Syme

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Posts by Syme

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  6

  16 Jehovah's Witnesses on trial in Russia

  by LisaRose in

  1. social
  2. current

  i apologize if this has already been posted, the search function doesn't work on my kindle tablet.

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/sixteen-jehovahs-witnesses-may-be-russias-most-pacifist-extremists/2015/11/20/6e046610-8898-11e5-bd91-d385b244482f_story.html.

  as much as i hate this religion, i don't see that it does any good for any religion to be banned.

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  Syme

  I agree with the OP.

  The JWs do believe they have "supremacy" and "exclusivity", but then again, so does the Russian Orthodox Church. So, why doesn't the Russian court ban the Orthodox church, too? (a rhetoric question, obviously)
  
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  33

  Building layoffs & JW calendar 2016 theme

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the theme of the jw calendar 2016 is building, building, building.

  all the calendar pictures are about building wts property with cheap labor witnesses.. and then, just before the year approaches the building has halted.. it seems a short term decision.

  a strange correlation again.. gorby.

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  Syme

  How bizarre!

  I think they are toying with the r&f; they're teasing them. "Let's see how much more dumbly obedient they can be".

  When you have absolute power over 8 million people, it is a great temptation to "play" with that power, to see just how far you can go with it; else it's boring.
  

  When you're a god to a lot of people, you tend to play god.
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  47

  Since you left, have you become more moral?

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. family

  respect.

  sympathy.

  gossip.

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  Syme

  Yeah, I've become more moral: I don't long for the death of 99.9% of the Earth's population in Big-A anymore.

  I don't condone anymore the atrocities committed by God or "God's people" as found in the Old Testament; I don't believe people should be punished, or watched, for what they do in their private lives, as long as they don't hurt anyone; I've stopped being homophobic; I don't shun people; I don't give orders anymore; I don't judge; I lie a lot less.
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  52

  1914—The Turning Point in History - Really?

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1914the turning point in history.

  30 from the human standpoint, the world troubles and global wars foretold in the bible were far from the thinking of the pre-1914 world.

  german statesman konrad adenauer said: thoughts and pictures come to my mind, .

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  Syme

  The 1914 "prediction" by Bible Students was not exactly a success, since the prediction was about the end of the world and the rupture; no end of the world came then, and no rupture. Thus, the prediction was a complete failure.

  It's just that they devised the "invisible presence" and "Beginning of the Last Days" theories afterwards, so as to appear, at least partly, successful.

  Afterwards, everyone's a prophet.
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  71

  Which bible character do you hate the most?

  by Bonsai in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the more i think about it, the more i feel an extreme dislike for the apostle paul.

  he was on par with hitler in his treatment of the jews before he "saw the light".

  he replaced jesus teachings of love and mercy with a more legalistic, pharisaical concept of devotion to god.. any evil person can come to believe in god and worship him if the scales were literally and miraculously removed from his eyes.

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  Syme

  Jacob: he deceived not only his brother, but also his father, taking advantage of his blindness. He deceived a disabled person, in other words. Remember in Deuteronomy the verse "cursed is he who makes a blind man go astray from his way?". The interesting thing is, Jehovah did not curse him or punish him, but instead blessed him. As in the case of David, God and his Law was severe with poor fellas (especially women), but very loose with favored kings and patriarchs..

  Prophet Elijah who 'ordered' the killing of some 30 children because they called him "bald" (he *was* bald). Their killing by wild bears, no less. I wonder, did he leave the scene or sit to watch the spectacle?

  Jonah: he hated it when the populous city of Nineveh was spared, instead of being annihilated, as he wished. Ring any bells? Remind you of some people who are more than eager to see the whole "bad word" being consumed by fire in Armageddon, and hate it when some "worldly" ones prove to not-so-bad-persons after all?
  

  Noah: first he gets drunk (no problem here), but then proceeds to curse his son because he saw him naked while trying to tend to him, in his miserable state? Oh wait, not his son: he curses his son's son, Canaan, who had nothing to do with the incident. Guess he hadn't sobered up before entering "prophecy mode".

  Of course, all of these tales are just myth, as are myth other unbelievable atrocities of God and his People, like the genocide of the Canaanites. However, it tells us something that, even though they are myth, there are people today who endorse and condone those acts, and teach them to their kids, while claiming themselves to be most peaceful and innocent.
  
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  Peaceful Revolution in Romania and Taxing Religions

  by cookiemaster in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some of you might know i'm from romania.

  some of you might have also heard about that terrible club fire that killed 32 people and injured hundreds.

  the whole thing happened because the club owners bought the officials to allow them to operate even though the location was a fire hazard.

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  Syme

  Just read about the tragedy in your country cookiemaster.

  I'm from Europe as well, not too far from your place. Hope something good comes out of this tragic event.

  Corruption has many faces. Churches that reap wealth, not paying anything back, while their country is in a dire situation and citizens pay higher taxes every year, is a form of injustice; it's a form of corruption on its own.
  
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  47

  Suicide or Real Freedom? - My Story As One Of Jehovah's Witnesses

  by dubstepped in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  "sometimes i think the only thing i could do that wouldn't upset someone would be to kill myself.".

  those were the frustrated words of my friend as we stood out in his large yard in the country, just about to enjoy a nice bonfire on a beautiful night.

  what was it that could have been a lesser evil than killing himself?

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  Syme

  Thank you very much for your sharing of your story. It was very touching.

  The length of the story was just fine, no worries :-)
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  105

  New Watchtower Propaganda and hate speech destroying families (Feb 2016 WT)

  by Daniel1555 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the following is a paragraph from the new february study watchtower article "learn from jehovah's loyal servants.".

  7 a conflict of loyalties may arise when a close relative is disfellowshipped.

  for example, a sister named anne [1] received a telephone call from her disfellowshipped mother.

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  Syme

  Makes my stomach turn around in circles.
  
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  11

  The Effects of Sexual Abstinence Before Marriage

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  very interesting article on the psychology of sexual abstinence and the effects it can have on sex life after marriage.

  it focusses on an evangelical group for single men called "the river" but the attitudes will be familiar to born-in jws.. ___________________________.

  ..respondents had been told, since they were young, that women were nonsexual.

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  Syme

  I was just thinking of posting the same article, cofty. Right on the spot :-)
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  18

  How was it for you when you had to shun someone?

  by Anator in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember a good friend when i was in and active who was d'fd.

  when he started coming back, for me at that time is was gut-wrenching not to say 'hello' or at the very least encourage him to continue.

  i thought even at this time, does this act of shunning really effective?

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  Syme

  I am ashamed to say that while fully "in", I shunned completely by the book. Even as an elder, I lifted the shunning rule only when it was necessary for religious reasons.

  Alright, I'll refer to a specific incident, confession-like, which might get you angry (justifiably).
  

  Last days as an elder, we had a funeral. The deceased person's daughter was recently DF'ed; I had been in her JC. When we entered the room to give condolences, I passed beside her, giving condolences to all relatives except her. Of course, she was so upset that she called us few minutes later in a room and put a complaint about me in front of the other elders. That shook me well. (She ought to have punched me in the face.) A few days later I was due to deletion, for irrelative reasons. I phoned her, a day before the deletion announcement, and apologized to her for the extreme shunning, almost crying. Fortunately, she accepted my apology. That incident was just few months before my waking up.

  We've done, as jdubs, nasty stuff, more or less. Shunning alone is one of the nastiest. We can't change that, but we can try hard not to be judgmental now, whatever our current affiliation and views are.