Posts by dorayakii

26

Wanted: JW apologist to explain how the GB gets its messeges from Jesus the King

by Mad Dawg in

dorayakii

But in view of what Acts 15:7 says, was there not "much disputing" at the meeting? The Greek term for "disputing" is related to the verb meaning "to seek" (Kingdom Interlinear Translation); it thus indicates that to find the truth, or the best manner of doing something, diligent effort is required in searching out a matter—questioning, discussing things and thus arriving at a right conclusion. With this thought in mind we can read the account with interest, noting how developments were guided by holy spirit.

Yet another example of the GB trying to whitewash the Bible. "Oh, it was only a discussion, not an argument or dispute"... even though the scripture says: "But when there had occurred no little dissension and disputing by Paul and Barnabas with them".

you cannot merely use the literal meaning of words to guess the meaning the author wished to convey. Saying that "dispute" doesn't mean "dispute" is like saying that "sarcasm" doesn't really mean sarcasm because the Greek word sarkasmos literally means "flesh-burning".

They are quite correct that the word "suzetesis" is from a root word meaning "to seek with", but the thing that they overlook is that the English words "dispute" & "argue" are also from similar roots. Dispute itself literally means "to count separately" (from dis- "separately" + putare "to count, consider"), and argue means "to make clear, demonstrate" (from the root *arg- "to shine, be white, bright, clear"). Neither has the literal meaning of a heated dispute or an argument.

Perhaps Paul and Barnabas were merely counting separately.

43

On a scale of 1 - 10 - How Ex-xjw are you?

by AK - Jeff in

i felt like i was still a jw for a couple of years emotionally, though i had left.

then for a couple of years i felt like an xjw.

in the past year i think i have made the leap to lightspeed.

dorayakii

I still have a bit of baggage, but haven't dealt with it for about 2 years now.

I don't think I'll ever be a 10 because I will always be interested in what's going on in Dubland and it'll still rattle my cage a bit. I guess I've been mentally a 9 for the last couple of years. I've pretty much ignored my JW past, I lived abroad for most of that time, but now that I'm back at home it could very easily go back down to 7 or 8 when I decide to stop putting off the inevitable and deal with my family issues.

7

What was the cheesiest talk you ever gave?

by homeschool in

jw
friends

when i was 15 or 16 i had to do a part with my best friend about masturbation and why it was wrong.

omg when we were practicing in the back room, we kept giggling.

and then, of course, when the time came and we were up there on stage, we both remembered the parts that we were giggling about in back and started giggling all over again!

dorayakii

Yeah, I also delivered talks based 100% on scripture and I seemed to get more praise than most. I was also quite articulate and laced my talks with so much honey. So in later years when I was beginning to doubt witness teacings I began to slip anti-organisation tit-bits into my talks. The very last talk I gave was completely and blatantly anti-JW but noone seemed to notice and I always got so much praise because my talks were always scriptural and articulate.

The cheesiest talk I ever gave was one where I tried to find an application for a passage of scripture in Numbers. I went on about how good it is to keep records and how we should always but our reports in. If the Israelites didn't repord then we'd never know how many goats they'd sacrificed.

143

...Jehovah`s Witness Kids don`t miss Celebrating Birthdays,Christmas..ect..ect!!....

by OUTLAW in

jw
friends

jehovah`s witness kids don`t miss celebrating birthdays,christmas..ect..ect..!

!......................thats what jehovah`s witness parents,tell the outside world..my parents did.......the fact is..i did want to have a birthday party..i did want to get toys at christmas..i did want a tree with all the lights..i did want to go to the school christmas party..i did want to hunt for chocolate eggs at easter................tell that to your jw parents and you`ll get an ass-whopp`n..........i told my aunt i loved christmas,she always got me something...my aunt told my mom.....mom was not happy.......i did`nt support the jehovah`s witness lie....i paid the price..............when you were a jehovah`s witness kid,did you want to participate in celebrations?

...outlaw.

dorayakii

Of course there are negative experiences of Christmas and other holidays, but that has nothing to do with the actual holiday and more to do with the fact that tose families are DYSFUNCTIONAL. Similarly the shallow, commercialisation of Christmas has nothing to do with the holiday itself, but more to do with how the big companies deform the meaning of it.

