DanTheMan

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Posts by DanTheMan

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  18

  Most Dubs Know Its Garbage.........

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have contacts with quite a few dubs....still and can talk freely to a small number.

  thats the conclusion that i've come to.

  at least ones that have been in it some time.

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  DanTheMan

  I think that dubs are like fundies (well, they are fundies, just of a different stripe), in that their religion is an insurance policy. For dubs, it's Armageddon-insurance, for the fundies it's fire insurance, but the fear mentality is the same.
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  19

  Time For A Break

  by DakotaRed in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there comes a time when everyone needs a break.

  that time has come for me.

  i enjoy corresponding with one and all, but due to having so many other things to do; i feel the need to get busy doing them.

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  DanTheMan

  Good luck staying away! This message board is the online equivalent of crack addiction, for me anyway.

  Take care!
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  16

  Facing the inevitable....how will you handle it?

  by Makena1 in

  1. social
  2. family

  or - how are you handling it?.

  my subject is how we deal with getting older - realizing that we are headed in just one direction, aging and eventually dying.

  for most of us born after wwii, raised as jw's, we did not give a thought to getting older.

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  DanTheMan

  I was talking with an ex-jw friend last night about how I never gave death a second thought while I was in. I always thought that surely the new system would come before I reached old age (just like JW's all the way back to Russells time have probably felt).

  Now that I am 32 and out of God's visible organization (tm), I do notice that I have lost maybe just a little of my youthful vigor. I see lots of lines forming on my face, and the gray hair is infiltrating my crown slowly but surely. I see my parents getting ready to retire. My dad is 63, men in his family rarely reach 70. His dad died at 52. So probably within the next 10-15 years I will experience the death of a family member for the first time. My autistic brother is almost 40. I'm trying to remember, I did a lot of research on autism a couple of years ago and one of the things I found is that persons with this condition are generally not long lived. My point in all this is that all of the sudden mortality has slapped me in the face, while I spent 10 years ignoring it while I was in the borg.

  Even though I've lost all faith in the WT as God's org, I still agree with them that this world is going to hell in a handbasket. I'm not very confident of seeing 40 or 50 years old.
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  29

  So-called Bible Scholars........

  by hillary_step in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it is not a difficult thing to do to criticize wts literature, however i found this comment in a recent wt very enlightening as it seems to explain the unscholarly nature of much of what they produce.

  it also is an object lesson on how to manipulate a conditioned group of people by the use of 'trigger words'.

  i have highlighted these expressions, which are deliberately used by writing, as we have previously discussed to 'encourage' the readers to adopt a patently flawed line of reasoning.

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  DanTheMan

  Do you think that such approaches are likely to impart deep and motivating faith?

  The obvious implication is, is that people who do take such an approach don't have deep faith.

  Once again, the WT shows itself to be the self-appointed judge of all.

  How long will JW's continue to tolerate being treated like they are 8 years old?
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  25

  Soooo not out! Talking to an ex-jw...

  by detective in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  well, i damn near put my foot in it this evening.

  a friend of mine who is well aware of my continuing friendship with a jw (now allegedly ex-jw) told me i should meet an ex-jw that he knows.

  i felt pretty excited about meeting an ex-jw face to face as i've longed for a chance to speak honestly with someone who knows the organization well and my friend isn't ready to really discuss the issues yet.

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  DanTheMan

  I've enjoyed reading these posts.

  I've only been out for 4 months. As recently as 1 1/2 years ago, if you had told me that I would be where I am today, I would have thought you were totally f8cking crazy.

  It seems that I do well for a few days, and I get slammed with the "Oh shit what have I done I'm gonna die and as I'm dying there will be a bunch of smartass, self-righteous JW's standing there saying 'see we told you so'". I have been going through that the past couple of days. It sucks.

