so, hubby gets contacted today by one of the elders saying 2 of them want to pay us a visit and asks him when we are available.
we both had the heart drop feeling for a few minutes lol.
but he promptly, and politely, informed them that we are very busy but he will let them know when we are free.
Anyone find it ironic that people in the inquisition at least had a discussion about ideas and concepts, rather that strict loyalty tests. Just read about Galileo. Even though it was stacked against him, he was able to face his accusers and have an intellectual discourse, the evidence still being a matter of record, half a millennium later.
No doubt, crap happened, but ideas were discussed, not just suppressed in some cases. No option for that among JWs.
i was straddling the fence on that one, just in case they were right.
i don't recall.
telling anyone this is your last chance.
I was 8 in '75. I believed it. My excuse was that I was eight.
Afterwards though, I was skeptical and all those fears while still there, still made it easier for me to question things. I'm glad I did!
an older man and wife - ray and mary - got chatting to me today.
they were tourists admiring local wildlife.
i gave them a few tips on where to go to see some interesting things and it wasn't long before they were telling me about how awful the world is "nowadays" and paradise yadda yadda.
i saw this coming since my mother-in-law's funeral .... the congregation's "love-bombing" over my wife had its impact.
i watched her drawing closer and closer to her friends in the congregation.
then she decided she would attend the memorial.
what's with all this new kingdom hall building?
just watched jw broadcasting about their master plan for building new kingdom halls.
sounds like a big deal.
We have a new style kh here, built near freeways, hotels and a large medical clinic. Its small. The gates are locked all the time, shut when meetings are going on. Its weird. Local mormon churches have gates open during activities, jws are in there loke its jail. In my area are 2 halls, 2 English cong, 2 spanish and 2 others. Vietnamese and Cambodian, I think. Never seen a jw on the streets or my neighborhood except when one of them thrust a tract at me in mcdonalds parking lot as she was headed to hall one sun morn.i guess her half hour walk was a good way to get in some time.
New hall is a single, adequate parking. Both old and new halls have high security gates. New hall has many windows, old hall has none. An old hall on other side of freeway in a nice neighborhood with beautiful grounds is gone now. I think they are in storefront locale.
as part of my journey as a sepahrdic jew, i am off on a journey that will take me to both spain and israel to apply for the right of return offered to me by both nations.. as such i will be absent from this delightful forum during this life-changing odyssey.
till that time we are together again, be assured you are in my thoughts and (for those of you who do not mind) my prayers.. please know you have contributed to me greatly and have helped me much, all of you.
it is rewarding to freely share, discuss, even debate issues here so freely.
so when my mom died in 2007 the main thing that kept me from losing it was that i knew i would see her again in the earthly paradise that i read and sang about in the jw publications.
i honestly fully believed in it.
we were best friends and it was devastaing to lose her.
i know there is much encouragement for charities to have financial transparency and i'm all for it reguardless of whether they are a religion or whatever.
also lawsuit pay out should made easy identifiable on tax form too.
any charity should be accountable to the general public when funds are used to pay out lawsuits so that the general public is aware of where their money is going.
I think they should all be required to be extremely transparent and restricted, too. It should be proven to do good in the world,, not just a shell/vehicle to move money around.
i've finally got round to joining the site (after over 2 years lurking!
i was born into jws, pioneered for 10 years (met my husband at pioneer school).
had health issues that saw me catapulted away from 'the centre of the cong' and wow what a different place that was!
what were *your favorite *books in the organization?.
out of all of those books, i liked "mankind's search for god.
" however, it appears to me that this book is incredibly obscure and no one recalls studying it during the old book study format.
