Posts by itsallgoodnow

33

It's happening, the anger and depression are taking over

by Tim Horton in

jw
friends

i haven't posted for a while.

i'm starting to really lose my cool.

i'm angry all the time, it seems at everyone.

itsallgoodnow

I'm sorry to hear you're going through a lot right now. Just try to remember to take care of yourself, since so much is going on, you'll need all your strength to just get through it and you don't want to waste too much of it on the anger. Just focus on doing the best you can with your situation. Hope things improve soon!

18

Religion and Spirituality

by Markfromcali in

these days you hear people say "i consider myself spiritual, but not religious" more and more.

while i understand where that's coming from, what does it actually mean?

i can see where someone can be spiritual without being religious, just as we can see religious people not being spiritual, but what do each of those look like?

itsallgoodnow

IMO- Religion is rigid and literal, but spirituality is self awareness, reflection and ethical conviction. I found I can't be both of these at once.

39

Circuit Overseer's Talk: " We need 5 meetings a week and weekly mags"

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

at the circuit overseer's talk last week he made the comment that some "of the friends" are finding it difficult to move ahead with jehovah's organization (tm).

the co said that a few had asked, "is it necessary to have 5 meetings a week, and a magazine every other week?".

"couldn't we do without one meeting a week, and have monthly editions of the watchtower?

itsallgoodnow

On the other hand, older JWs will tell you how much harder it was 20-30 years back, the meetings were longer and the district conventions went on for days longer than they do now. Can you imagine 8 days of that? Back then, people went in field service every Saturday, and the exceptions were rare, now... my guess is they go out about half that or less, and exceptions are rare.

IMO - They have determined the precise formula for keeping people still in from figuring out this is a cult -- keeping them just busy enough, but not TOO busy. If people regularly miss some or all of the meetings and stop reading the literature, they are more likely to learn to think independently of the WTS and find out about the lies, deceptions, cover-ups, abusive control tactics, etc. But it backfires to keep people too busy because lots of witnesses take an all or nothing approach to it. You know that by the kind of derision they hold for anyone not doing enough. This type of person will become disheartened and stop doing as much, with the same result.

They keep it the same because it works. One more night of worldly recreation could potentially bring the whole empire down.

19

Anyone Else Read This?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

it's written by a sociologist.

i just borrowed it from the library.

it's cool and clear.

itsallgoodnow

It's $29.95 on Amzon.com in the US. I noticed this comment from a reviewer, which I thought was kinda cute...

Just because someone is anointed by holy spirit, doesn't mean that they will always get it right. The prophet Samuel, for instance, thought that David's brother would be the next king of Israel, but Jehovah God told him he was not the one. (1 Samuel 16:6, 7: And it came about that, as they came in and he caught sight of E·li'ab, he at once said: "Surely his anointed one is before Jehovah." But Jehovah said to Samuel: "Do not look at his appearance and at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For not the way man sees [is the way God sees], because mere man sees what appears to the eyes; but as for Jehovah, he sees what the heart is.)

So, even though 1914, 1975 and nothing between 1984-1994 didn't bring armageddon, Jehovah knows their hearts were in the right place... but only them, nobody else!

21

When You Try To Reason With Someone About The "Truth", What's Your Focus?

by minimus in

jw
friends

do you concentrate on the lack of love, the doctrines, the flip-flops, the un debacle, child molestation-----what??

?

itsallgoodnow

I haven't actually done this because I don't want to be "outed" as an "apostate" yet, but I would tell them JWs are a cult because they restrict you from really researching their teachings by using information from outside sources. I was under the mistaken impression a cult was a group following a single living leader. Hmm - where do you think I got that? Just reading about all the different aspects of what cults do opened the door for me.

32

"Greater Fulfilment"

by IT Support in

the society claim that many prophecies have a "greater fulfilment.

daniel 4 was not only fulfilled with king nebuchadnezzar, but has a "greater fulfilment" in telling when the gentile times will end.

has the society ever tried to justify this practise?

itsallgoodnow

The John class! Brilliant! Or do you mean, the modern-day John class?

33

Best Healing... Leave or Stay JWD...

by Confucious in

jw
friends

my girlfriend is saying to me... .

just write a letter of disassociation, and join some other chat group and move on.

she loves you guys, because i often tell her about "what's going on here.

itsallgoodnow

It's probably different for everyone, and depends on how much involvement you currently have with JWs in your family and how much pain you experienced. It's probably impossible for her to fully understand the kind of number this religion does on so many people.

It has really been helpful for me to get different perspectives here. I can't just drop it and say, well I don't believe it any more and that's it. I thought it should be that easy at first, but I find myself constantly searching and wanting to know more about what people believe and why they believe it.

Sometimes I think about how many more people must have gotten out and dealt with it on their own, without support and it makes me wonder if other people just cope with it much better than me; maybe I'm just over-sensitive about it, or need more therapy or something. Sometimes, I wish there was a way I could erase all memory of it from my head. That would be so nice. Ah, but then I would just go back to being gullible and trusting again... can't have that!

12

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 11-07-04 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 11-7-04 wt study (october 1, 2004 issue date)

review comments

we?re jehovah?s witnesses;.

itsallgoodnow

I thought this was a pretty interesting article. Their two biggest threats are clear... science and other Christian religions.

If all you know about religious people is what the Watchtower has told you, you might buy into their story about how other religions and prominent people have no interest in glorifying God. But that logic doesn't hold up in reality, does it?

I wanted to laugh out loud where it said "a man" conducted interviews with people who believe in evolution and found they only believed because they felt that all intelligent people believe in it, so that's why they believe in it, too. So they fail to mention that practically the entire scientific community accepts evolution as fact, based on years of study and scrutiny. By the way, I shouldn't need to mention that there was no information on who this "man" is and what his credentials and/or biases are, how this poll was conducted and who conducted it, or where his findings were published, if they even were.

I think the icing on the cake with this lesson for me was where they were still on the evolution paragraph, and their bible scripture referenced, I can't remember exactly what, Psalms or Proverbs, said something like "the inexperienced one is trusting in every word". That really made me want to laugh, because that's exactly what I was, inexperienced, when I trusted in every one of the Watchtower's words. "Inexperienced" is putting it too nicely, I think!

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