hello fellow apostates!
my first post and a long time lurker here.
i would like to thank all of you for the existence of this board as this has been instrumental for me in leaving the place i once knew as "the truth".
Titles are not copyrightable, but the typesetting may have something proprietary about it.
I would check with a business attorney before doing anything if you are still so inclined.
I will agree however though, that it is a pretty limited market and the irony (?) would be lost on most.
my real name is benjamin heath, i live in southern oregon, usa, and you can always reach me on twitter @ben_heath_.
i have also rebooted my blog at benheathonline.com which is linked with my twitter.
i intend to write about experiences at work and in life, as well as whatever it is i'm reading about at the moment.. i'm a programmer by hobby, a truck driver by profession, an atheist by education and reasoning, and an ex-jw by choice.
Hi Benjamin! Im Michelle. We like having you here.
http://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/jehovahs-witnesses-women-religion-serena-williams-news-81664/.
by lydia segebrecht december 16, 2016. an open letter to serena williams about jehovah’s witnesses’ treatment of women.. dear serena,.
i want to start by applauding everything you said in your open letter that was reproduced on the guardian website last week.
I wonder how many JW men would dare utter the words "weaker vessel" after playing a set of tennis with her? She is very strong, very fit and very skilled. Probably much more generous, too.
i figured i'd shut the site down for a couple of hours to encourage everyone to do their xmas shopping.
the error message was a subtle hint, that's what "500 error" means ... go shopping.. whatever rumours you hear, it definitely wasn't that someone deployed a quick update before going on a 1.5 hour car ride to pick someone up and didn't think that the page they tested, to check it was all working after the update, happened to be cached.
no siree bob, not that, na hah.. anyway, you're welcome for the extra chance to, erm, shop..
I got some cheeze itz since I don't do much Christmas. And made cookies. So. . . thanks so much! Like peanut butter cookies?
the jw org keeps its servants busier than ever these days so that their minds are occupied 24/7.
they ensure that there is no time for anything "worldly" to distract them.. in last week's watchtower article on spiritual health they are putting pressure on the congregation to learn other languages on top of everything else they do.
they allude to the fact that their spiritual health will suffer if they cannot understand the talks and publications in other languages.
Yeah, but I've had folks at door more than once who were so intent on using their second language that they passed up the opportunity to speak with a person who spoke the same language as they did from birth..
i have read through some of these, though not in complete, but enough to see some of these writings could fit into the wt views, such as arian beliefs of jesus.
it would also help separate themselves quite a bit from "christiandom" and their bible.
the "new light" of books not accepted in the canon.
I need to find a reference, but one of the NT teachers or Jesus made reference to things that were only taught in an apocryphal book that is not accepted by the WT but which were considered authoritative enough to use it for teaching, reproving or setting things straight in the NT.
So, it's already in there.
notice the 144000 can be counted and they all come from israel.. 9 after this i saw, and look!
a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues,*+ standing before the throne and before the lamb, dressed in white robes;+ and there were palm branches in their hands.+ .
this great crowd, no man was able to number, and they come from every nation!
No matter what you are reading or how you phrase these things, there is one incontrovertible fact that even the WT agrees with NO ONE would come up with the WT teachings by simply reading scripture. Believer or unbeliever, there is no way that anyone would have come up with the scenario that the WT has proposed (any of them) based on the Bible. The official and unofficial WT teachings and beliefs are unsupported by scripture, whether you believe the scripture or not. The anticipated tribulation as the WT is portraying it and the 1000 years. . . and whatever the hell they claim lies beyond it. Its a whole lot of fantasy mixed with conveniently out of context proof texts. ...
And, I won't lie. The fantasy has some initial appeal. Just don't think about it any deeper than your little fingernail because the entire thing starts looking kind of whacked, illogical and ultimately ugly. If you haven't been enjoying the WT artwork, you should start paying more attention to the end time themed ones, as well as the new system ones. Your fantasy is just that. A fantasy. But after a while, it starts seeming more like a surreal, dystopian nightmare.
hey everyone.
so a few weeks back i getva knock at the door, i could tell they were jw immediately, its always obvious.
i think its just a regular door knock but at 5.30pm i did think it weird.
I am a disassociated, unbaptized publisher. They can and do DA folks for that. If all they are doing is (in the more common mealy mouthed way they do it now) say that you are no longer a Jehovah's Witness, it looks, feels and acts just like you are DA/DF'd.
And I have wondered a few times if they just THOUGHT I was baptised or what. . . but they knew I was not! It was the early 80's and my DAing was right around the time Ray Franz was DFd. I think that may have had some bearing on their eagerness to be rid of me, though I actually DA'd before I knew anything about Ray. I didn't know till I read it in the Time magazine. I was not yet 16. I had no idea that I would be cut off like that.
this is an actual case.
a jw was recently disfellowshipped heres the reason.
he was and elder and regular pioneer at the time baprized 40 years he decides to rent a room from a women who rents rooms out to singles ,he moves in and there's another guy there also renting a room he happens to be disfellowshipped .
Eh, he'd be better of if he existed.
hey everyone.
so a few weeks back i getva knock at the door, i could tell they were jw immediately, its always obvious.
i think its just a regular door knock but at 5.30pm i did think it weird.
Maybe an excuse to DA you? I left when I was 15, too. Never baptized. Wasn't speaking out other than to tell elders I wasn't going to progress any further. Maybe a sibling wants you officially cut out so they will inherit without having to share? They know you won't hold back, right? Crazier things happen.
