Posts by Alive!

83

Why all the hate...

by Dystopia in

...toward jehovah's witnesses?

No hatred as far as I'm concerned - but forgive me if my heart is a little broken that my husband and I put off having children as we will have them after Armageddon - in the 80s and 90s in our area, this was commendable and many, I mean Many made that often 'peer' pressured choice which also echoed in the publications and from the 'platform'.

I have just come back from a walk in the park - I saw many families together...different generations enjoying their family day out.

I bumped into a JW family - grandmother and daughter out with the grandchildren, we stopped and chatted.

So, excuse me while I just tend to my grief, while I put away the gnawing loneliness of not having made a nest.....

Instead I emotionally invested in other people's children, other families - who now go on their merry way.....tight in their own bubble, submitting their faith to men who tell them 'what will happen next' - whose prophetic history is a big fail....uninterested in 'truth' and 'principle' that engages with an observant world.

Decent people don't join anymore - they just breed their own.

But no, no hate. Just a rotten ache sometimes.

21

Facing mortality after leaving the witnesses

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

tell me i'm not overly thinking this.. i'm 39 years old...still youngish...but i worry about getting old.

i look in the mirror and it depresses me.

i suppose i still cling to watchtower utopia when no one would age over 25.. i used to look forward to paradise earth because it meant all the evil in the world, nuclear warfare, terrorist attacks and sickos would be no more, but we are deep in the 21st century with no end in sight.. appreciate your comments.

Alive!

Hi

I'm a convert, so the thought of growing old and accepting that is how I was raised....but still, after a couple of decades of systematically repeating 'Armageddon' will come before the generation of 1914 dies away, being systematically fed illustrations of youth and paradise - it is difficult for our minds to 'swap' the hope that paradise will get here before long and we won't have to deal with age and death.

Thats how we talked - we laughed and joked about our joy of knowing we'd never get old in this system - and now we have to live with something that is grittier and challenges us to grow in a real way.

I still believe in God and that Christ's coming into our dimension was 'light'.

To me, the Watchtower created a kind of 'spiritual materialism' ( I heard that expression elsewhere and it applies!)

We were always chatting amongst ourselves about 'the new system' - where we would live, how we would look and the improvements we'd like on our physical selves....

And now, the youth of JWs are having babies and families without a blink - whilst many of 'my generation' deliberately chose not to, as we showed our faith putting off the distraction of raising families.

Now, at 60 years old - I have no children with my husband .....I especially feel for him, as his siblings (non JWs) have big extended families of children, grandchildren family friends acquired through a life of 'doing life together' and old age is almost a rich pleasure to his siblings.

This 'spiritual materialism' which the WT created is not, I believe, the spirituality that strengthens in a true sense.....

You are young and you have the opportunity to make a difference to others, every day !!! focus on that, and the wrinkles will become your friend...

Well, that's how I see it - it's working for me :-)

14

Didn't go to memorial this year

by silent in

jw
friends

my wife and i had business to attend to out of town today and i had thought if we made it back home in time, we'd go to the memorial.

as it turned out, we didn't get home in time and we missed it, but we had a real good talk with each other on the way home.

we are largely successful faders and at the very least, i like to try and make the memorial.

Alive!

I do understand what you mean regarding that PTSD. For a long time, the meetings were making me ill.

I'd vomit before going....I was so stressed..the stress grew as my husband and I felt the cold distance of being 'socially shunned" - we were not under reproof and certainly not disfellowshipped - we'd been irregular for nearly a year as we sorted out some deeply private and difficult problems....when we went back we needed love, support and good cheer as we were thriving and earnest to just "get on" and do our best, be part of the congregation.

I remember crying on the way home so often - I felt so lonely - and once upon a time, we'd been in such a different situation - guess we dropped the ball meeting wise and we were left on the outside.

The elders knew what we'd been through - and you'd think they would want to be the family nest we needed so badly - as we had no family who were witnesses and who lived locally.

We didn't go to the memorial this year or last year - although we had a couple of texts reminding us in a kind way.

These days, the date isn't really a biggie for me - I can ponder on the meaning anytime, any day.

Take care.

15

Is everything that doesnt add ud explained as a vision, a parable or a "poem" ?

by Bolthof in

hi.. i meet up with a couple of jw once a week and it seems to me that every time i show them a verse that says something that contradicts their doctrine they say that it is a parable, a vision.. or a poem of some sort.

what are your toughts about this ?.

Alive!

I was thinking about that scriptural account that Cofty quoted re Paul - how he desperately desired to be with Christ, in another dimension....

A pioneer born in 'sister' was catching up via email a couple of years ago.... She said something like this....

'I met a lovely woman today- I asked what do you think happens when you die - and she said that she hoped and believed she'd 'go home' to be with the Lord Jesus - I showed her from our magazine Feb 20something how our hope is on this earth, in a paradise - and her face lit up '

So, my friend was contriving to take away this woman's desire to be at one with Jesus and replaced it with a material hope in a material paradise without 'seeing' Jesus....

