“LongHairGal”: “They might have family or business connections and can't afford to rock the boat. They are held hostage and I am sure they hate every minute of being in the religion!”
Take it from me, you ain’t whistling Dixie!
Posts by SAHS
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72On a Scale of 1 to 10---How Devoted Were You To Being One of Jehovah's Witnesses?
by minimus inas i grew up in the religion, i was a 10. i wanted to be made a "servant" because that was instilled in me from infancy.
i diligently studied ever piece of watchtower literature and defended my religion intensely.. when i got into my 30's, i started to see little cracks in the watchtower's surface but decided to "wait on jehovah".
then i started to research a little more critically and realized i couldn't defend the prophecies, the treatment of people and the hypocrisy that was becoming more obvious, that especially an elder can see.. it was a gradual thing---from a 10 to a zero!.
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72
On a Scale of 1 to 10---How Devoted Were You To Being One of Jehovah's Witnesses?
by minimus inas i grew up in the religion, i was a 10. i wanted to be made a "servant" because that was instilled in me from infancy.
i diligently studied ever piece of watchtower literature and defended my religion intensely.. when i got into my 30's, i started to see little cracks in the watchtower's surface but decided to "wait on jehovah".
then i started to research a little more critically and realized i couldn't defend the prophecies, the treatment of people and the hypocrisy that was becoming more obvious, that especially an elder can see.. it was a gradual thing---from a 10 to a zero!.
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SAHS
0 to 10 yrs. old: 10/10 (born-in, that’s all I knew)
10 to 13 yrs. old: 9/10 (beginning doubt of surviving Armageddon)
13 to 16 yrs. old: 7/10 (increasing double-life: smoking, swearing at school, bizarre sexual fantasies, etc.; greatly increased fear of dying at Armageddon)
16 to 33 yrs. old: 5/10 (" " " " " " " " " " " " ")
33 to 47 yrs. old: 0/10 (discovered this site & TTATT; not really any more fear of dying at Armageddon; currently atheist with some agnosticism: somewhat open-minded but within a very scientific context)
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16
Feb 15th Watchtower study article.
by quellycatface injust browsing the jw survey website and looked at the above article.
i am constantly being amazed by the disgusting bs the gb spew out.
this time it's about all the people "slain by jehoover and how the bodies would lay end to end of the earth......and the birds of heaven called to clean up the slain.
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SAHS
“St George of England”: “Birds of the heaven going to eat the bodies? I always thought all the animals were going to turn back to being vegetarian after Armageddon.”
Well, maybe that will be an Outback steakhouse special event – all-you-can-eat ribs, steak, liver, etc. (limited time offer) for all the animals.
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25
Disassociation
by evilone inhi all, i haven't posted here in quite some time.. just as an update, about two years ago, my wife and i moved to a big city about 500 miles away from the town in which we grew up.
we made this move in part to expedite the fading process, which was successful.
when we moved, as i described in an earlier post, we formally transferred from our home cong (where our families are) to a local cong in our new city, and then transferred twice more so as to get lost in the shuffle.
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SAHS
If I were you, I would forego sending an actual disassociation letter to any congregation because a copy would likely be sent to the Bethel headquarters, to remain indelibly on your record in their database for an eternity. It would be like successfully escaping from a communist dictatorship (like North Korea or Cuba) and then sending them a letter basically saying the old “Na na na na na!” It might feel good, but you could forget ever going back, and you could say goodbye to any social or family ties still remaining in what you have been able to leave behind.
Moreover, what I would do is if any JWs do contact you asking questions, I would just tell them that I am taking a bit of a sabbatical from everything, that I am kind of in a period of transition right now, and that I will get back to you (but don’t). That will allow you to sort of remain in a state of limbo with them. Your status will just be up in the air indefinitely (or at least until you completely fade from their radar) but with nothing actually established or committed one way or the other. You’ll find that eventually they’ll just move one. After all, they shouldn’t really have the time to keep obsessing over you – they’re supposed to be busy pounding the pavement knocking on doors!
