Posts by toladest

15

Apologies for JW shunning

by greendawn in

jw
friends

you disassociated or got disfellowshipped and the jws were shunning you.

but then some of them went down the same road as you later.

did they then approach you as ex-jws and apologise for the way they had treated you, and what exactly did they have to say?

I haven't met up with anyone I know that used to be dubs and are now ex dubs. I have been on the other side though. My best friend growing up never got baptized and although I never completely shunned her I treated her as "bad association" even though everything inside me told me she was a really good person that did not deserve it. When I was told by the elders that they were setting up a judicial meeting for me on charges of apostacy just for questioning them, the first thing I did was to call my former best friend. She totally accepted me and helped me through the entire process. She did NOT try to tell me I should not be a JW. She just supported me and gave me someone to talk to. She showed unconditional love despite the way I had been treating her for YEARS! I will never forget that. She made me see that there were "worldly" people that were actually a lot more loving than JW's. But I also know that JW's THINK they are being "loving" by shunning. They believe that it will make a person want to come back in ~~Jehovah's~~ WTS's favor and it will save their lives. For this reason, I will never treat anyone that once shunned me badly if they chose to leave the WTS and want forgivness.

Thank you Chris P.

33

Introducing my Mother.....

by PaulJ in

my mum has asked me to create a thread for her (basically her computer is crap, and she hasnt quite worked the site out yet) to introduce herself.

please read her biography-.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/member/18597.ashx.

toladest

Welcome Tez! Wow, I wish my mom felt the same and you and decided she could not shun me. I'm not holding my breath. I love my mom dearly and miss her tons! I am glad you found the courage to leave and love your kids unconditionaly.

Welcome to Diddy Di as well! Cherish your mother! Ihope you both find many friends and lots of support here!

49

would dubs ever go into field service if there was no record-keeping?

by zagor in

do you think that any dub would ever go into field service if they didnt have to record hours of service?

i dont believe it at all.

in fact, you could see that everything they do is because there is some sort of record keeping behind it, i.e.

toladest

A Dub is a JW. Say J. double U. It was shortened to J Dub and the just Dub.

As for the field service question, my mother is a very faithful dub that would definately do it even if it was not recorded. She takes every oppertunity she can to preach and she doesn't count half of it.

On the other hand, as I started to lose faith and stopped preaching my book study conducter would call and ask if I had at least one hour. When I said no he would try to help me invent something. He would ask if maybe I had spoken to a neighbor or someone else casually. He would spend several minutes each month trying to get me to remember ANYTHING I might have said that I could call preaching. My answer was always no. I would not dream of lying about it. I had even asked to be removed from the ministry school at this point. I told them that I had questions that I needed help with before I could promote something I was unsure of. But the ALL important FS report was more important than anything. Funny thing is that it was the fact that they could not count their time that they refused to study or have a sister study with me, even though I begged them to study with me to help me. I was baptized and therfore responsible for myself.

They only offered to study with me at the very end in my judicial commitee as they were accusing me of being an apostate simply for coming to them over and over with my questions. It was a true and sincere cry for help from them. I really felt they had the truth, but the child abuse thing had me stumped and they could not answer as to why it was allowed to go on.

Laurie

18

Problems in Mormon Kool-Aid-Land

by darkuncle29 in

.

toladest

Double edge- have you ever looked into the history of the Mormon Church? The LDS are actually the apostates from Joseph Smith's teaching. He fully believed and practiced Poligamy. It was not until the US government threatened to step in that the LDS changed their teachings. The small radical groups, although maybe even more radical than before follow the original teachings much more closely. The LDS don't even like to be called Mormoms anymore, at least not the ones I know. I live VERY close to the Utah border and know a LOT of LDS members including some that live in Utah. When I lived in Florda we met and became very close to a LDS lady with 6 kids. When we moved to Colorado my husband offered her a job here and she came. We have always been very close to her. She is one of the sweetest people we know, BUT, she is LDS and just like my JW mom she follows their rules strictly. She does not drink caffine, won't work on Sundays, or even go somewhere where others have to work to serve her, she goes to all their meetings and teaches some womens group they have. After a while she met up with her old high school sweetheart and they decided to get married (her husband had left her many, many years earlier). He is also a devout LDS member and they got married in a temple in Utah. We were not allowed to attend because we were not worth to step foot in their temple. Her own daughter was not allowed to attend,as I stated in my last post and her son was on a mission and could not even call and talk to his mother. She informed him by letter that she was getting married. He also missed his sisters wedding because he was on his mission. When they are on missions they are not allowed to have a TV or have contact with any of their family except for calls on certain holidays. They are told for that whole 2 years that they have to focus soley on bible study and preaching. They also excommunicate people. Some LDS are not as strict in that matter as others, but in most Utah communities that I know of they can be VERY cold to former members and to outsiders. There have been news articles about how children from non-LDS families are made to feel like outcasts at some Utah schools, including ones in Salt Lake City. Now this is certainly not true of ALL LDS. They have a bit more choise in how far they take their teachings and some congergations are more radical than others.

As far as Baptists churches, that also depends on where you are in the country. Some southern baptists really still push fire and brimstone. Some charm snakes. Most baptists are pretty mainstream though. and the LDS are NOT like them.

