OldSoul

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Posts by OldSoul

• 
  64

  How many mistresses can a JW elder have?

  by Gill in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since finding out more about the wtbts over the last year, it has come as no surprise to me anymore that the deceptive actions of the mother (wtbts) are seen in some of her children.

  the need for double thinking, self deluding beliefs and sneaky, twisted belief and thought patterns that i have noticed over the years in so many jws suddenly makes sense and is no longer scandalising or suprising.. so when i was told of the behaviour of a 'fine, upstanding, pillar of the community, brother' i simply shrugged.

  however, the results of his behaviour are not something to simply shrug your shoulders over.. it turned out for the last thirty years of his being married he has conducted affairs with another two 'sisters' in the congregation.

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  OldSoul

  R6Laser: All I can say is that the organization did not do that to her. She did it to herself.

  R6Laser: I'm not going to resort to cheap shots to get my point accross.

  Yeah, I see what you mean.

  R6Laser: Ultimately its the person who chooses they're own destiny. Each of us is responsible for our own actions and life choices. That's the part that I'm talking about, personal choices. If a person chooses suicide over trying to get their life together then the root of the problem lies within that indiviual and not being able to handle the stress.

  So, if their environment contributes to their emotional lack that is their fault, too? I suppose I should have run away from home as a toddler, then I would be emotionally sound? You have been trying consistently to divert culpability for discomfort and pain away from the Organization and drop it on the victim.

  If the Organization generates emotionally unstable people (and it does) then where is the basis for your point? Your own personal experience? Good for you! Your experience with the Organization is happily free from severe emotional torment! But, that isn't normal and the severe torment that many others feel has a real, identifiable source.

  You are correct, "[You've] stated the point [you were] trying to get through many times in this thread but it seems nobody agrees with [you] and that's fine." What you haven't done is demonstrate that you considered it from anyone's perspective other than your own (i.e. shown empathy).

  OldSoul
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  37

  leaving

  by Lo-ru-hamah in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  to those of you that have been jw's for many years... i would like to know how it is that you have transferred to your new life.

  my family and i are in the process, actually, we have left because of many of the issues brought up on this forum.

  this, being jw's, is all that we have ever known.

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  OldSoul

  Welcome Toby888!!

  For combatting mind control, I highly recommend studying Blondie's weekly WT comments. She brings up many of the sophistic models of reasoning used, and show the fallacy. Here is the most recent: Comments You Will Not Hear at the 10-9-05 WT Study (September 1, 2005 issue)

  Understanding the verbal tools used can help in combat. Here is an attempt I made at exposing in detail the methods they use to insinuate their teachings without support: This Week In Sophistry (Watchtower May 9-15)

  Other than these, readin posters comments will help a lot. The reasoning you will read from those who have been out a while could be compared to a seasoned combat veteran.

  Respectfully,
  OldSoul
• 
  56

  Earthquake in the Middle East (Urgent)

  by EliJah in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  19 and the great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and babylon the great was remembered in the sight of god, to give her the cup of the wine of the anger of his wrath.

  20 also, every island fled, and mountains were not found.

  21 and a great hail with every stone about the weight of a talent descended out of heaven upon the men, and the men blasphemed god due to the plague of hail, because the plague of it was unusually great.. meaning: the nations are of the twelve tribes of israel in the middle east.

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  OldSoul

  BrownBoy, if my butt did not expand, would it not have a crack?
• 
  15

  Why do you worship your god? Or do you?

  by AlmostAtheist in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the discussion on god and why it allows bad things to happen was eye-opening for me.

  as i had hoped it would be!.

  one thing i drew from it is that those that believe in god don't necessarily have any basis at all for that belief.

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  OldSoul

  [Alvin's voice] Okay, Dave!

  I'll try: I don't worship out of expectation. I don't believe children love their parents out of a sense of expectation either, even children who do not have basic needs met often love their parents anyway. I am nurtured by what I get from life and from earth and from other people, I just recognize a source for this that differs from the source you identify. I worship God because I want to. My experiences have not led me to believe I must worship God, but they have led me to believe I want to.

  So, I was not saying that the love of a parent to child is the same, but it is of the same nature. It cannot be explained and it is real anyway.

  Respectfully,
  OldSoul
• 
  64

  How many mistresses can a JW elder have?

  by Gill in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since finding out more about the wtbts over the last year, it has come as no surprise to me anymore that the deceptive actions of the mother (wtbts) are seen in some of her children.

  the need for double thinking, self deluding beliefs and sneaky, twisted belief and thought patterns that i have noticed over the years in so many jws suddenly makes sense and is no longer scandalising or suprising.. so when i was told of the behaviour of a 'fine, upstanding, pillar of the community, brother' i simply shrugged.

  however, the results of his behaviour are not something to simply shrug your shoulders over.. it turned out for the last thirty years of his being married he has conducted affairs with another two 'sisters' in the congregation.

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  OldSoul

  R6Laser,

  The problem with your reasoning is that you are making an assumptionabout everyone here:

  R6Laser: I just decided like all of you did at one time or another that if I kept giving the local elders the power to run my life I would've not gone anywhere in life.

  You are assuming that your reasons for leaving are the same as every other poster's reason for leaving. While we may have eventually come to a similar conclusion, it may not have been the one that we started out with.

