Posts by insearchoftruth

24

DEFENDING THE LIE----by avoiding the truth about THE TRUTH

by Terry in

it is surprising how intellectually dishonest an otherwise wonderful person can be; (a loved one) when it comes to holding on to.

a horrible lie.. you see it everyday.

a woman will defend her husband against child-molesting and disbelieve her own daughter.

insearchoftruth

Echoing Chimene,

BOOK,

BOOK!!

Thanks again Terry, great stuff!!

24

DEFENDING THE LIE----by avoiding the truth about THE TRUTH

by Terry in

it is surprising how intellectually dishonest an otherwise wonderful person can be; (a loved one) when it comes to holding on to.

a horrible lie.. you see it everyday.

a woman will defend her husband against child-molesting and disbelieve her own daughter.

With respect to books about the 607 BCE date, I looked in my wifes textbook for her history class she is taking and it has 587 BCE for the date. I am waiting for the correct time to point that out to her, not yet, would look to much like an attack.

I think if you were to look at any history book that covered that time period (unless it were authored by the dubs) you would find the historically and archeologically supported date, not 607.

Good luck and thanks for all the wonderful posts, keep them coming!

24

DEFENDING THE LIE----by avoiding the truth about THE TRUTH

by Terry in

it is surprising how intellectually dishonest an otherwise wonderful person can be; (a loved one) when it comes to holding on to.

a horrible lie.. you see it everyday.

a woman will defend her husband against child-molesting and disbelieve her own daughter.

insearchoftruth

I agree with Chimene, you should write a book Terry, wonderful thoughts and insights!

22

I think everyone needs one of these today

by Chimene in

jw
friends

.

insearchoftruth

Wish I had a prescription for these at the office, especially tomorow!!

Thanks for a good laugh!

23

New forum member, have wife with a jw background

by insearchoftruth in

jw
friends

hello, i have been a member of the discussion group for only a couple of weeks and have never taken the time to introduce myself.

i have posted a few threads which have been very helpful already and have had a few conversations with members of the group that have provided me support and insights that i did not already have and that i shall need.

now for my story.

insearchoftruth

Hello and thanks for all the great advice so far, have already run across a few of you with some questions and I do appreciate the willingness and enthusiasm of your help.

A couple of questions to pose to you all-

I think one of the issues is my wife needs things to be very black and white for her, and the dubs are very controlling and very much present things as 'you shall do this, and this and this', but what amazes me is even with all that they can't say 'you will then get this'.

Right now she has been scheduling her 'bible studies' (bs) for Friday afternoons when I am at work and I have not shown any real interest in them, nor has she had any desire to tell me about them. Any ideas of an approach that would not look too suspicious, I have told her a few times before that I do not agree with much if not all of the jw doctrine, would it sound too strange to let her know I would just like to learn? I guess one of the things to stress would be doing things together, wouldn't it??

She did vent a bit to me yesterday about a call from a sibling where she was warned, almost admonished, to get back to the truth because the end is near. In her conversation with me she stated that one thing she does not like about the jdubs is there fixation on the end times, but then she stated that 'the watchtower has never predicted armageddon, its just that the people misinterpret what they have to say", I could not believe she said that. Her sibling also stated that the end is near because all people are being preached to, and my wife refuted this as well.

Are there any questions that I can raise that will at least get her thinking. She seems to still be pretty open minded, but any question she asks me about my faith seem to be the ones that dubs are programmed to ask because they have the canned answers to the questions.

I need to be able to practice patience and tolerance, there are so many times I have already had to bite my tongue because I so wanted to ask "how the hell can you be decieved by that?", but I have controlled myself, up til now.

Is it the organization I am trying to get her to question at first prior to even entering the area of doctrine? She has mentioned the doctrine of only 144000 going to heaven and when I have had her read the scripture she immediately states that the number is literal but the part of the jewish virgins and the tribes of Isreal are figurative. Even though she has never been baptized, she still seems to have been brainwashed enough to be able to 'give the company line' on many of the questions.

If I were to study with her and the 'sister', I am not sound enough in my knowledge of scripture to be able to defend my beliefs, and I know that the dub will be loaded with the answers and questions to make me look unknowledgeable in front of my wife and I am concerned that this will maybe lead her to possibly think that the dubs are the true religion.

Well enough for now, I shall work on getting the questions from CYP answered. Not really all that sure how to best handle, may take some time cause if I hit her with a bunch of them, will probably raise the flag, which I am sure would be discussed with the sister who would provide the canned 'satan trying to get in the way of the truth' type of an answer.

Thanks again for all the help.

Insearchoftruth

23

New forum member, have wife with a jw background

by insearchoftruth in

jw
friends

hello, i have been a member of the discussion group for only a couple of weeks and have never taken the time to introduce myself.

i have posted a few threads which have been very helpful already and have had a few conversations with members of the group that have provided me support and insights that i did not already have and that i shall need.

now for my story.

insearchoftruth

Thanks for the guidance already, I am planning on reading the two books by Ray Franz as a good background. Her family has been jws for I think 23 years, but she has never been baptized nor has she really been involved at all, I think she justs dabbles once in a while.

She is presently starting college, so hopefully the 'enlightening experience of education' can make a difference, I just need to make sure that the dubs don't try to get in the way of that as well.

