dh

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Topics Started by dh

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  6

  Finding Normality, Common Ground & Community

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi,.

  it's been a long time since i posted on here, but i find myself at a point in life where the input of others who've been through a similar experience would be nice to hear.. i'm 32 years old, was born in the jw and left when i was 18, so it's fair to say the bulk of my adult life has been spent out, but the bulk of my adult life i have been pretty much working, and i'm often told i am a 'workaholic'.

  i suppose now looking back in perspective, i have always kept myself very occupied with work, surface friends and surface experiences, but never really allowed anyone or anything in any deeper.. now i look at it an identify that there are some massive barriers still up, and i have developed a person who is successful in real life in terms of whatever real life percieves as doing ok, but is deep down completely isolated from other people 'like me' if that makes sense.. i do not believe in the idea of god, or religion in general, i've always said it is just a crutch and a control mechanism, but it brings me to the thought of how i feel right now, that i have lacked for most of my life anyone to share common ground with, common views and community etc, and that most people turn to their church for that, but for a person such as myself, there is no such place.. it doesn't make me want to go anywhere near a church or reconsider anything but it does make me think sometimes that it would be nice to have an alternative, with real life interaction and sharing of ideas, i miss that in my life, and i think because of how i am wired and how my experience has been, it is becoming a negative thing, and is probably the beginnings of the path to implosion.. anyways, would be interested to hear if anyone has had a similar experience.. dh.

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  12

  Any XJW's in Cape Town?

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi, been a while since i posted here, i wondered if there were any xjw's on here in cape town, south africa?.

  dh.

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  27

  Westboro Baptist Church - Americas Most Hated Family

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did anyone watch this documentary about westboro baptist church?

  so what did louis theroux make of the phelpses after three weeks?.

  louis theroux.

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  The Real Face of the European Union

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  has anyone else seen this documentary?

  brits, any thoughts on watching it.... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2699800300274168460.

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  55

  Where would we be now if there was never a concept of God?

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if (for the sake of argument for those who believe in god) there was no god, and no human being who ever lived had ever come up with or even had a concept of god or a higher being.

  where do you think we as human beings would be today.

  what do you think our history would be like, and our future?

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  What happened to Valis?

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are you still alive?

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  Text Donations To Charity (What a great idea!)

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the live 8 gig and some cinema ads got me thinking about this subject, and i wondered... does anyone else agree that the event of text donations to charity is a great idea that will really make a difference to how funds are routed to charity?

  ... instead of filling in direct debit forms or paying by credit card or dropping pennies into a chairty box on a shop counter, you can sms a donation in, very straightforward... .

  i think it could really change things, and after seeing ewan mcgregor saying for people to text mph to 8025 at the cinema, i just thought yeah, i can do that, because after all what's 25p off my phone bill?

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  5

  The least likely of people are the ones who shun you...

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as anyone who might remember will remember, i posted some time ago that my mother finally stopped going to jw meetings a couple of months back, after 30 years of being an anchor of her congregation... now, ever since leaving there have been no elder visits (my dad is still an elder), and the c/o came around and my mom talked to him one on one, and that all seemed sorted.

  'sisters' from the congregation still come around and see my mom (but only 'ones' that we here 'friends'), and there were about 150 'we miss you' 'please come back' cards... but as much as most of the people in my mom's congregation are 'cut up' and 'sad at the loss of sister _ _ _ _ ', they still call around for a coffee, or meet my mom for a coffee and are ok about it... this in itself might seem strange, but not so, considering the congregation i grew up in, everyone would still talk to me since i am not df'd and they always ask how my brother and i are doing.... anyway, to cut a long story short, i asked my mom how her oldest friend was, a woman who was her friend when she first became a jw in the mid 70's... now this is a person who always lived over 100 miles away from us, but would come and stay at our house every now and then, for assemblies etc, a person my mom had a very special friendship with... a very open minded and spiritual woman by all appearances, somewhat eccentric and a big fan of dr. seusse (which is where i get my love of dr. seusse from)... well, it turns out this one person who you would never in a million years expect to pass a sweeping judgement, when my mom told her she would no longer be going to meetings, she said 'then i don't want to speak to you again' the end!

  can you believe that garbage?

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  59

  Do you have a mental image of other posters on this site?

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a lot of people here have posted their photo's, but i think the majority haven't... i sometimes wonder when reading posts on here, what person making those posts must look like, not that i want to see their photo, i just find it interesting... i recently got to see a photo of someone i have talked to on here since i first joined, and i had to say the person looked an awful lot like i had imagined, so i wondered if anyone else wonders about things like this?

  is there a particular poster you have a mental image of?

  care to share it and see if the person really looks like what you think they look like?

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  34

  If you could bring back one thing from the past, what would it be?

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  anything, be it an object, a species of animal, a piece of forgotten information, translation of an unknown language, type of culture, anything.

  any takers?

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