Remember rust will pass away when the evil system of things comes to an end. Nor shall they know Bondo...
High Castle
JoinedPosts by High Castle
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24
Cars at the Kingdom Hall
by YellowLab inthe cars i've seen most in the kingdom hall parking lot: the familiar, dull 4-door car, the family minivan, or the old beater.
sometimes the occasional 2-door car, which was generally frowned upon for service.
ok, let's hear it... what kind of car did you drive when you were a dub?.
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39
does anyone remember being a child as a JW and not having holiday?
by franklin J ini am curious to know how many others shared the same experiences as me as a child, growing up as a jw.. surfing this board has brought back a flood of memories ( i am secure enough to deal with them) not all good.
i have been away from jws for sometime, and remember being a child in school and having to explain why i do not salute the flag, why i have to leave the room when there is a birthday or christmas party, why i had to explain when i was seen going door to door ( i grew up to be a pioneer).
being "different" is hard for a child.. now that i have 3 children of my own, who are fortunatelly not growing up as jw, to see how secure and well adjusted they are in school is comforting.
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High Castle
Another adult that had a childhood devoid of holidays checking in. I share the rest of the list of experiences, short of baptism. [Has anyone compiled the full list?] My stepfather converted when I was 5; by the time I was 15 I had finished the "fade-out" that so many do - increasingly it appears.
The question that I want to ask is what shall we call our selves? 'Adult Children of Witnesses' has a therapeutic sound to it. 'Child Soldiers of Jehovah' has a nice twisted tabloid sound to it. What ever we do call ourselves, there is large, and growing group of us adults out there who share common experiences.
PS. Inside that group there is that subset of us truly warped 'pre -'75ers'. We are not so bad when you get to know us - as long as we are on our 'meds'.
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35
Do You Live For Today or Do You Focus On The Future???
by minimus inme-----i live to enjoy my life today.
tomorrow, i could be dead....and you??
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High Castle
I primarily live for today. Right now I'm a member of the Unemployed Nation so it's life lived dole check to dole check.
Fall is here so it's time to pull out the space heater and replace the furnace filter. And soon the clocks will be turned back. The excitement builds...
In regards to the future: who's future? I don't subscribe to the Witnesses version, nor to Merril-Lynch's. And it looks like the Revolution is on hold.
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29
"Worse and Worse" - It Makes My Blood Boil!
by metatron ineverytime i get stuck going to a sunday meeting at the kingdumb hall, it seems.
"worse and worse!".
don't tell me "worse and worse",.
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High Castle
I do need to disagree with Metatron et al, reluctantly. I do not wish to argue objectively whether 'things' have gotten worse or better. From my own p.o.v. I would have to say life has improved over the years - speaking as the first generation in his family to grow up with flush plumbing etc.. I have to point out that the Witnesses "worse and worse" is not based on an objective tally, coming from having balanced "better" against "worst". It comes out of their millenial world-view, which like all world-views is a way to organize personal experience into a coherent whole. The aspect I find interesting about the millenial world-view is that is in practice a revolutionary way to look at the world. I imagine the Witnesses would recall from the description of their faith as revolutionary. But their own literature bears out the description. They do not believe that incremental reform is possible during the current "system of things". No the only solution is the complete overthrow of this "system of things" in favor of God's Kingdom. [I first used "New World Society" but apparently it has been mothballed. I wonder why?] So day to day the Witnesses [and other members of millenial movements - religious and secular] filter the daily information they receive to support their belief system, and discard any data that would contradict it. Obviously anything that would confirm that this old world could be reformed, that life here and now can be enjoyable is not going to make the cut.
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35
How Did 1975 Affect You?
by Perry ini saw my uncle sell their house..... only later to feel and look like idiots.
i remember all the buzz about the end coming around my own house.
since i was a naturally inqusitive child (the question why is not good for theocratic advancement) i was made to feel stupid for questioning, even at 7 and 8 years old.
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High Castle
I'm back - online that is.
The best way I can describe the countdown to 1975 and its aftermath is to use the following analogy. Imagine a poorly scripted police drama where there is an obsessive attention to a countdown, say on display on a timebomb (seen that often enough, haven't ya?) , then the device reaches 00:00 and - nothing. The device just sits there and every one goes back to what they were doing just before. Oh, and to complete the analogy the chief of police denies that there ever was such an event.
The dilemna for me - and I believe others is there was no returning to routine afterwards. Especially as I and others drifted out in our teens afterward. If you spent your formative years as a Witness in training there was no prior life to resume. Nor more importantly was there a future to look towards.
If I have one grievance towards the Watchtower Society - and why I bother to post here - is that I believe I was robbed of a vision of the future. Oh yes, life goes on - with or without a reason. Bury the dead and feed the living.
