It is funny how so many religious leaders got on the backwards masking issue and made such a big deal about it. Then when some musicians began playing these preachers sermons in reverse and found similar salutations to satan in them, the matter quitely went away.
Posts by donny
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34Jehovahs Witnesses and the Curse of Music.
by donny injehovahs witnesses and the curse of music.. .
i was inspired to write this after listening to a recent podcast of the thinking atheist by seth andrews.
as many of you know, seth was a devout christian who not only loved contemporary christian music but was one of the hosts of a popular morning show on kxoj in tulsa, oklahoma in the 1990s.
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77
I have said it before
by mouthy inthis time i mean it.. thanks for all the ones that love me .
i am getting off the site after all these years.. anghard & simon .
but of late.
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donny
Glad to see you back Mouthy!!! You are an instituton here.
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57
What rumors have you heard about yourself since leaving?
by donny ingood morning all,.
i have had the opportunity over the last couple of years to speak with a couple of jw's who had either attended the same congregation i did or were married to someone who to the same one.
for the record, i disassociated myself in 1992 due to being followed around by an elder or two who had heard that i had ray franz's "crisis of conscience" in my possession.
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donny
I also heard that I became a producer and director of porn films. Sadly, I never had that opportunity.
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34
Jehovahs Witnesses and the Curse of Music.
by donny injehovahs witnesses and the curse of music.. .
i was inspired to write this after listening to a recent podcast of the thinking atheist by seth andrews.
as many of you know, seth was a devout christian who not only loved contemporary christian music but was one of the hosts of a popular morning show on kxoj in tulsa, oklahoma in the 1990s.
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donny
Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Curse of Music.
I was inspired to write this after listening to a recent podcast of “The Thinking Atheist” by Seth Andrews. As many of you know, Seth was a devout Christian who not only loved contemporary Chris tian music but was one of the hosts of a popular morning show on KXOJ in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1990’s. On this podcast he shared some of the snippets of his shows back in the day showing how he was so into this fast growing music genre, which reminded me of an issue I had back in my days as a Jehovah’s Witness.
For those of you who are Jehovah’s Witnesses or who had previously been such will identify with this particular situation. Long before I joined Jehovah’s Witnesses I was a big fan of music of all types. Neighbors who could hear my music playing could hear a Johnny Cash song followed by a Roger/Zap song and that may be followed by a Black Sabbath or Queen tune.
I spent most of the 1980s as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and a small portion of the 1990s. During this time contemporary Christian music was exploding on religious radio stations and even crossing over to the secular ones. One of the first ones to do this on a big scale was Amy Grant. In 1984 she released the album “Straight Ahead” and this was the first Christian album chart on the Billboard pop album chart.
It was this album that made me become aware of a strange dilemma that faced Jehovah’s Witnesses who really enjoyed listening to music. A young sister in our congregation had a cousin, who was not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who gave her a cassette that was a copy of an album that she owned and that album was Amy Grant’s “Straight Ahead.” The reason the sister wanted to share it with us is that because the second song on side one is a tune titled “Jehovah.”
She played the tune for me and my then wife and we found it very interesting. Here was somebody from Christendom singing a song utilizing the word Jehovah. The chorus of the song is as follows.
And Jehovah I love You so
And Jesus I want You to know
All You've done for me to set me free
I'll never let You go
It was a cute little song. She made us a copy of the cassette and we played it every now and then as we found it more enjoyable than the songs crafted by the society such as “We are Jehovah’s Witnesses, We speak out in fearlessness” or “From house to house and door to door.” It pains me just repeating these lyrics many years later.
Not long after she had shared Amy Grant song with us, we were on our way to the Kingdom Hall and I thought I was tuning in to a local top 40 radio station when I accidentally tuned into a Christian radio station. Just as I turned the volume up I heard the following lyrics being sung through the speakers;
He's your provider, Jehovah Jireh
God of salvation, God of Messiah
The Son He sent to you, He testified of Him
He is Jehovah, the God that healeth thee
As soon as the song finished the announcer stated that that was the “great Kenneth Copeland.” I picked up a pen that was sitting in the cup holder and I wrote that name on a little pad I kept in there for field service notes.
