have i stayed too long at the fair.
there are many names and faces that i don't see much any more.
my own style of posting has changed due to my limitations.. welcome to the new ones and stop by some of you we are missing if you can.. blondie.
Blondie,
As far as my wife and I are concerned, you are supergirl. You have been so much help to so many of us.
I have only posted a year and a half, and I don't post much as I have come to the conclusion that I don't know much, and I would rather read posts of a number of you that continue to astound me.
I am sorry that you are ailing, Karen and I send our love.
Brant Jones
today was the first day of three for this year's "follow the christ" district convention.. for the first time in as many years as i can go back, the theme of this program was jesus christ.. most of the program was ok. the talks considered jesus, his life and his works.
there was nothing about the talks that i considered insulting or controlling.. could this be it?
could the society really be going jesus-centric?.
gumby hit the nail on the head:
Christ didn't make the mistakes they have made....yet comparing them to him, he did. They are the biggest blashemers against christ and Jehovah, yet they blame christendom for holding the title.
brant
today was the first day of three for this year's "follow the christ" district convention.. for the first time in as many years as i can go back, the theme of this program was jesus christ.. most of the program was ok. the talks considered jesus, his life and his works.
there was nothing about the talks that i considered insulting or controlling.. could this be it?
could the society really be going jesus-centric?.
Truthseeker wrote:IF JEHOVAH AND JESUS TRUST THE "FAITHFUL AND DISRCEET SLAVE" SHOULDN'T WE?
Just exactly what proof is there that he does trust them.
Saying don't make it so.
I would say that HE has yet to entrust them with any correct prophesying! 1874, 1914, 1919, 1925, 1943, 1975, by the end of the twentieth century, etc.....the end was coming last year, oops, no this year, whatever. Eventually we will be right.
Brant
damn... looks like dubya has seriously f. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070523111616.2o2tkip3&show_article=1.
'war on terror' dividing world, amnesty warns.
fears stoked by the post-9/11 "war on terror" are increasingly dividing the world, amnesty international said wednesday, while rapping rights abuses from china to darfur and russia to the middle east.
Tyrone,
I agree with your view and expressions you made.
Terrorism is a tool of radical Islam, and unless all of us want to grab our rugs and face east and start praying, we had better get unified as to how to deal with these people.
Someone said in a post above that "education" is what is needed. Most of the terrorists leaders have been educated in the US or GB.
These people are just the personification of evil, and I for one am glad that they are fighting and dying somewhere else besides here in the US. The Iraqis have an opportunity to set up their own free government, many appreciate the effort the US has made to allow them to move toward a degree of freedom. But their religious system is not going to let them ever be free.
Just think, most of us endured religious oppression for decades before we were able to break out, and I don't think that as bad as the WT is that it even begins to approach the wickedness of radical Islam.
Lots of you are pretty critical of Bush. I too think he is a piss poor communicator, and after 8 years of him, I look forward to someone who can at least give an inspiring talk. But, Bush is sincere and understands the stakes. Its either them or us.
The only way to change the course of radical Islam is to try to change the way governments in the mid-east govern. Get the power out of the hands of the radicals and the clergy.
I don't know if there is a political-military solution to the problem that radical Islam presents to the world, but as for right now, I feel that killing the sob's at any cost is the right thing to do.
U
after my disfellowshipping, i felt like a person alone in a very dark room full of strange objects..........someone grappling around in pitch black wary of everything i touched.
i didnt want involvment with another religion..........my thinking was that the jehovah's witnesses were right despite my having put myself in the position where i was no longer acceptable to them.
other religions had no draw for me, and to this day, i still remain indifferent to them.. and yet, i missed the comfort that i had experienced as a witness..............the hope, the so called 'answers and the feeling of belonging to a community of like minded people.. occasionally i have dabbled with other forms of 'answers'..............reading my stars, doing tarot, a mystic meg approach to the answers of life.
Looks like I have had a SINIS attack.
Brant
after my disfellowshipping, i felt like a person alone in a very dark room full of strange objects..........someone grappling around in pitch black wary of everything i touched.
i didnt want involvment with another religion..........my thinking was that the jehovah's witnesses were right despite my having put myself in the position where i was no longer acceptable to them.
other religions had no draw for me, and to this day, i still remain indifferent to them.. and yet, i missed the comfort that i had experienced as a witness..............the hope, the so called 'answers and the feeling of belonging to a community of like minded people.. occasionally i have dabbled with other forms of 'answers'..............reading my stars, doing tarot, a mystic meg approach to the answers of life.
