i believe that i am experiencing a profound change in my personality, and those changes are at a stage where i have honestly contemplated this recently.
honestly.. i don't think i could ever do it - anyone who has followed me on the boards here know that i am neither suicidal nor an apologist for that lot.
yet, having been off work for a few weeks now with surgical recovery, i have had time to make assessment of my future.
Jeff,
It is sometimes true that the non-believers on the board can be a bit more vocal. I apologize if anything I said here may have caused any hurt feelings. These days, I don't get involved in the believer/atheist debates. I don't expect anyone to believe what I do, and am comfortable making friends with anyone despite their beliefs. I travel quite a bit for work, and maybe when I get out Indiana way, I can grab a beer with you.
Jason
wife sweet pea and i are just starting the 2nd phase of our fade, which as we are already inactive and at 50% meeting attendance, means stopping going altogether.. supposing the elders decide they want to make a shepherding call - which we naturally decline - could they announce us as 'no longer known as jw's' for declining the call, not being at meetings and being inactive?.
what if we did take the shepherding call and told the elders we just weren't coming back, with no specific reasons given?
they would be bound to ask if we still believed the fds doctrine, which we could lie about use theocratic warfare strategy and say we were just a bit depressed, with money worries, struggling with the routine etc and would probably be back soon.. thoughts?.
I can only speak of my own experience, but I would concur with most here. In 15 solid months of fading I only received 2 calls, at about the 6 month mark. I screened them and avoided them. They went away, never to be heard from again.
j
do you feel there was a "gap" between those who had more materially and those families or individuals who had less?.
example: did those who had "less" materially not get invited to private homes for get togethers as frequently or not at all?.
thanks for your input.. juni .
The Congo I grew up in was fairly wealthy, (we were not). This didn't help things, but the big problem really, was my mother was married to a UBM. That was the consistent deal breaker.
j
i was converted in the early 1980's.. warlock .
I am sort of "In-Between". My mother began to study when I was about 5, and my father was always a UBM. It took her about 8 years of "studying" before she was baptized. I did very little with the org, outside of the occasional meeting, and no holiday stuff. It was not enforced on my sister and me. My father would not allow that. Having a "dumb moment", when I was about 14, I decided to go "all the way", (definately smoking too much pot at the time), and started progressing toward baptism. It would be another 18 years before I figured it out.
(Long version available shortly)
j
this is for all you scholars out there.
is this acurate?
please show examples were the nwt is clearly wrong.. .
A stopped clock is, after all, right twice a day.
That just speaks volumes!
j
let it be this board or any other board, are you comfortable with the fact that whatever you post on the internet will be viewable for a long time.. maybe when you'll be very old, you'll find posts that you made a very long time ago..
Well, I've made a bigger ass of myself in more critical places, so I can live with what I may have posted here once or twice may have been a bit on the stupid side.
j
i believe the moment's right to discuss a very serious matter............................................................beer.
what do you like?
let's edumicate one another!
nvrgnvk,
I recently worked implmenting a call center in Pottsville, (home of Yuengling). Not much of a town, but the brewery tour is definately worth doing.
I live about two hours from there, outside of Philly.
j
i believe the moment's right to discuss a very serious matter............................................................beer.
what do you like?
let's edumicate one another!
Also, when in the Southwest, I would also say Fat Tire is pretty damn good.
j
i apologise for taking the liberty of using my alias to attract attention but a number of people have contacted me to ask what they could do to help by way of being a stem cell donor (without a stem cell donation soon i will likely die).
i cannot express enough just how appreciative i am for such wonderful thoughtful gestures.
it is possible that your stem cells are a perfect match for me and that you could literally save my life.. however, if you are not a match you could very well save someone else's life - so do please consider being a stem cell donor.
Ian,
I will look into these locally. I doubt anything I do here would actually make it to the UK, but it is indeed a good thing to do regardless.
j
i believe the moment's right to discuss a very serious matter............................................................beer.
what do you like?
let's edumicate one another!
I believe we had one of these threads not too long ago, but it's always a positive subject, so here goes:
1. Yeungling Lager, (Pennsylvania)
2. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
3. Guiness
4. Hacker Schorr Dark Weiss (Germany)
j
