Ingenuous

Joined

• started 34 topics
• posted 662 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Ingenuous

• 
  42

  Does your family still think you are coming back?

  by kid-A in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  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 !

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  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...
• 
  41

  Which person in history would you like to be?

  by DannyBloem in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you could choose, which person in history would you like to be?.

  (okay, i allow bible characters.

  danny.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  Jael... or Audrey Hepburn.
• 
  116

  A Customer really pissed me off yesterday at work: SHE WANTS TO PRAY for me

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  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.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  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?????]
• 
  28

  Who Made Up The Words "THE TRUTH"

  by horrible life in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  *** 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 Action

  Not 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 Price

  Granted, 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.
• 
  17

  Is your heart bigger since you left?

  by Ingenuous in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  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!
• 
  20

  Smurfs!? Aluminum?!

  by crankytoe in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  .

  ok, i keep coming across vague references to jw fear of these,.

  please explain what are the actual factual stories,.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  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.
• 
  42

  Being pressured to goto meetings,

  by crankytoe in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  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, .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  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..."
• 
  19

  Hey! Is this encouraging masturbation???

  by starfish422 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  from http://quotes.watchtower.ca/women.htm : (highlighting mine) it is high time for girls to understand the make-up of their bodies and its functions, especially with regard to sex.

  then if a girl understandingly takes care of herself while the ovum is at large and is causing sex disturbance and cravings within her, she will be able to act like a true lady of irreproachable morals at all times.

  she will avoid the violating of her virginity and the shame and conscience-stricken state due to this; and wisely she will direct her young life so as to end up in the position of a clean, happy wife and mother of legitimate children, journeying to the new world of righteousness, where there will be no sex problems amid a sex-crazy population.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  Since they condemned masturbation in a '59 QFR, I doubt they figured it was OK in this one. (But they change their minds so much, who knows?) The point of them saying " It is high time for girls to understand the make-up of their bodies and its functions" has to do with the previous analogy - namely, that girls should realize that when they're ovulating, they are inclined to act like horny cows ready to jump any old bull's bones. The point is also made that it's up to the girl to maintain her chastity, as well as that of the boy: " Ordinarily the male or bull would not think of approaching the female or cow for sex purposes. If he did approach he would not receive a hearty welcome, but, rather, he might be gored by the cow’s horns. There is no petting or sex relations between bull and cow permitted, because the female is not in physical condition to breed. The bull seems to understand this and keeps in his own place."

  Therefore, girls need to do everything in their power to make sure they live through Armageddon by following the Org's advice: to be a "clean, happy wife," the mother of "legitimate children". If she does this, she'll get to live happily ever after in "the new world of righteousness" without all those pesky sexual urges.
• 
  9

  the law was nailed to the torture stake

  by sunshine2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ....this is what the bible says.......then how is it that the wtbts lays up even more rules and regulations then they had in the mosaic law?

  does this not defeat the purpose of christ's death?

  if the law was the tutor leading to christ, now that he died for us, why all these rules?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  Sunshine - This is probably why there will never be a close reading of Galatians 3 @ the Hall. The scripture touches not only on the Mosaic "Law" but any system of "law" [lower case "l"] deemed necessary for salvation.

  Too, the Org says the "great crowd" don't have a personal relationship with God and that Jesus is not their mediator; they've got no other means of salvation than to "grab the skirt" of the so-called anointed. Therefore, whatever they say, goes.
• 
  20

  1 Cor. 13:8

  by sunshine2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  .....so if gifts of prophecying were done away with, maybe the society did not read this scripture.......maybe this is the reason they are always wrong.

  i wonder how a witness would explain this scripture.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Ingenuous

  Cool, Sunshine! I hadn't even thought of that. Of course, this is probably why they're trying to backpedal on exactly what flavor of "prophet" they are/aren't. They dug themselves in too deep and want it both ways: 'We aren't prophets, but if you don't do everything we say, you're disobeying Jehovah/Jesus and are fodder for Armageddon.'

  I also just came across someone discussing Matt. 28:18 - If Jesus had been given "all authority... in heaven and on the earth," how was he appointed King in 1914? What more authority did he need?