tall penguin

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Posts by tall penguin

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  41

  In the WT's Defence

  by shadowofbathory in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi electronic cyber pixels.

  occasionally these days i will log onto this forum to scan for interesting topics.

  even though this is my first posting under this moniker, i am a reincarnate of a previous beast.

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  tall penguin

  "I see a tendency to cognitive dissonance by board members represented in their posts."
  
  Could you explain this please? I'm curious to know what it is you see as cognitive dissonance here on the board.
  
  tall penguin
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  20

  I NEED YOUR IDEAS

  by *jeremiah* in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i noticed a man who works in the same building as me has been carrying around his new world translation bible.

  we don't know each other, but say hello now and again and i get the feeling that he is a very zealous brother.

  i walk near his desk quite a bit.

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  tall penguin

  Ask him one question, which was the one my boyfriend asked me that got my wheels turning.
  
  "What would it take for you to no longer believe that you have the true religion?"
  
  tall penguin
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  80

  My Mom passed away today.

  by Finally-Free in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after a lenthy illness, 10 years in total, my mother, margaret stecko, passed away peacefully today surrounded by family.

  she was 84, and leaves behind 3 children, 5 grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren.

  she was a jw but never shunned me.

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  tall penguin

  Good to hear from you Walter. I was wondering how you were doing.
  
  A vacation would be in order I think. Is it possible for you to take even a few days off for you in the next little while?
  
  Take care,
  tall penguin
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  36

  HELLO!! Newbie Alert!

  by Do Not Call in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi folks, .

  i,ve been lurking for ages and had a password months ago.

  only today i've been able to get in.

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  tall penguin

  Welcome to the board.
  
  tall penguin
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  7

  Suicide and Jehovah's Witnesses Blog Article

  by Hoping4Change in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i haven't seen this posted yet and just bumped into it.

  sorry if it's already on here somewhere:.

  http://www.progressiveu.org/234028-jehovah-witness-suicide.

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  tall penguin

  Thanks for posting this.
  
  I remember my suicidal days as a jw. My thinking went something like this:
  
  "If I kill myself and jehovah forgives me, then cool, I'll be resurrected and live forever. If he doesn't then I won't be conscious of his decision anyways. I win either way."
  
  tall penguin
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  22

  Did you say "I love you?"

  by serendipity in

  1. social
  2. family

  i grew up in an emotionally constipated family.

  my parents didn't hug us or tell us they loved us.

  they were slightly affectionate with each other, but i don't think i ever heard them express their love for each other, in front of us kids.

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  tall penguin

  My parents were pretty free with saying "I love you." It was their actions that often left me wondering if it were really true.
  
  "As my mom began to realize we were leaving the JWs last year, she began using "I Love You" to excess."
  
  Yes! Since I DA'd, my mother keeps saying, "You know I love you." It means nothing.
  
  tall penguin
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  14

  Sharing Your new light with your Parents

  by pratt1 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  every so often i get to share some of my thooughts about the borg and my new found beliefs with my mom , who is a die hard pioneer for over 20 years.. we actually have had decent conversations about doctrines and interpertations of the scriptures, and she has admitted that at times the borg may have misapplied certain scriptures over the years.. her excuse is that imperfect men sometimes make mistakes and jehovah makes allowances for this.. but what really gets her upset is when i bring up certain aspects of my childhood, that because of her belief in the borg, she made some unwise decisions for not only me be her family.. me getting baptized at 13, her not being fully supportive of higher education, cutting off family members, pushing me into an early marriage when i was clearly not ready, teaching me that all "worldly people', including my father woiuld die at armageddon, these are just a few examples that when we discuss them, she becomes extremely angry and then accuses me of making her out to be a bad mother.. i got me thinking, do you think that many dubs refuse to acknowledge the problems with their religion because it would mean that they made some really bad decsions in their and their families lives.. are they afraid to accept the responsiblity for this because of the guilt they would suffer?.

  what are your thoughts?

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  tall penguin

  "Are they afraid to accept the responsiblity for this because of the guilt they would suffer?"
  
  Yes, I believe this is true in many cases. My mother would not only have to deal with how her choices affected her children growing up but she'd have to confront her own childhood issues, an avoidance of which, I believe, lead her to the org to begin with. That's a whole lot of honesty and courage for one person to muster. I don't think most jw's, or most people for that matter, are capable of this. Most days I'm not capable of it.
  
  tall penguin
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  24

  My Life in The Organization

  by sexyk in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hey what's up everyone?

  hope everything is going alright.

  im not doing too bad, just relaxing and doing alot of thinking.

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  tall penguin

  Great story. So happy that you had the courage to get out at such a young age. Canada's a big place but are you in the Toronto area by any chance? pm me if you are. Maybe we know each other or people in common.
  
  tall penguin
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  5

  Jesus Camp, the Movie ... Camp shut down!!!

  by kwintestal in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  i posted about the movie back in september here.. well, i just found out that they have decided to shut the camp down for at least a few years due to the movie.

  i guess god wasn't as happy with their camp as they thought.

  here's the link to the article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003365311_jesuscamp08.html.

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  tall penguin

  By the way, if you haven't see this film, rent it. It will be available on January 23, 2007. It will disturb you.
  
  tall penguin
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  5

  The effects of emotions on health

  by zensim in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  below are three astonishing experiments with dna which proves that dna can heal itself according to the "feelings" of the individual as reported recently by gregg braden.

  in his recent program entitled healing hearts/healing nations: the science of peace and the power of prayer, gregg braden discussed how in the past we lost huge amounts of information from ancient spiritual traditions (when the library at alexandria burned we lost at least 532,000 documents), and that there may be information in those traditions which could help us understand some of the mysteries of science.

  to this end he reported on three very interesting experiments.

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  tall penguin

  Ummm...while I agree that emotions can affect our health and there is legitimate research to support this, I think anything written by Gregg Braden must be taken with a grain of salt.
  
  Discussing the "Lost Mode of prayer", Gregg Braden states in an interview from http://netmar.com/~maat/archive/aug1/gb_interview.html
  
  "I believe that these kinds of prayers are what the people in a remote village in Southern Peru called upon in 1998 to change weather patterns and douse the fires that modern technology couldn't reach.
  
  I believe these kinds of prayers saved the peace talks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when they broke down because the words for the peace treaty could not be found. Not only were the words found, but the peace treaties were signed three days early.
  
  And I further believe that when a hurricane was hurling itself toward the coast of South Florida in 1999, it was this mode of prayer that helped to shift the hurricane system and change its course at the last minute."
  
  Alrighty then.
  
  
  Check out an alternate view of Gregg Braden at http://www.skepticreport.com/newage/bookbraden.htm
  
  An excerpt:
  
  "New Age meets Christian Fundamentalist
  
  It actually gets worse. The chapter goes on to quote numerous biblical texts, including Revelation. Yes, he's predicting the Rapture. And if you listen to Braden you can even get your Resurrection in a few days early:
  
  "Prior to the time of the collective Initiation, an opportunity will be presented for some individuals to experience the Resurrection process early - possibly days before the actual Earth Shift." (Page 51)
  
  That load of nonsense is the "Shift of the Ages" that was revealed to Braden in Sinai. It's based on so many inaccuracies, distortions and non-existent connections that one actually begins to wonder if Braden himself knows it's gibberish. Perhaps that electric shock he says nearly killed him did more damage than he knows."