did u ever write to the bethel anonymously..cos if you did or if you are thinking of doing this is how they view it.
318-319 questions from readers ***.
questions from readers.
ChakkaConned: Why aren't names signed by the ones who write the articles in their publications if they're so hip on knowing whose writing what??
Asked and answered by Knorr in court depositions and in testimony. God is the editor of the publications. But apparently the articles may need adjustment as God sees the error of His way.
Respectfully,
OldSoul
one thing that never made sense to me when i was a jw.
why is god always making the light brighter?
is it on some type of dimmer switch?
You apostates just advance from bad to worse! Now you accuse God of having the Clap? How horrid! I'll never be an apostate like you!
Sincerely,
Schizm (no additional charge for liberal use of exclamatory remarks)
http://watchmanofephraim.tripod.com/
go to this website, take a little time to read what is on it, and it will tell that eveything that the witnesse have been doing since the very day they started has had nothing to do with the god of israel.
so dont feel anyway bad when any of you leave this lieing institute, they are responsible for more spiritual and literal deaths on this earth than any of the orginisations they slag off.
Damien,
I understand your intense feelings. Especially if you have recently discovered all this. Please take a moment though, breathe, and think.
How many voices need to be talking about and aware of the sad state of this organization? Will attacking any potential voice make anything better? Shame and guilt is ultimately what makes most people wake up from their seemingly endless slumber.
Shame and guilt are what caused me to say to myself, "Whoa! Grace of God? Undeserved kindness? Forgiveness even without deserving forgiveness?" I can't respond for purplesofa, but if you had said to me, "Shame on you!" I would have said a silent "Get stuffed, Cretin!" under my breath offline, before replying much more mildly that you might want to make your message more appealing by eliminating the guilt trips.
In the very thing you judge another... (Romans 2:1, 2) You are obviously sincere and I applaud that. Try seasoning your words a bit more, you seem very bitter, very anxious, and very frustrated.
Respectfully,
OldSoul
there is a general impression that asperger's syndrome carries with it superior intelligence and a tendency to become very interested in and preoccupied with a particular subject.
most children with asperger's disorder have difficulty interacting with their peers.
they tend to be loners and may display eccentric behaviors.
BrendaCloutier: I'm a Sexual Intellectual..... that's an Effing Know-it-all.
I don't think I qualify.
Hmm. Inappropriate response. Maybe you do, after all...
greetings from tennessee.
thank you for your inquiries regarding the barbara anderson vs. watchtower tennessee appellate court hearing, which took place on thursday, april 14, 2005. accompanied by steve and joy imhof, from panama city beach, florida, and our attorney, jerre hood, from winchester, tennessee, we drove to nashville to attend the 1:00 p.m. scheduled appellate hearing.
this hearing was requested last year by defendants in the case, and they are: the numerous corporations of watchtower bible and tract society; watchtower spokespersons, j. r. brown, and david semonian, and certain elders of the manchester, tn congregation of jws.
The time is long past for Ecclesiastical Privilege to be invoked as cause for silence regarding criminal activities. Ecclesiatics can grant absolution all they want, removing the responsiblility before God does not remove the "sinner's" responsibility to society.
Jesus forgave the thief beside him, but did not try to spare the man from experiencing the legal consequences of his actions and life course.
Perhaps those who believe that Ecclesiastics should not be exempt from possible prosecution as accessories after the fact should make their views known by writing a letter to their various representatives in the legislature.
Either way, it strikes me as very peculiar that the elders shun the label "Ecclesiastic" only when convenient. The term "Ecclesiastic" is directly tied to the concept of a clergy/laity class where the clergy acts in an intercessory way on behalf of the laity.
*** it-1 p. 500 Congregation ***Comparably, no clergy-laity or similar division existed within the early Christian congregation.
