has anyone else found that the teaching of the "outside world" being a "bad association" limits your involvement and ability to make new freinds?.
if so how have you overcome this and any suggestions to helping those suffering from these feelings?.
lydia
>>I feel more comfortable with people who share my backround and understand why I feel different...make sense?<<
Xena,
Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Growing up as a JW and then leaving and then trying to develop normal, non-JW friendships is a bit weird. It's taking some time to de-program the JW thinking. And when you try to explain it to a "worldly person" they just look at you with a "huh?" expression.
roybatty
by that i mean it's possible aliens could have visited and influenced the earth.. one of the best quotes i heard by someone who had an alien en-counter was that the aliens told them "that they didn't want to show themselves to the world because they didn't want to affect or influence our religions".
what do you think?
that sounds a bit like a prime directive to me, and could be a good reason why the aliens are simply spying on us.
cynicus,
Yup, one of the best movies of all time. Helped me as a JW to question the quality of my life and my beliefs.
roybatty
by that i mean it's possible aliens could have visited and influenced the earth.. one of the best quotes i heard by someone who had an alien en-counter was that the aliens told them "that they didn't want to show themselves to the world because they didn't want to affect or influence our religions".
what do you think?
that sounds a bit like a prime directive to me, and could be a good reason why the aliens are simply spying on us.
So do I. My parents are from Holland. Defintely aliens but legal.
this is great!.
most days i have to walk through a shopping centre.. a df'd guy is always in there preaching.
he was df'd nearly 10yrs ago for basically disagreeing with everything the soc.
Man oh man, I miss some of those nutty JWs. I have to say that they were entertaining.
apparently there are several different definitions for apostate especially from the society's point of view.. .
personally i've always thought that an apostate was a person who used lies, slander and half-truths to cause others to stop serving god.
but according to the wts an apostate could be a person who causes someone to have doubts about the society regardless if the information they are presenting is the truth.. .
Whenever given the chance I ask JWs "were the apostles and particularly the apostle Paul apostates since they left their particular religion to follow Christ?" I wonder if their families labeled them as apostates?
looking at the stats, there are well over 14,000 views of the thread about the un.
the next 'most read' thread is around 9,500 so it is clearly a burning issue.. i wonder if the involvement with the un is the biggest threat to the wts?.
they are getting badly burnt because of their covering up child abuse and www.silentlambs.org is doing a great job of raising the profile of this but even so, i can see the 'mental defense mechanism' of many jws excusing this as 'individuals imperfection'.. they cannot excuse the gb getting in bed with the un.
>>Unfortunately, most will buy into their explanation and realize that this is just 'apostates stirring up trouble' for God's Organization.<<
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought as to the reaction of most JWs on this issue. The skeptic in me also feels that most JWs will just shrug it off, accept whatever explanation that Brooklyn gives them and move on. However, there are a few factors that make this issue bigger then 1975, the blood issue and other recent controversies.
The first thing that comes to mind is how the WT has slammed the UN over the years and how the average JW views the UN. Recall just recently the Revelation book. Since it’s release in 1988 (I believe that was the year), this book was studied at least four or five times. When I was the bookstudy conductor I recall teaching from this book that ANYONE or any group associated with the UN would be destroyed. I particularly recall how much the average JW hated the UN because of it’s wanting to take glory away from God. After being taught to hate the UN so strongly for so many years, I find it hard to believe that the average JW will easily accept any association with the UN.
The second point is that the Internet will play a big part on this. Evidence of this is Simon’s comments regarding how many times the UN thread was read. Tied in with this is the fact that the average JW doesn’t have any automatic defense mechanism in place on this issue unlike the web’s information exposing other WT contradictions. Because of this, the average JW can read these threads and web articles without having a WT prepared answer in their mind.
Finally, this is a very simple issue. The blood issue can become complicated and the pedophile issue can turn into a “he said/she said” argument. This UN issue is very simple. WT says the UN is evil, the UN will destroy false religion, the UN will attack God’s people, God will destroy the UN. Period. Oh, but wait, it’s ok for the WT to associate it self with the UN. If there’s one thing that people hate it’s a hypocrite.
We might not see droves of people leaving the kingdom halls but I guarantee that you’ll see a lot of JWs telling the WT and it’s representatives to take a flying leap because the GB can no longer take what they consider the “moral high road.”
Just my two cents.
i just finished reading crisis of conscience.
wow.
i was wondering if the procedure for disfellowshipping on the grounds of apostasy is still the same.
At my JC for apostasy, the first JC decided to DF me. At the appeal JC, they correctly realized that a JC wasn't needed and I was "automatically" DA'd. By doing something like going to another church, there is no need to DF or have a JC, you are automatically DA'd.
the us launched an air strike on key cities in afghanistan around 12:45 est today.
president bush says that we are specifcally targeting taliban military installations, and terrorist training camps.
may god be with us all.. .
I wonder what kind of world we'd be living in right now if it weren't for men like General Patton. Here's a portion of his speech to the 3rd army...
"I don't want to get any messages saying, 'I am holding my position.' We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!"
There's a time for war and a time for peace. Right now is a time for war. It's the only language that certain people understand, wheather they be Nazi fascists or religious extremists.
note: i originally posted this under the un/ngo thread, but decided to make a new thread.. while the board was down yesterday (sunday) i wandered over to h20's site to check out the discussions about this whole un/ngo-wtbts connection.
someone had alluded to the fact that perhaps apostates were actually the ones that forged lloyd barry's signature and filled out the paperwork to get the society signed up as an ngo.. here's the link:.
http://www.aimoo.com/forum/postview.cfm?id=311102&categoryid=2967&startcat=1&threadid=84839.
Yeah, the apostates did this and then waited 10 years before coming out with this information. LOL
i know that while being a witness, we were not really allowed to watch horror movies, or anything that smacked of demonism.
anything supernatural.
my question is, what movie or movies, since leaving the society, has really scared or upset you?
"The Prophecy" with Christopher Walken. Interesting and a little scary to see how "good" and "bad" angels think. "Fallen" is another good one.
