Posts by violias

46

What comforts you when you no longer believe in a ressurrection ?

by EdenOne in

our family just lost someone dear and very close, a faithful jw.

as we went through the entire funeral services and meeting long time brothers and sisters, who in general have been very kind and warm towards us, we realize that the hope of resurrection is a meaningless utopia for us, like a fairytale for little children.

we don't have faith in it anymore, and serves us of no comfort.

violias

When I gave up believing in Neverland it was scary at first. Then I realized I would never have wanted to spend eternity with most of the jws I knew. Life would have been intolerable - death would have been a blessing .

Finally I came to see that this is the only life we have in the flesh. There might possibly be something in the afterlife ( I still have not given up on that idea ) but whatever it is, it won't be life as we know it now, in the flesh. When I was able to absorb this ( and it took a while) I realized that if there is a God all He wants me to do is live a good life and try and help others and cause no purposeful harm.

Life is a cycle and death is a part it. and it is a circle too as someone dies and another is born. I think about the Lion King and I learned more from that than I ever did at any meeting .

7

Does anyone have any information on lawsuits in regards to JW's victimizing the mentally ill?

by lme123 in

i am a former jw, 14 years removed.

i moved out of state away from my jw family for 10 years, and currently moved back to my home town 2 years ago.

it was a great healing process for me, especially being away from all of the confusing and controversial influences i was raised with.

violias

am a little confused by this statement. What is the connection between the OP's question and "adult rape?" And who are these many victims?

This was just used as an example of one of the many things that like treatment of the mentally ill, the Borg sweeps under the carpet. There are many victims in the Borg of mental illness., child molestation, adult rape. It is the mistreatment of women and children . I do not want to move the topic of the thread to this, just chiming in that there are many issues within the Borg that need exposure. that was all. They do mistreat the mentally ill , first by trying to treat them themselves instead of sending to a doctor. Many religions in the usa do practice Deliverance and it used on mentally ill people all the time. The wts does not but what they do is say you lack joy and must not have God's spirit instead of saying you need to see a doctor. I have seen this and not in some backwoods country congo. And some still will say it may be demons . they many not say it in their mags but they will say it to you in the congo and back rooms and if they come to visit.

I will admit they have moved forward a bit about medication but them recommending therapy still is not that common. There is a strong mistrust of the psychiatry field .

46

How did you get through mind numbing meetings?

by minimus in

jw
friends

as an elder, i used to find a legitimate reason to wander.

violias

The credit goes to a poster named Mulan but I could not find the original so here is a link to a version of it. Mulan's had testomonals and all that . It was hilarious.. It is called BullSh*t Bingo .Fun for the entire family.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/29316/making-meetings-more-interesting?page=1

7

Does anyone have any information on lawsuits in regards to JW's victimizing the mentally ill?

by lme123 in

i am a former jw, 14 years removed.

i moved out of state away from my jw family for 10 years, and currently moved back to my home town 2 years ago.

it was a great healing process for me, especially being away from all of the confusing and controversial influences i was raised with.

violias

bttt hoping someone will see this topic and post something to help this person.

22

good afternoon

by mouthy in

good bye

violias

The only hitchalou in the not needing a new email is . I no longer had access to the old email account at all. It does not exist. so when I moved to the new board indeed I could sign on but I did and noticed that to change your old email address it appears you need access to it the old one. . so much for that. So I created a new account with my current email address that I use all the time- one that I won't forget. Is there a way to combine my accounts? I had done the same thing on Facebook but with FB they let you add an extra email address and then I deleted the old one.

7

Does anyone have any information on lawsuits in regards to JW's victimizing the mentally ill?

by lme123 in

i am a former jw, 14 years removed.

i moved out of state away from my jw family for 10 years, and currently moved back to my home town 2 years ago.

it was a great healing process for me, especially being away from all of the confusing and controversial influences i was raised with.

violias

You raise an excellent question and one I hope Barbara Anderson will reply to. She might have some insight on this. They are having their feet held to the fire for their treatment of children and one day I hope the many adult rape victims will get represented. . I would very much like to see them exposed for their treatment of the mentally ill. However, I will tell you in the south/southwest etc, the Bible Belt, there are many churches that are similar in their treatment of the MI and some may be worse. I am talking about the Pentecostal type churches that practice something called Deliverance( Exorcism by any other name is still Exorcism ).The church of Christ is also very legalistic and so are any number of fundamentalist religions here in the Bible Belt. The catholic church I understand does not really do very many real exorcism's . It is more the offbeat religions that do these things .Saying that however COC and Pentecostal are not considered offbeat down in south but they practice these things, , at least secretly. BTW, Pentecostals got such a bad reputation that they now disguise themselves as Non-denominational Bible churches or something called Four Square churches and similar names. Beware.

