Posts by Enishi

14

What is that e-watchman site all about?

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

is the bloke who runs it an ex jw or what?

in one breath he praises the watchtower, in the next he's tearing them apart.

whats the deal with it?

Enishi

Even though I strongly disagree with many of his views, e-watchman's website played a large part in helping me sever my mental ties with the organization. I had heard about the child molestation beforehand, but figured it was either an exxageration or that Jehovah would deal with it eventually. However, the scriptures that e-watchman points out as applying to both the curropt Jewish priests and the modern Christian congregation, as well as his arguements against the 1914 doctrine, caused me to finally open my eyes and realize that it wasn't God's organization, that the very scriptures the GB claims to follow condemn them.

Sure, you can glean this information from many other sites, but the thing is e-watchman bases his arguements almost solely on the scriptures, and still holds to the witnesses basic beliefs, which resonated quite strongly with me back then. If I had read the same arguements from an atheist or a born-again christian, I would have probably ignored them. So, although now I absolutely detest e-watchman's articles and commentary, they do serve a valuable purpose to witnesses still heavily attached to the basic dogma of the the WTS (no trinity, no hellfire, paradise earth, 144000, etc.)

28

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 11-16-03 WT Study

by blondie in

review comments will be in black and parentheses ()

red

we keep in mind peter's words: "it when you are doing good and you suffer, you endure it, this is a thing agreeable with god.

Enishi

As always, excellent job Blondie.

Hehe, I study the lessons in your posts now more than I did on my own.

42

Were You Afraid of The DEMONS???

by minimus in

jw
friends

most witnesses believe satan and his demons are looking at them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

were you one of those?

how did you handle stories of demons, witchcraft, etc.??

Enishi

As a kid, I was scared of the dark and the unknown like anyone else, but was never particularily terrified of demons. In fact, the very idea of demons fascinated me. I wouldn't have minded seeing or meeting one, just to prove to myself that spirits really do exist. The Watchtower articles on them only made me curious. I suppose part of it is because my parents never really tried to instill a fear of demons in me.

There was one time when I sitting alone in the living room, reading a book, and it was storming outside. I distinctly heard (at least it seemed that way at the time) a raspy sounding voice whisper my name. OMG was I ever terrified! I must have broke the sound barrier running up to my room. Later on, I decided that it was probably just the wind, but ended up wishing that the voice would come back, I was scared but fascinated as well.

Also, I don't know why, but I always had this feeling that if there were demons lurking in my house, I could beat the snot out of them. After all, how powerful could they really be if they had to hide in old furniture and smurf dolls?

25

Witnesses and laziness

by Enishi in

jw
friends

is it just me, or does the dub lifestyle encourage astounding degrees of laziness?

we're expected to sit quietly at the meetings and be spoon feed repititious information without thinking for ourselves.

dubs are discouraged from making any decisions without the counsel or approval of the society.

Enishi

Hmm, I guess laziness isn't a very accurate word. Lack of interests is probably a better description.

The thing is, I was never that terribly busy with the witness schedule, since I never studied for the meetings, only read bits and pieces of the literature at my own leisure, and was sporadic when it came to meeting attendance. I was always sort of halfway over the fence.

25

Witnesses and laziness

by Enishi in

jw
friends

is it just me, or does the dub lifestyle encourage astounding degrees of laziness?

we're expected to sit quietly at the meetings and be spoon feed repititious information without thinking for ourselves.

dubs are discouraged from making any decisions without the counsel or approval of the society.

Enishi

Is it just me, or does the dub lifestyle encourage astounding degrees of laziness? We're expected to sit quietly at the meetings and be spoon feed repititious information without thinking for ourselves. Dubs are discouraged from making any decisions without the counsel or approval of the society. They're told not to set their sights on an long term goals outside of field service or bethel, discouraged from participating in sports, studying for college or devoting any significant amount of time to mental and artistic disciplines. Anything that takes time away from meetins and field service is automatically bad.

