Forgive my punctuation on my last post. I put an apostrophe in elders. Too much looking over my shoulder today!
Grace
think about this for a moment.. jws believe that their relentless work now will be rewarded with paradise later.. however, in an effort to get into paradise, many jws do nothing but work, and serve god.
i know my mother does.. so i wonder, what does she think she's going to do in paradise?
what is there that she likes, that will occupy her eternally??.
Forgive my punctuation on my last post. I put an apostrophe in elders. Too much looking over my shoulder today!
Grace
think about this for a moment.. jws believe that their relentless work now will be rewarded with paradise later.. however, in an effort to get into paradise, many jws do nothing but work, and serve god.
i know my mother does.. so i wonder, what does she think she's going to do in paradise?
what is there that she likes, that will occupy her eternally??.
To me it's what WT has taught them that the faithful ones will do for 1000 years. Pick up dead carcasses of almost 6 billion people, perform hard labor building homes and tending the fields. Plus there's that dubious answer of marriage(?) and children(?) who obviously will not age because death and sickness will be a thing of the past. Imagine having a two year old for 1000 years?
If Jehovah does this to those he loves, then the elder's are right: I am better off dead with no hope of resurrection.
Grace
a congregation here in the uk had so many cases of m.e (chronic fatigue) that it was labelled as the jehovahs witness disease.
i must say that in my old cong.
and locally in other congs., there was an abnormally high percentage of people with this problem.why do you think this was the case?????
Yes, I agree that those in Jehovah's service always seem tired. I used to imagine how the Pioneer sisters would handle it if they had to work full-time (which the ones I knew didn't, preferring to throw the scripture up in their husbands' faces about how a man who can't support his family is worse than one without faith. To me, it was just a cop-out because they didn't want to / had no intention of working to help with the family income).
All I see now is rampant alcoholism stemming from a lot of confusion and ignorance.
Grace
someone else from another post directed me to have a closer look at this site:.
http://quotes.watchtower.ca/admin-site-map.htm#beliefs.
this site uses wt original quotes directly from the publications, so it's worth taking both a first and second look.
But that's entirely the point. They claim that the GB is inspired by God. They claim that their writings are inspired by God. They believe in Divine Authority (as it applies ONLY to them, not any other religion) and claim that the channel of communication comes directly from God to the GB who writes this stuff.
That's entirely the point! Have they changed their stance on this point.... that the GB is no longer God-inspired? After all, those who are DAed or DFed as a result of disputing a WT teaching are going against God (they claim and teach). That is why we're shunned, is it not?
Grace
someone else from another post directed me to have a closer look at this site:.
http://quotes.watchtower.ca/admin-site-map.htm#beliefs.
this site uses wt original quotes directly from the publications, so it's worth taking both a first and second look.
Someone else from another post directed me to have a closer look at this site:
http://quotes.watchtower.ca/admin-site-map.htm#beliefs
This site uses WT original quotes directly from the publications, so it's worth taking both a first and second look.
1) Clearly, the WT publications/teachings sided with the Nazi regime which blamed the Jews for the present state of the world.
2) Clearly, the WT teachings said that distributing literature among the "colored" people would be a waste and no fruit would result from it because the colored people are not educated (nor are they really capable of being educated).
3) Clearly, a man's brain is about 10% bigger, so claims early WT literature, and so a woman cannot handle as much responsibility as a man. In addition, a woman's cycles puts her out of commission once a month, and how can she handle important responsibilities during these times?
I implore all to take a good look at the proof in the WT's own words. I appreciate the thoughtfulness behind the making of this valuable site.
Grace
we generally hear negative stories about the jws but were there any who did an act of kindness towards you that really helped you out?
No, I know of none whatsoever. Anyone who was helpful to me did so out of their own personal gain (i.e. counting hours for witnessing).
They are so void of God-given human-like qualities (such as love, generosity, grace), that they would literally step on someone bleeding in the gutter. And if that someone is DAed or DFed, they would both step on and kick in the head someone who was bleeding in the gutter.
