Consequences for actions. A high fat / sugary diet

by joe134cd 12 Replies latest jw experiences

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  joe134cd

  I want to illustrate my point about where many X-JWs go wrong.

  To illustrate, imagine a morbidly obese person goes on a calorie restricted diet. Subsequently he loses the excess calories and his health improves. Time passes, he now reasons;I’ve now unshackled the chains of my former life. Although I enjoy better health now, I found the restrictions of the diet to be a burdensome one. Now that I’m no longer dieting I can go back to my former ways. Surly, such reasoning would have to be seriously flawed for a couple of reasons:

  Did the person fail to distinguish the difference between been on a diet; or the principles of avoiding eating high fat sugary foods.

  Did he think that officially not been on a diet now gave him free range to all the fatty sugary foods.

  Or did he simply fail to appreciate that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction to his eating patterns. Something that probably would have been at the heart of the matter.

  Keeping this in mind. I recently read a post on reddit that was titled “what’s the most exciting thing you have done since leaving the JWs.” Where by he listed using the pages of the NWT to smoke weed with his GF, as been exciting. Now I’m all for saving money on cigarette papers, and surprisingly , in light of Proverbs 13:20, I actually encouraged his behaviour. But like the obese person. Have the lines become blurred between a diet and a life style. Although he has left the restrictions of a diet has he returned to the fatty/sugary food. We must all decide for ourselves.
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  ukpimo

  And surprisingly, many worldly people are against smoking and drugs, more so than we think. Generally, those from damaged backgrounds, either an abusive upbringing or controlled by religion tend to pursue erratic habits more extensively than the average "worldly" person. A JW or an exJW for instance is probably more likely to either not be disturbed by porn or regularly watch porn, to masturbate frequently in private, to want to fulfill abnormal sexual fantasies, with higher rates of infidelity, suicidal behaviour, depression and anxiety.. and no wonder because in more ways than one we are broken people trying to hurt our bodies when all we need is not to punish ourselves but cherish our life. As for obesity, some people are happy fat, not that it's entirely healthy but if that's what you're happy with then be happy. We can't propagate control tactics once we leave a cult, just enjoy life and let your bodies fill out and enjoy freedom, just don't kill yourself in the process!
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  joey jojo

  One of the mind games that the org uses is to make the JW's believe that only 'worldy' people have normal human problems. The fact is that cheaters, sex-fiends, alcoholics, drug users, wife-bashers, child abusers, mental illness and more exist in the org, as they do in the rest of society. However there are many, many 'worldy' people that are serious about being good parents, and generous, responsible, trustworthy people.

  Living a good life is its own reward. Its about balance, self-control and purpose. You can find those things outside of organised religion.
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  joe134cd

  The point I was trying to make, wasn’t about weight gain or obesity. It was more about how people fail to realise that the restrictions forced upon them by a religious organisation, were there for a very good reason in the first place. Now that they are officially not under those restrictions, I guess, the principles of the law still apply. Often times with very serious consequences. Leaving a controlling religion is one thing, the body been the temple of God is quite another.

  As one person pointed out, people’s indifference to a Hellenistic lifestyle, was something that has come as a surprise to me since leaving. I think I’m more against drugs now, than what I was as a JW. I even voted against it at a referendum held in this country. At least superficially, it is still illegal to smoke Marijuana in this country. I’d hope it never gains legal recognition. This is a road, even though I have the freedom to do so, I never thought I’d go down.
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  Anony Mous

  It depends on the restrictions and their motives. You are talking from the assumption that because you can find some good in a set of rules, that all the rules are making sense or that some rules maybe have a desired outcome, therefore the rule is inherently good.

  As other people point out, there are other Christian and non-Christians that RECOMMEND the same set of rules, they do not REQUIRE the rules.

  For example, smoking weed or talking to people that do “bad” things, has a strict rule in the JW org because they do not want you socializing with people at large and bring bad advertisement to the organization, not because they care for your health or safety, because that is belied by other rules (blood, field circus etc). If you can’t smoke because it may kill you but you can’t also save your life in an acute situation, those rules contradict each other logically and morally.
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  joe134cd

  I guess although all things may be legal, but not all things are advantageous. Smoking is one of them. The JWs to their credit have some very good ideas. For example it saves me hassle and money at Christmas time. It also has some bad ideas e.g shunning, blood.

