last night, a brother gave a talk, and referenced the sun.
in his talk he said two very interesting things:.
"the largest star in the universe, the sun provides light to the farthest reaching corners of our galaxy.
God, Richie, that's a riot! At least you got a good laugh out of it.
I wonder if I would have caught it? I would often zone out during talks and all I could remember afterwards was a weird honking noise coming from the platform...kind of like the adults talking in a Charlie Brown cartoon on TV.
were they all dates from hell?
any "immorality"?
did you ever "date" knowing the person was never "marriage material"?
I got into the troof after I separated from my husband in my late 20's. There were almost no single brothers in the 25 to 45 year-old range in that congregation...but a large number of single sisters, some with kids (like me) and some without. I truly can't think of any of the single sisters that were dating. I worked with one brother for a while and his goal seemed to be to remain single. After I moved from the area, he did get married to a sister from another congregation. Guess there weren't enough to choose from closer to home.
This isn't a date-experience, but it's sort of along those lines. I remember, a couple of years after we moved here, an occassion when a friend of mine invited me to meet a group for dinner after the Thursday night meeting. I was pleased to be asked to join the sisters but was a little puzzled when we got to the restaurant and saw that one, lone brother had joined us. It didn't dawn on me until mid-meal that this was some sort of cattle call. This newly divorced brother had just moved to the area and was on the lookout for a wife. So there he was, sitting at a large table with about 8 to 10 sisters checking out the available talent in the 35 - 45 class. I was so embarrassed to have inadvertantly participated in this, that I could barely eat. What a dumbass I was! I have always been amazingly clueless. LMAO
I do give the guy some credit for not looking only at young girls....seems like lots of brothers want a brand new model when looking for a wife.
i'm not trolling here or trying to upset, i'm not attacking anyone personally or trying to force my opinion on others but having read a lot of people experiences on leaving the org i really can not understand the point of fading.
i understand that people risk losing contact with family members and friends but really what type of friend and how good a family member are they if they are willing to shun you for not holding the same beliefs?.
a bit of background might be in order here.
It's funny, but I don't look at writing a DA letter as asking permission....I think I look at it as saying goodbye and telling them in some sort of "official" way that I have resigned from their club. I may or may not give them the reasons why. I'm still thinking about what I want to say. I seem to have a need for an act of closure. LOL
from the sky news web site - 23.06.05giving the cold shoulderdoorstep salesmen who cold-call are to be targeted with the launch of a new scheme banning them from certain areas.
residents who feel harassed by their tactics will work with police to create no-entry zones for them under a plan by the trading standards institute.. .
the no-go zones could cover anything from a street to an entire estate and will also help combat so-called "distraction burglaries", which have been linked to cold-calling.. persistent doorstep sellers would then be reported to the authorities for follow-up action.. ron gainsford, chief executive of the institute, said: "people are sick and tired of uninvited doorstep callers.
I was told some years ago that the town I work in has a ban on Jehovah's Witnesses...and maybe that's why it's effective because it targets either the JW's exclusively or perhaps any religion that goes door to door (add Mormons). Perhaps the "friends" around here are glad of an excuse not to work the area too. The only formal activity I've ever seen in this town has been mugging people in grocery store parking lots. I could tell the sisters got a real thrill from the experience.
I imagine that if it was a country-wide or even state-wide ban, the borg as a whole would feel the exciting glow of persecution and really get all fired up with zeal as the end just has to be right around the next corner.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with this in England.
was it really so peaceful before 1914?.
the society loves to claim there was an unprecedented amount of peace prior to 1914 and that wwi was a complete shock to the world when it began.
yet history claims otherwise:.
I'm not a history buff, but I think there was a lot of optimism back then, at least in developed nations.
It could be that not having the instant access to news and the ability to easily travel to almost any part of the globe that we have today caused those people who lived in lands not engaged in war to think that things were generally pretty good.......or maybe I'm just dredging up remanants of Watchtower propaganda.
.
distasteful ... unpleasant.
on my sbc front page i get a "word of the day" today this is it.. i wonder if any one here can use, ... "unpalatable" ... in a sentence.
I sat in the first row listening to the public talk, slightly sick to my stomach, feeling trapped, desperately wishing I had the courage to walk out, as the CO used one impalatable and gory illustration after another to drive home his point. (and that's the troof!)
philadelphia, mississippi (cnn) -- forty-one years to the day three civil rights workers were ambushed and killed by a ku klux klan mob, a jury found former klansman edgar ray killen guilty of all three counts of manslaughter tuesday.
curious as to jwd'ers reactions.... how do you feel about the verdict?
should it have been murder?
I agree with those saying much too little, much too late....but better than nothing at all.
i'm not trolling here or trying to upset, i'm not attacking anyone personally or trying to force my opinion on others but having read a lot of people experiences on leaving the org i really can not understand the point of fading.
i understand that people risk losing contact with family members and friends but really what type of friend and how good a family member are they if they are willing to shun you for not holding the same beliefs?.
a bit of background might be in order here.
My fade wasn't a planned strategy, it just happened over time. I still thought it was the "Truth" and beat myself up pretty good about not living up to my dedication. I originally planned to come back after I'd taken a mental health break...hopefully becoming a stronger, more assertive, person (read: not bow like some little simpleton to whatever the WT or the elders or pioneers or whoever said). Over time, I was able to identify that the confustion I felt was natural given the contradictory crap we were being force fed.
Only recently did I start researching the religion the way I should have when I first started studying. I do feel the urge to make a clean break with the borg. I'm pretty sure I'm already being shunned as a bad associate for my inactivity anyhow, and I have no close friends or family that are still JWs so I will lose nothing by disassociating myself. Other people have a much different situation, though. I can't see that it's a bad thing to want to maintain some sort of contact with friends and family...or to want time to try to get others out. All's fair in theocratic warfare.
does the new pope know what the secret message is all about?
why the silence?
it all started way back in 1916. btw, wasn't that the year charles taze russell died?.
I'll have to wait until a time when I'm feeling less impatient to go look at that Vatican webpage again. A lot of of what I did read looks like jibberish at first glance. I think I've lost the ability to read religious material any more, I just want stuff to get to the point already. I didn't even get as far as the "prediction" of WWII.
what do ya'all think about this...'somewherelse' inquired as to whether my froggy avitar was in fact a tattoo that i'd had done, and it's got me thinking about it!
i'm normally fairly opposed to body art, well for myself anyway.
if you are going to get a tatt, i believe it should be something very personal, and very well thought out over a long period of time.
I think that's a cool idea. Obviously, frogs meet your criteria for body art (not a faddy sort of motif for you at all), so I'd go for it. That's my problem....there's nothing that I feel meets that standard for me, so my getting a tatt would simply be to follow the crowd.
