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AMNESIANO
Anyone who has awakened to TTATT and conscientiously left the organization--especially a once-prominent individual from a prominent multi-generational tribe of JWs-- after decades of devout, high-profile "serve-us," who continues to put in an annual appearance at the Memorial thoroughly subverts and undermines, by this one act, any hope s/he may entertain that his/her departure will stir family or former friends to question the whole Watchtower bamboozle. By this one concession s/he assigns him-/herself by every single JW to their handy and dimissive purgatory: the "spiritually-weak."
Nothing blasts a louder, clearer, and more deliberate message to the JWs who personally knew you and those familiar with your JW bona fides that you are not merely "not making the meetings" or "spiritually-weak" but that there is a conscientious reason you have rejected the entire Watchtower Society life than choosing to forego what they know you know to be their one-and-only holy and sacred event of the year, the Lord's Evening Meal
Such a singular disregard cannot and will not be misconstrued. It puts thinking minds to work. All accomplished without a word.
Conversely, every appearance you continue to make at the Memorial confirms to JWs that they're right and, thereby, superior and that you are one to be judged and looked down upon because you couldn't/didn't cut it. It says "I'm no longer 'spiritually-mature' enough to make the weekly meetings regularly or to go out in field service, but I still know this is The Truth so I attend the Memorial."
You hand them the very justification they so relish to self-righteously contemn you later as a "submarine Witness" deserving of their pity, or worse. More tragically, though, you squander your prize opportunity to nudge the brighter ones to seriously ponder the possible reason for your shocking departure.
Attending the Watchtower's Lord's Evening Meal is a colossally misguided concession to go-along-to-get-along for anyone whose intention or desire it is to awaken(!) others to consciousness.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001
Last Memorial attendance: April 8, 2001
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22
WT Study Article Counsels JWs To Be Humane Towards Disfellowshiped Ones
by baldeagle inwt august 1, 1974 pp.
467-468 maintaining a balanced viewpoint toward disfellowshiped ones.
5 it is right to hate the wrong committed by the disfellowshiped one, but it is not right to hate the person nor is it right to treat such ones in an inhumane way.suppose, then, a member of a christian congregation boating on a lake were to see another boat containing a disfellowshiped person capsize, throwing the disfellowshiped one into the water where he struggled to stay afloat.
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AMNESIANO
The organizational position reflected in this 40-year old article has long since been considered "old light" and has been superseded by several ones that harshly overturn and thoroughly abandon the sentiments expressed here. Many have come to believe, myself included, that Raymond Franz was likely instrumental in promoting any uncharacteristically humane and reasonable organizational stances that were briefly encouraged prior to the 1980s.
AMNESIAN
Captive 7/1972 - 2/2001