Outlaw I said the same thing, only I didn't have cool pictures of the Watchtower Mafioso. I'm jealous.
Cult, gang...kind of the same thing, except that in gangs, you get cool jackets and tattoos.
Would You "Technically" Remain A Jehovah's Witness If There Were No Sanctions Involved?
by minimus 46 Replies latest jw friends
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Scarred for life
No, absolutely not. I don't believe anything they preach.
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dgp
Yknot, as to excommunication among Catholics, I found this in the Wikipedia:
Before the 1983 Code of Canon Law, there were two degrees of excommunication: vitandus (shunned, literally "to be avoided", where the person had to be avoided by other Catholics), and toleratus (tolerated, which permitted Catholics to continue to have business and social relationships with the excommunicant). This distinction no longer applies today, and excommunicated Catholics are still under obligation to attend Mass, even though they are barred from receiving the Eucharist and from taking active part in the liturgy (reading, bringing the offerings, etc.). [ 2 ] Indeed, the excommunicant is encouraged to retain some relationship with the Church, as the goal is to encourage them to repent and return to active participation in its life.
You will wonder how someone who claims to have been a fervent Catholic has to use the Wikipedia to know about excommunication. Very simple: it wasn't a thing that I ever thought would ever ever ever ever ever happen to me. The likelihood of a lightning striking right on me was much greater. I've known of people who were excommunicated, but I have never ever met one. Technically I am still a member of the church, though my opinions are often against those of the Catholic Church and I haven't honored my "obligation" to go to Church in decades. Yet, if I wanted to go back, I could go back by simply going back. I would sit on one of the pews and that would be it.
The fact that a similar thing would be so difficult for you exJW's screams that your belonging to your former organization was a hell (pun intended) of a lot worse than mine.
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AGuest
The thought makes me shudder, dear Minimus (peace to you!)... not only for myself, but for the millions who would in fact "technically" remain.
Indeed, there are millions who would even go back... if the WTBTS ever said, "Hey, yeah, we were wrong about such and so... we LOVE you... c'mon back!"... even though they know it's a fake-i-fied false prophet. And why? Couple/few reasons: to be "with" family... to be "accepted" by the larger group... to have "association"... to "belong"... to be "vindicated" (I was right; you were wrong, thanks for admitting it!)... and various other sundry reasons. Most who are in NOW don't believe it's the truth it claims to be... but ask the quintessential question: where else are/am we/I to go?
There are many who are "out"... but still, in some way... are "touching the unclean thing."
Going along to get along destroys your integrity.
Indeed, dear Terry (and peace to you, as well!)... religion very often does that. You either accept the doctrine (or at least go along with it)... or risk not being "like" those you "worship" with. That is one the main holds religion has on people: traditions, customs, and cultures.
If we don't hunger and thirst for reality in our day to day life we sink below the surface quickly. Our individuality is sucked dry.
As someone who despises the "herd" mentality... in whatever form it takes... I vehemently agree!
We become a "thing", a utility, a cog in some mindless machine of idiocy.
Mindless idiocy that claims "to know"...
Others who may be just hanging on to sanity wondering if they are going crazy or becoming evil are looking over at us...US!
If they KNEW, however, they wouldn't really BE wondering, though...
"He's not feeling what I'm feeling. He's not thinking what I'm thinking..." they are saying to themselves.
And, praise JAH, some of us don't really give a... well, you know what I'm saying... what others are "feeling" or "thinking." We have come to see that they really neither feel OR think. They just THINK (which is they're only thought) that they are/do. In truth, they're just going along with what someone else thinks...
And they die a little each day BECAUSE WE'RE TOO CHICKEN SHIT to come out in the open and bellow loud enough to shake heaven loose from its perch: I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!
Not sure you mean THEY die... because WE (which is what you wrote)... or they die because THEY are too... well, you get my drift. As someone who has come to LIFE... I must say that "chicken sh*t" was never a part of my existence. Always got me trouble, yes, and still does (here)... but never a part of who and what I am. Hated such even as a small child... and do so now. I have NO problem bellowing... as you well know. I'm just not mad.
We are on this earth for only a short time, a brief moment in the grand scheme of things.
Perhaps...
For crying out loud...why can't we have the guts, the gumption and the integrity seize the day and claw our way to: FREEDOM!
Okkaaayyy???? I mean, I've been asking that question here... for YEARS! (John 8:32, 36)
Again, peace to you (and you, too, dear Minimus)!
A slave of Christ,
SA
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dgp
Well, now I understand why the Catholic Church takes no action against people like me . Who knows, I might eventually go back...
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coffee_black
No. I couldn't do it. It would eat me alive from the inside out. The thought of it makes me sick to my stomach.
Coffee
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minimus
AGuest, you're sweet.
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spawn
Would I BOLLOCKS
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its_me!
No, and HELL NO.
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recovering
no way, they do not allow for reform or disent; they are responsible for many deaths (blood doctrine); they are judgemental; they are really a publishing corporation not a religion; last but not least they lie.