Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

13

Watchtower Quote

by TowerWatch in

i'm trying to find the quote where it was stated in the watchtower that without the watchtower publications one could not come to a knowledge of the truth.

something like "if you read the studies in the scriptures for two years with out the bible you could learn the truth but if you read just the bible for two years they would lose the truth".

can anyone help.

Midget-Sasquatch

The WT has been getting a bit more careful with how they phrase this in their publications lately. But they still do from time to time.

WT 2002 DEC 1 pg. 17 par.17 "Enjoy Personal Study of God?s Word"

The Ethiopian eunuch was a convert to Judaism. He was a sincere believer in God, and he studied the Scriptures. Traveling in his chariot, he was reading the text of Isaiah when Philip ran alongside him and asked: "Do you actually know what you are reading?" How did the eunuch answer?"?Really, how could I ever do so, unless someone guided me?? And he entreated Philip to get on and sit down with him." Then Philip, directed by holy spirit, helped the eunuch to understand the prophecy of Isaiah. (Acts 8:27-35) What does this illustrate? That our private reading of the Bible is not enough. Jehovah, by his spirit, uses the faithful and discreet slave class to help us to understand his Word at the right time. How is this done?

43

Poll-----Did The Internet Help You Get Out Of The Organization??

by minimus in

jw
friends

i read many "apostate" books before i left the "truth".

mentally, i was drifting away for years.

but i do think that the internet really made it easy to see all the evidence that overwhelmingly showed jws do not have the "truth".....was the 'net instrumental in getting you out?

Midget-Sasquatch

Not entirely - It was late eighties.There was a book I can't recall the title of it for the life of me. IIRC it was written by a Catholic priest or Bishop. It was in the library of the RC highschool I went to. Gr. 9 and already I was getting some concrete info to confirm my gut feeling about the WT. I got exposure to 587, 1925, and 1914. That really wet my appetite and so I checked out the municipal library, which then only had the book "The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses". Other books like "Apocalypse Delayed" some years later just reconfirmed things for me.

Though I already was mentally "out", I didn't yet have any real disgust for the Org. All the well researched websites helped me to learn about the Swaggart/Voluntary donations connection and I got word of CoC. When I read that it made me really sick. The Internet was also a huge site of support and personal inner growth to me, through its DBs. To all those who've worked through the Internet, thank you. Though I was already in a sense off the blasted hamster wheel, it helped me realize how stinky the cage really was.

18

Kingdumb Halls...crying poor. Are they really?

by kwintestal in

jw
friends

for the last 2 1/2 years of my jw experience, the kh was always saying how they had no money to pay the bills.

they started holding "dollar days" at the meetings to get donations (the idea was everyone brought a dollar a meeting on top of their normal donation).

finances reportedly got so bad that they had to decide to buy oil for the furnace, or plow the driveway one winter.

Midget-Sasquatch

The foreign language congregation I grew up in closed down because it was shrinking in size, and this led to almost an entire year of us regularly falling short of paying our share of the expenses. The other english congregation who we shared the KH with, just barely picked up the slack.

Like it was already mentioned, the WTS though always gets its cut first. And if it says that a particular congregation hasn't sent in enough donations from the "World Wide Work" category, they send in a remittance that tells the congregation the balance owing for the literature ordered that year. So much for "you received free, give free".

36

Question regarding your faith in God or not.

by pc in

i was wondering about different people on the forum.

i was raised a jw since birth but never had one ounce of spirituality.

i did the fade and have been out for years.

Midget-Sasquatch

I'm an agnostic-gnosticwannabe. Thats Midget speak for:

I don't know and not sure if its possible to know...I definitely don't believe in the god portrayed by the JWs or other fundamentalist types. From all the hard evidence for evolution, the amorality of nature and what we call natural evils, I don't believe that a loving god made us or nature.

That said though, I really do wish that there were something divine...even just a little...to the experiences had by those first century Jews who followed that Galilean.

34

JWs, ex-JWs and Non-JWs

by CeriseRose in

jw
friends

i'm going to preface these comments with a disclaimer: in no way am i meaning these observations to be inflamatory, exclusionary, or to devalue anyone.

i believe everyone has a right to their opinion, and observations, and to share themwithin the terms of the board.

i also believe that there is learning to be found from a variety of sources.

