it's all so subjective.
just a few thoughts... .
jimmy killed a man, shot him to death.
"There is only love." Absolutely. Like Einstein's theory of special relativity, you have summed up a great deal of existence in 3/4 of an inch (depending on the font). Is God trying to teach us what you have said, or is He running an experiment trying to prove it? Steven Hawkings says that the Arrow Of Time exisits because of entropy. Inescapable, inevitable, entropy; but "All We Need Is Love"?
"There is only love." I challenge Occam to reduce that.
anointed class & other sheep
the watchtower teaches that women are a part of the anointed class.
the disciples are called sheep in jesus flock: matt 10:16; 26:31.
mdb,
No offense, but what a load of shite. I couldn't care less about the 144,000. I ain't one, and even if I were, I wouldn't be. If God has chosen 144,000 to go to heaven, Hoboken, or around the block, I couldn't care less. The 144,000, by definition, would be here for ME. Not me for them. If God is distributing "everlasting" life, fine, I'll take my portion. And then, all I need is a good horse, a compass, and an earth without fences. Andy Jackson didn't call his home "The Hermitage" because he was an idiot. If Jehovah and the 144000 want to go lube each other and think "deep" thoughts, fine, I hope you are there cheering them on. As for me, if the big J wants to do me a favor, let me sleep under the stars and feel the warm caress of a beautiful womans breath on my neck. Forever. The rest of it is just you trying to seem important.
ok, very interested to know, for those of you that still have a faith, and it seems many do.
what do you refer to god as?
is jehovah correct, is it not, is it too associated with jws for you to carry on doing that?
Elsewhere, you do the coolest stuff! No kidding. Do you use Photoshop? That was so awesome.
I call God Jehovah. I mean, it's as good as any. I considered Fred, but that made me think of the Flintstones. I once thought about Albert (as in Einstein) but that didn't fit. Sigmund, George, Paul, John, and Ringo also whisked thru my mind for a short span, but nothing really carried the same level of attention. I also tired some invectives like "You SOB", "blank-blank lying blank blank blank", and others, but that seemed to lack the fairness that I was demanding from him, so I settled on Jehovah. Funny, but I've gotten as much response with whatever I've used.
"Sometimes we know,
Sometimes we don't,
Sometimes we give,
Sometimes we won't.
Sometimes we're strong,
Sometimes we're wrong,
Sometimes we cry."
The best Bible that I have found is the NWT. No kidding. If you can get past the fact that it is associated with the Borg, it is in fact the most informative, easiest to understand, and most straight foreward. That isn't to say that it is perfect, if you haven't learned by now that no single source is going to be THE source, no Bible is a good Bible.
were you the kind that stayed up for hours the night before finding the perfect point and the perfect scripture...or were you the one that was hastily trying to through something together the morning of and panicking when you realized the circuit overseer was visiting.
and then there was me...i was lucky if i knew which magazines were "it" for that week, lucky if id read more than the first page, and developed a good deal of improve skill when that 25% "at home" rate popped up on my 1 door in 10. eeps.
im not sure if anyone realized just how seat of the pants my approach to field service actually was.
Wow, my log on little number that you have to put in was 6667. Are you trying to tell me something? Just kidding.
Presentations at the door were fun because I really enjoyed what I was doing. I mean, I was going up to somebody's house and about to launch into a conversation about one of the most sensitive aspects of a person's life. But, I believed in what I was doing and truely felt that God's Spirit was with me. I tried to talk to the people as people. One of the most rude awakenings I ever got was the realization that there are people out there who just flat don't give a shite about religion. Those folks were always the most challenging, but also, they seemed to be the most honest. And I swear this is true, my fondest dream was to wear my darkest suit, get a black Fedora and sunglasses and start out my presentation with, "Good Morning. I'm on a mission from God." I knew that if I had actually done that, I wouldn't have been DFd, I would have been shot out of a cannon with a high velocity round! But to whip out my harmonica and launch into "Sweet Home Chicago", would've worked with even the most steadfast "householder". I just know it.
As far as talks at the KH, I always tried to try a new facet. Most people seemed to really like my talks because I looked at things from a different angle. Now, can we guess what the "elders" thought of a person looking at the Bible "differently"? Hitler was an a**hole, but he sure knew how to give a public talk, and one time I tried one of his methods on a #4 talk: I went up to the podium and just stood staring out at the crowd for what seemed like eternity, but was probably 30 seconds. Since the "timekeeper" wasn't supposed to start his stopwatch until I started speaking, I thought the dumb little shite was gonna burst an artery. I garuntee you, when I started speaking, I had everybody's attention. The school overseer later told me that he thought that I had forgotten my talk, and I came this close to admitting that I was trying an Adolph method, but I chickened again. Damn!
what argument is put forth that women must only wear dresses or skirts to the meetings or in service and are not permitted to wear slacks?
where does it say it's wrong for sisters to wear pants, and how are they convincing women in 2005 to buy into this?
i remember many bitterly cold chicago mornings with frozen legs running to doors and back to the warm car as quickly as possible, wearing a skirt which was ridiculous and inappropriate to the weather conditions.
