i kind of understand the "never made the real commitment" part, but isn't learning the "truth" for 15 to 20 years, and going out into the "world" as opposed to committing,... the same as choosing to not accept jehover's (aka wts) ways and be with the brothers and sisters in union?.
why is the shunning treated different?
is it because, there's always hope by the parents, that they will come around?, etc.. .
It cannot even properly be called a double standard because it doesn't possess the logic sufficient. What can be said about it, is that it is about control. Once you are a member, they
arrogate the right of control of your life. I never heard it put like Gary did, but he is right on the money.
some of jerry's more inspired moments....... see ya jerry, lucky for you anne coulter is here to carry on your legacy of hate.. .
on sept. 11:"the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because god will not be mocked.
and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make god mad.
My wife commented to me how crazy some of the things were that Falwell said. How could people not see through him?
Well, I told her to remember what she had just said, because it could be said of other religious people, too.
good evening,.
i am a virgin to this forum do bear with me!.
i am curious who visits.
A friend of mine recently asked me not to become "one of those people" who show up only for the Memorial,
I assured her it woulod not be a problem since I plan on no further memorials.
it struck me this past year, with respect to jw teachings about the timing of genesis 1, that even in things that really have no impact on what most jws think of as "core doctrine" the watchtower society sticks to its traditions over what the bible says.
this was again brought home in the september, 2006 awake!
17 between me and the sons of israel it is a sign to time indefinite, because in six days jehovah made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested and proceeded to refresh himself.
One more thing while we are talking about creation: I think had I the power to design a human body, I would have ensured gravity proof breasts. I would also have eliminated the horrendous smell of bodily functions, perhaps designing an internal scrubber for those occasions when a smelly fart simply wouldn't do. It could really kill the mood with the sweety, you know? A much better fragance, perhaps laced with the proper pheromones could turn a mood killer into an aphrosiac. Of course, no one can improve on a "perfect" design, ehh?
it struck me this past year, with respect to jw teachings about the timing of genesis 1, that even in things that really have no impact on what most jws think of as "core doctrine" the watchtower society sticks to its traditions over what the bible says.
this was again brought home in the september, 2006 awake!
17 between me and the sons of israel it is a sign to time indefinite, because in six days jehovah made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested and proceeded to refresh himself.
AlanF:
Thanks for your post. I was almost made to recant a a remamrk i casually made during one of my talks, when i mentioned that the Earth could possibly not be 49k years old,
but was in fact many billions of years old and the creative days were long periods of time, possibly millions and billions of years in length. Well, I wasn;t going to let a couple uber elders do a Galileo on me, and challanged them to prove from Scripture that it could not have happened as I remarked. hey told me the "slave" this and the "slave that.
I tild them (this was an elders meeting mind you) that unless the two "offended" brothers could prove from scripture that what I said was wrong, they need to keep quiet and drop the matter.
And there it ended. The JW view is unsupportable not just in science but in scripture. They insisit on commenting on EVeRYTHING and yet they truly do not know ANYTHING.
I am so damn happy to be free of that cult thinking.
ok. so i take out to lunch this business associate of mine to solidiy our budding relationship.
a bit of shmoozing.. half way through lunch i'm asked if i didn't want any more children (i have a grown child who is married) and when i started to reply.
i stopped myself.
I must agree. According to the Watchtower, this can only be Divine Providence. Perhaps there was an angel watching out for me. I may have to send this experience in for publication.
(After it's thoroughly embellished, of course.)
i've been out a while, but i remember thinking about this as a teenager and being confused, (my mother told me i must be posessed by demons to think such things and so never offered me an explanation).
what do the jws say about it.
if jehovah can see into the future, he would've known what a mess he was going to make of creation so he would've decided against it before he even thought of it.. based on the theory that he went ahead and created everything anyway, that must mean he can't see into the future.. i also seem to remember that god doesn't interfere with man, because we have free will, so all our actions are down to us and in no way "steered" or "influenced" by god.. so how can he make predictions about the future, i.e.
I don't know whether God can see the future or not. I am of the mind that there is no future, no set of events that that MUST happen like gazing into a crystal ball. But events WILL happen.
I have often thought that God can "see" the future in the sense that a great chess player can "see" the board 5, 6, 7 moves down the road because he can read his opponent so well
and is able to not just ANTICIPATE his opponent's moves, but MANIPULATE his opponent's moves by his own moves.
So if God designed everything and can manipulate evreything, then in that sense he can see the future because He can CAUSE the events that make up the future.
It is much like fixing a horse race or a boxing match---- you can't really know who will win in a fair contest, but you can FIX who loses in a crooked contest and thus control the outcome.
So prior to the race or the match you "predict" who will "win" and it comes true. You repeat that hundreds of times over many years. Does that make you a prophet, a seer? Ot does
it make you a FIXER, a MANIPULATOR? If God has that power, then He can control who wins by fixing who loses. Israel did not WIN wars, it's enemies LOST them. God fixed
the fight.
i never enjoyed giving # 2 talks.
i never enjoyed being at a podium and speaking.
i took drama in high school just to get over the fear of being in front of people and speaking.
yaddayadda:
I'm not worthy.
ok. so i take out to lunch this business associate of mine to solidiy our budding relationship.
a bit of shmoozing.. half way through lunch i'm asked if i didn't want any more children (i have a grown child who is married) and when i started to reply.
i stopped myself.
OK. So I take out to lunch this business associate of mine to solidiy our budding relationship. A bit of shmoozing.
Half way through lunch I'm asked if I didn't want any more children (I have a grown child who is married) and when I started to reply
I stopped myself. I then asked this person about their religious views. They said they were not religious now, but had grown up a JW
and in high school had decided that it was a cult and had never gone back to a Kingdom Hall!
I thought to myself, "So what are the odds of this happening?"
Needless to say, we hit it off on a much deeper level. It was great talking to someone who knew EXACTLY where I was coming from.
i never enjoyed giving # 2 talks.
i never enjoyed being at a podium and speaking.
i took drama in high school just to get over the fear of being in front of people and speaking.
It is part of the indoctrination process pure and simple. Like OTWo said, you are more likely to believe things when you say them.
