Besides the great Franz books, anyone read anything else JW related that they can recommend?
freedom96
JoinedPosts by freedom96
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9
Good Books?
by freedom96 inbesides the great franz books, anyone read anything else jw related that they can recommend?
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47
Do You Believe Any of "The Truth"?
by XBEHERE ini've been lurking for several months, its my first post here.
i am currently an active jw.
i have a very jw family so i have to be careful.
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freedom96
First of all, welcome to the board. I believe you will find many eye opening things here, that will make you think.
I was wondering at the halls, and general talk among the witnesses, how many have heard about the molesting, and the media attention to it? Is it talked about much? What are they saying? Are they shocked, or making excuses for it?
As far as the belief of any of their teachings, me personally, I have had a hard time with this. I too was brought up as a witness, and never had the chance to learn anything but witness doctrines, so learning anything else was quite weird, to say the least.
I have been to several non denominational churches since, and have become great friends with many who lead a Godly life, by their actions. Many discussions later, over years, I personally have come to grips with the fact that the Watchtower is not the one true religion. Many of their teachings, especially if you study their past teachings, are way out there, and are quite different than what you will experience elsewhere. Another way to be different, as you know, they must be different than all others, must stick out. As much as other "Christian" religions can differ slightly from one to another, they teach many of the same things, the same principles. As much as they are a little different from each other, there is much more unity than I see in some Kingdom Halls.
Long story short, I came to realize that a lot of what the Witnesses teach as far as doctrine, is wrong. The fact is that the whole premise is talking about everyone living on earth forever, and that just clearly is not the case. In my opinion, if the main teaching is false, what about the rest. How about the fact that the bible clearly states that the way is through Jesus, and the Witnesses barely talk about him? It is all about Jehovah.
Anyways, a few ideas to ponder, and once again, welcome to the board.
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freedom96
I have several close friends that are both active and inactive witnesses that are in show business, and yes, the Wayons family has been involved from time to time. To juggle careers and what it takes to be a witness however, is nearly impossible. My understanding, is that the kids, especially Damon, whom I believe was most involved, do not take the Watchtower too seriously, and do not participate in the activities of a witness. I believe that Damon is df'd, from what I had heard. Hey, I do not blame them. I would much rather work on my successful acting career than go to meetings, any day!
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'Prepare for Banning' A HOAX! READ INSIDE
by ashitaka inmy friend called me last night and said that his mother heard a letter read on monday night at her congregation meeting that said that the rank and file should be prepared to be banned, to go underground, and persecution is coming soon, that halls would be taken, and such.
that these things are definitely coming soon.
could this be the spin that the wt is heading towards.....instead of facing the hard issues, make the issues the boogeyman and shut down the halls, giving the elders ultimate power?
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freedom96
These are their scare tactics. They well know about the march on Friday, they know about the latest book releases, they know about silent lambs, and now they can tell the congregations to beware of various types of persecution. At this point, look out, the Society is going to be blasted throughout the media. And sure enough, in a few days it will happen, and then the witnesses will realize that this must be the truth, for they predicted this media attack, and here it is. What a bunch of sheep.
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Witness Celebrities
by freedom96 inwe have heard of different celebrities having ties with the watchtower.
some are rumours, others seem to be true.. i was wondering who out there has heard that a celebrity was involved in the watchtower, and does anyone have any personal knowledge or experiences regarding this?.
here is my list of what i have heard at one time or another:.
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freedom96
We have heard of different celebrities having ties with the Watchtower. Some are rumours, others seem to be true.
I was wondering who out there has heard that a celebrity was involved in the Watchtower, and does anyone have any personal knowledge or experiences regarding this?
Here is my list of what I have heard at one time or another:
Michael Jackson (da'd)
Prince
George Benson
Elvis (read the magazines at some point)
Tennis sisters Williams
Damon Wayons (df'd)
Wife of Eddie Murphy
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Oh God, I Hate That Tune.
by Englishman inlast week, i was gurgling merrily at an episode of the simpsons.
it was the one that is a parody of the "thelma and louise" film where marge and her chum are being pursued by homer and chief wiggum.. marge's chum is trying to impress her with her cool music, but when she turns on the car radio, it begins to play one of her less cool tunes, something that i have never heard before called "sunshine and lollipops".
this repeated itself several times in different vehicles, whenever anyone turned on the radio, sunshine and lollipops came blaring out.
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freedom96
How about the deep depressing march of "Jehovah Is Our Refuge"
Has anyone mastered the new song book yet? When I stopped going, the new song book must have been 10 years old, but no one could get quite right the new songs in it.
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baptising minors
by Marilyn intonights news has made me think even harder about baptising minors.
it's one thing to hold adults accountable for breaking wt rules, but it's not right to subject kids to the harshness of shunning for doing what their parents encouraged them to do - get baptised.
when ever my kids screw up, i'm not that thrilled but i ultimately blame myself for my inadequate parenting - and yes i've been fairly inadequate at times.
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freedom96
My ex recently encouraged our child to get baptized. He does not nearly realize the seriousness of this action. To say the least, I am sooooo pissed. He cannot seriously understand the magnitude of what is expected to being a Witness. He is not old enough to clearly understand the consequences of what the Society expects out of him, and the punishments that would follow. At least he has a parent who will accept him no matter what.
The argument of baptizing young, infant style, or older, has many different sides that it is difficult to put just into one post, or thread. But as some religions baptize at birth, those same religions don't kick you out like the Witnesses do.
I agree with what was posted earlier. The fact remains that Jesus himself did not get baptized until 30. As far as I am concerned, that settles it. At least then one can make an intelligent decision, not being forced into it.
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A Mormon chimes in
by John Corrill injohn corrill here from the ex-mormon board.
i've found your forum interesting.
mormons and ex-mormons struggle with many of the same things jw's do.
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freedom96
I too have had friends that were devot Mormons, and many of the above listings are indeed true.
Though I do not buy into their doctrines, I think that the Watchtower could learn a lot about truly caring about others. Like mentioned above, as a Mormon, you can have friends that are not of the same faith, you can leave and will not be shunned, they have many activities for the young kids, as well as many activities for the teenagers, get togethers, dances, social interacting, which the Watchtower makes absolutely no effort to do so. They just are more accepted out there, I would imagine because they don't appear to be as extreme on the outside as Witnesses do.
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Does leaving Jehovah's Witnesses ruin you
by kenpodragon inone of the things i hear mentioned a lot about being a jehovah's witnesses.
is that once you leave, it ruins you for all other religions.
as you think that you know all the faults of other religions, and could not put any faith in them.
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freedom96
I think we need to be careful about saying "Never again!" The fact is, that we were mislead. It happened to us, it has happened to others, and it will happen again.
We can keep our eyes open this time, and now we know what to look out for.
In my opinion, to say "Never again" to another religion or spiritual experience, is kind of like saying "Never again" after a bad relationship fails. We are hurt, we pick ourselves up, and carry on, and eventually we find someone else that we like, and perhaps fall in love with. An exception is of course if we just don't have any interest in religion period.
The Watchtower hurt us, we can and will heal, and if it is right for us, we will have the opportunity to experience other things in life, regardless of what it is.
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How many will be at the March?
by freedom96 injust wondering if anyone has an idea of about how many people will be showing up for the silant lambs march?.
any guesses on how much media attention this will do?
are we talking about the morning shows, just local?
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freedom96
Just wondering if anyone has an idea of about how many people will be showing up for the silant lambs march?
Any guesses on how much media attention this will do? Are we talking about the morning shows, just local? Could this get talked about as much as the Catholic priests?