by PaulJ 39 Replies latest jw friends
caveman, I love your wisdom and this bears repeating ...
I was only subjected to 14.5 years of JW brainwashing and have been "out" for over 45 more. Still blanch when the "Praise the Lord" bunch go at it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a religious person and believer, but the vast majority of Jesus talk or Jehovah talk spooks me.
thanks
tal
Ozzie,
Nice guilt trip!
Had enough of that as a JW to last a lifetime.
Exactly how would you expect me to respond to your statement?
CG
Better yet, why don't you put your hand in your pocket and donate $25 to the Red Cross, instead of writing on here complaining about something that makes no difference? ; Really, brother, no one gives a crap what you say.. all they care about is what you do. ; The blame game will come later, but for now there is thousands of people that need help.. and you're just another one that can help them, if you care enough.
So does my opinion about prayer get you so upset you have to make a judgement of me like that? What do you know about me that makes it possible to say such things? The post asked for an opinion and I gave mine.
And another thing, I'm not your brother!
I guess I'm more radical than that. I don't wince, I think to myself, "F**k You, moron!" If the smooth brain tries to preach to me then their going to hear what I'm thinking!
Since I've been actually thinking about the concept of the Judeo-Christian god, I simply think it's ridiculous when people speak of 'him' as if he were real.
I'm not going to tell the person not to believe or to shut up because he or she sounds like a buffoon (to me), but I can't help but cringe while God is being spoken of. I guess that's the same as a wince.
My parents came over this weekend and saw a Ouija board sitting in the corner. Both of them literally gasped, and my mother said, "A Ouija board! Those things are real. They bring spirits into your house and you won't be able to get rid of them."
Whether this is true or not, I laughed in her face. I guess it was the look of terror and her JW fear-all-evil brainwashing coming through, but I simply couldn't contain myself. I had to tell her that it belonged to someone else to avoid an hour-long lecture on the dangers of spiritism.
Thanks for all your responses to this. I think Talesin has cleared up any confusion my question created- that is (from my perspective) it was a wedding I was attending. While I presumed beforehand there would be religious discussion of some kind, perhaps for me it was the fact that the whole environment and the things said were so close to the way information is conveyed in a Kingdom Hall. I just kept thinking "I dont wanna hear this"
Im not opposed to these people (who 'talk God' at you) and I have no problem with them.
Its like.... (rash illustration coming up) someone who is smoking (if, like me you dont like smoking). Its up to that person if they smoke, and, id prefer if they didnt do it around me, but I wouldnt chastise them for it.
It seemed to me that the wedding 'talk' was put accross so much like a Kingdom Hall Wedding it was freaky! I left the 'troof' nearly 3 years ago and this was he first occasion Ive experienced something like this thats is NOT JW-Speak.
Interestingly, this was before I came onto JWD, I went to a Church of England funeral and didnt feel the same....
I have regularly attended Methodist services in the past, and still enjoy attending Anglican and Methodist services occasionally. I usually describe myself as an agnostic with an emotional attachment to Christianity.
I have had the same experience as PaulJ, when I attended a wedding at a church which is Methodist but with a strong "born-again" atmosphere. I use "born-again" as a label for the arm-waving, singing with your eyes closed, kind of worship. I actually think that being born-again is implicit in being a Christian of any flavour, but that is another argument.
I felt really uncomfortable with it. Maybe it is because I remember those kind of people as being the only ones who were ever really vicious or nasty when I was a door knocking JW. Atheists were merely dismissive in a quietly amused way.
Ironically, I also observed that the service was full of the misogyny, dogmatism and cliche of a JW wedding service! Double nausea. I haven't felt like that in any Anglican or other Methodist wedding service.
It goes to show that there is a refreshing difference in congregations of the same denomination even within a small area. Another Methodist congregation 5 miles down the road will be completely different. If you enjoy the more demonstrative kind of worship, it's there; if you like the hymns to have tune, and you don't want to hug the person sat next to you, there is somewhere else.
Interestingly, the wedding was for the man who had been my husband's best man when we married. They had been friends since they were small children. He chose one of his wife's friends (who also attended this church) to be his best man, and we haven't heard from him since the wedding.
Carmel:
Still blanch when the "Praise the Lord" bunch go at it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a religious person and believer, but the vast majority of Jesus talk or Jehovah talk spooks me.
Ditto.
Paul:
Thanks for the supplementary example. That helped clear it up. I'm afraid I just didn't read your original post the way Tal did. It looked to me like you were saying you went to church and didn't expect god-talk.
Tal:
No buttons pushed here, just reading comprehension issues (all round, by the sounds of it, as you somehow expected it had touched a nerve ).
Yes I do. And I cringe and look for a way to get away before I say something too off the cuff. I do for my own reasons believe in some form of a higher power, though I'm not sure most religions understand, or are willing to admit to, perhaps an alternate view of the true nature of such a being.
If I ever have dealings with a "religion" in the future, it will be for social reasons only. I will make my own conclusions and decisions about my relationship with and how I view this "higher power", and live with the consequences of it. Anything short of this higher power communicating from a burning bush to me personally is a waste of time.
JWs have completely ruined god-talk/organized religion for me for probably the balance of my lifetime. Even if Christianity is the way, the JW brand of it has turned me off.
I think that on some levels it could be argued that JW theology is actually anti-Christian.
Axelspeed
Starting over
Here's a response.
Ozzie,
LOW BLOW
The vigils for Dansk are not 'featured prayers'. We are all asked to give our prayers, send energy, whatever, and I am shocked that you would use it in this discussion in such a mean and sarcastic fashion.
tal
Yep. I do.