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Did Jesus say his followers would be witnesses of Jehovah?
by blondie inwhat did jesus say?.
(acts 1:8)8 but you will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me both in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.
by "divine providence" what did jesus' followers become known as?.
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SAHS
“wasblind”: “ISAIAH 43:10 [‘You are my witnesses . . .’] was quoted before the Birth of the Christ.”
Good point! That same verse ends with, “. . . and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.” (NIV) Clearly those to whom Isaiah’s quote had been directed (“you”) were of the ancient Jewish nation of Israel. The purpose of those ancient Israelites being God’s “witnesses” at that time was to bear witness to Him among the surrounding nations as an actual nation separate from other nations as God’s chosen people.
However, fast-forward to Jesus’ time – if Isaiah were alive at that time, then surely he would have recorded a scripture more along the lines of Jesus’ own words at Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (NIV), with the understanding that those who would be preaching the gospel message in the Christian era could properly be called something like “Witnesses of Jesus”; i.e., “Jesus’ Witnesses!”
“zophar”: “Isn't it true that at John 5:32 "There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the witness he bears about me is true." It is referring to Jehovah bearing witness to Jesus?”
This specific verse seems to refer to the Father, or Jehovah.
There are actually three different testimonies about Jesus referred to in this and the following scriptures: 1. that of Jesus himself, 2. that of his Heavenly Father, and 3. that of other men, specifically John the Baptist. Jesus says at John 5:33-35: “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.” (NIV)
Note, however, the following commentary specifically regarding John 5:32 pasted directly from “http://biblehub.com/john/5-32.htm”:
Verses 32, 37, 38. -
(a) The witness of the Father. Verse 32. - It is another that witnesseth concerning me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth concerning me is true. It is a mistake, with Ewald, De Wette, and many others, to suppose that this refers to the testimony of John the Baptist. By Augustine, Hengstenberg, Luthardt, Godet, Meyer, etc., it has been perceived that the "other" (ἄλλος) refers to the Father. Jesus expressly declines to receive John's testimony as his justification or sufficient vindication, and he contrasts it with the higher confirmation which in three distinct ways is already and continuously vouchsafed to him. The present tense, μαρτυρεῖ, is in striking contrast to the testimony of John already silenced by imprisonment or death. The methods of this testimony are subsequently analyzed and described.”
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It's official too: I will be DF'd... probably next Wednesday
by ILoveTTATT ini will write my story soon... .
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SAHS
Congratulations “ILoveTTATT”! I hope that before you left the kingdom hall on that special night you gave as many people as much of a piece of your mind as you could. If it were me, I would have discreetly left some little slips of paper in the washroom and the cloakroom with some choice Web sites to introduce people to the real facts about the WTS. I wouldn’t want to leave without dropping some of those parting gifts. Anyway, who knows; maybe your public bon voyage might inspire others to do their own investigation into the facts and maybe even one day wake up and smell the coffee.
I love a story with a happy ending. Take care, and I wish you the very best.
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33
Moustaches vs. beards - one of the contributing factors to losing my cognitive dissonace
by Pacopoolio inas a little background - i was born-in to being a witness, back in '79, in detroit, in mostly black and poor congregations.
baptized when 10-ish, stayed around, was on the fast track to ms, but faded when i moved out at 24ish.. there was a combination of a few things that got me on the road to "freedom" from the cognitive dissonance that kept me "in the truth" for so long.
the main thing was, being an artist and studying marketing, my thinking was patterned to constantly question if i was doing something "correctly," as constant improvement and questioning is what facilitates artistic and mental growth.
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SAHS
“leaving_quietly”: “ The biggest reason for prohibition against tattoos seems to be what others might think.”
The reasoning of the WTS against tattoos – as well as, of course, beards – is because of what others think, and the reason why others may think negatively about it is because of the WTS speaking negatively about it due to the fact that others may think negatively about it because of it being negatively spoken of by the WTS because others may think negatively about it because . . . .