Even though pioneering takes up incredible amounts of time, its usually not that hard, just repetitious, and doesn't require much creativity or constructive thinking. I've known young pioneers from some congregations who did little else except go out in field service and watch TV. Whenever you'd try to get their opinion on something like government or anything important, the response is always "why worry about it? Jehovah's kingdom will come soon and sort everything out."

I know that for myself, growing up as a dub has made it difficult to focus, and whenever I try to devote time to work or study I find it hard to remain on task, almost as if some part of my mind is subtly discouraging me from trying too hard in 'non-theocratic work'. Its a habit I'm trying to break. Of course, this could just be me and the influence of western society, but still...

19

For those brought up in the borg, How would of your life been different ?

by run dont walk in

jw
friends

.

we have all fantasized about never having been jw's, how would your life of been different (better or worse) if your family(parents) would of never joined the jw's.. hypothetical question i know.

but fun to think about it.. for me, i might of actually had a family, instead of being ignored and critized for not going to meetings.. for my family, it goes back to my grandmother (who is now 100), who started the crap line going.

Enishi

I would have tried to have made more friends in high school, and would have planned better when it came to college.

I would have spent much more time writing, as well as more time studying.

I would have taken up martial arts and yoga, without having to fear that I was breaking a bunch of illogical rules.

Also, I would have had a more flexible schedule due to not having to worry about making five useless meetings a week.

44

The Circuit Overseer Says 'Just Do More'.........

by minimus in

jw
friends

my mother told me that last night's meeting was about how we all simply have to do more.

if we are asked to work on a saturday, we should know that saturday morning belongs to jehovah and that the automatic answer simply is "no, that time is set aside for jehovah.

" he said our congregation is down to 60 something publishers and we simply just can't afford to lose anymore..... he gave an example of a boy and his dad that were out hunting.

Enishi

I feel really sorry for the witnesses in the congregations that are sensitive to this kind of guilt prodding, the organization will never stop berating them to do more until their spirits and backs are broken.

18

Criticism is unavoidable

by logansrun in

jw
friends

as i've stepped off the train of a myopic weltenschuung and entered the busy streets of competing ideas, i have come to a very interesting realization: all claims, ideas, philosophies, behaviors -- everything -- can be criticised.

it doesn't matter how good your argument is, how beneficial it might be to humanity -- it can and will be put through the machine of skepticism and kinks in the armor will become known.

criticism is unavoidable.

Enishi

I think we probably have trouble with criticism due to being spoon feed what to believe as a dub. Someone I talked to at the door once out in service even noted that we seem to avoid any honest debate.

50

What do you call Jehovah now that you are not a dub?

by SiouxWoman in

can we still call god, jehovah.

ok stupid question but i really want to know

Enishi

I tend to use the term FatherMother when I pray now moreso than Jehovah. I don't concentrate so much on the words of the prayer any more either, as much as I do the feelings and message they convey. I still pray in the name of Jesus though, since the name usually engenders a feeling of love in my heart.

22

Do Jw men treat wives as Christ treats the church?

by ellderwho in

.

what has irked me lately is the way my mothers husband (elder bob) treats mom.

in typical jw fashion subserviant, always careful in speaking out of turn esspecially our weekly study( "bible study") er book study.. i have to find a way to work in the reference of treating wives the way christ treats the church and let elder bob stew on that, but being careful not to plant seeds of resentment, with mom.

Enishi

What gets me is the amount of encouragement dubs get........NOT to act that way. Time and again they are reminded through various publications and Watchtower studies, to treat the wife as christ treated his followers and others.

I've noticed this as well, whenever I attended a witness wedding the one conducting it would always go on and one about how the husband is supposed to honor his wife and not act like he's some sort of boss or tyrant, while barely mentioning anything about the wife having to obey her husband.

Perhaps so many ignore this counsel because they know they can get away with it.