Personally, I never felt like I was missing out. When the other children were preparing for Christmas or Easter I would get to play Lemmings on the schools only computer: an old Apple Macintosh. I never had a computer at home so I couldn't wait for the holiday season so I could spend time on my own in the classroom playing computer games.

As for the actual holidays, I rarely spend them with my ultra-conservative parents (who one year took me on the ministry on Christmas Day). Apart from that year, I always spent the Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays with my more 'liberal' grandmother and aunt who invited most of the family for a turkey meal on Christmas Day. We'd watch all the Christmas films and pantomines, watch the Queen's Commonwealth speech and generally bond as a family. We even had Christmas crackers and sing the Christmas songs without any Christmas words in them (eg. Walking in the Air, Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolf etc. - A song was fine to sing as long as it didn't have words like "Christmas", "Jesus", or "holy" in it). I'd buy my cousins small gifts and I would always get money to spend on what I wanted. We also have a crazy party on New Year's Eve, eat snacks and, when I was older, drink alcohol. We'd dance crazily to music and stay up to watch Big Ben strike midnight.

I always felt I missed out on birthdays though. I always spent my birthday with my parents and they never acknowledged it apart from noticing that it was the beginning of the new service year (1st Spetember). I missed out on attending my friends' birthdays too. When I was about 5/6 I asked to go to a party but my dad said" no".

Overal though I didn't really feel like I'd missed out on anything because I convinced myself that I didn't want to clebrate these things anyway. I was very good at actually believing that I didn't want to.

20

Do you tend to be a 'keeper' or a 'leaker' ?

by Gregor in

jw
friends

of small confidences you have been brought in on.

do (did) you find it irresistable to pass on small tidbits when you have been asked to "keep it to yourself"?.

as in -- "don't say any thing, but...".

dorayakii

A keeper, definately. I think it's a breach of trust to reveal private information to others. I will always keep the secret private (unless it's a serious crime of course).

44

Have you ever done something to show your disgust with the Kingdom Hall?

by Leprechaun in

jw
friends

this one time, the night they disfellowshipped my sorry ass from the christian congregation smerk smerk,i came strolling back from a beer bar and had to pee in a major way so i stumbled my way next to the entry door of the hall and let loose with at lest a picture of rolling rock beer after it was filtered through me kidneys, it still makes me proud..

dorayakii

I once printed out a few dozen of RichieRich's "protest-cheques" and posted them into the contribution boxes at a Convention or inserted them into the new releases. I've never done anything like that at a Kingdom Hall though because it's too easy to get caught.

I don't agree at all with urinating on their property because that kind of behaviour vindicates their position that apostates are spiteful and self-centred. I'd rather raise awareness of the controversy surrounding the Watchtower Society by surrepticious means and even though I did post the "protest-cheques", I still think it's far better for members to inadvertantly catch a glimpse of some uncomfortable truth about their organisation rather than have it thrown into their face.

27

Accents and Dialects

by snowbird in

jw
friends

so as not to further the "head cheese thread," i'm starting this one because of something narkissos mentioned about a fricative consonant.. it's like an f or s, produced by forcing air through our teeth.. that got me to thinking about the test the gileadites gave to the ephraimites in judges 12.. judges12: 5 -6 gilead captured the fords of the jordan at the crossing to ephraim.

if an ephraimite fugitive said, "let me cross," the men of gilead would ask, "are you an ephraimite?

'" but he would always say, "sibboleth"he couldn't say it right.

dorayakii

I used it as leverage when my mom would get after me for saying 'ain't' by insisting it is not a word.

It's interesting to note that "ain't" was originally an accepted contraction of "am not". The two nasal consonants "m" and "n" merged together into "an't", which eventually turned into "ain't". When we make tag questions in Standard English we notice that the first person singular contraction of "to be" results in an imperfect paradigm. There is no acceptable contractable form for "am not":

I am, aren't I?

you are, aren't you?

he is, isn't he?

In order to get around this problem, early grammaticians actually criticised the use of "aren't I?" in favour of "am I not?".

