Posts by sowhatnow

12

Beard

by zeb in

jw
friends

im growing my beard.

so there!

sowhatnow

your face will thank you when its cold out, lol

48

If this isn't the truth, then what is our hope?

by Gigi2121 in

i'm new here but not new to researching and questioning the jw beliefs.

i have quite a story.... one that's been haunting me for awhile... but first, i'd like to hear what people have to say about this topic question, please.. -gigi.

sowhatnow

I had to look at it this way.

If there is a God he will come through.

If there is not , when I die, im not going to know anyway if i was right or wrong.

I have to not think about it and try to find a way to live the best way I can, that's all any of us can do.

13

lets make something up, so say the writters of the wt magazines

by sowhatnow in

'ok people, we have 3 awake magazines with 8 pages each to pump out before the end of the month, no politics, no sex, no mention of education, no recreation, no religious topics, no medical advice, limit music only to instruments ' .

say the gb.

'oh a deadline, gee, 3 'whole' magazines, and so few topics, what ever will we print in them???

sowhatnow

'Ok people, we have 3 awake magazines with 8 pages each to pump out before the end of the month, no politics, no sex, no mention of education, no recreation, no religious topics, no medical advice, limit music only to instruments '

say the GB.

'oh a deadline, gee, 3 'whole' magazines, and so few topics, what ever will we print in them???'

'how about the life cycle of an ant? ' says 'cubicle # 2'.

'you go girl and don't forget use the watchtower library for your research'.

[copy paste copy paste]

How creative are you or I, that we couldn't arrange an awake magazine with lots of colorful pictures, within like half an hour? I know there are those creative minds on here!

[and who the heck imagines those study articles! they brain is in backwards].

[what would YOU have liked to see in those magazines]

17

Not Seating at the Same Place in All Meetings.

by Tempest in a Teacup in

i haven't heard this one in a while but it has been on my mind lately.

maybe it's because i'm noticing that these days people at the kh are going the extra mile to vary their seating places in all meetings.. having skipped meetings for a few weeks, i'm wondering if there has been a talk/article about that recently.

that's one of the most laughable rules they made and i never felt bound by it.

sowhatnow

I couldn't figure put what difference it made. you get up and walk to the same people you always talk to anyway., while saying a short hello how are you on the way out the isle.

[gee there I just talked to someone 'new']

im of the opposite mindset,

IF you tend to sit in the same area all the time, wouldn't it make it easier to know if someone is missing?

wouldn't the wt conductor find it easier to know where his favorite commenters are?

wouldn't it make it easier for the mic carrier to find you?

wouldn't your kids find it easier to sit if they were familiar with the kids and adults around them? especially infants, they don't like 'strangers'.

yea, cant do nothin right, cant even sit right! lol.

But what ALWAYS made me ponder, is WHY the elderly sat in the back row, when they never or rarely got up, and don't like noisy kids, cant see as well or hear as well!

I mean shouldn't those who want quiet and to hear good sit in the front? duh,

and the noisy kids in the back?

some halls tried to rope off the back rows for late comers and those with children.

it never worked, lol.

23

Is this what the society imagines will be above that 'secret hiding room' in the basement?

by Esse quam videri in

sowhatnow

I posted on yahoo answers a question.

jw's , why are they hiding from?

and an answer was, they aren't hiding , thats your interpretation, they are having a meeting.

i thought wow, what a lame way to defend it.

because after all, little girls are always fearful at meetings! lol

16

What exactly is encouragement?

by naazira in

jw
friends

when elders want to meet with an inactive person to encourage them, what does this really mean?

encouragement is a term thrown around by the organisation.

does this encouragement usually consist of prying into the inactive one's lifestyle?.

sowhatnow

from an organizational standpoint, that translates basically ' to encourage each other to be at meetings and in service. In the distant past I can only recall a couple sisters occasionally approaching me to invite me out in service with them, but for no other reason.

the only goal the ones I know have is to get everyone in the congregation to be pioneers. it matters not if you have a family or a job, which most of them do.

however, they would never ask how my kids were or how things in general were.

The elders never spoke to me, I think I intimidated them. lol

the main topic, if you were privileged enough t be included in a conversation, [inside the kingdom hall that is] was, who is going out when and if they were going to auxiliary pioneer. who went to what country and and 'served' and who was going to bethel, who is going to what convention bla bla, ect , all brag talk I call it.

Of course you have your occasional hospital visits nursing home visits of course, where we would wish to help a person not feel left out, and to keep faith that they will get well, or at least have the hope of good health someday. Those being limited only during the service day hours and usually not after 3 pm. this way they can count it as 'time'

there are some but not many, elders who have the time [biggest [obstacle] or opportunity ,[rbc elders really cant be shepherds or do anything else than care for their own families],

[or desire], to actually encourage someone in other ways, for example, help someone find job, go for that degree, help a family in need of home repairs, or take the children of a single parent along with their family to an outing.

It is simply impossible for people to spread themselves so thin and to be expected to know so many people and keep up with everything.

this is WHY people use the word 'clique' [in a negative way] to describe small intimate groups that hang out together all the time, its mostly families who associate together cousins ect if your lucky to have some in the cong. who has time for much else? Id have been happy to be in a 'clique'. lol

then they org will 'warn' about cliques , and told to 'widen out' really??

how many days in the week do those governing body members have more than the rest of us?

how do they widen out?

in my experience, the only 'encouragement' I ever received, was a ten minuet pep talk at the lunch hour at a special assembly day, in the medical station room, to see how I was 'holding up' after learning my husband asked me for a divorce. They said, if you need anything just ask.

