Posts by Jringe01

33

My Draft DA Letter - What do you think?

by daniel-p in

jw
friends

dear family and friends,.

this is one of the hardest things ive ever written.

please forgive me for the brevity, but its essential for the clarity that this most emotional topic deserves.

Jringe01

Yeah that is a little too specific. They read that and they'll think "APOSTATE" and the doors slam shut. Leaving it vague leaves the door open for you to slowly and surely introduce a few nuggets of information here and there that'll hopefully make people think, provided they take you up on your offer to communicate. Even if they don't, by leaving it vague you'll make them wonder what you could possibly be thinking of, what could lead you to leave and the more they wonder the further down the path of independent thought they'll travel.

Along those lines might I also suggest cutting a couple lines? From the first paragraph, the :"controling members" statement and from the one where you talk about communicating you say "In a clam and non arguementative manner". Personally those would raise red flags with me if I were still a JW and again would suggest "apostate" or "critical thinking"

However I LOVE the morality statement and also the paragraph about needing to "discover god on my own". That's good.

In all you should leave it as vague as possible as to why you are leaving while still professing your love and willingness to communicate...if THEY wish to.

33

My Draft DA Letter - What do you think?

by daniel-p in

jw
friends

dear family and friends,.

this is one of the hardest things ive ever written.

please forgive me for the brevity, but its essential for the clarity that this most emotional topic deserves.

Jringe01

Not bad. May I make a suggestion? You say:

I offer no specific reasons for this. Why? Because I have no interest in affecting the faith of others. We all need to make our own decisions, find our own way, and make our own stand. I have to do what I know is right. In general, because of inconsistency of teachings, falsity of claims, unconscionable policy regarding child abuse, and repeated reversals of doctrine, I can no longer place my faith in this religion.

So you start off telling them you're not going to give examples as to why you no longer believe then at the end of the paragraph you sum up why you no longer believe. That's a contradiction. I would suggest cutting the section I underlined.

13

HANCOCK

by betty boop in

very, very good.

charlize theron and jason bateman are great, but of course the gorgeous and talented lol will smith takes the cake.

what an amazing actor he's evolved into!

Jringe01

Now for the important question: does \will take his shirt off?

We can only hope luv...though I've already seen him with nothing on (and a nice but all too brief shot of his beautiful bottom) in Six Degrees of Seperation with Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing

46

Shunned again

by tak in

my son called me yesterday, first time in probably 6 weeks, because he lost his car keys, the car is in my name, so i had to get another set from the dealership.

anyways, it doesn't really matter what he called about, it was just in 6 weeks he only calls because he needs something, not a peep before that (very hurtful).

a brother drove him to my office and it was quittin time so i went outside with him and gave him the keys, i was hurt and didn't say much to him.

Jringe01

tak: By the sounds of it you've pretty much decided to follow the excellent advice given to you by the other posters. If indeed this is your choice then I congratulate you and wish you the strength of heart to see it thru.

Personally though I wouldn''t wait for "several weeks". First thing Monday morning, July 7th 2008, go get this done. If you wait you risk developing reasons to keep waiting. Yes, it's a tough thing for you to do to your son and will take you to a place you' ve never been to before but the longer you wait, the better the odds that you won't do it

Plus the sooner you do it the more of a shock it'll be. If you wait too long the arguement will be "Well why now; after all this time it doesn't make sense." and not only would he would be right, you'd run the risk of backing off under the emotional pressure.

This is one of those "Take a deep breath, close your eyes and think of England" moments. When it's over though you'll be a stronger person for it.

Good luck luv.

19

Be careful -- or this could happen to you too !!

by Gopher in

jw
friends

if you make friends here, keep posting here and keep following the forum for a while, you might reach 10,000 posts.

i've found this place a really good outlet and place to learn and share for quite a while.

the number of posts doesn't really matter... but the freedom to speak one's mind and to perhaps share ideas that might help others get past the jw experience .. that does matter!.

Jringe01

AMEN brother!!!

34

Iran vs. Israel - could it be the beginning of Armageddon?

by tartarus in

i have recently read in the news that an attack on iran is planned sometime after the olympics in beijing.

here's a bit of background to it:.

when irans fledgling democracy was overthrown with support of cia the shah of iran was giving israel free oil thru a pipeline that still runs thru saudi arabia to a refinery in the israeli city of haifa.