18

Problems in Mormon Kool-Aid-Land

by darkuncle29 in

.

toladest

This is very sad. And even sadder is that the ones taking them in are Mormons (Later Day Saints) and even though they aren't near as radical as these smaller groups, they are still a cult, but it will seem like paradise to these boys.

We have friends that are Latter Day Saints and the mother reminds me SO MUCH of my JW mother. When she was married in their temple one of her daughters could not attent the wedding because she was not a practicing mormon, her son could not attend because he was on a mission and they can only contact their mothers 2 times a year (Christmas and mothers day) and we could not attend the wedding because we were not mormons. Funny thing is that she can't believe how my mom treats me!

Laurie

29

Guess What These California Kingdom Halls Are Known For

by jomac in

jw
friends

california

adelanto

arcadia

toladest

Add to that list:

Bradenton, FL - Whitfield Cong & East Bradenton Cong

Sarasota, FL (cong?)

Palmetto FL. (Palmetto Cong)

Hazelhurst, GA

Yerington, NV

Fallon, NV

Grants Pass, OR

This represents 4 accused offenders that I know of, one of which was an elder & PO and convicted and served 7 years.He was in Bradenton, Hazelhurst, Grants Pass, Yerington & Fallon. He also lived in Sacramento & Columbus, OH. Another was an elder in the Palmetto hall. One was one of the "annointed" in Whitfield and Sarasota. One was just a regular rank & file "brother".

9

Documenting the 2-witness rule applies to child abuse

by Robert_V_Frazier in

over at carm, corvus the jw defender from australia is loudly proclaiming that the two-witness rule is never applied when an allegation of child abuse is made.

i pointed out in some detail that the nov. 1, 1995 [i]watchtower[/i] article "comfort for those with a 'stricken spirit'", in the section "what can elders do?

" most definitely does teach that:

toladest

I have a letter that I scanned a long time ago and put on this board. my scanner no longer works though. It is from the WTS regarding my father in law. They told my husband that they could not DF him without two eye witnesses. This was AFTER he was convicted and in prison for child molestation. 4 people testified that he abused them. I also have a letter from a circuit overseer to the WTS stating that 17 people accused him of abuse.

If I can find them on the net I will post them for you. If not I will see if I can get them scanned somehow.

Laurie

14

A drastic medical view

by Fatfreek in

when mom and dad and i adopted watchtower teachings during the mid 50's, the most influential couple we knew were special pioneers by the names of raymond and doris bridgman.

they were truly fine people in many senses, a bit younger than my folks, and very charismatic.

the place was new bedford, massachusetts, u.s.a.. it wasn't long before you realized that the bridgmans ate differently than the rest of us.

toladest

Allen Bridgeman was truley one of the nicest and most caring witnesses I ever met. He helped my mom and my family in a real times of need. He even drove from Tennessee to Georgia to help tow my moms van back to Tennessee when it broke down in GA. I will never forget him......

12

Need help on blood issue...

by toladest in

we are going through some things i don't want to discuss on the open board but i need some help.

where is the site that talks about the blood issue in depth?.

i would really appriciate any help i can get.

toladest

From what I understand there are three types of Liver biopsy. One is a needle biopsy. This is the most common. But after the biopsy the patient is required to lay still for several hours afterwards in order to prevent excessive bleeding. This one , from what I read, says that if you are having trouble with bleeding you should not have done. The second is laproscopic, which they do if the need a bigger sample. It's risks are higher for bleeding, but I don't think they need to do that one at this point. The third one they go down through a catheter in the neck (?) I think. This is done for bleeders. I don't think the tests will be that much of a worry, but there are risks and bleeding is one of the risks listed.

I am also concerned about a liver transplant down the road. I don't know if he will end up needing one, and I am trying to stay positive in that regard, but I want him to be understand the blood issue before we get that far.

The thing is that he already has several symptoms of cirrhosis so it is on our minds. We won't know how bad it is until the biopsy results come back. I simply want to be prepared.

12

Need help on blood issue...

by toladest in

we are going through some things i don't want to discuss on the open board but i need some help.

where is the site that talks about the blood issue in depth?.

i would really appriciate any help i can get.

toladest

I decided to at least post some of whats going on. It's not like he has taken blood. I am just inquiring.... Thanks for all the advice. I went to the site posted here. It is VERY helpful.

The issue is with a loved one who has a liver function problem. He was raised as a witness and was taught it was wrong to recieve blood. He is no longer practicing, but he has always had a strong conscience and is afraid to make a decision to take blood if it comes to that.

He has recently found out that his liver is not functioning properly. He doesn't and never has done drugs or drank. They have ruled out hepititis and they don't think it's cancer. They are doing a biopsy soon to determine the cause and how severe the damage is. He already has signs of cirrhosis. The most concerning is that he is having trouble with bleeding. He has thousands of tiny blood spots in his legs and feet and has been getting bloody noses several times a day. When he gets even a tiny cut it can take him hours to stop bleeding. So there is a risk even to do the biopsy. He will be seeing a gastroenterologist June 1st to weigh his options and risks for the biopsy, but he needs a biopsy to find out the cause and how bad it is. They say it may be a genetic disorder or some kind of viral infection. (other than hep as they ruled that out)

Anyway, I just need him to have all the facts before making a bad decision. I need him to see that Jehovah is not the one that made up this stupid rule.

If anyone had something that particularly struck them, let me know. Anything will be helpful.

Laurie