Welcome, Gilberto!
j
i thought it was time i posted here, having been lurking for over 4 years (on and off).
well my wife is now out.
we never really discussed the issues i had with the troof, although she of course new what some of them were.
Welcome, Gilberto!
j
so why didn't you think you were in a cult when you were a jdub?
my "worldly" husband always told me i was in a cult when we were dating..i didn't believe him.
but, to this day i still don't know why i didn't agree with him.
First of all, I don't think most of us knew the true definition of the word until after we were out, (maybe I should just speak for myself here). But the very concept mind control never occured to me until I began to have serious doubts. Once I learned that I was under that mind control, and learned that it is the principal tool of a cult, only then did I realize it was indeed a cult. For the most part, it didn't matter to me at that point, I was out.
j
more and more i find myself coming to a materialist view of the world.
i don't believe in afterlife, ghosts, angels, auras, astrology, revelations and the like.
so what am i to make of people who claim to have spiritual experiences?
Agreed. As witnesses it was not optional to believe some things that were taught to us, and not others. It was all or nothing at all. It certainly explains my leaning towards atheism, but I'm beginning to use terms such as "leaning" much more liberally now. I think the longer we are out of the org, the easier it is to be more accepting of others beliefs, and more open to modifying our own.
j
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it seems to me that all the jw's i knew while going to the meetings, weather they were spiritually strong or weak, never criticized.
they were like real sheep.. i used to always bitch about the length of the meetings and the time of the meetings and so on.....when i drove the brothers back home in my car or talked to them in private.. naturally i would only say this to my closer jw friends or those i knew wouldn't squeal on me.. .
Many times. Sometimes petty, sometimes not so petty. Of the not so petty complaints, these days I find it relatively easy to take advatage of these and turn them into a good counter WTS discussion with the two or so witnesses I still talk to.
j
if you've ever studied authoritarian regimes, you may understand that since access to honest truth is carefully rationed,.
all sorts of "reasons" for doing things may appear, that take the place of hard fact.
even worse, the leadership may .
I tend to agree that the WTS underestimates the internet. But truth be known, they really do know how to handle it, so they don't deal with it head on. Instaed, the choose to put blinders on, (and hope the R&F do also), and continue with the same drivel about the "dangers of the internet", and so on. It really is their only defense. If they become too specific, obviously that would only incite curiosity, and they certainly don't want that. It is far easier to criminalize the act of using the internet, than provide a rebuttal, (which we know they can't do).
If we see the WTS as a corporation, (which it is), it has been a very successful one. 130 years is quite a good run, (GM, IBM, Toyota, etc can't claim that). Thier methods do work. However, their methods have no way of directly combating the threat of the internet. If any corporation is going to remain successful, one of the things it needs to do is adapt to current technology. The WTS is indeed a book publishing corporation, and as such, unless it adapts to current media technologies, (such as the internet), it will fail if given enough time.
j
for anyone of us familiar with this religion.....we were taught no one knows the day or the hour.
now should that be a 7000 year day, 1000 year day or 24 hour day, and any predictions concerning this or assuming knowledge of any sort would be exposing them selves as false prophets.. the wbts likely to whip up a frenzy of one sort or another due to clever rhetoric is typical, but all of us "out" know better.
it usually happens in the fall, ......just like this year.. no one here needs to hold their breath.
The only way i can look at JW org now is basically as a damn good con-artist,
Yeah, but the truth of the matter is that they are not THAT good. Shame on us.
j
i had chemo today and i feel terrible.
when i got home i was expected to cook dinner and have the clothes washed since i didn"t work today.. the owner of the business expects me to go to the tax central appraisal district and represent him on the personal property tax for the business.
i just went to bed and had nausea today maybe i will be ok tomorrow and get all the things done i need to.. peace ya"ll.
Hambeak,
Hang in there, you are in my thoughts.
j
just reading some christian news and came across this hard story.
a poll conducted by what bills itself as "the world's most visited christian website" indicates a surprising number of christians are addicted to pornography.
"the poll results indicate that 50% of all christian men and 20% of all christian women are addicted to pornography," .
I believe firmly, that when a natural desire such as sex, is repressed, it can lead to all sorts of problems. Christians, in general, do deal with this type of repression. The statistics are in no way astounding.
j
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very interesting article.. http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=42815
This is a very good article, Sinis, a keeper for sure.
j
washington (afp) - for the first time since it began, a majority of americans believe the iraq war is not part of the war on terrorism, as us president george w. bush keeps insisting it is, according to a poll.. fifty-one percent of the 1,206 adults surveyed in the august 17-21 new york times/cbs news poll believed the two wars were separate, while 44 percent saw a link between them.
in june, opinion was split evenly at 41 percent..
rest of the story here.
This is a typical left-wing and socialist apology for blatently criminal behavior on the part of these Islamic fanatics. The argument basically boils down to this: They only take up this attitude because the US antagonizes them. If we were just more placating, and a whole lot nicer, we would soon see this problem melt away, as these killers are really pretty nice (if desperate) people who are being molded by their clever suicide guru leaders. The west is really the root cause of the trouble (well, the west plus Israel...I guess).This is the same thinking that blames wealthy americans for our inner city crime - people wouldn't be doing those bad things if we stepped in to equalize society and made sure that all those well-intentioned but desperate crack dealers and carjackers had an easier way to get money.
I think it is time that we face an ugly fact here in the 21st century: Islam is being despotised into an increasingly intolerant and agressive form of state religion. It is evil and it must be resisted by civilized nations. We cannot hope to apologize or negotiate our way around that fact. I am sure there are many here who will never agree with this statement - and that is fine. I just hope you folks never have to live under Islamic law.
I have posted my last on the subject for now - I notice that my total is rapidly approaching the magical 1000, and I want those last few posts to be on exJW issues, or at least on something more useful than a diatribe on how evil the United States Government and its elected president are.
I've been refraining from the political threads so far, but James, I must agree with you on this one.
j