neighbors of mine have been spreading some unkind untruths about me and i'm not sure what i can do about it.
i'm struggling and would love some words of insight from others.
there are days when i'd like to sink to their level and tell some lies of my own, but i know that's not the way to go.
Hi Happyone
I'm sorry to hear whats happening, it must be really hurtful and frustrating. I like bikerchic's advice to continue to live your life well. It's hard not to be affected by other people's bad behaviour but you have to try and not let it burden you as you are only responsible for what comes out of your mouth.
Moomin
did any of you ever notice that what seemed a larger percentage of people in the congregation seem to have serious illnesses than the same slice of people in the world with the same demographics?
it seems that our congregation had a large percentage of people with mental illnesses, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, etc.
these diseases (although some md's classify them as psychosomatic) have been known to be aggravated or even induced by stress.
In my cong there were a lot of depression sufferers and a couple with M.E. I was told that one of the back rooms was named the B.O. room as thats where all the brothers and sisters who were allergic to everything had to sit.
There was also a lot of common colds floating around most of the time as quite a few people would still attend the meetings even when contagious :(
I bet it was worse than a doctor's waiting room.
Moomin
...the phone rings.
the witness answers it and someone is on the other end, but they are speaking in french.
luckily the witness speaks french.
Hi Gilberto
I would listen to stories like that and be excited along with whoever was telling them but it would also feel like part of my brain was screaming out in pain.
I look back now and wish I had been more vocal with my cynicism (sp?). I wonder if those who start these stories are having a good laugh at our expense and will push it further everytime to see how truly gullible their members are.
I mentioned on another thread the story I heard last year about a girl forgetting to read her days text so went home instead of going to work, this lead her to miss the train with a bomb on. (This was 07/07 last year in London.). My study conductor afterwards would say that wherever you are, if you have your days text booklet with you, you will always be protected from harm. I wish I had the courage to tell her how utterly ridiculous she sounded, I was so embarrassed to be amongst these people.
Sorry for the rant.
Moomin
i have not been an active witness active for several years now.
so are the women still being forced to wear skirts and dresses still?
i really think that the whole dress thing has been for some time now very outdated.
Hi, Yes the women are still wearing skirts. At my old cong they would complain an awful lot saying they would do more fs if allowed to wear trousers.
Last winter I wore the long heavy skirts with the welly style boots and I felt like a right scruffy mess. It was really hard to be confident.
hiya folks.
just joined on board and figured i'd say a quick hello to all.
i'd get into more, but i'm soooo watching this ingrid bergman marathon on right now on turner classic movies...
Hi Raylo, I look forward to hearing more from you. Moomin.
i had an idea that i could build a uk map of everyones location which would show you instantly who is in your area from jwd.. (it might be an idea to do a seperate us one aswell but i'll wait and see if this one takes off first, or if anyone from the us wants to volunteer to do that one).
(and australia but you are all in the same backyard anyway - literally!!!).
anyway, all you have to do is post or email me your username and town and i will draw you on the map above which will change gradually to include everyone!.
Hello, you can add me to Essex too
so why didn't you think you were in a cult when you were a jdub?
my "worldly" husband always told me i was in a cult when we were dating..i didn't believe him.
but, to this day i still don't know why i didn't agree with him.
Before and during my last stint with the witnesses, I would smirk at the idea that it was a cult. I used to see programmes on the telly of what cults were like and I didn't think ours was similar.
I used to think that the members of these other religions knew deep down that they were in a cult.
When I put a bit more thought into it, especially on hearing about those who are willing to commit suicide, I realised that these people must believe in what they know with their whole hearts and minds as they are prepared to die for their beliefs.
It was then that I started to question myself. Once I told my husband that it wouldn't matter what evidence came before me, I would NEVER, EVER stop believing that the witnesses were true. Here I am a few months later finding it very difficult to believe what a knobhead I was and it barely took any evidence at all.
.
it seems to me that all the jw's i knew while going to the meetings, weather they were spiritually strong or weak, never criticized.
they were like real sheep.. i used to always bitch about the length of the meetings and the time of the meetings and so on.....when i drove the brothers back home in my car or talked to them in private.. naturally i would only say this to my closer jw friends or those i knew wouldn't squeal on me.. .
The most complained about thing I would hear is the fact that women had to wear skirts all the time. Some would say that they would stay out on the field service for much longer if they could wear trousers.
A few women had real problems with putting scarves on their heads when they needed to pray. I don't blame them because it did look really odd.
A lot of them had trouble understanding the biblical reasons for not celebrating birthdays . We all would sit there sometimes trying to find a short and sweet answer that we could tell unbelievers.
Someone said it is because King Herod and others did wicked things on their birthdays. I said that if someone who drives a car commits a murder then that doesn't mean we all have to stop driving cars. It went really quiet when I said that. I'm not sure if they secretly agreed or just thought it was a mad, random comment (I make lots of those!).
Someone else said that Jesus or Jehovah never mentioned these celebrations but neither do they mention jet skiing in the Alps but it doesn't mean we should'nt do it.
So we couldn't come up with anything substantial which was very irritating, but we still obeyed. :(
during the time leading up to my baptism and even more so afterwards, my study conductor and her friend were always telling me how i shouldn't be watching the soaps.
(i had mentioned to them at some point how i enjoy watching emmerdale and coronation street).
they described them as being unwholesome and encouraging of immoral ways.
Juni, I don't remember it so I tried Googling it but all it showed was The Good Life.
I typed in 'good neighbours sitcom'
during the time leading up to my baptism and even more so afterwards, my study conductor and her friend were always telling me how i shouldn't be watching the soaps.
(i had mentioned to them at some point how i enjoy watching emmerdale and coronation street).
they described them as being unwholesome and encouraging of immoral ways.
we still shunned Coronation Street, which is essentially a great comedy.
Yes it is isn't it? I love the light-heartedness about it, I'm not too keen when tragedies happen, I just enjoy watching day to day goings on.
I know what you mean about Dallas being such a world apart from us that it kind of makes it okay. Maybe the witnesses in Texas were ok with watching Corrie for the same reason but shunned Dallas lol.