  The WT preaches the bad news of the kingdom. The endless attention given in WT pubs to mankind's seemingly hopeless plight really sticks with you (and then of course the hook, "Join us and you'll be saved from all of this"). So everytime I see a negative new story it becomes one of those "mental landmines" that I've heard Steve Hassan refer to.
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  18

  Prayer does it work for you?

  by haujobbz in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello everyone more questions as usual, do you think praying ever helped you or was it just like talking to the air, its funny because when i was i jw i did pray a lot and convinced myself it worked,but now i think about it, did it help me or was it what i wanted to believe.i mean i always seemed to say to myself b4 yeh praying really helps me in my life and when things went right 4 me like maybe being regular as a preacher,at meetings,and doing whats was right, i felt my prayers were answered but i think these things happened because i wanted them to be that way not because of praying you know like the placebo effect.you see just because you pray 4 something and coincidently it happens does it mean your prayers worked.

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  DanTheMan

  I remember sitting in front of 3 elders (knowhutimean) and one of the questions they asked was "why didn't you pray before..."

  I told them that I couldn't pray, that all my prayers ever consisted of was, "Sorry I fall so short...sorry I don't go out in field service more often...sorry I don't do as much personal study as I could...sorry I don't always display exemplary Christian behavior when I'm around worldlies...sorry I have doubts about this religious organization that that claims to represent you..."

  I don't pray a whole lot now, but when I do the prayers are much more meaningful. I pray for my own inner peace and I pray that I can be a blessing to the people in my life.
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  9

  Wife Runs Hubby Over 3 Times....not good

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  dentist accused of running over husband three times

  a woman in houston, texas, has been charged with murder for allegedly running her husband over three times and leaving her silver mercedes-benz parked on top of him.. the husband's 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage was in the car at the time.. dr clara harris, a dentist, was released from jail on $30,000 bail.

  she told reporters it was an accident.. her husband, dr david lynn harris, an orthodontist who shared a mansion with his wife and their three-year-old twin sons, died at a hospital.. clara harris is reported to have confronted her husband at a suburban hotel.. witnesses said she got into a fight in front of several hotel employees with a woman she accused of having an affair with her husband.. then she got in her car, crossed the street "and ran over him three times," said nassau bay police lt joe cashiola.. "i saw the daughter lying on the ground, crying uncontrollably and sobbing.

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  DanTheMan

  Yikes

  hell hath no fury like woman scorned...
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  18

  An Introduction

  by Granny Linda in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello.. after lurking around for some time decided to join.

  i've been df for 32 years...and glad for it.. i'd pretty much laid the jw stuff to rest until last year when my older sister, after years of absence from my life, made comment to me about "struggling with the truth.

  " i took it upon myself to begin some research and have been "hooked" on these type forums since.

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  DanTheMan

  "struggling with the truth" -

  OH how Watchtowerspeak gags me now...

  Welcome granny!
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  15

  Rodney Stark's paper on JW growth

  by VM44 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rodney stark was featured briefly in the short watchtower video exposing the benificial nature of "disfellowshipping" (which is a made up word that does not appear in the bible!).

  i found a 1997 paper that he wrote with larry iannaccone entitled, "why the jehovah's witnesses grow so rapidly.

  a theoretical application" and which was published in the journal of contemporary religion.

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  DanTheMan

  JW to Rodney Starks: "I'm so glad Your Scholarliness that you are intelligent enough to realize that JW's aren't as bad as we're sometimes made out to be. Oh, and by the way, if you don't join us, Jehovah's going to kill you at Armageddon."
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  16

  May have to DA

  by jaded in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know this is a subject that has been discussed at length on this board.

  until now i went along with "not playing their game" and not daing.

  now after bill bowen has been disfellowshipped i am feeling embarrassed and ashamed to ever have been associated with this unloving, hypocritical, corrupt organization.

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  DanTheMan

  In my case, I had not attended meetings for about 5 months. I think it was assumed that was weak. When I learned the truth about the troof, I felt like I had to make a statement to them. I am no longer your slave, forever destined to "struggle" and be "weak in the truth". Your Watchtowerism is a load of shit. Here's my emancipation proclamation.