Merry Magdalene

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Posts by Merry Magdalene

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  32

  PLEASE tell me I'm crazy!!!

  by Elyse867 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so... hubby and i have been getting into discussions with a lot of people lately about the wts.

  i want so bad to know what to believe... i don't believe that the 'truth' is the one true religion anymore, but i don't know what to believe anymore when it comes to certain things... what happens to you after you die, etc.

  so, i've been praying a lot (i still believe in god) asking him to direct me somewhere, just give me something to believe in.

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  Merry Magdalene

  No way I want to step in and mediate between you and God and try to tell you when and how He is answering your prayers! LOL

  I will say though, I have felt the same pull you are going through now and I empathize. But I would advise you take a few deep breaths and analyze things rationally. Emotions and feelings are important, certainly, but can often be unreliably colored by that which has nothing to do with sorting through true/false/unproven matters and making important decisions. Even in relationships, or matters of the heart, we really need to use our brains or we can find ourselves making serious mistakes and then repeating them over and over again, hoping that things will turn out differently even though we are refusing to see or do things differently. Not good strategy, imo.

  I do wish you well in this struggle, whatever choices you make. You don't have to figure it out all at once. If there is one thing the WTBTS wants to deny people it is the necessity of individual growth, change, exploration and maturation, so I hope you won't let them deprive you of that.

  ~Merry
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  51

  What Kind of Woman Do you Men Really Want in a Relationship ?

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so guys.

  i know all the old cliches, all the good women are taken !

  but it's just not true !

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  Merry Magdalene

  There was another thread, which one I don't recall at the moment as it's late and I'm tired, but I found what you (speaking to WLG) wrote there, and now here, to be...well...I could read you all night. Have you written any books I could curl up with? You have a way of expressing yourself, and a self that seems thereby expressed, that is quite likeable.

  Here's hoping everyone finds their perfect match, if they haven't already!

  ~Merry
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  23

  "Babylon the Great has Gallen--God's Kingdom Rules!"

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this was the book we studied when i went to prison in 1967 at seagovilled federal correctional facility near dallas.. the babylon book, we called it.. it is where i first encountered fred franz's mania for specificity.

  franz was the lone ranger prophetic mouthpiece for jw's for a long time and pounded out on his typewriter an amazing array of weird books.

  but, the babylon book had it all.

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  Merry Magdalene

  I'm trying to jog my own memory here. Wasn't the Babylon book the one that had the questions on the paragraphs in a separate pamphlet like booklet? Yes. I have my grandmother's.

  If so, I wonder why? So the book itself would only be 704 pages it is rather than the 798 pages it might have been? The question-answer study format was an afterthought in its case? Beats me.

  ~Merry
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  26

  Just informed the sisters at my door.

  by wozadummy in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  well it's a beauutiful day and it got better in the last hour .. two sisters and a daughter came to our door witnessing and after what i told them i think they are very thankful.. they first spoke to my wife and she told them why she is da'd over the societys stand on them protecting pedophiles ,but she had to go shopping and left me with it.. we had a meaningful discussion and i was able to enlighten them on the facts of the society and the recent cases settled in court in america ,and of course they did'nt know about it .

  it came out that they both had observed the society hiding things and especially the pedophiles in the congos.. well then i explained that at least one is in their congregation and one sister said she knew of the same one because an elder had told her to watch out for him because he was seen touching and loitering around one of her children .

  well i said that's pretty terrible that a pedophile has to touch your child before an elder will warn you of the pedophile 's history.. then the other sister who is a newly baptised witness asked the other sister why she had'nt warned her too.

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  Merry Magdalene

  So glad your wife and you spoke outSo glad those you spoke to listened

  ~Merry
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  7

  "Some of us are prisioners...Some of us are guards...

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  you may feel trapped right now by life conditions.. you are the only jail keeper that surfaces in your own life.. whenever you realize that you have the power to be free, freedom follows.. everything that you do in life is by choice, and you are free to choose again.. even prisioners are free to choose their thoughts so that they feel peace and happiness under any conditions.. love is the only answer....love of self and love of others.....even those who my be guards.

  .

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  Merry Magdalene

  When I first read the title of this thread, I immediately thought of this:

  When US social scientists conducted the by-now classic prison experiment to test the power of the social situation to determine behavior, values and attitudes, they were surprised by the results. They discovered just how powerful external factors can be in corrupting the behavior of ordinary people. In that experiment, well-adjusted US college students took on the role of prisoners and guards in a functional simulation of prison conditions.
  
  It is worth quoting the results of the experiment: "Many of the normal, healthy mock prisoners suffered such intense emotional stress reactions that they had to be released in a matter of days; most of the other prisoners acted like zombies totally obeying the demeaning orders of the guards; the distress of the prisoners was caused by their sense of powerlessness induced by the guards who began acting in cruel, dehumanizing and even sadistic ways. The study was terminated prematurely because it was getting out of control in the extent of degrading actions being perpetrated by the guards against the prisoners - all of whom had been normal, healthy, ordinary young college students less than a week before." http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6245.shtml

  Then I read the opening post and realized what I was thinking had nothing to do with what you were thinking...but now I am mulling over the possiblity that maybe it could be relevent after all, thinking about how we can become trapped in certain mindsets from which it can be difficult to break free. How we see the world, how we treat ourselves, how we treat each other, according to our reactions to various external factors.

