I will be there, Michelle. I am looking forward to meeting many of you! I have been feeling the "pull" a little lately. False reality has it's good points.
DanTheMan
JoinedPosts by DanTheMan
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12
Cincinnati Potluck this Friday!
by Intuit39 inhey, the plans for the potluck this friday are almost complete.. due to the response we've been getting, we're going to hold it in a private home near downtown.
the more, the merrier!.
if you have not already received an email with directions, then we just don't have your email address.
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4
Crisis of Conscience, p. 117
by DanTheMan ina great quote:.
to paint a foreboding picture of potential unrestrained wrongdoing on the part of the brothers simply because we, as a governing body, removed some existing regulation, appealed to me as saying that we suspected our brothers of lacking true love of righteousness, of inwardly wanting to sin and being held in check only by organizational regulations.
well, unfortunately, many in the borg do only regulate their behavior according to what is allowed and is not allowed.
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DanTheMan
A great quote:
To paint a foreboding picture of potential unrestrained wrongdoing on the part of the brothers simply because we, as a Governing Body, removed some existing regulation, appealed to me as saying that we suspected our brothers of lacking true love of righteousness, of inwardly wanting to sin and being held in check only by organizational regulations.
Well, unfortunately, many in the borg do only regulate their behavior according to what is allowed and is not allowed. They have not been trained to use their own discernment, to think for themselves. This was one of the things that disturbed me the most while I was in.In spite of all I've seen and read over the past few weeks, I'm still feeling the pull - pray for me y'all!
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*de-lurk* yet another life story...
by iggy_the_fish inive been as occasional lurker here for a little while, trying to get oriented.
my theocratic autobiography: my mother became a jehovahs witness when i was approx.
10. my father opposed this, but they still live together to this day.
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DanTheMan
Your distilled reason #2 is key. The authoritarian, "faithful slave" dogma is the cornerstone of the WT's house of cards. Once you get past that one, all the rest becomes insignificant.
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28
GOSSIP In the Kingdom Hall
by Sunflower1982 inthe overwhelming amount of gossip that circulated through my kingdom hall was a major factor in my decision to stop attending meetings.
every meeting, every day of field service, and every gathering was plagued with vicious rumors that people told to keep themselves entertained.
surprisingly, the pioneers and elder's wives were the worst of everyone.
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DanTheMan
Good post topic.
I can remember a service meeting I was at about a year ago, a part was done on gossip. And the brother who gave the talk, his family had one of the worst gossip reputations of all! In a way, he kind of admitted it during his talk, too, which was refreshing. I liked him, he was a third generation dub, all of his family and extended family are dubs. I can't see how he could ever even begin to think any other way than the WT way. I wouldn't try to pull him away, he is a lifer and for some it seems better that way. For his family, it is a social club as much as anything else to them, and when all your family are dubs, it is a whole lot easier to swallow all the bull and never question it.
In the small-minded, insular world of JW's, what else are they going to talk about during their social gatherings & invisible ministry? Trying to get JW's to not gossip is just not possible.
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How Field Service Destroys the WTS
by metatron inyears ago, congregations all over the world were built up.
and solidified by the door to door work.
since all witness.
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DanTheMan
Met, you are a gifted wordsmith. The issues you bring up perfectly describe what I saw in the borg almost from the day I was dunked in '93. The WT ministry is imaginary, their message is reaching nobody.
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Are JW Kids Worse Disproportionately?
by patio34 inin a conversation with my son, we were going over all the young people he grew up with that were jws.
there seemed to be an inordinate proportion of felons among them, compared to the "worldly" people in his school.
and also compared to the people at work that i know whose kids are doing fine now.. our tentative theory is that raising kids as jws can be very damaging to many of them.
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DanTheMan
I became a dub as a 22 year old. One of the things that worked on me over the years was seeing how screwed up the kids in the congs were. I knew that if I had been raised as a JW, I never would have made it. Too much hypocrisy.
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Smoking and apostates
by Elsewhere inmrmoe got me thinking... is it just me, or does a disproportionate number of apostates smoke?.
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"as every one knows, there are mistakes in the bible" - the watchtower, april 15, 1928, p. 126 .
