Swirlgirl - There were often rumors, and references to it in some of the obits (lifelong bachelor, declined to deny it when asked in an interview) -- but as it happens I'd heard it from a (gay) friend in the music industry who knew him personally from early in his career. Anyway, it's just one among many things he was (black, talented, successful, etc.) and I certainly didn't mention it to be derogatory. But it was kind of ironic, given his style of music.
melmoth
JoinedPosts by melmoth
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11
Luther Vandross
by pratt1 in.
maybe i missed an early post on the death of luther, but i just wanted to state that i am a big fan of his music and knowing that i will not ee him again in concert or wait with anticipation his next cd certainly makes me sad..
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Human Sexuality 101: Everything a young girl needs to hear?
by Check_Your_Premises in"body you" is very smart about a few, simple things.
this is how you want it because "body you" is kind of a moron.. fact 2: all living things have two primary desires: to stay alive, and to have offspring.. this is a basic, defining biological fact.
of course "brain you" doesnt think, "i want to talk to that cute boy because i want to procreate", but "body you" is!
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melmoth
All this male-female difference talk reminds me of a Bill Maher line on the topic:
"Our fantasies disgust you, and yours bore us." -
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Luther Vandross
by pratt1 in.
maybe i missed an early post on the death of luther, but i just wanted to state that i am a big fan of his music and knowing that i will not ee him again in concert or wait with anticipation his next cd certainly makes me sad..
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melmoth
Luther trivia: He wrote the McDonald's jingle 'You deserve a break today...' (Hmm, I wonder how old you have to be to remember that one?) And he was gay.
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melmoth
JHC
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Gays and the Bible.
by gumby infirst of all.....i ain't bashin gays here......just have a question.. this morning i read in the paper that the united church of christ has unanimously approved of same sex marriage.
this now is the largest protestant sect who has approved of gay marriages.. my question is.......how does religion justify a way of life the bible condems as sinful?
what is their scriptural argument to justify this action as proper?.
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melmoth
On the one hand, I've read arguments that the bible doesn't condemn homosexual acts and they've always seemed a bit of a stretch to me, although I haven't delved into them too meticulously.
On the other hand, it's true that the bible in one passage or another condemns all kinds of things that Xians who claim to be strict in their adherence just flat-out ignore, and rightly so. The selective reading is just a grasp at permitting themselves a moral or rational homophobia, just as it was in the past to justify racism. If you want to use the bible as a rationale for homophobia, come see me when you endorse and live by all its other harebrained passages. It would demonstrate unusual integrity while establishing your credentials as a complete nutter.
Regarding the comment that gay marriage proponents are trying to force churches to change their policy via laws, I've never heard of that. It does sound an awful lot like what right-wing moralists would LIKE you to believe is happening, as part of their general sky-is-falling campaign, but I doubt it's actually so. For instance, I would guess that churches (here in the US anyway) remain free not to marry inter-racial couples if they so choose. What's at issue is only what the state would recognize. So don't be conned on that score.
I'd also be curious to hear what the "social and economic ramifications" of gay marriage, mentioned in passing earlier in the thread, would be.
Finally, here's a timely quote from the prime minister of Spain, that bastion of Catholicism which just legalized gay marriage:
"We are enlarging the opportunity for happiness to our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and, our families: at the same time we are making a more decent society, because a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members.. . .
"Today, the Spanish society answers to a group of people who during many years have been humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, whose dignity has been offended, their identity denied, and their liberty oppressed. Today the Spanish society grants them the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, affirms their identity, and restores their liberty.
"It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone's triumph. It is also the triumph of those who oppose this law, even though they do not know this yet: because it is the triumph of Liberty. Their victory makes all of us (even those who oppose the law) better people, it makes our society better." -
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Is College now wrong for Jehovah's Witnesses again?
by booker-t ini have been out of the jw's for many years now but i still have devout jw's family members.
and i am attending college now at 40 yrs old working on my ba degree.
i was so happy a few years ago when my jw mom told me that the wt is slacking off on telling jw's teenagers that college is bad and it is ok to attend college and universities.
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melmoth
I went to college right after high school, in the early '80s. It was not a huge problem, though I commuted to one in the area rather than moving away for it - so i guess it didn't seem as though I was being set loose in 'the world.' That was more or less the compromise: I could go, but only locally. I still have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, I got my degree (BA) and that's made a huge difference for me - so it certainly could have been worse, had my parents been more diehard and obedient of the WS's 'guidelines' or 'suggestions.' College as I recall wasn't forbidden, just discouraged. On the other hand, I could have easily gotten into a much better school than where I ended up but didn't get that opportunity. Of course, the WS warned that college often led to independent thinking that could lead one astray. Turns out they got that one right. Thankfully.
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What is you (or somebodies) best blooper in the KH?
by DannyBloem infor example: we had a 'faithfull' brother getting older and confused.
when something did not really went as he liked it (didn't get the answer etc) he shouted very loudly 'god doom me in the hell!
one time i had to do the closing prayer on the midweek meeting.
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melmoth
Well this one's pretty tame, but I'll pitch it in anyway.