I feel that the control characteristics of the jws are that of a cult and I can't believe how blind the followers are, but I guess that if that is all one has known, its hard to feel differently. I do not agree with their doctrines as well, but a lot of that is because I hold true to mine, which is an essential part of believing in your faith. The big issue is the way that they slam all Christian faiths rather than lift theirs up as well as the fear that they have of the members reading other literature. I know that the 'sister' she has studied with has already prepared her for me to be satan with apostate literature or thinking.

At least my wife has pushed back some on her family as well as the organization recently as well!!

Thanks again and please keep the help and support coming!

Insearchoftruth

23

New forum member, have wife with a jw background

by insearchoftruth in

jw
friends

hello, i have been a member of the discussion group for only a couple of weeks and have never taken the time to introduce myself.

i have posted a few threads which have been very helpful already and have had a few conversations with members of the group that have provided me support and insights that i did not already have and that i shall need.

now for my story.

insearchoftruth

Hello, I have been a member of the discussion group for only a couple of weeks and have never taken the time to introduce myself. I have posted a few threads which have been very helpful already and have had a few conversations with members of the group that have provided me support and insights that I did not already have and that I shall need.

Now for my story. I have recently married a wonderful gal whose parents have been jws for many years, but even with this influence was never baptized. While we were dating she never referred to the jws as her religion, in fact always calling it the religion her parents chose etc and never even mentioned the doctrine of the faith at all. All of a sudden she has gotten interested in the jws, having gone to a meeting (yes only one), but she has also started a bible study with a sister, using "what does the bible really teach?" as well as having a wt sitting on our kitchen table. I believe what has motivated this has been conversations with her mother as well as some of her siblings, with ‘end times’ discussions being a center point for these talks.

I am trying to get myself prepared first to try to get her some information so she can discern for herself the fraudulence of the organization before she gets too involved and starts to change her life due to the ‘demands of god through the GB’.

Up until this point of my life I have been fortunate enough to not have really had any involvement with the jws, but looks like I shall have no choice right now. Any background of the organization and suggestions how to share this information with an intelligent, though misdirected person would be very appreciated.

Thanks to many on this forum who have already been helping me by posting to a couple of threads that I have started as well as answering messages that I have sent. The members of this forum are wonderful and I can see how you all have helped many people either deal with the jws or help them out.

I would like to thank you all in advance for your assistance.

7

JW Reform

by insearchoftruth in

in trying to get information on the jws, i have come across sites such as ewatchman, jwreform and beth-sarim.

what is up with these sites.

some of the articles i have read from jwreform i feel are very well written (one in particular is organizational idolatry) and have provided me some interesting information on the fallacies of the organization.

insearchoftruth

Thanks Star, appreciate the background.

I think my wife is in a similar state as you are, where she agrees with much of the doctrine, but I also think she is still not realizing that in many respects that the WT and the GB have become an idol for many of the jws. For example she was talking to her sister and does not like the way that the jws fixate on the end of the world, but then she made the comment that the wt has never predicted the end of the world, it is the people who read too much into the literature.

I believe in the right to choose ones own religion, but I also believe that we need to be able to think for ourselves, and that is something that the wt has taken from its members. One of my favorite posters that I have ever seen has a drawing of Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns, with the following caption: 'He died to take away our sins, not our minds'

7

JW Reform

by insearchoftruth in

in trying to get information on the jws, i have come across sites such as ewatchman, jwreform and beth-sarim.

what is up with these sites.

some of the articles i have read from jwreform i feel are very well written (one in particular is organizational idolatry) and have provided me some interesting information on the fallacies of the organization.

insearchoftruth

In trying to get information on the jws, I have come across sites such as ewatchman, jwreform and beth-sarim. What is up with these sites. Some of the articles I have read from jwreform I feel are very well written (one in particular is organizational idolatry) and have provided me some interesting information on the fallacies of the organization. I guess what really amazes me is that some of these writers can so whole heartedly question the ethics of the organization, the fds etc, but still have faith in the doctrines??

31

Women be silent!!

by skyman in

i have been looking into the research art d. ehrman from the department of religious studies from the university of north carolina.

he makes a very convincing argument that to me proves the bible verses that make women less human was not in the originals.. paul called women by name some of the women were taking the lead at romans 16: 3-16 in verse 3 say fellow worker prisca (woman).

then verse 7 junias (woman) this is interesting some bibles including the new world translation then says who are men or kinsmen this is not found at all in the older manuscripts so the new world translation and any other translation is in error.

insearchoftruth

This is a great thread. Am a relatively new member of the site and you all have helped me immensely already. The mindset of a woman in the jw amazes me. My wife's family has been jw for 23 years and she has recently started (from what I understand) another bible study, she calls herself a new age woman, but still is able to read and listen to the wt and other bs literature from the society with respect to a womans place in the church (and for that matter in society). I just hope that she continues to read and explore literature outside of the crap printed by the brooklynites and at least see stuff from multiple perspectives and I wish there was some way I could get her to read the information on this thread. The 'diet' she is taking right now from the sister and what does the bible really teach to me is tantamount to hypnotizing.

Thanks again for all of you, you have given me much food (good!!) for thought and keep challenging my mind.