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DanTheMan
I was privately reproved for smoking around April of last year. I kept smoking, but didn't tell the elders or anybody. Now that I'm an ex, I don't smoke anymore. It is a waste of money and health.
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When Did JW's Ever Make You Feel Cared For?
by Englishman inso-called apostates are, imo, actually persons who have been refined in the fires of criticism so that their true personalities shine through.
apostates are the best, most loyal friends in the whole world.
they do not have to worry about whether something is right or wrong, they are free to act upon instinct, upon feeling, upon their innermost emotions.. not for them the wearisome, tiresome, boring old its either right or its wrong mentality that cripples the acolytes of the wtbts!
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DanTheMan
Maybe being a JW is some sort of test that has to be gone through in order for a person to become a complete individual.
Though I don't wish my experience on anybody, I think that ultimately I am much wiser and more colorful because of it. -
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fear of death
by DanTheMan inwhen i was a teenager, i got into heavy metal music in a big, big way.
black sabbath, iron maiden, and metallica were my faves, especially metallica.
i lived on their music, listening to their albums literally hundreds of times, often while under the influence of mood-altering substances.
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DanTheMan
SPAZ, check this out, you'll enjoy it -
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5
fear of death
by DanTheMan inwhen i was a teenager, i got into heavy metal music in a big, big way.
black sabbath, iron maiden, and metallica were my faves, especially metallica.
i lived on their music, listening to their albums literally hundreds of times, often while under the influence of mood-altering substances.
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DanTheMan
When I was a teenager, I got into heavy metal music in a big, big way. Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Metallica were my faves, especially Metallica. I lived on their music, listening to their albums literally hundreds of times, often while under the influence of mood-altering substances. Anyone familiar with Metallica, particularly their older stuff, knows that James Hetfield (the singer/guitarist and main creative force behind Metallica) had a morbid fascination with death. One song I remember was called 'Fight Fire With Fire' -
"...Do unto others, as they've done to you, what, what, the hell is, this world coming to?
Blow the Universe, into nothingness, nuclear warfare, shall lay us to rest
Fight fire with fire...ending is near"The above lyrics are very typical of 80's Metallica music.
As a teenager, morbid, death-centered music became a virtual obsession for me. Little wonder that I developed such a hopeless bent on life and such fear and dislike of other human beings. By the time I was 22, I was convinced that the 'end was near', I was haunted by the idea of having my life cut short by war, disaster, economic fallout, etc. I was paranoid, had few friends, and was completely directionless in life. I had grown up Catholic, but I never paid a bit of attention to it, I was religiously and biblically illiterate.
Along came the WT. A big huge answer to everything. The last days. 1914. The march of world powers. The hope of never having to die, of being protected when the big A comes. I jumped in, without the slightest hesitation...Ahhh, my fears subsided - for a while. Then came the "Are you doing enough"'s. Of course, I never felt like I was. Fear of death returned, only this time even more so because of the guilt that goes along with the notion that you possess the absolute truth and that everybody who doesn't listen to you is going to DIE . I never was a zealous proclaimer of the WT's good news. (very few in the borg are, most are just hanging around)
More than anything else, I think that fear of death was what attracted me to the WT and kept me in long after I saw the insanity. The WT, with their endless Armageddon talk, is virtually identical in methodology to fundy preachers who use hellfire to scare people into their rigid way of life and keep them there in small-minded misery.
Yesterday, I decided to stop fearing death. It is unavoidable. It happens to all people. It may come next week, or I may live another 50 years. My death may come quickly, like a thief in the night, or it may be horribly drawn out and painful. WHO KNOWS? I once heard about a study done on monkeys. I'm sure I don't have this all correct, but basically it went like this -
Two groups of monkeys both were both subjected to periodic electric shocks. One group received the shocks without any prior warning. For the other group, a light would turn on a few seconds ahead of the shock. The group that received the warning had much higher mortality rates than the ones that did not.
The point? The worry that goes along with facing a situation that is inevitable is often much worse than the inevitable situation itself.
Fear of death can make you stop living. I stopped living for 10 years of my life, pursuing a pipe dream religious fantasy. I have a whole new outlook and appreciation for every day now. I have a peace that I never felt while in the borg. I am ready to start living, even if it is for only another week (don't read anything into that statement, I'm not contemplating suicide or anything!)
Carpe Diem!!