Posts by Nate Merit

12

I think I just got the total experience

by La Capra in

jw
friends

i tried to go to walmart this morning.. this story's origin began last april, when, just days before my final exams, my gateway laptop went nuts.

as a third year law student, having taken her exams for the the entire duration on computer, the notion of changing my exam approach to bluebook was out of the question.. i was able to obtain, for the short term, another laptop and survived third year just fine.. however, it took three rounds of repairs to get my computer back in working order for more than three weeks (gateway kept replacing the hard drive, but it was the motherboard that was failing-good news was that they only charged me for one disk drive, and not for the mother board eventually installed.).

and i am not the kind of person that feels comfortable with the "what ifs" so when about a few days ago, my gateway laptop went to a screen that i only saw before each of the three prior "deaths," i decided that my peace of mind was worth many hundreds of dollars and decided to get a "backup" laptop, considering i have two more rounds of exams and the bar exam through which i need a reliable computer.. i tried to order the sub-500 dell, but it wouldn't arrive in time for december's exams, so i started looking at the other offers out and about.. that meant i actually had to go to a brick and mortar establishment so i would have a computer in hand, rather than in some shipping queue.. i am not much of a consumer.

Nate Merit

Hi Shoshanna

That's a helluva story. With a little work it would make a fine article for your local paper. I was quickly drawn into your experience, and felt utter disgust and horror at the greed and imbecility of my fellow Americans. It was a good reminder why I avoid crowds as much as possible. Otherwise sane and educated people become irrational, displaying herd behavior.

Ick.

Not 'ick' on your story, just 'ick' on the experience. Good story!

Nate

18

I Need Some Folks To Set Me Right!

by Nate Merit in

i need to know a few things in order to be accurate in the book i'm currently writing.

if you can help, muchas gracias mi amigo.. .

i was baptized thirty six years ago.

Nate Merit

I need to know a few things in order to be accurate in the book I'm currently writing. If you can help, muchas gracias mi amigo.

I was baptized thirty six years ago. I have no memories of it beyond knowing I was baptized, that I was nervous beforhand and deflated afterward. Do JW's baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? If not, what incantation do they use, if any?

Are 'Kingdom songs" sung at these events? If so, how many songs is the general rule of thumb? Does everyone sing or just the baptismal victims? Is their singing both before and after?

Is there prayer? If so, who prays? Is there an opening and closing prayer?

Do the victims wear baptismal robes? If yes, what color and style? If not, do they simply wear old clothes? Do they wear bathing suits? I know they're too repressed to go skyclad.

When are baptisms usually held? I seem to recall mine being at an assembly. If assemblies are the time and place of baptisms, do they take place at both circuit and district assemblies? Or just one or the other?

Who does the baptizing? I know that "all are ministers of the Good News" in the WTBTS propaganda, but in reality I'm sure R & F don't baptize. Do congregational elders baptize? Overseers? If you can think of anything else that would be important or useful, please include that too. Even small details add authenticity and color to a story. Please kickstart my memory. Thank you.

Nate

4

Some Help with a Study Needed

by Grog in

first a little intro story.

my sister a witness who was baptized about a year ago was talking to my mother about some mormons that came to her door.

she spoke of how they belive etc... and feels sorry for them etc, however she made a point in the begining about how the morman lady wanted to open with a prayer and how my sister didn't want to do that and that interfaith prayers are bad.

Nate Merit

Hi Gold Morning

As to the Logos being the archangel Michael (How ludicrous to anyone even slightly familiar with the concept of the Logos!), and even better verse is in Hebrews where the writer asks "To which of the angels has God ever said 'You are my son, this day I have begotten you.' "

Nate

10

Chapter Eighteen of my latest book (This is NATE by the way)

by Jebediah Thunder in

" i walked out onto the porch with ernest, who was wearing his suit and tie.

"im your friend nate.

"well have to tell elder barry about how you stood there watching us the whole time, bleeping off and bleeping in your pants.

Nate Merit

La Luna!

I love your icon. Dancing in the moonlight.

My wife and I watched Walk the Line today. Amazing performance from Joachin Phoenix. He does far more than an impersonation or Johnny Cash. He has his mannerisms and body language down. The movie is a bit slow starting and gets stuck for awhile in the middle, but all in all its a good movie. Especially if, like myself, you were partial to Johnny Cash.

Have a good weekend Luna2

Nate

21

Nate Here. I Chickened Out!

by Jebediah Thunder in

jw
friends

the day of the surgery i cancelled.

i was convinced i was going to croak during the *procedure*.

my oldest sister thought so too.. .

Nate Merit

Hi again Leolaia

I lived in San Jose for ten months of my eighteenth year. I visited only once since then, eighteen years ago at the age of thirty four.

Indio is quite a trek from San Jose. San Francisco is a twelve hour drive from here. I'm about twenty miles southeast of Palm Springs. About an hour from Mexico.

Yes, I'm just a few minutes drive from Indian Wells. I'm glad you enjoyed our humble valley. I was a pleasnat change from the Detroit area. Coachella Valley has changed so much in the nineteen years I've been here that its difficult to recall that it was once sparsely populated and quiet. Traffic on Clinton (no pun intended) Street is so bad the street is literally pounded to pieces every few months. That's just one street her in little ol' Indio.

I've learned on the Net not to take anything for granted. Now, I am assuming by your icon and name that you're female, but I've been mistaken before and will probably be mistaken again. If that little girl is your girl, you must be proud. Makes me wish I'd been a daddy.

