Posts by AllAlongTheWatchtower

60

Up to our elbows in Newbs on JWD

by IP_SEC in

jw
friends

wow, what's going on here?

i look at all the new folk here that seem to have joined in the past 2 months and are posters who are under 100 posts and i gotta wonder why.. has something happened in dubland recently to cause a lot of folk to reach out?

if you are new here at jwd, how did you find us?

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Some of you already know why I'm here from posts I have made; I came here because my wife is currently involved in the JWs. As for how I found this place, if I remember right, I found freeminds through rickross, and once on freeminds I found the link for here.

14

The Watchtower's Latest Stupid Annoucement

by metatron in

jw
friends

as many of you are now aware, the watchtower society is presently triggering official.

disfellowshippings by announcing that 'so and so is no longer one of jehovah's witnesses'.. thereafter, friendships and real family ties with the individual are to be immediately severed.. what gets ignored in this eagerness to shun is what the apostle paul actually said about the.

matter.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I have been an atheist for many years, so pardon me if I am rusty with biblical quotes...but how does the WT justify their DF/DA policy with the scripture that runs something along the lines of 'and does not the shepherd leave his flock, to go and find one lost sheep' or something along that line? It also continues with 'when he hath found it, he says unto his neighbors, rejoice with me, for I have found that which was lost' or something to that effect.

34

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 6-19-05 WT Study (Resurrection 3)

by blondie in

thing.

other again on earth one day.

10, published by jehovah's witnesses.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

"In the afternoon, they set out together on a sight-seeing trip to Blackpool, a nearby seaside resort. All 6 were among 12 people killed instantly in a motorway crash"

Ugh! I've never been a JW, but I hate this type of emotional blackmail...read as 'don't have fun or god will smite you'. The church I grew up with was very similar in that regard and some others (Worldwide Church of God). I still remember this one occasion when a bunch of kids from the congregation, three of whom were brothers, maybe two or three others involved who were friends of theirs. They were bored one summer day and ended up going out and flying a kite. How much more innocent can it get, a bunch of kids flying a kite? Anyway, the kite drifted into some trees or something, and a couple of them went to go get a ladder long enough to reach it. There were some powerlines nearby, and somehow in the process of trying to get the kite down the ladder touched the powerlines and and all but one of them got shocked.

Its been many years now, and I was a kid myself at the time, so I never really knew all the details...I do remember that at least two of them died, (two of the brothers, I think) and a couple others got some pretty severe burns and were hospitalized. The church leaders, instead of consoling the family, took the stance that the kids were rebellious and running wild, and that was the problem. I think it may have come out later that one of the kids was found with a pack of cigarettes in his pocket when the hospital returned his personal effects or something, and that was their reasoning. I still remember that the very next service; the sermon was about THEM specifically, not just rebellious kids, but telling what had happened and condemning the boys for it. The theme of the sermon was basically 'they had it coming'.

I never forgot that, and it was one of the things I always thought of when I began having doubts about that church.

14

Why not just hide?

by robhic in

after reading "running man's" excellent piece regarding cain and able the thought hit me: why not just hide from jehovah when armeggedon comes around?

he had to ask where able was after cain killed him.

adam and eve effectively hid from him in the garden after eating the apple.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

If god is omnipotent, why did he have to rest on the seventh day?

Also, if god and satan are enemies, god has worse intelligence info than pre-9/11 and pre invade-Iraq-to-get-the-WMDs Bush administration. I forget where its at, but there's a passage in the bible where god asks satan where he's been, and satan says 'oh, here and there, to and fro' or something flippant to that effect.

65

Hard Evidence of Life After Death, is there any?

by Blueblades in

.

are you a blind believer or do you have evidence of a continued existence beyond physical death either personal in nature or from scientifically valid sources?.

blueblades

AllAlongTheWatchtower

"notoriously not hard" But...when you die you become a 'stiff'

23

The Atheist's Book of Bible Stories - Ch. 2 - Raising Cain

by RunningMan in

at the time of this story, the bible tells us that adam and eve had two children, cain and abel.

now, dont forget that there are only four people on the planet.

so, apparently, cains only punishment was the requirement to move to another region.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Incidentally, I had already thought of using the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel as a way to feel out what JWs believed and try to refute them. I told my wife to ask them the following questions:

1) Do JWs accept the creation story as written in the bible, that Adam and Eve were the ONLY created humans?

2) Is it morally or religiously acceptable to be in an incestuous relationship?

3) If the answers to 1) = yes and 2) = no...then where did Cain's wife come from?

She told me she had been given the answers to my questions, and that they were:

1) Yes

2) Not anymore- Jehovah created Adam and Eve perfect, so incest was ok back then for a few generations after Adam and Eve, but after that it was a sin. (Guess they had "new light" back then too?)

3) Cain's wife was named Sara(h? She was unsure of the spelling, and had obviously been coached in the answers), and had indeed been his own sister. I have no idea where they came up with that one, though I am an atheist now at one point in time I was a good little bible student in a harsh fundamentalist group not unlike the JWs, and I NEVER heard a name put to Cain's wife. *shrugs*

45

List of things banned to JWs

by AllAlongTheWatchtower in

my wife is involved with jws, and i want to find out what they believe, things they do or will not do, that i can present to her in the hope that it will convince her that the jw lifestyle is not for her.

i found out a few things already, like blood and yoga which i told her about, but she was unphased.

