Posts by Cygnus

38

~How did/do you personally feel about the headship arrangement?~

by FlyingHighNow in

jw
friends

i feel that headship is one of the most damaging doctrines taught in the wtbts as well as other fundy religions.

it is promoted as a way to have happier, healthier marriages and families.

in theory, maybe so.

Cygnus

Like I said in my other post, before I got married my JW dad gave me this advice: 'Your mother always did what she wanted with my approval; I never made any rules for her.'

Interestingly, when I brought up divorce to my then-wife almost 3 years ago, she exclaimed, "Well I want a Christian husband!" I never really understood her, because she was a lousy communicator, but I bet part of that exclamation was her complaining that I didn't "take the lead" very well in our marriage, which I didn't, the JW way anyway, cause I always thought that way was stupid. If that's what she wanted, I wasn't the one she should be with.

32

Ever wonder why...........

by knot4me in

jw's never get dfed for being fat?

please don't take this offensively if you are overweight, i'm a little chubby myself.

i'm not judging.

Cygnus

There is nothing biblically wrong with being fat or obese. What is wrong is gluttony, which is a lack of self-control and a form of selfishness. Tough to prove, though, as some people are genetically inclined towards being heavy. I suppose if a JW based his or her whole life around food, and allowed it to get in the way of meeting attendance or something, then some reproof would be in order. Or if at the Kingdom Hall they advocated eating at McDonald's for dinner every night and haughtily refused to submit to theocratic order by instead following the fine example of Jared and promoted the eating of lean Subway sandwiches.

239

Watchtower Gives Up Explaining 607 BCE Date!

by VM44 in

this is a very important observation, that the watchtower has not tried to explain in print why 607 bce is the year for the destruction of jerusalem for the last 17 years!!!.

all that the watchtower has done over most of the last two decades is to repeat over and over the year "607bce" in its publications as if it is an unquestioned fact!.

the last time an explaination for the year was attempted by the watchtower was in 1988 when the "insight" volumes were published, but since then, no explaination for the validity of the year has appeared in print.. this must mean something, but what?

Cygnus

If Daniel witnessed all these events, and the WT chronology is right, then Daniel lived to be a really, really old man.

But phooey on that anyway, the book of Daniel was written only a couple of hundred years give or take a decade or two before Josephus was born.

239

Watchtower Gives Up Explaining 607 BCE Date!

by VM44 in

this is a very important observation, that the watchtower has not tried to explain in print why 607 bce is the year for the destruction of jerusalem for the last 17 years!!!.

all that the watchtower has done over most of the last two decades is to repeat over and over the year "607bce" in its publications as if it is an unquestioned fact!.

the last time an explaination for the year was attempted by the watchtower was in 1988 when the "insight" volumes were published, but since then, no explaination for the validity of the year has appeared in print.. this must mean something, but what?

Cygnus

I was watching The History Channel with my kids...and out of the blue...they mention the destruction of Jerusalem in 587BCE (yes..they said BCE)...

I just now clicked on page 7 of this thread because I had nothing better to do and this caught my eye. I read in a review once where the Christian reviewer of some book got upset that the author would use BCE/CE and not BC/AD because the former was secular (Before/(during the) Common Era) and the latter was more Christian (Before Christ/Anno Domini). I found that funny because the 'Tower always insisted on BCE and CE.

Indeed, this web page http://confessingevangelical.blogspot.com/2005/03/i-kissed-secular-dating-goodbye.html entitled the "Confessing Evangelical" states:

Sounds trivial, and I suppose it is trivial in some ways, but the Sydney Anglican magazine The Briefing came out with quite a persuasive argument a few years ago for using "AD" as often as possible. The article in question has now been reprinted on The Briefing's blog, Couldn't Help Noticing. In it, Kel Richards argues that:

Since "AD" stands for Anno Domini ("in the year of Our Lord") every time you use AD you are saying that Jesus Christ is the Lord of history. It’s a small, simple way of confessing to the Lordship of Jesus.

Richards goes on to say that "This may not strike you as important, but the enemies of Jesus know exactly how important it is", as evidenced by attempts to replace BC and AD with BCE and CE ("Before Common Era" and "Common Era").

By using "AD" wherever possible - "on your letters, emails, cheques, in your diary - anywhere and everywhere you use a date that includes the year" - Richards argues that we have an opportunity:

to advertise the fact that we confess Jesus to be the Lord of history, the Lord of time, and (indeed) the Lord of all.