Fifi,
I agree that it is a difficult step, when you are invested in such a religion as the witnesses. I think it is especially difficult to recover if you think you have "morally failed" to live up to a certain way of life, and then are disfellowshipped.
Don't forget though that the blood of Christ is there for all of us, and he did come to save 'sinners' not righteous persons. So, cheer up. Remember Manasseh, the King of Israel? He even put his own infant son to death to Baal, and Jehovah forgave him. David didn't do so hot, and he is called "a man after God's own heart". And the list goes on and on.
Try to break the habit of calling it the "Truth". It isn't the truth as taught in the Bible and it would help you to make your break if you could really accept how wicked a religious system it really is.
I did enjoy the following comment that I put in red: (very profound thought)
Ever see the movie City Slickers? You know what that "one thing" is? Its WHATEVER makes you happy! Is there an afterlife? I don't know, I don't think anyone does. However, did you worry about a "before life" before you were born? Chances are no. So why worry about an afterlife after you are dead. If there is nothing than you won't have much to worry about. Which brings us back to that "one thing". Do whatever you want in life and want to achieve, apply the golden rule, especially in treating others how you want to be treated, and life has a marvelous way of doing the rest...
I personally would not mess with any form of spiritism, but we are all liberated to do what we want. Just be careful. Try to figure out a way or a formula that will help you live a good happy life and trust in Jehovah. I am working to do the same, but it is difficult.
Good luck,
Brant
i notice one of the biggest complaints around here about the organization is often related to their constant use of the "us versus them" mentality, (i.e.
"we" need to be seperate from "them" because "they" are wrong and "we" are right).
yet i also notice that many of the posters here use the exact same kind of rhetoric and thinking.
Airduster,
Welcome. Your comments are thoughtful and I admire where you are coming from. However, I have to agree with 144,001 that this forum is not your basic "feel good" place. There are a lot of other sites that may suit your needs better.
Paradise Cafe
E-Watchman
I'm sure there are other.
This group is a very diverse group that would be impossible to direct in a certain manner or tone toward anything. There are a lot of people in this forum that do exactly like you like. There are a lot of others that would like to execute the leaders of JW's and be done with it.
I have from time to time, left here, and went to other places, because the discussions get "out of hand" by my own standards. BUT, I always seem to come back because of the massive number of what I consider super-intelligent people that post here.
Sometimes, I can't believe the resources that these people have. As a result, it is my favorite site to visit, but, to a wandering publisher of JW's it probably wouldn't be the best place to come first.
Hope you stay, but it is a tough place, and worth the effort.
Brant
i don't know the date but it must be in the jan issues of the awake magazine between 1999-2004. it mentioned the subject of automobiles and it had a photo of a 16 cylendar cadillac and the man next to is no other than judge rutherford himself.
has anyone seen that article?
hope for your replies.
faithful and discreet master?
faithless indiscreet master?
after coming home to read what has happened today on this board, i would just like to say that no matter what differences anyone has ever had with ray franz, i, for one appreciate what he has done for me.
ray has helped more people to look at their spirituality over the last 2 decades.
he is not perfect, but he has been a voice of reason and a man of integrity.
I think it is small minded to think that it is wrong, brown nosing or setting RF up as a GOD to show him respect and honor for what he has done for all of us.
Most of us have sacrificed a lot in order to have left the Organization. I personally lost a 45 year history of so-called 'friends'. I have a son that won't visit or communicate, so I feel our sacrifices have been substantial.
HOWEVER, none of us had ever acheived the level of influence and worshipful adoration that Ray Franz had reached, and then, he just turned his back on it!
He has done nothing for personal aggrandizement, and hasn't ruined his life with hate. He is a pretty good example of a Christian follower of Christ, in my opinion.
Most of us have been better because of him.
Happy Birthday.
Brant
.
p2 or pleaser2000.
we have p2, with my kids, myself and arrowstar to start!.
Looks like you guys had a wonderful time.
I wish Karen and I could have been there with you. Would have been nice to meet all of you.
Great photos.
Brant
