Posts by AK

57

JW email forward about the tsunami

by cyber-sista in

anyway, this is an email i received this morning.

don't want to give any disrepectuful comments about it as this tragedy is overwhelming and i am grateful for any who have come out of this alive.

but yet i am still suspicious of any of these jw reports.

AK - Jeff

I guess one of the things that bothers me about this is that instead of just saying what a great tragedy this is for humankind they only focus on those few JWs as if they were the only ones in the world who mattered.

Cyber-sista - I got an email from my still in witness sis-in-law that was similar. Here it is;

Monday, December 27, 2004 4:24 AM
Subject: [worldparadise] Update from South Asia

> Greetings,

> Update from South Asia

> The BBC news has just given out a total of 17,000 killed including 6,000
in Sri Lanka.

> Here is the first news I have had from our friends who live there. An old
friend from England who now lives in Sri Lanka wrote today....

> "So far as I have heard, none of the brothers or those associating in Sri
Lanka have lost their lives. The devastation is widespread.
>
> Yesterday following the meeting at our KH, we began to gather relief
supplies which went to the friends in Matara and Galle this morning.
>
> Further relief efforts for the East are planned.
>
> A good time for all of us to meditate on how quickly the scene of this
world can change."
>
> Our Friends in the Sri Lanka Bethel say that...

> The branch has been collecting relief supplies and sending them
> out to our brothers. The brothers have been badly affected on the east
> and south coasts. We do know that two families in the south are not yet
>
> accounted for and some Italian brothers and sisters who are on holiday
>
> are also not yet accounted for.
>
> Some kingdom hall's have been destroyed, along with
> brothers homes. It is very hard to get reliable information and the phone
>
> lines are still down in some areas
> That is all the news that has reached me today. Monday 10 am. 27th
December.
>
> Regards from Paul Tyler (U.K.)

that is the remarkable part - a few witnesses are misplaced or sadly die - but millions of others are misplaced and now it looks like perhaps 100,000 are killed, perhaps leaving by one estimate 500,000 to nearly a million orphans and widows and widowers - and not a word in this witness email about all these other of God's creation -as if they are not even real....

terribly sad to say the least - certainly unkind and missing the love of Christ.

Jeff

20

I don't celebrate holidays, and other "reformed JW" things about me........

by WingCommander in

jw
friends

while i don't agree with the wt's views on shunning, blood transfusions, or how they conduct themselves, i can honestly say i wouldn't celebrate holidays even if i felt like it.

maybe it's that i've been brought up jw, i dunno.

halloween is sort of fun, but i know of it's pagan origins.

AK - Jeff

It is true, you will get tripped up somehow, this religion will not allow you to be a 'reformed JW'. You are setting yourself up for hurt and sorrow in the long run. People like you will not be allowed to remain as they will quickly conclude that if they let you get away with it, who else might follow? Control of the masses must be maintained at all costs.

wc, I think jez is right here.

I do applaude your willingness to do things in the way that seems right to you in serving God. But why a 'reformed witness'? All you will find out is that things like Gary went thru will happen to you too - as far as the 6' 2" stuff, I cannot see how 'returning intimidation for intimidation' could win anything at all. I have become an xjw due to having come to the conclusions that what the jw religion teaches is not harmonious with the Bible or common sense. I just think you may end up a rebel without a cause in this.

I have no interest in telling you how to live - but it seems you are trying to ride a fence that is really in Jehovah's witnesses yard to me! Nonentheless, success if you can make it work.

Just My Opinion

Jeff

24

Congregation gossip - Why so rampant?

by OUT and about in

jw
friends

is is just me, or did every congregation have a big (as in greater than in the non jw world) problem with this?

how have some been affected?

AK - Jeff

I agree that it is part of the punishment mechanics for the organization.

Jeff

53

JW CONNECTIONS.COM------Check It Out! You Can Date A Nice JW!

by minimus in

jw
friends

and they got pics too!

AK - Jeff

I thought it was against the rules to use the internet???

Jeff

18

Revelation 11:18 ("bring to ruin those ruining the earth") Meaning?

by AlmostAtheist in

hey folks,.

just curious, any concensus on what john actually meant here?

i doubt a guy in the first century could honestly envision a time when mankind could genuinely "ruin the earth" if the idea struck them.

