Politics reminds me of religion. It seems to be mostly about what the people will buy, so politicians (and religions) spend a lot of time planning how to advertise themselves effectively. None of it has much to do with truth or reality.
Posts by luna2
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9Sarah Palin has "Fire in my Belly" to run for President in 2012
by designs inis this a bad burrito or god talking to her...........again.
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38
When did you stand up and say No More to the GB and Witness world, mine was in 2000
by designs in -
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luna2
Around about the summer of 2000. I'd spent a good many unhappy years as a JW. Don't know if I thought just being a dub would change me or if doing all that studying and going d2d would improve me, but it didn't. It was my choice to become a JW too. Nobody forced me into it.
The cracks in the facade started showing early on. The sis who studied with me didn't clue me in to what field service was, how to go about it, how to fill in the little reports, turn them in...all the junk you need to give to the elders to prove what a good dub you would make and how worthy you were for baptism. Then I got a job with an elder....unbelievable that the man wasn't disfellowshipped early on. Never met a bigger liar, cheat, fraud. At any rate, I took these blows and rationalized them away as human imperfection or my fault or something, then the WTS changed the meaning of generation getting themselves off the hook for their end days prophesies. That one stuck around in the back of my mind and I couldn't rationalize it away. I hung in there, but my heart wasn't in it. When I finally became so depressed that I didn't want to get out of bed in the mornings, I started thinking and being more critical and not cutting the dubs and the WTS any more slack. About 4 months after that, I was sitting in a Watchtower "study" listening to the article being read and realized that the WTS didn't stand for anything. They were putting everything on the publisher...everything was a consience matter. Technically, you could do just about anything if your conscience allowed for it. Unbelievable. My conscience told me I was done. I got up, walked out the door, and never went back.
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2003 for me is latest Implication of the end
by TheLoveDoctor inwarnedofthingsnotyetbeheld.
6 in noahs day, jehovah declared: my spirit shall not act toward man indefinitely in that he is also flesh.
accordingly his days shall amount to a hundred and twenty years.
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luna2
People want to believe that they have value and that someone cares for them. The JWs promote themselves as caring people and do the love bomb thing very well. They also are good at making you believe that Jehovah in the sky cares and is taking steps to change the world and will reward all his little worshippers. Its seductive, especially to people who feel stomped on and don't have a lot of self confidence. They want to believe this stuff so they always get excited when another date or mathematical equation is produced, either by the WT itself or via rumors in the congregation.
When you so desperately want something to be true, you are willing to be manipulated time and time again....until you finally wake up and the perpetual promise is no longer enough to offset the pain of constantly being flogged with not doing enough and not being good enough by the loving brothers, and the hypocracy is finally too much to ignore any longer.
Its a sad, abusive situation.
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could Campings flop snowball?
by Aussie Oz inin 1975, the only way the wt could get the message out was via their own pulp mags, with a few bits of media taking note.
it must be said that it really was not only a flop for the jws, but not even newsworthy by todays standards.
by and large, most of the world were unaware of it all.. but fast forward to the internet and we can see how camping was able to go global in just a few months and reach far more people with the 'message' than jws could have hoped to reach in decades of door knocking.. and global are the repercussions for camping and his followers.
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luna2
After the 1975 debacle, the JWs learned the lesson of not using specific dates and made sure to publish their thinking on that in the Watchtower every so often so that they could never be officially accused of or ridiculed for proposing an end date and being wrong (again). They'll hint and let elders hint in talks, but they won't ever do anything to officially tie themselves to anything. Easier to slide out from under any responsibility that way. They do like those hints, though, because it excites the rank and file and spurs them on to greater activity. Its all a shell game.
The Sunday that I got up and walked out of the KH, never to return, we had a Watchtower study that was indicative of the above. They'd make a statement in one paragraph and in the next they'd give the opposite view...so the article didn't really say anything. I can't even remember what the point of the article was now...but the bottom line was that any decision you made was all on you and your conscience, not the WTS.
Since I haven't looked at a Watchtower since, I don't know if they are still writing that sort of meaningless junk, but since they never take responsibility for anything they publish anyhow, it doesn't really matter. It seems that the WTS is allowed to flip flop endlessly and not get called on it.
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If you had controlling parents
by mrsjones5 inten signs you may have had controlling parents.
if your parents were controlling, click here for helpful resources.
if your parents still try to control you, click here for helpful resources.
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luna2
I don't know if my parents are in there or not. Mostly, they are self-deceptive and seem to have no problem either straight up lying or being deceptive to other people. I'm way too passive and I don't know if was a learned behavior or if the tendancy is hardwired, but I spent my childhood doing as I was told and thinking that I didn't know much of anything. The things I was complimented on were things I had little control over (my appearance for one). Using your brain and being your own person were not things that were stressed.
I'm at a time in my life where I've been looking back a great deal. I often wonder how much my upbringing and how much my parents' personalities affected me or if I was always destined to be a failure.
Pretty sure I need to let this go and try to focus on more productive issues as its really too late for me to change my personality at this point.
