whew - i'm still shaking.
i very pleasant gentleman just came to my door - darn it but the dog was inside!
and he wanted to talk about the sad state of afairs in the world.
Celia - Thanks!
Lizard - [great name BTW - ] I just hope I didn't sound like I was making it all up. If I'd had more time I would have ran and got my hubbie's pentacle but anyway ...
And COMF - You know what? I think you're absolutely right!
Silverleaf
whew - i'm still shaking.
i very pleasant gentleman just came to my door - darn it but the dog was inside!
and he wanted to talk about the sad state of afairs in the world.
Whew - I'm still shaking. I very pleasant gentleman just came to my door - darn it but the dog was inside! And he wanted to talk about the sad state of afairs in the world.
I told him I knew too much about his organization and was very frightened by the things I'd heard. He asked me what bad things I had heard and I told him about shunning and the blood issue and how families get destroyed by disfellowshipping. He merely nodded and smiled. I told him I was Pagan and that I felt the Goddess wanted everyone to respect each other and try to get along. He asked me if I thought everyone would be of one religion some day and I told him absolutley not. That was not what the goddess wants. She wants us all to come to our beliefs on our own terms. I told him I wished him all the best and I hoped he was happy. He thanked me for talking to him and said he had never met a Celtic Pagan before and it was very interesting talking to me.
Well. Whew. I just wish I didn't get so nervous, I'm sure he thought Satan possessed me. And of course the snarling barking dog behind me, didn't help matters. Yikes!
Silverleaf
my dog died today.... and i am very sad.
i got him as a 7 week old puppy 11 years ago and i loved him dearly.. i brought him to the vet.
to be put to sleep, that was so hard, but he had diabetes, had lost at least 25 pounds in the last 3 months, drank gallons and gallons of water, woke me up 2 or 3 times during the night to go out, could barely walk anymore, and he was blind...
I'm sorry {{{Celia}}}. Sometimes our pets are the most human people we know.
I thoroughly believe animal souls go on to a better place just as human souls do.
Silverleaf
i keep noticing that people refer to their deity as a "he".
why is that?
i have never had anyone demonstrate to me that his or her deity has a penis.. "as every one knows, there are mistakes in the bible" - the watchtower, april 15, 1928, p. 126 .
Hi Elsewhere,
I suppose in the minds of the men who invented the Judeo-Christian religions, it made little sense to pray to a female to smite your enemy in battle, and how could one expect a female diety to visit punishment on children for the sins of the parents?
My personal opinion is that by creating a male diety, it served to undermine the natural power of the female as the carrier of life, something the males could not do.
Silverleaf
i've noticed that quite a few people on this board have said that they are now pagan.
i'm starting to wonder if converting to paganism is something that many ex-jws do?
being a pagan myself, i am actually surprised at how i could choose the religion that jws probably hate the most.
Hi again, Sirona,
You wrote:Thats an interesting story about your boyfriend...Im sure he was upset with you!!
I think he was less upset with me than he was upset for himself. He did a lot of suffering over the idea that I was going to die and he would have to live forever in paradise without me - and yet he told me that Jehovah would take away everyone's pain. He didn't get it when I said, "Why be so upset then? In paradise you won't even remember that I existed, you won't be missing me for eternity." He seemed to want to suffer now for something he believed he would have no memory of in the new system and that made zero sense to me.
He wanted so hard to convince me that there was nothing more horrible than ceasing to exist, as the unbelievers would. It made him very frustrated when I said things like, "Will I know I won't exist?" "No."
"Then what's so bad about it? I won't know I don't exist, I won't know I ever existed and neither will anyone else. Who suffers?" He kept telling me I just didn't understand. Finally I just said, "You know, you're right. I don't understand and I never will." I guess to his mindset it was like a person with a treatable cancer refusing any medical intervention. He couldn't understand why I wanted to die, and I couldn't understand why he didn't want to live.
Silverleaf
i've noticed that quite a few people on this board have said that they are now pagan.
i'm starting to wonder if converting to paganism is something that many ex-jws do?
being a pagan myself, i am actually surprised at how i could choose the religion that jws probably hate the most.
