Posts by Closer to Fine

58

Non JW wife/JW husband Christmas tree debate

by spacegirl443 in

jw
friends

first post here and looking for advice and help.

sorry in advance for it being so long :(.

i'm a happily married woman (no kids) who is a non-jw, presbyterian to be precise.

Closer to Fine

Welcome Spacegirl - I am also a UBM and Christmas time in our home is also difficult. I married an inactive jw a few decades ago and we celebrated xmas for many years. He took part in decorating including all of the outside decorations. Anytime jws would stop by he would lie and say it was all mine and he had no part in it. Fast forward 20++ years and those old jw ways and beliefs resurfaced. It got to the point that the arguments weren't worth it to me anymore and under pressure, I got rid of all my xmas decorations, including the sentimental ones. It was difficult to do and I regret it. A few years passed and I decided that I had given up enough to make the jws comfortable. I was the only one making the compromises. So I bought all new decorations and even though I'm enjoying them alone it's better than nothing. Sorry to ramble on so much about myself. My advice to you is to keep your decorations and make it clear from the beginning that you won't give up what is important to you.

I look forward to more posts from you

19

Bought My First Christmas Tree Last Night

by pale.emperor in

last year i didn't bother with christmas as it still felt like a "nothing" day to me (thanks watchtower!).

this is the 2nd christmas since waking up and leaving the cult and i've finally bought my first christmas tree:).

i have no idea what to do with it though.

Closer to Fine

How exciting for you and your little daughter. Christmas is such a fun time for kids. Glad your daughter won't be deprived of the joy. You will get to experience that joy now too. To any jws out there lurking - no it's not damaging to kids to let them believe in santa in their youth (I've heard this many times from my jw family). What is damaging is letting children think that if they're not pretty darn close to perfect, god will destroy them and that demons are around them all the time trying to tempt them. Now that is damaging!

Wishing you and your daughter a very merry 1st christmas

10

More Kindness, Less Judgment

by compound complex in

jw
friends

i am comforted by the realization that my little life has not been lived totally in vain.

there's been a lot of good stuff come my way.

most of my mistakes were not life altering.

Closer to Fine

More kindness and less judgment. Those are certainly words to live by aren't they? You're a wise man, CoCo.

31

Name a song title..........

by punkofnice in

replace one word in a song title with the word 'elder/s'.. eg.

the elders are back in town' (boys).

smoke on the elder (water).

Closer to Fine

Elder Skelter (Helter) - The Beatles

50 Ways To Leave Your Elder (Lover) - Paul Simon

41

Watchtower Loses an Appeal

by TerryWalstrom in

publication court of appeal, fourth appellate district division one state of california osbaldo padron, plaintiff and respondent, v. watchtower bible and tract society of new york, inc., defendant and appellant.findingwatchtower has abused the discovery process.

it has zealously advocated its position and lost multiple times.

yet, it cavalierly refuses to acknowledge the consequences of these losses and the validity of the court's orders requiring it to produce documents in response to request number 12. and, in a further act of defiance, watchtower informed the court that it would not comply with the march 25, 2016 order 39 requiring it to produce documents responsive to request number 12. the court, following lopez, supra, 246 cal.app.4th 566, as an incremental step toward terminating sanctions if watchtower persists in its unjustified conduct, imposed monetary sanctions.

Closer to Fine

Pretty please, Karma .... please kick in and bite them in the ass!!

Please make them pay for what they have done to all of those kids!

47

Outside JW World They Barely Exist

by Farmer Jim1 in

jw
friends

is anyone else staggered by the fact that outside of the organization most of the general public seem to know very little or nothing about jw’s?

when i was in i was led to believe that 99% of the worlds population had been giving sufficient warning, knew what it was all about and were stubbornly sticking to their immoral ways.

the reality seems to be that the entire jw universe is barely noticeable to the masses.

Closer to Fine

I think most would say the top 3 things they know about jws are;

They go door to door preaching
They tell you the end is coming any day now
They think holidays are bad

I don't think the average person knows much more about them than that.

20

It's been a GREAT week for me!

by dubstepped in

so as some of you know i have a podcast called this jw life.

i put my story out there in 9 parts, and i've had lots of great experiences so far and met lots of nice people and i've made new internet friends, even some in person.

this last seven days though has been soooooo cool!.

Closer to Fine

I'm so glad your podcasts are reaching such a large audience and you're helping people. I've listened to them as well and I appreciate all your efforts putting them together. It must be very rewarding to have people that are still stuck in this cult contact you to let you know how you have helped them. It does indeed sound like you've had a great week!!

24

JC letter of invitation. Do they always get signed?

by StarTrekAngel in

i was just shown a jc letter from a friend and i noticed that the bottom of it was signed by tree elders.

the letter specifically stated that it was an invitation to a "judicial committee" due to the brother having a marital relationship that was not aligned with bible principles.. i am asking because i remember reading experiences of brothers who demanded their jc be arranged over certified mail with signed letters to which elders refused to do.

since they could not get this done the matter was dropped and no dfing ever happened.

Closer to Fine

@Anony Mous and Freddo - Thank you for answering my questions and offering the detailed explanations. I appreciate your posts very much

24

JC letter of invitation. Do they always get signed?

by StarTrekAngel in

i was just shown a jc letter from a friend and i noticed that the bottom of it was signed by tree elders.

the letter specifically stated that it was an invitation to a "judicial committee" due to the brother having a marital relationship that was not aligned with bible principles.. i am asking because i remember reading experiences of brothers who demanded their jc be arranged over certified mail with signed letters to which elders refused to do.

since they could not get this done the matter was dropped and no dfing ever happened.

Closer to Fine

Steve2 - I suspect one of both of the spouses did not have Biblical grounds (i.e., adultery) for divorcing a previous marital partner and have/has now remarried when they shouldn't have.

I'm curious. What is likely to happen if this is the situation? If they're already remarried legally, are the elders going to df them and consider it adultery for getting remarried? Please forgive my ignorance. I'm not a jw.

49

Dietary Quirks Among JWs

by millie210 in

i recently had to accompany an older family member out of state to a family reunion.

it was a big reunion and not much was overtly made of the fact that i am "misguided" and not attending meetings (lost soul that i am) which was nice.

the thing i noticed that i was most struck by was all the dietary quirks in evidence during our 3 days together.

Closer to Fine

Hi Millie - yes definite differences in how they view their own spirituality. The jws that refuse the drs are very suspicious of non jws. They keep themselves as separate as possible from satans world (however they accept $ from the government when they're able to qualify). They are self empIoyed and work from home, they home school and they have very little contact with non jws. They are the most judgmental and consider themselves quite holy. I'm not a jw so I don't have to worry about it, but others in the family don't dare let their guard down around them. They have turned family members into the elders in the past and no one trusts them.