Jringe01

There is so a Central Bank in the US. It's called the Federal Reserve Bank and it has in it vaults about 6% of the world's gold (Both in the Federal Reserve branch in Manhattan and in FT. Knox Kentucky). The Federal reserve was created to address banking panics and to serve as the central bank of the USA

56

What's Your Favorite Alcohol To Drink?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to drink captain morgan and diet coke but i've switched to jack and diet.. i like a flavored vodka martini as well as lite beer.. .

Jringe01

G&T with a slice of lemon

18

Interested in seeing random papers, forms, and letters from Bethel?

by daniel-p in

jw
friends

while sorting through old papers and files in my closet getting ready for a move, i came across a bunch of papers and forms from bethel.

a lot of them are outlines and directions for the first few days and weeks while at bethel.

in addition, there are some typed notes from the 2002 annual meeting (the kind you're not supposed to post in the interwebz), a few letters from the gb to bethelites (mostly telling us how to dress and so forth), and some other random junk.

Jringe01

I'm in too...post away

263

Growing up a gay Jehovah's Witness (My Life Story)

by m0nk3y in

i feel the need to express how i feel and felt about my life as a gay man.

i was brought up from birth as a jehovahs witness.

this has played a major part in my life and it has been a real struggle to get past.

Jringe01

Tartarus: I went to the Narth website you mentioned in a previous post and read some of the material there.

I believe that it's up to the individual to decide what orientation he/she will be. I do not believe that Narth is being entirely objective.

I work in Market Research so I know full well the difference between asking unbiased questions and biased ones. Not too many people really appreciate just how much of what they say or the questions that they ask are in fact bias and when you point it out to them they tend to scoff.

Why is it that people can never just leave others alone to find their own path? As much as I hate to say this...I can see a "Great Tribulatrion" on the horizon, not because god will bring it but we will bring it on ourselves thru debates like this one when both sides refuse to walk away and leave the other side alone.

I guess the bible was right when it said "Man has dominated man to his injury" Chalk one up for scripture.

263

Growing up a gay Jehovah's Witness (My Life Story)

by m0nk3y in

i feel the need to express how i feel and felt about my life as a gay man.

i was brought up from birth as a jehovahs witness.

this has played a major part in my life and it has been a real struggle to get past.

Jringe01

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want desperately to say something profound to express how I feel after reading all this but what can I say that hasn't already been said?

Josh...I am in awe of your courage, bravery and inner strength. I wish I had even a fraction of it and if I did I'd be a better man for it.

I came into the JW while in my teens. I had known since I was 5 that I liked men and yet like all good, overly zealous new JW converts I tried to put all my feelings aside and "do the right thing". It never really worked. I couldn't stay away. Actually having sex was out of the question (I was a virgin till I was 30) so I whacked off a lot and then felt guilty for it. How did another poster put it:

What you wrote about being depressed, and the feeling that Jehovah didn't answer prayers, and didn't care about us, really REALLY hit home for me. It was compounded by the fact that his "followers" didn't really care about us either.

It hit home for me too...and so many others, both those that now know your story Josh and the many many who don't. So many have suffered and so needlessly.

I was half way thru the thread before I realize the bloody thing was 5 years old. It's impressive that even for short periods in the intervening years it gets a new lease on life.

This story (and other like stories) must not only be told, they can never be forgotten. We should all bookmark this thread and make sure it continues to live so that it may serve as an example and inspiration to others in the future and as a way to remember those who were not fortunate enough to survive.

There was a far more recent "gay" thread (posted this month and I can't recall the exact title but it's over 10 pages) in which "Perry" got on and started posting links to various conservative and fundementalist publications which all had negative things to say about gay rights, gay marriage etc.

All these "good little christians" eager to use the bible to show us the error of our ways and try to get us to turn back to god would have us live like Josh did, like so many of us on this board have lived, a life of pain. misery, self loathing and fear. Those four words just about sums up the history of Christianty.

I wonder if it's ever occured to them that since their policies against gays lead so many troubled youth to suicide that they thus become people who condone and encourage murder. According to the bible that's what suicide is. It's also a shocking and profound disrespect for life and humanity in general.