Posts by AnnOMaly

56

Kicking the "Gay Habit" at the IC

by breakfast of champions in

heard from a reliable source that this was part of friday's program.

they even interviewed a "former gay man" who "kicked the gay habit".. evidently kicking the "gay habit" is difficult, not unlike quitting smoking or avoiding sugary snacks.

the persons who related this to me found the whole thing to be laughable at best, but honestly seemed quite disturbed by it (which is good!

Kicking the "Gay Habit" at the IC

by breakfast of champions in

heard from a reliable source that this was part of friday's program.

they even interviewed a "former gay man" who "kicked the gay habit".. evidently kicking the "gay habit" is difficult, not unlike quitting smoking or avoiding sugary snacks.

the persons who related this to me found the whole thing to be laughable at best, but honestly seemed quite disturbed by it (which is good!

AnnOMaly

Not an interview. A related experience.

East Rutherford IC.

Fri. a.m. - David Splane - Keynote Address: Highly Esteem Present Kingdom Blessings! [Relevant excerpt. Direct quote.]

Another brother tells how he overcame a particularly difficult problem. He says,

'It was especially difficult to abandon my homosexual practices as these have been a part of me as long as I can remember. One thing that helped, though, was a change in my environment. I ended my old friendships, and stopped going to bars and nightclubs. Although it was not easy to make these changes, I found comfort in learning that Jehovah cares for me and that he understood my struggle. By 2002, I had stopped all homosexual practices and in that year I was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. My mother was so impressed by the changes I made that she also began studying the Bible. For the past 8 years, I've been engaged in the full-time ministry.'

But then he adds, realistically,

'I must admit, that I've had to fight improper desires at times, but I take courage that in choosing not to act on these desires I can be pleasing to Jehovah. Drawing close to Jehovah and living in a way that pleases him, has boosted my self-respect, and today I am a happy man.'

Well, your heart goes out to a brother like that. He could have thrown his arms up in the air and said, 'What's the use? Why should I keep struggling?' But he didn't. He kept struggling and he's finally overcoming his habit, and Jehovah is blessing him. And what does this show? This shows that even strongly entrenched habits, desires that we may have had right from childhood, are no match for Jehovah's powerful holy spirit.

30

When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed references

by GoUnion in

this topic has been covered extensively but i just wanted relate what hapopenes with this subject and my elder father.

he called me up one day to check in on me he always asks if i'm going to msettings and i always tell him no im not.

well this time he wanted to know why i didn't trust the g.b.

AnnOMaly

Hi GoUnion.

Well this time he wanted to know why I didn't trust the g.b. and I told him when they uses sources to prove their point they misquote what the sources say. He didn't believe that the watchtower would do this, but he said he would look it up.

You've been given a dizzying array of resources here. Lots of good stuff but it might give you information overload LOL. I am surprised Doug (Hi!) didn't plug his two critiques, where he provides scanned excerpts from the WT's referenced sources.

http://www.jwstudies.com/Critique_Part_A_of_Jerusalem_Destroyed_part_2.pdf

http://www.jwstudies.com/Critique_Part_B__References__of_Jerusalem_Destroyed_part_2.pdf

If you need a specific source material to show your dad, just ask and I'm sure one of us will either have it or can quickly find it for you among all the numerous threads and links. I'll message you with my email address in case you need any further help. Good luck.

15

International Convention East Rutherford, NJ 2014

by wannabefree in

listen ... obey ... and be blessed!

has this become the official cult watchtower theme song?.

here is a video making the rounds on facebook.

AnnOMaly

And now it's an earworm. Urgh.

15

International Convention East Rutherford, NJ 2014

by wannabefree in

listen ... obey ... and be blessed!

has this become the official cult watchtower theme song?.

here is a video making the rounds on facebook.

AnnOMaly

I had to watch Chuck M. Franke's video with the sound muted because, to be quite Franke, that song always makes me upChuck.