[because it would have taken too much of their time to drive out to my house one night or even call on the phone ]

well i did ask, when i had to move out of the house into an apartment, i asked a sister with a adult son who had a truck, who was supposed to be friends with my son, if he could help move my things, on a sunday.

she said he was busy, and she would let her husband know, who was an elder. he called later in the week asked me what day i needed, and when i said Sunday. he said there was an elder meeting after the Sunday meeting, so they couldn't help,[because you know they take allllll day] but he would see what he could do.

after that day, no one said another word to me. [No one ever called to apologize, no one called to see where i moved to, no one even noticed me gone. ]

I ended up calling my husband [who was 45 minuets away, staying at his brothers temporarily] and asking him if he would please come and move my things. along with my older parents who had no business lifting things, and my son.

my husband said 'where is all your Friends'? he was being sarcastic, because he knows no one was going to help. my son was pretty ticked off, and he never went to a meeting again.

and if that was not awkward nothing was,lol.

i think the word encouragement is misunderstood in the org.In my mind to encourage someone is to be with them when they have a trail and help them trough it.

For example, you 'encourage' your children to get good grades on their work, and how you do that is by helping them learn it better and not hate to learn to begin with. not criticizing them for not getting enough done,or getting it right, but complimenting them on what they did do right.

Or someone who has a sickness that limits them, go help them out and be a friend.

its a pretty easy thing to do if you have any insight.

88

First law of thermodynamics vs God vs Big Bang

by EndofMysteries in

first law of thermodynamics, that energy cannot be created or destroyed but changed from one form to another.

how does that fit in with god and the big bang to you?

does it make one make more sense then the other to you?

sowhatnow

ok once and for all,

where did all matter COME FROM, to do all these things.

and where would God have COME FROM if it was A GOD?

something doesn't come from nothing no matter what we think right?

its truly IS a mystery.

24

would it have been different if we knew why?

by sowhatnow in

i always took issue with the idea of no one knowing why a person got df.. i know im not alone.. i complained to my mother about this when i was younger, explaining that how do we know what it is that gets a person df if no one knows what they did?

my moms answer was , .

'if people knew a persons personal faults and what they did , others would not be so forgiving when they were reinstated, because we'd always view them with that view, so in other words, if when so n so, committed fornication, and the whole cong would know it, if they announced from the platform then his/her reputation would be permanently stained' .

sowhatnow

I always took issue with the idea of no one knowing why a person got DF.

I know Im not alone.

I complained to my mother about this when I was younger, explaining that how do we know what it is that gets a person DF If no one knows what they did?

my moms answer was ,

'if people knew a persons personal faults and what they did , others would not be so forgiving when they were reinstated, because we'd always view them with that view, so in other words, if when so n so, committed fornication, and the whole cong would know it, if they announced from the platform then his/her reputation would be permanently stained'

then Id say,

"Ok I get that, BUT, if you KNEW that your sin would be exposed on the platform, how much more would you have tried to NOT do those things to get DF? "

So, here perhaps, we have someone drinking a lot, and then getting DF.

here would be an announcement

'sister generic is DF due to her drinking ' or , 'bro poorhouse is DF because hes a hoarder'. [yes i know someone who was DF for having a 'dirty' object packed house. they died being DF.]

and the big one

'bro elder is being DF for molesting a child'

so IF we know what a person did, and we knew it would be announced, how much closer to the [one] bible account would this in fact be, and would it have prevented a lot more people from committing 'sins, or on the other hand, simply from getting baptized to begin with?

thoughts?

13

Why would the Society put this picture of a 'nuclear bomb' on a WT cover talking about Armageddon?

by Esse quam videri in

effects of a nuclear bomb video - .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aza-2wopcfy.

just trying to understand their 'thinking'.

sowhatnow

I was never convinced that God would destroy his perfect creation, only those imperfect selfish wicked people, and with the wave of a wand, lol that can be done.

That is a good point, WHERE does it say anywhere in the bible that 'Armageddon' is going to be started by humans and their weapons.

by way of 'preaching the truth about the truth' ,

we can use this fool hearty photo I hope, to make someone think!!!

plus we all know now, its a place not an event. yay.

23

Freudian slip in this weeks WT study!

by stuckinarut2 in

oh....ok....hahaha...did anyone else pick up on this classic stuff up in the wt for the weekend of 21/22 feb?.

after speaking about the destruction of sodom and gomorrah, paragraph 6 says:.

"only lot and his daughters, who stuck close to him, survived".

sowhatnow

Gagging noise.....

omg, that whole story just was so stupid, yea right, ill get my dad drunk [and myself near death drunk] and have sex with him, [where did they get wine?]

EW on more than ten levels ! Id sooner have sex with my sister.

and gee who recorded that story. what was the purpose??? really did we need to know THOSE details, but not any more of the 'wonderful things' Jesus did because there wasn't enough room for it? lol

and

HOW LONG were they alone that they couldn't wait to get back to the city or town to meet other people?

did they die in the wilderness? lol, so then who knew what happened.

and God was ok with this because you know he couldn't POSSIBLY make sure they got back to people soon enough.

what I never understood is WHAT do all these foolish bible stories do for anyone as far as spirituality and knowing who our savior is?