I’m sitting there right now with my folks waiting for the joyful celebration (yes, sarcasm) to start at 8:00 p.m. (Canada/USA Eastern Standard Time).
Posts by SAHS
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24
"Keep Doing This In Remembrance Of Me"...keep doing what???
by minimus inif a witness tells you that jesus commanded you to go to the memorial, how would you respond?.
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SAHS
designs: “Where do the Protestants and JWs get off saying the wine and bread are symbols.”
Well, the alternative is to believe in transubstantiation – that is, that the bread and wine actually become the flesh and blood of Jesus. Dictionary.com defines transubstantiation as “ the changing of the elements of the bread and wine, when they are consecrated in the Eucharist, into the body and blood of Christ (a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church).” The other theological dogma is consubstantiation, which Dictionary.com defines as “the doctrine that the substance of the body and blood of Christ coexist in and with the substance of the bread and wine of the Eucharist. ”
I really don’t see how there could be any logical sense in that. It sounds to me as confusing and just plain dumb as the trinity doctrine. That is one thing that I have to hand it to the JWs – that at least they don’t believe in those things. I’m sorry, but I say, Nonsense is nonsense.
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Is it normal to feel you have betrayed your spouse when you learn TTATT?
by BU2B ini am trying to look at it from a believing mates perspective.
they married you as a jw expecting you to continue as one.
if you have kids, she enjoyed the stability of both spouses being united.. when you learn ttatt, you find out the wt is a dangerous mind control group and lies to its members and is hypocritical.
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SAHS
The key here is honesty. It would be understandable if a marriage mate became upset and felt betrayed if their other half had already come to know TTATT before the marriage but deliberately decided to go through with it anyway. It would be like a man courting a woman for a while and then getting married to her, only to realize later on the big honeymoon night that she actually has an Adam’s apple and the plumbing to go with it. Now don’t you think that poor gentleman would have the right to be a tad disappointed with the “woman” he ended up marrying, which in this case was actually a man, if “she” (he) deliberately failed to come clean on the gender issue BEFORE the marriage? I would not be too happy, to say the least. (Unlike that movie The Crying Game, such a real-life scenario would not really be funny; the reality of it would be too bitter and distasteful a pill to swallow, I’m sure.)
Now, however, if both parties went into the marriage innocently believing in the WTS’ song and dance at the time and then one of them (husband or wife; it doesn’t, of course, matter which one) discovers TTATT afterward, then, well, it would obviously and rightly be understandable, because it wouldn’t be a case of trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the prospective marriage mate and deliberately leading them along just to secure the marriage. (Everyone obviously has the right to, and damn well should, search and find out TTATT, regardless of what kind of relationship or union they find themselves in.) In that case it would be the WTS which both the husband and wife could rightly be upset with and feel betrayed by, because the WTS has knowingly been leading on and misleading folks right from the get-go.
The unfortunate thing, of course, is that when a person comes to know TTATT, it is often too late because they have already found themselves married to someone who is strongly allied with the WTS but hasn’t (at least yet) discovered TTATT. Many, many people are finding themselves in that situation, and, unfortunately, this works to maintain the de facto power of the WTS’ control mechanism; i.e., shut up and believe/obey or we’ll cut you loose from your close loved one. (What’s that called again . . . . oh yah, “blackmail.”) Their shunning thing is a really stupid and evil tactic, but unfortunately it works and they’re getting away with it (at least up to now).
The only thing I can say is, Just be honest to others, but also be true to yourself, . . . . or at least as much as you can do both at the same time.
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25
How do you get through the memorial?
by Gorbatchov infor family reasons, gorby and his wife and children has to visit the hall at april 14. our family accept that we are faders, but don't accept if we do not visit the memorial.. so, it seems a small investment: one evening love bombing for a year peace and rest.. but i hate the visit.
headache.
meeting the people knowing it's all fake love showing.. how do you get through it?.
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SAHS
And here is another effective remedy – which can also be combined with the above remedy to be ‘applied directly to mouth as needed’ – good old earplugs!
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25
How do you get through the memorial?
by Gorbatchov infor family reasons, gorby and his wife and children has to visit the hall at april 14. our family accept that we are faders, but don't accept if we do not visit the memorial.. so, it seems a small investment: one evening love bombing for a year peace and rest.. but i hate the visit.
headache.
meeting the people knowing it's all fake love showing.. how do you get through it?.
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SAHS
LOL at “Viviane”! Now that is a good holistic remedy which works wonders when stuck at the old Kingdumb Hell. It does tend to put everything in a better perspective.
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FINE-TUNING our thinking by clarifying our VOCABULARY of conscience
by Terry inare you confused?.
is your thinking and reasoning ineffective because of ambiguity?.
do you sometimes find yourself unclear about what certain words mean?.
