Well it must be pretty much ok now days. My ex-husband of 2 years who is white, married a black sister from another congregation. The Elders of his congregation encouraged him to marry her pronto, so he would not be inflamed with passion at 57 years old. LOL So they will soon be married a year come November. That is cool. He and his wife are the only interracial couple in the congregation for now, but no one from what I have heard has a problem with it. His very southern white prejudice family is not too happy about it. But they are all non-witnesses so he is not concerned about it. If they love each other I think it is wonderful. Love is the key. My son who has left the witnesses does not like her because of her pushy attitude about the religion, but he has no problem with her being black.
Posts by Balsam
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32JW's and interracial marriage?
by c.dawn inmy nephew a jw who is white is dating another jw who is black with the intent to announce their engagement soon.. i had been reading about the past history of the jw's opinion of the black race.
old writings that said they were gods people too, but not intelligent as white etc and not qualified intellectually to go door to door to teach etc.that all people would be white in the new system.. i had read of a rope being run down the pews of the fellowship halls to separate the races during services during the 50's early 60's at the halls that did allow intergrated services... this was supposed to have taken place even up to a few years after de-segregation in the schools and other public places took effect.. that in some areas they had their own hall to meet at and the whites had theirs.
at one point the members of the black hall had asked to meet at the white hall as their building was being repaired or soemthing and they were told no, that some of the members of the white hall wouldn't understand or approve.. and i read that even up into the late 90's, many black members still weren't being given postions or responsibilities that whites had held since the beginning of the jw's.. i was just wondering how far they've come along to improve this image and if anyone knows thier opinion of interracial marriages.
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The Internet and Apostasy
by CakeMonkey inhas the internet and forums like these caused an exodus from the j-dubs?
when i left in the early 1990s i met support groups through the yellow pages but it still felt like i was the only one in the world who was an apostate.
i've come to this forum in the last year to browse because my brother has now left.
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Balsam
Well lets see I've been out of the JW's now for 3 years. I was disfellowshipped for running away from my husband, divorcing him and marrying my beloved current husband. But while going through all that in the beginning I went to meetings a little, still clung to the hope that the Truth still exsisted there and would help me return. That lasted about 6 months. Then I started reading on the internet, including reading these forums and other vast amount of information out there about the Watchtower Society. Well in a few months I realized I had been fooled by the Elders and Society for a long time. It was then I was able to let go of the JW mentality.
So yes the information on the internet was a key in helping me discover that what I thought was truth was certainly not truthful. C.T. Russells treatment of Maria, Rutherford alcoholism, and Knorrs arrogance with the bethel family really gave me pause. Were these men people I wanted to look up to as God directed. No Way.
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Introducing Myself
by Zal Taur inhey all,.
stumbled upon this site while looking for info on some very old friends.
i was born a jw, left when i was 17 or so, and haven't looked back for the past seven years.
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Balsam
Welcom Zal,
Too bad your a Bush supporter. LOL No just kidding your welcome to have your own opinion.
Balsam
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31
Writing bad checks on Jehovah's account: the Governing Body
by Terry inthe mouthpiece of jehovah speaks in his name with authority.
the governing body is the only channel of communication with the supreme being.
they identify themselves as the faithful and discreet slave.. if they are faithful, why do they write checks that bounce using jehovah's checking account?
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Balsam
This is the way I see it; men have been speaking for God since man has been intelligent enough to write. I think they (religious writers) claim that God is this or that, and it seems humans just never question what they are being told. Why is THAT???? We have many thousands of religions speaking for God, and where is God in all this?
Can't God speak for himself if he is out there needing something. Why would he need mear humans to speak for him. If he created us to think and speak, can't he speak for himself? Well of course he could if he wanted us to know about him.
Why does God not protest the way men have been protraying him over the thousands of years we've had written text? Could it be that God does not care what we say about him? Could it be there is not a God who requires men to worship him? Could it be that he is sitting up there laughing his imaginary butt off at humans thinking that he needs something from us puny humans? Everything that written about the person of God sounds like a sometimes loving father, at other times a demented monster out to punish. If God wanted humans to know and understand his personality, couldn't he just put all the information right inside our human brains at birth. We would all know the same thing about God, if he wanted something from us, and any rules he might have. Why is it so hard to see that religion is man's explaination of who they think this supreme being is about, not what he may truly be about. Now I am speaking of God as through he is a he, but that is only save the confusion of saying it, or he/she. After all God is beyond definition isn't he?
