Posts by toladest

15

Saw 'The Exorcist' first time last night. You'll NEVER guess what happened!

by nicolaou in

nothing.. ten years ago i'd have chosen to have a limb amputated rather than let 'satan' into my head by watching such a 'demonic' movie.

well i watched it right through and i thought it was a good movie - if a little dated.

it finished just after midnight and i went straight to bed having turned all the lights out (and brushed my teeth .

toladest

My husband and I started watching Steven King's "IT" in 1992 when it came on TV. As soon as we saw the laughing clown in the gutter we freaked out and turned it off and said a prayer to Jehovah. It was so hard to get to sleep that night.

After leaving the dubs and learning the difference between reality and fanatsy I watched it again. Wasn't even mildly scared. I have since watched dozens and dozens of "demonic" movies and fairy tales too. I think once you watch the first one and nothing happens, it becomes easier to watch the next. Now I don't even think about it. Funny thing is, until this subject came up I had not thought about it, but most of what I watch now would be totally condemned by the WTS. heeheehee

46

Does the WTS disfellowship mentally challenged people?

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

.

has anyone ever seen a situation where the wts disfellowhiped someone who is autistic, retarded or otherwise mentally challenged?.

i wonder if the elders give them more leeway knowing that they are not always capable of making decisions as well as a normal person.. .

toladest

I know a young man that was baptized as a teen. He was VERY gung ho about being a JW. He became Schizophrenic and stole a car. He was arrested and his single mom begged the elders for help. They DFed him. They knew of his condition and did'nt care. She tried to get them to visit him in jail and they refused. I believe, if I remember correctly, he was RI and then DFed again for smoking.

His mother tried numerous times to get help caring for him from the elders. His mom is no longer a JW herself. HMMMMM wonder why????

20

JW dating sites and the number of divorced!

by toladest in

jw
friends

i was curious to see if i knew anyone that would post on a jw dating site so i checked out jw connections that is linked to on this page.

i did not find anyone i know but i was kinda shocked to see the number of ones there that were "divorced, but free to marry".

is this a big problem now or is it just that more divorced jw's use the web to find "mates".

toladest

I was curious to see if I knew anyone that would post on a JW dating site so I checked out JW connections that is linked to on this page. I did not find anyone I know but I was kinda shocked to see the number of ones there that were "divorced, but free to marry". Is this a big problem now or is it just that more Divorced JW's use the web to find "mates".

When I was a dub, just 7 years ago it was always a major scandel when someone was divorced. I did see it a few times in the younger ones, but more often I saw people live miserably with each other rather than divorce.

I knew one "sister" whose husband was VERY physically abusive to her and her 5 kids. When she FINALLY left him she was looked down upon heavily in the congergation, even though her husband had been arrested for beating her up in the street! He was a cruel monster and yet she was told that he had not committed Adultry so she did not have grounds for divorce! I know that the society recieved "new light" on that one later and said you could leave but not be free to remarry. Have the requirements for divorce loosened even more? Are more JW's divorcing now? Is it still as big a deal?

2

What is a Bier Contest in Germany?

by toladest in

jw
friends

is this a beer drinking or making contest?

i was looking up the name of a dub that i grew up with (not really a friend, more an acquaintance) and his name is on a german web site.

i know it is him because it says where he is from (city and state) and his first name is spelled unusually and his last name is not common.

toladest

Is this a Beer drinking or making contest? I was looking up the name of a Dub that I grew up with (not really a friend, more an acquaintance) and his name is on a German web site. I know it is him because it says where he is from (City and State) and his first name is spelled unusually and his last name is not common.

I am curious as to what this is.

http://germannews.com/biercontest/s_teilnehmerold.html

Thanks for any help you can give. I have this guys e-mail and am tempted to write him.

