i remember at the age of 14, i was studying with a very well respected elder in the congregation.
me, him, and my dad studied together.
every once in a while during the study, he would turn to me and ask me "have you dedicated your life to jehovah?".
Guilty...with one reservation.... I always gave myself the out that if this ever turned out to be other than what I thought it was, I was out of there.... I never pretended to KNOW it was THE TRUTH, only BELIEVED it as everything I knew at the time pointed that way via a series of crafty if, then logical arguements JWs assembled.
The marriage was not legal, the shot gun was not loaded.
PEOPLE---- this is the HUMOR section, please take those sticks from out your ARSES
How can Trinitarians be so Anti-Gay when they worship Three MEN in heavenly blisths and will tell you with a straight face that Jesus is IN them and about to COME
i have caught myself preaching while in a few of those rooms, till i had to tone it down a bit and say just tell them what you personaly think, not what the wt says.
I am on Yahoo all the time, and I preach honesty
I don't mind anyone telling me any beliefs and faiths they have...but when the PRETEND to KNOW, I call them on it.
and its easy to spot: those who claim their beliefs are facts and their faiths are knowledge are essentially deceiving themselves and others and I find it very easy to get them to involved in deep discussions.
They are so sure of their own views that they cannot stop themselves....and then they are mine....muuuuhaaaa!!!!
oh did I say that outloud? (^o^)
ex-jws often excuse behavior of jws (and their own past behavior) in their shunning and other cruel, bizarre practices by saying they're in a high mind-control group.
that's true, it seems to me, to only a certain degree.
the reason i think this is that most jws do, in fact, practice a lot of independent thinking and go against the teachings of the wtbs.
I dont know about the rest of you, but when I believed, I tried to live according to the teachings, but I always found parts of me which wanted to do otherwise and tried to make up reasons why it was not so bad, why it was something God would let slide, etc. Then feel really guilty after doing those things and other things which I did not exactly KNOW were wrong, but suspect were, because of hints and intimations that JWs would put out about them. There was always this oddness about the idea that I was Sinner and so could not help sinning, yet the idea that if I did sin, I was no good, not worthy and damned was there too.
It was always funny/sad to me that all christians make a big deal of the idea that everyone is a sinner, yet become so shocked and ugly towards anyone who is caught.... its like the REAL sin is getting Caught... that is the message I got over and over again...it was ok to sin and ask forgiveness as long as it was something you never got caught doing.
i remeber about 20 years ago wts still go against psychiatrist and in this awake !
mentions some jws did go to psychatrist.
huh !?.
It seems easy enough to critisize JWs for not encouraging people to get meds for mental disorders, however, after studying psychology for more than 13 years now, I have to tell you that the causes and cures are by no means certain. There are plenty of theories about why certain drugs may cause improvements in mood, but that does not necessarily mean they are doing long term good.... if a BELIEF is the key reason for a bad mood, like many JW beliefs can be self-harming in so many hidden ways... then taking a drug to feel better will not solve the underlying problem but mask it, just as a pain reliever might mask a serious injury and allow you to continue injuring yourself even more.... many man made substances have to have a shelf life which means things have to be added to them that keep them from breaking down the way they would naturally in the brain, that often leads to nasty side effects and dependencies which make a person worse off in the long run. A dedicated JW is in a trap if the belief is causing their bad mood and they will not give it up.
this is a bit of meandering about my life.
in my life, i have undone most of the wt memes, i have worked on overcoming the negatives resulting from the abuses of my parents.
the emotional emptiness resulting (i think) from my mother's aloofness, noncomunication, nonsupport can't be deprogrammed.
Why does anyone have to be responsible for anything?
we are all EXACTLY where we find ourselves because of an unchangeable past which lead us here.... when was it EVER different? when did we find ourselves anywhere then where all of history has brought us? Every decision you have made is likewise the result of alot of minor events within you which are all unchangeable at the final moment of decision... you are always exactly where you MUST BE, typically not where you want to be... so why the difference? where you are is the direct result of real forces of energy, but where you think you should be is only from beliefs mostly made in gross ignorance of how reality actually works and with a limited range of data gathering ability. Beliefs can be good guesses or completely out of whack. each move we make is our total system gambling on some option that seems most compelling at that moment...even if consciously we may think we are making a mistake...
others will hold us ACCOUNTABLE for our gambling consequences, but there is no point in blaming anyone for what reality unfolds to being....it is what it is and could not be otherwise, there is only one gamble per turn and once made, it cannot be unmade.... people can IMAGINE alternatives and that leads to a lot of what if and if only thinking which causes some anger, others sadnes and still others depression...but its not what happened that did that, only what they believe about why, which again is mostly ignorant imaginings...nothing more.
if you focus on what you are doing while you are doing it, accepting all that brought you here and that you are here, and then make your best gamble in every moment, there is no cause for regrets, ever.... that is the key to contentment... which is all that ultmately matters and is the true goal of everything you do.
i have just imd my 11 year old daughter - -because of family commitments they are not going to meeting tonight.
i asked "are you pleased you do not have to go to meeting tonight?
" she replied --- "dad" all indignantly --- i then replied "what" and she said " dad , nobody likes going to meetings it is just something we have to do" so it appears waht has been said on this forum is truth.
How many times did you hear..... a TRUE worshipper of Jehovah, Jesus, WT, etc...would DESIRE to come to meeting, DESIRE to go out door to door, etc.... and then think, how much you REALLY did not DESIRE any of those things and wonder if you were really saved....and then out of GUILT do them??
be nice on this thread, please!
i don't want to see it get locked b/c of some people!.
do you think he's guilty?
Any sexual crimes prosecutor would conclude likewise.....
From conversations I have had with police who are also nudists and watch out for pedophiles at nudist resorts, I would tend to agree with you about the signs.
Fixation is a strong signal... we tend to have our attention moved by what our strongest emotion is... if our attention gets fixated in one area for a long period of time, you can bet there is a very powerful emotion behind it, of the addiction sort which is generally tapped straight into the endorphin bin.... leading to those sorts of behaviors that will make a person sacrifice his career and friends, and even his own life for.... like those rats who were wired to provide shots of endorphins by tapping a bar.... they could not even feel hunger or thirst as important to them and just tapped that bar until they died.
be nice on this thread, please!
i don't want to see it get locked b/c of some people!.
do you think he's guilty?
Whoa. What are the parameters you're talking about zen? Can you expand a bit? This is a statement I've heard before. Sex and children are a dangerous mix.
Sex and children are definitely a dangerous mix... but that does not mean that children do not enjoy sex... they can and often do have play sex at very young ages and do not always know that others consider it morally wrong or wrong in any way... I think most kids figure out its something that would get them in trouble if they were caught without anyone telling them directly. I remember as child, some of us had a secret pleasure of exposing ourselves...but even though no one told us it was wrong, we believed we would be punished if ever caught.
Any time an adult is involved he is violating what he knows is the societal standard he is living under, and he can only be willing to take such a risk if he is being seduced by the drug addiction like nature of sex and using children as his drug... there are no happy endings for most of these adults as their inner guilt often trips them up.... the ones who let their paranoia about being caught get the better of them often are abusers and threateners who try to buy a child's silence with fear.