So not lets consider he made us with the ability to think for ourselves, we can do pretty much as we like, or have free will. Why would God then turn and punish us for using that free will not to worship him. Basically I think most people just want the chance to pursue happiness to some small degree, except for the nut cases that he read about in the newspapers. What is wrong with that? That seems to be natural desire. Do we really need a God to tell us what we can and can't do to be decent freedom loving people? Probably not, men make enough rules to be enforced.
Just my thought on bad checks the WTS keep writing?
Ruth
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Balsam
Hi Newbie
I live in Charlotte, NC just over the boarder from you. Email me at: [email protected]. We can talk, perhaps we can get together sometimes and visit.
Balsam
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8
Why ?
by Taisha ini want to know why it is so bad for a jw to have a relationship with a non-believer.
maybe i already know the answer and maybe i am asking out of frustration.
it kind of annoys me that a wonderful partnership is wasted and never realised fully.
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Balsam
Taisha,
Well JW do leave their religion behind in some cases. I did to be with my beloved lost love. It was a very had to do though. I caused me to examine what I believed over a period of a couple of years. The JW you are interested in probably views you as a temptation from Satan.
A book you might want to read is "The Origin of Satan" by Elaine Pagels. From a religious standpoint it helps you understand how people following the bible demonize people. It might even interest your JW friend. Nothing apostate about that book.
Falling in love or even dating a person outside of JW's is a no no but it happens all the time.
In my case I left my JW husband to be with my lost love from my past. I started reading up on JW's religion, reading up on the bible and it's source, and have since become a Deist. Deist believe in the exsistence of a creator god, but that he/she does not make themselves known through writings of men.
Ruth
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83
You are EX-JWs because you want to live an immoral life!
by Sirona inmany jehovah's witnesses believe what they've been told about ex-witnesses.
they say that exjws simply want to live an immoral life.
they say that exjws cannot live up to "jehovah's standards".
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Balsam
Yah baby! More leg over.
LOL LOL Well mainly I left my 30 year marriage to be with my Lost Love. I had been abused for 30 years and wanted out. I found a man who loved me and I left. I did the research after leaving and was shocked at what I'd found out about the Watchtower Society. The sad thing was it was all verifible, and I could not even say it was lies like the WTS claimed. And Hey sex is so much more fun without all the the JW restrictions. LOL
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Did You Ever Attend A Meeting After You'd Left?
by Englishman indid it seem strange to you, almost surreal?
it's happened to me several times.
about 2 years after i was df'd, hl and i were newly weds heading for a weekend in london.
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Balsam
Well let me share my interesting visits to the KH after I was disfellowshipped for running off with a Lost Love from my teen years. I had been married for 30 years to a JW ministerial servant, when I up and left him. Well I moved across the country from North Carolina to Washington State. Well I was still ate up, to some degree, with the teachings of the JW's. And I actually thought someday I would go back because I still believed in it. Well when I got to Washington, Howard my beloved was very supportive and loving and said he would go with me to the KH if I wanted to go. He had actually found out where it was at and the times. Well we go and honest, truthful person I was, I go in with him and proceed to announce to some who greet us, "Hi This is Howard and I hope you will make him welcome, I'm Ruth but I'm disfellowshipped." Well the first time that happen a chick in her 20's starting screaming. Which totally freaked me and Howard out. We went to about say 4 meetings in a period of 2 1/2 months. The world spread that I was disfellowshipped there, but some did honestly try to be friendly to Howard. Of course Howard thought it was bizarre how they treated me sitting right next to him. He thought it was all just rude, and no matter how I explained it to him he remained unconvienced.
