by Seraphim23 207 Replies latest jw friends
Qcmbr
Let’s hope I become cherished furniture then, and not he who must not be named. I wonder who she was, I’m curious now? I trust you get the spirit of my post at least I hope so. From my point of view there are quite a few materialist fantasies as well, but they are less obvious living in a material world like we do. I won’t start singing Madonna despite being a gay guy or dancing either for that matter. I take your points though in a good spirit.
Good post. Just because you've had the insight and strength to break from Jehovah's Witnesses doesn't mean that your loved ones have.
I was enraged that a cult could separate me from my siblings and worked very hard to get them out by sharing all the expose' material with them that I could. For my sisters it went smoothly, but for my younger brother I have regrets doing so. After 10 years he finally broke out of the WT but his wife didn't. Although it was really wonderful to have him back now it looks like a divorce for him, the loss of his young children, financial devastation is possible. It's like watching a car wreck in slow motion and it is painful to realize that I had a hand in its cause. I don't want to see my brother suffer like he is. I find it more painful than being separated from him because he was obeying the WT rules about shunning. If I had to do it all over again I would have just kept silent.
Night my online friends. B*gger off to hell my online adversaries. (just kidding - there is no hell - I hope you step on a lego) :)
lol - lego ouch.
Stifling of debate? Not allowing heated arguments? No, that was not my intent when agreeing with the OP. ;)
Rather, I dislike seeing comments like "that's idiotic" and "well, if you choose to follow that moronic way of thinking" ... you know what I'm saying.
I'm not giving anyone a free pass to cry "waaa waaaa, you hurt my feelings" when another poster is passionate or gets a bit carried away (hey,,, *raises hand* GUILTY HERE! I've 'lost it' on several occasions over the years) ...
On the other hand, I strongly dislike the use of expressions like the examples I gave, above. They are mean-spirited and disrespecful.
Even more importantly, deliberately speaking in a disrespectful, dismissive and highly condescending manner accomplishes nothing positive. It creates defensive feelings, ill will, and promotes fear in those who may base their world view on faith. Fear that if they voice their true feelings at this point in time in their recovery, they will be shouted down and bullied. They have already been humilated and denigrated by Jehovah's Witnesses TM . Is it helpful that they get mocked and derided here? I think not.
xo
tal
You sound like you’re very fond of your brother MegaDude. I hope that the silver lining of the cloud that is the JWs will be that any kids you or your brother and sisters have won’t have the same hardships. It’s less lightly now by the sound of it, due to you leaving and your brother leaving. Perhaps you had a hand in that also?
Ouch Q!
ow ow ow ... It feels like I walk on Lego every day ... that's my theme song .... "I'm Walkin' on Lego... woah oh!,, and it don't feel fine!"
lol
t
Seraphim - Your title and OP sounds like an appeal on behalf of people of faith who don't want to be disturbed by inconvenient facts.
Then as I read through the thread it begins to sound more like a simple appeal to avoid personal attacks.
If its the first then I disagree for reasons Qcmbr has explained very eloquently. If its the latter then of course nobody would disagree, but its a long time since I've seen that sort of personal attack.
We're all at different points in our trek through life.
In my opinion we are all at different levels of being wrong.
Some are just more wrong than others.
That's why we have empirical methods for arriving at facts to support
some sense of truth and and develop trust in what we can agree is
is more "accurate".
Tal - bang on.
