Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  102

  Can Men & Women Just be Friends?

  by Xena in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the wt says "no"... "when harry met sally" says "no"....what say you?????

  is it possible to just be friends with the opposite sex?

  and how do you feel when your significant other has a "best" friend of the opposite sex?

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  Phantom Stranger

  1) I firmly beleive that it's possible.

  2) I also firmly believe that the best man around may not succeed in pulling it off in every situation.

  I have had many great female friendships - and I have had one that got away from me, so to speak, and I developed a serious and unrequited crush that, despite my best efforts and entirely respectful behavior, has created distance in the friendship.

  Just because the guy falls for you doesn't mena he was full of crap - he probably was sincere about the friend thing, otherwise you would have suspected something. When you're marvelous, guys like you.
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  28

  what was the most influential saying/person that changed you ???

  by run dont walk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  if there was one thing that affected me most was, i would have to say the time i ran into a brother (while i was still in the borg) in the downtown area.. he said "just take one year off, no meetings, no service, no assemblies, no talks, nothing, just take a break, and you will see the wathctower differently, and your mind will clear.".

  at the time i just shrugged it off as a bitter jw who left, now when i look back, it was probaly the biggest thing that someone ever said to me, and he was right, 100%.. was there a saying, an occurrence or a person that just got you thinking about how ridiculous the watchtower is ??

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  Phantom Stranger

  Reading Robert Heinlein (as in every single book) as a teenager really set me up to take the step.

  You can bask in the warm fire of faith or walk in the cold light of reason (or something like that).

  Also, my first sex partner should get honor and credit for opening my eyes... here's to you, Tammy, wherever you are.
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  110

  Celebs you look like

  by berylblue in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  okay, so i got annoyed yesterday when someone told me i looked like debra winger.

  i find her most unfeminine and unattractive.

  but it doesn't piss me off half as much as when i'm told i look like liza minelli.

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  Phantom Stranger

  I'm told I look like Tom Hanks' and David Letterman's love child.
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  20

  Are JW more depresed?

  by heianderen in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  as many of you know there are some studies that indicade thath jw have an above-average mental illness incidence.

  i know a jw doctor that , ironicaly, has confirmed this claim to me.. greets,.

  heianderen

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  Phantom Stranger

  By the way, hein, in your photo you look just like the congressman from California that just pulled out of the governor's race after spending 1.7million US on the recall campaign. Issa, his name was. (He's Lebanese - name means "Jesus".)
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  20

  Are JW more depresed?

  by heianderen in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  as many of you know there are some studies that indicade thath jw have an above-average mental illness incidence.

  i know a jw doctor that , ironicaly, has confirmed this claim to me.. greets,.

  heianderen

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  Phantom Stranger

  The previous post stating that JW's attract a higher incidence of people inclined towards mental health issues sounds right on the mark to me (consistent with my experience).

  Of course, some believe that the attraction to members is a filling of an emptiness or an addressing of a need, and others believe that it's a mind-control plot. (Let's not go there...)

  My paternal grandmother and my mother were both diagnosed as depressive, and used their faith as a means to not deal with their illness (drugs were OK, therapy was not). I firmly believe that their attraction to the faith was to use it as a crutch.
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  23

  "Just be yourself"

  by StinkyPantz in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is that always the best advice?

  i mean, i know plenty of people that shouldn't be themselves.

  like murderers for example.

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  Phantom Stranger

  How about this one (spoken by the Chinese warlord in Volunteers)

  "One must do what one must do... for if one does not, what one must do, does not get done."
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  1

  Changing tactics speed growth of Jehovah's Witnesses

  by yxl1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  found a thread on beliefnet.com where a few dubs were coo'ing about the good publicity.

  http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/136796_jehovah27.html.

  by vanessa ho.

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  Phantom Stranger

  nother thread on this one already FYI
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  19

  Finally OUT

  by heianderen in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm writting this post to comunicate you all that i finally da myself.

  now it is a hard time for me.

  the announcement was made this last friday, and i have known that there was a lot of people crying after that meeting.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Congratulations for taking the jump, and it does get better.

  Best wishes,

  PS
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  66

  Part 2 of "Apostate Logical Fallacies"

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  apostate logical fallacies part 2 of 2

  in my first essay on common fallacies former jehovahs witnesses commit in reference to the society i explained the error of generalizing individual witness behavior to that of the entire society.

  the other errors i notice (to a certain degree i realize they are my opinions) are related to this, yet somewhat different.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Hee hee.

  Logansrun, I applaud your attempt to point out the flaws (perhaps that will be a better word) in many poster's statements about the WTS, even as you attempt to bring logic into it. As you may have noticed, our emotions run our intellect, and an intelligent, pissed-off person trying to be logical is entertaining to listen to (or read - try Ayn Rand).

  I suspect that what is being tapped into here is the following approximation of many poster's situations:

  NOTE: ATTEMPTED HUMOR FOLLOWS. IF YOU TAKE THINGS VERY PERSONALLY OR HAVE AN UNDERDEVELOPED SENSE OF HUMOR, PLEASE EXIT THE THREAD TO THE LEFT. HAVE A NICE DAY.

  I am a former JW. I am angry at the WTS. I have many strong emotions about the circumstances of my leaving, about how others were treated, etc. I feel victimized. I have done little or no work with certified mental health professionals or even personal growth classes to attempt to recover from my painful and gut-wrenching life changes, which I deal with every day of my life. While I no longer believe in JW dogma, I still am comfortable with dogmatic thought and discourse, and uncomfortable with having to deal with unresolved paradox and incomplete data (I have no training here), so I frequently lecture others on how wrong they are. I piss off a lot of people this way, but it leaves me more time to post on www.jehovahs-witness.com.

  Laugh, darnit.
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  47

  Hilarious 10-Commandments criticism from Slate

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  (i have added italics where i felt like it :)

  moore's law .

  the immorality of the ten commandments.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Oooooh, good, Rav. That should cause some people to get wound up like a cheap watch.