I don't recall what book or magazine I was reading recently but it was telling about all the ways a person can leave "donations/contibutions" to JW's when they die. I will look for it when I get home today because I just read this the other night and was quite sickened. They were even telling how you can avoid and also claim a deduction on taxes by giving it to them. They even went as far as when you right out your will you can leave monetary contributions for the WWW. I think they even said something about donating jewelry too but make sure when you send it to NY you have a note written with it saying it was a "GIFT"....I agree with Been There and his statement that costly funerals are taking away from the contributions that could be going to NY. Bunch of crooks.
Sweetp0985
JoinedPosts by Sweetp0985
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14
No Body At The Funeral?
by Englishman inmini's thread about weddings and funerals had me intrigued.
so did mulans reply about having a private and separate service.
well, i've referred to this before, but it might be of interest to those who haven't been here too long.
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26
Crisis of Conscience online or ebook?
by lookingnow25 ini have no 'safe' way of reading a physical copy of this book really.
but after flipping through a copy at the university library here i finally want to examine it.
is there a copy online anywhere, or someway that i can view it on my computer?
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Sweetp0985
WHOOPEEE!!! I just ordered both books today so hopefully I'll have them next week. I got CoC and In search of Christian Freedom. I'm so anxious to read what goes on within the secretive ole GB.
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The funniest funnies you'll ever see - no, seriously
by Xander infrom: http://www.dleepow.us/emergency.html.
(note: we did not create this material and its author is unknown to us.
all we know is that we so approve!).
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Sweetp0985
That was tooo funny...LMAO
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100
Kingdom Hall Spankings
by JH inmost meetings i went to, children were brought to the washrooms in the back to be disciplined.
often i could hear a child yell or cry due to the spanking given by the parent.
people in the hall would have that look on their face meaning that it was alright to discipline a child by spanking him.
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Sweetp0985
I remember being fidgety in the meeting one time when I was little only to have my aunt take me in the bathroom. She had me ball up my hand and with the hardest brush ever made she would hit me on my knuckles a few times and tell me I better not cry. Now that I'm older and not able to talk to her because she is still a JW, I wish I could hit her on her knuckles with a brush right about now.
Also on this note I had a stupid step-mom that once during my "badly deserved" discipline sessions I got a "rebellious spirit" in me and didn't cry like she wanted me too. Mind you I was pissed first hand because it was my STEP-mom whipping me and she had me laying across the bed with my butt all in the air. But anyway I said I wasn't gonna give her the pleasure of hearing me crying in pain. So I didn't cry. The b**tch had the nerve to say, "oh you don't wanna cry huh" and started whipping me more. Ok I'm getting beat with this damn belt and it does hurt so finally I blurt out, "why you whipping more for not crying but when I do cry you tell me to SHUT UP?"...Do you know the B**th started laughing and said you right, I guess you've had enough now go to your room. That pissed me off more so. I actually had thoughts of killing my stepmother when I was around 15-16 because she was so evil, but that was her and my dads way of raising me as a good JW so they didn't feel they were doing anything wrong. Anyway the end of the story was when my dad got home thank God I didn't get another whipping but I got a good talking to. A talk or even a "LOOK" from my mean dad was enough to make me start wailing so it was just like I got another whipping when my dad got home.
I'm not gonna go on much more but my mom(also a JW but been divorced from my dad since I was 5) once had to threaten to call the police for my dad because he wanted to whip my step-sister and I with a piece of a hose pipe he had cut. I remember that day clearly, I forgot exactly what we had did that was so bad but we heard the words "you're gonna get it when you get home" and immediately was stricken with fear, mind you this is when we're both in middle school, but we played it smart and when we got home my dad went out back to do some yardwork before disciplining us. So we put on layers of clothes so that we wouldn't feel the blows of the hose pipe. Guess what, it had to be godly intervention and he forgot all about whipping us and we were very happy.