Qcmbr, your last reply was interesting. You said that you dressed in such a way as to please yourself, and I applaud you for that. But what difference does it make what I applaud? If a person meets God in church (in the grocery store, or comming out of the shower) and God takes exception to that person's dresscode, then he is not God. Maybe its just me, but I have the hardest time picturing the son of an impoverished, itenerate carpenter wearing the first century equivalent to a Saville Row three piece. There seemed to be a certain amount of discussion in the Bible in reference to the religious elite of the first century and what they chose to wear, in that they tended to show off their position and "earthly" wealth with extra long fringing, purple colors, etc. I don't recall anyone in JC's circle ever bitching at some poor slob for dressing beneath himself. What I object to, Qcmbr, is not personal taste, but the desire, no, compulsion, of the JW herd mentality to force everyone else to be just like them based upon the claim that God will hate them if they insist on their own conscience. It is their obvious and adolescent lust for power and control that is objectionable. Their personal libraries are doubtlessly very small, as they must only consist of the covers of books.
what argument is put forth that women must only wear dresses or skirts to the meetings or in service and are not permitted to wear slacks?
where does it say it's wrong for sisters to wear pants, and how are they convincing women in 2005 to buy into this?
i remember many bitterly cold chicago mornings with frozen legs running to doors and back to the warm car as quickly as possible, wearing a skirt which was ridiculous and inappropriate to the weather conditions.
Qcmbr, I seem to remember a scripture from the Bible that states that God doesn't care about the outter appearance of a man. I wonder what that meant? Now, before you get to the next, inevitable, statement, i.e. "We are showing respect for our brothers and sisters." If God doesn't care what we wear, why should they. It would gain more for them to respect me and my right of personal choice, than deciding that I'm dressing the way I do is because of them. It isn't always about them.
i ran across this excerpt a long while ago from the world's last night, an essay by cs lewis about the apocalypse.
in it lewis gives a very interesting perspective on the concept of god's judgement.
it's very different from what jws and many christians (or other religions) think about judgement.
Guilt is such a wonderful thing. Soldiers almost universaly admit that they faced the terrors of comabt because they didn't want to "let their buddies down". (No doing it for God and country!) Powerful stuff, that need to live up to someone else's ideals. Judgement? Whose gonna judge me more than myself? I used to feel very guilty over many things I did as a child, and I would constantly beat myself up over it; that is, until a very wise (yes, automatically that word eliminates 99.99% of the JW elder corps and GB) man pointed out that I was judging the actions of a 10 year old thru the eyes of a 50 year old. Now, to what level of guilt do I think any professed "God" would hold me?
i dont understand how god can be omnipotent, and all knowing, but that doesnt apply to knowing the future?
god is not human.
he had the power to create us.
Much too serious again, I think. Here are some questions in ref the "omnipotence".
Can God know lonliness?
Can God know failure?
Can God know fear?
Can God know surprise? (If he cannot be surprised, can he know a good joke?)
Can God know hunger?
Can God know desperation, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, betrayal, insecurity, accomplishment?
Then how can he possibly know what the f*ck is going on in our hearts?
ok i know there are all kinds of educational tapes you can get to help you learn better and faster.
many of them are tapes you put on and then go to sleep.
the rationale is that it is easier to learn while you are sleeping.
FWIW, I agree with Terry. It is interesting, Terry that you mention your parole, and the effects that it had on your understanding, spirituality, and person; for you have mentioned in the past why you needed a parole. It doesn't matter how many times we hear something, nor what state of semi-conciousness we might be in, nothing will really make any dent on our brain as data to be used, unless we apply it to something.
Since leaving the Borg, I have become an avid participant in The Church of Cosmic Irony, and I know, I just know, that some time after Terry got back to the KH a discussion or two went down in the back room as to whether Brother Terry should be made a MS or Elder, to which at least one elder had had to remark, "Of course not! Why, he's an ex con! What would people say?"
And there is the difference, the patoots that sit and "listen" and go thru the rote motions aren't really learning anything; and the constant results of their half-hearted efforts will always be to miss the point. It is only AFTER you apply what you've heard, i.e. test it, do it, trust it, that you can really understand it and be said to learn it.
After all, how many times have the slack-jawed, drooling JW masses been told over and over "Let no one mislead you.", and been told by none other than their King, and yet.........
"make sure of all things" book, page 85, column 1:
" (matt.
in the revelation, which god gave jesus, the pure worship is shown as due to be given to the most high god, jehovah.
The WT also said that Mickey Mouse was sh*te, too. So did Nixon, I think.
