Posts by Crooked Lumpy Vessel

12

Picture of the transit - 8 June A.D. 2004

by Duncan in

jw
friends

.

i hope this works - first time i've done it.. i took this picture of the transit in my back garden 5 minutes ago.. the sun doesn't look perfectly round because it's a picture of a projection and i was standing to the side a little bit, but i think you can clearly see the black dot of venus.. duncan

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

That was awsome. Thanks for sharing. I have always been facsinated with our universe. I dont know much about where man is heading but I sure hope that I get to know more.

Some may find this far fetched...but I truly believe that we are not the only living beings in the universe. A look at the size of the universe itself tells me that were not the only fish in the pond. However, for some reason man feels that all life hinges on his existance. As if we were the most superior thing in the universe. However, if dinosaurs were here before we existed, then it would be reasonable to say that life is not contingent on our own existance. Of course, I dont know what is out there...I dont imagine that I would ever see it in my day...but it is fascinating to think about.

20

The fear returns

by Purza in

jw
friends

so my daughter (14 y/o and i will call her r) finds out some girl at school is a jw.

so r approaches her and tells her that she "used to be a witness".

the girl was very friendly and told r about the convention this past weekend.

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

It sounds like your daughter may have inadvertanly provided her with more information that you are comfortable with. However, it also sounds like the parents of the JW girl might have been involved with the call. I cant imagine why a school girl would be interested in what congregation you use to belong to. Her mother may have suggested that she give your daughter a call and ask that question. Your daughter may have said in casual conversation that she would like to go to the meeting not realizing the gravity of your feelings or the can of worms that would follow.

In any event, these are delicate issues. Be careful not to be hard on your daughter when you talk to her. Of course it is none of my business how you handle your personal family matters. But I was the mother of two teenagers and I can say that emotions do run high at that age. Whew!! I could tell some stories.

I am sorry you are having to deal with the stress.

24

Jacobs sons & the slaughterfest of Shichem & his tribe

by DaCheech in

jw
friends

was it not a cowardly & devious act of those sons to kill the whole male population of the tribe.. after dinah was taken advantage of, shichem & his own agreed to do the "right" & honorable thing.

& marry dinah, when they agreed to be circumcised like jacob & his family in order to do this..... what did the sons.

of jacob do?

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

What about the scripture in Numbers 31:13 where Moses was angry because his army of men only killed the men in battle. Then ordered them to kill all the male babies and any women that was not a virgin. But to keep all the young virgin girls for later use.

Then Moses and El·e·a´zar the priest and all the chieftains of the assembly went out to meet them outside the camp. 14

And Moses grew indignant at the appointed men of the combat forces, the chiefs of the thousands and the chiefs of the hundreds who were coming in from the military expedition. 15 So Moses said to them: "Have YOU preserved alive every female? 16 Look! They are the ones who, by Ba´laam’s word, served to induce the sons of Israel to commit unfaithfulness toward Jehovah over the affair of Pe´or, so that the scourge came upon the assembly of Jehovah. 17 And now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has had intercourse with man by lying with a male. 18 And preserve alive for yourselves all the little ones among the women who have not known the act of lying with a male

42

Just randomly underline study WT or book?

by Max Divergent in

jw
friends

.

did you ever get into just doing random underlines and notes and all that on your study wt or books just to look like you?d studied it without ever having even looked at it before?

.

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

You know...I dont think I have ever completed an entire Watchtower before the meeting except maybe 4 times in 16 years. I remember the first time I grabbed a highlighter and started drawing lines through sentences while my husband was driving to the meeting. We were laughing the whole way. It was a shame that we felt like we were being judged by others to the point of making it look as though we studied. We were serving man and not Jehovah at this point. But there is a lot of pressure when you open your magazine and you see people looking over your shoulder. I suspected they were making assuptions that I do not appreciate my spiritual food as much as THEY do. Maybe it was my imagination but when I confided this to some other sisters they too admitted that they had also done this. Well, no pioneer sister would ever admit this and 9 times out of 10 these are the ones that are looking over your shoulder.

Anyway, there is a lot of pressure and judgement within the congregations. The fact that many of us were doing this shows that the pressure is there and exists. I dont think it is completely our imaginzation or paranoia.

But truth is this judging attitude is not what is suppose to be going on. There are many scriptures telling us to mind our own business. Do you think people in Christendom act like this? I found Christendom to be more forgiving then our own, although at this point in my life I am very turned off by organized religion all together.

