the flu is going around.. i missed a couple classes last week.
and right now, i am just in bed with the laptop enjoying your company.
i can't breath and i get hot flashes...wtf?.
I just bought something called a "neti pot". You run salt water through your sinuses to clear them out. It's supposed to really lessen the amount of colds you get because it cleans out the bacteria. I'm gonna try it this winter and see how it goes! I bought mine in the health food store, it cost about 18 dollars.
Other than that, I drinks lots of honey tea with lemon and parsley (parsley has a really high vitamin c content).
life is good as a witness in good standing still doing what i please!.
my husband and i are in the hispanic side of the watchtower and were having a grand time.
just imagine, caribeans partying a lot!.
If you tell your JW friends about this, I doubt that they will want to associate with you anymore. But congratulations to you for discerning that your life is your own and doing what you like!
since i was raised a witness, it was only as i got older that i started to "think" about what i was teaching and believing.
but even as a young teen, i never accepted the thought that 1975 was going to be the end of the "system of things" and the beginning of the "new system".
i just didn't quite believe that.........what belief or teaching did you have a "hard time swallowing"?
I never understood why divorce was not allowed. I just couldn't fathom how we could be forgiven for every sin except the "sin" of signing a marriage license!
when you were a jw, how did you view jehovah?was he some almighty god who was to be feared yet respected ?did you fear him, terrified that if you didn't obey every commandment and society rule, you would be doomed at armageddon?did he seem a benevolent god, one who looked after and cherished you?did you feel as though he was close, listening to every prayer, watching over you with concern and love ?or was he watching you so as to judge every wrong thought and action, condemning you when you were anything less than spiritually strong or pure?.
and how do you view him now ?
has leaving the jws affected that?
Ha... have you ever seen the movie "Brazil"? I viewed him as the government in that movie! Full of red-tape and dogmatic. Illogical. Not taking into account any personal experiences but making one blanket set of rules for everyone.
I also saw him a MAGICAL. Like a talisman that I could call on when I needed something. So he was very much like a father in that respect. But instead of asking him to borrow the car, I asked him to protect me from demons. I really took advantage of prayer to ask for all kinds of selfish things. I figured, I might as well ask. At the worst, he just says no. At the best, I pass I my math test.
When I sang songs about "loving" God, I felt nothing. What was love? Sex? Was I supposed to be physically attracted to God?
I watched the crazy old bats with their plastic songbook covers, singing and shaking their heads back and forth as if they were having an orgasm.
I wanted to feel that love, but I felt nothing.
for those who were raised/born in the truth: .
1. were you ever beaten as a child?
and, i mean where the parent really crossed the line, not just spanking.
(((frenchbabyface)))
What a terribly sad story. It's good that you can look back on it now as something in the past. What an awful thing to have to go through. I can't imagine what would go through a parent's mind.
Stories like that are the reasons I would say I was more psychologically abused than physically. I never had to wear makeup to cover a scar!
I cannot think of any Witness kids I knew though that didn't have to run away from their parents in fear just for something stupid, like breaking a glass.
I burnt popcorn once when I had friends visiting, and I was so scared of getting hit or yelled at, that I threw it out on the back lawn and opened all the windows to try to get the smell out. I couldn't. My father came home and saw it and made me go in the backyard and pick up every last kernel from the lawn because... ready? "The birds will choke." WHAT??
I remember when I would babysit Witness kids as a teenager, I would spank them to discipline them. I just didn't know anything else! I remember doing it in a public park one day. I was 16 or 17 and the two kids I was watching were 4 and 6. I thought I was being an adult. Everyone was staring at me, they must have been thinking "What the hell??"
All I know is that in my house, accidentally breaking a glass will NEVER be something "bad".
as a jehovah's witness, you know that you cannot practice homosexuality.
it's considered a sin.
if your friend or relative revealed that they were gay, you would be obligated to "report" them to the elders.
Is there anyone who is vehemently anti-gay for NON religious reasons? Seems to me all hatred towards homosexuality stems from religion. Which is why I never understood gay Christians! How can you go to a church when your own bible condemns you? I feel like they are self-hating homosexuals.
I mean, I understand that gay people want to believe in god... but why choose the homophobic biblical one?
here is a copy and paste from www.bethelcoachtours.com as to why you should go see bethel for your next vacation.
has anybody done this, any experiences good or bad?.
bethel branches all over the world.
