Posts by PoppyR

23

Responses to Our Letters

by LennyinBluemont in

jw
friends

hi lenny!.

response to bill (26 august 2006).

thanks lenny.

Like others, I didnt' at first have time to read all the letters, but blessed with a bout of insomnia (uk time 4.10am!) I've just finished reading, and just feel sad. This sentence struck such a chord with me.

I don’t want to feel lost. That is not what I want in my life

I personally feel this is why many people say, when they misquote the 'to whom shall we go' what they mean is, what the hell am I going to do, or believe, or hope in? And it's something we've all had to come to accept in our own ways, whether it be an alternative religion or even atheism (I'm somewhere between the two)

I remember my frustration when I first found out about 607 and the UN and trying to explain them to my ex, and he just could not or would not see, because I think he had no idea what to do if it was true.

It can be a scary journey away from that belief system, suddenly we have to consider getting old, dying and all the things we blindly believed we wouldn't have to do. But I'd rather be scared any day than a sheep blindly following it's shepherd on the longest walk ever with no destination!

Thank you Lenny.

Poppy xxx

28

Watchtower.org article on tattoos

by AlmostAtheist in

jw
friends

hey all,.

i'm practically brain-dead this afternoon, unable to handle anything of any intellectual level to speak of.

so i thought i'd drop by watchtower.org and see what drivel they were passing off these days.. one of the lead articles is "should i get a tattoo?".

PoppyR

I had my first tattoo on my 30th birthday, and my then husband had one too, we were both active JWs and nobody saw the tattoo for years. I now have 4 (and dont think I'm part of a criminal sub culture!)

Recently I went to my mums, who is still active with a vest top on, and as one of my tattoos is on my shoulder she saw it and gasped. I just rolled my eyes and told her I'd had it for 7 years and it totally floored her.

I know of a lot of younger dubs who have them, they just keep them hidden. Whatever your view is on them (and I respect everyones) I happen to think they're fascinating and also very sexy!

Poppy

59

Statistical effect of disassociating the inactive

by AuldSoul in

jw
friends

it has been tossed around several times on the forum, and invariably someone pipes up that the wts will never do it because of the adverse effects on the numbers.

there is a glaring flaw in that reasoning.. the inactive are never counted as publishers.

the numbers that are reported are of active, reporting publishers.. if they disassociate every single person who is inactive and refuses to reactivate themselves, the numbers will not be negatively affected at all.

PoppyR

I highly doubt this will happen. It's an interesting theory, but I do feel it's scare mongering, which is something we have hopefully moved away from. It's a logistical nightmare, in my territory alone they would have to chase up at least as many people as are attending the meetings. And it would be a complete turn around on their previous standpoint of encouraging inactive ones.

The recent article on 'when a loved one leaves Jehovah' that we all enjoyed so much Talks about these ones maybe coming back.So it's certainly not appearing in any literature.

And I agree that if announcements had to be made, how discouraging for JWs to realise how many had actually left!! It would certainly cause many more problems for them that it would solve.

If I was DAd after a relatively sucessful fade, I'd never go back and there would be no reason for me to keep quiet then either!

Poppy

16

A little hypocrisy "Watchtower style"

by rockhound in

about 2 months ago my jw sister informed me that she had decided to disfellowship my wife and i. she used 1john 2:19 as a scriptural reference, and the sept.15,1981 watchtower article on disfellowshipping to support her charge.

my reply to her was quite lengthly, but i thought some at this site might be able to benefit from this part of my response.. in your letter to( wife) and i, you applyed 1john 2:19 to us and gave as a reference the following watchtower article to show us why you had decided that "i will treat you as a disfellowshipped persons", because "by deliberately rejecting the faith and beliefs of jehovah's witness" we are evidently guilty as paragraph 14 below of "renouncing his standing as a christian".

*** w81 9/15 p. 23 disfellowshiping?how to view it ***.

PoppyR

I think it's excellent reasoning. Unfortunately reasoning is not something Jdubs do all that well! Even if she takes no notice of what you wrote, I found it very helpful. thank you!

Poppy

41

I'm so Naughty! I pretended to be a JW to get a sale.

by Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit in

jw
friends

i had customers yesterday, a couple, who said they had to get to a meeting by 7:30 last night.

(red flag!

) i asked what was the nature of this meeting, and they said it was like church, and i asked what religion, and they were hohos.

PoppyR

Undercover, I remember a long time ago being impressed by your balanced attitude and I am once again.

Although I have to say, the car sale, doesn't offend me, he didn't hurt those people. But then my morals tend to be less black and white and judgemental nowadays.

BUT. I cannot believe the attitude that all witnesses are hateful, stupid, should have common sense and know better... come on! Surely most of us were there, some for many decades by the sound of it. Yes I had nagging doubts, but the constant brainwashing and meetings and service and association with the rest just had me towing the party line. It wasn't until I had stopped attending I ever seriously examined my doubts. And I stopped attending because I was sick of it, not because I didn't believe.