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35
How Did 1975 Affect You?
by Perry ini saw my uncle sell their house..... only later to feel and look like idiots.
i remember all the buzz about the end coming around my own house.
since i was a naturally inqusitive child (the question why is not good for theocratic advancement) i was made to feel stupid for questioning, even at 7 and 8 years old.
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High Castle
It looks like the Adult Children are in the house! I was 13 in '75. I have the theory that the level of anticipation of the arrival 0f 1975 was dependent on where you were. ( We lived in the St. Louis, Missouri area at that time) Anyone who was of adult years at that time to confirm or deny? I do remember the buzz, but no extreme behavior in my family or local Kingdom Hall. (Besides that is, my stepfather's burial of Watchtowers sealed in Tupperware in the back yard. That was only one of many things he did that didn't make sense to me then or now). More important to me now is the impact of growing up without a - realistic - future. I left the "Truth' in my teens, unfortunately I didn't acquire a 'future' when I left. I drifted. I found the anarcho-punk milieu of the 80's to be comfortable. "No Future" oh how true. Everything I needed to know I learned from the Talking Heads song "Life During Wartime". It's 2003 and I still don't have my own computer, so I need to sign off.
PS Thanks Craig for the earlier insight.
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24
What JWD means to me...some reflections, and your opinions
by onacruse inwhen i signed up on jwd last summer, i was a total, total internet newbie.
i'd never been on a db before, never been in a chat room before, and didn't have a clue what im was.
lol talk about wet behind the ears .
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High Castle
I hope that this board - or a descendent - continues as long as it is needed. That said, I am waiting for the demise of the ultimate cause of this boards existence. I do not wish to cause offence in my waiting for the demise of the Society. Everyone should be welcome on this board - current practitioners included.I do not wish for for a goverment crackdown on the Society- that is the last thing I would wish. Among other reasons, most on this board are aware that such an act could only strengthen the Society. No I wish it would fade away in irrelevance, like the cranky 19th century fundamentalist sect it is. I am waiting to see a notice in the back of the paper announce the auctioning off the Society's assets in a bankruptcy sale. Come to think of it, I am waiting to see Witness memrobilia on E-Bay. Hold on to those 'blood cards', they may become collectors items someday.
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30
"I Guess We Won"t See It In This System Of Things..."
by minimus inthat is a common jw statement.... what could they be referring to??
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High Castle
The expression "system of things" is a verbal fossil in the jargon of the Witnesses. It definitely has a Thirties feel to it, doesn't it. Earlier publications of the Society made it explicit on just who stood to loose come the "End of This System of Things" - bankers, politicians, and priests, etc. The ending of the movie "Fight Club" seems to be dramatization of a pre - 60's Watchtower article - with the burning, collapsing towers of the financial services buildings. The Society may be a sedate organization now with major properties and stockholdings, but it has a rabble rousing past to live down. The difference between them and others was that they expected God to do the heavy lifting.
Anyone out there that has ditched the cranky Christian fundamentalist beliefs but finds themselves still wishful for an end to "this system of things" - albeit in a secular fashion?
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WELCOME, Newbies! Yall check in now, ya hear?
by Frannie Banannie in.
lotsa newbies here.....i keep trippin' over yall when i'm readin' posts....why don't yall check in here and introduce yourselves?
we'd all love to hear from yall, dontcha know..... frannie b
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High Castle
Another 'newbie' checking in:
Thumbnail description:
A very late [cough] thirty-something male, raised in pre-''75 Witnesses [your father's Witnesses] from age 5 to 15. I lost my faith utterly and am now an agnostic. I did not pursue a college education after high school. I became one of the that increasingly rare species - the working class autodidact. [If you know what 'autodidact' means then quite probably you are one.] Besides having had a history of clinical depression, I am coming to terms with a long un-diagnosed form of attention disorder [without hyperactivity] - diagnosis as a child impeded by the Witness aversion to professional attention.
My handle "High Castle" has no connection - that I know of - to the Society. Instead it refers to the novel "The Man in the High Castle" by one of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick. It's a masterpiece of alternate history and consensus reality. Of course the 'Society' can be described also as a masterpiece of alter-ed history and consensus reality[the consensus can change quickly].
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38
Do You Enjoy Being "Part of the World"???
by minimus insince before a witness gets baptized, they are told to "be no part of this world".
that is beaten into everyone's head.
now that you're not a jw or are on the way out, how does being part of the "world" feel?
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High Castle
Yes, I do enjoy being 'in the world'. If you haven't left [the JW's that is ]yet, I would encourage you to do so and "kick out the jams".
To those who have left the 'Kingdom' for the 'World' I have to say I would enjoy being 'in the world' more if I could be free of the Witness within. I have found that you can take the - adolescent - boy out of the "Truth"/Party, it is much harder to remove the "Truth"/Party from the man. I still find myself asking "where did that come from", then realizing with irritation just where "that" came from. That is why I am reading and posting here.