I understand completely where you are coming from, in so many ways. Although you don't agree you don't want to trash anyone else in the process, you just want to tell your story. I think it is great that people have an outlet and your story is very interesting. Like one person said "I hate cliffhangers!" We need to know more. You're an excellent story teller, not too much detail and not so little we are confused. Good work. I look forward to reading more.
looking_glass
JoinedPosts by looking_glass
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86
My Story
by XJW4EVR ini was adopted into a jw family in southern california.
my birth mother gave me up after 6 months (the terms mom & dad refer to my adoptive/real parents).
she gave me up due to the fact that she already had a three year old boy, and back in the late sixties it was not as socially acceptable to be a single mother.
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Need an answer...
by exJW_2004 inhopefully someone will be able to help answer this... .
my friend is still a jw, but she hasn't been going to the meetings regularly and she hasn't been out in service in ages, so i guess she's inactive.
a "friend" of hers ratted her out to the elders for something and they now want to meet with her.
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looking_glass
It is my understanding it is still the 2 witness rule. However, she may want to keep in mind that sometimes the elders set people up like the police in that they play mind games with the person so they tell their story before the JC says anything. As such, many more people admit to things that were not known, only suspected of.
However, there have been people who have come forward to say they saw something and in order to have 2 witnesses they convince someone else that it is true and they go in together. The JC will not interrogate the 2 witnesses to determine if the info is correct, they assume that the two active JWs would never tell a tale on someone who is inactive.
But I have known of cases where they have df'd someone because they failed to show up for a JC because it was deemed as "going against the elders and Jah's arrangement".
In otherwords, its a crap shoot.
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digging in old books
by digglina ini'm new on this board and currently an inactive jw.
although lurking for several months i only just registered.
i was wondering if any of you took the trouble of going through old books of the wtbts and if it made you come to any conclusions.
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looking_glass
Most of the old stuff to me was just funny. Like prophets of old coming back. Can you imagine poor Moses trying to figure out what was going on. "where am I ... who am I and who the h*ll are you!" Then is Finished was a hoot as well. Some of it I thought was a little like the "voodoo that you do so well" kind of stuff.
So my question to all is .... do you feel that any form of organized religion is good? If so, why?
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Do you think the real reason why Elders don't make shepherding visits is...
by XJW4EVR inthat they can't count the hours?
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looking_glass
But truthfully do we want these people come to our homes all the time. No. If we do have problems we know that if their of a spiritual nature they will not get answered because of the possibility that the person may not know what the WTBTS position is on the subject. If it is a matter of depression or if we are suffering with mental illness, they are not taught how to deal with this issue and some even discourage therapy. If it is a marriage issue and you are a woman they will tell you all about the wifely dues and some how it will become the woman's fault.
I agree with [sorry poster I don't remember your name] the gentleman that said that it is hard to do it all, outside work, study for mtgs, be a GOOD father, be a GOOD husband, work up talks, etc. They give up a lot of their time and I suppose if they really don't like you they would rather not waste their time coming by to talk to you. But honestly do you want them to stop by!
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Anyone here Scuba dive?
by nicolaou in.
i start my padi open water scuba diving lessons later this month and i'm really looking forward to it.
anybody here done the course?.
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looking_glass
I have it is very easy and quick. And that says a lot for me considering math is not my strong suit and you have to do conversions at the end to pass the class. But you get a little slide rule and you can use it, so it is like an open book test. It is a ton of fun. It is such an amazing feeling. Though snorkling is nicer for seeing colorful fish. Once you get down far enough, you stop seeing beautiful colors, but the other sea creatures are amazing.
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Whats the dumbest reason youve been counseled?
by avishai inmy friend was counseled for having a bad attitude because he wore white socks w/ his suit.
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looking_glass
Another one I remembered, this uptight CO told the pioneers in the pioneer meeting that the sisters were too plain and we needed to wear more make-up. You have to understand, this group was pretty earthy, so make-up was not something we thought was necessary. Now keep in mind, his wife was dressed to the nines and had a full face of war paint. He parting comment to the group (all of which were sisters) was "every old barn needs fresh paint". He actually got a tongue lashing from an elderly "anoited sister" who was full of piss and vinegar. Yup, he got schooled by a sista. According to her, no one ever told her she was out of line, maybe cause they were afraid that once she got in heaven she would get even with them all.
This same CO asked a sister if she had been out jogging that morning and when she said yes, he said he thought so because he felt the earth trembling. Then he told her that her time would be better suited doing something else. I am not sure what because she was already by standards the ideal witness.
He also, told people that they could not say "contribution" because it was inappropriate "donation" was appropriate. Again, a sista pointed out to him that the boxes in the hall say "contribution", so if it really was a vulgar word, would it be written on the boxes in the hall.
Unfortunately we had that jerk for 2 go rounds. I figured it was punishment for something. That whole idea of hell on earth thing.
As for the skirts being too short, you would think they would eat the stuff up considering what they want people to tell during a JC when they admit to having sex.
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Whats the dumbest reason youve been counseled?
by avishai inmy friend was counseled for having a bad attitude because he wore white socks w/ his suit.
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looking_glass
For sitting in a small little sports car with a young bro. Granted we were out in service but who knows what we could have been doing. After time, I realized what they were implying and I thought you people are nutz, there was no room in that car to do anything, my dad called it my go-cart.
Which leads to having a two door car because it was not practical for service. Which I responded, YOU'RE RIGHT, I will give up pioneering because my car is not practical. Not another word was never said.
I got in trouble for going to college as well. Again, I offered to stop pioneering and that again shut everybody up.
When all that business in the States was happening with the kids killing eachother in school, my posse and I were accused of being part of the trench coat mafia because we had the gaul to wear long coats.
