donny

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Posts by donny

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  34

  Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Curse of Music.

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovahs 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

  It's interesting to see that nothing has really changed except the ones who attend the meetings.
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  16

  How much of the Society's publications just get stored away in the garage?

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  almost a year ago i moved back to the dallas - fort worth area after spending 16 years in the northern california area.

  the area i live in has several nearby parks and walkways and these areas have several "share a book" pods mounted on a pole spaced about 1/2 mile from one another.

  people are encouraged to add books they no longer use to these pods and to take one if they are interested.. i have been diligent on removing watchtower publications from them and what has surprised me is how many old publications in pristine condition are added almost on a daily basis.

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  donny

  Almost a year ago I moved back to the Dallas - Fort Worth area after spending 16 years in the Northern California area. The area I live in has several nearby parks and walkways and these areas have several "Share a book" pods mounted on a pole spaced about 1/2 mile from one another. People are encouraged to add books they no longer use to these pods and to take one if they are interested.

  I have been diligent on removing Watchtower publications from them and what has surprised me is how many old publications in pristine condition are added almost on a daily basis. Brand new looking copies of "True Peace and Security - From What Source?" (1973) "Is This Life All There Is?" (1974), "The Truth That Leads to Everlasting Life" (1981) appear in the pods almost as fast as I can remove them.

  That makes me wonder how much of the Society's publications are still sitting in people's hoarding areas and have yet to see the light? This is not the only time I have seen this phenomenon so it must mean a lot of that crap fortunatley never made it to its intended victims.
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  75

  How did you feel when you found out "the truth about the truth"?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so when you first found out specific facts about the organisation, how did you feel??.

  the un membership.

  the way 1914 was calculated from pyramid measurements.

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  donny

  It was like I had been hit by a Mack truck. I had heard some comments made by Ray Franz in 1984 on an old religious talk show called "Talk back with Bob Larson" who himself showed to be a few cards short of a deck later on. Ray made comments about 1874 being the original date of Christs return and he talked about the "fake" Mexico card that JW's bribed the officials for which the Society allowed versus the JW's in Malawi who gave up their lives to avoid buying a 25c politcal party card to show their support for the dictator of that country. When I began quizzing the elders on these issues, they were not interested in giving me answers, but concerned why I was asking them and whom had I been talking to. I knew then that they were trying to hide something.
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  29

  Do You Think Any Of The Governing Body Are Contemplating Suicide? Over This Rather Rude Financial Reality?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  faithful and always so very discrete in many things but when it comes to the lord's money not so good.. i think as it begins to register in their minds as to what a terrible job they have done as ceos of a large corporation leading it into this condition that thoughts of suicide come from.

  not to mention the shame at being a public spetical to the world by the rc.

  all these things and more are creeping through their denial as they are forced to face reality.

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  donny

  Nah, they don't have the nads for that.
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  9

  Could Have Been Worse

  by Perry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  leah rimini spent a lot of money before she ditched her cult: .

  over the years she says she spent about $2 million for services and training courses and made another $3 million in donations.

  among her expenses was $40,000 to compensate scientology for sandwiches... article.

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  donny

  I know a woman who used to be in Scientology. That organization is about as controlling and corrupt as they get.
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  212

  Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?

  by Tenacious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?

  was it the wts and all its crap?

  was it something you read?

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  donny

  I tried going to several of the more "traditional" Christian routes after leaving the JW's, however when applying the same skeptic tactics to them that I applied to the Watchtower, their belief systems also failed to pass the smell test. After some time I came to the conclusion that is there is a creator, it has no interaction with the material world and is most certainly not the being that is the central figure of what is known as the Bible.
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  10

  It's not your conduct, it's your status

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jw's often state that their practice of disfellowshipping is used to keep the congregation clean and free of "worldly" influences and the like, however that is just pure b.s.

  in actual practice, all they actually care about is your status according to the watchtower society.

  case in point is ray's situation.. ray disassociated himself about 20 years ago because elders and other jw's were constantly spreading false rumors after he quit attending meetings.

