Oh please, this troll has been allowed to play here and he isn't going to stop because people don't cuss at him, so I might as well say what I want. Makes me feel better. You guys are trying to reason with him. Do you really feel that your earlier remark Brand New wasn't feeding him? Your little dog is barking up the wrong tree here.
dubstepped
JoinedPosts by dubstepped
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39
Shunning
by A Believer inyou guys do know that if you just leave and never go back you wont be disfellowshiped right?
i know people who have done exactly this.
you have to commit a sin and you or someone else has to tell a elder.
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39
Shunning
by A Believer inyou guys do know that if you just leave and never go back you wont be disfellowshiped right?
i know people who have done exactly this.
you have to commit a sin and you or someone else has to tell a elder.
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dubstepped
What a disingenuous trolling thread. There are so many stories of people disfellowshipped merely for no longer believing because someone told on them. My wife and I were shunned by both of our families for speaking to my disfellowshipped brother, disfellowshipped for living with a girl who he didn't have a relationship with other than giving her and her son a place to live after her boyfriend threw them out.
So take your beliefs, light them on fire, and gfy with them. You want to start threads about your ridiculous beliefs, go right ahead. You want to start threads poking at trauma suffered by members at the hand of your evil cult, go f $#! yourself.
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RC 2017
by wifibandit indue to last years success, i will post everything related to the 2017 regional convention in this thread.. to start us off.... thanks to exjw reddit user ich3b we have advance notice of the theme (this is not a joke!).
the theme for the 2017 regional convention is: "don’t give up!” .
as always, if you have access to confidential materials you would like to leak but need to protect your identity, pm me or email me: wifibandit1 (at) gmail.
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dubstepped
Theme song should be Journey's doon't STOP, beleeevin'.......
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Jeremiah 10:23 - "...It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step."
by HereIgo ini have been accused recently of "trying to direct my own step" because of my questioning the org and refusing to come back to the "truth" for the past 6 years.
i personally still believe in god, i just doubt that he is behind the jw org, that's all.
why is that so hard for jw's to understand?
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dubstepped
If it doesn't belong to man to direct his step, then why are they trying to direct yours to follow men?
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26
Xmas / New Year - Time to Review Your Finances
by Simon init's that time of the year again, when most people spend too much buying too much crap for people .... it's also a good time to take advantage of the few days off to look at your finances and make sure you're not being "gouged" by the big companies that, well, like to extract as much money from people as possible.. for us, one of the biggest culprits was telecoms.. think about it: years ago you just had to buy a tv and probably paid to have a phone line.
nowadays you have cell phones for everyone in the family and a million and one tv channels (all showing crap or repeats of crap) and extra for movies and pay-per-view.
you can easily be paying hundreds of dollars per month.. it can all add up, quickly.
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dubstepped
First, I love this thread. Thanks for starting it Simon!
Here are some things that we've done over the years that have helped us:
1. Get a budget. Track what you spend. It doesn't have to be hard or expensive. We use YNAB (You Need A Budget) with the app on each of our phones. We put in everything that we spend into the appropriate category, and it is all tracked against the amount we have budgeted for that category to start the month. Just being intentional with your spending really helps. I believe we spent like $50 on YNAB and $5 for the app on each phone years ago. There may be better options today. I do know that there's a platform called EveryDollar that is free but has a premium version. It is a product by Dave Ramsey, the anti-debt guy that is so well known.
2. Speaking of anti-debt, if you can get out of debt by following Dave Ramsey's plan in the new year that really frees your money up. We worked like crazy people for 18 months to get rid of all of our debt, except the house. It was so freeing.
3. We also worked hard and built up a 6 month emergency fund, and we live one month ahead on our budget. Again, it relieves the pressure. And no, we aren't rich, nor do we have some profession that is particularly high paying. We clean houses. It was just a matter of buckling down and being willing to work like crazy people to build things up.
4. I've always heard that the beginning of the year is a great time to shop your insurances. I've yet to do so, but I will be doing so this year. You might find that you can save hundreds just by switching to another insurance company. Brokers are often the best to check with because they can shop from many companies instead of being captive to just one. Our health insurance just went up 2.5 times what we were paying because our old policy was discontinued and we now have to go into the Obamacare program. So that hurts a lot. Maybe we can save on our home or auto insurance somewhere and help a little bit.
5. My wife has a phone through Virgin Mobile. It costs $38 monthly and she bought the smartphone outright for $100 or so. I have a phone through Verizon prepaid that costs me $48 monthly and I too spent $100 or so for my phone. We have smartphones that do just about anything another one would do that costs more, but we don't buy the most marketed phones that cost a fortune. In the past we had two smartphones through Verizon on a contract and paid $160 monthly. We now pay half that. We have the wifi turned on our phones when at home so as to conserve data on our cellular plans.