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2011 "Let God's Kingdom Come!" District Convention Program
by witnessofjesus in9:30 song no.
10:50 song no.
12:10 song no.
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luna2
Its been 11 years since I've gone to one of these, but the talk titles still sound the same. That was one of the things that drove me out, the endless repitition. You can only take so much of it before you start hallucinating during meetings. Seems like the only time they say something new is when they are revamping their dates or their definitions (when stuff doesn't happen by dates they've previously preached were written in stone).
Reading that program, I am still grateful that I'm not a part of the organization any longer and don't have to force myself to sit through two or three days of torture trying to gain salvation.
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The real scandal...
by Knowsnothing inshunning.
if it weren't for this lil ol' practice that goes on, honestly, would we even be here?
would i give a crap about disproving the false predictions, blood stance, etc.?
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luna2
The whole shunning thing is rather interesting. No one likes to be shunned. Even if you hate the WTS, think the meetings are crap, and have no intention of participating in the religion any more, the idea that people you once knew would ignore you in public still rankles. Even harder if its your own family...unless you hate your family and would rather not talk to them.
I never officially left. I didn't write a letter of resignation or consent to talk to the elders or even have a discussion with a JW friend. I just faded out. I thought very hard about sending my congregation a letter, but through discussion here, decided not to bother as it seemed to give them too much honor. What I found most interesting is that they had no problem letting me drift away. There was only one sister who made any kind of effort to encourage me to get involved again. One. No elders. No ministerial servants. None of the women who I'd always thought of as friends. Just one lone pioneer sister. Pretty much sums up the whole religion. Most do not practice what they preach and most don't even know how to be true friends. Its all empty posturing for the other club members.
Eleven years later, I'm glad I did it the way I did. While some high sticklers may feel that they can't talk to me, most JWs (which isn't many) that I've come in contact with have no problem conversing in a normal manner with me. Some even do a little preaching at me, but most don't. Its more comfortable for all of us.
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Field Service question
by 21stcenturywoman ini live in one of the biggest cities in the us.
i have not observed as many jws in field service as i did when i was growing up.
within the last 10 years i used to see spanish speaking witnesses in my former neighborhood.
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luna2
The whole issue of counting time is simply a control mechanism to keep the sheep busy and so involved in minutiae that they didn't have time to reflect on anything really important. It took me a long time to understand that and when I did, I was on my way out.
I never understood how we could drive around gossiping for an entire morning (with a good, long "break" that sometimes would run an hour), knock on only a few doors and talk to maybe two people and call that witnessing. In those days, I was only counting about 1-1/2 to 2 hours for a good 4 hours spent every Saturday. Looking back, I was a fool. I should have started counting time from the moment I got in the car to go to the KH. I just wasn't cynical enough in the beginning, and when I became cynical, well, there wasn't much point to the exercise any more.
I had a couple of close friends who would pioneer regularly. They would start their day by doing a laundromat/gas station bathroom run at like 7:30 a.m. and not stop counting time, regardless of doing personal errands or taking breaks, until they called it quits in the afternoon. It always made me uncomfortable because they weren't witnessing for all that time. I was so naive.
These days, with gas prices what they are, I can't imagine driving a half an hour out to some rural call without knowing if the person would even be home or not or driving aimlessly around town, with people you didn't want to be with, stopping here and there to make it look like you were actually doing something. Just too expensive, especially for those of us dumb enough not to have gotten further education so that we could get a decent job that paid a living wage. It still makes me angry that I was such a sap.
Like anything else in this world, its all about how confident you are. Witnesses like to pretend that they "aren't of this world", but it works the same way. If you stand firm and don't let anybody make you feel bad, proceed as though you are god's gift to the world and never question yourself or your habits, you have a much easier time of it. If you question yourself or show any weakness, you'll have every elder and older sister breathing down your neck trying to "help" (meaning control) you.
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RUTHERFORD - Alive and well?
by sizemik inmany here are familiar with this entry in wikipedia .
for those that aren't, here's a link;.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/joseph_franklin_rutherford.
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luna2
What all of that says to me is that many people want a strong leader. Doesn't make much difference if he's autocratic, if he hates women, if he grants himself extra priveleges, if he's a secret womanizer or if he's an alcoholic, as long as he presents himself as if he knows it all and you don't, people will follow. Its kind of a sad commentary on human nature.
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luna2
Its almost funny looking at it now. JWs with their marketing slogan of Advertise, Advertise, Advertise and devoted idiots marching door to door trying to sell magazines could only reach so far. Their cries of 1975 got nothing like the world-wide attention that Camping and his relatively tiny number of followers have because of the internet.
JWs and the GB don't have the fire and zeal that they once did or they'd be using the internet to reach more people. They seem to be afraid of it...either because they don't want to look like fools when called on their errors (like Camping) or because they can't control it. Much harder to rewrite history when its all been online. The world was a much more controllable place when the only means to publicize was the printed word or a local radio broadcast. You'd think that if it was so important that they reach the greatest number of people that they'd take advantage of something like the internet. I can understand them not jumping into television because of its cost, but the internet is practically free. Ah well, its not like it makes any sense anyway.