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  donny

  Yes. Ray is a not his real name, but I know him. I also an friends with a guy who is the son of a Circuit Overseer. The son became disenfranchised with being a JW and faded away and is now an atheist. His dad gave him instructions on how he is to behave so he will not have to cut him off. This has been going on for about 14 years now and he still fellowship with mom and dad and any other Witness for that matter.
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  10

  Did you see a GB member ever...

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  today i read a news topic about the pope in the us.

  of course, we were all indoctrinated that the pope is the devil himself.

  but, did you see a gb member or a local wts official ever giving attention to a paralyzed witness?

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  donny

  I was part of the "in crowd" when I was a JW and I got to work in the sound and security depts at most of the assemblies and conventions. I was also in a congregation that had two "heavyweight" elders that worked closely with the Society to set up conventions in the North Texas area. As a result, we almost always had a GB member give the keynote talk. I was often appointed to escort the guy to and from his secured floor hotel room and other than small talk, most were pretty dull. The ones I met were John Barr, Ted Jaracz, Lloyd Barry, Dan Sydlik, Lyman Swingle, Carey Barber and Milton Henchel.
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  447

  Does Anyone Still Believe in God?

  by LaurenM in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  do any of you ex-jw's still believe in god?

  even with the new rebranding/softening of this religion, i still don't see how people can believe in him.

  the god of the old testimate is an angry murderer who approved rapes and slavery and killed thousands of men, women and children.

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  donny

  I tried several "traditional" Christian faiths after leaving the Society, but after applying the same skeptic logic to them, I found them to be easier to accept, but equally untrue. I am now an agnostic atheist.
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  10

  It's not your conduct, it's your status

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jw's often state that their practice of disfellowshipping is used to keep the congregation clean and free of "worldly" influences and the like, however that is just pure b.s.

  in actual practice, all they actually care about is your status according to the watchtower society.

  case in point is ray's situation.. ray disassociated himself about 20 years ago because elders and other jw's were constantly spreading false rumors after he quit attending meetings.

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  donny

  JW's often state that their practice of disfellowshipping is used to keep the congregation clean and free of "worldly" influences and the like, however that is just pure B.S. In actual practice, all they actually care about is your status according to the Watchtower Society. Case in point is Ray's situation.

  Ray disassociated himself about 20 years ago because elders and other JW's were constantly spreading false rumors after he quit attending meetings. After a while of putting up with this, he wrote a letter of disassociation which then placed him on the black list of JW world.

  From that point on he was cut off and ostracized from the community he had been a part of for many, many years. His wife filed for divorce shortly after and moved away with his three kids, one son and two daughters.

  Over the years he did nothing to harass the Witnesses but yet he was considered as dead, described as a bad person, an evil slave, a person full of demons and so on. Actually he is a very nice guy and remarried a few years after his wife divorced him and has done well for himself.

  His son remained in the religion and is now an elder.

  Daughter #1 married a JW about 12 years ago and divorced him 2 years later. She then married a man who was in the U.S. Marines and unfortunately he died in Iraq about a year later. A year later she moved in with a man with whom she has had two children out of wedlock. She left him for about a year and lived with a 4th guy, but has now reconciled and is back with #3.

  Daughter #2 faded from the religion after she graduated from high school several years ago and has told her mom and friends around her that she does not "believe that shit" anymore and is an atheist.

  As of today, Ray is still considered someone worthy to be shunned even though he has no animosity toward any JW's nor has said anything negative about them.

  However, his two daughters have never been counseled, marked or disfellowshipped from the organization even though their lifestyle is known by several elders and other Witnesses. They can still attend meetings and freely associate with those in attendance.

  Why is that? Because their status has not been updated to one worthy of being shunned even though their lifestyle says otherwise. The youngest daughter even plays golf on occasion with an elder in the congregation she grew up in and he knows how she feels about the Witnesses and religion in general.

  So it is not your conduct or lifestyle that makes you unworthy of fellowship, it's the status or label that is assigned to you by the Society that does.