My wife and I saw Walk The Line today. Good movue that could have been even better with some judicious editing. It's needs to move faster at the beginning, and needs to be shortened in the part dealing with Cash's drugs problem. Other than that, it's a great flim. Joachin Phoenix is an uncannily good Johnny Cash.

Nate

Nate

21

Nate Here. I Chickened Out!

by Jebediah Thunder in

jw
friends

the day of the surgery i cancelled.

i was convinced i was going to croak during the *procedure*.

my oldest sister thought so too.. .

Nate Merit

Hey Ozzie

Thank you very much. By all means close out the other account. I sure hope no on else nabs my password now that its on the board.

Nate

10

Chapter Eighteen of my latest book (This is NATE by the way)

by Jebediah Thunder in

" i walked out onto the porch with ernest, who was wearing his suit and tie.

"im your friend nate.

"well have to tell elder barry about how you stood there watching us the whole time, bleeping off and bleeping in your pants.

Nate Merit

Hi Sherry!

Thanks for the encouraging words, and for the good wishes for my health. For now I'm not having surgery. Buck buck bu-CACK!

This is a special sneaky look at Chapter One.

Chapter One, THE CRACK OF DOOM

"What wrong Nathan? Are you okay?"

My sister Mackie was running water in the kitchen sink, and I was muttering "shit shit shit" trying to keep my cool.

I was definitely not okay, but I wasn't about to let anyone, especially my family, into my waking nightmare. It was 1973 and I was waiting for 1975. That was when the Great Tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon would occur according to the infallible Brooklyn Oracles, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The envelope I was holding felt heavy. I couldn't even hold my coffee still I was shaking so much. I knew the letter it contained would sound the death knell for me. An eternal death.

"Yeah I'm fine," I said., without any conviction.

A shudder of dread passed through me as I opened the letter. "Nathaniel," it read, "This letter is to inform you that you have been disfellowshipped from the New World Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses, for fornication, drug abuse, and burglary." All three elders of the local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses had signed it.

I started to laugh and cry at the same time. Mackie wiped her hands on a dishtowel, then frowned at me with concern. She put her hands on her hips as if she was about to say something, maybe an offer of help, but she apparently changed her mind, and left. I was alone. I glanced out the window. The sky turned black with greenish gray streaks, just as it did in tornado weather. Swirling, moving as though it were thick dark ink. Lightning snapped a tree outside the window, the flash causing me to cover my eyes with my forearms. The wind exploded against the side of the house, battering it with invisible fists. The glass shattered, razor edged shards imbedding deep in my flesh, arterial blood spurted.

"Nathan! Help me!" Mackie screamed from upstairs. My sister needs me! I bolted for the stairs, barely able to move through the viscous air, now as thick as oil.

"I'm coming!" I shouted to her, gagging on the foul unnameable gasses. She screamed, and there was nothing human left in the noise. .

Up the stairs I ran, the same stairs I had bolted a thousand times or more, desperate to escape my father. Now I was desperate to save my sisters life. She screamed again. The palpable suffering in her scream wrenched my stomach and I vomited blood. Beating hard against the suffocating air, I forced each of my limbs forward with an act of will. I made it to her door, and knocked it open, exhausted. Gushing blood from dozens of wounds and unable to inhale the oily stinking air any longer, I dropped to my knees.

Mackie was shrieking, her insides spilling out of her body in a shower of gore. She'd been flayed, ripped open by invisible talons. A cascade of crimson spewed forth from her lifeless husk as I collapsed on the carpeted floor, now black with our blood.

"Die! Sinners must DIE!" The thunder had become a voice, the voice of Jehovah God, shaking the entire planet with such fury and violence earth began to break apart even as my brain exploded, and all light and life was extinguished. The Good News of the Kingdom had come to pass, praise Jehovah!

My mind snapped back to the present.

"You’re doomed," I said out loud. "Nineteen years old and you’re doomed. There’s no hope for you now you loser. In a couple years Jehovah is going to turn you inside out. Your flesh is gonna rot where you stand and your eyes are gonna rot in your head and your tongue is gonna rot in your mouth, just like the Bible says."

I knew with my entire being that Jehovah God was going to murder me and my beloved sister and Grandmother in a grotesque agonizing manner. I would scream for mercy in my hideous freakish agony, but Jehovah would be so crazed with bloodlust he wouldn’t even hear me.

Something inside me snapped.

29

What are WT's most abusive features?

by IT Support in

.

if you were granted a wish to change wt's worst features, what would you want changed?

.

Nate Merit

All of it. Definitely.

Okay, semi-serious answer: Eliminate WTBTS entirely, make each congo self governing and independent.

Nate

23

Is what we believe to be real.....really real?

by gumby in

if your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink.

if you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green.

now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture.

Nate Merit

I love this Optical Delusion. "The Lord works in Mysterious Ways his blunders to perform."

I believe I am six feet for inches tall, 225 pounds, 25 years old, gorgeously handsone, rich, famous.

Aw nuts. It ain't working.

Nate

72

IS THE WORLD REALLY GETTING WORSE?

by ruari in

hi guys,.

my name is ruari phillips, i'm 21 years old and if possible...i'd like to ask a question.. jehovahs witnesses believe the world is getting worse and that as time passes we are approaching armageddon.. but, haven't we always lived in a cruel world?.

since the begginning of time we've been killing each other, there's been diseases, death and destruction.

Nate Merit

"If it BLEEDS it LEADS!"

Media hype and mental illness. Welcome aboard the USS Nuttery sailor!

CapnNate

"Oops"