Some of the weirdest stuff I read is not "anti-witness" literature, but the old Watchtower teachings themselves. Most recently, I have been reading about Russell's fascination with Egyptian pyramids and their measurements and how he thought that somehow tied in with Bible prophecy. True, they don't believe that at this point. But what I don't like is that we were presented with little snippets of belief from the likes of Russell and Rutherford, and taught to hold them in reverence, without being shown the whole picture. Talk about not being objective.
grey matters
JoinedPosts by grey matters
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23
The irritating slant to almost everything negative I have seen on Witnesses
by free2beme inwhen i left the witnesses, a person from work gave me a video about the witnesses that his church uses.
i thought it would be interesting, so i set down and watched it.
what i found was another example of one church taking about another, to then counter with points that support their way of thinking.
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Red flags
by beautifulisfree inwhen i was an active witness i never understood why there were 'annointed' women that would be ruling right beside god and helping rule over the whole earth.
but, they were not allowed or good enough to be 'elders' and just rule over a tiny little congregation.
i know now this should have been a red flag for me...but, i just thought oh well this scripture says that men are to be the head of woman.
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grey matters
That's the nice part about delusions . . . anything's possible.
LOL Now that's quotable. Thanks!
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Automatic Re-instatement?
by BritBoy indoes anyone out there know the answer this one.... .
ok, take for example the oral sex thread and the fact that the dubs reversed their thinking on this.
so, twenty years ago (within the marriage arrangements) blow job = disfellowshipping... now it's a "matter of conscience".
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grey matters
how, HOW did I fall for this crap for so long?
I ask myself this question every day!
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Elders Are Closing In....
by daniel-p inwell, it's been about 6 months or so since i've turned in a time report and things are heating up a bit.
i still attend the meetings with my wife - i am still "visible" - but i have not gone out in service for a conspicuous amount of time.
just this afternoon the po called and wanted to meet with me.
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grey matters
I think mkr32208 is on to something there. That is sort of what I did. I was fading pretty fast, but still active. Then I moved to a different state. To be honest, I really thought going in that I was going to try again to take things seriously in the new cong., but I just couldn't get motivated. It was over, whether I realised it or not. So I faded away completely. But the point is, the elders in the new cong don't really know me from anyone or really know how active I was before. So it isn't a big loss to them. The old cong just assumes I moved to a new hall and am more or less the same.
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my disassociation drafts, longish but i'd like comments....
by isthisit in<div> <div> <div>we decided to leave before being pushed, these are my letters, her letters are very similar but she is still working on them, any suggestions would be more than welcome....bear in mind my dad is po, should this change anything?
<br></br> ________________________________________________________________________________________________-- brothers this is perhaps the hardest letter i have had to write, and it is likewise the letter that i least expect to have to write.
as of this letter being received, i no longer consider myself as a jehovahs witness.
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grey matters
Wow. I don't know what to say. But I don't think you could lay that out in a more calm and reasonable manner.
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Are You Afraid That Armageddon Is Going To Come Since Leaving "The Truth"?
by minimus ini'm not but i bet that there are some that quiety worry about it.....what about you?
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grey matters
I am not concerned about it. The world has enough real problems that need to be resolved. I don't need to spend my time dwelling on some weird, dark fantasy dreamed up by a bunch of old men in New York.
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Discussion with friend
by sinis inso, my friend from texas was visiting this past week.
he still goes to the kh and is a ms. so he wanted to know why i have not gone to meetings.
i tell him that i am upset about the ngo thing (explained in detail).
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grey matters
I love that the UN got so many requests for information about this that they posted an official response:
http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/ngo-docs.html
Look for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York link. It will bring up a .pdf
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I asked... and I have recieved.
by saki2fifty inwell, just go back from my little trip up to austin and had a really great time.
hung out with wifey, visited the state capital, did some site seeing, and conquered the muddy buddy race!
after 3 days away from home, we're now back in houston and i was eager to get back on the board and do some reading.
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grey matters
Hey Michael,
I'm glad your trip went well. It's good to get away for the weekend and have a chance to clear our heads once in awhile.
Best wishes and I hope things work out well for you.
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35
Please allow me to introduce myself...
by Asheron inplease escuse the obvious stones lyrical referance but thats the first thing that came to mind.
i am a 44 yo male fader from pennsylvania.
been faded for 22 years or so and been lurking and reading all of your posts for 6 or so months.
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grey matters
Welcome Asheron.
I laughed out lound when you mentioned the Stones reference. I wasn't sure that was what you were going for, but it popped right into my head.
About the JW family, yeah, I know. You just can't reason with them. It seems like their religion is the only thing they consider to be important.
What has helped me is to be close to non JW family - aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I come from a big family. The members that are JW are significant to me, but they are not the majority of the family. I try to remember that to keep things in perspective.
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35
Moving on...
by Zico ini've been reading this board regularly since it was introduced to me in march of this year.
at first, i was finding it pretty difficult coming to terms with the fact that my whole life had been a lie, but really, i suppose there's not much point in worrying about this now, what's done is done, and i'm still easily young enough to make a life in 'the world' despite a slow start.
the problem is that i have no idea how to go about.
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grey matters
Well Saki,
You’ve got a real dilemma there. On the one hand, you have found a community that you enjoy being part of in the Jehovah’s Witnesses. You state that you find 90% of what they teach to be acceptable, and yet you have doubts or disagreements about the other 10%. You state that you have difficulties socially, and that those difficulties are resolved to an extent by association with this group. If it works for you, if you can live with your 90%/10% ratio, then maybe you should go for it. At least you are going in with your eyes open.
I don’t think it is the purpose of this site to belittle people for beliefs that they hold to honestly. I do think it is the purpose of this site to stop people from feeling guilty for not believing something. I don’t like the attempt at persuasion that goes “but why would you leave Jehovah?”, because I don’t think it is a valid argument. I think it is manipulative. I don’t think it is effective. If you make someone feel guilty for not believing something, that doesn’t make them believe it. At best, it creates a state of incongruence that I feel is more likely to drive someone away from God completely than it is to draw them close to Him.
I have to take issue with your statement that within 2 weeks, you could present information here that you know to be false, and expect those of us who read it to blindly accept it as truth. I don’t think that gives credit to the capacity we have developed for critical thinking. As evidence of that, if your supposition were true, we would most likely be at home underlining Watchtower magazines, not reading and posting on this board.
Think about why you are here. I don’t want to hurt your faith if you truly believe that being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses is the best thing for you. But I want you to respect that I don’t believe it is for me. It is not that I don’t think I can live up to the high standards, or that I am too lazy to work for the organization. I simply, and honestly, don’t believe what they say.