  When a person fails to recognise that although we are no longer under the law, but the principles of the law. They can get into some very serious problems. Particularly in younger posters, been PIMO. I honestly wonder if it’s more to do with a smorgasbord of high fat sugary foods, than realising the benefits of resisting it.
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  Anony Mous

  @Joe: who says it is not advantageous? Smoking both weed and tobacco can be advantageous, tobacco, cigars and marijuana have long been recognized for their medicinal properties. There is a link between smoking certain types of cigarettes and increased chances of lung and other cancer, but it is not a guarantee and only relevant if you live past 60 which back when the ban was passed wasn’t that high of a chance.

  Christmas is not about gifts for most, it is for children to learn positive associations with religious traditions, for adults it should be about Christ, denying the birth of Jesus or preventing people from the mass and communion with Christ is a rather big sin for most Christians and is antithetical to both first century Christians and the teachings of Jesus (communion is supposed to be done by all Christians at least weekly and on all holy days, not reserved to 144,000 for one day in the year).

  The thing you are hitting at is that because JWs make certain issues taboo, they are encouraging especially young and curious people to see what the fuss is all about. Both inside and out, JWs are much more sexually aggressive, have more affairs and divorces than the average religious person in ‘the world’. That is caused by restrictiveness rather than compassion on the issues, so it is better to hide behavior which creates secretiveness and snowballs into risky behavior. I was more worried about getting caught with condoms than that my partner would talk, so we didn’t have condoms, I knew the other person would remain quiet, but a box of condoms is condemning outside of the parties with the secret. There are societies where you can be sure that your secret sex life will remain hidden, these are again, more risky than just picking up a regular person at the bar.
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  joe134cd

  My friend, I never implied that just because a diet is beneficial that all diets are beneficial. In fact some can be dangerous and deadly. It’s the point at which balance sits. I guess the ying and the Yang, the Tai and the chi, or what harmony is there between Christ and Belial. Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever. True there are horny obese JWs , and horny obese ex-JWs. Is this more to do with with been in a restrictive group or failing to realise the principles of the body been a temple.

  For example, when I left the religion, I was in my mid 40s, and I left purely because as a vote of no confidence in the GB. Hence, my life both in and outside of this religion has relatively been the same. This confuses my JW relatives, as to the choices I make. When really it shouldn’t, because I still adhere to the principles of the diet. I believe the reasons and the age a person leaves greatly affects later outcomes .
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  Anony Mous

  But if you still adhere to the so-called principles, don’t you by extension still fall under the power of the GB? These rules were invented by men, they have no grounds in reality, obviously you rejected the men and some of the rules, so you must reject everything that is connected to that. This is interesting, because you adhere to a religion as a snapshot in time, eventually you will fall outside the acceptable (outside the Overton window so to speak) as the men make up and adjust more rules. So the question is which snapshot do you accept and if so, why?

  If you reject the principle that the current GB is appointed by God (which you must, since if you accept they are appointed by God and reject them, that is worse than an unbeliever) then you must reject the principles that go along with that.

  To go with your analogy, you find out the doctor has been giving you advice on diet that benefits his family’s food and drugs company and is actually providing you with toxic substances instead. You decided to reject that doctor, but still keep shopping at his company. If you think the Bible or even JW at some point had good advice, or a kernel of truth, you must investigate fully what is and what isn’t introduced by the GB for the sake of their own benefit.
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  joe134cd

  All that I can say is I keep my body free of anything that could damage it. Particularly in younger posters, been out of a religion that restricts behaviour, is quite different to thinking those restrictions still don’t apply. I have a relative, who thought that restrictions no longer applied to him outside the religion. He’s now homeless and addicted to Meth. Leaving as a 40+ year old, because he doesn’t believe in 8 men. Is different to an 18 yo who sees greener pastors.