Posts by Annanias

13

But Jesus Would Approve of Disfellowshipping as being a part of LOVE!!!

by Sweetp0985 in

how we learn to love

love .

is indispensable

Annanias

You are very correct. If someone is trying to make you think that if Jesus were here today he wouldn't speak to you, they are full of sh*t. They are working from the opposite of the shephard who leaves his 99 sheep to go find the one lost one. But in fairness, they have to protect the congo. I understand that they come across in a "controlling" way, but, in a sense, that is the byproduct of leading. If they were perfect, or, at least, better, at it, they would have been able to motivate you to want to do what is supposed to be done. This is the true definition of leadership.

Unfortunately, most "elders" see their job only as judicial executioner as opposed to loving shephard. It's kind of like finding the one sheep that strayed and then, in spite, feeding the damn thing to the lions. (That'll teach HIM!)

3

Dead Joke

by Annanias in

this very wealthy lady has just lost her husband and is at the funeral home making arrangements to bury her husband.. "oh, and i don't want my husband buried in that blue suit he's wearing.

" she tells the funeral director, "he always looked so much better.

please make sure he's wearing a black suit.".

Annanias

This very wealthy lady has just lost her husband and is at the funeral home making arrangements to bury her husband.

"Oh, and I don't want my husband buried in that blue suit he's wearing." she tells the funeral director, "He always looked so much better. Please make sure he's wearing a black suit."

The funeral director is reluctant, so he starts to explain to the lady how much trouble and expenses that it will be to get her husband into another suit and so on when she just pulls out her checkbook and signs a check, leaving the amount blank.

"I'm sure that you'll be able to take care of it." she says, handing the check to the director, and then she leaves.

The next day she comes back and there's her husband all laid out in this fine black suit, and she is just overwhelmed with joy. So she hunts down the funeral director.

"Oh, " she says to him when she finds him, "I just wanted to thank you so much for putting my husband into a black suit. He looks so good. That must have been terribly expensive."

"Well, not really, " the director replies, "It so happened that just after you left another lady came as her husband had just passed away, and he was wearing a black suit. I asked her if she would mind if her husband was buried in a blue suit and she said 'No'. So I switched the heads."

13

Anyone else like comedian Stephen Wright?

by Makena1 in

steven wright, very low key, monotone delivery, but one of my favs.

his mind sees things differently than we do - for example:.

i woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen...and replaced by exact duplicates.

Annanias

I was once walking alone in a forest and a tree fell right in front of me, and I didn't hear it.

I asked this guy if he knew what time it was and he said, "Y'mean now?"

I went to this covenience store but this guy was locking it up. I said, "Hey. It says 'open 24 hours'." He said, "Yeah, but not in a row."

My typewritter is so old, it types in pencil.

I came home one night and went to unlock my front door but, by accident, I stuck my car key in the lock instead, and my house started up. So I decided to drive around a bit. Pretty soon this cop pulled me over. He came up and asked me where I lived. I said, "Here."

Once I came home and I had the strangest feeling that someone had broken into my apartment, took everything I owned, and replaced it with an exact duplicate. I asked my roommate about it and he said, "Who are you?"

Anywhere is walking distance. If you've got the time.

I have one of the world's gretest seashell collections. I keep it spread out on beaches all over the world.

Woody Allen, but a favorite - Eternity is a long time, escpecially towards the end.

25

SHAKESPEARE: if Will was alive today and wrote for the Watchtower....

by Terry in

what sort of things wouldst he write?

Annanias

Thank you Dan....I need to cry.

31

You Will Know By The Love They Have Among Themselves

by Corvin in

the organization of jehovah's witnesses boasts of having true brotherly love for one another.

i always believed they did, although i never felt it growing up in it.

i reckoned that there was something wrong with me since i never felt that "joy" and "spirit of love" that supposedly permeated the congregations.

Annanias

wheres caleb- "dedicated themselves to missing the point." I love it. I'm gonna steal it.

13

But Jesus Would Approve of Disfellowshipping as being a part of LOVE!!!

by Sweetp0985 in

how we learn to love

love .

is indispensable

Annanias

Robert Heinlein described love as putting the other person's welfare in front of our own. Not bad, at least, as good as any. My ex spent a goodly portion of our "marriage" with nearly a daily explaination of my love as an intermittant, short lived sometime thing, which depended upon constant vigilence in the real world. "If you really loved me you'd..." she would say. For me, the quintessential romanticist, it is difficult to imagine "true" love as needing road maps, guidelines, or footnotes. Like respiration, balance, vision, and other hypo-thalmaicly originated impulses of the human being, it must be automatic, lest we forget to do it one day and die.