In English-English and American-English "ain't" is often used, whereas in Scottish-English and Irish-English "amn't" is just as common. Some modern linguists believe "ain't" should be reinstated into accepted grammar as the standard contraction of "am not" but only to be used with "I". The problem with this is that the contraction has gained a bad reputation because it has come to be used incorrectly in vernacular English as a contraction of "are not", "is not, "have not" & "has not" and is often used with pronouns other than "I" (i.e. he ain't done it / you ain't finished yet?). In some dialects it is even used to contract "do not", "does not" & "did not".

All these errors lead to the common misconception among early grammaticians that "ain't" was always incorrect in any situation, a misconception that left an indelible mark on the standard grammar of our language.

17

Do you ever shed the Jw experience?

by AK - Jeff in

i have been out for 5 years.

my wife and i left together.

she saw the sham long before i did - though neither of us could 'put our finger on' what was wrong until we read coc, found the internet, etc.. i believe my wife leans toward atheism more than i do - i consider myself agnostic of the whole matter at this point.

dorayakii

I still log on to JWn once in a while to check on things.

I've been out of the bOrg now for almost 3 years but I still think about my experiences in the cult from time to time.

I have a good friend whom I always chat with about my experience as he was involved for a while with the Hare Krishna movement. It's surprising how many similarities Hare Krishna has to the Watchtower movement; the special vocabulary, the contant judgemental attitude. Sometimes we talk about other things such as evolution, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology or biology, but we often come back to talking and venting about our respective ex-cults. Someties we have a little "my-cult-was-worse-than-yours" competition, lol. I guess I'll still be talking about the dubs and lamenting my time with them for a long long time.

82

I commented about apostates today at the meeting

by cognac in

jw
friends

i couldn't help myself.

it was so obnoxious what the paragraph was saying about apostates.. so i said that having a difference of opinion is not a problem but really as brought out by thessolonians it is when a person raises themselves up above god to have people follow them instead of god that they are considered bad in god's eyes.. i don't even know if it had anything to do with the question, but i just wanted to say that, lol..

dorayakii

The December 15, 2008 Watchtower on page 28 states: “Our coming to know “the truth” – the entire body of Christian teachings that has become part of the Bible – and adhering to it are essential for salvation.”

WOW it actually says that? That's a pretty audacious statement even for the Watchtower.

I agree with the stance that you don't necessarily have to vocally denounce Watchtower teachings in order to be classed as an apostate in their eyes. Merely holding fast to a contrary opinion is enough to condemn you in their eyes but of course, if you don't vocalise your difference of opinion they'll never find out. However, your disagreement will eventually come out if it is serious enough, whether through your comments or your general attitude toward the leadership.

You have to remember that for the Watchtower apostacy starts "in the heart" and goes much deeper than just stating your difference of opinion. They may not be encouraged to "go on a witchhunt inquiring into personal beliefs" but it doesn't mean they don't behave like thought-police in some respects. A "witchhunt" would waste elders' time, would upset the "spirit" of the congregation andwould paint the elders in an abviously draconian light.

95

Most Annoying "Kingdom song?"

by doodle-v in

what's a kingdom song you can remember singing that gives you the creeps now?

mine is "move ahead" i think that was the title, anyway it has so much rhetoric... but the tune is so darn catchy.... darn.... in my opinion, those songs are the perfect example of mind control.

move ahead.. move ahead ... blah blah blah blah blah .

dorayakii

I always thought this one was funny:

In a land so good and spacious,

Free from strife and things vexatious,

Look! a happy crowd, vivacious

In God's service that is efficacious.

I had to stop myself from laughing everytime because it sounded like someone had just desperately looked through a thesaurus searching for words just to fit the rhyme.

When My father gave public talks in other congregations my parents and I would scour the songbook for a song appropriate to his talk, but I'd always suggest the Victory Song because it was my favourite. And I loved listening to the drama tape with the trumpets: "Almighty Pharaoh, Lord of the city of North, Potent of arms, Living forever. Life, Prosperity, Hope.... BRING THEM BEFORE ME!!!"