so now that you've left the cult, have you ever given or taken blood?
have your opinions and/ or beliefs in this area changed?
much to my suprise, one of my very good freinds who is not out still feels the way he was trained to feel.
This is the issue that got me out of the Org. I decided to re-examine the issue, study my Bible closely, and try to understand thoroughly the Org's reasoning, all in an effort to be able to "give a reason for my faith" and take an unwavering stand. When I started understanding how illogical and unreasonable the Org was being, other things started clicking as well.
I would accept it and give it.
's that weren't born into the cult.. were there any teachings, doctrine, etc.
that you still had a hard time accepting, even though you were going to be baptised into the org.?.
which policies and teaching?.
I either believed it all or was "waiting on Jehovah" to clear up certain fuzzy areas (like how woman were to be viewed in the Org). I was completely convinced and thought I was extremely fortunate to have been born into the "right" religion. While I understood the "dying to my former life and dedicating my all to God", I didn't catch on to the baptismal question requiring a dedication to an organization.
I was all of 14 years old. And my folks can't understand why I might see things differently now that another whole 14 years have passed.
i am going to my cousins wedding this sunday.
i am really upset because since the past few years our best friend forever friendship really has went down hill.
i have no clue.
Maybe there is some misunderstanding that can be cleared up. I recently "made up" with a formerly close friend who critcized my behavior/beliefs when I was a JW (Oh, the irony!) and I'm so glad to have that friendship back.
About the dress: Absolutely Fabulous Dahling! (Careful, you may show-up the bride!)
hope springs eternal in the wts.
despite having left before even being baptized, i would have to say my parents still wholeheartedly believe i will someday come around, .
get baptized, become active and maybe even become an elder !
I only stopped going to meetings a month ago - not DA'd or DF'd - but I'm sure the hope I'm coming back is the only thing that keeps my folks talking to me. At the moment, they're in denial (just like my therapist said they would be!) and we don't discuss religion at all. But my Dad's an elder in my former congregation and we got a really "gung-ho" book study conductor just before I left, so I'm dreading the inevitable...
if you could choose, which person in history would you like to be?.
(okay, i allow bible characters.
danny.
Jael... or Audrey Hepburn.
i work in a bookstore that specializes in buying its goods directly from the public second-hand and reselling them at half price.. .
it is a large chain of 83 stores in 8 states and does about 100 million a year.. .
i'm in charge of the religion and the philosophy sections.. .
Terry - OK, so your response may not have been in line with company policy - but, then, she did initiate this, didn't she? While she, herself, wasn't the problem, her statements and attitude touched a raw nerve and brought to the fore your own issues. Transference stinks, don't it?
If I was in your situation, I, too, might have been annoyed by her baiting ("With all this in depth knowledge and information at your disposal have you reached any conclusions about all this personally?"), invalidation ( "You could have been a MARTYR for Christ! That would be wonderful!!"), and condecension (" "Here is what I want you to do. Do you have one of these at your house?") - particularly since, as you mentioned, those are exactly the things we did as JWs. But, she intended to do each of those things. She knew exactly what she was doing and wanted your response. Considering she got her dig in and made herself feel righteous, I'm sure she wasn't nearly as disturbed by the exchange as you were.
So you fell for it and got suckered in. You're human. Considering how badly this could have gone, it was a fairly inexpensive "life lesson" you can file away for later. And maybe it indicates some work you could do on understanding and forgiving the behaviors of your former "self".
[Did I use enough italices?????]
who made up the words "the truth" .
if this was an invention, they would be millionaires.
being called the truth really sets the statement apart from lets say.....the lies.
*** w96 5/15 p. 20 Read God’s Word and Serve Him in Truth ***19
If we are to "go on walking in the truth," we must read the Bible and avail ourselves of the spiritual help that God provides through the ‘faithful slave.’
*** w90 9/15 p. 7 Get the Whole Truth! ***You may wonder, ‘Where should I start?’ After reading some Christian publications, one woman living in Brazil wrote: "We [she and her husband] soon realized that we needed more of that kind of knowledge, to get the answers to the many questions we had . . . Please, how can I get a Bible and other books that will help me to know more about our heavenly Father?" She was on the right track: reading the Bible along with truthful Bible-based literature.Hypocrites...
*** w95 7/1 pp. 5-8 Why Search for Truth? *** Truth in ActionNot surprisingly, the Bible links truth with action. (1 Samuel 12:24; 1 John 3:18) To God-fearing Jews, truth was not a subject for philosophizing; it was a way of life. The Hebrew word for "truth" could also mean "faithfulness" and was used to describe one who could be trusted to act on his word. Jesus taught his followers to view truth in the same light. He passionately decried the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the wide gulf between their self-righteous words and their unrighteous deeds. And he set the example in living by the truths he taught....
