Veey interesting comments, HalfBanana! It sure sounds plausible!
And have to laugh at their illustration! "Blind owners!" !!!
did you notice the expression "intelligent disobedience" in the febuary 2017 broadcast (at 7:30)?.
it was used with the illustration of a guide dog for blind persons, that sometimes has to disobey it's owner.. what a fine example for us!
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Veey interesting comments, HalfBanana! It sure sounds plausible!
And have to laugh at their illustration! "Blind owners!" !!!
i am interested in finding out on a small scale the extent of which shunning has impacted on you personally.. my own experience is that when i faded about 12 years ago.
the woman whose house the book study was held at (and who was virtually a neighbour) walked right past me in my own street.
i remember it so well.
UnshackleTheChains, that's EXACTLY how it feels, like you are being kicked when you are down. Stupid cult.
I remember going to one meeting after I was DF'd (and working toward reinstatement) when a sister from another hall saw me and said a cheerful hello and waved happily at me. I was about to smile back while thinking how kind she was, but then you could see that she remembered I was "unclean" -- it was almost comical -- she suddenly gasped in horror & shock and covered her hand over her mouth, while staring at me with the same stupid, horrified, shocked expression on her face. Like she just said hello to Satan.
It made me feel so ashamed at the time. Now I feel sorry for her and wish I had said "Boo..!!!!" lol
does this make any sense whatsoever ?
isnt jesus christ the king ?why the need for 144000 king priests to help him ?.
is he not up for the job?
Haha, Smiddy! Love your post and questions! There was always something off about that 144,000 thing.... If Jesus had our "blueprints" as he was creating/helping create human beings, wouldn't you think that having all that intricate knowledge would give him a lot of insight into how we work..?
And if he is so closely interested in us (".. and the things he was fond of were with the sons of men..."), then wouldn't Jesus watching us from heaven also help him to know what we humans are all about? After all, Satan and all his demons are supposed to know us pretty well, the way they craftily tempt us, etc. Or has Jesus been sleeping up there..?
Don't-cha just love "Reasoning from the scriptures"..?? lol
i remember once in berlin south germany there was a local needs part for the men only, and how they should use the toilet.
in all seriousness for ten minutes a retarded nigerian was going on about how men need to sit down when using the toilet.
no mention of anything else.. it transpired that some little kraut boy from an "interested" family would aim for the side of the toilet and leave a great big puddle for others to clean up.
Remembered another one... We had a family in our hall who had lots of kids, they were two blended families, he had four she had four (or something like that), making eight kids altogether!! They were almost always late for meetings, and we kept getting Local Needs talks about the importance of punctuality, the importance of appreciating our spiritual food, etc.
When this family kept being late, the brothers really stepped it up, soon the Local Needs talks became more strident, more extreme. "Brothers and Sisters, are we showing by our actions that we truly appreciate being at Jehovah"s house, increasing our efforts at being on time for his spiritual banquet..? (read scripture about how good and pleasant it is to dwell with brothers in unity, blah blah blah, from Psalms 133:1)... "Do we not know that if we are late for meetings, it shows that we are thinking more of ourselves than is necessary..? Yes, dear brothers and sisters, it means we are PUTTING OURSELVES ABOVE GOD. We are saying we are more important that he is, that our time is more valuable than his. We are, in effect, WORSHIPPING OURSELVES!!" -- (Insert crazy laugh: bwhahahaha! If only they knew!! Bwhahahaha!! Idiots!!! Anyway... back to narrative...) -- "Yes, consistently being late for our meetings can show that we have a weakness in our spiritual armour.... even a possible defect in our personality...What things can we do to overcome this weakness? If you have children, could they perhaps blah blah blah..." On and on it went. I felt so bad for that family.
8 months df'd.
loving a life of freedom.
however, my family are all shunning me.
I am so sorry to hear of this extreme behaviour.
"By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves." Well the JWs certainly take that scripture literally, they love only those among themselves.
It it is way extreme to destroy your baby pictures... I mean what if you came back? (Not that you would, but still -- What if??? How could she do such a thing?) That's just total dispensation of existence, another earmark of a cult. So very sorry.
I have many many sorrows and regrets in my life, and with JW issues, but for my mental health, I've learned I must protect myself and my health including my emotional state. It hurts us to suffer emotionally, but sometimes there's no avoiding it. It sounds like you have your own lovely family who truly loves you and who truly appreciate you. Let them be your focus and joy. Peace.
i remember once in berlin south germany there was a local needs part for the men only, and how they should use the toilet.
in all seriousness for ten minutes a retarded nigerian was going on about how men need to sit down when using the toilet.
no mention of anything else.. it transpired that some little kraut boy from an "interested" family would aim for the side of the toilet and leave a great big puddle for others to clean up.
Geez. Yes, we had some ridiculous local needs talks where the ruling Pharisee's, excuse me I mean the glorious ones, the stars in Jesus' right hand, spoke to the congregation of their latest pronouncements ... colored shirts that some of the brothers were wearing! Some were wearing BLUE instead of white, it caused a big commotion for awhile, then it went away and tons of brothers were wearing blue shirts, green shirts, even the odd pink shirt!! the occasional black shirt!! oh my god!/Bhudda/Great Spirit, etc.!! And then suddenly, poof, it wasn't a big deal any more.
Then we had other talks, I mean we had Great Spiritually Upbuilding Encouragement from our Brothers: we had a talk on proper dress and grooming and respect for Jehovah's household following a sister who wore a slipper to the meeting when she had a foot injury....
consider this an update for those that remember me here.... when i left in 2006, it started a 10 year journey into a new phase.
no more "safety".
some people want to be their own person.
Hello, nice to hear your insights and update!! Thank you. May life go well for you
i know that i am not by any means the first person to take note of this article, but today i finally got around to reading it.
i quickly found the now infamous line "the governing body is neither inspired nor infallible.
" in the interest of fairness, however, i decided to finish the paragraph, which led me to finish the lesson.
Saethyyd, I liked your analysis and intelligent breakdown of their "evidence".... Thank you for. We all know that WE no longer believe it, but is good to break it down the way you did for the very reasons you say, and because THEY believe it. (And the WT reasonings has as many holes in it as Swiss cheese!!)
for those that still care to read the bible of course.
those that don't, please keep the snarky comments to yourselves :-).
i am assuming nwt is not very popular?.
Am finding myself more and more agnostic/atheist these days, and am finding that reading a bible these days is very tiresome and depressing. That said, however, I do like the style(s) of the New Revised Standard Version (as do you) and the New Jerusalem Bible - I love their use of"Yahwey" instead of the now-loathsome "Jehovah"... I also really enjoy The Message, almost a paraphrase but very scholarly and well researched.
some things that have helped me in my journey... .
since a major part of what the watchtower society does, involves the twisting of the real meaning of the bible and specific verses... it makes sense to me, whether a person has some kind of belief in the bible or not, to go to the source of the twisting, get it's real meaning, unravel the the knots and chains, and walk free.. for me, a huge part of the unravelling process has been spending time in the gospels.. the pharisees.... i used to read the gospels, and listen to audio bibles, and every time the pharisees showed up, i would sign/groan/mockingly laugh:.
matthew 9. matthew 23 .
Christophoros, thank you for your post. Much resonance for me.