Why would this be surprising from a JW elder? I mean, weren't the bible students famous for those recordings they used at the door? Seems like a natural progression of things to me (at least from a jw standpoint)
mentalclarity
JoinedPosts by mentalclarity
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33
Jesus with an iPad. Really?
by punkofnice inat a local meeting, one of the elders said that if jesus were on the earth today 'you can be sure' he would be preaching by showing videos on a tablet.. i kid you not.. i wonder what videos he'd be playing?.
obviously this was the elder's own pet theory.
wasn't it?.
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Born ins: did you have "near life experiences"?
by truthseeker ini recently watched the 90s movie fight club for the first time and heard the phrase "near life experience.".
for me, a different definition of this phrase would be someone who grew up in the truth and led a very secluded and restricted life (like me) but on rare occasions actually experienced something that was considered quite normal by most people.. growing up in "the troof" was depressing.
it was characterized by long periods of loneliness.
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mentalclarity
My mom was a single mom so I had alot of time on my own and I was allowed as a child to play with "worldly" kids so I was the kid who was at the neighbor's house or outside the whole time until dark. I can think of a couple of great moments with these families- I got to decorate the xmas tree when I was 10 years old with my neighbors. Had absolutely no guilt about this. I remember thinking as a kid how there was nothing wrong with this.
I often went swimming at the Elks lodge with the kids (their dad would take us). I remember long hot summer days at the pool fondly.
It's these glimpses of how non JWs lived that stuck with me throughout life and I could never believe the whole "all worldly people are shooting up drugs, immoral, dishonest" narrative that JWs preached and I knew that even as a non jw I could lead a pretty decent and normal life.
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Disfellowshiped- reinstated- damaged
by Damaged indon’t know how i ended up here but no one who understands will listen, or any one who will listen doesn’t understand.
i grew up in the “truth”, i was baptised at 17 as it was encouraged by the elders.
i really didn’t understand what i was getting into.
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mentalclarity
Hi Damaged and welcome! You're absolutely right to question people's "friendship" after being reinstated. It's all fake and based on announcement made off the stage. That's crazy, right? Except you have all these people taking it as law. It's not really based on repentance or if a person is doing good deeds- it's kind of the luck of the draw. So many people in the halls doing all kinds of stuff and nothing happening to them and people getting df'ed for posting something on facebook (this happened in a congregation I know of).
I always think the reason alot of people, including myself, left the organization is actually because we were too loving. My conscience just didn't allow me to continue to judge and treat people like shit arbitrarily relying on made up rules in a magazine. It just didn't make any sense to me. And now, as a parent, the whole df'ing method makes even less sense. I am so lucky that I left when I did because the treatment of my children when they make a mistake is such a far cry from how I was taught to do things. I love and accompany my kids when they are going through difficult times - even when they are suffering consequences of bad choices. I don't withhold my love or my presence- sometimes people just need to be heard and accompanied while they go through stuff-which is the exact opposite of DF'ing. It's no wonder it's so psychologically damaging.
Thanks for sharing your story and I just count my blessings I'm not involved with that crazy behavior towards people.
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My son graduated last Friday
by Captain Schmideo2 ini have talked about him before on this forum.
he is now a graduate from mit!.
it was a lovely weekend.. i got to meet some of the friends he has made in the past four years, and some of their families.. they were very nice, decent, friendly, and enjoyable people.
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mentalclarity
Wow- MIT-lots of great opportunities for him in the future.
Congrats!
Nice that you were able to socialize with some of the other families - people in general are pretty decent despite what we were told.
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Gifts for Father's Day?
by mentalclarity inanyone have any suggestions for gifts for father's day?
it happens to coincide with my boyfriend's birthday so i want it to be special but i'm kind of running out of ideas.
budget- up tp $150.
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mentalclarity
@Scully - like the car wash idea!
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Gifts for Father's Day?
by mentalclarity inanyone have any suggestions for gifts for father's day?
it happens to coincide with my boyfriend's birthday so i want it to be special but i'm kind of running out of ideas.
budget- up tp $150.
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mentalclarity
@dubstepped haha-he owns an instapot (and a bread maker too) But I'll check out the gourmet cooking stuff.
@Done- I had no idea what a leatherman was! That's pretty awesome!
I'm not sure if I would get him a gun but I'd definitely go to a pistol range with him - he'd love that.
Thanks for the input!
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Gifts for Father's Day?
by mentalclarity inanyone have any suggestions for gifts for father's day?
it happens to coincide with my boyfriend's birthday so i want it to be special but i'm kind of running out of ideas.
budget- up tp $150.
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mentalclarity
Ok - all good ideas-thank you!
I thought about the earphones for iPhone since he likes to listen to podcasts-talk radio while he works. I think the gift certificates are practical and that's my "go-to" gift with coworkers and friends but I want to put some more thought into it for him.
He's not an outdoorsman-He's more of an intellectual/cerebral type and he has an engineering degree. So he loves building stuff (especially electronic gizmos) He likes Star Trek-Next Generation (not fanatically-lol) and war movies. I got him the Band of Brothers series for a gift a few years ago
The drill would be a great gift but he has several already. Home depot is like his Disneyworld for adults-can spend hours there.
If I asked he'd probably say "anything" but I know he likes me too cook for him because i'm a pretty good cook and as a single guy home cooked meals are kind of a treat.
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Gifts for Father's Day?
by mentalclarity inanyone have any suggestions for gifts for father's day?
it happens to coincide with my boyfriend's birthday so i want it to be special but i'm kind of running out of ideas.
budget- up tp $150.
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mentalclarity
Anyone have any suggestions for gifts for Father's Day? It happens to coincide with my boyfriend's birthday so I want it to be special but I'm kind of running out of ideas. Budget- up tp $150. He's a gadget guy so anything along those lines but not too expensive is a plus but a lot of stuff is kind of expensive and outside my budget.
If you're a guy, what's a (tangible)gift that you've gotten that stood out and why?
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RIP Anthony Bourdain
by freemindfade inso sad to hear about the loss of one of the best storytellers.
such a great unique personality.
he will be greatly missed .
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mentalclarity
Very sad- I loved his shows.
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My failed attempts to help my brainwashed family
by Addison0998 infirst of all i just want to say a quick thank you to all of you who’s been listening to my story and my little rants and dilemmas lol.
this website has helped me so much to not feel alone and to keep me from feeling like i’m going crazy.
anyways, i’m defenitly going to try much harder from this point on to play the part until i move out after this summer.
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mentalclarity
So now you're in the stage of waking up that I'll call "reality really sinking in that you will lose your family and there is no reasoning with them".
At first there was this naivety that we want to cling to. My family will be different, I'll be able to reason with them. They are pretty bright people and they'll be able to see through the bullshit. Well, I hate to be so cynical but 9 times out of 10 they won't be able to see it. You can't even imagine how many times I have scratched my head thinking "how the hell can they not see this?"...I mean I'm talking about some pretty sharp family members.
I'm sorry you're going through this- the bad news is that your relationship with jw family will never be the same again. The good news is you'll be able to make new relationships in time that are actually based on unconditional love and that is freaking amazing. If you'd never woken up, you'd never have an opportunity to experience that.
If they do wake up it will be on their own time.