A couple of weeks went by and I dropped by the record store that I had frequented many times over the years called “The Happening Sound Shop.” I went inside spoke to ol’ Bill. He had opened the record store around 1973 and was still doing pretty good business.
Although he was not distributor of Christian music for the most part he did take the name and looked into a large index of albums that he could order and quickly located it. He told me the name of the album is “He is Jehovah” and wanted to know if I wanted to order it.
I answered in the affirmative so he ordered for me and it came in about a week. When I went to pick it up I did experience a funny feeling knowing that I was buying music put out by a minister of Christendom, but the song did not have anything “wrong” with it. I took it back to the house and played it for my then wife and she liked it as well.
A few days later one of the local elders came by to see if I would be available for a quick-build Kingdom Hall project that would be coming up in the few weeks. While he was there I shared with him this song off of Kenneth Copeland’s album and watched his face go from a smile to one of concern. I was surprised when he told me that, while the song itself was quite biblical, that I should not be listening to this kind of music because it contained too many traps.
He then went on to explain these “traps” and it was both understandable to some degree but also quite confusing. He stated that Jehovah’s Witnesses for the most part choose to select music that comes from secular sources. While this can be a task in filtering out songs that have immoral or vulgar messages, most secular songs are not religious in nature and therefore is not as dangerous as music produced by “Christendom.”
He took the album and looked at the song titles. The last song on side 2 was entitled “Our God reigns.” He asked me to play it and at first there was nothing that seemed “wrong” with the song. In fact the background vocals are saying Jehovah reigns while the lead vocal stated ”Our God reigns.” Then toward the end of the song while these repeating the phrase “Our God Reigns” he suddenly shouts out “Almighty God Jesus of Nazareth and he reigns!”
He looked at me and he said “Do you see what I mean? Most of that song is right on the line until toward the end when he began his Trinitarian tripe. And that is why Jehovah’s Witnesses choose not to get involved with so-called Christian music. The Society suggests that you find enjoyment with the Kingdom Melodies and clean songs from the secular world.”
I found this quite the conundrum. If you enjoy music then you basically just had two sources. If you want biblically based music (so-called) then you have to suffer with the extremely bland tunes written and produced by the Society known as “Kingdom Melodies,” otherwise you have to jump into the realm of secular music which has its own inherent dangers, at least from a Jehovah’s Witness point of view.
Often found it very strange that Christendom could put out such really good music that they found biblically based, but the best that the Society could come up with was the dreadful sounds that seems better suited to playing at places like maximum security prisons and torture camps. Even my non-Jehovah’s Witness mom, who came by for a visit one day while I was playing the Kingdom Melodies stated “What are you listening to it sounds so depressing!“
So did any of you former Jehovah’s Witnesses also find this very confusing and unsettling? Did you have any problems finding good music to listen to? Or did your conscience constantly poke at you as you enjoyed tunes you know you shouldn’t be allowing into your auditory canals?
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50
My Story - a (kinda) newbie from the UK
by wizzstick inafter lurking for 7 and half years (is that a record?!
) its time for me to say hello.. so who am i, and whats my story?.
im a born in jw, with all my siblings, mother, wife and children in.
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donny
Welcome wizzstick. I too joined in 2005 but I "only" lurked for 3 years. I look forward to more of your observations.
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88
Former Long Time Elder, New Member
by James Jackson ini have served 20 years as an elder, 5 years as an ms. was on the district committee in 2010, held various positions on the district , circuit, and rbc level.
probably been on more than 100 judicial committees and even an appeals committee.
was the coordinator in our congregation and deleted because adult child was df ( i kicked him out at the time of his wrongdoing, but that wasn't enough for thr brothers).