("i've never needed a transfusion before anyway, and besides, they told me that doctors have blood substitute now".

AllAlongTheWatchtower

LOL @ Loosie...*ahem*...I'd like to think I'm pretty skilled in that department already and uhhh...*blush*...since she let me do the honors since telling me it was banned, I have to believe that she does too.

Blondie: Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, in LOTR the most powerful magic-user is Gandolf, and he is human. (How do they determine this stuff anyway, do they set up a committee of super-pure JWs who are beyond reproach to watch all the potentially "bad" movies, then tell the congregation what is banned? There is a famous quote I am reminded of by this, I forget who its by, but it goes "Who will watch the watchers?")

Elsewhere: I am especially concerned about the blood thing, as my wife is anemic.

Blackswan: We have no children as of yet, and due to things I am learning now about JWs, I'm not sure that I want any until this is somehow resolved. As for the why...I wish I knew. I can't help but wonder if I am partially to blame, my wife has been a stay-at-home housewife since getting out of the military, and I know that she is bored during the day when I'm at work...I keep asking myself if we had gone out more would she have been less bored, less inclined to take up with friendly and persistant people who kept coming to the door to talk...I've also been pressuring her somewhat to get a job, as money is tight for us...but she has been out of the military for some time now, and has said several times she feels like nobody wants to hire her because she has been out of the work force so long. Maybe I pressured her too much...or maybe as I saw someone say elsewhere here, its easy to feel good when you join the JWs, because whenever something doesn't go right you can chalk it up to "persecution".

31

Where's the payoff?

by AllAlongTheWatchtower in

excuse me if i'm being cynical, but i've had my own experiences with [b]organized religion, though it was non-jw.

the group i was affiliated with demanded that full fledged members tithe (10% off the top of your income; pre-taxes), and a donation basket was also circulated at nearly every gathering in addition to tithing.

even kids were encouraged to participate; they would give them little envelopes to put loose change into and put in the basket.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I've begun confronting my wife with some of the information I've found out from here, doing it slowly and calmly so as not to seem argumentative. When I told her that if she started doing field service she'd have to buy the literature herself, she didn't believe it, and said she's never seen anyone pay for it, they all just show up and load it into their cars.

45

List of things banned to JWs

by AllAlongTheWatchtower in

my wife is involved with jws, and i want to find out what they believe, things they do or will not do, that i can present to her in the hope that it will convince her that the jw lifestyle is not for her.

i found out a few things already, like blood and yoga which i told her about, but she was unphased.

("i've never needed a transfusion before anyway, and besides, they told me that doctors have blood substitute now".

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Yeah, HappyDad, she already told me that one, about a month ago.

Thanks Danny, for that very comprehensive list. My goodness, CHESS?! What a bunch of morons. We like to play a lot of boardgames together, mostly Scrabble and such, I tried to teach her chess but she didn't really care for it. I guess that means no Risk either, as it is a wargame. No Valentines Day? Meh, well it IS named after some christian saint, so I guess I see the logic there. What about personal events like marriage anniversaries? I wasn't aware that they were anti- military either, heh, I wonder if the study group she is in knows that we were BOTH in the military before? And what's wrong with being a cop? And...no SMURFS?!!! LMFAO, I am tempted to go find and buy one to hang on my door now. THAT would certainly give the ones that come here for study while I am away at work something to think about!

45

List of things banned to JWs

by AllAlongTheWatchtower in

my wife is involved with jws, and i want to find out what they believe, things they do or will not do, that i can present to her in the hope that it will convince her that the jw lifestyle is not for her.

i found out a few things already, like blood and yoga which i told her about, but she was unphased.

("i've never needed a transfusion before anyway, and besides, they told me that doctors have blood substitute now".

AllAlongTheWatchtower

My wife is involved with JWs, and I want to find out what they believe, things they do or will not do, that I can present to her in the hope that it will convince her that the JW lifestyle is not for her. I found out a few things already, like blood and yoga which I told her about, but she was unphased. ("I've never needed a transfusion before anyway, and besides, they told me that doctors have blood substitute now". "Well I used to like doing yoga, but I haven't done it in a couple years anyway, and its not that big a deal to give it up." So far the one thing I surprised her with was when she asked if I'd like to go to the Y to go swimming since its been so hot lately, and I told her she wasn't allowed. I told her she wasn't allowed to because the JWs think the YMCA is a false christian group. She didn't believe me at first, saying she would ask about it at the next meeting. A couple days later she dutifully reported that she really couldn't go to the Y, and said no more about it. She knows she is not supposed to smoke, but "I've been trying to quit anyway, you know that."

This is getting frustrating, there must be SOMETHING they don't allow that will shock her back to her senses. From what I have read here and elsewhere on the net, I get the impression that maybe ANY 'R' movie is banned, and definitely anything that is ghost/horror/supernatural? (We just watched the movie 'White Noise' last week, so I guess she doesn't know that yet. I have also heard that to JWs the internet is "the devil's invention"...she has her own website, so if that's true that'd be a good one.

Anyone who would like to, please repspond to this post with any item(s) you can think of that are banned to JWs that a perspective member might not know about yet. My wife has only been involved for about 7-8 months, I hope its not too late.