Interesting question. I thought about it for a few minutes and I can't really say right now. I was raised in the religion, and it was the vehicle my parents used to teach me all sorts of positive values. It provided stability and taught me a few other skills like public speaking and selling yourself or a point. However, none of those positives are exclusive to JW and the negatives can't be denied. Of course, while growing up, I didn't put much into it myself financially. After leaving home it did take a nice chunk of my income. Of course, as a witness you believe the payoff comes in some New World. Now that I know that is all make believe, I realize all of that money is just lost. But I didn't lose enough to ruin myself and I have wasted money on other stuff as well.
maxwell
JoinedPosts by maxwell
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26
Was Being A Jehovah's Witnesses A Bad Investment For You?
by minimus inyou could look at being a jw in a negative or somewhat positive way.
by that, i mean, for example---some say that had they not been witnesses, they are sure they'd be in jail today.
others might say, their whole lives were robbed of fun and money---simply because they filled their times as preachers and meeting attenders.
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47
1995 "generation change", what were your early thoughts and what was said ?
by run dont walk ini had been long gone by 1995, had i still been in , this would of definitely sent me packing, when the magazines came out in i believe nov 1995, what was your first or early reactions.
what was said from the platform and by the watchtower about this ?.
could someone please post the articles ??????
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maxwell
I was a freshman doing my first semester in college at the time that article came out. It took a little effort to wrap my head around the idea, but I did. And I thought, well I suppose it might have been good thing that I decided to go to school. I might be here longer than expected. I also told myself, that whether the end came 5 minutes or 500 years from now, it could still be considered "near" in the eyes of Jehovah and I went ahead with that view.
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I love accents!
by Aztec inwhat do you think are the cutest accents?
i'm becoming partial to british accents for reasons i don't care to state.
i don't think i have one but, perhaps i'm wrong.
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maxwell
I like NYC and British accents. I grew up in the South (Tennessee) and some have told me I have a small southern accent. Others can't hear any accent at all. But even though I grew up there, really heavy slow southern accents where the speaker successfully forces some single syllables into two distinct syllables sometimes gets to my ears. As in "He we-ent ovah there-yer." The ovah doesn't bother me. It's the we-ent and the there-yer. I had a few teachers who couldn't pronounce the R in my last name either. They would do same thing my example did with the word over.
Edited to add: Oh yeah, I like Australian accents too. Or at least the accent of that Australian guy who comes on the animal shows here all the time. chasing after the crocs and any other wild dangerous animal. He'll always tell you how dangerous the animal and then the silly man will go and grab the animal with his bear hands. His accent just adds to the show.
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JWs in The Workplace: What Type Were/Are You?
by Room 215 init seems to me that jws in the workplace fall into three basic categories: (1) the matter-of-fact type who goes about his/her business, not hiding his/her religious afflililation and seldom if ever initiates conversations on religious topics, but who nonethless hews to the wtbs party line on involvement in non-business social events, i.e.
office holiday parties, etc.
handling any inquiries succinctly; (2) the aggressive type that seeks opportunity to ``give a witness" to workmates, who brings in and displays prominently wt literature and reads or studies his/her wt at lunchtime and at coffee breaks; or (3) the ``double lifer" easy-going type who's one of the boys/gals and who onlyreveals his/her religious affliliation reluctantly or under duress, yet away from work is a regular meeting attender and active in ``field service.".
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maxwell
I was a #1. Partly because, I'm naturally a quiet person. I never brought literature to work except to read while riding the Metrorail and I really did bring it to read not to try to engage someone in conversation.
I told a few people that I was a JW, when they asked or things came up like parties. One was a former office mate and I told my boss once. But I think he probably forgot. One year I was a JW. The next year I wasn't and I decided to go to the Christmas party. Nobody, including my boss thought it was strange or questioned whether I had changed my religion. So it was that much below the radar. My past or present religious beliefs simply aren't important at work and rarely if ever comes up, but I wouldn't hide it if for some strange reason it did come up.
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What ISP do you use?
by Gadget inbroadband has just been made available in my area and i want to sign up for it(dial-up is driving me mad....), but i don't know which broadband isp is the best one to use.
i can get a good deal with aol, but i've been warned against using them.
i would have used freeserve, but i've got a dial up connection with them now and its real real bad.
