here's mine: i'm 14 years old, just baptised and a old boy married elder of about 60 odd comes up to me and says " ooooooooooh!
"purrpurr"!
your getting such a lovely figure on you!
"Jehovah doesn't want good people, he wants obedient people"-CO's Wife
"I wish at the last moment at Armageddon Jehovah plays back for them the times they told us they weren't interested"-Youngish bethelite elder, out in service just after being told nicely by a gentleman he wasn't interested. It was the last time I went out in service a few years ago
I know there are many more, but those two stand out as jaw droppers.
i am a theist & this is my version of god.. instead of using the term god, i'll use "unseen presence".. this unseen presence, is perfect in every way.
this presence is so perfect it can seem a bit boring.this perfection can be seen in the laws of science, for example gravity.. it does not sometimes work, depending on the mood of some one in the sky, it always works, perfectly.
gravity does not get angry and decide to stop working, and cause the death of innumerable living beings, it just works, through thick or thin, it is reliable.. what allows this unseen presence to remain perfect, is the fact that it does not act based on emotion, or strategy or regret.. it acts based on law, mathematical law.. this unseen presence is not partial to jews or muslims or jw's it is completely impartial at all times, to everything that exists.
so last night i went to the meeting with my family.
had not gone in 2 weeks.
as usual i sat down reading the bible.
i read some impressive figures here about the decline of the jw numbers in 2015.. could there be a correlation between this decline and the start of jw broadcasting?.
hence, that there would be an negative impact because the gb is standing so nearby, you can experience the idiot reasoning of their doctrines sitting in your own living room?.
the lett effect?
Yes regular exposure to the gb is probably causing a lot of painful cd.
Let's not forget those awful music videos at the end though. Those are so out of place with the religion I grew up in its unreal. Jehovahs chariot is quickly turning the corner to mainstream Christian fundamentalist religion.
i don't follow the board nearly as closely as i did years ago and i've only seen scattered and seemingly contradictory threads on construction delays and bethel layoffs.. anyone care to briefly summarize the latest for those of us who haven't closely followed the various threads?
it'd be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance..
i can see how science is answering our questions.
okay, that's a sweeping statement, but it's the best way my empty head can express it.
i'm not sure if we're evolving as a species...that's another subject i admit to not reading about.
It reminds me of some of the strong feelings that woke Daniel Genser up in his now (exjw) famous article.
I started noticing a huge disconnect between the attitude of my fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the content of the Bible itself, with regard to social justice issues. At every turn I felt like I was being tone policed by the JW doctrine of political neutrality, even though the Bible showed tons of examples of righteous indignation over the social conditions in Israel…
… I slowly came to realize that the combination of the doctrine of political neutrality and the belief that God will imminently and miraculously solve all the problems of humankind in a New World System after the war of Armageddon allows JWs to casually dismiss any social ill they see in the world as unfixable– even if the ill is eminently correctable through human effort and leadership.
I started to find this disempowering ideology, which prevents JWs from accepting their responsibility for the part they individually play in creating, contributing to, and helping to fix the social problems, to be repugnant and infantilizing. The ideology teaches passivity — blame Satan, and pray that Jehovah miraculously fixes everything soon.
As a JW, I was living a life deferred, projecting forward all my hopes and dreams into a future paradise in a New World System in which God fixes everything, and humans have no ability to even attempt to solve their own problems.
Have I become more moral?
By jw and fundamental religious view no, I may be considered immoral
I feel I have a better definition of morality now though, and I am more empathetic, kind, forgiving etc. Although I was never terrible at those things sometimes I felt the discomfort of being too much so as a witness and was treated as such. I enjoyed spending more time with unbelieving mates etc because they felt more real. But I didn't preach to them.
Bad jw! Bad bad bad
music and art have been a big part of my life since i was a little boy, and although i was never able to play a decent guitar, i can paint.
my art teacher from college said " i was the most imaginative and constructive pupil she had ever had.
" i loved that comment, because in translation i realised it meant i had to work harder than other more naturally talented students, but the effort was always worth it.
