DanTheMan

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Posts by DanTheMan

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  24

  How the "family study night" could backfire on the WTS

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since the cbs in private homes has been cancelled, the wts is now strongly encouraging "family study nights".

  but wait a minute...there's no printed schedule in the km!

  "what are we supposed to study?".

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  DanTheMan

  I'm willing to bet a pretty fair number will actually start to study the Bible, rather than studying books or magazines about the Bible.

  Considering how mind-numbingly boring the New World Translation is to read, I doubt it. And it's so skewed towards JW belief that it wouldn't make a difference anyway.

  What I think will happen is that JW's will start getting a flood of reminders™, encouragement™, suggestions™, and experiences™ in the pubs and at meetings regarding the benefits™ of having a family book study. Get ready for back-to-back 25 paragraph study articles regarding the family book study arrangement™ in an upcoming WT rag, oh joy, complete with loads of cheesy pics of both a supposed first-century Christian father studying scrolls with his wife and kids and also of some modern JW family, all dressed up and perfectly groomed, sitting around a perfectly clean table in a perfectly clean room with perfectly arranged flowers in a vase appearing somewhere in the scene, listening with rapt attention to the father, who will be holding up an open NWT in one hand and have his other raised as if gesturing to make some important point. Ugh.
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  20

  The Bucket List

  by purplesofa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i suppose a few years ago, i have no illness that i know of but, i realized i was dying.

  i can't turn back time, my youth is gone.

  i have no hope of a paradise and living forever.

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  DanTheMan

  What mtsgrad said.
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  251

  RIP Dansk (aka Ian), 18.12.1953- 20.12.2008

  by faundy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  have posted this on the other thread but just making this one as well:

  i need to let you know that dad passed away this morning at 8am.

  he fought so hard but in the end they could not get his blood pressure to rise and he died of heart failure.

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  DanTheMan

  Faundy, judging from the pic on page 1 of this thread it appears that Ian was a warm, caring individual and you had a good relationship with him. Very sad that he died.
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  9

  JESUS NEVER EXISTED

  by whereami in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is this info here legit?

  what's your take oh great wise ones.. http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/.

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  DanTheMan

  I think there's an actual person behind the legend, and that some of what is written in the Gospels may be true of him. Not the virgin birth, miracles, and rising from the dead though, extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary proof and all.
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  28

  The future of the Watchtower

  by Exterminator in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what are your thoughts on the watchtower's future?.

  here's my guess: they will move away from the increasingly embarrassing dates of 1914 and 1919, rather stressing the "success" of their organization as credentials.

  there will be even more emphasis on the concept of god's organization.. the result will be total sclerosis, for god's organization cannot err nor be reformed by men.

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  DanTheMan

  It's so hard to predict because JWism doesn't exist in a vacuum, and world events could affect the WTS as much as anybody else. A recent study indicated that there's a strong likelihood of a bio or nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S. sometime between now and 2013. Although I certainly don't wish it upon them, what if it happened in Brooklyn and wiped the GB? Game over for JWism, but also perhaps so disruptive and devastating that JWism will be the last thing on any of our minds from that point onward. Morbid, I know; welcome to my world.

  You've also got the prospect of a failed Obama presidency, with Sarah Palin waiting in the wings; in that case we'd be in full-tilt fascist mode in the U.S., but I think JWism would survive this situation, at least until it came to its bitter end as all fascist movements do. Who knows what would come after. It won't be pretty.

  100 years from now? They'll be forgotten by all but a few. How that will come about is anybody's guess, but as of 2008 they are utterly irrelevant and increasingly petrified with each passing year.
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  81

  What Gilead Taught ME

  by AllTimeJeff in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  they mean the leadership.

  all of this is code for: one who is not ready to really study and accept how the leadership of jehovah's witnesses use the bible to their own self serving means.

  but to be fair, jw's teach that most all of these characters refer to the leadership of jehovah's witnesses, the governing body.

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  DanTheMan

  Excellent post ATJ! I completely fell for the idea that JW's are a hierarchy-free, egalitarian brotherhood, as interested ones™ are led to believe. I had no idea about the hierarchy that exists in the org and how much loud insistence the boys at the top give to the idea that 'loyalty/submission to us=loyalty submission to God'. It was the Korah drama at the 2001 DC that caused the scales to fall from my eyes.
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  34

  Show Us Your High School Photo!

  by sacolton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here's my senior year photo ...

  1985!!!

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  DanTheMan

  Dan, you look like trouble. LOL! I bet parents hid their daughters from you.

  Ha, I wish. What that picture doesn't tell you is that I weighed all of about 105 pounds all the way through HS. Just a skinny little hippie!
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  34

  Do you feel embarrassed, humiliated, anger that you were a Jw?

  by LouBelle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i ask because some posters say they felt totally humiliated, or wonder how they could have been sucked in, or some are extremely bitter and angry about their past.

  over the nearly 4 years i've come to totally accept that i was a jw, but have made my peace, and honestly can say i've forgiven, if you will, that part of my life.

  totally moved on and do not have negative feelings about it.

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  DanTheMan

  I don't really consider myself to be so much of a "victim" like I did when I first exited. What happened, happened. It's a pretty bizarre thing to have in your past, and so there is some embarrassment. I find that most people I meet now know little or nothing about JW's, and so when I discuss my past I just say that I went off the religious deep-end in my 20's, and leave it at that unless they probe for more information.
  
  There is a hilarious line from a Family Guy episode where Meg had joined a cult, and the leader asks her "Are you a confused adolescent desperately seeking acceptance from an undifferentiated ego mass that demands conformity?" I'm waiting for a situation where I can use it to help people understand where i come from, but with some humor.
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  34

  Show Us Your High School Photo!

  by sacolton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here's my senior year photo ...

  1985!!!

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  DanTheMan

  I believe I was in the 10th grade when this was taken:

  
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  20

  Quitting smoking (again)

  by DanTheMan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i managed to stay off the bloody things for over 2 1/2 yrs but alas i fell off the wagon in september.

  my plan is to ramp-down today by only having a cig every two hours or so, then cold turkey tomorrow.

  i have a hard time holding myself to 'quit days' when i'm the only one who knows what day it is, hence i'm making it public so that i feel more accountable.

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  DanTheMan

  Argh...gritting my teeth right now...halfway through it...