BlackSwan of Memphis

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Posts by BlackSwan of Memphis

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  224

  Where Are You From?

  by finallysomepride in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  alot of members don't have a flag or country name beside their user name, and well frequently one doesn't know where that particular person is from, tell us your country, state, county or what ever you feel like giving out.

  if you are going to post please at least devulge your country.. me, i'm originally from taranaki, new zealand via auckland.

  for the most of this decade i have been living & working in brisbane, queensland, australia.. .

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Hockeytown USA

  otherwise known as Detroit, MI (or well in the general vicinity)
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  19

  No windows

  by BlackSwan of Memphis in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a couple years back i read posts re the lack of windows in the kh.

  i think at the time i was still so close to the situation that i thought it was a bit extreme and surely it couldn't be anything like it was being made out to be: conspiracy on the part of the organization.. flash forward to recent days.

  i have been attending our local unitarian universalists church (or universalist unitarian?

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  @ ada, this year for Rel. Ed at our church we're talking about world creation stories and this last month I have been volunteering with the Iroqouis story of The Woman Who Fell From The Sky, it's been so much fun. Then again I got the best job of making sea turtle cookies, which are more like big globs of sugar on sugar with a wafer cookie, but the point is there.....

  Somewhere along the way someone created the Universe and then there were turtles and COOKIES :)

  Our Reverend is actually a very Hindu inspired humanist

  Ah yes I am starting to really see that there are some big differences in our experiences with KH's. :)
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  The Woman Behind the JW's Hotline (1-800-why1914)

  by koolaid-man in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for 26 years, marilyn zweifel has been standing by to take the calls from all of those who have been touched by the tentacles of the watchtower organization.

  she has helped so many people to work out their problems and suffering because of the jehovah's witnesses.

  marilyn will be our guest on the six screens of the watchtower conference call saturday, november 21, 2009 7pm est.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  I sent my mom one of her newsletters about 2 summers ago. Oh man, was my mom mad. She tried refuting it by writing in all these little comments and then sending it back to me.

  But it was mostly just angry JW verbatim.

  I really get a kick out of reading those things.
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  The Woman Behind the JW's Hotline (1-800-why1914)

  by koolaid-man in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for 26 years, marilyn zweifel has been standing by to take the calls from all of those who have been touched by the tentacles of the watchtower organization.

  she has helped so many people to work out their problems and suffering because of the jehovah's witnesses.

  marilyn will be our guest on the six screens of the watchtower conference call saturday, november 21, 2009 7pm est.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Is this the same lady who does the newsletter?
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  57

  Evil lying Manipulators OR Captive Duped Slaves Duping Others (or some of both)?

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i see many threads that address this issue, but i still don't have a clear thought on this.

  so i want your help.. the governing body misleads the members- no doubt.

  they do change some of their history to make the wt organization look smarter or better-guided by "jehovah.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Fear and pride

  They certainly aren't stupid. They have deliberately lied to protect their butts.

  Why do that? What do they have to save? I may not know anyone in the Ivory towers, but I have met a number of people working up there and it has not struck me that any of them are making enough cash for a posh pad.

  So I don't think it's the money.

  I think that were they to truly consider that they have made a grave error, they would have to face some very harsh judgement. Further, to admit, at that point, how very, very wrong you are, takes a great deal of humility.

  I don't think of them as evil. I think slaves is probably accurate. They are slaves to themselves and sense of pride. That is how I see them.

  It's sad, but what is more sad, is that so many people fall into believing the junk and therefore make themselves slaves to other slaves. The blind leading the blind.....
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  15

  Volunteering

  by BlackSwan of Memphis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when we were jw's we 'volunteered' our time to help others learn the 'truth'.. in what ways do you volunteer your time now that you are out and are free to help others as you see fit?.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  This is true, keeping things balanced can be difficult. I'm sorry about your back That can make life difficult, very difficult.
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  15

  Volunteering

  by BlackSwan of Memphis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when we were jw's we 'volunteered' our time to help others learn the 'truth'.. in what ways do you volunteer your time now that you are out and are free to help others as you see fit?.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  When we were JW's we 'volunteered' our time to help others learn the 'truth'.

  In what ways do you volunteer your time now that you are out and are free to help others as you see fit?
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  29

  Are you a blood donor?

  by GLTirebiter in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  in another thread, creativhoney said:.

  the bible says there is no greater gift than you lay down your life for another, the bible refers to blood as life.

  i conclude we should all give blood.. and chalam replied:.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  I have done it, and need to get back to do so again.
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  Erasmus and Theologians In His "Praise of Folly" -- Sound Familar?

  by Room 215 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  theologians depend upon folly for their happiness.. 1. they are happily full of self-love.. 2. they use too many newly-invented terms and definitions.. 3. they 'play' around with complex questions.. 4. they have ridiculous ethical rules.. 5. they try (and ultimately fail) to express things better than the apostles did.. 6. they correct and criticize the church fathers.. 7. they try to convert unbelievers with their logic rather than their lives.. 8. the most pious men are disgusted by them.. 9. they believe they uphold the church.. 10. they make-up their own pictures of hell and heaven.. 11. they don't follow the proper use of grammar and use a language of their own.. 12. they glory in the title of "our masters"..

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Familiar yes. Interesting read. Further reading suggestions?
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  35

  Were You Proud To Be A Witness?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as a kid, i was.

  whenever i recieved "persecution", i knew i was doing something good for jehovah.. "worldly" people about my being a jw.. were you proud or ashamed as a witness?.

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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Depended on what time of the month it was.....

  Heh

  In all seriousness..... sometimes yes sometimes no. I think there were aspects of it that I was proud of. But it wasn't a 'good' sense of pride. To be perfectly, unfortunately honest, it was a feeling of "I'm better than you <raspberries> and you suck."

  I think it filled some sort of dark, emptiness that was not being filled otherwise. That sense of esteem that I was searching for, most specifically as a young person. Deep down I was NOT proud of that part of me or of the religion.

  Other times, when I saw how it could really 'help' people find 'true' happiness, I was proud of that. I thought that that is what it was supposed to be about. Helping others. That was something I was proud of.

  The further away I get from the religion, the more I see how it mirrors some of the stranger cultic religions that suck people in with promises of family, happiness and being special.....