I feel very sorry for the witnesses. I was there, I TRULY believed, otherwise why the hell would anyone do it? At this point I realise it's possible my family will totally cut me off, but I understand why they feel the way they do. I dont blame them, I just hope they will see 'the light'!!

Poppy

90

I'm new and nervous!

by kitten whiskers in

jw
friends

i am new here and have been "lurking" for several months.

the discussions have helped me tremendously to break free from the society.

i want to thank you all for your help and heartfelt posts.

PoppyR

Welcome! Your opening comments could have been written by me about a year ago. I still remember my heart being in my mouth when my family would talk about the end. I went over and over things in my head as to why it wasn't the truth. Looked behind me for thunderbolts etc!

Last week my mum tried to point to this thing about the Pope and say it was the start of the destruction of world religion.. and I actually just smiled and was totally calm on the inside, I realised then that I am almost over all those years of conditioning. You have been 'brainwashed' for many years and it takes a while to shake it off, but slowly reason takes over. This board, and the intelligent people on it are amazing, as you've already found!

You are very lucky to be out as a family, I hope you find here the resolve you need to complete your transformation!

Poppy x

59

Is There Anything Positive About Being A Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i recently went to a wedding and the father of the bride that (re)married a (worldly) man said to me, "the only thing that i can say about raising our kids as witnesses was at least they got a good foundation.

look at our kids.

they're good kids".

PoppyR

I try! If there is one thing that hit me really hard after leaving the org it is how SHORT life is! And I think it's such a waste to spend it in bitterness over the past.

It's much more fun spending it making up for all those years of things you couldn't do

Poppy x

14

Big Screen TV`s

by OUTLAW in

jw
friends

i`ve looked at them all,plasma,rear projection lcd,dlp..the nicest picture i`ve seen to date,is the 62"hitachi rear projection lcd..unfriggin believable!

!..it was beautiful..cost:$2999.99..any suggestions on big screen tv`s with a remarkable picture?...outlaw

PoppyR

I dont know if the situation is the same in the US, but here Plasmas are rapidly becoming old technology as LCDs can match them for size and picture and are SO much lighter (which can be important if you are wall mounting) and proving to be more reliable.

Something that makes a statement to me is the extended warranty for a plasma tv is more than twice as much for an equivalent size LCD.

I've always found the Philips have awesome pictures, but just cannot hit the reliability button!

The thing that puts me off rear projection is the pure size of them! But maybe that's the Brit in me

One thing I know for sure, any model you see now will be significantly cheaper in 6 months time, things are moving so rapidly.

Poppy

59

Is There Anything Positive About Being A Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i recently went to a wedding and the father of the bride that (re)married a (worldly) man said to me, "the only thing that i can say about raising our kids as witnesses was at least they got a good foundation.

look at our kids.

they're good kids".

PoppyR

I wouldn't say it outweighs the negatives! But.. I feel I'm a very good conversationalist, I can talk to anyone anywhere about anything after years of pioneering! I've found some of my friends really struggle with people they are not 'on a level' with.

Also my kids are always getting complimented on their conversational abilities. Because they have no barriers about talking to adults.

As to the 100 dollars in a card, I wouldn't look for a bad motive, just be grateful! You would have to be a very altruistic person to give a gift and not want the person to know it was you who gave it.

Much of the time witnesses are just good, loving people, just very misled. I saw a lot of kindness in the congregation, and it's very easy to pick on things people aren't doing, rather than look at the positive, which is why this is a good thread!

Poppy

46

What do you think the Society's future holds?

by KW13 in

jw
friends

i get the feeling the society is gonna suffer a huge loss of number, with people who are in getting old, those 'raised' in the so called truth leaving and less and less interested ones because more people are aware.. .

it has its ups and downs but it seems the ups aren't as big as they used to, some never recovered from 1975 and others from the 1995 generation thingy.. your thoughts?.

PoppyR

I think the internet is useful to people who are starting to look into the religion and people who have already decided there is something wrong about it. The typical active JW would not dream of looking at a website like this, and would unfortunately think it was all just 'apostate'.

Personally this website was my lifeline when I was taking my first few steps out of the org. I remember looking at it guiltily, heart in my mouth while I discovered things I thought must be lies!

As to the future of the org.. it's in decline, but it's a slow process. The main growth is still in developing lands, most places in US and Europe are now in the negatives. Which when you consider just population growth means many are 'falling away' My old cong, most are in their 50s and 60s, there are young families, but few are elders and servants and most have irregular meeting attendance to say the least!

My mum (who is one of the die hard faithful) this week shocked me to the core when discussing the popes comments, she did not even mention the impact on world religion... previously it would have been "this could be the start of the end!!" I think even she realises we've cried wolf too many times.

Poppy