  How do we get beyond being trapped in an abusive/guard abused/prisoner polarized mentality? Sometimes it takes an intervention by someone who sees what is happening to us and cares enough to step in. But the key to deep change is still within us and must be carried out by us on our own behalf, even if with help. We have to be able to see the possiblity of something better, want it, and be willing to work for it by changing ourselves rather than demanding that others change first, because that is not within our control.

  I remember realizing when I was very young that I was not better than anyone else and that the potential existed in me to be anything from the very worst kind of person to the very best. It was a bit shocking (to my mother as well as myself when I revealed my thoughts to her). Realizing we have a choice is hugely important, whatever conditions in which we find ourselves, and regardless of what anyone else is doing.

  I have often wondered why people make the choices they do, or why some deny they have any choice.

  ~Merry
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  47

  shunned

  by lovelylissa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i got disfelowshiped when i divorced my husband and altho we both went on to have relationships with other people he didn't get disfelowshiped as he wasn't going to meetings.

  we have since then got back together and i find it so frustrating that i still get treated like a leper being shunned by his family and all the other witnesses but he still gets invited to dinner and works with them.

  i don't want to be best buddys with any of them i just hate it when they cross the road to avoid me .

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  Merry Magdalene

  Welcome, 'lissa

  (Please ignore those who come here only to practice something almost entirely but not quite completely unlike compassion and clear thinking.)

  ~Merry
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  22

  abuse towards children by Muslims

  by Guest with Questions in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  warning: some sites you will find are extremely graphic.

  i came across this site this morning looking for a christian artist.

  i'm beside myself with grief for these children.

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  Merry Magdalene

  The key to cultural maturity is in education and critically who is excluded from it.

  Those were some very good points you presented, Qcumber! and education is something I very much support. Thank you for sharing your views on this. I find them alot more helpful than blanket condemnations that confuse the issues.

  I know you weren't singling out Islam, Hillary-not-running-for-President.

  In the interests of promoting the education of adults in regard to children in Islam, this was produced in 2005 by Al-Azhar University and UNICEF in Egypt--Children In Islam Their Care, Development and Protection. What I linked to is not the entire document which was written in Arabic, but an English summary.

  And a quick note on Prisoners of War-- http://www.islamonline.net/english/introducingislam/politics/System/article05.shtml

  In regard to women in Islam, sweetstuff, I will link to this article (for any who wish to question what websites with an anti-Islamic agenda proclaim)--Women's Position, Role, and Rights in Islam. Here is a brief quote:

  In this paper I argue that the position of women in Islam in theory, that is, according to the Qur'an and Hadiths (tradition) of the Prophet, differs vastly from Islam in practice. It is not the Islamic ideologies that determine the position of women in the Islamic societies, it is rather the pre-Islamic patriarchal ideologies existing in a particular society, combined with the lack of education and ignorance, that construct the Muslim women's position.

  I also wish to make clear that if a hadith (transmitted saying of the Prophet) goes against the Qur'an, it cannot be accepted as legitimate, and if one has a fairly good grasp of the whole body of the Qur'an and Sunnah (transmitted life and sayings of the Prophet) or at least their essential message, it is not that all that difficult to determine which beliefs and behaviours are Islamic and which are not (IMO).

  Sadly, there are both Muslims and non-Muslims who seem to have a vested interested in seeing and portraying Islam as something it is not. I strive (make jihad) against both, first through making jihad against my own worst tendencies, and then through working to educate myself and encouraging others in like manner.

  Whatever perspective we are coming from, I would like for all of us to take off our "blinders". Positive change and useful dialogue is not likely until then. But it's a process, and a very challenging one at that. I hope never to give up on it.

  ~Merry
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  22

  abuse towards children by Muslims

  by Guest with Questions in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  warning: some sites you will find are extremely graphic.

  i came across this site this morning looking for a christian artist.

  i'm beside myself with grief for these children.

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  Merry Magdalene

  This is truly horrendous!!! I am sickened and angered beyond belief.

  And I want you to know that however primitive and barbaric you may have been led to believe Islam is, it does not teach nor condone such behaviour, not against children and not against adults, not against Muslims and not against non-Muslims, not against orphans and not against captives of war.

  ~Merry
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  236

  For the ladies. Do you think that when you.....

  by NotaNess in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  dress to impress, get all slathered up and have your little or lots of flesh showing, depending on your blouse, skirt, pants or shorts....that people(men) are not supposed to stare at you?.

  seriously, if your at home in your closet deciding which outfit you're gonna wear to work, school or out to play, and thinking how you'll look more attractive in this or that....do you not know that guys are gonna stare at you?

  but you see these females on occasion that will get all in an uproar when some guy is staring at them....but hello...didn't you choose with pin-point accuracy, the exact top that's gonna reveal your cleavage at it's fullest?????

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  Merry Magdalene

  I'm afraid this thread has become much too nice and will have to be shut down.
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  236

  For the ladies. Do you think that when you.....

  by NotaNess in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  dress to impress, get all slathered up and have your little or lots of flesh showing, depending on your blouse, skirt, pants or shorts....that people(men) are not supposed to stare at you?.

  seriously, if your at home in your closet deciding which outfit you're gonna wear to work, school or out to play, and thinking how you'll look more attractive in this or that....do you not know that guys are gonna stare at you?

  but you see these females on occasion that will get all in an uproar when some guy is staring at them....but hello...didn't you choose with pin-point accuracy, the exact top that's gonna reveal your cleavage at it's fullest?????

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  Merry Magdalene

  LOL

  don't worry, I've heard it all before

  here's hoping you saved the thread...although that last bit kind of ruined the sexism

  ~Merry