Topics Started by TMS
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Would Prince Rogers Nelson Have Been A More Effective Spokesperson for JWs Than Stephen Lett?
by TMS inhearing about governing body member stephen lett, i had to check him out on you tube.
in short, were i still a jw, i would be embarrassed to be represented by this mouth-agape, cornpone, dufus.
he would be the kind of public speaker the local congregation might appreciate, but who you would not send out to another congregation.. in contrast, the last few weeks i took the opportunity to play every video on you tube where the late prince rogers nelson explained his beliefs as a jw.
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One of the Most Obscene Phrases in Any Language; the Judicial Committee
by TMS ina tribunal of religious, if not spiritual, men, whose decision can alter lives, disrupt, no, destroy, families, ruin young lives, create angst, pain, depression, hopelessness, sorrow, despair can be the job for three typically unqualified men known in jw land as the judicial committee.. my first judicial experience as a kid of 18 serving on the jc involved disfellowshipping an elderly sister for apostacy when she would not promise to quit frequenting a neighborhood christian science reading room for personal study.
my second big case involved a baptized 12 year old who allegedly stole a hot wheel from k-mart.
he admitted to nothing, answering every question with "i dunno" and was put on probation, the 60's equivalent of reproof.. in subsequent years, i "served" on committees judging accused adulterers, fornicators, thieves, gamblers, non-providers, taking up boxing, slanderers and yes, apostates, sitting also on so-called appeal committees as well.
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Embracing, Not Running From, My Repressive JW Heritage, Finding A Few Things Worth Salvaging
by TMS inyes, we could have been born in an alley in calcutta or with the physical deformities associated with thalidomide.
instead, we were born into or introduced to a repressive, american, religious cult, that shielded us from the warmongering game of chess, the militaristic boy scouts, fornication-inducing sock hops, the twist, as well as the hokey pokey.
we heeded the warnings, avoiding the greedy self-worship associated with masturbation, decadent rock 'n roll and anything preceded by the word "extra-curricular.".
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A Comment by Lieu Made It Obvious That I Could Not Be A JW in 2016
by TMS inthe following comment by lieu on another topic shows me that i would be totally frustrated, actually exasperated, stifled and depressed in the modern form of jwdom: "therein lies the real problem billy, no one is paying any attention at regular meetings let alone conventions.
it's too boring, intentionally i think.
humans aren't hardwired to sit through hours of lecture with no interactions.
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My Personal Invitation to the Celebration of the Lord's Evening Meal
by TMS inby no means is this a heartwarming "experience" illustrating how an ex-jw skillfully "reached the heart" of a current jw, moving them to re-examine their belief system.
that won't be my take on my half hour visit with an elder's wife last sunday.
no one scored points here as is almost always the case in these interactions.. we live at the extreme southern tip of texas, on the u.s.-mexico border in a city of about 200,000. twenty years ago there were 20 spanish language congregations, 2 english.
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Unfaithful In What Is Least; Psychoanalysis Invited
by TMS inmy wife and i were longtime jws.
i was an elder for over 25 years and we had two stints of pioneering totally 14 years.
while we considered ourselves loyal witnesses, looking back on it we had some independence working: .
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Taking Elders Out of their Comfort Zone; The Little Room
by TMS inin the mid-90's my wife faced a bogus charge of gossiping.
the charge was based on a fleshly sister of a jw easedropping on a conversation.
we fought the charge with the elders unable to produce any credible report of the actual conversation.
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Cut and Paste of "The List" by Prominent Bethelite of Previous Watchtower Predicted Dates
by TMS in" {watchtower sep 1 1989 12}.
" {tiah 240-1, also references in wr oct 1879 3941, tkic 84}.
'" {zions watchtower mar 1880 repr 82}.
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Living Through the Brief Liberalization of Jehovah's Witnesses, Never Recovering
by TMS inwith the book crisis of conscience detailing the turbulence at bethel during the early to mid 70's, the transformation from autocratic rule to governance by committee or a body of men, many of us can speak to how that felt among the rank and file of the local congregations during those years.
we learned new concepts based in large part to research done for the aid to bible understanding volume, then we were asked or coerced into unlearning those principles, going back to the old ways.
some of us never readjusted, finding ourselves very different from our more hardline compadres.. the inertia for the changes that eventually were initiated in the congregations came from the discovery that the greek words episkopos and presbyteros were used biblically to refer to all qualified men in a congregation, not just one.
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ABC News Runs This Headline: "Calif Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah's Sex Abuse Case"
by TMS inat least "the name" is being kept before the people..