by Farkel 156 Replies latest jw friends
Fark, you are one of the greats of this board ..The value of a post is not the number of responses, but the quality that it contains. There are a lot more of your posts in the "Best of" section then there are of mine.
Fluff posts are fun , we all enjoy a laugh, but lets not forget why we are here....
((((((HUGS)))&Farkel...Why dont your spend your time speaking in all the churches ,like I do, tell them why they should NOT become a JW...A lot of the church folks still think they are a great bunch,,,.Now since your so old, come see me ,,LOL!!! I am old too, we can "cut the rug" together.
else who writes something about a song or a movie or a "feeling" stays on the front of the board for days. I guess I understand what people like to see. I just don't have that to offer those folks
The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with.
- Eleanor Holmes Norton
An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, butwarmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child. Carl Jung
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961)
Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how can you tell but that friend may hereafter become an enemy. And bring not all mischief you are able to upon an enemy, for he may one day become your friend. Saadi
Persian poet (1184 - 129
Caliber
Why you self pitying pathetic elderly man!
I guess you need a good dope slap to get you out of the whining that you're doing.
You KNOW you're valued. You KNOW you have a certain enjoyable readable style. You're one of the greatest, sharpest, smartest "apostates" the boards have ever seen. You're looking for a little acknowledgment. It's ok, Farkel. You deserve it! But for heaven's sakes, STOP sighing! It's unbecoming of you. You don't want me calling Malone up doya??
Also I am reminded of an incident... a man is traveling down a country road with two very distant Friends..
all of a sudden the driver pulls over and stops ..they each pull out a beer and are now illegally drinking .My
Friend telling me the story was very upset.. this was illegal, dangerous not to mention fines and your reputation
back at the KH. But he accepted a beer begins drinking.. now he says to me I am not on a Superior level
only then did he speak very frankly about how wrong and dangerous this act was ! He was speaking
across to them not down to them !
Or like a small child that is cranking their neck to speak up to you as an adult in a standing position !
note the difference it makes to simply knee down to his level.. the glow in his eyes !
Caliber
I don't agree with sir82.
Yes, as ex-Witnesses we have a history. Before this board, there was the lively H2O board, which made JWD look tame in terms of conflict and wars. We had Alanf, Jim Penton, Norm, Jan Haugland all the Swedish guys, and Farkel of course. We had a militant communist transsexual Nordic boy (most knew him in his later stages as Stacey, but what did he go by before? Some horrible anarchist name!) saving up money for his sex-change operation and being an anarchist simlutaneously. We became friends one day when he dropped off his old car on the streets of my neighborhood, gave Free Minds $100 of his American money as thanks, and took off to Finland! Never heard from him again. I'm sure she is now better adjusted. Certainly couldn't be much worse! She got kicked off the board by Simon or someone for talking smack about Mexicans! LOL.
We've seen it all. We've had Bill Bowen, Danny Haszard, and Kent Steinhaug. The Best! They are still out there and supporting you now, in spite of their being kicked off the board or leaving. Alanf seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Penton is staged for a comeback, partial thanks to Barb. Dave Brown has remained in Christian retreat for years. Some one please go knock on his door. Len Chretien of Good News Defenders is in San Diego still distributing the first real movie that he debuted on the JWs, "Witnesses of Jehovah?" So many other long-timers, look at Grace! (Mouthy) still hugging you online in her 80s. Simon doesn't seem to respond to anyone any more. ?? Farkel's gift is that he is the George Carlin who has seen it all. And where is Maximus? I and others miss that boy. We know your listening, Max.
I couldn't begin to name all the other stars who have been on JWD and H2O. Very few that I ever disliked. Which reminds me of "YouKnow" who was an exception. YouKnow was one of the few very destructive posters, in terms of sitting in the pews and picking off victims to re-guilt and mock the "weak-minded" in the JW/huckster way, attempting to draw them back to the Witnesses. I will continue to expose such persons as harmful to one's recovery. KNOW what is clearly unhealthful and OPPOSE it. TOLERATE what you don't fully understand if there is hope for a better solution.
Looking back much farther, I started in 1981 in the ex-JW movement a year after leaving Bethel. I found Edmond Gruss (author of the first real apologetic by an ex-JW, entitled, "Apostles of Denial" ) nearby, holed up in the desert teaching hundreds of Los Angeles Baptist College students in theology, history and so forth, and Ed inspired me to write my first exposure of the whole "Franz Incident" a year before Ray wrote his book. (What Happened At the World Headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Spring of 1980?) http://www.freeminds.org/history/whathapp.htm. That's what got Bethel Ministries started back in 1982. In 1993 we opted to switch to being a non-profit educational organization apart from my church. That year I quit my pastoring to continue in this work. (the whole story is up at www.RandallWatters.org).
