Juni, I think it must be a UK thing. I don't get it either.
under_believer
JoinedPosts by under_believer
-
15
please help me >TREEs
by mouthy ini remember when i was a fateful jw we were told that rev 22:2 referred to the watchtower & the awake .which we got every month..... from the trees( paper) but i understand now they are only giving the awake not every month.... what happened are the trees drying up?
?/
-
-
-
15
please help me >TREEs
by mouthy ini remember when i was a fateful jw we were told that rev 22:2 referred to the watchtower & the awake .which we got every month..... from the trees( paper) but i understand now they are only giving the awake not every month.... what happened are the trees drying up?
?/
-
-
under_believer
...The hell??? I never heard that application of Rev 22:2. That is awesome.
-
17
"Kingdom Hall Quickbuilds are only possible with God's Holy Spirit"
by under_believer inthis is what you hear every time there's a part on the kingdom hall construction program.
they're only possible because god's holy spirit blesses the work.
otherwise, what is accomplished would be physically impossible.
-
-
under_believer
"Bill" was raised by seriously disturbed individuals. A father with severe anger problems (probably an anger disorder) and a mother with serious anxiety problems which were only exacerbated by her husband's vagaries and impulses. I will spare you the pop psychology, but it's likely that he makes bad choices in women AND that he is no picnic to be married to.
I'm not sure if it's good he's no longer going to the meetings. He may have been better off as a Witness--yes, there are circumstances where this is possible.
As far as the quick builds go--thank you everyone for the evidence that the Witnesses don't have a corner on this market (and in fact didn't even coin the term Quick Build.) I have helped on many quick builds. There are many stories I could tell about the Soviet Russia style corruption and waste that were always a prominent feature, the internal politics, the meticulous attention to outward appearances... -
17
"Kingdom Hall Quickbuilds are only possible with God's Holy Spirit"
by under_believer inthis is what you hear every time there's a part on the kingdom hall construction program.
they're only possible because god's holy spirit blesses the work.
otherwise, what is accomplished would be physically impossible.
-
-
under_believer
This is what you hear every time there's a part on the Kingdom Hall construction program. They're only possible because God's Holy Spirit blesses the work. Otherwise, what is accomplished would be physically impossible.
This bit of superstition and mysticism is blatant and obvious, but many Witnesses have no problem believing it, and stating it in public for all to hear. The lengths they are willing to go to, so that they can keep the Holy Spirit on the proceedings, is interesting to say the least.
Enter Bill (note: name has been changed to protect my anonymity). Bill's situation is very close to mine, in ways that I don't want to describe, but suffice to say that I am 100% sure of everything I'm about to relate, having observed almost all of it firsthand.
Bill was "raised in the truth" by devout but somewhat lenient parents. Though they fervently believe in the Society, they have relaxed standards in some areas.
When Bill was 22 years old, he got married to a nice Witness girl from another congregation. She bore him a child. Then she had an affair. Bill was understandably upset, and went into a depression spiral which culminated in him committing "fornication" and being disfellowshipped. Bill is also a very stubborn individual, and decided at this time that what he did was by no means grounds for having his family refuse to invite him to dinner. A surreal period of on-again, off-again relations with his parents and siblings starts. The parents will still talk to him, watch his kid, let their kids (his siblings) go over to his house, etc, but won't eat with him and won't invite him to congregation functions, etc.
20 years go by.
Bill has gone through a terrible time. He's gotten married twice more, and both women have left him, one leaving her daughter (his stepdaughter) in his care. Is Bill just a terrible husband, or does he make spectacularly poor choices in women? Hard to tell at this point. When you see him, his permanently fixed facial expression is glowering, sullen, and tragic, as though someone just killed the last in a series of murdered puppies belonging to him.
He's now on his fourth woman. She meets his mother and father, still devout JW's, and actually starts to study the Watchtower with his mother! He is understandably nonplussed, but he apparently loves this latest lady. She "progresses" to the point where she is regularly attending meetings and going in field service. At this point she lays it on the line: If you want in my pants, you are going to have to marry me. If you want to marry me, you're going to have to get reinstated.
Bill gets reinstated. 20 years of no association with the Witnesses. Six months of going to the meetings, sitting in the back with his new woman, and meeting with the elders to tell them that he made a mistake, all those years ago. But they pay off and the announcement comes. After the meeting, all the usual smiles, welcome back, etc. He and his wife are married the next week.
Bill goes to meetings for about a month with his new bride. Then his father, an elder, now very elderly and somewhat daft, invites him to a Quick Build Kingdom Hall. You may see where this is going at this point.
An aside about Bill: He's an entrepreneur, a very successful business owner, an accomplished craftsman in his trade, and probably more skillful than 90% of the general population. He would be an asset on any construction project.
Bill and his father show up at the site, ready to go. They walk out, as planned, to Bill's father's assigned area (he was, for years, a union craftsman, now retired). After they are there for a few minutes, one of the site overseers walks up.
Turns out that someone who knows Bill and his father was also there at the site that day, and noticed them, and talked to the overseers. They ask Bill and his father to leave the site.
