Posts by sparky1

104

When You See a JW Do You Get Flustered?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to dread seeing a witness coming toward me.

now i am quite comfortable and hope that they may say something to me..... does your blood pressure rise when you see a jw coming toward you?

?.

sparky1

"The things Sparky1 relates I attribute mostly to backbiting and gossip, which happens anywhere." - Tom Harley

"........do not try to interpret my comments based on your own personal narrative." - Sparky1

Thanks for not respecting my request. To me it shows a lot about your personal character and attitude towards others.

"Personal stories you do not weigh in on because you know you are seeing only a tip of an iceberg." - Tom Harley

You should take your own advice. Again, your character is showing. You know nothing at all about the events that have transpired in my life or my experiences at Bethel and yet you feel you have a right to assign meaning to them. I have read some of your 'musings' on your blog tomsheepandgoats.com and I am not impressed with your 'humble-bragging' and false self deprecating attitude.

I think OUTLAW has you pegged pretty well. However, I hope that you keep posting here and not leave on account of him. Your self-righteous pontificating is providing me some levity in my otherwise boring day.

P.S.: In case you are interested, an Elder at Bethel lied to my face about something I said and this was done in the presence of another Elder. No gossiping or backbiting at all. He flat out LIED right out in the open.

104

When You See a JW Do You Get Flustered?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to dread seeing a witness coming toward me.

now i am quite comfortable and hope that they may say something to me..... does your blood pressure rise when you see a jw coming toward you?

?.

sparky1

Tom, thanks for opening up and letting us know exactly on what side of the fence you stand and some of your backstory. It took some courage to 'expose' yourself here because as I expressed in my first post, most here are NOT sympathetic to the Jehovah's Witness religion and are not shy about expressing their opinion. You have every right to be a Jehovah's Witness and to express your opinion about it but you must expect 'blowback' from those who do not share your sympathies. I knew a 'brother' once that was in similar circumstances as you. He was inactive for many years and then returned to being a Witness in the '70's. He died a few years ago as a 'faithful' elder. I say 'to each his own'. At any rate, you make the sweeping generalization that among Jehovah's Witnesses, "none are liars." This has NOT been my experience at all! My mother, who was a "dyed in the wool" Witness would not know the truth if it jumped up and bit her on the ass. When I was a Bethelite, I was lied about viciously by two elders involving two separate instances. One even went to the service department behind my back and made my life a living hell. And to say that the religion itself 'does not lie' is something of a misnomer. Jehovah's Witnesses as a religion lie through the 'sin of omission'. Only they have a different phrase for it. They call it 'theocratic warfare.' And lets not forget 'new light'. If some doctrine or belief proves to be false (technically a lie) it is changed but explained away as a 'refinement' So my biggest 'beef' is NOT things that have happened to me personally or to members of my family. My 'beef' is religion and theology in general. So many people and organizations have claimed to 'speak for God' since the beginning of time and yet life continues on just the same. As history proves them wrong, they readjust their teachings and go on as if anything they said in the past no longer matters. Even if you know that they are wrong, you must agree with the group leaders or be cast out. In my opinion that is a shameful stance to take. If you choose to stay here, I hope your time will be well spent. And please remember, take my posts at 'face value'. Thank you.

104

When You See a JW Do You Get Flustered?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to dread seeing a witness coming toward me.

now i am quite comfortable and hope that they may say something to me..... does your blood pressure rise when you see a jw coming toward you?

?.

sparky1

Tom, my comments are posted at face value and contain no hidden meanings or self justifications. If you choose to comment on anything I post here, please keep that in mind and do not try to interpret my comments based on your own personal narrative. Thank you.

4

What is the difference ......?

by Phizzy in

what is the difference between the way the gb are viewed/treated by jw's,even dead gb members, and the way saints are in the rc and orthodox churches etc ?.

sparky1

Why Phizzy, what ever do you mean?

104

When You See a JW Do You Get Flustered?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to dread seeing a witness coming toward me.

now i am quite comfortable and hope that they may say something to me..... does your blood pressure rise when you see a jw coming toward you?

?.

sparky1

Welcome to the forum, Tom Harley! If you have come here to support or preach about the Watchtower Society, most of what you have say will not be well received by many of the posters here. Stick around, you might learn something. Lots of posters here have been Missionaries, Bethelites, Elders, Ministerial Servants, Pioneers and of course, the faithful everyday Witness that gave their all to the Watchtower Society. If we thought that it was the TRUTH, we would still be associating at our local Kingdom Hall. Preach if you must, but be prepared to have you eyes opened.

