Posts by Save My Soul

21

How do the JW's stay encouraged and persevere?

by JH in

what keeps them going and going week after week?.

is it fear of being destroyed?.

fear of missing out on paradise?.

Save My Soul

Peer pressure. I have 30 years invested. Friends, family and the like are mainly Witnesses. After the generation change, I began to fade, I read COC and "My eyes were opened". I do not feel the obligation to EARN salvation anymore. Although still associated, I have non-witness friends, my children play sports and Karate. I am free. I do not attend meeting regularly but notice the guilt that others feel when they can't attend service or miss a meeting. Their families are neglected.

A teenager told my son that our family was spiritually weak because I miss meetings. My 15 YO bluntly told him how our family was normal. He mentioned how his mother was addicted to anti-depressants, like most women in the hall. My said spoke of how I, his dad spent many hours with the family every week. Other than FS the other child said he never spent any time with his father. After a 20 minute debate, during the TS, the child asked his dad to step down and spend more time with the family.

Many witnesses are drones. The end of the world is coming so there is no time for carrer jobs, just field service.

8

Jehovah's Witnesses and Racism

by karnage in

i have been wondering and trying to find some information into whether the wtbs has ever played the race game.

when i see pictures of the society of old, all i see is white people.

i don't see any blacks, asians, hispanic, or mixed (black and white or whatever) couples.

Save My Soul

Growing up and serving in an inner-city environment I must say I have heard of many cases. Many black elders would move too other areas and never get appointed. Some were elders for 10, 20 or more years and the new body would delay their appointment for YEARS. I have seens white elders come (on their own) to a new hall and get appointed within 6 months. I personally know of about 10 instances of this over the years.

After moving to a white hall the gatherings were very segregated. Only the blacks that were very, very friendly (non-threathing and Carlton-like) were invited. Blacks were all at the KH for B/S unless their home was used. Eventually the black friends started to have gatherings with guess who...... Seperate but equal. It was incredible. I know this is my opinion and people feel more comfortable around their OWN Kind, but isn't that a mantra of the heathens and "Worldly People". It is everywhere. We are all imperfect!!

11

Went to the Kingdom Hall after 8 years

by Prins Vaillant in

jw
friends

yesterday i went to the kingdom hall (i was curious wether the little girls from my own jw-time were now gorgeous young women).

a few of them have been 'evolved' ;) into beautiful young women.

first of all, i would like to say that i was so happy when the meeting was over.

Save My Soul

I have a medical condition that makes it uncomfortable for me to attend meetings. I would miss meeting for years at a time and come to the memorial and extra special announcements. I found that there was nothing different after missing 4 or 5 years at a time. Of course there would be new truth that everyone would accept without a problem but it is really a joke. My childhood friend said over 1/2 of the friends are on meds, prozac and the like. Everyone, elders and ministerial servants and pioneers seem to have all left at one time and came back, only holier and closer to god than before. The guilt was literally making people crazy and the meds would numb the senses, so the meetings were spiritual feast, with the senses dulled. I have come to believe that anyone with pre-1995 is just involved for social reasons. I have spoke too many elders and they echo the setiment. The changes in the org has allowed the perception that this is just another chuch with a large friend base. kinda like mormans without joe smith and the wives.

42

Do You Live a 'Normal' Life?

by Golf in

is unhappiness, guilt and a low-self-esteem normal?

let's share some positive experiences.

for me, i seek to find the good out of negative experiences.

Save My Soul

I pioneered in Jr high and high school. I thought we were close to the end and followed the admonition to stand before Jah and justify why we are not pioneering. I had all of a MS responsibilities but was too young. At 19, after being appointed, I began to see I could not accomplish any goals following my current course. I started a 19 year career in the fire dept. I use my work as an excuse to miss meetings. I have a medical condition that makes it uncomfortable to regularly attend anyway. I live very normal. I have been in the org for over 30 years and turn in time, but in reality I live a happy-guilt free life without the constraints of the typical witness. I still believe some of the fundamentals of the religion, but since the generation change, I know that everything is mostly made-made and based on the whims of the GB. It is so good not too feel guilty. So many dubs that I know take medication because of their depression, which some say is the results of the many oppressive rules. Growing up in a cong. whre having nice new things were wrong, I am so FREE and NORMAL.