It is a great question and hopefully will get some response from Barbara.

21

Mormon 'support' for gays, pressure on the WTS?

by Simon in

the mormon / lds church has noticably changed it's stance toward homosexuality and instead of condemning it seems to be supporting protection for people's rights (of course they want to throw some protection for themselves in there as well).. how will this affect the wts?

the lds is the more-successful counterpart to the wts, similar age and history and same non-mainstream appeal.. i have no doubt that the lds church is only changing because they know which way the wind is blowing and society has completely changes it's attitudes towards gay people.

maybe they just want to stay ahead pf the curve before federal legislation enforces people's rights.. now, can we see the wts changing their views" will they be one of the last holdouts?

violias

The last I recall we had a MS who was gay ( though never openly confessed it to boe - but he told some of his friends and they protected him ) and the boe said they could not take any action against him unless he did something inappropriate . I know this b/c well, you know how stuff gets around in the congo . This was in the mid to late 90's. One of the elders I knew told me that you can't DF someone unless they "do" something so just "being gay" was not a sin but having gay sex was. If he stayed celibate ( or did not behave suggestively with other men ie flirt etc ) he was ok. What a confusing way to live.

20

Well folks it looks like September 23, 2017 will be the new date of Armageddon, the Rapture or whatever.

by donny in

well folks you had better get your act together because there is only about 2.5 years before you are held responsible for your way of life.

according to "rapture watch", things are really going to start happening in 2017.. i am already asking the lord for leniency.

http://www.rapturewatch.net/timelines.htm .

violias

With all the unrest in the middle east and generally everywhere, I too wonder if those prophecies in Revelation and about Jerusalem may be coming true. I am sure the WBTS have got it wrong ( cause they make it ALL about them) but we do seem headed toward a collision of cultures and religions. Can't help but wonder how on earth it will end. WW 3?

The rapture the way it is described does not concern me. sounds nutty. but just in case I will put some lambs blood over my doorpost . You never know- you could get some new apocalyptic angels of death and it might confuse them.

35

Wow, the forum is very slow

by FlyingHighNow in

jw
friends

i know that logging in has been a problem for some.

i hardly post any more.

i figured there would be more activity than this.

violias

I am perhaps not tech savy enough to understand what problems some are talking about. I know how to use the Active feature and l the posters avatars are shown that have posted on the thread so I can click on the last one. The only thing we don't have is a way to subscribe to a thread. In other DB they often put this in your control panel so you can quickly go there and see if there are replies, even if it is not in active status. Right now that is all that I see as I problem for me. So far IE keeps me logged on unless one of my computer programs removes cookies in a routine clean up process. I have to log on to Chrome every time and those CAPTCHA can be difficult. I have to keep refreshing till it comes up with numbers. Those I can read.

50

My mother says I should just DA already.

by Julia Orwell in

cut the cord.

sever all ties.

start new.. and she's right.

violias

I didn't DA myself b/c by the time I finally walked out the door it was generally known I hated the ground the WTS walked on and despised them more than I could ever put in words. ( or put another way, would not have spit on them if they were on fire) I have extended family who "got themselves df'd" on purpose to just get it over. I know others who have done that too. I refuse to let them have that kind of control over my life. They have took so much time from my life and what time I have left I don't give a rat's behind what they think. Also we still have some jws family, but they all know how we feel. They all unofficially shun us. I too find less and less need for this board and more time out in the real world just living. I have found a variety of discussion boards on subjects that interest me . I like to still come here and see what the WTS is UP TO now b/c if it is noteworthy it will be on this site.

Many of us have had therapy, me included and it is helpful. We have do what is best in our situation and only you know what is right for you.