  For instance: I wanted so badly for this organization to have the truth. It would make life so much easier. When I was 17 I started understanding that it was not and never would be, but I still thought many of its teachings were based on the Bible. I decided to try to inspire people to study more. These people were my closest friends. As I studied more, I came across things that I could not explain. Teachings without basis in the Bible, I was shocked. I had never formed any kind of safety net of friends outside the Organization, I didn't even have a high-school education (didn't need it, with the end so close), I understood the social norms inside the Organization but outside I had no clue. Just walk away? To what? So I stayed with what I knew, what was comfortable, until I found out about the UN/DPI scandal.

  Now I am faced with losing many lifelong friends, feeling distance between myself and my wife, and being cut off from a very large, very close knit family of Witnesses that I have been close to my entire life. Just walk away? To what? So I chose to stay out of fear. Is fear the same as weakness in your world? Admission of fear is a strength in my opinion. Going on despite it, finding a way to survive through it is my definition of courage. But, you are welcome to define it differently.

  When you stick everyone else in your box and then chide them for not being you, you come off as fairly short on intelligence and completely devoid of empathy. I hope you will learn to accept the actual pain that this Organization has caused others so that you will eventually stop feeling the need to drive stakes through my heart.

  Respectfully,
  OldSoul
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  23

  worry about yourself. who cares what everyones else does...

  by What_is_ur_point in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  why do witness, xwitness, disassociated witness, disfellowshipped witness, atheists.. why doesn't everyone worry about themselves.

  it's so pointless when someone like me raises certain opinion's that cant be breached here on the message boards.

  people say that they win against people like me.. ?

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  OldSoul

  I am a believer, too. What is your point? You can't necessarily prove that God exists to someone else just because you have proven it to yourself.

  Respectfully,

  OldSoul
• 
  64

  How many mistresses can a JW elder have?

  by Gill in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since finding out more about the wtbts over the last year, it has come as no surprise to me anymore that the deceptive actions of the mother (wtbts) are seen in some of her children.

  the need for double thinking, self deluding beliefs and sneaky, twisted belief and thought patterns that i have noticed over the years in so many jws suddenly makes sense and is no longer scandalising or suprising.. so when i was told of the behaviour of a 'fine, upstanding, pillar of the community, brother' i simply shrugged.

  however, the results of his behaviour are not something to simply shrug your shoulders over.. it turned out for the last thirty years of his being married he has conducted affairs with another two 'sisters' in the congregation.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OldSoul

  R6Laser: The ones that wasted their lives did so based in their own free will at the time.

  Since you apparently want to play the shame game, shame on you. You minimize the impacts of high-control organizations and you speak to someone else's experience as if you were them, intead of seeing their experience through their eyes.

  You have been here since January yet you have not started a single thread, and I can't find your story anywhere. So that I can relate to your vantage point, tell me more about yourself.

  How many generations, maternally and paternally, were JWs? How far back does it go in your family? How much extended family are JWs? How many friends in how many places were JWs? How much did you enjoy associating with JWs? How well do you cope with change? What other major life changes came right along with this one? Did you really, sincerely believe you had the truth, the only truth, and nothing but the truth?

  My asking is rhetorical to make a point. Now, imagine that someone else answers those questions differently than you. Do you have an ounce of empathy? If so, you aren't showing it in this thread.

  Shame on you.

  OldSoul
• 
  37

  leaving

  by Lo-ru-hamah in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  to those of you that have been jw's for many years... i would like to know how it is that you have transferred to your new life.

  my family and i are in the process, actually, we have left because of many of the issues brought up on this forum.

  this, being jw's, is all that we have ever known.

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  OldSoul

  Welcome!

  We are here for whenever you are in need. We've been there, or are there, or are on our way there.

  Respectfully,
  OldSoul
• 
  41

  well they did not reinstate me!! dont know how i feell!

  by Cordelia in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well any of u that read my post about reinstatement will know what im on about basically i put my letter in for my family ive been dfed since march and they so want me back,.

  but the lovely elders took a month to get back to me and then said they were gonna leave it as i have the wrong motive as i am doing it for my family not jehovah, (which of course i am but they werent meant toknow that!

  ) thing is in my reinstatement meeting i knew exactly what i was doing i knew exactly what i should not and should say and said all the wrong things because i didnt want it,.

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  OldSoul

  Cordelia,

  Shadow, an elder who posts here, has attempted twice to answer a series of four questions of mine using only the Bible. I have yet to see one single Scripture that demonstrates any of the four teachings to be true. On page four of this thread, I posted a series of Scriptures for Toreador that strips the notion of God appointed authority from any religion.

  Maybe this will help you: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/98798/1.ashx

  No one can show you Scriptures to prove what the Bible doesn't prove. That's why we are always encouraged to quickly get a Bible student into using a publication, the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses cannot be learned from just the Bible. The Bible doesn't teach these things.

  Respectfully,
  OldSoul
• 
  105

  How do you defend your god's inaction?

  by AlmostAtheist in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is a question for those that believe in a god or gods, particularly those described as "all knowing" or "almighty".. how do you defend to yourself that your god has not in any modern situation saved his people from anything?.

  people of all faiths are regularly killed by various natural elements.

  of course, if you knew such a thing was going to befall a person and you could do something to protect them, you would.

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  OldSoul

  Nice points, trevor!

  I would add, the question equally well be phrased: "What is truth?"