Midget-Sasquatch

I'm not a sociologist, but I think the tendency to disregard input from those with a different status is universal. Someone brought up the example of whether a non-black is or isn't able to really experiencing what its like to be black. I think its tied into the "we" and "they" mindset that groups use to define themselves.

People like to have that sense of belonging or of being understood. The group is usually made up of people with shared and related statuses (i.e. JW, XJW ) which for the most part means having had similar experiences. Though its a crude filter, people from "other" groups would be less likely to understand us - so we'll discount their take.

I think we often just use the simpler, quicker way of filtering for "status" to find people with shared experiences - because alot of times it does work - but sometimes like those web-page filtering programs we can miss out on something very useful.

27

Down and out.....

by morty in

jw
friends

.

it's been a very long week.i have spent most of week in the hospital with my nana.. she had a massive heart attack on tuesday and it is not looking good.she has gone down hill fast since pop's passed recentainly.. please say a prayer for her.

it would mean alot to me.. morty

Midget-Sasquatch

((Morty)) Its suprising, the comebacks that some people can make when they still feel loved. I'm hoping for the best for you and your nana.

70

The Stem Cell experiment, good or bad?

by Brummie in

jw
friends

it was discussed by the president & kerry, it will be all over the news over the next few days because of the death of a hero, for some reason the stem cell issue scares me and i dont think i could support it, taking some voiceless life to improve another, maybe i am misinformed?

it all seems unethical.

i dont know all the facts, can you enlighten me please?.

Midget-Sasquatch

who are we to decide that natural life cycle is to be destroyed? Hand on heart, I would have great discomfort knowing I ended the life cycle of what is to become a new human being. I dont think I have the authority to do that, does anyone really?

I don't know. But what is sure, is that there are unwanted embryos that are slated to be destroyed anyway. That's not going to change. So make use of these cells. You can forego any unsettling feelings you may have about whipping up new batches of zygotes.

2

A breather from the politics, bad excuses for relatives, and crappy stuff

by MelbaToast in

jw
friends

whew.. after spending some time catching up on threads, my overall thoughts are leaning way toward the negative side.

we all need some love in our lives.

(ok, i've been listening to the beatles too much) .

Midget-Sasquatch

I would love that there were. But for now, I personally don't think there's any karma. Too many innocent kids around the world get a horrible existence all their lives with no justice of any kind. I've also personally seen alot of cold cruel people who've died without having been cut down to size.

I think that sort of ...an accounting ... can only really come through those of us who take up the hard task of that role, as individuals and as collectives. Sometimes even with good intentions, we mess things up...People are faulty agents of "karma" but this runt is glad at least they're around.

36

What Do You Do Now ----That You Would Never Have Done As A Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

has your behaviour changed that much that you are doing things that you would never have done as a witness??

?

Midget-Sasquatch

I get to be my own person, and have that freedom to experiment...although I'm admittedly still way too tame.

Nos,

- Answer every question at the WT Study with "Jehovah"

- Put tracts in the Contribution Boxes

LMAO!!!!

70

The Stem Cell experiment, good or bad?

by Brummie in

jw
friends

it was discussed by the president & kerry, it will be all over the news over the next few days because of the death of a hero, for some reason the stem cell issue scares me and i dont think i could support it, taking some voiceless life to improve another, maybe i am misinformed?

it all seems unethical.

i dont know all the facts, can you enlighten me please?.

Midget-Sasquatch

Yes, but so are bacteria. You're right, but that piece of data isn't neccesarilly an argument either way. It's like saying chlorophyll is green

It wasn't an argument for or against stem cell research. For the third time now, I've been saying I'm for it all along.

Some in earlier posts said that zygotes weren't actually alive or "life". That got me riled up becauseit simply wasn't true. One guess as to what in my past brough that knee-jerk reaction on ;).........so I posted what I did.

My other point was that since its living and there are still many people who ascribe a lot of value to life: Why not have it so that researches make use of all the viable embryos and zygotes available each year first, then go on to make fresh batches? Why be wasteful with these resources? Just to make a point about the amorality of nature?