I and a few other teens were roped into doing an onstage discussion with an edler about I-cant-recall-what. He took everything very seriously, and as I recall we all had to meet up at his house to plan and rehearse this, even though it was just one short part of a normal meeting (the weekday evening one, not the book study - it's been a while now). Anyway, since we'd overprepared and pretty much knew down to the word exactly what he'd be asking and exactly what we were expected to reply, my mind must've wandered until suddenly he turned to me and asked something entirely unfamiliar. I gave him a blank look, stalled a few seconds for time, and finally gave up. "Umm, that's not my question," I said. Brought the house down.
Another time, also as a teen, I was giving a KM (?) talk on humility and opened it with "It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am." Not a blooper, but it was fun getting a laugh when there were usually so few. -
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New member - quick hello
by melmoth injust registered and thought i'd say hello.
been browsing the board here occasionally for a while, and thought i might want to join in now and then, so here i am.
for me, a lot of this brings up odd memories from long ago - though for many struggling in the jehovah's witless grip currently, it's clearly a lifeline and i wish it had been around when i was 'doing the fade' (as i've seen it referred to, and a great way to put it, btw) nearly 20 years ago.
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melmoth
Nice to have all these greetings so fast.
rebel8: Yes, I recall thinking that the 'cult' arguments were a bit over the top when I first came across things online. I've since come to believe that there is at least some validity to that way of looking at it - especially after reading experiences of people whose exit was far tougher than mine.
MerryMagdelane: Funny - I forget some of these odd little details of JW life: highlighting passages from the junior-high-level articles to read back, slightly reworded. For me now, it's all just weird nostalgia, but I do feel for those who are still down the rabbit hole, as it were. And I'll try to stay active, if only to avoid having a pair of Master Members coming round my place for an encouraging call. (My apartment building has doormen who keep the riff-raff from wandering in, so don't bother.)
TheListener: You're right, 'lifer' doesn't quite fit for those born into JW families. Is there another term that works?
EvilForce: I've been meaning for years to sit down with my father and ask him if he really genuinely went year to year as I grew up, expecting The End to come at any time. Part of my hesitation is that I honestly don't know what his relationship is to the JWs these days. I believe he and my mother (now deceased) got into it in large part because he'd been a drafted war veteran at a young age and saw enough horror to make him receptive. He could vouch personally, I'm sure, for the idea that the world and mankind is awful - he'd seen it for himself. I know he had doubts, and he made no fuss at all about my fading off - I just don't know how deep the doubts went, or what he was thinking at the time. He might well have been pleased for me - I just don't know (yet).
I'll write it all down sometime, for what modest use it might be to someone, somewhere.
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New member - quick hello
by melmoth injust registered and thought i'd say hello.
been browsing the board here occasionally for a while, and thought i might want to join in now and then, so here i am.
for me, a lot of this brings up odd memories from long ago - though for many struggling in the jehovah's witless grip currently, it's clearly a lifeline and i wish it had been around when i was 'doing the fade' (as i've seen it referred to, and a great way to put it, btw) nearly 20 years ago.
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melmoth
Oops - sorry about the long single paragraph. I didn't realize it would format like that, and I can't see how to go back and edit it.
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23
New member - quick hello
by melmoth injust registered and thought i'd say hello.
been browsing the board here occasionally for a while, and thought i might want to join in now and then, so here i am.
for me, a lot of this brings up odd memories from long ago - though for many struggling in the jehovah's witless grip currently, it's clearly a lifeline and i wish it had been around when i was 'doing the fade' (as i've seen it referred to, and a great way to put it, btw) nearly 20 years ago.
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melmoth
Just registered and thought I'd say hello. Been browsing the board here occasionally for a while, and thought I might want to join in now and then, so here I am. For me, a lot of this brings up odd memories from long ago - though for many struggling in the Jehovah's Witless grip currently, it's clearly a lifeline and I wish it had been around when I was 'doing the fade' (as I've seen it referred to, and a great way to put it, btw) nearly 20 years ago. I'll relate my story sometime, though it's fairly tame by comparison to others I've read. It could have been far worse. It's occurred to me that there are a couple of basic distinctions among ex-JWs, and I'd be interested in hearing some thoughts about them. (Pardon me if this has all been hashed through many times; I've read back through the board but not exhaustively.) Lifers vs. Converts: Those raised as JWs (as I was) probably tend to have a different view of things than those who were enticed in. I don't feel as conned personally as I am curious as to how and why my parents were - I have my suspicions, but that will wait for another time. Christians vs. Godless: Many remain devoted to Christian teachings, having rejected the WBTS but retaining their faith and practicing it in some other way, with other groups, etc. I'd assume these are the ones most interested in debating doctrine. As for me, I'm quite happily agnostic and have no real use for organized relition (although Buddhism, as a non-authoritarian philosophy, interests me). I certainly don't mean to criticize those for whom the trinity (for example) remains an important topic, and dissecting the WBTS's various revisions and contradictions is certainly important to anyone trying to determine whether they are divinely guided (ludicrous as that sounds to me now). Still, it's nice to see what I think is a sort of amiable coexistence here. Or maybe I haven't been here enough to see the friction. I'd be curious to learn whether there's any general correlation between these two - are JW converts more likely to transfer to another faith than those born into it? I also suspect the process of leaving is to some extent different for us lifers. Things you learn and accept as a child, good and bad, are tough to shake off. I stumbled across 'apostate' info online about a decade after I'd last attended a meeting, and I have to admit I paused before delving into it - still sent a bit of a chill down my spine, if you know what I mean. That's enough for now. Greetings to all, and I look forward to stopping by here once in a while. Melmoth