We were counseled that the music we were listening to was demonic and one elder said he could see the "demons coming from the speakers". But there were too many of us and all we did was laugh at the guy.
The young guys in my hall were told by the PO that their hair cuts were too fadish and they needed to get a regular hair cut. He suspended their priv. in the hall (no mikes, no talks, not working behind counters, etc.). Although they were very happy about losing their priv., their mother finally pressed them to get "conservative" hair cuts. Not a month later in the Awake in the YPA section, there was a kid standing giving a talk with exactly the same hair cut these guys had. They boys made hundreds of copies of the mag and as a joke, they put copies of the page everywhere they could, in the guy's book bag, in his coat pockets, they put it under his windshield. The guy had a good sense of humor because he thought it was hysterical that they went to all that trouble and he apologized.
There was a MS who was behind the counter and he had dropped a bunch of mags, so I went behind the counter to help him pick them all up and I was told I was not "allowed behind the counter because I was a sister". I guess being in the hall is like being in the temple, certain rooms (counter) are off limits.
I had an ankle bracelet and I was told that I could not wear it because it was wordly. Hmm, never took it off as I explained that I had never seen anything in the Bible that says ankle bracelets are bad and that I was thinking of getting a nose ring because that was mentioned in the Bible, but then I thought again because it looked painful. Tsk, tsk, tsk, once again talking back.
I am sure anyone who was young and raised a JW has tons of similar experiences.
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Blood Transfusions
by ian360 inhey guys, .
i suspect this one might come under quite a lot of criticism so i might need to protect myself a little here.
okay, here is the situation: .
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looking_glass
Ian - no worries with re to stating your concerns about the blood issue. You will find that most people on this site will agree with you. Some will probably trash the belief and/or custom. All I can say is that if it is a strong belief for your girl friend and you cannot respect it, then you should seriously consider whether she is right for you. You may want to keep in mind that people can say whatever they want until they get into the situation and then things change, especially when kids are involved.
I am going to give you my perspective as some one who was raised a JW, left and is inactive but not hateful towards the religion. I have medical directives in place that state that unless it is my own blood I will not take blood. Why, because I have done to much research on my own to know how blood banks work. I also know that many surgeries can be performed as "bloodless" and it is often times sloppy docs and nurses that cause a patient to have to have blood. I have given blood at a blood bank on several occassions, but will I take blood, I cannot say honestly yes or no. I have some friends who agree with me and support me on this and others who have outright said, they better never call on me to decide if you need a blood transfusion or not because I will say do whatever you need to save her life. I respect my friends for their positions and in turn that is why I set legal messures in place to protect my position should the matter arise, my blood or no blood.
Good luck on working this out.
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worst Bookstudy book
by darth frosty inwhat is the book you liked the least studying at the bookstudy?
for me it was the isaiah books.
side question which book did you like the best?
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looking_glass
I liked the PE book because it was a no brainer and it was big enough to hide other things in. Like the WT for Sunday's meeting, that way I could study my mag for Sunday while being at the book study. The guys I grew up with taught me that one. They had to have their mags studied for the Sunday mtg before they could do social things, so they multi-tasked. Very smart lads if you ask me. We were even able to answer at BS beause the book was .... hate to say it again ... a no brainer. Loved it!
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JW murder in Kane County Illinois
by Nowman ini was driving to work today and the news came on...i heard the name betty whitten being charged for murder on 2 counts.
i knew the name but wasn't sure at that point if it was the betty whitten i knew from libertyville, illinois...then her disabled daughter was mentioned, we called her "kiki".
"kiki" had been stabbed by her mother betty whitten.
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looking_glass
I worked in the legal industry several years ago when Willie Carlson killed his parents (Lake County, Illinois). Willie was raised as a JW. I actually knew him and his family. We were not close but we ran in the same circles. Willie was a strange kid. What I thought was interesting was that after everything came out, the parents were slaughtered rather then morning their loss people in the media made it out that he was justified to kill his parents and carve things into their skin because he was not allowed to celebrate holidays. The other thing that was disturbing was the fact that Willie went to Gurnee High School. The media showed up at the school and interviewed a bunch of kids. I know for a fact that those kids HATED Willie, teased him and actually bet him up at times. But they wanted to be on t.v. and they even bragged about it later that they did not know nor like Willie, but wanted their 15 minutes of fame. I worked with his defense counsel regarding obtaining information. I was not retained as counsel, so I can say without breaking any priv. in the beginning Willie blamed his parents and the religion he was raised in. Around 10 years later, he recanted his story and stated that it was not his parents fault or the religion, he was screwed up but he did not let anyone know he was having problems so he just sank deeper and deeper into depression and hatred. He was determined to take out his anger on someone, anyone.
My point is that people are experiencing problems of all kinds. Some people like to point fingers and blame things other then the person who pulled the trigger or shoved the knife into the chest of the person they killed. Just as we get frustrated because we claim that the Society does not step up and take responsibility for wrongs and make them right, we need to asses the situation ... this woman committed a horrible crime. No one will argue that she was a nice person, but the moment she killed her daughter was the moment she was no longer a nice woman. I agree that most likely something snapped because I cannot believe that a person can simply take another person's life. Not to be morbid, but the manner in which she killed her daughter is a sign of anger. Something was wrong, very wrong there.
And as for whether people in the cong help out those with a disability, I can attest that the cong my mother is in, is wonderful to her. So they do help out. Though it might be because my mother is a huge gossip and I am sure they love going over to her house so they can gossip about everyone else's business. But they take very good care of my mom.
This whole matter is very sad, for everyone. I hope that the mom gets the mental health she clearly needs.