8

Personal/Business related JW websites?

by Jourles in

jw
friends

does anyone else keep an eye out for jw websites?

either personal ones or businesses that are owned by jw's?

sometimes a search won't find what you are looking for.. here are a couple that i know are jw's:javaknight.combobjenson.com.

toladest

http://www.thermospray.com/

Mike Moninger (owner) is a JW

81

Apostasy - A Racist Movement?

by slimboyfat in

firpo carr argues that while many white apostates claim to highlight so-called 'racist' remarks and terminology in the watchtower literature, most such apostates are in fact white and have little real interest in black issues.

they are only interested in the issue in so far as they can use it to promote white anti-witness propaganda, whereas a high percentage of loyal witnesses are black.

i know that all the terms of my topic are debatable: apostacy is a witness term of derogation; apostates probably are mostly liberal and not racist (essentially); and they are not a 'movement' in any case.

toladest

I just want to say that I don't like using the terms black and white when describing people, but for the purpose of this thread I will. I hate the term African American as well, because not all "black people" are from Africa. Why can't we all be just people? Anyway......

Using the logic in the original post, I would have to say that JW's are almost ALL WHITE! The congergation I grew up in was ALL WHITE for many years. After a while we had one black family (Mother, father two daughters) that moved in. A few years after that we had a hispanic couple move in.

Oh. but wait! Later I moved to another congergation that was almost all black. So witnesses MUST be mostly Black!

Wohoooo wait another minute. Now I live in a small town in western Colorado were there are 2 congergations. This town is almost all white and hispanic. So MOST witnesses MUST be white and hispanic!!!! Oh and most JW's MUST be cowboys, since there are SO many cowboys here!

Oh and Smelly, you must really get around. You said:

"By and large hispanics and blacks could care less about doctrinal discrepancies. Somwthing they told me themselves. They are less apt to question theology and when faced with contradictions they just shrug it off."

That is really an ignorant comment. Have you spoken to ALL black and hispanic people? You are making a sweeping statement there. You make it sound as if you believe that black people and hispanics are too lazy or ignorant to worry about doctrinal issues. I know MANY black and hispanic people that are VERY interested in doctrinal issues. I have a close hispanic friend, originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, that has many family members that are Seventh Day Adventist. Doctrinal issues were very important to her in her decision not to go along with that religion. I also know a LOT of white people, many in my own family that are willing to shrug off doctrinal evidence, either because they are too ignorant, too lazy, or just want to be led blindly and not admitt to the farce they have followed all these years.

The post you started also made a very sweeping statement. Maybe you should rephrase your statements to include only what YOU actually know to be true. Don't assume that because one black person, white person, hispanic, or apostate thinks one way that they all do. That is Racism at its best!

32

2005 "Godly Obedience" District Convention Report

by CyrusThePersian in

i don't post much and this is the first thread i've ever started so please bear with me.

i wanted to give my obsevations on the 2005 "godly obedience" district convention.if the things i say are redundant, i apologize.

anyways, i was coerced into going by my daughter.

toladest

Sounds like a damage control meeting to me.

First they are trying to keep old ones from getting "discouraged" over having been lied to about living forever. Then, they are addressing those where perhaps baptized young. You must let your yes mean yes even when you did not understand what your yes meant because like myself, you were 14 ( or 9,10,11,12, 13, 15,16) and did not have a clue about the real world. It also addressed ANY baptized that don't understand what is NOW being asked. When you said "yes" to them it meant yes to what they taught at the time and yes to whatever they may change their teachings to in the future. That is like signing a contract that you can't change, but the other party can change at whim. That is why in the real world you have to be an adult and be of "right" mind to sign a contract. How many of us would have been baptized if it would have been put to us that way?

Lastly, they are addressing the problem of cable, satelite tv and the internet. Accourding to the WTS it does not matter what is discovered about the bible and it's authorship. Have you watched the discovery and history channels? Have you seen the info on the internet? Have you read about the lost books of the bible or even about who decided what writtings belonged in the bible? But....... Don't believe any of that! Oh no! Don't believe what scientist and historians say! Just believe the WTS.

The many years I went to the conventions, there seemed to be some damage control, but it seems much more blatent now, 7 years later. Is it just me? Am I just seeing it more clearly? Or does it seem that they are grasping for straws to keep the rank & file "in"?