41

Critique of new JW DVD: These Words Must be on Your Heart.

by WingCommander in

jw
friends

http://youtu.be/dhn2to663cu.

im really channeling my inner blondie with my observation and critiques of these new watchtower videos.

something about them really turns my stomach.

AnnOMaly

Piggy-backing on Wing Commander's review, here are some of my observations. I had more patience with this one than with the highly irritating 'Prodigal Son.'

Yes, the house, furnishings and grounds are what only RICH people could afford and maintain - not those in mere middle management positions.
2.) 1:54 - Jobs are described as an unnecessary distraction from family and religion. Hey WatchTower, not everyone can live in a tent or in opulence like you guys in the ivory towers!

The message I got was that the parents were too caught up in their own careers/making money to have meaningful time with their kids, even though there was one family vacation photo on display. The kids were doing their own thing. The father himself said he didn't know what was going on with his kids. Even the 'worldly' fathers in the video were refusing overtime to spend time with their kids (Little League - 'sorry, you know I never miss a game'). Aside from the JW slant, this was a dysfunctional, fragmented family that needed to reevaluate its priorities.

5.) 3:13 - Get a load of this kitchen! Has to cost at least $50,000.00 USD. Since when do normal JW's live in this kind of home? I am STUNNED.

Yep!

7.) 4:25 - I like this kid, his expression and reaction was much the same as me growing up. I hated this mind-numbingly boring shit, and would have wished my parents did something fun with me instead of this crap. Who can blame us? Typical bible-thumping tyrant father using the bible to bash over the kids heads in a vain attempt at guilt.

He didn't come across as a Bible-thumping, tyrant father to me. I liked him. He was, in many respects, a sympathetic character, despite some of the black-and-white thinking he expressed at key moments. He was trying to get the family working together again. It was just that he thought a weekly dose of 'Family Worship' (less 'worship' and more 'family activity with a biblical twist') was the way to go about it.

8.) 5:33 - Mother says, "These teenagers are out of control." Wow, seriously? They look normal and healthy to me. WTF planet are these people on?

No way has he seen 'out of control' with these kids! LOL. Bad attitude, absolutely.

9.) 8:55 - Working on your car in meeting clothes with Elder? Give me a break!

He was in smart-casual wear (not an overall or oil stain in sight either!). Still unrealistic. The elder was in business wear.

10.) 9:28 - Look behind Thomas. There stands a built-in 2-door stainless steel refrigerator, in the GARAGE! Being JW's must be really HARD for this family! This is NOT representative of 99% of the JW's I knew. This house is incredible!

Yep!

11.) 10:15 - Dressed up Elder with no house and no kids (kids left, probably left the Lie as well), has the balls to tell Thomas, "Now who's making excuses?" This is where I would have told this moocher to get the hell off of my property. The audacity of this asshole! Typical Elder mentality though; to talk out of your ass about something you wouldn't know anything about.

The kids are referred to. They helped build the model ark later, remember? The movie makers obviously didn't want any more actors in the cast.

12.) 11:10 - Elder's wife suggesting they mooch of Thomas' family. How typical! What a bunch of freeloaders! Let your own home go, and mooch off the successful, hard-working Witness family. Jehovah provides again! Incredible. The balls these people have.

They didn't mooch. Thomas suggested they could live there rent-free.

13.) 11:22 - Daughter Rebecca has a 2-door convertible Mazda Miata, and pretty new as well. Not exactly a Pioneer-mobile. This daughter is out of control! Satan must be proud. We can also see Dad's $60,000 Volvo SUV in the driveway. These people are WELL-off for sure. No wonder the Elder is hanging around. If they were dirt-poor in a trailer park, this Elder would be nowhere to be found, unless he lived there himself. lol.

My jaw was on the floor seeing the daughter's car too.