On a sad note, my brother who was not a fan of school and got whippings almost everyday for doing poorly in school did fall victim to the hose pipe. I don't quite remember what happened but I think my mom went to the elders about this and they talked to my dad so he only whipped my brother with belts from then on. Now that I'm older I'm quite sure whipping a child with a piece of hose pipe is grounds for jailtime nowadays, probably was back then, but the loving elders did nothing about it. Oh yeah, I must add this too, my step-mom also got her share of "whippings" too from my dad. I was only witness to 1 of them but she said that this wasn't the first time it had happened. I love my dad and everything even after witnessing all of this and he's still in the bourg but "weak". I guess he wasn't DF'd because he was repentant. I KNOW my dad, if she did something again "out of line" she'd probably get some "christian,loving, JW discipline" from him.
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81
Would You Go Back To A Kingdom Hall For A Funeral or Wedding?
by minimus inlet's say one of your relatives either died or invited you to a wedding at a hall, would you go?
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Sweetp0985
Wedding definitely no!!! A funeral it depends on who it is or how well I knew them when I was a JW. Recently a JW that was close friends with my family died. She was part-owner with my step-mother's CLEANING SERVICE(JW staple job), but anyway when I was still in the borg(new word I picked up in here) I used to work with her everyday. So I knew her pretty well. I would have went to the KH for her funeral oops memorial service but they had it at a funeral home. My guess for them having it there was because her death was so sudden and JW's from maybe the whole circuit/district was gonna be there and they wanted to make sure there was enough room. It was a rather large crowd but even amongst all the people that was there I was the only one getting all the weird looks like I wasn't supposed to be there. I was saddened by her death and pissed off at the same time for not being able to let her daughter (who I used to babysit for after school while the mothers were off cleaning) know that I was there for her or even to just ask if she needed something. Anyway, its over and done with now. But it truly depends on who dies and how well I know them.... Wedding...no way jose!!!!!!
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The things you believed as a child
by Sirona inwhat things did you believe as a kid that now make you chuckle?.
i believed:.
that father christmas had special dust which he sprinkled into the children's eyes so they would forget they'd seen him.
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Sweetp0985
I used to think that all the killings/murders shown on tv/movies were real. I thought that the people being killed/murdered were criminals from jail and because they were bad they were being killed/murdered for whatever they did. Sick huh?
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55
Birthdays..... Now A Conscience Matter
by Latte infrom our readers (awake!
july 8 2004)
pinatas i read with interest the article ?the pinata - an ancient tradition?
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Sweetp0985
My simple take on the matter is like this. I'm gonna have to illustrate this too. How often in everyday life does things happen normally and nobody says anything about it, but as soon as something happens outside of the norm its all over the news. Same thing could have happened in bible times. They may have had many numerous birthday parties back then, but if nothing happened at it why write it in the bible. But lo and behold at this particular one(prisoner) and that particular one (John the Baptizer) got their head chopped off, of course this is something worth writing down or "making the news". Just like I know there were thousands of weddings held in the bible times, but at this particular one Jesus turned water into wine, so someone said hey let's write this down so we won't forget this.
God is a God of love. Every precious gift and perfect present comes from God. A child is a precious, perfect gift from God. Why wouldn't he want you to celebrate that childs birth? JW's used to celebrate Xmas, b-days, etc. anyway, I guess it wasn't pagan back then and it suddenly became pagan later on. Oh my bad, the light got brighter. But if they are so-called inspired or directed by God, why did he let them celebrate it back then.
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25
JWs are boxing their hobbies
by ezekiel3 inmuch entertainment in the watchtower, 15 august 2004, pg 24. see the picture for the full text to learn that we can "put off every unecessary weight" by boxing up our "hobbies and non-essential personal projects.
" i wonder what's in the box.... it is interesting to see how jws are encouraged to have hobbies:.
*** g91 11/22 pp.
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Sweetp0985
How long or tall is a darn cubit? And how big is the rod??
