i am new 2 this forum.. i have been meeting up with 2 jw ladies on a weekly basis.
it has all been "polite".
today we covered a bit of the trinity.. i had read rhodes book on reasoning from the scriptures with jw's, but i found almost all my arguments that i used, in terms of every bible verse we went through (or i attempted to go through with them) went pear shape!
Elizabeth:
This is the real truth about Jehovah's Witnesses. It's all social, in the expanded meaning of the word social.
It's about family, and friends, their way of life, and way of seeing themselves. When I was a JW you could have argued me to death on doctrine and I couldn't have cared less. Even now, discussion about 607 and the trinity and bible prophecy makes my eyes glaze over.
That's the truth.
my cousin told me last week that for the month of february she was ''pioneering''.
here is a person who was divorced 2 years ago and had to move in with her mom because she can't afford to live on her own .she only works 4 days a week.
she pays $600 every 2 months for health insurance because she is self-employed.
I think this is a political, not religious, discussion. If you live in a country where not working pays the same as working, then it makes sense to not work.
i was born into "the truth" back in 1964. i made the big mistake of getting baptised when i was about 14 or so, purely to please my father as i saw how proud he was when my brothers were baptised....didn't work.. we moved to a new congregation when i was about 8, he introduced all my brothers to the congregation by name, a short bio of thier endearing qualities and how proud he was of them, when he introduced me it was "and this is our black sheep of the family, steve".. i remember living in fear at the fast approaching 1975....actually, living in terror is probably a more apt desciption.
all of you will full well know how it was instilled into us at every meeting and assembly how we are living in the last days.. as a 15 year old, a brother dobbed me in for kissing a worldly girl at school.
went through the marked process, judicial committy, disfellowshipped and the shunning which continues to this day by what's left of my family.
I never truly believed that Armageddon was a real event about to happen. Looking back, and looking around, it doesn't make any kind of sense. This planet is an amazing place.
I am angry still that I was raised in an "end-times" religion. No child should be subjected to that.
i won't be going if i can help it, but id like a heads up about it, just to be forewarned.
They count everybody who attends and report it in the Yearbook. My body and soul will never add a 1 to that number, ever.
thinking back, there were a few things i was told then, that now seem rather odd and petty.
i was wondering if these thing are common in the wts or was it just that my girlfriend at the time was a pioneer, and her father was an elder.
(so perhap a bit more "enthusiastic" than others).
It's okay zid, don't feel bad. Will you feel better if I do it instead of you?
"united nations" and "beast".
"united nations".
this reference is done by paul of jwfacts.com .
Even as a full card-carrying Witness I could never understand what the big deal with the United Nations was, or how one could possibly explain the giant leap of faith it took to believe that John's vision of a wild beast was definitely this 20th century organization.
And then to fit the League of Nations into the picture - that was also represented in Revelation by something, wasn't it? What a brain scramble.
Moshe said......
Women today are leery of men who give them bad vibes in the "control department".
Completely correct. Cyberjesus you sound like a controlling nightmare of a man. "They shouldnt be spending time in a room alone with the opposite sex"? She must show "respect for me as a man"? I would run so fast from a man like you.
dozy brought up a good point a few months back about how the wt uses third party terminology to obscure their real motives.
i thought it was a good idea to revisit this wt writing technique.. (http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/184897).
look at the nov 15th 2009 wt, "treasure your place in the congregation" and compare what happens when we replace the third party terminology (words in bold type) with first party words.
I love your story, hamsterman.
When I was a student, I remember having lunch with other classmates.
One of them asked what I believed.
I started "we this we that blah blah barf" as a true witless does.
He listened a while and said: "I am concerned at your constant use of "we". Are you part of a collective hive? Would you still believe this if NOBODY else did?"
from an italian newspaper:.
http://ilpiccolo.gelocal.it/dettaglio/tenutario-di-giorno-testimone-di-geova-di-sera/1845231.
translation:.
I like the change in formatting Outlaw. Easier to read. Hope one day you'll start posting like the rest of us, left-aligned and all that.
i left town after the court case for a fresh start , it was 18 months before dubs knocked on my door , so i told them why i was not interested in their message , aswell as the watchtower payouts in may 2007 ,with gag orders attached , they seemed quite shocked by that but warned me to be carefull what information i read on the web !
i told them that in america they do not make up the news !
they seemed quite shocked about what happened to my child but said it would have ben an isolated case !
looloo, sorry you and your child had to go through that and that you had to encounter a non-conscious hour-counter at your door. For you and others reading this and touched by this, please go to the links in Barbara Anderson's story here.......
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/187809/1/The-Barbara-Anderson-Appreciation-Thread