You see, Witnesses believe that if anyone who is still "on restrictions" i.e. recently reinstated, aren't good enough to help out at Kingdom Hall builds. While they will happily take Bill's filthy money to help out with the Worldwide Work and the Kingdom Hall Construction, Bill's actual time and expertise (of infinitely more value) is worthless to them.
They do this for two reasons: One, they believe that this kind of service is a privilege, a reward to be reserved for those who are "spiritually approved." Two, they honestly and truly believe that the Holy Spirit will flee the scene if it's not completely spiritually pure.
Once, they asked my wife to leave just such a site because her shirt was too revealing.
The story, unfortunately, doesn't end happily (I guess depending on your perspective.)
Bill, sensing the obvious hypocrisy and rightly deeply offended, has never been back to the meetings since. His marriage is going very badly and he is more depressed than ever.
Bill's Dad took most of the blame for the fiasco.
Bill's Mom is very sad that her son is, after all that, still not going to be in the New Order.
And I'm just shaking my head in disbelief. -
19
a shout out to the New World Translation
by streets76 inim taking a new testament class at a local four-year college.
the textbook is the new testament: a students introduction, by stephen l. harris.
heres a quote from a section that discusses various modern english and american translations:
-
-
under_believer
The Brick Testament is all I need.
-
27
What is the meaning of life?
by frankiespeakin ini was reading about experiences of those who smoked 5meo-dmt, found in the venom of certain toads, i had got a hold of 1/2 of gram of the 99% pure stuff and smoke it about 20 or 30 times, it a very intense trip, that allows you to see thru many of the progams we got running around in our minds and concepts we've been brainwashed with from government and culture(that's about the best way i can discribe it).
any way this experience that i take a quote from is after he came down enought to be able to speak english(i often spoke in tongues when first becoming able to speak) i thought he gave a pretty good answer to the question:i felt so clear-headed about everything that i asked my friends to just go ahead and ask me something, anything.
one of them asked me 'what's the meaning of life?
-
-
under_believer
Touche, OFG. 90% of TV is trash, but the fact that it's on there means someone is watching it. The accuracy of the 7 hour figure does not affect your point.
Sorry. -
20
Wedding Day Turns Sour
by Kenneson inthe wedding at the kingdom hall was over and went off without a hitch.
the park was nearby and a nice place for wedding photos, a traditional place for these.
about 100 congregants went over to watch the couple being photographed.
-
-
under_believer
Damn it I keep using the wrong account. I wish I could get that one deleted.
-
126
But what if they're right............still the Truth?
by ScoobySnax inthis will probably apply to few here, but to me it'll always be that way.
it's the what if syndrome maybe, but it's always there.
i still think that as a core belief system the jw's have it right, even if their delivery isn't always right.
-
-
under_believer
The Society themselves make this very appeal, in a sideways manner. Who taught you, they say, that Hell doesn't exist? Who freed you from belief in the Trinity? Who follows Jesus' command to preach and teach the good news? Who taught you that God's name is Jehovah? Who let you know that we're living in the last days of this old system of things? They get back to basics with the core beliefs.
Some Witnesses (my wife included) say "the Witnesses may not have everything right, but they are the closest to the truth of any religion out there. Ergo, we should stay."
But this misses the point, doesn't it?
The Bible doesn't say that Jesus would come down, look around, find out which religion was the closest to the truth, and then murder everyone else on the planet. Even if you believe that the Witnesses are the closest to "the truth," the fact that they need to make doctrinal changes proves that it's impossible to completely attain truth.
With that fact established (absolute truth's unattainability), do you think it would be reasonable for God to kill off people who have other parts of the puzzle correct, not the same ones as the Witnesses, but still, pieces of the truth? Is there some arbitrary percentage score that God will assign, and the Catholics might be like 46% correct, and the Witnesses 75%, and he will just find the religion with the highest score?
Nah--even if you buy into the idea that the Witnesses are very close to being correct, it's hard for me to believe that God would be so cruel and arbitrary. -
-
-
under_believer
If it had really happened, it would have either been in the neolithic age or some lost preneolithic period in which mankind achieved and then lost a higher degree of technology.
But it didn't really happen. -
27
What is the meaning of life?
by frankiespeakin ini was reading about experiences of those who smoked 5meo-dmt, found in the venom of certain toads, i had got a hold of 1/2 of gram of the 99% pure stuff and smoke it about 20 or 30 times, it a very intense trip, that allows you to see thru many of the progams we got running around in our minds and concepts we've been brainwashed with from government and culture(that's about the best way i can discribe it).
any way this experience that i take a quote from is after he came down enought to be able to speak english(i often spoke in tongues when first becoming able to speak) i thought he gave a pretty good answer to the question:i felt so clear-headed about everything that i asked my friends to just go ahead and ask me something, anything.
one of them asked me 'what's the meaning of life?
-
-
under_believer
I have a really hard time believing that the average working American watches 7 hours of TV a day. Maybe if you figure old people in nursing homes into the average, but even then it sounds like a stretch to me. I'd prefer a citation from a reputable source to back that up.