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donny
Welcome to the forum James. Remember to take your time to carefully ponder what the Society is really all about.
Donny
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40
Who on here, are close to 60
by Quarterback inwow, where does the time go?
i'm scared of reaching this number, and yet i'm so close.. what is your health secrets?
what do you do for stress releif?
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donny
54 here.
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73
Why won't JWs have "civilized" debates with home owners?
by ilikecheese init seems kind of crazy to go to someone's house touting your religion as truth and then not even defend your own beliefs.
why do jws stop the chat if someone just tries to calmly reason/debate with them?
i'm not talking about crazy preachers who start slamming bibles and yelling about how they need jesus or something.
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donny
One of the big reasons is that many of the current JW's who have been around for several years understand that they are much like Catholics in that they follow what someone else tells them is the "truth." The current "overlapping" generation doctrine is so convoluted and confusing that the rank and file JW cannot explain it in a clear and concise manner.
I have 3 JW's who work at my place of employment and not one of them can explain why Jesus chose the Society as the faithful and discreet slave in 1919. Most now just go through the motions to get by.
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11
I am one of the Anointed
by Crazyguy ini realise now that all true christians that believe in christ and get baptized are anointed with holy spirit, making me one of the anointed.
i also believe the symbolic number of 144k are the first-fruits that will be pick by yehovah but no distinction until then (romans chapter 3).
so since there's a scripture in 1john i think that says the anointed will not need to be taught by others and will have understanding, i'm thinking of telling the elders 'do to the fact that i'm now anointed i no longer need to go to their meetings.
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donny
I became self annointed a few months ago.
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1
Message from Abraham
by donny inhello everyone, abraham here.
or some of you may have known me as abram.
and i apologize to donny for hijacking his jwn account, but i havent set one up yet.
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donny
Hello everyone, Abraham here. Or some of you may have known me as Abram. And I apologize to Donny for hijacking his JWN account, but I haven’t set one up yet. I wanted to tell you guys this funny story. Me, my nephew Lot and some of his buddies were just sittin’ around talking shit when someone used the phrase “You're making a mountain out of a molehill.”
Boy, I can sure relate to that statement. A few thousand years ago I was living in the city of Ur when this very annoying dude Jehovah showed up and told me to pack up and leave. Well, knowing the history of this psychotic guy and the fact that none of the locals would believe the profile of this person, I did what I was told.
I headed to this place called Canaan and what a pain in the ass trip it was. It was hot as hell and along the way I had to pass through this ghetto of a place called Egypt. The dudes there thought my 80-year old wife Sarai was da bomb so I had to bullshit ‘em and say she was my sister so they wouldn’t kick my ass.
We finally got out of there and ol’ Sarai began bagging and moaning that we were not bearing any kiddies. So she brought in this younger chick named Hagar and said “Bone her and have a kid and I will claim it as mine.”
Hagar was pretty fine so I did as I was told and lo and behold about 9 months later ol’ Ishmael popped out. Things were pretty cool for a while and then this Jehovah dude popped up and began making a mess of things again. God, he is a pain in the ass!!
He said that I had to sign a contract with him and that was really a legal pain, literally! As part of the agreement, Ishmael and I had to cut off the loose skin off our dicks! Can you imagine the pain and anguish that created?
At first I said “Hell No,” but again I recalled the crazy shit he had done to those folks of long ago who found themselves up an ocean without a boat, so I relented There is nothing more agonizing than feeling pulsating pain in your dongus . bomp..bomp……bomp..bomp……bomp..bomp.
Then ol’ Jah says “Cool dude! I didn’t think you would go through with it! I know I wouldn’t have. Anyhoo, I am changing your name to Abraham and your old lady will now be Sarah. Cool huh?”
Then these three rednecks show up and began to tell some tall tales. One of them said that when he returns next year my old lady will have a child from her own womb. Yeah right!! Even my old lady laughed at that one and the dude said that Jehovah can do whatever he wants so shut the hell up.