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maxwell
Well since someone mentioned a US ISP. I'm using Verizon DSL also, but I chose it because I knew I would then only need one phone line and because of the higher speed always-on connection. When I used dial-up, I had an extra phone line and the two phone lines plus the dial-up charge came up to about 80. With DSL and one phone line, it will probably come out to about 90 (right now I'm still paying the promo price which is lower), but as I said, its a faster always on connection. We have two computers in our small apartment so we recently bought the home-networking kit from Verizon. They sell you an expensive little router and some software. So now two computers connected to that same always-on Internet connection at one time. I probably could have bought the home networking equipment cheaper at Best Buy or some other computer store. Since our apartment is small we didn't get the wireless hardware. It's way better than my first Internet connection; when I was in college, we got Internet free through school, you had to follow a couple of sheets of set-up instructions and install software from floppies to get connected to a sub 28.8 bps connection, and the dial-up number was always busy between 6 and 12 in the evening, but I guess you can't complain when its free.
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Ever been on Strike, how did you cope?
by qwerty ini was once on strike for about a year.
and nearly involved in this battle ................. http://www.eventplan.co.uk/orgreave_account.htm.
what's the longest you have been on strike?
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maxwell
Never been on strike myself, but I was working at Fed-Ex when UPS had a big strike during the summer of 1997. Summer is usually a very slow time for package shipping at Fed-Ex. All of a sudden we were shipping more stuff than we ship around Christmas and I, a part-time worker, was working full-time hours. The extra money was cool, but I think even some Fed-Ex managers were happy when that strike was over. I can't remember how long it lasted, something like a few weeks.
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7
Were you ever bullied at school for being a Witness?
by truthseeker ini was very badly bullied in school, although most of the bullying was verbal.
i was the only witness kid in school too.
when i got to college, i made damned sure i never told anyone what religion i was.. .
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maxwell
There was some bullying because I was a Witness, but most of the verbal taunting and minimal physical bullying was simply because I was a nerd and goody-two shoes. Now another question would be, would I have been a goody two-shoes had I not been a Witness. I don't know about that, but I am glad that I was not one of the bullies or taunters. After I learned how to eliminate the physical bullying, I feel that I was in a better position.
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Has your sense of taste changed over the years?
by laylaluv injust a little curious.
i have noticed as i get older my sense of taste changes.
i never liked tea when i was young but, now i do.
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maxwell
I think taste develops as one grows. When I was a kid, I liked kool-aid. I don't buy the stuff now. I think I can appreciate a wider range of flavors now. Some things you have to develop a taste for, like wine. I'm still developing a taste for that, for example the difference between a merlot, chardonnay and a sauvignon? white wine and red wine? It's an education in names and tastes.
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22
the society and education
by NewYork44M inexperience over the weekend.
just to clarify..... sad is the societys official acronym for special assembly day.
i attended yesterday at the brooklyn assembly hall with approximately 1,800 others.
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maxwell
It's sad how they keep misleading young people in that way. I was fortunate enough to have parents who supported me through college even though they are still JW, but I hope I haven't ruined it for my younger sister. I have probably confirmed in my mother's mind the danger of secular learning or at least taking philosophy classes. I told her that one thing that got me to start thinking was a couple of philosophy classes. Unfortunately, she probably won't realize that was only one thing. It doesn't take a philosophy class to get one to start thinking clearly, just an open mind. I don't know if my youngest sister wants to go to college, but if she does, I wonder how my parents will handle it.
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do y'all get road rage?
by Brummie ini'm considered to be very laid back but today i could have easily knocked someone on the nose for nearly causing a car accident that could have injured quite a few people, i wanted to hit the roof, perhaps its my first experience with road rage.
(or maybe the meds were wearing off...lol).. do you get it or have you been a victim?.
see ya next week, take care, oh and dont pap the horn if you see me on the road :).
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maxwell
I used to let traffic stress me, but one day I decided it wasn't important as long as I get where I want to go safely. I never flipped anyone off in my car. But after I started riding my bicycle a lot, I did flip one driver off once after they honked. Now I would never even do that. I may be right, but I'd rather not be dead right and since most of the people I share the street with are driving 2-ton+ machines that can be instantly converted into deadly weapons, I just ride as safely as possible. I've never actually seen someone get out of their car, but I've seen a guy start flipping the bird so wildly over and over again that it really appeared that he had lost it. A person who has gone raving mad can be very dangerous, but I think in any confrontation between a raving mad person and someone who chooses to stay calm and handle things rationally, the calm person will usually come out better.