32

Toasting is wrong because.........

by Gill in

jw
friends

so why, according to the feb 15th watchtower is toasting wrong?.

apparantly:.

'toasting today may not be viewed by many as a religious gesture.

Save My Soul

It is incredible with all of the silly rules that J-Dubs follow. I always thought they would try to go mainstream, but I am wrong.

49

JWs in Field Service Today--Christmas.

by M.J. in

i guess the local kh is doing a special field service outing today, which my wife will be a part of...on christmas morning.

i think this is intrusive and disrespectful.. did any of you do fs on christmas?.

is this a common thing among jws?

Save My Soul

I have too agree it is intrusive and disrespectful. Who are JW's to bother someone at how doing a prictice thatJ-Dubs view as repulsive.

24

How many JWs die for want of a blood transfusion?

by Gill in

does anyone have a rough or even accurate idea of how many jws lose their lives each year due to the no blood doctrine?.

Save My Soul

According to the hospital personel that I have interacted with throughout my life, each has a story of a JW dying. They are all different and unique.

I would hate to have a loved one pass away in death and then the policy change.

3

New Policing?

by Save My Soul in

Save My Soul

25

1/15 WT: The Watchtower's Sick Social Order

by metatron in

jw
friends

i just got done reading the latest watchtower and it reinforces any notion that the old men who run this religion.

want nothing to do with ethical reform of their cult.. the magazine gives an effective look at the way that the watchtower hierarchy maintains their sick social order.. first, women are inferiors, period.

nevermind the fact that women can manage/run/ or lead an organization equally as.

Save My Soul

Sometimes I think there are no intelligent people left in the org. Can they be real? Does anyone see all of the lies over the years? The sky is falling might work for newbies, but anyone prior to the generation change must not believe any of this. I know that many remain for the social aspects.

29

Stinky boys

by mrsjones5 in

jw
friends

my oldest son is 12 and he has a friend the same age who lives across the street (i'll call him gilbert).

gilbert likes to come over and play video games with my son.

if i allowed it gilbert would be over everyday possiblely spending quite a few overnite here too.

Save My Soul

I had a witness cousin who had a condition called trimethylaminuria. He had an odor despite bathing 4 or 5 times everyday. He was a clean freak but regularly smelled like rotton-garbage. We (me and many of the servants and elders) made fun of him in secret for many years. At about 18 or 19 he became inactive. We thought he was just weak, despite the fact that many of the youth were involved in immorality, smoking and the like, we were still better off than this inactive (former high school regular pioneer). On a sheparding call with the CO and my dad the PO. He was asked why he stopped attending the meetings. It was an indication that he stopped loving jehovah. He said, Finally after an hour of telling him how wicked he was for not pioneering anymore and attending meetings, he looked the CO in the eye and said, "If you smelled like me, would you attend the meetings". He went on to tell how cruel the friends were at our hall and assemblies. He said how he never stopped loving jehovah and said he never stopped reading the publications. He described his condition to us in detail. We were dumbfounded. He said how the simplist thing that we took for granted, he struggles with every second of his life. Of course at the end, the CO said this was no excuse.......yadayadayada.....Job was faithful to jehovah....and he would die at Armageddon if he did not go in service.

I tell this story to say this condition may be a possibility. I had the same negative sentiments about my cousin, but I was totally wrong. He was very clean, but battled this problem for years. He said it was internal and he could not cure it. He never came back to the hall. He never had any friends other than the ones that mocked him as a youth. He became a fireman. Although not a witness he still has morals. He told me about a year ago, "Life is hard enough without voluntarily subjecting myself to harassment from self-rightous Witnesses".