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Sweetp0985
Yeah I remember the paper of mirrors too. Unfortunately my family was the "in-crowd" JW's meaning that when everyone else was still in their cozy lil hotel beds, we were up getting ready to go make the physical food for everyone. I admit it was fun at the time, very seldom though. I remember this one time I swear it had to be maybe 1/4 of a slice of roast beef and it had dropped on the table to be discarded and this sister grabbed it up talking about "this is enough to make a whole sandwich" and I'm looking at her like what da hell, a sandwich for a mouse or something yeah but not my sandwich. I mean it was a minute piece of meat and she was tripping.
I liked meeting the very spiritual minded brothers too that always wanted my phone number so that he could call and we could discuss scriptures...Hardy har har har!
I remember when they were still serving food and you had to buy them lil stupid coupons like you at a fair or something. 2 tickets for a bag of fruit and stuff. The brothers always would say please stay in your seats until the brother doing the last song before break would dismiss you, and it never failed that while we would be still singing that last song a line would already be formed at the food counters.
I just had a thought, sorry guys. Isn't it odd that food was served up until the donation basis stuff started and a little while afterwards until I guess they saw they weren't getting the big bucks anymore and then they stopped serving food altogether. Money hungry scoundrels.
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78
Speaking in Tongues
by Pinned Blouse ini have visited several churches with family and friends and this is something that i cannot get used to.
i do not know if this is basically done in black churches or not ( i am aa) but it makes me a little uncomfortable.
i will say that i have had feelings in these churches that i have never felt in the kh.
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Sweetp0985
Pinned Blouse I know exactly how you feel. I attend a Baptist church (New Hope Baptist Church) and there have been a many Sundays that I have been crying because I was so moved by what the pastor was saying, especially when the message was meant for me. I have never ever felt that way at the KH. And yes when I first saw people "catching the Holy Ghost" I thought it was kinda funny. Silly me. Now I long to feel what that's like. I have come close many times and for some reason I never really go all the way. I guess I still be having those stupid thoughts of that it's the demons making them dance around like that. Darn crazy JW lingering beliefs.
I know it's not funny, but a close friend of mine who went to the KH for years but never got baptized invited me to this non-denominational church. I liked it because it was small kinda like the KH size meetings. But anyway in order to get baptized (in water) you had to be baptized with the holy spirit which meant speaking in tongues. My friend told me she did it and it was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Anyway we were gonna get baptized on the same day. So I had to be baptized with the HS quickly. Well there really wasn't a rush but I wanted to be baptized at the same time my friend did. Anyway, the preacher started out by praying to God that he would allow me to be filled with the HS. Mind you my friend had already told me what was gonna be done. So the preacher is praying and his wife is praying and I was praying too because I wanted to be on this closer level with God. Problem was I wasn't feeling anything. The more the preacher was praying and getting excited himself, I was feeling nothing. Finally it got to the point that he was like saying c'mon God let her feel your presence, c'mon God....and I'm standing there thinking ok maybe I'm just one of the ones that God is not pleased with and he's not gonna let me experience this. But the preacher and his wife were getting so excited, mind you I've heard my grandmother speak in tongues many many times and others speak in tongues so I kinda knew how it sounded....not wanting to dissappoint these 2 hopping around me and stuff.....I FAKED IT....I actually was just saying mumbo jumbo and thinking in my head, this is fake, they think I'm talking in tongues and I'm not. I still got baptized for the 2nd time in my life and nobody knew what I had did...until now.
But now I really do feel God's presence when I'm at church. So I still have my doubts about speaking in tongues, but I know in all my years of going to the KH and my days now of going to church, there is no comparison. When I was deep into JW my grandmother(that speaks in tongues) would come to the memorial because of my dad and she would always ask me why we sung so monotone like everyone is sad or something. I always wondered what she meant because of course JW's can't listen to gospel music, but now I know. That's a thread I might start today unless one has already been done. What's so wrong with JW's listening to gospel music. It's praising God, but I already know the answer, it didn't come from NYGB. But they can listen to all other types of music. Let me stop before I really get started.