AHHHHH! Bethel!! Run away! Run away! The worst vacations of my childhood!
What a waste of a school vacation. What a waste of a trip to New York. Oh, these were SO boring. Walking around that hot, loud factory. Pretending to be interested in the giant paper reams. Then eating our bagged lunch on the lawn outside the bus. Sitting next to some smelly old pioneer on the bus for 7 hours. Singing Kingdom Melody's on the ride down and talking about how WONDERFUL it would be to be accepted to Bethel so that you could work like a slave all day and not be paid... hey, but you got free meals, right? I think I'm going to vomit.
Now that I live in New York, I keep meaning to get back over that way, just to see it all through open eyes.
Do you know if non-Witnesses are allowed in these buildings? I remember one renovated theater (Stanley?) that I wanted to go check out.
Arrrgh... those stupid giant paper reams... I'm still residually bored, 15 years later.
for those who were raised/born in the truth: .
1. were you ever beaten as a child?
and, i mean where the parent really crossed the line, not just spanking.
"you come home, kick your shoes off, yell at your wife, whip your kids, and tell Mom to put dinner on the table". He said the entire group fell out of their chair laughing.
Oh golly, kids say the DARNDEST things!
That's really, really... wow. That's awful on so many levels.
.
one thing which kept me trapped as a jw far longer than necessary was the fear that if i left and no longer believed, my life would be empty of meaning and futile and ultimately end in a meaningless death.
i could not find any meaning in the world apart from the view jws had imposed upon me... all other ways seemed to lead only to meaninglessness.. but once out and even without a belief in any god[s] i still found my life meaningful but it took several years before i understood my new source of meaning and now see it as the only valid source... i will explain this after i see some of your ideas as i do not wish to bias your answers in advance.
I believe that any organized spirituality, no matter how well-meaning, will eventually become corrupt. It think the JW's were right when they said that humanity is not capable of governing themselves. Of course, they didn't realize that also included the Witnesses.
I personally don't think that the meaning of life has words that can be attached to it. The meaning of life is what you feel inside of yourself, when you're close to nature, when you let your mind work instinctually. It's sitting on the beach in silence, staring at the ocean with no meaning attached to it, other than the fact that you are alive and you are content. It's the awareness of the complexity of the universe, and the fact that you occupy space within it. On the days that I feel like an animal, like a cat curled up in a sunbeam with a broad smile stretched across my face, I know that's what life is all about. You can feel that kind of contentment by yourself, or next to someone you love, but in the end, you must feel it inside yourself, alone, where words are unecessary.
I am interested to hear your thoughts as well...
Fnord
p.s. I just noticed that this is my post number 42! I think I'll celebrate with a nice, hot cup of tea and my towel.
i've been wondering how many jws have gotten married too quickly, without knowing their prospective "mate" well enough, and have ended up really unhappy.
it always seemed to me that a couple would be dating for, like, 6 or 9 months and get engaged, have a 9 month engagement and be married; often because they bought the "no sex before marriage" garbage.
i'm sure that there *are* happy jw marriages out there; and certainly being unhappily married isn't the sole property of jws.
I remember all the times I heard that ridiculous scripture quoted: "God hates a divorcing". ARGH!! It usually followed some horrific anecdote about how a wife was being beaten by her husband, but finally the husband gave in and came to see the light of the truth because the wife stayed with him. Horrible!!
Why are JW's so vehemently anti-divorce? It's so ridiculous. So many lives have been ruined by this rule alone.
When I was married, I never understood why Jehovah could forgive a person for murder or rape, but couldn't forgive a 16 year old for making a mistake by getting engaged! Was I that much worse than a murderer? I was just a dumb 16 year old who wanted to play house. But God was going to hold me to my one decision for all eternity? It was nonsensical.
It's like God is some kind of crooked lawyer who just wants to catch you in red-tape. "Ha! You signed the papers! Now the old farm belongs to me!"
Then there's the blatant hypocracy that wedding bands are known as pagan! Somehow we decided that the "protection" of wearing a wedding band made it okay to use this pagan symbol. But birthdays, which aren't even as patently pagan as a wedding ring, were still a big no-no.