Hi Sirona,
I was never a JW, but it was when my former fiance was trying to recruit me so that I would not die at Armageddon, that I realized I was pagan. He was trying to teach me about God and the Bible and nothing made sense. He used the word 'pagan' like a dirty word as though it should be obvious that all things pagan were horrible, yet the things he described as pagan and thus evil seemed to be the things that made life most worthwhile. I think it hurt him a lot when I finally said I didn't think I was cut out for his religion, I seemed far too pagan to ever be loved by HIS God. It wasn't until years later that I realized it was not only okay to be Pagan, it was in fact liberating and intensely spiritual.
Though I can't speak for anyone else, I don't think exJWs who become Pagan are being rebellious, I think they are merely seeing things in a much brighter light than they were able to under the JW mindset. [And yes the pun was intended.]
bright blessings,
Silverleaf
we are always pointing out the flaws of the jw religion.
does this make us intolerant of the religious beliefs of others?
where do you draw the line?.
Hi Sirona,
I'm Pagan also and unfortunately there's a lot of misunderstadning about the Pagan belief systems, most of it caused by fundies putting their spin on what they THINK we believe while sugarcoating what they believe. While this site often does have personal attacks, for the most part, the stories that are told here do something that I think is very important, they help to expose the injustice that has gone on for too long. One thing I believe as a Pagan is all people are responsible for their own actions and if someone is doing something in the name of their God, it better be able to stand the light of day. This seems to be not so true for the JW leadership.
What's interesting to me is, I would not have believed half the stuff I read here if I hadn't seen it myself when a JW friend tried to actively recruit me. He couldn't understand why the wonderful organization seemed so strange to me, why I found the people I met to be rude, arrogant and suspicious, and I spent years thinking there was something wrong with me because of it.
It's hard not to be intolerant sometimes, but if their actions were as pure as they claim, no one would have any reason to be intolerant.
Silverleaf
JMHO
just another thread to find out the popular opinion on what happened to the dinosaurs.there are several popular theories such as meteor shower ,super volcanoes or solar flares i'm open to any and all theories or new findings .personally i go with the meteor shower one .the dinosaur represents the most successful time in the history of our planet where life flourished for untold millenium only to become extinct seemingly over night.any opinions are welcome ,thank you for any participation.
Hey heathen,
I wish the poem was mine. I've had it in one of my journals since I was in high school like a million years ago - I have no idea where I got it from or who wrote it, but it certainly explains a lot, don't you think?
Silverleaf
just another thread to find out the popular opinion on what happened to the dinosaurs.there are several popular theories such as meteor shower ,super volcanoes or solar flares i'm open to any and all theories or new findings .personally i go with the meteor shower one .the dinosaur represents the most successful time in the history of our planet where life flourished for untold millenium only to become extinct seemingly over night.any opinions are welcome ,thank you for any participation.
Scientists endeavoring to explore
what did in the dinosaur,
through proposals convoluted show
events transpired eons ago.
Theories, there are no dearth;
Asteroids that crashed to Earth
Radiation, exploding stars,
everything but men from Mars.
While such hypotheses impress,
I'd also like to make a guess.
In Cretaceous times the Earth was flat.
The fools fell off and that was that.
--Anonymous
Silverleaf
i've given alot of thought to this subject, myself.
i used to blame god for my horrible childhood, and i know alot of people that blame the devil for bad things that are clearly the result of something that they did themselves.
i do believe in the supernatural, unexplained events that go on in this world.
jesussaves,
You do make some valid points:
Everything in this world has balance; I don't think that God intervenes in every last thing that we do. True.
However as far as the parent-child analogy, [and mind you I agree that we are children of God, or rather, as I'm Pagan, the Goddess and the God] while a Barbie's head is unimportant in the scheme of things and a parent can see it's a trivial problem, a good parent makes themselves care about it because it effects the child. I have kids and I deal with my share of Barbie doll heads [et al] and the worst thing you can do as a parent, is let a child know you see their problems as trivial, even if they are.
And likewise while we as parents love the adoration we receive from our children, we cannot force them to love us, nor can we punish them when they don't shower us with kisses and affection. They can love us, but they don't always approve or agree with what we do, and sometimes they are justified in being angry or disappointed in us. Likewise we would be wrong to dictate how and when and where they can show their affection also - if your baby says, "I wuv u mamma -" do you complain that they did not pronounce the words correctly? No. If God is our parent, then he/she or it should be pleased with our personal interpretations of worship/love and not dictating, as too many religions systems insist, on a particular way everything should be done.
Silverleaf
