Posts by Reopened Mind

12

The Kindness of Strangers

by serenitynow! in

jw
friends

something really nice happened to my sister today.

she was sitting outside the airport where she works, waiting for her ride home.

a man sat down next to her and pulled out a cigarette.

What a touching story serenitynow. Thanks for sharing. Good kind people will be generous and stingy disgruntled people will walk all over others with their self righteous attitudes. It matters not whether they are JWs or not although the WT does seem to magnify the negative characteristics. I have seen what sinis describes among the witnesses, including scam artists who "fleeced the flock" as well as genuinely kind people who have helped when we needed it most. I have also experienced the kindness of strangers.

I am truly happy for your sister. May she overcome her smoking. Perhaps that will help her find another better job should she become laid off. Or perhaps she will not lose her job after all. In any case I wish the best to you and your sister.

Reopened Mind

23

Research Data Wanted: Married to a JW or child of one parent in and the other not

by Lady Lee in

i am looking for information from several groups of people.. people who are no longer jws but have a spouse who is still in.

never-been jwswas a jw (baptized or not) but left after marrying and spouse remained indfed, daed or faded and still have a spouse who is inchildren (now grown) who were raised with one parent a jw and the other never beenchildren (now grown) where one parent left the jws and one stayed in.if there are categories i have missed let me know.

i need this to be pretty inclusive and focused on couples where one person is a jw and the other is not.. i will be asking questions re:.

Reopened Mind

Lady Lee,

Will you have a niche for someone like me who began studying with Witnesses as a teenager? My mother was very opposed. My father although he didn't like me studying ran some interference for me with my mother. The time period was in the late sixties when the "Armageddon is coming in 1975 hype" was at its peak. Just saying, the teen years are so vulnerable. I was baptised, married a JW, and raised two boys in the cult.

Reopened Mind

14

What's Your Favorite Shopping Destination?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i'm a sucker for dollar stores, discount stores and bargain outlets.

give me a tjx/ marshall's store over bloomingdales anyday!.

Reopened Mind

Outlet Malls and Antique Malls. I have a good laugh when I find things in the antique mall I have been using at home! I also like craft shows and festivals.

Reopened Mind

12

"The Brothers"

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

.

the longer you spend away from the organisation, the more utterly cringeworthy this term sounds when you hear it.. like they are all one big happy family.

what jw phrases make you cringe?.

Reopened Mind

One term that always made me cringe was calling non Witnesses "worldly". You could tell by their tone of voice how derogatory they meant it.

Reopened Mind

78

My Sister Died This Morning After Refusing Blood On Four Occasions.

by still wondering in

Reopened Mind

TotallyADD and I send you our deepest sympathies.

Reopened Mind

71

Some JWs are exhibiting signs of violence because of WT hate speech. Read the threat to me and others posted at Topix yesterday

by AndersonsInfo in

yesterday, i opened a topix account so i could post the information about watch tower representatives attending the political ocse meeting in poland for two weeks and the proof that they are an ngo.

one of the posters responded with these words: .

"barbs-info," eh?

Reopened Mind

Barb,

You are the courageous one who has put herself out there with your unflinching reporting on all things Watchtower. Unfortunately this has made you a target for the unstable element within the JW ranks.

So far these are just empty threats. However should rhetoric escalate into actual violence against ex JWs the WT Society will sit back and refuse to take responsibility for their part in whipping up the mentally unstable to action. I would truly hate to see anything bad happen to you and your husband. However I fear that some sort of violence is inevitable against former JWs. I beg you please watch your back. Don't hesitate to call the authorities should anything be suspicious. Don't let your voice be silenced. You are guaranteed the right of freedom of speech by the Constitution.

You are one of my heroes. Please don't be intimidated by morons.

Reopened Mind

82

Are YOU a Believer, Atheist, Agnostic, Active JW or WHAT?

by Greybeard in

jw
friends

sorry if this has been asked before but i would love to know the current ratio on this forum.. i'm a believer/christian former jw for 45 years... born in .

what are you now and what were you?.

.

Reopened Mind

I was agnostic before becoming a Witness and have returned to my agnostic beliefs. Though now I like to call myself a secular humanist because I believe in the human spirit, not any supernatural "holy spirit".

Reopened Mind

55

As a JW - Did you See Meetings Continue in Spite of Medical Emergencies?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i was talking the other day with a fellow board member about medical emergencies occuring at meetings and how we both agreed that we ( while jw's ) had never seen a meeting stop or be cancelled due to medical emergencies experienced by a fellow jw.

the wt society trains jw' s to lose their authentic human feelings or any empathy towards others physical or emotional sufferings many times.

so many times at meetings , in spite of someone suffering a serious medical emergency it was " the show must go on " type of attitude displayed by congregation elders.. my first experience at seeing a medical emergency at the kingdom hall was an older sister who had an epileptic attack.

Reopened Mind

TotallyADD was giving a talk at a nearby hall when about ten minutes into the talk an elderly sister in the back of the hall slumped over. Naturally everyone turned to see what was going on. TotallyADD looked to the chairman desparately wanting him to stop the meeting. Instead he motioned to continue which is what my husband did. He said he never felt so foolish giving his talk to the back of heads. No one was listening, he just read verbatim from the outline. We later would say that we would never be invited back because someone died during his talk. Sad, so sad. That was back in the days when the JW indoctrination was strong in us.

Reopened Mind

18

My trouble

by bushido8000 in

jw
friends

i have been facing a small dilemma for some years now.

i have been in the truth since i was 5 years old.

after experiencing some troubles with man-made rules (non-scriptural, told me that i absolutely could not join my small school's football team) in the kingdom hall when i was about 16, i stopped going to take a step back and look at what was going on.

Reopened Mind

I'm glad you found your way here. You still have most of your life ahead of you. So now is the best time to ask questions. Then thoroughly research the answers. The library, the internet can be a wealth of information. Many posters on here have seen the organization from the inside out, serving as elders, pioneers, and more. My husband, TotallyADD served as an elder for more than 20 years. I was a regular pioneer. Together we raised our 2 boys in the organization. Post any question here that you can think of and someone will answer or you can PM one of us if you want a more private answer. We are here to help.

Reopened Mind

5

It was only a matter of time...

by MrFreeze in

... until the braindead family would push the 607 magazine on me.

yeah, my stepdad stopped by the house because he locked himself out of his house and i still have a key.

so i take him over to his house and he proceeds to tell me about the article which i've heard about on here.

Reopened Mind

I haven't read the WT magazine. If you could get your hands on the book "The Gentile Times Reconsidered" by Carl Olaf Johannsen you would have in your possession proof after proof that Jerusalem's destruction ocurred in 587/586 BC. It's a very thorough scholarly book by a former JW. It weighs in with historical, astronomical, and archaelogical evidence. I know you will enjoy it. I got my copy from www.freeminds.org.

Reopened Mind

edit: I just checked freeminds and the book is listed as out of stock. Amazon carries it. I don't understand why it is new for $25.95 but used copies are $100.00-$498.00.