Our local Calvinist congregation has taken to putting some theologically interesting signs on the front of their church of late, such as:
Why not come to church this Sunday - God loves surprises!
Beyond the self-depricating humour is the curious thought that the Calvinist God, who has predestined a whole segment of humanity to eternal torment since the world's creation, is capable of being suprised by a person's appearance in church
Am I over-analysing this situation?
a religious belief of jehovah's witnesses may also be good medicine for everyone
by valerie reitman los angeles times tuesday, march 8, 2005 .
steve and jane hewitt searched far and wide for a surgeon who could straighten their teenage daughter's severely curving spine that had hunched her over at a 105-degree angle.
It is not shameless for people to decide for themselves what forms of medical treatment they will accept and what others they will not accept.
or were you a recreational dater?
I loved a worldy girl for four years and was good friends with her, on and off, but I never did anything naughty with her because I was afraid it would displease Jehovah. The most we did was hug on the stairs leading up to her house during the twilight. That was between the ages of 14 and 18. I told her we could not do more - it broke my heart. We left school and eventually we lost touch. I bumped into her a few months ago with her long-term boyfriend.
I met a sister at the Kingdom Hall when I was 18 and she has been my girlfriend for four years now. Some in the congregation say we have been together too long and that it is not proper for us to be together so long without getting married.
have you noticed how jw switch modes depending on where they are?
they seem a lot more 'normal' at social gatherings than while they are engaged in 'theocratic' activities.. it's like there's a spiritual switch that they turn on and off.
zombie mode/human mode
Sorry, I meant to say - see the following web page for a social scientific explanation of this phenomenon:
before you read anything, you should be aware that i do not know what i am talking about.
it seems clear now that the watchtower religion has already started to decline, in the western world at least.
how will this decline play out in the future - this is one of the most interesting questions relating to the watchtower at the moment: will the witnesses enjoy a slow leisurely decline over many decades, or can we expect a major split and disintegration in the near future?
See the advert for the following tape on freeminds:
John May and Martin Merriman on the Franz IncidentFormer elders from Ireland, discussing their 1983 trip to speak with the Governing Body regarding the Franz Incident, and how they were treated by the GB members. Great for JWs to listen to! TMM
you don't automatically wake up with a headache on sunday morning.... you no longer go around (while in field service) mentally deciding what home you'll "have" after armaggedon.... every item of clothing you buy as a woman is not first assessed for its modesty value.... you no longer worry about the 144,000 watching you have sex...:).
when on holiday you don't have to find the nearest kingdom hall asap (remember brother and sisters you are not on holiday from jehovah!!!).
being able to laugh about having a numb ass at the assemblies from sitting and the hilarity in having to tell people that you found the meeting "uplifting" when really you were fighting sleep the whole time.... you no longer have to avoid entire sections of music stores in order to make sure you don't pick up and "demonistic" vibes from backmasked cd's.
When the secretary reads out the phrase "****** ****** is no longer to be considered one of Jehovah's Witnesses", and members of the congregation sneakily glance round at you amid the deathly silence.
in recent weeks, we've had a few jw apologists or sympathizers that have created a bit of a stir around these parts.
some of their posts have been inconsiderate of the feelings of others, causing no small amount of understandable outrage on several threads.
on other threads, some of them have frequently failed to even read the posts to which they are responding, causing them to make comments that are unrelated to the discussion at hand.
Am I a JW apologist?
Am I that bad?
whats in your personal bible or religious library?
let's see what i have... cambridge kjv (really nice, calfskin leather), cambridge reb (really nice, not as good as kjv though), 50 year old douay rheims (with annoying jw notes and written-in textual changes inside, courtesy jw great-grandmother), rsv-ce (imitation leather, looks extremely cheap), nab (imitation leather, looks better but sucky confraternity notes in it).
that's my bible collection (i got rid of the nwt).
A Narrative History of the United States by Tindall and Shi.
i just got my hands on a copy of my book of bible stories ... (1978).
at first i was excited when a friend pulled it out of his bag, said he'd gotten it as a kid.
then i started flipping through, looking at the pictures, feeling the memories spin in my brain.
I always wanted to be as good as the children pictured at the end of the book. But deep down inside I always knew I was too wicked
i know i come on here a lot and laugh at the crazy stuff i used to believe.. it's a terrific place to vent my frustration at the org.
and share experiences with people who understand.
but i find that when some people trash talk witnesses who were never part of it i end up sort of defending them usually.
I defend Witnesses when people say things about them that are not true.
When people say things about Witnesses that are true, then I do not defend them.
