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Posts by Dia
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14
Who Are We ?
by Dia ini'm interested in exploring a few things.
to try to keep these two topics separate, i'm going to attribute the letters a and b to them.
a for 'who's on the board?
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Dia
I'm interested in exploring a few things. To try to keep these two topics separate, I'm going to attribute the letters A and B to them. A for 'who's on the board?' and B for 'Who are JWs?'
A - WHO'S ON THE BOARD?
After chatting for awhile, I see that we on the board fall into a few categories:
A1) We were raised in it without our consent.
A2) We discovered it as adults and joined. And later left - for various reason?
A3) Maybe we're not ex, but we're on the board and curious.
B - WHO ARE JWS?
It has been suggested that JWs have a definable personality problem and it has been suggested that we can 'capture' the essence of who becomes a JW. I suspect the way to start coming to a clearer picture of that would be to just try listing things that we KNOW about JWs as a group.
I'll start. Please add.
B1) JWs are comfortable and unashamed of cheating on some legal things like taxes.
B2) JWs like to participate in the 'goodies' of various holidays, without being 'part of' them. They do so by 'celebrating' on a nearby date and leaving out 'symbols' of the holiday.
B3) JWs have very superficial relationships with other JWs and must like it that way?
B4) JWs have a deep need to believe that they have a superior kind of knowledge about things in the Bible.
B5) JWs comfortably and gullibly believe that a group of unnamed, unidentified group of people have an insider relationship with God that only they and a few special 'others' have access to. They cling to this belief SO deeply that they will even sacrifice the health and well-being of their own children and all of their social connections for it.
B6) A friend said that a characteristic trait that she would attribute to JWs would be 'self-loathing'.
Your turn.
Edited by - Dia on 9 August 2002 8:19:17
Edited by - Dia on 9 August 2002 8:22:25
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13
Questions from a non-JW
by imzadi insome of you may remember me from the old h20 board.
at that time i was posting because a very close friend of my family was seriously dating a jw and i had questions.
well, my friend and the jw were married early this year and i still have questions.. the wedding had well over 200 guests in attendance and i knew most of them, meaning there were extremely few jws.
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Dia
Fascinating Francois. I tend to agree.
I'm going to start a new thread, 'Who Are We?' Please follow me there with your comment.
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13
Questions from a non-JW
by imzadi insome of you may remember me from the old h20 board.
at that time i was posting because a very close friend of my family was seriously dating a jw and i had questions.
well, my friend and the jw were married early this year and i still have questions.. the wedding had well over 200 guests in attendance and i knew most of them, meaning there were extremely few jws.
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Dia
(Random Task - thanks for a very succinct summation. Tying to capture 'the essence' of what it means to be a JW is always a challenge).
I suggest he start carefully laying some doubts to challenge her belief that the WTS and God are one and the same. There's been so much flip-flopping by the WTS, and the internet is so helpful, that won't be as hard as it once was.
A married life won't always be a bed of roses (and material gifts) and if she still believes it and has not been made to see that other people love God, too (and don't need the WTS to do so) then they could face a world of trouble when they have children.
Now is a good time to nudge her out of her core beliefs. And to invite more meaningful relationships into your life together than she will EVER find in the WTS.
Perhaps he could just buy her a computer.
Edited by - Dia on 9 August 2002 8:29:57
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JWZone Thread on Bill Bowen - UPDATED!
by SYN inyes i know you're all getting p*d off with my jwzone threads, but i couldn't let this one go by!!!!!!
so, i'm just going to embed the thread here and let you guys comment...hehe...some jwzoners are going to get their heads bitten off in this thread!
edited by - syn on 8 august 2002 13:43:36.
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Dia
Nano,
One thing sociologist missed is that exjws would post a topic like this, even linking to a jw discussion site.
However convoluted or sidetracked this discussion may at times become, you're doing it!
'Mutual respect' is not possible when it's one-sided. His criticisms were unfair.
Keep it up! I'm proud of you (well, most of the time ;-)
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Dia
Just wondering...
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An Interesting PRO-JW Site
by Mister Biggs ini stumbled across this site today.
i wonder who runs it.
has anyone ever heard of this site before?
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Dia
Still too inexperienced to create a link - let's see what happens:
www.premier1.net/~raines/mental.html for an article on 'Why Jehovah's Witnesses Have Mental Problems' by DOCTOR Jerry Bergman (I believe that, off the top of my head, he has SEVEN degrees - y'know, he grew up as a witness. That ought to be familiar.)
www.freeminds.org/psych/psych.htm for lot of info about all kinds of internal problems JWs are saddled with.
Ta-da! I think this worked!
Edited by - Dia on 8 August 2002 19:7:54
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41
Silentlambs March: Controversal Idea?
by Nanoprobe inthis is a controversial post because it relates to your personal grooming & dress.
problem: jr brown & watchtower have managed to create an image problem for bill bowen & silentlambs.
in jw land he isn't a victims advocate, he is simply a deceitful apostate.
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Dia
People in denial will search for any little thing to jump on. No matter what you do, they will find something if they want/need to cling to their notions. And that won't be your fault.
I think you should just be yourselves. And if that means you want to dress in a way that shows them that you are just like them, fine. Do it.
And if you are there just to show your support and you don't want to create a particular appearance for their sake, I think you should do that too.
The bottom line is that the more people show up, the more support there is for silentlambs and Bill Bowen. And you should not say that you won't come because you do or don't want to adhere to a particular dress code.
If some do, they should hang together if they want to make an appearance for appearance sake. Their appearance will be stronger if they do.
But please encourage everyone to come, playing their game or not.
Numbers and media and social pressure are all we have. And whether they listen or not, someone will. And that will be someone who is able to tell them what they MUST do, whether they like it or not.
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48
Is Mutual Respect Possible?
by Sociologist inone of the most striking things about this and similar message boards concerning jehovah's witnesses is the strength of feeling jw-related discussions evoke.
as i dabble in sociology, i was wondering what you all thought about the following questions.
my objective is not to criticize persons belonging to other group but rather to attempt to grasp the dynamics of the conflicts at work here.. the questions:.
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Dia
Ahhh...finally. I've figured out the assumption you're making that is so far off the mark, we can hardly respond.
The assumption you're making is that we (jws and exjws) are just 'two sides to the same coin'.
If this is what you're thinking....you just don't have a clue, yet.
You're no longer posting. But maybe you're still reading.
Don't just drop it and give up. It's bigger than that.
C'mon. You can do it.
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20
Mental illness forget the statistics count who you
by rekless insatistics can be flexed to represent anything you want.. personally i know of out of a congregation of 89 .
my daughter & son in law who is an elder, three elders wives , publishers 4. another daughter that refused to accept the witness life style.
my wife just before she died had to be on prozac.
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Dia
I like this very simple criteria of mental health for its succinctness:
Can you remember the past?
Can you deal with the present?
Can you plan for the future?