by Prisca 32 Replies latest jw friends
Just wondering....
for those of us who are inactive, or have serious doubts, etc etc..
Are you going to the Memorial, even though you don't fully agree with how they explain things?
Anyone planning to have their own at home?
Or are you still planning on going, even if it's to say g'day to long "lost" friends?
Prisca, who's wondering what to do.....
I was asked this not long ago. I am in a quandary about it. For me this will depend on what happens in the next couple of weeks or so. I got a call the other night from the new P.O. Seems that 9 months after I stepped down and stopped going to the meetings they want to meet with me. My instincts, which are seldom wrong, tell me that any laying on of the hands will be with a noose and not with healing in mind.
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
Oh No, Frenchy, you too! Oh, how I wish they would just let people alone...it's so anxiety producing...for lack of a better term. Zeeeesh! Our thoughts are with you Frenchy.
(((((((lots of hugs)))))))
Thank you, Zazu. I really needed that!
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
Prisca,
I think that I will be going - just to keep the peace.
Frenchy,
Yes, I know just what your going through. Why can't they respect others, we do not do this lightly, it takes conviction to withdraw - not a wicked heart. Why cut us off?? I am not looking to influence anyone else, I just want to live my life with my family. If they were a truly 'loving brotherhood' they would resolve our doubts with sound answers, not just blindly aim to put us 'outside' so to speak.
I am a nice person, as most on this board seem to be. I feel good things towards others not bad, as much as I would like to 'enighten' certain ones, I won't, because to me the errors are obvious -it's up to them to realize that the society has called woolf once too many times.
The history is a catalogue of dissapointment. (See Awake March 9th 2000 What should we learn from History?) Quote "Any history told by the wielders of power.....must be regarded with the utmost suspicion"
Michael Stanford, Historian
Simon,
Hope they leave you alone soon you don't deserve it.
Latte
A very good question. The points expressed in a post by me to Englishman a little down the board are enough to prevent me from attending. You may like to consider this:
Now we all know that they don't drink it, do they? They pass the wine around amongst themselves and reject it. The speaker stands on the platform worrying that:
a) someone will spill it
b) someone will drink it
Strange that he has just read from Luke 22:19 "Keep doing this in remembrance of me", but they don't do it. They have a ceremony to show that they reject it.
On this basis, how can we, if we be Jehovah's witnesses, call ourselves Christian?
Ozzie (who wishes to obey the Lord's command to keep doing this)
i will probably attend this year. i go because my parents want me to go. but they are moving out of state this summer so this will be the last year i will feel like i have to attend. it's such a load of bs. the talk is exactly the same talk every year. last year i was sighing and rolling my eyes during the talk and my brother noticed. opps! i have the urge to "partake" because i know it will shock everyone but since i'm not a christian i feel that is hypocritical. but if i was a christian i for sure would "partake" and shock them all! this will be the last one i attend. yay!
love harmony
ozziepost,
The speaker stands on the platform worrying that:
a) someone will spill it
b) someone will drink it
You really hit the nail on the head with your comments. I gave the so-called Memorial Talk a few times. As you pointed out, it's a wacky ritual when all JWs and anyone who ever set foot in a KH comes together. Both genders wear their finest to be seen (just like Easter Sunday in most churches) but unlike most religious rituals, the Witnesses are there to observe that no one observes.
It's been years since attending a JW meeting, but the Memorial always seemed anticlimactic even when giving the talk. Passing the emblems to a building full of non-takes was about as exciting as sawing wood, and as spiritual as Corporate Americia. If it wasn't for worrying about spilled wine or someone taking a sip, there is little reason to attend.
In a way, I guess many view attending like putting the lamb's blood on the door to discourage the angel of death. It's a JW insurance policy with the loving Jehovah not to kill them. The policy is paid by attending a meeting and keeping your mouth shut when the emblems are quickly passed before you. I'm sure the Tower has a new class of hell for the poor soul with shaking hands that spills the wine no one drinks.
I haven't decided for sure yet. My husband wants to go, but for me I'm having a lot of turmoil inside. He says he wants to go to observe Jesus' death, but I told him for me I don't think that the way they do it is necessarily what Jesus had in mind. Why does Jesus say to keep doing this in rememberance of me, and the disciples ate and drank? Well the WTBTS would of course say that this because they were of the 144,000, and they know this how exactly? Because of their deciding which parts of Revelation to take literally and those which are figurative? How convenient for them to pick and choose those which fit their particular beliefs. I told him to go but that I probably wouldn't. This religion bothers me in the fact that you have to agree with everything 100% to be considered acceptable by Jehovah.<according to them *not* me, lol> It's not a religion where you can be half-hearted in their beliefs and be accepted as truly worthy. I remember looking around at the memorial for many years and seeing folks that you only see once a year, and thinking self righteously to myself how *sad* for them that they only worshipped Jehovah once a year. I am so glad to be able to see clearly for the first time in my LIFE that there are other ways to serve God besides that which is dicatated by the WTBTS as being the only *true* way. As we were discussing things last evening I told my husband that they are really beginning to remind me of the pharisees. Especially in their saying that their beliefs are the only *correct* way to worship God. I think they need to read Matthew 15:9, where Jesus tells the pharisees "It is in vain that they keep worshipping me because they teach commands of men as doctrines"
My husband will probably go, and I may or may not go...but if I do it will probably be my last time. I feel bad for him because he is a born and bred JW as am I, and it's so very hard to think that something you have been told from the time you took your first breath is the *TRUTH* may in fact be seriously flawed. For many in our situation it is easier to just go with the flow and not make waves, to basically not think...why should you have to when the GB is doing all the thinking and decison making for you? But I can't take it anymore. I told him that I can't live a lie...being half in and half out. I'm sorry, I don't mean to whine, it's just that this is SO hard!
Thanks for listening.
A very confused and distressed Eyes
"One Persons Heresy Is Anothers Truth"
Eyes,
Don't feel bad! Just the other day I was having a discussion from a moderator on one of the Witness boards, and he felt he didn't want to go because if he went, he felt he should partake.
I told him to relax, not all of Jesus' followers were with him at the Lord's Evening Meal. Shoot, most of the new converts to Christianity didn't even know anything special was going on that night, since they were obviously used to observing Passover the Jewish way.... So if you feel the need to go and partake or not, so be it.