15.) 16:15 - Elder tells Thomas, "Think of Family Worship Night as the central fountain of life that your families life depends upon." Wow....just wow. Here, all this time, I thought JESUS was bringing forth life's water free? Here, this WT propaganda video tells me it's Family Worship Night. Shut my mouth!

I hadn't picked that one up. You're right.

19.) 19:30 - Worldy boy speaks of acceptance and tolerance, 2 things the JW.Org knows absolutely nothing about. Then, he is standing in front of a series of books in the library titled, "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics." Oh, the irony! Has anyone in the Ivory Towers ever read them I wonder?

Well spotted LOL!

22.) 22:05 - I just KNEW that fly hip-hop mongul was going to drop a $500.00 bag of pot right on the counter, boo-yah, Boooyeeeee! Next stop for the Eldest Son: Gold chains, bitches, and ho's! This kid looks like he just stepped out of J. Crew, yet he's hanging with hip-hop producers? Get a clue! This is hi-larious! I think that bag of pot came from the Governing Body's meeting room, cause they gotta be smoking some powerful shit to dream this crap up!

Yeah, I didn't think this scenario worked either :-D

23.) 23:00 - At least the reaction to the ultra-lame new Song Book is spot on!

Hell yes.

24.) 27:30 – Rebecca is made to feel inferior and guilty for even talking to a boy. What century are we living in again? Sickening guilt trip by the father. Rebecca flat out tells her father that the worldly boy is nicer and more open-minded then the boys at the Hall. Bingo! The youth are leaving in droves because the Halls are filled with self-righteous, pompous, self-centered narcissists!

The father had already prejudged the boy because he wasn't JW. I didn't get it. If he really wanted to get the measure of him, MEET HIM!

32.) 43:15 – When lecturing the son of his talents, the father states, “Why lend your talents to what you know is wrong?” You mean, like the WTBTS investing its member’s contributions into stocks of military and tobacco companies? Also, Hedge Funds? The audacity!

There is no middle ground. There's no, 'Hey son, you have a great talent, but I'm worried about this group you're hanging out with. Aren't there other artists/labels you could work with?'

33.) 45:00 – The ultimatum by the father. Incredible. What he failed to mention, is that if after 6 months the son doesn’t want to continue on in the religion, he’ll be disfellowshipped and promptly kicked to the curb by his family. Some “choice.” Pretty sly to leave THAT little nugget of “truth” out of this video.

I was expecting the father to say his son had to leave home if he didn't comply. I was surprised.

34.) 46:00 – No son, you can’t live your life how you want, make your own mistakes, because it affects US. Screw your own desires and life’s ambitions; you are to serve Mother Org. F’ you, Dad! This video is become sadistic with its underlying messages

It's true that your mistakes affect others. There's nothing wrong with that message. You cannot live just for self. But it shouldn't be desires/life's ambitions versus spirituality/morality. Again, a middle ground was excluded.

35.) 48:00 – Here we find out about Thomas’ little brother, who he killed in a car wreck due to his own youthful stupidity, and that of his parents for letting a 16-yr old have a 1969 Camaro 302. What this has to do with Thomas’ son growing up and joining a controlling cult, I have no idea, but it sure is good emotional filler. Ugh. I recall reading somewhere that, “the sins of the father are passed onto the son.”

This was the blatant emotional blackmail part.

38.) 55:50 – No JW girl would say this to a guy. She’d lie, make up something….anything…..to avoid bringing up God in school. She would be the laughing stock of the entire school once it got out if she dumped a guy like this. I don’t know how the actors did this with a straight face.

It didn't ring true. Before that, in the dinner date scene, I agree with the poster (other thread) who said the guy wouldn't have said (paraphrasing in my own words) he had a string of girlfriends and that this relationship was just a stepping stone to better relationships. I guess it was to let the audience know his tolerant attitude was more an 'anything goes,' 'hedonistic' stance. I don't understand why the girl just let the comment about his other girlfriends go.

