Posts by anewme

29

Now a college graduate!!!

by Doubting Bro in

jw
friends

wanted to let everyone know that i've finally graduated college with a bachelors degree!

ended up earning magna cum laude.. it's difficult to describe the sense of accomplishment.

i still kick myself for listening to the wts when i was a kid and forsaking "higher education".

ExJWs & "Adult" Subjects On The Forum

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think we have a tendency to get ourselves involved in subjects that might be "r" or worse rated because we couldn't as a jehovah's witness.. any talk or discussion of something considered "wrong" would get you into trouble.. many of us who were brought up in the religion never had any real "normal fun" growing up.

we couldn't associate with "worldly" people and even jws were considered "bad association" if they didn't fit the congregation's ideals.

we couldn't tell an off colored joke.

anewme

I would have to agree with Minimus' opening statement that many exjws are enjoying a new freedom from big brother censoring all thought and action and exploring their new adult life to see what they themselves will embrace and what they will reject.

Anewme

22

ExJWs & "Adult" Subjects On The Forum

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think we have a tendency to get ourselves involved in subjects that might be "r" or worse rated because we couldn't as a jehovah's witness.. any talk or discussion of something considered "wrong" would get you into trouble.. many of us who were brought up in the religion never had any real "normal fun" growing up.

we couldn't associate with "worldly" people and even jws were considered "bad association" if they didn't fit the congregation's ideals.

we couldn't tell an off colored joke.

anewme

Humans have a wide variety of taste and that includes taste in humor.

Sexual innuendo is very popular to many men and women Ive noticed.

Personally my appetite for sexual innuendo jokes is very low and I am satisfied with a little only now and then.

But for some people it is a very enjoyable social activity they engage in everyday with as many people as they can share it with.

Why do some people paint their houses black or flourescent orange or have many whirligigs in their front yards?

Why do some young men wear their pants around their knees?

Why do some women wear very low cut tops showing their huge boobs to all of us?

Why do some people still collect star wars, Betty Boop, Hummel figurines or skull art and fill their houses with them?

POOR TASTE. These activities are not illegal, but they really irk a few of us the last remaining true prudes on the earth.

Question: If a prude does not see it, is something ever in bad taste?

Of course I am just joking.

There are activities and pictures and such which are offensive to the majority.

One day at an outdoor mall a young man wore a T-shirt with what I thought was a very offensive saying...

"Dead girls dont say "no" !"

And once at a store I saw a farting Santa who said when you pinched his finger "Thats all yer gettin fer Christmas!"

and ripped a big violent vibrating one in your hand.

I could go on but you get my point. Taste is so varying. What are we going to do?

Scientists are now saying that the Neanderthals did not die out like they initially thought but "intermarried" shall we say with Cro-Magnon and today many people carry the Neanderthal genes some more than others of course.

I think that may be the explanation for all the bad taste in the world we have been searching for!

Anewme

43

How dangers is field service really, has anyone ever heard of someone being hurt or killed while doing some form of witnessing

by life is to short in

ok my other thread was not totally what i was after.

after thinking it through i was wondering if any of you have ever heard of someone being hurt by a householder in field service.. .

like i mentioned in my latest thread about the sister who was murdered and then her death was blamed on her.. i know in the hall i grew up in there were many sex offenders living in the area.

anewme

In the late 70s our hall underwent reconstruction so all were encouraged to give their time to the construction work.

I was in my early 20s and the lone pioneer. (The other pioneer sister had a nervous breakdown and left the ranks right after convincing me to join and be her partner!)

I was new to the JWs and young and shy and so inviting people to join me in lonely pioneer work instead of participating in the popular and fun and VISIBLE WORK of the daily construction was hard to do.

I too had to work by myself to get my time in. I did not last the summer.

I was very aware of dangerous situations and avoided all of those. I never went into a house and made my presentations very light and cheery.

What took me by surprise was an old man who spoke to me through his open screen saying he couldnt hear me and couldnt get up and would I come in.

I entered thinking "What was the harm?" and intended to merely offer grandpa the tract and wish him good day.

Yuck is all I am going say about what happened next. You cant even trust old grandfather types.

On Monday I went to the overseers home and told him I was quitting pioneering.

I never tried pioneering again and refused any part on the meetings to share my pioneering experiences (which made quite a few elders mad that I would not cooperate with them for their meeting parts)

Looking back at it all I can see that witnesses all have different experiences. The ones who trust they are IN THE TRUTH AND BEING CARED FOR COMPLETELY BY GOD AND THE ELDERS and who sacrifice all for Jehovah suffer the hardest fall to reality. The others, who go to college despite warnings and who purchase a house and have children, and have careers, and only go out the token show two hours on the weekend, and speak to their dfd relatives, these people seem to do alright and spend years in the religion without the crash and burn that others suffer.

I cant recommend pioneering...unless you are retired and pensioned and have a burning desire to see close up the yards and front doors of others.

Anewme

42

Sister in my Congregation claims Jehovah always answers her prayers....including her new skirt and shoes for $20 bucks???

by Witness 007 in

to show you how dumb and shallow my congregation is a one of our "deeper" sisters claimed in field services that "jehovah answers all my prayers...like last week i wanted a new skirt and shoes for field service but only had $20 dollars....and would you believe i found them!!!

now i for one though well, why didn't you pray or the oil pipe in the mexican gulf to dry up...or food for the poor in haiti.

other pioneers tell of vegetables falling off trucks just when they had nothing for dinner???

anewme

I remember being a penniless pioneer in the 70s. My car was so shabby. I bought it for $200 and it leaked oil badly. I was very lonely had no family and was barely feeding myself. Life was very challenging with no education and merely cleaning homes to pay rent on a small lean-to cottage in someones backyard.