What’s that called again? Oh ya, “circular reasoning.” The whole hysteria over beards, tattoos, etc. among JWs is obviously just something invented and concocted by the WTS to force everyone to comply with their paranoid-driven image of pseudo-piety. That’s really all it is. Just a self-promoted mechanism to bolster conformity.
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Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 02-16-2014 WT Study (MAKE SACRIFICES)
by blondie incomments you will not hear at the 02-16-2014 wt study (december 15, 2013, pages 11-15 (make sacrifices).
review comments will be in black.
wt material from today's wt will be in a quote box.
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SAHS
I made a comment on paragraph five that according to Jehovah’s law, an animal sacrifice was supposed to involve the shedding of blood, but Jehovah was not rigid in the application of that law. I said that there were other kinds of sacrifices which poor people could voluntarily offer, such as birds, and there was even a grain offering and a drink offering which people could offer. I said that this had to do with mercy, and that Jesus said at Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7 to ‘go and see what it means, I want mercy and not sacrifice.’
I was hoping that people would make the connection between mercy versus rigidity in the application of a law regarding blood and the WTS’ own unique and most rigid, unmerciful – and unloving – policy regarding blood pertaining to lifesaving blood transfusions. Although, as usual, I would not expect, really, any of the folks there at that WT study to actually think outside of the WTS box and make any such connection.
Afterward I wished that I had also referred to the account about the man with a withered hand at Matthew 12:10-12: “. . . a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’ ” (NRSV) I would have then reiterated the comparison of Jesus’ loving exception to the Sabbath law with the logical and loving exception which naturally should be applied to the law about eating blood. All well. It’s frustrating when I think of all these additional thoughts which I wished I had added to my comments at the Kingdom Hall. (Maybe I should pray for more holy spirit to bring more of these thoughts to mind for when I get my hands on that microphone.)
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Doesn't the ARMAGEDDON teaching foster a MORBID view of the future?
by Black Man ineven when i was dyed-in-the-wool j-dub, i felt the armageddon teaching was one of the most morbid concepts to be hammered into the psyches of jws.
think about it, only jws would survive this catastrophe, which translates to roughly .001 percent of the population would survive while everyone else would die a horrible death.
that includes people who do good things and are good people, but are just not jws.
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SAHS
I vividly remember when I was a little kid in the 1970s seeing those awful drawings in the big old orange book called “From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained” depicting buildings swaying, hailstones raining, and huge crevasses opening up in the ground with people of all ages falling in to their deaths. That image, along with all the associated indoctrination and coercion, was prominently burned into my psyche, and was always present in my subconscious. I can tell you that this kind of morbid and destructive dogma has profound effects on a youth’s development, especially during puberty, which is a time where a whole gamut of various sexual desires and fantasies can become manifest, often as a sort of escapist coping mechanism (certainly in my case). I had a reoccurring dream about a dark and eerie storm with tornados approaching slowly but steadily from a distance.
My dad would occasionally scare me about sinning against the holy spirit (thus my user name, “SAHS”) and being irreversibly condemned by Jehovah. Thus, for considerable time I lived with the feeling of quite possibly being on a kind of “death row” awaiting the execution of my fate. (Lovely thing for a child to have to live through, isn’t it!) No wonder my parents were informed consistently by primary and junior high school teachers and counselors that I had definite low self-esteem and self-defeating behavioral issues.
This apocalyptic judgment and Armageddon dogma constantly being spewed from the WTS is more than just morbid – The X‑Files and Criminal Minds were often rather morbid; however, the psychologically destructive and hateful sh^t from the WTS is a most vile poison! Kids beware.
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How many have been the FDS in the whole history of the world ?
by scary21 inwith the jw crazy new light, they must now believe that only 20-30 men in the whole history of mankind fill that role.
rutherford would be first, then knorr.
after them there were what eighteen on the gb?
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SAHS
Jesus’ parable of the Faithful and Discreet Slave/Steward would really be describing an aspect of all Christians, not a sub-class, and obviously not an extremely tiny elitist group like the Watchtower Corporation’s so-called “Governing Body.”
It always amazes me what JWs are made to see through their LSD-hallucinogenic-like Watchtower fantasy goggles.