40.) 58:25 – Wife talks about trusting Jehovah and putting spiritual things first. Then they talk about cutting back, cutting things out of their lives to simplify. Kind of like building that new 5-yr plan up at Headquarters, huh? Those tennis courts, bowling alleys, and Olympic sized swimming pools are putting “spiritual things first & simplifying”, huh? The hypocrisy is astounding. The writers of this video live in a fantasyland. ...

Yep. It killed me when he said, if his wife was unfulfilled because of sacrificing her full-time career to go part-time, she could always do more FS. I was laughing and barfing at the same time!

42.) 1:04 – Hey Marcus, get ready to start your new career in the custodial arts! You are going places, Bro!

None of his misgivings about God's existence or creation were addressed. Somehow Family Worship and throwing himself into 'theocratic routine' would be the magic wand to make all those doubts magically disappear.

What struck me was, at the beginning we were shown a lively, chaotic family; even with all its faults and dysfunction, the family had personality. By the end, the family had become bland; a 'happy ending' commercial caricature which had lost its fire. But then I was always more into 'Roseanne' than 'Cosby.'

23

1914 vs 2014

by ILoveTTATT in

jw
friends

it's amazing to examine the watchtower of 1914 now in 2014... 100 years later.. .

here are some of my comments on the watchtower of 1914:.

second article in january 1st.

AnnOMaly

Where can you get these?

https://ia600304.us.archive.org/27/items/WatchtowerLibrary/magazines/w/w1914_E.pdf

Good thread IloveTTATT - when you lay out all the highlights of the year like that, it's easier to see through the spin the WTS put on those understandings in subsequent decades. When all the WTs of 2014 have come out, even though they haven't flat out given a year for Armageddon this time, it'll be interesting to see any similarities with the hype and distractions.

36

latest pictures

by nugget in

.

AnnOMaly

These are fantastic! The level of detail ... wow!

3

Revelation 12:12 If a Witness was asked how long the war in heaven lasted? What would their answer be nowdays?

by thomasaquinas in

still looking for jw references on this.

any help would be appreciated greatly.

especially newer ones post 1990s..

AnnOMaly

How long did the war last? How long's a piece of string? Even the WTS/GB doesn't have a clear answer.

Some pointers - http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/266231/2/Satan-thrown-to-earth-about-1914#4879686

22

My logic and emotions are in a turmoil. Need specific help please

by stuckinarut2 in

i am still in, and as my name says "stuckinarut"...now i know it is not the truth, i know it for a fact...but im so messed up with a wash of hundreds of thoughts that i cant seem to get my head in order.. i thought i had my head clear and my 'sh1t together' so to speak....but ..... im sure you know what i mean?

when there are so many reasons and facts proving ttatt, but if asked to make a list in bullet points now, i would get so overwhelmed....i just dont know where to start.

i feel like i would be like a balloon let go flying around the room in all directions trying to 'spew' out the facts!.

AnnOMaly

I still get the constant internal chatter but it's a lot less intense than it used to be. When you're in the thick of the JW routine, mixing in JW social circles, with JW family, you have sources of irritation on many levels (i.e. the mindset and beliefs) which set off all that mental chatter.

When it was at its worst, I found it helpful to do something enjoyable and entirely different that would put the brain on 'idle' for a while. Walks in the park, messing about with the kids, reading a novel, watching silly tv, going to a movie - anything distracting that helped temporarily shut out the cacophony and jumble in my head. It's OK not to have the answers immediately. It's OK not to know where you stand on issues. It's OK just to take a break and enjoy the simple pleasures of everyday life.

When I would start to feel shaky because I was no longer in the JW box on so many issues (being 3rd gen., there's a life-time of conditioning to overcome), I'd mentally focus on one thing only: 'Jerusalem did not fall in 607, therefore the Org's not what it claims to be, therefore it's open season on all of their teachings.' Pick your own deal-breaker issue and repeat internally as necessary when things get overwhelming.