James Brown

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Posts by James Brown

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  153

  Believing in God - Challenge

  by jgnat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i invite king solomon and anyone else that is interested, to discuss if believing in god may be helpful.

  i am not restricting the discussion to the biblical god.

  i'm ready to look if this belief may be helpful both from a societal and from an individual point of view.

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  James Brown

  I invite King Solomon and anyone else that is interested, to discuss if believing in God may be helpful. I am not restricting the discussion to the biblical God. I'm ready to look if this belief may be helpful both from a societal and from an individual point of view.

  I don't know. I was born in the watchtower and have believed in God all my life. 60 years.

  I don't know if I am damaged because of God or survived being damaged thru the grace of God.

  It seems that many abuse God, the Catholics, the JW's and individual churches.

  There have been times in my 60 years when the belief in God has enabled me to keep going on.

  And there has been times in my 60 years when I look at the data, read the bible, and I get the feeling,

  there is no God at all.

  When things are going good for me. I have time to doubt.

  When things are going bad for me, I fall back on faith to survive.

  I can understand why atheist dont believe. I marvel at their mental strenght.

  In the end each person has to work out his own salvation.

  Which I take to mean secularly, that everybody has to live their own life.

  We are not going thru this journey together. We are going thru it one at a time.
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  40

  Yes! Tax The Churches!

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/europe-catholic-church-tax/2012/09/14/id/451859.

  and kingdom halls, too!

  with unrestrained enthusiasm,.

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  James Brown

  What country are you in, JB?

  I live in USA Florida.

  I worked with 3 people out of 15 that told me that.

  They seemed to be doing well financially.

  One friend had a house on the water a yacht, several motor boats.

  I dont know the details maybe they are hosing me. I just got married because the witlesses said I had to and

  I was too yong to know better.
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  40

  Yes! Tax The Churches!

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/europe-catholic-church-tax/2012/09/14/id/451859.

  and kingdom halls, too!

  with unrestrained enthusiasm,.

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  James Brown

  I have worked with unmarried people who tell me they dont get married because they want the tax benefits of

  being single.
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  45

  September 11, 2001- Where were you?

  by SophieG in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i work at a major airline in the in-flight training department.

  i was sitting at the desk on the computer, i kid you not... writing the security (hijacking) curriculum for 2002, when someone came in and told me a plane flew into the wtc.

  we all thought it was one of our planes.

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  James Brown

  I was at work in a machine shop making tools. The engineers came out of the office and told us a plane flew into

  the trade tower. As the morning went on and events unfolded I remember telling my coworkers, the company and most of the workers

  had been there for 25 plus years, I said we are all going to loose our jobs over this. And sure enough 2 years latter we were all

  out on the street.
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  23

  Did any of you know the TATT before you left?

  by marriedtoajw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know that all everyone's experience vary but i ask this because i am under the impression that since jw's are taught to avoid reading material that may be critical of their teachings they just stay away.

  yet many of you violated this at some point to come accross information that confirmed or convinced you of "the problems" with the org.

  i have also spoken to active jw's online who seem to know the controvercies but still defend the org vigorously.

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  James Brown

  I knew the truth about the truth before I left becuase I lived through it.

  I was told the world was going to end in 1975 and 1976 came and things were the same.

  The truth is the Watchtower bible and tract society are a bunch of liars.
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  26

  Did you have to try another church or religion on your way to unbelief?

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  back in 1992 when i was slowly extricating my way out of the wacthtower, there was no internet, smart phones or any other type of quick data download available.

  i had basically 3 choices to obtain viewpoints from ex-jw's.. #1 - go to go to the library and look for books critical of the society.

  #2 - go to a christian book store to look for the same.. #3 - order item like these from addresses or phone numbers listed in the back of these publications.. and while doing any of these things, you were always looking over your shoulder to see if any "brothers" were around.. the problem i experienced is that virtually all of these books, while giving you good reason to doubt the watchtower, always pointed to "christendom" as the way you needed to go.

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  James Brown

  I went the long way around also. I escaped the tower in 83, long before the internet and the information age.

  I went to a Baptist church a pentacostal church, a new age church.

  My unbelief is in the Watchtower society.

  My agnosticim is about God and the bible.

  I try to believe and make sense of God and the bible its a struggle and always requires lots of faith.

  Maybe faith and belief is foolish on my part.

  But on the other hand I am 60. The watchtower did its damage. My believing that If I trust in Jesus is not hurting

  anybody.

  It does irritate some atheist but it doesnt hurt them. And it makes me feel better.

  Today I think the bible is ancient mans 2000 year old writings telling us that when we die things will be better.

  And they will be whether your an atheist or a believer.
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  11

  Did guilt force you into relationships with negative or selfish people?

  by HelpMeBelieve in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how much force did guilt play into your relationships with other witnesses?

  we wasted so much of our lives chasing things that are not real, love that was highly conditional and relationships with people that evaporated once we started to fade away.. .

  i would force myself to talking with nutty brothers who seemed to be "short their rent each month, never able to catch up".

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  James Brown

  I was born in the tower my mother was a witless my father was a worldly gentile, I kind of had

  both worlds. I had to go to all the meetings.

  I had my worldly school friends who were normal to me.

  And I had my wierdo friends from the hall, who my mother forced on me.

  I always thought about the witnesses, these are not my kind of people and I wouldnt have anything to do

  with them if my mother didnt force me to go to those stupid meetings.
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  62

  At what age do people 'wake up'?

  by Splash in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was thinking about this question recently after being at the meeting when new pioneers were announced for the 2013 service year.. we have a dozen or so pioneers in the congregation, and most are in their 20's.

  some absolutely love the things they are taught and can't wait to spread the good news.. others in the congregation are going through the motions, tired of hearing the same old same old but have no way to change things now.

  then there are a couple like me.

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  James Brown

  I woke up January 1, 1976. The Watchtower Company woke me up. I was 24. They hooted and ranted that the world was going to end in Armegeddon in 1975. I didnt see any change in 76. So I decided they were full of it. And started to fade, quit pioneering, went motorcycle riding instead of going to meetings. It took till I was 31 to totally cut all ties. I havent been to a meeting since I was 31.
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  32

  Do you ever just start CRYING for apparently no reason?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i spoke to a friend of mine about this not too long ago.. we are "of a certain age".. the subject came up somehow.. .

  i'll be watching a tv commercial or i'll see some people in a park or a simple passing thought will suddenly induce a profound.

  sense of---well, how to describe it?

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  James Brown

  Terry, it seems like you have a reason to cry. You just went thru a medical crissis.

  Also You retired, stopped working in the last year. There are a lot of changes there.
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  35

  Mature Dating UK - Surely this isn't for real.

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. humour

  this advert appears every time i click on the active topics link.

  please make it stop.... .

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  James Brown

  Here in Florida the advertisments are based on my browsing areas, I get ads for guitars and motorcycles.