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SAHS
A poignant example of confusing a word (which certainly all of us here are too well aware of) is the use of the word “TRUTH” by presumptuous religious groups. We all remember how the Watchtower organization has kept drumming out such provocative phrases as: “We’re in ‘the truth,’” “How long have you been in ‘the truth,’” “The light of ‘the truth’” gets brighter, and “So-and-so has left, or gone out of, ‘the truth.’” Of course in all these examples, the reality is that the term they use – “the truth” – should really be read as “OUR truth” (or at least “our truth of the day”; i.e., check again tomorrow).
In terms of the Watchtower being “FIT,” it may be “fit” in the sense of being able to continue keeping afloat and financially solvent enough to exist based on its unique “corporate” structure model (i.e., free labor and tax-free revenues!), and it may also be “fit” in terms of the effective power it’s able to secure over its members through its authoritarian machine of fear-based coercion and streamlined control. But, does that parochial, fundamentalist, draconian, and terminally capricious organization FIT into the evermore progressive human society of today’s world? I mean, generally the first things people readily associate with the Jehovah’s Witnesses are the words “blood,” “shunning,” “celebrations” (as in not), “control,” “pedophilia,” “Armageddon” (also as in not, . . . or at least not yet), and, of course, “cult.”
So basically, looking at it with a pair of reality glasses, the Watchtower organization has “truth,” but it is THEIR truth, and it has “fitness” enough to continue surviving (at least for now), but it still just doesn’t FIT into the world around them. And things that just don’t fit into human society eventually end up being pounded or melted (morphed) into fitting as they ought, or they end up just being discarded as more of society’s unnecessary baggage.
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This weeks WT "Let Your Kingdom Come"
by Legacy inso the wt states "the horsemen have made their appearance".
in 1914, jesus christ is pictured as riding a white horse-was given his heavenly crown.
rev.
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SAHS
I like the quote from “LostGeneration” in the above-mentioned thread link (http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/265547/1/Jan-2014-WT-study-more-vomit#.Uz8xGl6cxQE):
“You know, broken clock theory. Gotta love revisionist history.”
Speaking of broken clocks, when you think of it, it’s somewhat impressive that the WTS is supposedly correct ten times every millennium.
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Anyone Else Feeling Forced to Go to the Memorial?
by PaintedToeNail ini refuse to go to any meetings, assemblies, conventions, special talks or the like...however, i get coerced into going to the memorial every year.
because it keeps the peace at home with hubby and also makes my parents, who live elsewhere, have hope that i will come to my senses and become an active witness again.
there is no chance in hell of that happening, but it prevents the ties to my family from being severed.
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SAHS
“Clambake”: “Last year then they started to pass the bread and wine I just sat in the bathroom for 20 minutes.”
Maybe next the attendants will be instructed to check the bathroom stalls to see if there is anyone in there to be passed the emblems – just to be thorough.
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When You Were A Witness Did You "Misbehave" ?.....
by minimus inand did you always seem to get caught?.
my daughter told me that all her teenage friends used to smoke tobacco, pot, do drugs, get drunk and "misbehave" with other kids all the time..
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SAHS
“punkofnice”: “At Twickenham CONvention I used to nip out. Get the tube and go on a pub crawl . . .”
That reminds me of when I used to go to bars and drink during the district conventions when they were held in Hamilton, Ontario. Once I had a few glasses of wine with my lunch and then had some beer at another bar, and then I bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked a couple or so. I actually got on the local transit bus and went for a nice ride to fill in the time. Then I returned to the rest of the afternoon sessions and sat with my parents with booze on my breath. One other time I went to a different district convention to make up a day I missed while sick (like a good boy). I arrived a bit late and decided to do a little session at the nearby bar. When I went into the convention stadium, I reeked so much of booze that the attendants called the convention organizer over the two-way radio, and they ended up actually calling my dad to come and pick me up. (Not a very proud moment for the family.)
What else besides heavy drinking and some cigarette smoking: impaired driving (not now, though), lots and lots of masturbating with bizarre fantasies, sex play with other kids (way back when I was a kid, of course), “playing around” with animals (especially dogs), swearing in an extremely irreverent (and creative) manner, watching the worst R-rated movies there are. . . . . Although, come to think of it, I wasn’t really all that bad per se. I mean, I didn’t hurt anybody. And I’ve quit drinking (again).
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Legacy of being brought up a JW: Weird hang-ups
by Really?! indo you have any weird hang ups that you think are related to your history?
public speaking i hate hate hate any form of public speaking.
job interviews, presentations (for job interviews or in the work environment), telephone interviews etc.
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SAHS
I still feel a bit funny around “worldly” (non-JW) people, and in the back of my mind I have this fear that I might end up running into some kind of ax murderer or violent gang person or drug dealer or Mafia person, or otherwise some kind of explosively violent person like they have on America’s Most Wanted. That’s always a fear that I have, not just because of growing up in the WT religion but being shy, timid, and only 5"5' tall. The feeling that “worldly” people are apt to hurt me by beating me up or stabbing me or even stuff me into a car trunk or something is always fostered and nurtured within the JWs, but lately I’ve been realizing that there is really nothing to fear or worry about – at least not really any more than some of the average JWs themselves. (I’ve heard of some JWs turning out to be surprisingly criminally-minded and a bit unhinged.)
