Board of bitterness (page 13)

Frazzled UBM

Hi Miss.Fit - I feltg for your very genuine post. I imagine this site is very confronting for you and I applaud your courage in coming herfe. Please don't be put off by tghe vehemence fo some of tghe things expressed here. try to listen to what people are sayhing about their expereinces ion the W organisation. I understand that you ahve been tgaught to respect the organisation. My wife si the same - she cannot bear it when I criticize the organisation. Please do not run away - stay and listen and see if you can relate to what people say here and start to really think about what you have been taught to believe and whether deep down you accept those beliefs. Think whether the expereinces described here are similar to your experience. Most of all be brave and curious and grasp what life has to offer. I really with you all the best as you embark on your new journey.

Frazzled UBM

Most for all Miss.Fit - please say what you are thinking and don't be intimidated. I am new but I get the impression that this is an accepting envirmonment and even if we say things that make you feel uncomfortable don't be puit off and don't hold back in saying what you think. For me people like you opening up on this site is golddust.

Hi Outlaw - as a newcomer to the site who is not an ex-JW but who has strong opinions I am conscious that I could piss off members who have been there and done that. But I have found that expressing what I think and feel here is incredibly therapeutic and for older members I can understand that it may be tedious to have someone new turn up and start going over stuff that has been discussed previously ad naseum so sorry for that. But I crave your indulgence. I expect I will settle down in time but for the time being I am loving being able to post stuff here even where to yhou it may be stating the bleeding obvious.

OUTLAW

Hey Frazzeled!..

My post isn`t for you specificly..

It`s for anyone reading the thread..

We`re always getting someone who knows all the answers..

I don`t think you fit that description..

...........................OUTLAW

Miss.Fit

Adamah- Thanks for your thoughtful response to my post. I was indeed feeling I didn't belong anywhere. Your explanation about everyone being at different places coming and going made sense to me. I just need to go at my own pace.

Data dog: I never felt hated. I understand the need the need to vent. I related to alot of the feelings expressed on this board. Maybe you can tell me how to spot a troll. Is it just someone who refuses to see your viewpoint? OR is it more than that? I am new to posting so I dont know all the rules. I just try to follow the posting guidelines.

I didnt read the court transcript on the Conti case but i read the articles. That is one of the reasons I am here. I lived through the results of similar polices. After reading members accounts, I could see nothing had changed.

1009 - It must be hard to understand when you dont share the same experiences. Keep an open mind. The more you read the more you will see how similar these experiences are.

Except for the lying, two faced Elder dad who molested my sisters and beat us at home, I'm ?sure the JWs are nice an d loving. What did you get dfd for? Do you think it was worse than what he did? Does that seem fair?

He molested 2 girls for a long period of time. He was removed, but was only publicly reproved.

Miss.Fit

Frazzled: Thanks for your kind words. This is probably eye opening for you too. Is this board helping you understand your wife more? It is so hard to get out of the JW mind set.

Missy

kassad84

Yes.

HarryMac

I'm bitter.

My time was wasted. Time is the ultimate commodity.

Connect the dots at your leisure.

Frazzled UBM

Hi Miss.Fit - yes it is very helpful. I have gone through a huge learning curve over the last 18 months since my wife got reinstated and I have been reading everything I can to try to find the magic bullet to get her to see what I see (and to work out how to protect my son from indoctrination) but I realise the approach I have been adopting of bombarding her with everything I see that is wrong with the WBTS has been failing miserably so I am challenging myself to find a different approach and so being able to express everything that is in my head here I hope will help me to take a softly softly incremental more listening and less talking approach with my wife. Even if it doesn't result in her coming around it will at least help our relationship which seems to lurch from crisis to crisis. Frazzled

Frazzled UBM

Cheers Outlaw - thanks for that clarification

TD

adamah,

Just as the NWT deliberately mistranslates...

I understand where you're coming from, but I'm just talking about JW writers taking unfair advantage of the ambiguity in language. There's nothing wrong with the NWT's rendering of Acts 15:29. Literal translations are closest to the original text, but the result is sometimes awkward or incomplete English and that is what is at work here.

For example:

If a man went to his dermatologist and the doctor said, "Persons with sensitive skin should abstain from alcohol" it would be a reference to the topical application of alcohol on the skin. There's no reason why he couldn't still drink beer, wine or spirits.

If a woman went to her OBGyn and the doctor said, "Pregnant women should abstain from alcohol" it would be reference to drinking alcoholic beverages. There's no reason why she couldn't use alcohol as a topical antiseptic or in a perfume.

Even though both doctors have said, "Abstain from alcohol" they're talking about two very different things. "Abstain from" constructions are dependent upon the context in which they're spoken which is why many translations clarify the meaning of the phrase, "Abstain...from blood" so it won't be misunderstood:

"abstain from food that has been offered to idols, from tasting blood, from the flesh of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual vice" -Moffat

"avoid what has been sacrificed to idols, tasting blood, eating the meat of what has been strangled and sexual immorality" -Phillips Modern English

"eat no food that has been offered to idols; eat no blood; eat no animal that has been strangled; and keep yourselves from immorality" -TEV

"You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or eating the meat of strangled animmals and from sexual immorality" -NLT

Of course, none of this is unknown to JW writers. They're perfectly aware of it. Clear back in 1958, they clearly acknowledged the nature of the abstention regarding blood:

"Each time the prohibition of blood is mentioned in the Scriptures it is in connection with taking it as food and so it is as a nutrient that we are concerned with in its being forbidden."

This was the original argument against transfusion. (i.e. That it nourished the body like food) When that argument failed, JW's had a clear choice to either retract it and admit they were wrong and didn't really understand what a blood transfusion was for OR continue to teach the doctrine using less than honest means. They chose the latter.

1009, if you're still reading, there is nothing bitter about pointing this out.

Board of bitterness

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