36

Did it ever bother you that Watchtower never did charitible works?

by AK - Jeff in

i mean, for forty years believing the witness lie it always made me wonder.. judas was the keeper of the money box - and there are statements that indicated that the apostles thought that wasting money that could be used to aid the poor was sinful - so indications are that the earliest christians were doing charitible works.

of course there are many scriptural passages that encourage that activity among believers.

today all the organization ever does is pay lip service to charity.

toladest

As an insurance agent, I have seen both the Catholic Charities and the Mormon Church pay premiums for needy members. I know we have a lot of JW clients (they don't know I am an x-jw or they would probably insure elsewhere) and I see ones that can't always pay their auto insurance. I have NEVER seen a check from the WTS or local hall.

Also, growing up we were VERY poor and at times did not have much to eat. We also had times that my mom had to beg to not get the electric turned off. We never got help. One day my mom was trying to help a single lady with kids. She had no money for food. My mom gave her some food, but we did not have much. When she called the elders for help for this women she was studying with she was told that they had no resources to help her. My mom drove the lady to a Baptist church outreach that gave her enough food for a week and told her to come back if she needed more help. The lady never became a JW. Big suprise! I bet she became a Baptist.

25

The Purple or the Pink Triangle? : My Choice, My Story

by dorayakii in

theres an interesting thread here:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/14/92000/1.ashx and i thought i'd open up the discussion again in the guise of "coming-out" to jwd.

it's taken me about 5 hours to get the language and style of this post right.

toladest

One of my first "doubts" in the WTS was about their stance on being gay. My BEST guy friend was gay. He was the nicest guy you could ever meet. I was about 13 and he was about 15 when he started coming to my house every day after school and we would talk for hours. He was the son of inactive JW's and my brother started talking to him and he started coming to meetings and his actions ended up bring most of his immediate family back into the ~~truth~~ Lie. He wanted SO badly to please Jehovah. He was also THE MOST feminine guy I had ever met (at the time) , and he HATED IT!. He tried so hard to be "normal". All his JW friends including my brother (not myself) teased him endlessly. They called him Georgeous George. He never told me about being gay, but many years later, when I was leaving the JWs and went to see him he told me that he wanted to tell me so many times. He was hoping though that he could marry me and everything would change. Even though he never told me I knew he was gay. He just was! And I knew it was not a choice for him. After all he ended up getting baptized and then being DFed for it. He helped bring his family back to the religion that was now asking them to shun him. And last I talked to him, years ago, he seemed to still feel guilt even though he was in a commited relationship and they had a son together. I have tried to contact him a few times because I really miss him, but have never gotten a call back. ( If your out there RGO please write me! )

Anyway, I put those doubts aside for a long time, because to doubt was a sin. After I was booted from the WTS I did a lot of research and have read the book mentioned above about what the bible really says about homosexuality. But even before the research I knew in my heart that being gay, at least for some, if not all, was not a choice at all.

Welcome to the board.

32

A jw snopes type web site?

by Check_Your_Premises in

any who have checked out snopes.com, know that it is a very effective baloney detection device.

it is amazing how many phoney stories end up coming some so many credible sources.

for the dubs, the urban legend serves an important function of protecting and bolstering their faith.

toladest

My favorite are all the demon stories. LOTS of JW's have been attacked by demons. I heard a lot of "first hand" stories too. All they had to do was call out Jehovah's name and they went away! I always wondered if they were Jehovah's people that Jehovah loved so much why would he let the demons attack in the first place????

I heard one where a "bethelite sister" went to see "Ghost Busters" after being counseled against it. She was in the theater and she decided mid way that she should leave, but the demons held her in the chair and made her watch the whole thing! Sounds to me like it was a good excuse not to leave. hehehe

Another was of a women who was watching bewitched and the mother witch (can't remember her name) spoke directly to the "sister" so she got scared and tried to turn it off but the TV would not go off. She even unplugged it and it stayed on. I believe I heard that at a district convention.

Funny I watch those types of shows all the time and have yet to have a problem. I bet there are some good "Harry Potter" and "Charmed" stories being passed around. Anybody heard any?