I had so much trouble finding someone to work in afternoon field service with me one summer while the congregation was remodeling the kingdom hall.

An older very quirky sister (she produced rather loud phlegmy crackly sounds from her throat every two seconds) offered an hour with me on one hot summer afternoon. She drove up in a lovely pre-owned caddillac and shared with me the miracle that Jehovah had bestowed upon her. I was told the caddillac was in exchange for her years of faith and putting up with her then dead husband who was a test of her faith.

Her story bugged me alot. I went to the congregation overseer and repeated the story to him and asked what he thought and did he think it was true. He said something I thought was a brilliant word at the right time. He said "Whether an answer to a prayer is from God or not, it is never wrong to thank God for the things we have."

That gem made sense to me. People are always praying to God for help and guidance and necessities and they are always thanking him when they receive what they need. So what? What else are they going to do? We are all stuck in terrible situations beyond our abilities to cope with sometimes. Our species naturally calls out to the cosmic forces for extra help at those times.

Whether that help comes from within, or from another person or from an outside entity our species feels immense gratitude. We have an overwhelming desire to thank someone.

Since that sister shared her story with me I do think I too became the recipient of special attention from God on several occasions for help that is quite unexplainable any other way. And since I have been dfd the help from above has not stopped!

Oh, I also am the assistant manager of a new Salvation Army Store in our town, I kid you not! All these service clothes now and I dont go out in service!

So GO FIGURE!!!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Anewme

88

It's official--I'm out.

by sd-7 in

jw
friends

"sd-7 is no longer one of jehovah's witnesses.".

i always imagined this day would come.

i'm not sure exactly how i knew.

anewme

You are doing so well! You will be fine. You are growing exponentially every hour you are free!

Keep writing your thoughts. They are very good. Very healthy.

Anewme

61

What Do You Value in your Life Now that you Exited the Witnesses ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i was talking with a friend of mine on the board yesterday and the discussion gave me the idea for this thread !

( thanks friend !

) and it seems as we were talking the thought came up that many of us when exiting the mind control of jehovah's witnesses we really come to appreciate the freedom to think how we want and be able to have access to other views which helps us to have a broader scope , or broader world view than just the tunnel vision of the wt society.

anewme

I value my freedom....freedom to spend my time and life the way I want to. Whether it is with family and friends or out of doors with nature, I decide.

I love the new house I bought. Having my own house was always important to me, but my former JW husband wanted only to rent. We gulped down all the mind control about not having kids and keeping free of a mortgage because any day the Great Trib might begin and we wanted to stay free to flee to the mountains. OMG! Now I look back at the fantasy we lived and just shake my head at how naive and stupid I was.

I always just wanted my own home and happy family life. It is what I have now. It is not interfered with by some outside body of elders and weekly mind control meetings.

I also got a job where I am the boss now.

I now value being the one in control.

16

"The point is that earthquakes are common and always have been,"

by purplesofa in

jw
friends

survivors shiver in turkey after quake kills 51by burhan ozbilici and suzan fraser, associated press writersmon mar 8, 3:39 pm etokcular, turkey hundreds of earthquake survivors huddled in aid tents and around bonfires monday in eastern turkey, seeking relief from the winter cold after a strong temblor knocked down stone and mud-brick houses in five villages, killing 51 people.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100308/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_earthquake/print;_ylt=aovcmz.3hc_i9x940453ssxbbbaf;_ylu=x3odmtbvajzzatfybhbvcwmxnqrzzwmddg9wbhnsawnwcmluda--.

monday's quake in eastern turkey followed deadly recent temblors in haiti and chile, but bernard doft, the seismologist for the royal netherlands meteorological institute in utrecht, said there was no direct connection between the three.. "these events are too far apart to be of direct influence to each other," he said.. richard luckett, a seismologist from the british geological survey, said there has not been a spike in global seismic activity.. "if there was a big increase in the number of magnitude 6.0s in the past decade we would know it, because we would see it in the statistics," luckett said.

"we haven't seen an increase in 7.0s either.".

anewme

Thanks for sharing that good quote.

13

I would Appreciate your comments

by lancelink in

back in september of 08 my mom died, and both of my parents had been jw's since 1978.. in the mid 80's they moved down south to retire.

and she was the type of person who remembered everyones anniversary, if someone got .

sick, or died she would send a card, flowers, to the family or call.. even years after they moved away !.

anewme

Sad story indeed. Sorry you experienced that ingratitude and lack of love. We can tell you are still hurting from it.

The Watchtower interferes with the normal human conscience response. Im sure many loved your mother but for some reason something stopped them from paying their respects. Who knows what that was? Whatever it was, it was a bad decision they all made.

I was so zealous for the Watchtower, I did some very unloving things in my very judgemental thinking. This kind of cold obedience to the cult is rampant in all the cults. The rules are so bizarre and so against normal human response that the less intelligent cult members act out some pretty crazy behavior in order to please their cult god and leaders, even turning against mothers, fathers, children and society in general.

23

sorry about your cat, would you like to learn how you can live forever?

by rockmehardplace in

jw
friends

that is exactly what i told someone in field service once.

i went to the door with another brother, and started my presentation.

i noticed the lady was crying and asked if everything was ok. she said that they just got back from the vet, and that they had to put the cat to sleep.

anewme

As I look back, we were all no different than any other zealots of any other cult.

We shouldnt continue to blame and beat ourselves over stupid things we did and said while under the spell of the cult.

We took steps to get out and get away from it. That took courage.

Pat yourselves on the back that your are here and speaking out against the brainwashing and control that still has millions in its grip.