Early on I met Walter Martin, Eric Grieshaber, Bill and Joan Cetnar, Walt and Carol Davis of Help Jesus! and eventually met MOST of the world players in the anti-cult field. Paul Carden, Hank Haanegraaf, the Bodines, the lovely Bob and Gretchen Passantino, the MacGregors, Bob Morey, Robert Bowman, Jr, Cynthia Hampton, Nils and Sherry Jansma, the Minettes, Mary Morrill, Dave Englund, the Kirkhams, Ray and Marilyn Marsh, Donna Fried/Leavitt and her dear mother, Keith Andreve, Stan Covell, Emily Hood, Linda Hull, Marilyn from the 800-WHY-1914 HELP line (still is there for you!) Stan Covell, the Bakers, Ken Raines, the Satterlees, Glen and Jill James, Rose Wallace, Ariel and Gloria Palomares, Dave Englund, and Duane Magnani. I have been privileged to know Carol Hartman, Philip Page, Wilbur Lingle, Allan Zinkofsky and Ray and Earlene Donaldson, Bob and Aline Achen and many more that I am not sure if I should post their names. Ever so much thanks for decades of support and close friendship to Marcia H., our Secretary. also Robert Rivera and Dennis Hornish, our previous and current Treasurers.
I was on the Cult Awareness Network team, long before Scientology took it over, and we had the best, most mature group of people in the world, a mix of people from atheists to born-again Christians who actually really liked each other and were long-time friends! Imagine that.
I became close friends with Steven Hassan and he took me up a couple of levels in the awareness category. I have done interventions with him and with several other exit-counselors in the field. It is a small world of unknown workers, for the most part. Yet if you don't read their helpful advice, such as in Steve's "Releasing the Bonds," you are likely still crippled from your JW experience. Mind control buttons are often missed and left undetected by most ex-Witnesses. Most of those who post on this board are bleeding their guts from bondage issues. Not necessary, given the amount of mature help that is actually available, but where?? We want to be the WHERE for the future, don't we?
But it's only just begun! As for me alone, I have TONS of teaching ideas and applications from my exit-counseling days that I have LONGED to put into media or acting commercial format for years. I have a project in mind with Armageddon Okies that will change the way exit-counseling works, if I can ever get funding. Two seriously interested donors ($10,000 and more) led me on but failed to reciprocate. One actually required a PROFIT to be shown on the new teaching venture for the first year before he would fund it! Folks, this is non-profit. We are R&D. I can't guarantee a profit. This is a non-profit organization, we are here to GIVE, not to amass things. I still live on a Bethelite salary after 27 years. I am only here alive and fed because of others who give behind the scenes. This is philanthropy. It doesn't make a profit. It multiplies, like a Mandelbrot set.
It might just get done now, with the new generation of movers and shakers. Social movements, and the responses to them, are cyclical. But people will always want the LIVE, FRESH responses over the old and dead. It's just human nature. So sometimes the same old tricks of recovery that we learn have to be reinvented or set in a new paradigm. Someone will do it, will it be you? Not too many people visit graveyards, nor will they visit a dead JWD for help.
Farkel has a choice, to pine and wallow in the old, or to step up and polish his act in a new show.
What will he do?
the angels await.
Randy Watters
what ever happened to Jan and Kirsten haugland?
They used to have a site called home.sol.no/kirstenh~theyleftjw
Randy, after reading your words, I'd like to say "Farkel who??" But I won't because Farkel helped me and others probably more than most.
Randy, I'm sooooooooooo glad you're here! You are a very valuable person in helping others see the truth about The Truth. Your site helped me when I was searching and I still regularly go on there to see what's new. You're a humble man, sir. Thank you for being who you are.
Thanks Minimus, keep on the good work yourself my friend.
the Kirkhams,
Randy,
I used to know a Doug Kirkham and his brother Ross from Southern California. Any connection?
Glad to see that Leonard Chretien is still active. I met he and Marjorie in Alabama (at the Gregerson's along with Ray and others) in the early 80's when they were floating the idea for their film.
Also, is your organization a 501(c)3? Have you applied for grant funding? Need any help?