Then we moved to North Carolina 55 miles from my orginal congregation which disfellowshipped me. Well it just so happen that there was people there who knew me for many years. One Elder's wife I had pioneered with, came up and hugged me because she had heard of my son Dak dying. Well I told her I was disfellowshipped and wanted her to make Howard welcome. Well she glared at him as though he was some aweful vermon who had crept in. She never spoke to me again, but her husband did. She would make eye contact with me though and smile. They did make sure I got the current magazines and literature. Anyway we went to say 3 sunday meetings there, until one day they were having a WT study on Jesus. The incredible mercy he had on the people who suffered. One was about the woman who had the 20 year blood flow, was considered unclean, not allowed into public, and how she touched Jesus garment hem and was healed. The kindness Jesus showed her. Well my beloved Howard turned and said to me so why are JW treating you so vilely when they should be reaching out to you and helping you? After all you lost a child due to their blood policy. Well his thinking of this got me to thinking. I had always accepted my disfellowshipping as entirely just, shunning I just accepted as part of it. But then I realized how they did nothing to help those who had slid through the cracks. They did not rescue the lost sheep. I went to one Memorial after that a year later, and went to a congregation where no one knew me. We sat on the front row and no one knew I was disfellowshipped. Oddly enough no one even came up to us and was friendly. But I did pass the emblems, but only because they did not know. By then I had come to understand that the teachings concerning the anointed was incorrect. The Memorial and all of the teachings of JW were by then meaningless. I had gone only because my youngest son felt I should go. He at the time was still active in the JW's. Now he is out and he and his brother did attend the Memorial this last year at their Dad and New Step-Mom urging. Now my oldest son is disfellowshipped as of a month ago.
I've never been to another meeting in over a year. No reason to go. My dear Lost Love husband and I was joined in marriage by a very nice preacher we had met from a Christian church nearly 2 years ago. The church folks celebrated our marriage with us. It was nice, and no one shunned us there. I no longer attend churches though, can't say I feel a need for them anymore.
Anyway the gal screaming in Washingtron was really weird. It was like we had walked in with the plague and she was going to die from speaking to us. Really showed the fear that JW are plagued with when it comes to their view point of disfellowshipped and disassociated folks.
Sometimes I get these weird urges to attend an assembly just to hear what they are feeding the poor flock. But I would not want to be around anyone I've known in the past. Don't think I could stand to sit through it anymore. No matter how entertaining it might would be. LOL
Ruth
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16
upcoming JC - info needed
by mineralogist inafter some months they finally "invited" us on a jc for - even if they didn't say - apostasy.
i once read somewhere of an official letter (boe or something) that the elders should let people fade if they want and don't cause any trouble.
as this is what we carefully tried i'd wish if someone could verify this policy and hopefully could dircet to the writing.. i think of participating the jc (they want to call with 4(!
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Balsam
I wrote letters to all those in the congregation I felt close too two weeks before the disfellowshipping announcement. About 10 letters. Well no one responded to the letters, and they ran in horror if they saw me in public. No I did not say anything apostate or anything they could view as as apostate. Just the fact I was going to leave my abusive husband for another man who knew how to be kind. LOL I figured that they had their time to try and get me to change my mind, but not narry a one showed up.
As for fading out, well unless you totally keep your mouth shut, and out of the JW radar it is a a hard thing to accomplish. Moving out of your home territory is about the only way to do that.
My son tried to fade out, but his Dad just would not let that happen. When my son had his girlfriend move in with him, his Dad dropped a dime on him with the Elders. My son had been out for over 3 years. Well the Elders showed up found the girlfriend wrapped in a towel at his apartment and the fun was on. JC invited him to come, he just laughed at them. They announced his disfellowshipping about 3 weeks later. No letter, no nothing ever came in the mail. Understand now that documentation is something they avoid due to law suits.
Ruth
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141
JW Kids Leave the Organization: Facts
by Maximus inthe october 1 watchtower 2001 features articles on training children "properly" and dealing with a "prodigal child.
the latest inside u.s. figures reveal that 86% of jw children leave the fold, with some 29% who eventually come back for reasons of family ties, most never "reaching out.
" that means over half leave permanently.
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Balsam
Well lets see out of my and my ex-husbands three sons, all are out of the witnesses. My ex-husband hassened the death of our middle son when he was in an accident by refusing blood transfusions to save his life. Then when I left the witnesses, my oldest son decided to follow Mom's path. Then 6 months ago our 16 year old said enough is enough of the baloney of the Elders and the society. So out of 3 children all raised in the witnesses, all three are no longer part of the great Watchtower Society BEAST.
I know of lots of families with several kids, and the majority of them all left the witnesses. Personally It seems to me the number is higher who leave. So what kids that are not martyred for the WTS by refusing blood, the rest are leaving. 86% is great. There has got to me more people out of the JW's than there are in.
Yah EX-JW's out pace the active JW's with the hands of freedom firmly in the air.