After all, is this not what they do in an emotional way?
Grace to you.
when i was a kid weddings in the troof were a big deal.
probably because they were the main if not only excuse for a knees up.
if someone was getting married they were not in control of the decisions about the reception.
It's true that the organization takes over the wedding. I have mentioned this before... I brought my stepdaughter back from the brink of death when she was a pre-teen anorexic and her Pioneer mother wanted nothing to do with her. I raised the kid as my own. But I was kicked out of the wedding - her mother came strolling up the aisle of the KH like she actually did something to benefit the child!
Now, because I am DA'ed, I am completely shunned. And it angers me that the girl didn't tell her new fanatical JW husband that it was ME who saved her life! Or, if she did tell, he is too stupid to recognize the significance of life-saving.
Grace
i am no longer a witness.
i've told all my worldly friends and my immediate family - my kids have told their friends.
i haven't been to a meeting in over a year (and have no desire to go to one) - but i'm not dad or dfd.
Perhaps I'm different in that I signed up for WT as an adult after I married my JW husband; indeed, I was brought up in a different faith. I always knew the WT teachings were false, but simply went through the motions of it all. When I left, my spiritual need was still great, so I went back to my former faith, and have thrived ever since.
However, there is one author who has truly helped me become the kind of Christian I want to be. His name is John Ortberg. He's just written his fifth book, I believe. Bought it yesterday. This is the most sane, sometimes humorous, stuff I have ever read.
I am lucky that I belong to a church/faith which does not look for answers but sees faith as being in the questions.
My suggestion? Start reading Ortberg's writings. Start with "Love Beyond Reason". It will change you forever.
Grace Spirit.
i have been thinking about this because of another post where the question asks have any of us ever been blackmailed to stay in the watchtower organization.. no, i won't say i was blackmailed; however, after i wrote my note of disassociation, the congregation overseer wanted to visit me in my home with two other elders.
i repeatedly said no, that i would not allow them to chastise me in my own home.
therefore, all of my conversations were over the phone with the overseer.
The replies to this post have been intensely interesting. I believe so many select the Watchtower Exclusive Club as a way to self-elevate. Most people have strong enough self esteems to not have to join a cult; however, many do not. And, with now second and third generation JWs who are just born into it, they follow as rank and file because of risk of losing their entire families. So, at the beginning we had some crazy cultists (likely as a backlash after Darwin came out with Origin of Species) and now we have cultists because they would lose too much if they escaped.
By the way, my answer to the Elder who condemned me to death was this:
I would rather die and lie in eternal rest than pick up carcasses and do hard labor building homes and farms for 1,000 years. After all, isn't this what awaits those who survive Armageddon? And Jehovah does this to those he loves? Throw in the nebulous element that you may or may not marry in the "New System" and you may or may not have children (because the GB haven't figured this one out yet), and the Elder's right, I hope.
I'd rather be dead.
Grace
i have been thinking about this because of another post where the question asks have any of us ever been blackmailed to stay in the watchtower organization.. no, i won't say i was blackmailed; however, after i wrote my note of disassociation, the congregation overseer wanted to visit me in my home with two other elders.
i repeatedly said no, that i would not allow them to chastise me in my own home.
therefore, all of my conversations were over the phone with the overseer.
I have been thinking about this because of another post where the question asks have any of us ever been blackmailed to stay in the Watchtower Organization.
No, I won't say I was blackmailed; however, after I wrote my note of disassociation, the congregation overseer wanted to visit me in my home with two other Elders. I repeatedly said no, that I would not allow them to chastise me in my own home. Therefore, all of my conversations were over the phone with the overseer.
A number of times, when the Elder realized it was the last phone conversation I would entertain, he told me I was condemned to death with absolutely no hope of resurrection. My thought since then is that just as the Nazis condemned people to death, so do the Witnesses. I have spoken of the two groups in the same breath ever since.
Has anyone else had this said to them?
Grace