My last few Watchtower studies I started drawing pictures and faces, bugs walking around the pages. I had some multicolored rubber stamps that I pressed on much of the white space of the pages. Mustaches and big Poofy hair also made them characters more interesting. I did this in complete rebellion to those who look over my shoulder. I could tell they were looking because I would put my WT in a way that they breifly saw it and then put it partialy of out of sight. They would stretch their necks to see what I was reading. Just call me craazy.

20

how far would you have gone?

by zen nudist in

i recall while i was just a new jw how horrified i was at the "brother" who was bringing me along.... when he told me that he was so sure about the governing body being jehovah's mouth piece, that if one day they announced--this is it, this is the end, kill any and all non-jws in your path....he would do it.

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

In all fairness, I dont think the governing body has ever indicated that they would make such a request. However, that does not mean anyone stopped a few freaks and/or retarded persons from being baptized as a JW. Which it sounds like that brother might be.

How far would I go...well. I think I allowed the GB's interpretation of the bible to put me in danger when I signed my blood transfusion rights away. I thought at the time I was doing the right thing but now I am not sure anymore. However, even with all I know, I am still not sure if I would allow a blood transfusion...I am scared of the other aspects of it too. They put the fear in me.

I am still in the beginning or my deprogrmaming phase.

82

What's Your Worst Quality???

by minimus in

jw
friends

....jealousy?

anger??

cheapness??

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

My very worst....Hmmm...I would have to say is the way I treat my husband when I get close to my time of the month if you catch my drift.

He is actually one of the sweetest people on the face of this planet. He has the biggest heart. But when my hormones are a flaring and he gets within the perimeter...I can verbally lash him like no other. But hey...sometimes he eggs me on.

And if we ever argue about anything it would be because of either jealousy or money.

22

Watchtower says "Don?t Eat Blood"

by Sam Beli in

if my recollection is correct, some here have stated that the wts no longer uses the ?do not eat blood?

argument.

i too thought that they had learned better, but not so.

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

I got this excerpt from the web site http://www.xjw.com/blood.html

What you wont read this in any Awake! magazine...

Consider just one example, taken from an article in Discover magazine
of August, 1988. Beginning at age 42, a Witness woman had had
surgical removal of recurring bladder tumors over a period of several
years. This last time she had waited overly long to see her doctor, was
bleeding heavily, and was severely anemic. She insisted that she was
not to receive a transfusion and this refusal was respected.
Over a period of a week urologists tried unsuccessfully to stem the
bleeding. Her blood count continued to drop. The doctor writing the
article describes what took place:
_Gradually, as her blood count dropped further, Ms. Peyton
became short of breath. The body's organs need a certain amount
of oxygen to function. That oxygen is carried from the lungs
to the periphery by hemoglobin molecules in the red cells. . . . The
medical team gave Ms. Peyton supplemental oxygen through a
mask until she was breathing virtually pure O 2 . The few red cells
she had were fully loaded--but there just weren't enough vehicles
left to transport the fuel her body needed.
_Her hunger for air increased. Her respiratory rate climbed. She
became more and more groggy, and finally--inevitably--the
muscle fibers of her heart declared their desperate need for oxygen.
She developed crushing, severe chest pain.
The doctor writing the article relates her feelings on arriving at the
patient's room:
_As I walked into the room. . . I was awed by the scene in front
of me. At the center of everyone's attention was a large woman
with an oxygen mask, gasping for air, breathing faster than seemed
humanly possible. At the head of the bed were three friends, fellow
church [witness] members, coaching her. . . . At her side were
several doctors--one monitoring her falling blood pressure, another
coaxing some blood from an artery. The fluid that slowly filled
the syringe had the consistency of Hawaiian Punch; tests on the
same revealed a red cell count of only 9 [normal would have been
40]. Hanging from the bed rail was a bag of cherry-red urine. The
woman was dying. Her cardiogram tracings showed the deep
valleys that signal a heart in pain. Within a matter of hours the
damage they represented would become irreversible.
_The woman went into cardiac arrest. A team of doctors and nurses
began cardiopulmonary resuscitation, administered epinephrine and
atropine, then an electrical jolt to the heart. It fluttered into activity,
then stopped again. More CPR, more epinephrine and atropine, another
electrical jolt, more CPR. This went on for one hour until there was no
longer any hope or purpose. The patient was dead beyond recovery.
_The physician describing this did not characterize the woman as simply
a fanatic. She writes:
_She was an intelligent woman, I was told, who totally understood
the implications of her decision. But her judgment, it seemed to
me, arose from a blind spot imposed by her faith. l8

7

This really get's my goat

by JV in

jw
friends

would you treat somebody better if they drove a mercedes as opposed to a person who drives a ford pinto, you don't have to be mr. spock to figure out that's not logical, so why would you treat somebody differently if they get in 20 hours per month as opposed to 2 hours a month, this goes on all the time in dub land, this is the major thing that " stumbles" me, (my favorite dub word, that'll i'll vent about in a future post).

the dubs do this all the time and it really pisses me off, they claim that their not a judgemental group but we all know better.

how can you judge somebodys worth on a slip of paper marking how many hours they go knocking on doors, that's just wrong.

