i will start by apologizing for the following rant and i hope i do not bore everyone but this is on my mind.
i had an epiphany.
it may have been a segment on the today show, a short piece about catholics and celibacy that started the thought process.
I am proud of my husband though, he has gone back to school, and he is doing great. I am considering doing the same thing. However, to be honest after 10 years of marriage I am looking forward to having children and not feeling guilty about that decision either.
My suggestion is to get the education, then have the children. It's a whole lot harder the other way around.
Nina
let me preface this by saying that i in now way mean to insult to the deaf/mute community by comparing them to leaders of a very prevalent cult, the jehovah's witnesses.
you see, in the service meeting last night, there was a talk based on an article in the january 2006 our kingdom ministry entitled "young ones: shining as illuminaters".
the brother who gave this part is my book study overseer, and a member of the "richie taskforce", i.e.
You're hurting them.hate to be ugly, but... good. I believe they have had it coming.
In that case may you also get all that you have coming to you.
Nina
let me preface this by saying that i in now way mean to insult to the deaf/mute community by comparing them to leaders of a very prevalent cult, the jehovah's witnesses.
you see, in the service meeting last night, there was a talk based on an article in the january 2006 our kingdom ministry entitled "young ones: shining as illuminaters".
the brother who gave this part is my book study overseer, and a member of the "richie taskforce", i.e.
I stood there in the foyer, looked around, and just wondered how people don't see right through it.
It's because they trust you, Richie...and many of them may even love you.
You're hurting them.
this is actually something that fascinates me and i'd like your own opinions on the subject.
i list here things i feel are quintessentially english (with apologies to the scots, welsh and irish as they have their own uniqueness).. first of all, it's got to be a cup of tea (yes, i know it wasn't originally made here, but it has become an integral part of 'englishness').. cup of tea.
cricket.
Marmite
something i got off the myspace.com jw group.
if somebody can tell me the difference between the logic in this post and the logic in an orwellian book, pm me and i'll give you my credit card number.. .
i wanted to mention, to all active jehovah's witnesses, that a brother has called to my attention that he is being harassed by apostates.
I wonder if that "Protective Warning" was issued by a certain "Tommy" who used to be an elder...until he left his pioneer wife and ran off with a 15 year old unbaptized publisher. He was always sooooo interested in the younger ones!
Nina
have you notice that every time someone questions the society they always end up using this phrase,"we hope that our response to your question will be of help to you on your road back to 'spiritual recovery'.
" this is why we sent a copy of your letter / question / questions to your local body of elders as they will now be in a better understanding on how to be of help to you on your road back to "spiritual recovery.".
in other words, when you question the society on anything that troubled you, you have lost your spirituality.
"the man of thinking ability will be hated".
And how much worse when it's a woman!
(Now where's that rolling on the floor laughing emoticon when I need it?)
Nina
have you notice that every time someone questions the society they always end up using this phrase,"we hope that our response to your question will be of help to you on your road back to 'spiritual recovery'.
" this is why we sent a copy of your letter / question / questions to your local body of elders as they will now be in a better understanding on how to be of help to you on your road back to "spiritual recovery.".
in other words, when you question the society on anything that troubled you, you have lost your spirituality.
Back in the days when I was raising five children in a "divided household" I had a strong desire to become a pioneer. Trouble was, you were only allowed to count 1 hour a week on a family Bible study and I was spending far more than that *per child* which left very little time to do more than the obligatory 10 hours a month. In frustration, I sat down and penned a letter to Brooklyn outlining our detailed study plan and noting that if any other baptized witness did any of what I was doing with my children they could count the time so why couldn't I?
A few *months* later I received one of Those Letters from the society reiterating their policy on counting time on one's children. The second paragraph was something like "we have taken the liberty of informing the elders in your congregation so that they can reduce the number of hours you have overreported". Huh???? Did they even read what I wrote??? I didn't say I reported anything other than the 1 hour per week allowable, I was quite careful in how I worded the letter so that they would have no trouble understanding what I meant. I hadn't named my congregation either! (I found out later that when the congregation isn't named they use the postmark and make an "educated" guess.)
I got The Visit from the elders and each one offered to take over the work that I was doing with my children. No way! I could see who would "benefit" from that arrangement so I thanked them and sent them on their way.
Just another in a long line of events leading to a charge of "independent thinking".
Nina
one thing that really pisses me off and stops me "coming out" as an apostate is that, if somebdoy becomes an apostate they are automatically liars in the eyes of jws.
every time apostasy is mentioned in magazines it is always in the context that they are automatically liars.
to my mind, most apostates are evry truthful, but the wtbts/ rank and gfile etc , automatically brand you as a liar when you become an apostate and it really angers me.
stops me "coming out" as an apostate
You don't have to come out "as an apostate". Just come out. Methinks if you were the kind of person who lived his life by what other people thought you wouldn't have been a JW in the first place. Use the same strength, make it work for YOU.
Nina
what was/is one of the most annoying things for me at the meetings, was the amount of non-information that the watchtower gives.. it is like rading the entire wt or whatever book and all that they basically say is like: preach more, or whatever.. when you look at the (mirrors of) the quotes site, you see very few interesting quotes of the last 25 years or so.
just because they basically do not say anything at all.
do you feel the same way?
Welllll....there's information and then there's information!
Once upon a time I sat down with a WT and started highlighting out (black marker) everything that seemed to be purely introductory, any generalizations, summaries, you know, all the stuff that says nothing. I literally threw down the magazine in disgust; there was barely a word left unhighlighted, certainly nothing left that made sense!
On the other hand, the parts that I deleted ARE the information! They were the phrases that WT comes back to several twists and turns later and says See? We knew this was coming and we warned you all along!
Nina
i heard an interesting program the other night that reminded me of the debates/questions that arise about the tanslation of the nwt.
it has been asserted that since george gangas was a speaker of modern greek he was not qualified to translate biblical greek.
the progam i heard is hosted by milt rosenberg on wgn 720 and the guests were two linguists from illinois universities ( i can't recall their names).
I have to admit what you all are talking about is "Greek" to me.
It's probably "Greek" to most of them as well since I doubt that they are fluent in the language.
Nina