8

Right to die

by onacruse in

jw
friends

so, now we embark on yet another chapter of the legal battle about whether a person has the right to terminate their human life, with the approval and assistance of medical professionals who are otherwise sworn to preserve life.. oregon is the only state in the united states with such a law (physician-assisted suicide, as so called), though many other countries recognize this act as a fundamental right; and this law, passed by a considerable majority of voters in this state, is now up for review, and very possible rejection, by the obviously conservative and religiously right-leaning supreme court of the us, with a new leader hand-picked by...well, let's not go there.

for myself, i have no hesitation whatsoever: if i'm faced with the virtual inevitability of suffering a prolonged and painful death, versus a relatively painless and reasonably quiet termination, at my own hands, with those i love, then god-damn anybody who would stand between me and the right i have over my body.. what do you think?.

ps: i post this in friends...perhaps it should be in another section?

Cygnus

Hopefully we don't turn this into a 50 page thread arguing over abortion and euthanasia.

I'm just going to say that Jack Kevorkian is in my Top Ten of Greatest Men of All Time, and when it comes to abortion, it's the women's body, it's her decision, case closed.

34

Why write a letter of disassociation?

by tfsm in

my question may seem vague but if one decides to leave "the organization", why write a formal letter?

why not just leave and not have any further contact with the witnesses?

is there some legitimate legal reason for this or do people do this because the witness thinking has overtaken their logic?

Cygnus

Quite the good letter written by DocBob to his former JW associates here: http://www.docbob.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=5

And this, of course, is my favorite non-DA letter to the elders, from which I borrowed some of its thoughts in composing my own non-DA letter, again from DocBob: http://www.docbob.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=6

If anything, click on the second link, at least. You won't be disappointed.

18

saturday morning

by hallowedbethyname in

jw
friends

woke up saturday morning, after a nice night of drinking with buddies.

had to get ready for my bookstudy---yeccch.. drag my ass to the arrangement, bo (bookstudy overseer) asks if i can read today.

bahhhhh.

Cygnus

"Is today a.. week... day?" -- The Dude, The Big Lebowski

2

Family Happiness

by joelbear in

jw
friends

as i stood at brewster's for my weekly ice cream treat (banana chocolate chip and marshmallow milkshake) i had a family of 4 behind me laughing and lightly teasing each other.

they had just come from the son's football game where they had watched him play.

they were teasing the dad about how excited he had gotten seeing his son on the field.

Cygnus

If you take away the headship garbage and theocratic mumbo-jumbo, a lot of what JWs teach about family is decent stuff.

Speaking of that headship crap, and I don't mean to hijack the thread, just interjecting a thought I had, my JW dad told me 14 years ago as I was preparing for my first marriage: "I always felt that your mother should do whatever she wanted to do; I never believed in making rules for her or telling her what to do." My dad is wise man.

8

More Creationism vs. Evolution in the news.

by Big Dog in

this caught my eye, the poll at the end is kind of scary.

on the seventh day, america went to court .

a bitter struggle is unfolding in the us about the most basic of issues: the origins of life.

Cygnus

I'll never forget what my 10th grade chemistry teacher told the class: The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.

That is a very profound idea. Especially if you consider that teaching ID would make a knowledgeable person feel like a complete idiot.

87

Mormons/LDS

by Evanescence in

what would your views be on mormons?.

was there much incidences where jw's and mormons would ever catch eachother while going door-to-door?.

just curious cause both of you do it and wondered if there was ever any conflict between the two..... evanescence

Cygnus

Very many moons ago when I was about 17 I was engaged in the door to door ministry of Jehovah's Witnesses with a pioneer fella who was a couple of years older than me and a passer-by asked us if we were affiliated with the "Joseph Smith movement." We answered, "Uh, no sir, we're JWs." "Ah," was all he said as he went on his way. I and my buddy looked at each other and verbally wondered who this Smith guy was.

Flash forward 8 years and I've recently left the JWs and on the advice from the congo that I was spiritually endangering her, my wife left me. A couple of Mormon dudes....er... elders knocked on my door. I asked if they had a Book of Mormon I could have. They didn't, and said they'd come back with one. So we made an appointment for them to make a return visit ( ) and they gave me a free BoM, and asked if we could read a portion from within. I said sure, and it was several verses about some guy traveling far into the Americas and by faith was led to some place and did this and that and the other thing and when we finally finished they asked if they could say a prayer. I said sure, so off they went with "Heavenly Father, we thank you for blah blah blah and may Jason here have his eyes opened to the truth of the Book of Mormon blah blah blah Amen!" And I said "Amen" as well. Then they asked if I felt any different. Apparently at this point the Holy Spirit is supposed to envelope a person and guide him towards becoming fascinated with Mormonism. I didn't feel anything, other than "this is getting weird." So I politely said No and I had expected their visit to be brief as I had something else planned very soon (in other words, I kicked them out so I could read the newspaper online and get drunk).

Other than meeting the occasional Mormon online and doing work for certain customers who were clearly Mormon (they all have the same picture of Jesus in their homes, as well as 18 kids), that's been the extent of my dealings with members of the LDS church.