thom

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Posts by thom

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  48

  Just got home from the assembly!!!!! How fortunate I am!!!!

  by gringojj in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  okay i just returned from the assembly in historic amherst, mass.

  i justlove the old houses in that town very nice.

  anyways to recap the good parts, first off obedience.

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  thom

  "I have not been to a assembly in about 8 years, and it doesn't sound like I missed anything."
  But every assembly is the "best one yet!" (how many times have you heard that?). See what you've been missing?
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  8

  Did Elders fail to meet requirements they made of you?

  by Wasanelder Once in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  our po and his wife were both pioneers.

  he is young and a sarcastic bastard.

  one time he stood in the back of the hall while the meeting was going and said to me "this headship business is a bunch of crap!

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  thom

  I remember a circuit assembly that had a talk about raising children. Typical JW talk handled by two brothers sitting and discussing the subject.
  What really bothered me was that these two particular brothers never had any children. There were plenty of elders available, I'm sure, that were fathers, but these two were picked to give the talk.
  That went to show me that they really don't understand what they're doing (FDS) and the CO I believe is the one who picks who gives the talks and he's never had children either. Really went far to show me how little thought is put into telling us what to do.
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  28

  What to do??

  by RichieRich in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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??.

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  thom

  I tend to wonder what God is going to do. With everyone at peace, no war, no death, won't he get bored?
  He won't be able to rain down fire on entire cities. Won't be able to kill firstborn children. Won't be any stonings. I wonder if he's thought this out?
  I know killing billions of people might be satisfying for a while, but I really think he's going to get bored after a while and then what's he going to do?
  I really think he would have put more thought into this.
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  12

  If A JW Can Let A Loved One Die, What Else Could They Do?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if a witness would not allow a blood transfusion to an innocent child, what makes us think that they would not be more capable to do something else?

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  thom

  "I think more than a few of them have indicated that if certain legal restraints were removed, they might be more than happy to engage in a stoning or two."
  Yeah, it must be rough to be so restricted. From The Watchtower March 1st 1952:
  "The law of the land and God's law through Christ forbid us to kill apostates, even though they be members of our own flesh-and-blood family relationship."
  Wow, EVEN if they're our own flesh and blood? How restrictive! Well, I guess you have to control yourself no matter how strong your desire to murder your family.
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  32

  help my mother is brainwashing my 10 yr old

  by squirlyboo in

  1. social
  2. family

  ughhhhh, i left "the truth" when i was 16 i had my daughter when i was 18. while is was finishing college my mother watched my daughter for me , so they are very very close.

  well whenever my daughter goes to visit usualy about a week at a time my mother takes her to the hall .

  she fills her head with the doctrine and tells her that ill say bad things about it and scares her into not telling me about it .

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  thom

  My situation is similar as I am a single father of a 12 year old daughter. I (we) stopped attending meetings about 9 months ago and just about 100% of my extended family are JW's. I travel now and then for business and leave my daughter with my grandmother or her aunt/uncle (on mothers side) sometimes when I do. They take her to meetings and she basically does all the JW stuff with them.
  What's worked for me is that I know what they're pumping into her head and I know what JW's teach and believe. I then teach her the REST of the stuff JW's believe, like "What do you think of your friend *******? Do you think she's bad? What would you think if Jehovah planned to kill her? We'll, did you know that witnesses believe that God is going to kill everyone who's not a witness at Armageddon? Do you think that's nice, or fair? Is that how you want to believe and what you want to look forward to?
  I realize that might be harsh talk for some kids, but my daughter can handle that type of discussion well. She seems to really understand the strange and cruel things that JW's teach even though my family never tells her about it. I do. I feel it's HER decision what she does in her life and I just want her to have all the facts. At this point she has no desire to be a JW and feels their teachings are very cruel and strange. But she's respectful to JW family and does what she's told when with them.
  I felt that if I just insisted she not be talked to or anything about it from family, she (my daughter) would see that restriction and later in life might become interested again. As of right now she expresses regularly how happy she is we are not JW's and how she doesn't want to be. Hopefully, that will continue.
  I think the critical part is to maintain a very open relationship with your child so they are always ready to open up and discuss whatever is on their mind. I never quickly react when she says stuff, even if it shocks me. Early on she told me she wanted to still go to meetings with family. I told her that's fine and that's her decision, but we talked more and discussed it and a couple of weeks later she had changed her mind. I want her to know that she can ALWAYS talk to me about ANYTHING. Without that, I think it would be very difficult to protect her from their (JW's) influence.
  Just wanted to express how I handle such a situation in the case it's helpful.
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  17

  Helpful JWs

  by greendawn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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?

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  thom

  I remember once a df'd sister had a flat tire after the meeting and everyone was ignoring her. Then one brother went over and changed the tire for her.
  People were looking at him like he was doing something wrong, and he was looking back with a look like "I dare you to get me into trouble for this.
  As far as I know, nobody did anything to him about it.
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  45

  Phone Witnessing...

  by RichieRich in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in my congregation, there is a well established group that does phone witnessing every thursday.

  the society actually encourages us to try other avenues of ministry, however it seems like phone witnessing is hurting more than its helping.... even i, the covert apostate, don't mind phone witnessing.

  i mean whats not to love?air conditioningfoodsitting around and talkinggirlsdid i mention food?.

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  thom

  Several years ago I was tasked with creating telephone territories for our cong I was the territory servant (and the literature servant as I was the only MS in the congregation). They were made for apartment complexes that we couldn't get in to. I looked up the addresses on the internet and did reverse phone number lookups to create the territories. They came out pretty good and were pretty accurate. But I never actually did phone witnessing myself, I was way too self conscious and paranoid to call people that didn't want me to call. Anyway, that's how I made the territories. People would then sit around a table and take turns calling numbers. I guess the ones who's turn it was NOT would still count their time during the 20 minutes or so it was until their turn again.
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  30

  The next cover-up or scandal?

  by kwintestal in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  my personal thoughts are this.

  with the population aging and with jw's becomming incresingly poor, there will be a lot more elder abuse, and i don't mean congregation elders, but elderly people.. does anyone know of this taking place in the congregations?.

  kwin

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  thom

  Thanks kls :)
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  30

  The next cover-up or scandal?

  by kwintestal in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  my personal thoughts are this.

  with the population aging and with jw's becomming incresingly poor, there will be a lot more elder abuse, and i don't mean congregation elders, but elderly people.. does anyone know of this taking place in the congregations?.

  kwin

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  thom

  I think Daunt has a good point that it's really how it would play out in the media.
  JW's feel that they're better than everyone else, more moral and stuff, but most people don't really know what the "leaders" have to say and basically think JW's are just generally weird.
  The Catholic Church, on the other hand, gets politically involved to try to push their idea of morals on the rest of us and ends up looking like they think they're more moral than the rest of us.
  To people in general, it's probably more "fun" to see those that promote their morality through media and everywhere else get toppled than to see some weird small group get the same thing.
  Just my guess.
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  15

  227 District Conventions in U.S. - Some Ideas

  by TheListener in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok so on the watchtower website it says there are 227 district conventions to be held in the u.s.. by my count:.

  54 spanish.

  3 american sign language.

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  thom

  I seem to remember hearing a few years ago that the intention was to have smaller conventions but more of them. Not sure the reasoning.