Then they left and two of them went to visit my nephew Lot who lived in the S&G metroplex area, very similar to DFW. Well these two fellows , who were hot to trot, showed up at Lot's place and suddenly the rainbow folks of the town wanted to pork them. Well my nephew Lot was not having any of that in his house and he did what any moral dad would do, he offered up his virgin teen-aged daughters to the mob, but they didn’t take him up on it.
Things got really rowdy so they had to leave and head out of town. On the way there was all of this racket and commotion coming from where the downtown area was and the next thing I know his old lady turned into a statue of salt. God she must have had some really high blood pressure problems! That excess sodium intake can be a mutha! Plus ol’ Jah completely destroyed S&G which is really going to stress the resources of the insurance companies in that region.
Since my nieces were not able to satisfy their sexual desire with the men of the city, they got their daddy drunk as hell for two days as they raped his ass. I made some money from the incident by capturing it on video and posting on an internet incest web site. The video is called “Daughters who get a LOT of dong.” Hey, y ou do what you gotta do to make ends meet.
So just like that old dude said about a year ago, my old lady pops up pregnant! Damn ain’t that a bitch!! Dealing with a woman with child is hard enough in its own merit but dealing with a 90+ year old lady with mood swings sucks! I didn’t have access to Midol like you folks do.
But it was a good thing as I got another son out of the deal and we called him Isaac. But then things got tiffy between Sarah and Hagar so I finally had to send her and Ishmael off on their own, much like brother Rutherford did with his old lady and son. I found out later that Ishmael was pissed at his father for doing this and converted to Islam.
And keeping with that insane commandment of Jah, I again had to cut the skin at the end of his tallywhacker off. Sheesh he seems to have such a preoccupation with guys’ shlongs I am beginning to wonder if he don’t swing both ways. After all he is the one who showed Noah the rainbow.
Well things were quite for a few years until moody Jah told me to go build an altar and offer up Isaac. Of course in my mind I thought “This dude is friggin’ out of his mind,” but after going back to Lots old house and seeing what a mess Jehovah did to that place, I wasn’t going to argue.
As we walked to the altar poor Isaac kept asking what we were going to barbeque so I had to bullshit him by saying that Jah boy would have some nice rips waiting for us. Then we arrived at the altar and as I picked up Isaac and placed him upon it and he yelled “Daddy, what the hell are you doing, I ain’t an animal.” He sounded just like Chris Griffin from Family Guy.
I replied “I know son, but God thinks you are so shut up and let me concentrate on the task at hand here.” Suddenly this dude with wings comes flying by and says “Hey yo Abraham! Are you fucking crazy! Why are you doing this?”
I replied that God told me to do it. The dude replied “Well if God said to jump off the Tower of Babel would you do it?”
“No,” I replied and the winged dude retorted “Well there you go.” I have to say here that that dude really could have used some under-wing deodorant. Plus he was also molting which made a mess of the area.
Then this cool looking sheep got hung up in the nearby bushes so we cooked that guy up instead. After that it was fairly quiet for me. Isaac went on and converted to Judaism and a bunch of his later relatives got tired of that mumbo jumbo and split off and started this crazy group called Christianity. I have tried reading their many books and stuff, but for the life of me I can’t make any sense out of it. One guy says “Hell yeah” and another says “Hell no.” Much too confusing for ol’ Abry here.
But apparently about half of the 7 or 8 billion folks on this earth claims to follow rules that I set up. Funny, but I don’t recall hardly any of them except that wee wee cutting thing and believe me, it is something you will never ever forget!
Warm Regards,
Abraham
P.S. I am going to be watching the Investigation Discovery channel this week. They are having a week long marathon on serial killers and I saw that one of them is going to be about that Jehovah dude. That episode will have to be several days long and I just hope many of the relatives of his victims find some sort of closure, but they probably won’t.