The theory: Now, supposedly, if I truly love you and you get DFed for some reason, and I continue to show my love to you, you will never repent, turn around and 'get right with the lord'. If you truly loved me, you would never have gotten DFed in the first place, but now that you are, and if you want my love once more, you'll walk the straight and narrow.

Two thoughts on the DF, at least, these are what I was told just before I got the ax: DFing is a necessary protection for the congregation body (like divorce for the battered wife?), and the congo doesn't DF anybody, they DF themselves.

But I think that what you're really asking is what if the %^%$#%$$ "elders" who set this up were as wrong as a two dollar whore snorting crack! Good question. Supposedly, there are methods of "appeal", letter writting and so forth, but I've never heard of this being particularly successful. However, as a person who truly loves you, the ball (so to speak) is now in my court. If I love you I will stand by you, openly and without fear. Why? Because if what has happened is wrong, Jehovah, by definition, will be on "our" side. If the decision that has been foisted against you is wrong, then I would be angering Jehovah by continuing the injustice. If you were, say, my child and living on your own, and you fell afoul of the GB I would naturally ask you if the "charges" were true and if you said no, then, hey, the bozos messed up and I would refuse to add insult to injury. If you said that the "charges" were true, then I would ask you why you did them and you would tell me. If you had killed someone because you just wanted to know what it was like to watch someone die, I probably wouldn't be spending much time around you. But most likely for personal safety reasons than religious. If you said that the charges were true but that you felt bad about it and you said that you were sorry, then you shouldn't have been DFed in the first place (this goes under the Bozos messed up category mentioned earlier) and I would stand with you and help you get right again. If you told me that it was true and you ran to a neighbor and found solace in that person's arms because your marriage mate was a bastard/bitch and that you had no choice and this was a way of bringing necessary attention and so on; well, because I love you, you would get the benfit of the doubt and I would help you as much as I could.

Now, if you refused to tell me what happened, I would go to the "elders" and check their side of the story. Until I heard something from you, I would accept their version of the story and make a decision as to whether your crime warranted my inattention. However, I would have serious doubts as to your love toward me if you couldn't bring yourself to tell me. If the "elders" refused to tell me the story (this actually happened concerning an incident with my daughter-in-law, not DFing, but PR) I would, once again, give you the benefit and assume that they hosed it. Again.

Just my thoughts.

28

Hello...ex .jw. intro & background.

by Nigel in

jw
friends

my name is nigel.i am 50,married with five kids,early teens to late 20,s.i live in the bush in australia.i have cruised this site for a couple of months & feel comfortable enough to talk now.those of you who were long term jw,s will understand that.only my direct family know what i am about to tell.i have never told anyone else as they would not understand.i was born a jw in the u.k. and some of my first memories are of going door to door.i was scalded when i was 4 & i remember some brothers coming to see me.my parents emigrated when i was 13 as my dad didn,t get on with the inlaws.my dad drank a bit at home at home & was violent.it was never spoken about outside of the family and at 15 i left home.i was the eldest of four.i continued to go to meetings,lived on my own & learnt a trade.at 20 i married a good jw girl as was expected & became a regular pioneer.i was a good public speaker & as far as the congregation was concerned had a bright future.i believed in what i was doing as it was what i had been taught.when i was 22 we had a baby & was witnessing one sunday morning & was involved in a head on car accident in a 60mph zone.my wife & son were minor injured but i was lucky to survive.i had many bone fractures & head injuries & i did not know who i was,what had happened,nor recognize my wife or child for 3 months.i was in hospital for 6 months.i was unable to do anything for a year.by this time i was in financial difficulty & due to this & my mental state grabbed what i could get in court,which was not much.during this time no one helped...no one.i continued to go to the meetings but my heart was gone & the downhill slide had started.over the next 7 to 8 years i worked a normal job but started to drink & by mid 80s was not attending meetings.my wife was a good jw & did not understand my feelings.although i had much respect for her & still do,by this stage we had 3 kids,& there was a chasm between us.i knew that i was affecting my wife but she would never divorce me.so i figured the best way was to give them all the reason not to want me around.i was called to the meeting & i told the elders how i felt & that even i did not know why.disfellowshiped.fair enough.we divorced late 80s.she married an elder.i married a so say worldly person.about 3 or 4 years later my new wife & i had 2 kids & were getting along fine.i had started talking to dad but i did not want to go back to meetings.my dad was disfellowshiped for smoking & could not give it up.he became ill & very depressed.he overdosed on anti depressants.my mum knew what he had done & left him on the floor for 24 hours before calling an ambo.she rang me when he was dead.i don,t talk to her any more.she remains a jw.no comment.my sisters are jw,s.

