Hippikon - Hilarious picture....better not show the kids though!
A Question for You
by individuals wife 28 Replies latest jw friends
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Monica
Hi IW!
Would I ever go back? No way -- Even if they changed all of their teachings to make it more tolerable. I just don't believe what they teach and I don't think that "it" deserves to have me as a member. The biggest thing is that I do not feel I need to go to a Kingdom Hall to be close to God. So what reason would I have to go back? The fellowship? Heck, anyone who wants to enjoy my company, needn't go to meetings 3x a week to see me! There are plenty of other ways to enjoy others company outside a Kingdom Hall.
So, off the top of my head, I just can't think of a single reason why I'd step foot in another Kingdom Hall again (well unless I started hearing voices that said they were from God and I needed to return - but then I think I'd go see a shrink before I went to see an elder)!
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GentlyFeral
OK, let’s pretend I’m [i]not[i/] brilliantly happy as a Unitarian Universalist/Pagan.
Gosh, this is turning out to be much harder than I thought….
Um.
1. Ditch the damn blood policy. Besides being dangerous, it’s just ridiculous.
2. Real, sure-nuff universalism. No more Armageddon bullshit. Reform and transformation for everybody!
3. In fact, no more bullshit of any kind.
4. Of course, that means most of that sappy “literature” would have to go.
5. And we’d no longer be required to preach door to door. Or at all.
6. True freedom of conscience: no insistence that anyone pretend to believe anything they can’t make sense of.
7. And, of course, public renunciation of homophobia.
8. Lots and lots of interfaith brain-picking. With, for instance, Hindus, Reform Jews, Buddhists…
9. Redefine “separate from the world” to mean “separate from mean-spiritedness.” And nothing else.
10. Serious do-gooding, not to earn salvation, but because it’s fun, dammit, and needs doing!
This probably wouldn’t be enough to make me go back; I’m getting enough of it in the religious space I occupy now.
I left the jaydubs because I wasn’t getting anything on this list.
GentlyFeral
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patio34
No, nothing.
But this thread and the posts made me think that if there WERE a god, why wouldn't he directly communicate or make it clear beyond a doubt (as Jesus did for Thomas) to honest, sincere people who just CANNOT believe it? Is that a reason to condemn someone because they can't believe something for which there is no proof? Would any reasonable human be that way? Is that justice? No.
I've got to get off my soap box now . . .
Pat
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trendspeak
That is the funniest thing i ever heard. right on! no more middleman!
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trendspeak
You know what i hate? When all ex-jw's use the ace in the hole. you know, that comment to people like us: "Wow, Satan really has a hold on you." #%@*%!
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hippikon
Reinstate the smurfs
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felix a
- could you ever see any reason for you to return to the organization? What would have to happen for you to return? Under what circumstances would you ever go back?
Like so many others who have responded to your post the answer is a resounding NO!!!
Here is a little bit of my reason why.
In my ministry as a witness I would tell people that I had been raised a Catholic, attended the Methodist church occasionally, and even gone to a Baptist private school ever so briefly as a youth. I would then share with them that as a result of what I learned from the bible thanks to Jehovah's Witnesses I had reached the conclusion that these religions could not be God's true religion. I would also regularly make the statement; "If they or anyone could show me from the bible what I believed was not in accord with God's word, then I would change my beliefs."
Well, no one I ever met in the ministry was ever able to do that. At least not in such a way as get through to me. So what made me change my mind about this religion I was raised in from my early teens on? I give credit to life experience, a need to know and truly be able to answer someone?s questions and a diet of near constant reading through my life. By my late twenties I had reached the conclusion that if the Watchtower could quote someone then I could read the source. So I started reading the likes of Bertrand Russell and others and you know what? I soon discovered a far broader range of thought and that the Watchtower frequently misquoted or should I say deceptively quoted these people they would use to support or brace their arguments with. The intellectual dishonesty and the sheer level of BULL SHIT that is organized religion will keep me from ever returning to the fold of "True Believers".
I can say that I do appreciate the sincerity of many that I know including family who are and will in all likelihood remain "True Believers" and Jehovah?s Witnesses. There are many very fine individuals within this religion, but good people do not make a thing true.
If there were any one thing I still miss it would be the friendships that I had. I would place a close second on the comfort of having an unquestioned belief in a God and a religion.
On the other hand, I would still enter a Kingdom Hall for the following reasons: a Wedding, a Funeral or some other familial duty and I would do it graciously.
I?m no longer a Witness, however I am also not disfellowshipped or disassociated. For me those last to points are irrelevant but I will make use of them if need be.
And finally, in order for me to go back as a "True Believer" I would have to have a direct communication from the God of the Witnesses telling me that I needed to go back.
Regards,
David P.
"Currently of the non-christian persuassion."
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felix a
Why this double posted I have no idea... What was the second one has now been deleted or should I say editied out of existence...
felix a