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

This is something that strikes a chord with me too. When I first decided to go out in service I approached a pioneer sister I was studying with and showed her a schedule for service that I put together for every other weekend. She sat there for 20 minutes explaining to me why that was not enough. That I eat and sleep everyday and should at least go out in service once a week. She said that she observed friends in the hall who were not as spiritually minded and a direct connection was made to those who don’t put in regular service. Blah Blah Blah...I just felt sick during that entire conversation. I wished I had never said anything.

I was getting ready to call her back and say that I changed my mind and then I got a call from her husband who apologized up and down for her and said that whatever I decided was fine. But I was already so discouraged. No matter how much I did on my own terms I already knew that I was being judged by this sister as unworthy. Nothing could change that.

Of course, being the obedient low self-esteemed sister that I was, I ended up going out each week because she would come over and pick me up and intimidate me into service. I remember when I was pregnant she would still force me to do walking territory with her. She would walk real fast and by the time I caught up with her I was out of breath and she was ready to go to another door. It was miserable. The next day I started hemorrhaging. I was finally out of service and in a hospital bed, but now I had everyone under the sun in my room making sure that I did not have a blood transfusion. People I never even knew before were in my room.

Of course, being the obedient sheep I was...I refused blood. I turned to my husband and told him that if I was going to die, to just let me die. Take the baby and just let me die. Instead I just ended up being in the hospital for 5 weeks.

The pioneer sister that I studied with came and visited me each week with our study book in tow. She never just came to see me as a friend; it was always to have a bible study and to count her time.

Then one day it dawned on me. The love that we get from God is a gift and not earned through service hours. Last year I was at our weekly bible study at this same pioneer's sister house and there was a question surrounding Ancient Israel’s fasting and how they were not what God wanted. They were missing the point. Jehovah wanted his followers to show love and acts of kindness. But they would do all the rituals instead (fasting and throwing dirt on their head) I raised my hand and said, "the same is true today. We can go to all our meetings, pioneer and read the bible all day long. But if we don’t show love to our brothers and sisters than our service would mean absolutely nothing." I saw her look at me with disdain. :)

Nother Money Discussion

by Crooked Lumpy Vessel in

jw
friends

there was a thread we discussed about financial arrangements at assemblies.

according to several threads i deduced that if there is a surplus in donations, they go into a circuit bank account.

over the years these accounts can accumulate to something like $100,000 (give or take).

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

There was a thread we discussed about financial arrangements at assemblies. According to several threads I deduced that if there is a surplus in donations, they go into a Circuit bank account. Over the years these accounts can accumulate to something like $100,000 (give or take). But when there is a deficit in donations during an assembly, rather than taking the money from the surplus gathered in previous years, they send a bill to the Kingdom Halls for their divided portion of the deficit. I remember this happening in my hall once.

The following is a quote from DocBob....

Each circuit's assemblies have to be accounted for separately. IOW if you run over on one, you can't carry the surplus over to the next one. The one time we came up short, we were told that we could not just take the money out of the circuit's bank account to cover the shortfall, but that the money had to come from the congregations. So a letter went out to the congregations telling them what their part of the shortfall was. All the while the circuit had money in the bank and several thousand dollar "on deposit with the Society" - meaning we were giving the WTS an interest free loan.

Now it has me wondering how the Disctrict Conventions are done. Anyone have any light to shed.

6

Probably been posted before but...

by tazmaniac in

jw
friends

anyone here ever have to give a part on masturbation?

either thru a talk, wt study or meeting part.

i used to dread conducting the wt studies on this.

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

When I was 17 I was eating pizza with some girlfriends of mine. One of them started talking about masturbation. I guess I had this confused look on my face and they all started teasing me saying, "Ha ha ha...you dont know what it is!!" I was kinda embarrassed because she was right. But I played it off..."I KNOW WHAT IT IS!"

So I went home and looked it up...then said to myself, "Now why would someone want to do that?"

Ahhhh. The innocent mind.