i have been here over 2 years, some of you for many more.
i come and go with postings.
there are so many fighting history with current marriages to jw's, time put in as elders or what ever title you held.. some of us grew up in the worst possible time period,....description is not always possible here.. sometimes i feel we can;'t get beyond it.....we just keep talking about... is that bad or is that ok?.
Being a JW is a unique experience that changes you. Or if raised in it it forever sets your course in life. This isn't necessarily bad, but it is like was said here, an ex relationship. maybe one that you have a kid with. I know I've moved on, yet I know I will probably always be involved with the ex-JW community.
Isaac
i was 19, a pioneer, and a mini-serve.......first literature, then territory, and account servant at 21.....of course a janitor/window washer too (not that there is anything wrong with that!...it paid well!
).....i turned down elder as i am very non-judgemental....but almost did it so i could let everyone off in committees......geeze how i wish i had been in in college gettin laid............oompaundercover inspired this thread btw........
From 12 on I was did stuff like magazines, MS at 22, elder at 28, out at 39!
Isaac
i got this verified today.
seven congregations that were in my old circuits now are only three.. north and south gardner, ma were merged.. north and south claremont, nh were merged.. north adams, ma and bennington, vt were merged.. the wilmington, vt congregation was dissolved.. there has been discussion to merge the keene and swanzey, nh congregations, but there are some strong personalities among the two bodies of elders opposing that, so it is not likely to happen, though i hear that keene has got some big problems in its boe and very poor service, etc.. that's 9 congregations within about a 70 mile radius that are all seeing some serious trouble.. anyone hearing anything similar happening where they are?.
s4.
This has been happening in the NYC area for some years now. I haven't checked lately so it may have slowed down.
Isaac
happy square root day!
tuesday is square root day, a rare holiday that occurs when the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the current year.
numerically, march 3, 2009, can be expressed as 3/3/09, or mathematically as 9 = 3, or 32 = 3 3 = 9.. .
Happy bday and happy square root day!
Isaac
i was given permission by a jw friend of my wife and me to post this experience.
she's anonymous and posts on the board.
she is married to a witness still but is fighting on behalf of children in her congregation to not be a next victim of a pedophile who attends her congregation.
So I wanted to post this thread to show how easily ANY JW switches from being a real or authentic, supportive person to a mind controlled non-supportive person making fake excuses in support of the WT society views ! And all it took was one catch phrase " not believing in God " to set the P.O. elder into cult protection overdrive !
Flipper, this about sums it up. And it speaks to why there is a problem with this religion.
Isaac
just saw the weather report showing a huge band of tornados moving through.
i think snowbird is right in the middle of it..
bttt
i was disappointed in this book, i kept reading it hoping it would get better.
i guess i got spoiled by this forum.
i have found better writings and stories here and a heck of a lot more humor.
I'm reading it now. Its actually fairly funny. Of course that's just me. What I do like about it is it accurately captures JW living without just being a boring biography. Someone who was looking to find out how JW's are raised and think about things might find this book useful. I'm about a third through it.
Isaac
If my memory serves me correctly, the Jonadabs were to form the "great multitude". That may mean that they have morphed into the "great crowd", or should I say future "great crowd", since the "great crowd" don't exist till after the "great tribulation". So I guess the Jonadabs are the "other sheep", who will form the "great crowd". Thank goodness I no longer care beyond my usual interest in religion as a social force in society. All their terms and classes are headache inducing.
Isaac Carmignani
years ago, you could attend a meeting and hear a well researched talk or give an answer from the watchtower that had some "meat" on it.
i remember in the 70s when witnesses used to look forward to ruminating on what might be a "new point" or a veiled possible new understanding of a doctrinal view.. these days, the only thing you could learn from a meeting is that brother so-and-so got deleted or "is no longer a witness".. what a bore!.
Funny, I learned a lot years ago. But as time went on there was a dumbing down. When I gave parts I tried to restore that old depth I remembered. But even the pubs say little more than obey the "slave". There is very little to learn anymore at meetings. Or maybe it was that it became just so much repetition.
Isaac
and in a kinda funny way........this friend of mine.......who is very close friend of my df'd son and is much younger than me.....he has been dfd for ten years and shunned by his family and really reall misses them......and has been in a longterm gay relationship and i always felt bad for him because there is almost no way to come back in...then fade...if you are in a gay relationship.......so anyway he has heard me trashtalk wt a ton...and seemed to have zero problem with that and griped about his wt issues...... so i call him the other day and immediately respond with some comment about the damm cult.......we he says," wow oompa you prob don't know but i am going to all the meetings again!!
so i am just snap....."wow, that is amazing...i had no idea....are you just going back for family...and then try to fade?
" which is what i just knew had to be the case....and i even mentioned how that would be hard to do with his partner all it would be discovered.......get this....."oompa, i am doing this for me and not my family......they don't even know i am going so don't say anything"........so i am in shock and the more we talk the happier he sounds about da troof....and i mean he is like filled with the holy ghost......so i mentioned how many things we have talked about that they teach that we both dissagree about.......and he says he know they prob have some things wrong but all religions do.
This is why in the end I da'd myself. I have no worries on being outed. I know its not for everybody, but it sure feels good not looking over my shoulder.
Isaac
