LAMALLCOOL:
Um..over forty. But, at least I wasn’t raised in the JW religion and never lost memories of what life was like before I made a wrong detour and experienced things I’ll never forget.
I was able before long to feel like my old self again when I began my ‘fade’... The feeling of Freedom again? Priceless!
people want to get back to work, back to "normal" in many cases (whatever normal now means).
even trump is encouraging protesters in 3 states.. but with the covid-19 thing, this is not just a matter of a person taking a risk, as a person may do who smokes, takes illegal drugs or in other ways lives an unhealthy lifestyle.
in general, most (not all, since cost of insurance and public hospitals may be involved), but generally you are not putting the lives of others at risk.
RUB A DUB:
This ‘opening the economy up’ is unfortunately a damned-if-you-do OR damned-if-you-don’t situation!..I hardly think DT is urging people to riot 🙄.
I agree that it should be done carefully, but it DOES have to happen. We cannot all hibernate for the next three months! Maybe celebrities with mansions and storehouses of food can do this, but not everybody else.
Already the meat industry is being disrupted! If this were to continue there would really be empty shelves in supermarkets. There’d be nothing to clean out...THEN there would be a breakdown of social order which doesn’t always hold itself together very well even under the best circumstances. (THEN you’ll see rioting and loss of life!) If this happens..it will be hard to bounce back from!
Businesses are suffering and people are unemployed and I don’t believe they’re ALL even going to get their jobs back!! Even with some things opening soon, this will still be a mess with a lot of troubled people around.
Of course, we want our most vulnerable to be protected - but we have to start somewhere!
some towns require everyone going outside to wear one.
one massachusetts city requires anyone from 5 up to wear a mask.
some cities require masks and have shut down parks and sports playing while others in a nearby town have no such restrictions.
MINIMUS:
Under the circumstances, I see no problem with it. If you can get comfortable or stylish ones that would be nice.
I have a feeling that masks might be here to stay for a while.
jws or mormons.
from a public point of view not from people within the religion as that would be obvious.. examples of extreme beliefs or behaviour would be useful..
STILL TOTALLY ADD:
There was always something about certain JWs in the congregation that was vaguely unreliable, for lack of a better term. I was raised Catholic and saw the difference.
The JW religion preaches poverty, gives nothing, takes whatever it can get and has the balls to ostracize anybody who was a responsible person who prepared for their retirement. You can bet that I would run from these cheesy idiots who never wanted to work!
In contrast, the Mormons believe in education and careers and you get a more respectable and prosperous impression from them.
so, if you expect to find 'saints' with halos, you will never find real christians.. after over 30 years of being a jw, there are many things about the org that disturb me- yet no one else even acknowledges the only true god, as jesus referred to him.. not a 'they' or 'them' ('trinity')- but him!and he has always had the name jehovah (yehovah in hebrew)- even though the koine greek had no version of it when the nt was written.. so among the many things real christians have to endure- is often each other!
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MUCH CLOSER LOOK:
I don’t consider ANY such group or religion today to be comparable to the first century Christians. They lived in a different world....While I didn’t imply first century Christians had ‘no’ problems- they certainly didn’t have the SLEAZE of today’s world.
I did read the bible. And even though they had bad characters here and there, its not like today.
When they said ‘putting up with one another’ - it probably had to do with personality clashes, business disagreements.. I do NOT believe it had to do with people allowing themselves to be victimized in the various ways Witnesses screw each other over: child molestation, etc., preventing people from going to the police and other overstepping of boundaries (that I would not allow personally in MY life.)
If you want to believe that the definition of ‘putting up with each other’ includes modern-day atrocities of degraded people who bear no resemblance to bible characters, go right ahead. But, I disagree with you.
jws or mormons.
from a public point of view not from people within the religion as that would be obvious.. examples of extreme beliefs or behaviour would be useful..
INCOGNITO2014:
Both are weird, but I consider Mormons more desirable than Jehovah’s Witnesses. I agree with ROAD TO NOWHERE above.