Looking at this from a spiritual point of view - it's a touch wrong....whether you believe or not.

35

Money....

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

i believe all our worst nightmare are believing money will make our life's complete.

i am not talking about money providing life's comforts, but i am mortified that contentment and happiness always requires " more money"..ummm i need a window cleaner, a flashy car and a 50inch t.v screen to be happy.

money...well in my opinion we need money integrity to be happy, but it seems such a waste of life to search for the making of money more than ....well what i mean "hey" most of us have more money than most, and would the making or having more money really make you happier?.

Alive!

But the next day we did what I wanted to do and visited the " Tate" " The National" and " Portrait" gallery, we watched the street theatre, pickneted in St Jamses Park and marveled at the wild life , we also made a lovely movie as we walked around China Town, and Trafalger Square. This cost very little, and we all preferred the day.

Ahhhh - now that is my idea of a perfect day but I would add an impromptu visit to a midday performance at St Martins in the Fields.....:-)

35

Memorial mixed emotions...

by Tornintwo in

jw
friends

does anyone else feel 'pulled back in' at this time of year?.

i still consider myself to a believer, believe in god and jesus christ, on the whole i think he taught tolerance, love, acceptance and i think we can benefit from following his example.

i love ray franzs book in search of christian freedom.

Alive!

I guess the concept of Jesus ( Whether he is an extraordinary and complex imaginary projection of our minds outside of our experience of our selves or not ) - calls for us to love and extol something higher than our daily experience.

I do believe ( actually 'believe' feels like weak word) but I think all this begs a question - what's going on with us organisms?

31

Do you know what Rahab looked like?

by ttdtt in

hello friends - here is a new area in the kids section of the jw website - learn how to draw rahab.. 1st - she was a prostitute of jericho.

could there be other characters to talk about with our kids?.

2nd - it says "learn how to draw rahab".

Alive!

Muddywaters,

It's weird - so Rahab was a prostitute, I doubt if any here would judge her, or any woman who is lost in such brokenness - you know?

There is a better way to reach in to the hearts of children - once again, the material and unspiritual nature of JW.org misses the point.

35

Money....

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

i believe all our worst nightmare are believing money will make our life's complete.

i am not talking about money providing life's comforts, but i am mortified that contentment and happiness always requires " more money"..ummm i need a window cleaner, a flashy car and a 50inch t.v screen to be happy.

money...well in my opinion we need money integrity to be happy, but it seems such a waste of life to search for the making of money more than ....well what i mean "hey" most of us have more money than most, and would the making or having more money really make you happier?.

Alive!

Money is energy stored, a tool for moving things improving things creating things. There is a scriptural wisdom that "the love of money (=bling) is at the root of all evil." I have seen that. Poverty is not good either. I have been so broke and out of work I had no money for a newspaper.
Like this - 'money is energy stored, a tool .........

35

Money....

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

i believe all our worst nightmare are believing money will make our life's complete.

i am not talking about money providing life's comforts, but i am mortified that contentment and happiness always requires " more money"..ummm i need a window cleaner, a flashy car and a 50inch t.v screen to be happy.

money...well in my opinion we need money integrity to be happy, but it seems such a waste of life to search for the making of money more than ....well what i mean "hey" most of us have more money than most, and would the making or having more money really make you happier?.

Alive!

I came from a frugal upbringing, but we always seemed to have what we needed and simple treats meant so much...the sense of thrill from a simple treat registers the same as the thrill from an extraordinary material privilege, when you know no better.

I have enjoyed the rush of real, serious wealth through hard work in our business and success, I also noted that with the "wealth' came an uncomfortable fear of losing it somehow....it's horrible and not proud of that feeling.

Money is a tricky old thing. I have loved the freedom it apparently gives, but am more than aware that it can create a sticky web-like prison of escalated expectation if one doesn't watch oneself.

I'm very happy when I'm picking my own vegetables, reinventing an old piece of furniture and being creative, rather than a consumer of goods.

I have to watch myself - as I'm a magpie, always 'seeing" stuff I like in the shops....but it's usually an bottomless bucket of want to be honest....it's good to feel that one can live and sustain life without being too dependent on huge wads of cash. But it's also highly worrying to not have enough to pay the bills...as we all know, it's a balance, right?

15

Is everything that doesnt add ud explained as a vision, a parable or a "poem" ?

by Bolthof in

hi.. i meet up with a couple of jw once a week and it seems to me that every time i show them a verse that says something that contradicts their doctrine they say that it is a parable, a vision.. or a poem of some sort.

what are your toughts about this ?.

Alive!

Cofty - I love that point re Paul's desire to be with Christ....it reads like he felt "Christ" was the entry through some porthole to a glorified state, whether alive on this earth, but for him, preferably alive in another dimension. So he expected to join "Christ" in the "other" dimension with no down time after his passing from this earth.

I know you think it's all hogwash! - no argument - just interesting when we kind of try to make sense of scripture versus JW thinking.