15

Watchman2U - The Inspection & Test is on Jehovah Witnesses.

by Watchman2u in

watchman 2u.

letter one – jehovah witnesses are all accountable who swore an oath to jehovah god at baptism.

you jehovah witnesses in spiritual judea are clinging onto the temple that will not save you.

sparky1

"You can take the boy out of the WATCHTOWER, but you can't take the WATCHTOWER out of the boy." - sparky1

34

Regarding Correct Understanding of Bible Prophecies Have JWs EVER Been Right?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i seriously doubt that any jw understanding of prophecy has ever withstood the test of time.

how can anyone trust them when they are always wrong?

?.

sparky1

Blondie is 100% on the mark. Nathan Knorr was an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He and his buddy Fred Franz knew what was going on in the world on a daily basis. However, the average witness was probably woefully ignorant of the politics of their day. Knorr and Franz took what was common knowledge at the time, mystified and reinterpreted the news to fit their narrative on Revelation and 'voila' created their own 'self fulfilling' prophecy. Why if they were still alive today, they could probably bend spoons with their minds!

33

Has Anyone Ever Just Gotten Mad and "Popped" an Elder?

by Cold Steel in

it has to have happened.

people get stressed out, an elder or overseer takes just two steps over the line and gets a fat lip for his trouble.. does that ever happen?

or maybe someone "counsels" a brother at the wrong time and tempers flare at the old kingdom hall?.

sparky1

When I was at Watchtower Farms, a young fellow got drunk and punched Frank Lewis (the Home Overseer) in the face! He was sent home immediately. One time, I was having issues with my closeted gay Elder roommate. He kept making passes at me and I had enough of that and went to Frank Lewis about it to get a room reassignment. Frank got furious with me for 'making accusations against an Elder' and threatened to physically 'throw me out of Bethel'. I told Frank that if he laid a hand on me that I would lay him out then and there. Later, I confronted my roommate about the whole issue and got into a big argument with him at the 'tool crib' in the factory. I grabbed him and was going to beat the shit out of him and he started to scream like an old woman. I pulled myself together and figured it wasn't worth getting sent home over the matter.

11

What criteria does Russia use to label a religion as extremist?

by sparky1 in

check this out on the russian ministry of justice webpage.

the governing body is going to have to do some fancy footwork to get around this criteria:.

http://minjust.ru/deyatelnost-v-sfere-nekommercheskih-organizaci/missionerskaya-.

sparky1

Have they said or written anything at all about Jehovah's Witnesses or Watch Tower?-jwleaks

The Federal List of Extremist Materials lists over 4000 books, pamphlets, recordings, songs, websites, photo images etc., etc. that are banned as extremist. The Watchtower and AWAKE magazines as well as many of Jehovah's Witnesses publications are on this list. On a more humorous note, the following photo image is also banned:

11

What criteria does Russia use to label a religion as extremist?

by sparky1 in

check this out on the russian ministry of justice webpage.

the governing body is going to have to do some fancy footwork to get around this criteria:.

http://minjust.ru/deyatelnost-v-sfere-nekommercheskih-organizaci/missionerskaya-.

sparky1

Check this out on the Russian Ministry of Justice webpage. The Governing Body is going to have to do some fancy footwork to get around this criteria:

http://minjust.ru/deyatelnost-v-sfere-nekommercheskih-organizaci/missionerskaya-

Link is not working properly

The Ministry of Justice webpage says the following:

"Not allowed to carry our missionary activities, goals and actions are aimed at:

violation of public security and public order;

coercion into destroying the family;

infringement of the person, the rights and freedoms of citizens;

encouragement of suicide or the refusal on religious grounds of medical assistance to persons in danger to life or health;

obstruction compulsory education;

coercion of members and followers of a religious association and other persons to alienate their property in favor of the religious association;

impeding threat of harm to life, health, property, if there is a danger of its real performance, or application of force, other illegal actions a citizen from leaving a religious association;

etc., etc."

It looks like shunning, disfellowshipping , not taking a blood transfusion and convincing older members to will their property to the Society is a no no in the Russian governments eyes.