6. Money is reflective of our behavior. Don't expect to change everything overnight. We have always struggled with spending too much on eating out. We work a lot and aren't always home to eat. Still, just bringing a lunch here or there helped. Then we figured out some things we could make and freeze at home that we can just pull out and heat up for a good quick meal at home with less work when we're tired. Small changes, over time, add up.
I'll post more if I can think of any. I'm the self-proclaimed king of driving cheap cars. I bought cars for $1800-$2500 that lasted me for years and years, driving them in our cleaning business every day. My wife finally convinced me to spend a little more and I dropped $3500 on a van that we've now had for several years with minimal problems. You don't have to spend a tone on a car. We never have a car payment. By going up a bit in price we got something that was a little newer and that had working AC. Still, we got a minivan that had 85,000 miles on it and we're now up close to 150,000. It has been great. You just have to know how to look and see cars more as utilitarian vehicles to get you from here to there instead of falling in love with a particular make or model or look.
Oh, we will also be investing for the first time this year so that we can retire someday. We will be putting money into index funds because they perform well (reflective of the S&P) and have no real fees to speak of like managed funds. We'll see how that goes, but it's a huge step for us.
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64
Mass JW exodus
by stockholm_Syndrome inmaybe there will be a mass exodus from jws when thinking people read feb 2017 watchtower telling them the governing body stuff up, shouldnt expect correct/ perfect information and basically make up guff as they see fit.....ya reckon?.
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dubstepped
This was said in the past and there was no mass exodus. Cult members be like "so what, look at how humble our leaders are". Nothing will change for most. It's always spun in their favor.
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1st christmas ever
by notalone inso, i am around 50,4th gen born in- christmas.
strange thing this christmas thing.
i've been watching people this year, really watching them.
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dubstepped
Notalone, and drifting away, enjoy your first Christmases. This is our first too. We disassociated so we're already doomed to people that shun us, so they get no say in out lives, which is a relief. The first lights we put up were outside on our porch. I even put a tree out there. All the JWs that know where we live can see, and I don't care. It's awesome to be truly free. It's awesome to see the beauty in the spirit of good people around this time. Do the holidays however you're comfortable and enjoy what they bring to your life. Good for you! I'm 39, my wife is 36. I actually remember the magic of Christmas until I was 8 and my mom started studying. I'm happy to have a measure of it back.
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"While I love my two children very much, I feel today I should never have had them."
by running_away inthis is interesting:.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38145118.
"a whole lot of the time, i just don't like being a mother, and i generally don't fit well into this role.".
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dubstepped
I don't get why people feel like everyone must feel like they do. I applaud those strong enough to admit that they don't enjoy parenthood. Not everyone wants kids. My wife and I don't. Funny thing is that most people, parents themselves, that ask us about it end up saying we made a wise choice. There are pros and cons to just about anything, including having or not having children. The culture elevates parenthood to near mythical god-like status. If parenthood appeals to you, enjoy the heck out of it, but don't expect everyone else to be like you. Having a child doesn't make a person naturally suited toward parenthood. -
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The Book of Mormon
by dubstepped inmy wife and i went to see it today at the encouragement of some of our new friends.
we laughed until we cried, and it was so cathartic to sit in a room full of hundreds of people laughing at the ridiculousness of religion.
sure, the subject is mormonism, but it was very poignant and applicable to all religion.
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dubstepped
@Pete - My wife and I quickly noticed the ad in the program for their church. We were astounded. Either they really just don't get it, or they're just that arrogant.
We donated money afterward for the AIDS charities they were collecting for. I shook the hand of one of the actors and told him that although we weren't Mormon, we were recent ex-Jehovah's Witnesses and I thanked him sincerely for his part in the play. It meant a lot. We also saw some people dressed as Mormons, just like you, and according to one usher I overheard talking and that actor we met, there have been many Mormons that watched it and liked it. I can't really imagine how they could like it AND be Mormon, but whatever.
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17
The Book of Mormon
by dubstepped inmy wife and i went to see it today at the encouragement of some of our new friends.
we laughed until we cried, and it was so cathartic to sit in a room full of hundreds of people laughing at the ridiculousness of religion.
sure, the subject is mormonism, but it was very poignant and applicable to all religion.
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dubstepped
It is a play, developed by the same guys that did the cartoon South Park. It is very blunt, non-politically correct, and it just takes shot after shot at Mormon beliefs and religious beliefs in general if you think about it. It is a famous Broadway play in the United States. I don't know where it travels to, but if you look it up and find that it is near you, it is worth the price of admission. Be forewarned, it has similar humor in it to the South Park cartoon, but it is intelligent. There are lessons too, about kindness and such. It's not all irreverent.
Edit to add: It looks like you can go on youtube and find both acts one and two recorded from various plays. You can listen to the songs as well. Might be worth viewing, though nothing like seeing it in person.