Dear Lifelong Humanist,
I'm truly, truly sorry about your loss... I have no words...
The more I learn about you, the more I realize you are a good man.
By the way, enjoy those pints with each one of your sons!
after 6 years since i dad myself, it has just dawned on me today, that my jw wife is (probably) only still involved with her jw religion because of her religious belief in a resurrection back to life on a 'paradise earth'!.
let me please explain - our first child was a wee girl, born in 1972. her name was joanna.
she was a great, intelligent, healthy child and we were both proud parents with a marvellous hope - a 'jw' certified version of the future ahead of us!.
Dear Lifelong Humanist,
I'm truly, truly sorry about your loss... I have no words...
The more I learn about you, the more I realize you are a good man.
By the way, enjoy those pints with each one of your sons!
i've read a few other threads about cult mind control as well as steven hassans book comabatting cult mind control.
i also read a thread questioning the watchtowers motives.
are they in it for the money or what?
Freydo, the poem is very good! Worth memorizing.
Dear CoCo,
Please read my reply to the post you sent yesterday and judge if you are giving or not... Two little persons will definitely see a difference today thanks to you.
with envy i gaze through rheumy eyes upon the young father whose children clasp daddy's legs and beg him play.
i am planted all day long upon my park bench, sinewy roots sinking deep down, in and around the splintery slats.
smiling and eager to please, daddy does their silly bidding.
Dear Coco,
Sorry, but I didn't quite grasp it: it's not you, is it? Your stories are so touching!
After reading this one, I can't wait for my 10 year-old son and my 8 year-old daughter to be home tonight. And this is a promise, Coco: at least today, I'll try to remember what you wrote and I'll gladly come to them every time they call me, whether to help them with homework, to hold the paper for them so they can cut something out straight, to show me a drawing, to ask me to hand them the sponge they forgot to take to the shower with them, to ask me if they can have another cookie or to beg me for one more goodnight kiss... You've made me think of how often I show my impatience at their continuous requests... But I won't, today at least, and it will be thanks to you. And I'll do it for you, for them, for me... And maybe tomorrow as well...Because they are growing fast, because one day I will look back and long for the warmth of their bodies when I crawl into their beds at night to read bedtime stories, because one day I'll crave for their calls and their need for me. And that day won't take long, I know.
Thank you, Coco.
here is another issue of our boredom ministry.
beware of pagan winter customs: are winter tires and light for christians?.
being as angels in the heavens: what did jesus mean when he said that resurrected ones would not marry?.
Dear processor,
I've sent you a PM.
greetings, dear friends:.
the day is bright and beautiful, yet i'm traveling to a space somewhere inward.
i dropped the broom while sweeping leaves on deck and hastened slowly to put my old and fading man's introspection to paper.
Very, very beautiful, Coco. I enjoyed reading your poem. Please keep it up.
while waiting for the bus yesterday, i overheard (wasn't trying - but due to his volume, impossible to avoid) a guy on his cell phone talking to someone about his likely imminent dismissal from his employment.. but he then went on to say that he had full confidence that god would take care of him, and he wasn't worried at all about finding new employment.. then i got home, watched the news, and found out that 4 million kenyans are in danger of starving to death because of a year-long drought there.. so i got to thinking - how exactly does god set priorities?.
the guy at the bus stop is not the first christian i've heard express his confidence that god chooses to intervene and help in the lives of individual believers.
he saves them from car wrecks, he helps them find jobs, he lends some sort of invisible emotional support to help them cope with the death of a child, and so on.. on the other hand, millions of people suffer excruciating pain for months or years before finally dying covered in mud with flies crawling on them - no relief from god in sight.. why does god help one middle-aged guy who's never been hungry in his life find a new job in time so that he doesn't miss his $3000 mortgage payment, but not send a little rain to help a land where millions of people are already living in misery and filth?.
Chalam, why don't you go and sing Stevie Wonder's song to the child who is about to be severely beaten/raped by his/ her father, to the parent whose child is dying of hunger/ disease/ an accident in his/her arms, to the psychologically vulnerable whose distress is probably beyond our imagination... ? (The list goes on and on...).
Sorry if I sound too abrupt, it's not usually my style, but this subject really hurts the deepest fibre in my heart.
We don't have an explanation. Period.
i hold in my hand the nov. awake magazine entitled "technology - blessing or curse?"..
now, i understand the need for balance and moderation in using technology, as the magazine says - but could they come up with a more intelligent sounding title?
it makes the question sound as if abandoning technology might be a solution, a considered choice, a real possibility.
All of you guys crack me up! You are SO hilarious!
Is there anything intrinsically bad in music?
article by lds writer (mormon) .
the world's best non-lds missionary programs .
best missionary literature printing and distribution program: jehovah's witnesses .
Dear SusanHere,
I don't know who wrote the article.
All I wanted to say to you is that I've always liked LDS, even as a JW for many decades. I liked to see them preaching to others while I was doing the same on the other side of the street. We used to smile at one another and I really felt love for them in my heart. I never felt they were "competing" with me for converts.
And they topped off my good impression of them when they came to our door to preach to us (that was on one of my visits to California). Two such well-mannered good-looking young men! Nobody had ever made the effort to pay me a free visit to talk to me about their beliefs and I appreciated that very, very much. We had them in and I listened to them with interest. Sorry to say, I found their ideas extremely far-fetched, but that didn't matter to me: what counted was their intention, and I thanked them for their time and effort. (I want to clarify that at this point in my life I also find some of our doctrines as improbable and forced as yours sounded to me back then, so please don't take offence).
I'm happy I've had a chance to say this to one of you.
Best wishes.
the jw and the (pseudo?
)scientific "hopes" of individual "everlasting life" (which have been connected on a couple of recent threads) have at least something in common: they all seem to take for granted that death is a bad thing.. as amazing as it may be to you, this amazes me so much that i don't know even where to start.
of course death hurts in reality when you lose people you love, or in imagination when you anticipate your own extinction.
What a fascinating thread! I'm enjoying reading all your comments on it. Oh, Narkissos, how I wish I could be as cool about death as you are! I mean it. I enjoy each day so much I can't resign myself to losing all that inexorably. I may achieve your mental state one day though, I guess it's still too early for me (only six months ago I still believed in eternity with all my heart and soul). I'd love to read Les fleurs du mal. I'm going to see if I can find it on Internet (did you receive the e-mail I sent you a few days ago?).