*** jv chap. 4 pp. 36-37 The Great Apostasy Develops ***As bishops and presbyters ascended the hierarchical ladder, they left below it the rest of the believers in the congregation. This resulted in a separation between clergy (those taking the lead) and laity (the passive body of believers). Explains McClintock and Strong?s Cyclopedia: "From the time of Cyprian [who died about 258 C.E.], the father of the hierarchical system, the distinction of clergy and laity became prominent, and very soon was universally admitted. Indeed, from the third century onward, the term clerus . . . was almost exclusively applied to the ministry to distinguish it from the laity. As the Roman hierarchy was developed, the clergy came to be not merely a distinct order . . . but also to be recognised as the only priesthood."
Thus, within 150 years or so of the death of the last of the apostles, two significant organizational changes found their way into the congregation: first, the separation between the bishop and the presbyters, with the bishop occupying the top rung of the hierarchical ladder; second, the separation between the clergy and the laity. Instead of all spirit-begotten believers forming "a royal priesthood," the clergy were now "recognised as the only priesthood."?1 Pet. 2:9.
Such changes marked a defection from the Scriptural method of governing the congregations in apostolic days. Organizational changes, though, were not the only consequences of the apostasy.
Why do they adopt the legal protections afforded only to a relationship they claim to reject as a departure from Scriptural method; namely, the relationship between the clergy (those taking the lead) and the laity (the passive body of believers)?
And I am looked at oddly when I suggest that this organization is apostatized from both the Bible and its own teachings.
Respectfully,
OldSoul
did u ever write to the bethel anonymously..cos if you did or if you are thinking of doing this is how they view it.
318-319 questions from readers ***.
questions from readers.
I was searched out and tracked down after I sent a recent letter questioning a certain activity. If they spent one-tenth the time reading and considering my letter that was required to track me down and verifiy that I was a real person, they might have responded to my letter with something other than their standard cookie-cutter reply on the issue.
Alas, like the law, the WTS is an ass.
i think there was a thread on this at some point but search is not working, wouldn't know the keywords anyway.. but like i just thought of escape from brooklyn bethel - instead of escape from new york.. it would be cool if someone can write little blurbs for these too.
anyone have/remember others?
Village of the Damnable
Children of the Corn-fed
Hitchhikers Guide to the Universal Sovereignty
Kingdom of Heaven-bound
Double Condemnity
Catch Me If You Can (subject: Pedophiles)
anybody who is trying to get a loved one out of the jw, knows you have to be open to their religion.
otherwise you are an opposer and they won't talk to you.
but you also have to give a credible reason why you can't join "yet".
Check_Your_Premises: Maybe I will write a different version that is more of a refutation.
That may be a good idea, but you are nearly guaranteed to alienate your spouse. Sincere questioning is probably the best way to go.
Lead in some days before letting her know you've been thinking seriously about where your life is heading. This will be entirely genuine, of course. You simply need not mention you are afraid this org will rip you two asunder. But just say it and leave it there. Any wife will wonder long and hard about what you mean.
Follow after a couple of days by asking, "Okay, if I have questions about their beliefs they can give me scriptural answers, right?"
She'll readily agree (poor dear).
Invite "them" over for a discussion (you know who "they" are).
Have your questions well in mind, we will all be glad to prep you as much as you like. Make sure "they" are trying to provide scriptural answers in front of your wife. This way, you are not attacking her at all. You aren't even attacking "them." You are just allowing her an opportunity to see the gross inadequacy.
Respectfully,
OldSoul (of the "Going Through the Same Thing" class)
i know for certain that brothers in our congregation often lied about their time on field service reports.
(yes, we had to fill out quota reports back in the old days).
one brother, harry, would dump magazines in the storm drains!
Nah. I was ever the conscientious reporter. You do mean before the unbelief set in, right?
After that, I rarely did half what went into the kitty. I was being untruthful with those who did not deserve truth, treating them as they had treated me for decades and all that rot.
Respectfully,
OldSoul
Welcome Crazyblondeb!!!
You have already tentatively entered the fray with one toe of your foot, we look forward to your cannonball!
