Mysterious

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Posts by Mysterious

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  9

  Nine Year Old Appreciates 1924 JW Book

  by Latte in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from our readers

  awake august 22, 2003

  faith under trail

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  Mysterious

  Just as Ja?n Bali overcame his trials, we will have to remain faithful. The most beautiful part of the article was his recollection of the vivid mental picture of paradise described in the 1924 book The Way to Paradise. I enjoyed this part because it talks about the new world. I am nine years old.

  I don't think the kid was latching on to the article. He was simply recounting how the man in the experience he read had latched onto the article. I think he enjoyed the part of the article that talked about the man recalling the old book, not that he himself enjoyed the old book.

  The "recollection of the vivid mental picture of Paradise" line looks to me to be a lift from the article, not the kids own words. Needless to say it could have been written by an adult as well.

  Just my take anyway.
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  36

  What is an appropriate age to let your daughter date?

  by franklin J in

  1. social
  2. family

  as a father; will i ever think it is an appropriate age for my daughter to date?

  i have a very pretty 12 year old girl.

  besides excelling at classical ballet, she is a high honor roll student academically and she is a very good , sweet, child.

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  Mysterious

  Well speaking from experience if you are not dating in high school you will be singled out for harassment. Most high schools where I'm from start at age 14, senior highs at 16. Why not tell her when she is in x school she can start dating. 12 is too young imo.
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  4

  Gay Marriage in SF

  by rem in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i live in the best city in the whole wide world... er at least in the us.

  :) and, yes, i voted for mayor newsom too - my first vote ever!

  http://www.cnn.com/2004/law/02/12/gay.marriage.california.ap/index.html .

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  Mysterious

  I think if a few places conducts gay marriages and people realize the end of the world is not going to come as a result maybe they will relax their stance a bit. I see people complaining about gay rights activists being so in their face over the issue but the fact is if there was no opposition to them it would no longer be a big public spectacle. We could all just get on with our lives and be content with the fact that everyone has equal rights in our society.
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  9

  Want to get Rutherford's FBI file?

  by VM44 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  i believe a freedom of information act (foia) request could be sent to the fbi to get any files they had concerning rutherford.. anyone interested in doing that?.

  --vm44

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  Mysterious

  Information on how to do it for anyone interested.

  http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/FOIA-guide.html
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  17

  Have they changed their views about transexuals??

  by Mulan in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  there is a pioneer in a nearby congregation, that my jw friend told me about recently.

  this person is a woman, but used to be a man.

  everyone has accepted her, and they all talk about what a good example, and what a wonderful pioneer she is.

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  Mysterious

  Well there was an article (Alternate Lifestyles Does God Approve, October 8 2003) in the last year that addressed homosexuality and transgender issues. To me it doesn't seem that they have relaxed the subject so perhaps it was a regional blip.

  I also dug this up on a gay JW page (they advocate the society's position on homosexuality)

  What is the Christian position? Can a baptised Christian who has Transsexual feelings (sometimes called Gender Identity Disorder by the medical profession) seek Gender Reassignment? Can one who has had it and wishes to become one of Jehovah?s Witnesses, be baptised in the reassigned gender? (Can a person, for example, who was born and registered as a man but now lives after surgery completely as a woman, be baptised and function in the Congregation as a woman?)
  
  So far as I understand the position, the answer to the questions in the previous paragraph is No.
  
  Of course, there is nothing at all to stop an interested person who has had gender reassignment from having Bible studies with Jehovah?s Witnesses and attending meetings where they would hopefully be warmly welcomed. But it seems that it would not be possible to progress to baptism while living in the reassigned gender role.
  
  In a lengthy, kind and helpful personal letter to me from 25 Colombia Heights, in response to a query on someone?s behalf, the Watchtower Society wrote:
  
  ?However, the Christian Congregation would not be able to allow a person to live a life opposite to the sex he or she is biologically and to remain a part of the congregation. This would be true even if one submitted to an operation that changed the physical body to give the appearance of one of the opposite sex. God?s law does not permit a man to represent himself as a woman, or a woman to represent herself as a man. (Deuteronomy 22:5)??..?
  
  The above quotation refers to one who is already a baptised Christian, and as I said, there is nothing to stop an interested Transsexual person from attending and enjoying the meetings.
  
  Doubtless in giving the law to the Israelites against cross-dressing, Jehovah knew very well the possible reasons why some Israelites might want to do it, and that for some of them the reason was that they too had Transsexual feelings. The God of the Israelites was ?the one teaching you to benefit yourself?, and knew that for those with those feelings the way to benefit themselves was not to seek to conform the outward appearance to the inner conviction.
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  13

  JW literature table on campus

  by asleif_dufansdottir in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as i've mentioned before - most weekday mornings the jws have a table set up by the fountain on campus at asu.

  i never see anybody talking to them.

  mostly they have just been sitting there with all the literature on display, talking to each other.. however, the last few days i've noticed something strange.

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  Mysterious

  Someone should set up a booth across from them with freeminds printouts and see how fast they high tail it out of there.
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  38

  Does the Watchtower Doctrine exist?

  by family_man in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i am trying to learn as much as i can for my wife's sake.

  she has started to attend a kingdom hall.

  it's a spanish one.

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  Mysterious

  ALL of the watchtower is the same insidious and manipulative body regardless of country or language group. They translate the same crap back and forth. They don't call it the WT Doctrine so they would of course not be able to answer if they asked what it was. It's basically their own silly little interpretations of the bible. They twist the prophecy in revelation to make it seem that their organization alone is fulfilling all of it. As well as their own beliefs on a class of 144,000 with a "heavenly hope" and the rest of the faithful JWs with an "earthly hope". They will make it seem reasonable but the bottom line is they are taking things literally that weren't supposed to be. They may try to seem reasonable and non judgmental but in reality this is not the case.

  Perhaps your wife is not yet aware of all the nuiances or else she feels it will put you off if she tells every detail. Likely someone is coaching her on how to handle you so as how to be best "attract you to the truth"

  The watchtower tears apart families. At first they will try to "encourage" you to get involved. If you resist they will start "encouraging" your wife to spend more time on watchtower things. Meetings, studying, and going door to door will rob you of your family time.

  They will start to tell her that people will oppose her studying, at that point it will become VERY hard to pull her away. Everytime you try to tell her what is going on she will react to it and it will prove (in her mind) that they were right.

  A good place to start is www.freeminds.org they have articles on how the JWs control people and how to break you family free.
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  54

  Another survey from Lee

  by Lady Lee in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  reading simon's post about how things used to be i started thinking about how the internet has changed things.

  many believe the internet and the freedom of information it contains will be the undoing of the wts.. when i was a jw, there were a few dfings but maybe one a year or even less.

  people drifted away but we really didn't pay a lot of attention unless it was a close friend.. in here we see new people coming in all the time.

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  Mysterious

• What year did you leave?

2003

• How old were you when you left?

17

• Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave?

Yes

• If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision?

N/A

• What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing).

Their policy on sexuality.

• If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind?

By the time I left I didn't think it was "the truth". Before that it was mostly sites like freeminds and JWD but also sites of the type that examine what the JWs believe and compare it to the bible. When I realized they could win arguments just as well as the witnesses that was it.