AK - Jeff

I'm not sure about some of the views here - although some seem plausible on the surface.

From the simplist point of view of a Christian leader communicating with other Christians in a very uncertain time for the jewish-christians, would this not seem to be just a further assurance to those readers of hope; as opposed to the hopelessness they saw in the oppression of the Romans that had continued for many decades now? Their temple was gone, Jerusalem's future uncertain, the Romans continued to dominate their lives from all sides. Wasn't the 'earth' - that is the part of it they occupied and were concerned with being 'ruined' at the moment - trampled by the Romans, ect .

Could this be the meaning -?

Just My Opinion

Jeff

17

The Book of Revelation

by under74 in

okay, if anyone's seen my last post i'm doing a research paper on adventist groups.

right now i'm reading revelation since it's a big thing amongst adventists.

my own conclusion is that revelation had to do with the time it was written in.

AK - Jeff

I used to think -as a witness- I could answer that question. But now I am not sure.

I do think that the great symbolic language has been used to strike fear and control into those adherants to various fundamental sects - including Adventist - thru the centuries. Jw's certainly used it that way. They used it also to assert themselves as the truth - if u read the "Revelation" Book, it is amazing how many places they insert modern watchtower history (or revisionist history) in there as fullfillment of prophecy.

I do think it is prophetic in some way. I maintain confidence in the Bible, although I know that some lose that confidence after leaving organized religion including the WTS. It could well be that most of it applied to Imperial Rome? Rome still maintained enormous grip on Christians at the time of it's writing - and they did many beastly things to those people who professed Christ - and in the last chapter John cries out "come Lord Jesus". Could it just be a deep seated wish on the part of Christians to escape the terror of persecutions, and (whether inspired or not) an effort on John's part to assure fellow believers that a time of relief would come to them soon?

Just My Opinion

Jeff

18

Does God Really Care

by Undecided in

.

when i read of the many natural calamities that have killed billions of people over the centuries i wonder if god is interested at all?

when i see the importance that the bible makes of just one death of god's sons, when he was resurrected and given a higher position just 3 days later, what about all those millions of human sons.. i guess we are like an ant hill to god, if you happen to step on it, who cares.. ken p.

AK - Jeff

Perhaps great leaders such as Jesus, the Buddha, Mohamed and Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela greatest contribution to mankind is to help us see the infinite possibilities for good

Always enjoy your comments eyeslice - when I think of all the billions of hours being given by witnesses in what they think is a great service to others -and that turns out to be just a sales pitch for an organization -wow - it boggles the mind what good we could have done as witnesses if good was what the organization had directed us to do - All the hours I put in service over 30 years - I could have really done some good for people with 'real' works of aid to them....

But alas - time has not escaped yet to do good. I will try.

Just My Opinion

Jeff

57

what sin is facial hair supposed to lead to?

by little1 in

i am curious as to why jws aren't allowed to have facial hair.

and why, then, was it okay for jesus?.

inquiring minds want to know.. l1

AK - Jeff

The one sin that it leads to is - independent thought and decisions - and that is what the organization fears more than anything else!!!!!!!!!!!

Just My Opinion

Jeff

57

what sin is facial hair supposed to lead to?

by little1 in

i am curious as to why jws aren't allowed to have facial hair.

and why, then, was it okay for jesus?.

inquiring minds want to know.. l1

AK - Jeff

If you dont shave, you may stumble the others in the congregation

Lostreality - just a brief edit here- dont you mean;

If you dont shave, you may stubble the others in the congregation

lol Jeff

20

A Loving organization?

by startingover in

last saturday an old friend of ours took her life.

she and her husband had almost been married 25 years, and we had known her longer than that.

she was like a little sister to my wife.

AK - Jeff

Startingover - sorry to hear about your loss. I know that feeling about going back the hall for the Memorial. I had the same decision a week back - when an elder I had loved dearly died. He had not spoken to me for about a year, and I think was resp for the 'shunning' that we have had - but I did not hold it against him, he was just a company man. But I could not make myself go back to the hall for the service. Witness funerals are really just 'membership drives' anyway to me.

Anyway - out thoughts are with you thru this painful time.

Jeff

AK - Jeff

Posts by AK - Jeff