Orphan crow. That is your opinion and you have the right to that. What I was meaning, did I feel that people individually treated me differently, I did not. Again that was my personal experience and how I felt at the time. Did I want to find a man, of course I did. But on a individual level I never felt the people I told treated me differently.
Richard Oliver
JoinedPosts by Richard Oliver
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
As my own opinion, I don't think that there are alot of organizations as a whole this is homophobic. I believe even the organizations that are classically thought as homophobic aren't wholely homophobic. I look at the Republican party where many lgbtq activists believe whole heartedly that the GOP is all homophobic. But there are gay Republicans who are staunch supporters of their party, but why do they support that supposedly homophobic organization. It is my belief that they see other things in that party that they agree with, and those other things in their view is much more important than the policies on lgtbq issues. -
130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
Yes orphan crow. I agree I stated my opinion. But I predicated my opinion by saying it is my opinion that I don't believe as a group witnesses are homophobic. I base it off of my experience as a gay witness at the time. I said other people's experiences were different. So there is no fact in that scenario because it is based on each individual experience. One person's experience cannot be replicated in the exact same way as another person.
Finklestein, I can only know what my experience as a gay witness was. I had told plenty of people I was gay and never was treated differently. Some may not have had the same experience as me, so by definition one cannot claim that as a whole they are homophobic. Does watchtower say that homosexuality is a sin, yes that is a fact. But do they say and promote the same policies that other religions and truly homophobic people express I personally don't feel that. Again could someone else disagree with me, yes, that is the the opinion of me and the opinion of them.
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
It is human nature to look for facts and believe only facts that reinforces ones' own beliefs of what is happening in the world. This is not something new, but with the advent of technology where the barrier to distribute ones' beliefs is now virtually non-existent, this has allowed more people to express their feelings and ideas farther and wider than ever before. But there is a difference between facts and ones' opinions and ideas. I am not saying that someone's opinion is not valid because it is their opinion, but when someone expresses their opinion or idea as fact that is where the danger comes in.
I used the example of the pizza gate, people may whole heartedly believe that Clinton is the most evil person that is alive today, but that is a person's opinion not a fact.
In a previous post I highlighted a court case in Louisiana that showed that ministers and clergy are barred from reporting sexual abuse if the knowledge comes from a spiritual confession or counseling session. That is a fact that no matter how people slice it, is case law and has to be obeyed. Now people can disagree with the case law, they can feel that it is immoral and despicable and should be changed, but those are opinions. Opinions don't negate fact and cannot replace facts. Opinion can change laws, can change people's feelings and ideas, but opinion cannot change facts.
I was listening to NPR and they talked about how people believed that men's semen actually contained a little person inside of it, and this was thought by some of the most learned people in the world at that time. And that was the opinion of the people at that time, but does that mean that men's semen contained a little person inside of it because that is what people thought, of course not. New information was gained that told people that was the actual facts of the situation was. People could either accept the change in knowledge or not, but it did not negate what the actual facts are.
Someone here calls Witnesses homophobic, and I am not saying that person's view is not valid and their experiences are not what they have experienced. I know for myself I have experienced homophobic things from witnesses but I have also had boyfriends who has non-religious family members who are extremely homophobic. I don't believe witnesses as a group are homophobic but certainly people inside of the religion are.
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
I don't like the fact that I couldn't be gay and be a witness. I had some wonderful boyfriends and wish that I could have dated them while being a witness. I do believe that some things can be brought more out in the open and not everything has to be done in just letters to BOEs but can be brought to the attention of everyone in a congregation. I don't like the way that the broadcast has "Christian Rock" at the end of their broadcasts. Thos are just to name a few of the things.
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
Outlaw. Please explain why you call me an apologist?
Would you call a person on a jury who chooses not to find someone guilty, if they need more proof and facts than were given. I am not saying I should judge people, but I do require proof of things. Accusations and stories are not proof.
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More congregations? One of the strategies they used to inflate the numbers in my city.
by Tempest in a Teacup ini looked at the 2017 yearbook figures this morning, and it reminded me of something which happened in my former congregation 2 years ago.
it was a tiny foreign language congregation with at most 25-30 publishers.
comes and splits a 30 member congregation into....three.
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Richard Oliver
Dreamerdude. The reason why I ask for language and general location is because it is very easy to confirm if it is an actual congregation or not by just going onto their website and putting in the language and the area and if that congregation comes up with nothing attached to it such as "other meetings held in" then that is confirmation that it is a full fledge congregation, but if it doesn't and it comes up with that statement then most likely it is a group.
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
Technically 1 hour from Warwick to the tip of the Bronx which starts NYC. I know from Patterson down to the bottom of Westchester was smooth sailing up until you hit the Bronx.
And sorry ctrwtf, I didn't say from Warwick to Brooklyn was an hour and a half, but rereading it that was the intention that could have been inferred from the point.
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
Writing has never been one of my skills. I am able to express myself much better verbally. When I write my thoughts bounce all over the place because well that is just how I think when I am not actively thinking about the matter. For me when I speak I much more actively think about a subject than I can do when i have time to write.
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130
Not a sympathizer
by Richard Oliver ini think everyone here is under the impression that i am a watchtower sympathizer, i am not.
i just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when i get so motivated to make a comment.
i have read posts here, listened to six screens and read jwsurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.. there are legitimate things that people on here and former jws have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
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Richard Oliver
I think everyone here is under the impression that I am a Watchtower Sympathizer, I am not. I just like facts and when people say things, which are their opinions but that facts point out as not being true, than that is when I get so motivated to make a comment. I have read posts here, listened to Six Screens and read JWSurvey and seen things that people say, which are opinion, but pass them off as fact.
There are legitimate things that people on here and former JWs have concerns over without manipulating what is said or trying to pass off opinion as a fact.
We have seen this so much even in mainstream media and other outlets, where people will pass off their opinion as fact and because the audience already wants to hear that they take it as proof. We saw that recently with the pizza gate issue, where a fake news story caused someone to shoot up a restaurant because he thought the story was real. A lot of people have dissected this and said that the reason that man was so skeptical to believing that story was true was, because he wanted it to be true.
And just as many people here will accuse Witnesses of just believing what Watchtower tells them is because they want it to be true, same thing that I have seen here and on other sites. Six Screens did a whole story that Watchtower spent 30+ million dollars on blimps so that they could get GB members from Warwick to Brooklyn fast. Without exception people on there believed it whole heartedly because they want to believe it is true no matter what. Lets take away the fact that Warwick to the city even by car is only 1 hour 15 minutes and they did not take into account that there is nowhere to park a blimp anywhere in NYC, and even if they were to park it at JFK, it would take an hour to get from Queens to Brooklyn. But it is what they wanted to believe that Watchtower is this evil organization that has spent millions of dollars on this luxury.
If you have a dispute with something that I said then present actual facts with it. I presented facts here that there are states that bar ministers from reporting child abuse, so I was waiting for one person to disprove it by actual facts. I don't need more sentiment in my life, I like pure facts.