A Treasure Worth Any PriceGranted, accepting the truths of God’s Word exacts a price. First, just learning the truth can be a shattering experience. The Encyclopedia Americana observes: "The truth is often disagreeable, because it fails to support prejudice or myth." Seeing our beliefs exposed as untrue can be disillusioning, especially if we were taught by trusted religious leaders. Some might liken the experience to finding out that trusted parents were, in fact, secret criminals. But is not finding out religious truth better than living under a delusion? Is it not better to know the facts than to be manipulated by lies?—Compare John 8:32; Romans 3:4.
Second, living by religious truth may cost us the acceptance of some who were formerly our friends. In a world where so many have "exchanged the truth of God for the lie," those who hold firm to the truth of God’s Word seem peculiar and are sometimes shunned and misunderstood.—Romans 1:25; 1 Peter 4:4.
i was amazed how, in a matter of days after leaving the org, my heart seemed bigger.
i was free to love people - truly love them as they were and without condition.
i was no longer required to sit in judgement of them because they didn't believe as i did.
ANewMe: It sounds like your heart has changed - it's much more gracious when it comes to your own self-worth, when it comes to respect for your own intelligence and ability to make choices that let you be true to yourself and your real values. And now, you get to know your actions spring from awareness of your own competence and voluntary choices, as opposed to things you might have done out of a sense of obligation - or even guilt.
Peace and Blessings on your path!
.
ok, i keep coming across vague references to jw fear of these,.
please explain what are the actual factual stories,.
From: http://www.freeminds.org/stories/urbanlore.htm
Around 1983 or 1984 Smurfs were the all the rage among the kids my age. Somehow stories got started and spread like wildfire about how the Smurfs were demonic. At first I wasn't allowed to watch the TV show because of the characters Gargamel, who was a wizard, and Papa Smurf who practiced magic, if memory serves. Then it became known that several JWs who had overlooked this and bought Smurf items began to have demon troubles. The one I remember best is a story I related to my JW neighbor's grandmother, who was "worldly" (my mom was furious that I told her this story because she knew the grandmother would think we were all nuts; of course, my mom believed this story, so I guess we were nuts!) Supposedly, a little girl had been given Smurf curtains for her bedroom and the first night the evil Smurfs were there, she awoke to find they had jumped off the curtains and began dancing around her room, laughing demonically.
Paul's Uncle Mark, who is an elder, told him about an occasion that apparently happened in his congregation involving a smurf doll. As the story goes, a new family who had just started studying, were attending the Saturday meeting with their young son. Half way through the meeting , the smurf doll apparentley stood up and declared, " I have had enough of this s--t!" and walked out of the meeting on it's lonesome. So it seems even smurfs can detect crap when they hear it ! LOL!
A JW family decorated their son’s room with Smurf wallpaper. Shortly afterward they noticed that the kid was covered with tiny red marks one morning. Mom asked if he had felt any bugs in his bed. He said, “No, the smurfs come out of the wallpaper and bite me at night. In the daylight they’re cute and smiling but at night they have sharp teeth.” Those tricky blue devils! So Mom and Dad had to rip down the wallpaper and redo the room. And naturally the wallpaper wouldn’t burn without lots of gasoline.
Smurf Story 1: One fellow Witness woman I knew was very paranoid about the "demonic" nature of the Smurfs. Occasionally, she'd babysit for her neighbors (who were "worldly") and who often played with their kids in a "smurf" kiddie pool. The Witness woman never allowed the kids in the pool while she watched them, always feeling as if the pool might make the toddlers slip and fall or try to drown them.
Smurf Story #2: One Witness mother brought her 3 year old to the supermarket, where the baby always fussed, stuck sitting in the shopping cart. The woman left her child for a few seconds to grab things off the shelf. When she returned, her child had a 3 inch Smurf bendy toy. The good Witness mother immediately took the doll and put it aside, thinking her child grabbed it from somewhere. The taking of toy made the child cry of course, but the mother would not relent. However, over the course of the shopping trip, the child somehow gained access to the toy two more times. The third time, the mother realized that the doll was following her and her baby and that demonic forces were trying to possess the child. The mother grabbed her kid, left the cart and practically ran from the store. Later, I who was employed at the supermarket, discovered one the employees who was stocking shelves kept giving the child the toy so it wouldn't fuss so bad.
hi everyone, all i wanted was a bible study, now we're at the point where we read 2 chapters in knowledge book, and the discussion turns to how i forsaking the inciting with others to worship,(something like that).
is there anything i can say to get them to accept that i'll go when/if i feel like going?.
this past weekend, they kept asking me what obstacles were in my way, i said i haven't had time, they go yeah you say that but there has to be something else, .
until recently, I did actually like the once a week study
Why not tell them that? "You know, I really used to enjoy this study, but since you guys started hounding me about meetings..."