At least Mormons believe in higher education and careers. Contrast that with the Witnesses who push poverty and people who end up dependent on the system. There are Witnesses who don’t have basic life skills and are painfully ignorant.
There may be exceptions to the rule in congregations with people who weren’t born-in and came in with job/education like I did. Multi-generation born-ins are the worst off in many cases.
The tragedy is when Witnesses reach retirement age totally unprepared. They have been told there is no need (and are criticized if they DO prepare). They are led to believe Armageddon will come in time to save them and they should be in their ministry and not bother their pretty heads about annoying things like earning a living.
so, if you expect to find 'saints' with halos, you will never find real christians.. after over 30 years of being a jw, there are many things about the org that disturb me- yet no one else even acknowledges the only true god, as jesus referred to him.. not a 'they' or 'them' ('trinity')- but him!and he has always had the name jehovah (yehovah in hebrew)- even though the koine greek had no version of it when the nt was written.. so among the many things real christians have to endure- is often each other!
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MUCH CLOSER LOOK:
Addressing the last sentence in your first post: “So among the many things real Christians have to endure - is often each OTHER.”
I know the Witnesses love to compare themselves to first century Christians and “continue putting up with one another..”.
The problem is I do not equate modern day Jehovah’s Witnesses (motley group, corrupt bunch with con artists among them) with first century Christians..No, they are not cut from the same cloth.
This religion has the capacity to ruin people’s lives, IMO..You are not in reality about this...They want total intrusiveness into people’s minds and lives with particular damage to women if they don’t look out for themselves.. I’m not going to go into my personal story, but I’m glad I got OUT.
so, if you expect to find 'saints' with halos, you will never find real christians.. after over 30 years of being a jw, there are many things about the org that disturb me- yet no one else even acknowledges the only true god, as jesus referred to him.. not a 'they' or 'them' ('trinity')- but him!and he has always had the name jehovah (yehovah in hebrew)- even though the koine greek had no version of it when the nt was written.. so among the many things real christians have to endure- is often each other!
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DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED:
Yes, the religion mocked people who followed their advice and expected the World to end in 1975.
The problem is that some Witnesses are doing something similar today. You have ‘need greaters’ going wherever. I don’t know if it’s the same level of irresponsibility of pre-‘75 with people running up credit card bills, but some of that mentality is still there from what I’ve heard..(I guess some younger JWs didn’t personally know of any older JWs who gave everything away...only to have to quietly rebuild their life from scratch after ‘75 came and went!)
I came into the religion a young adult in the late seventies and nobody talked about the 1975 fiasco or what led up to it. This might have influenced my decision to join the religion.
i dont post really.
probably because i'm full of discord and shame about this religion.
i'm embarrassed, but working thru it.
TOES UP:
So true!....I’m sure your relatives would have looked down on me back then when I worked and didn’t pioneer..I’m sure they were invited to special gatherings I was never invited to..hosted by older ‘spiritual’ sisters in the hall. (Some of these older ladies had a worldly husband who let them do their JW thing.)..Maybe some of these ladies are still alive and can give them a few bucks!
But what I have encountered in fairly recent times when I have met old JW ‘friends’ and I explain what I went through and how I won’t be targeted to give money:.I get a resentful and almost angry response from them!
You know what’s really SICK? I believe the people who ostracized me at the behest of the religion because of my job..will now hate me the most (ironically) because I won’t give money..But, I’m unfazed by anything they think and can never forget how screwed I’d be if I listened to that religion.
i dont post really.
probably because i'm full of discord and shame about this religion.
i'm embarrassed, but working thru it.
TOES UP:
”Don’t come around because you are old and broke and NEED me.”
Amen a hundred times over to that. If I had listened to the JW religion’s harassment to quit my full time job back in the day to do ministry full time, I would not be Retired!
I have nothing but disgust for this hypocritical religion and don’t want Jehovah’s Witnesses coming near me looking for anything!