nobody talks anymore but.three weeks after dad died my brother had a lot of problems,financial,legal & grief.he was only 29.he shot himself.i buried two in three weeks.and so began a new chapter in my life...violence.and baby wasn,t i good at it.i king hit everyone within arms length for a year.didn,t lose a fight,the anger was immense.did the maximum weekend detention,lost my job,my second wife took the kids & went.

understandable.i held a gun in my mouth so hard i bled for two days.but i couldn,t do it.i love my present wife & kids & i believed that jehovah would understand & forgive me when i die.i did my best with what i was given.from that day i never looked back.i fixed it up with my wife & we get on great.my three oldest kids to my 1st wife are jw,s but i see a bit of them.my wife now hasn,t much time for religion.understandable.she is a nurse.i don,t work any more.i still look outside & appreciate what god has done for us but i don,t need other people to feel that.too much damage done.i don,t slag the witnesses nor the wts.their business what they do.i just don,t agree with the procedure of df,s and the climate of fear & guilt.i have seen much & will contribute where i can.you seem like a decent bunch.good luck to you all.nigel

Annanias

Hello Nigel,

Here: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/GodLaughs/apostate.html

25

SHAKESPEARE: if Will was alive today and wrote for the Watchtower....

by Terry in

what sort of things wouldst he write?

Annanias

Hold it!!! Hold it!! Stop the music, stop the music...

"and guess what voting is now a conscience matter"

is this for real? Has somebody got a JW pub with this statement in it? Would they please, please share it with me.

16

Fearing the Pain

by rockhound in

after the death of her witness father, a dear friend of ours told us her mother, in deep depression, said "this wasn't supposed to happen.the new system should have come by now" .

depression is not unique to this heart broken sister.

a witness in our old hall was out in service one day with four pioneer sisters.

Annanias

This may not have a lot to do with this thread, but it just seemed like a good place to stick it. It has probably been on this site many times in the past, but it is one of my favorite songs. Gee, go figure.

Cain slew Abel, Seth knew not why.

For if the children of Israel were to multiply

Why must any of the children die?

So he asked the Lord

And the Lord said:

"Man means nothing, he means less to me

than the lowiliest cactus flower

or the humblest yucca tree

he chases round this desert

cause he thinks that's where I'll be,

that's why I love mankind.

I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee

from the squalor and the filth and the misery.

How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me,

That's why I love mankind."

The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree,

The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV.

They picked their four greatest priests

And they began to speak

They said, "Lord the plague is on the world

Lord no man is free.

The temples that we built to you

Have tumbled into the sea.

Lord, if you won't take care of us

Won't you please, please let us be?"

And the Lord said

"I burn down your cities--how blind you must be.

I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we.

You must all be crazy to put your faith in me,

That's why I love mankind:

You really need me.

That's why I love mankind"

-Randy Newman- "God's Song" from the "Sail Away" CD

6

Please call 1-800-The-Slave! We need your input, The GB!

by cyberguy in

well, it?s official!

we, the "faithful slave" (aka gb) are now calling on all those claiming to be ?anointed!?

we are now conducting weekly surveys, to ask your opinion on very important topics!

Annanias

Nosferatu - thanks for the info. My problem here is that I hear about various instances and examples of the abuse and it is heart wrenching indeed (I am a victim of abuse, myself, although not at the hands of a JW). But what is of utmost concern to me is the actions of the GB that cyberguy alludes to, i.e. a coverup. This is important to me because the borg's non-actions in ref to lack of multiple witnesses with an accused child molester is, at best, an excruciatingly close call. Like cops letting a known rapist go because he wasn't properly "mirandized". Yeah, it sucks to high heaven, but to "overlook" the larger issue is to open an even bigger can of worms, but you don't throw away the turd's rap sheet. (I realize that many are saying that there are cases where 2 or more people are claiming abuse by a particular person and that these cases should meet the "multiple" witness criteria. No argument there.)

The major point I'm trying to discover here is whether the borg knew a GB member was homosexual and/or molesting children and then did not DF the ahole with malice. What comes into play here is the concept that if "elders" are held to a higher standard, then the "elders" of the "elders" should be held to a higher higher standard, which means that if bro GB is so stupid as to get himself into a situation where an accusation could even be reasonably made, maybe he needs to spend some time out on the street. It wouldn't matter if the guy repented a bazillion times, what could possibly be going thru the other GB members' minds that they would leave everybody's (from the lowliest publisher all the way to Jehovah) collective ass hanging out in the breeze?