Posts by Open mind

53

.....It is painful to watch...

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

Open mind

I feel for you Jerry.

Our society really needs to reconsider allowing Dr.-assisted end of life.

om

82

once i was little boy in fort worth, texas living with my maw maw and paw paw and mommy.. then, i was an 18 year old 6'4'' skinny 165lb religious nut being dipped in a baptismal during a local assembly.. suddenly, i was 20 and listening to a jail cell door clang behind me as a conscientious objector.. wow!

23 years old and put on parole until my 6 years sentence was ended!

i got married to a nice jw girl and had 3 kids!.

Open mind

Happy Belated Birthday wishes Terry!

om

54

Planning exit, alternative venues to preach?

by Goodstein in

background:.

i've come to the conclusion that many doctrines of the wts are unscriptural after many years of privately disagreeing with some of them but feeling that the society was "mostly right" and still being used by jehovah.

this turning point has happened in the last year or so.

Open mind

cofty: "Lots of us here were good and very experienced at pubic speaking. Its a trap. It strokes your ego and keeps you from being objective about things that you are busy teaching others."

Very pithily said.

om

67

How Can I Kindly Kick Weak And Unproductive Publishers Out Of My Kingdom Hall?

by AuntConnie in

unproductive kingdom proclaimers won't leave my kingdom hall, how do i rid our hall of these vultures or turkeys?.

"you can't fly like the eagles if you hang out with turkeys".

after visiting your site, i decided to allow one of the spiritual weak individuals into my car group, it was not easy but you have made valid points i find very self condemning.

Open mind

C'mon folks, let's cut Aunt Connie a break here.

She did at least ask how she could KINDLY kick out the weak and unproductive publishers.

That's a little bit of progress.

om

51

Clapping at the meetings and assembly

by NewYork44M in

jw
friends

i had a random thought this morning about clapping.

growing up in the wt culture i learned the proper protocol for clapping.

before the assembly speaker gave his talk, but not after.

Open mind

*Feeling like a fool today, so I'll just rush in here.*

BOTR said: "This is interestiing b/c clapping only happens in Episcopal churches when they make announcements"

My interpretation of BOTR's comment:

BOTR has been to Episcopal churches. (Probably many times.) Based on her lengthy experience with the Episcopal Church, they only clap for announcements.

My interpretation of what ShirleyW heard:

The only church, aside from the JWs, that has clapping is the Episcopal Church.

*stepping out now*

om

12

Congo Merger Elder Meeting Flashback: SUPER True-Believer Cong. Secretary

by Open mind in

jw
friends

this thead is a little bit long and it's not earth-shaking.

it just gives a glimpse into the inner-workings of elder meetings.. .

several years ago i was serving as an elder and the c.o.

Open mind

jookbeard: "The Big Match was always broadcast then and I loved this show as it showed the football highlights of the past Saturday"

I've only recently started to watch a little bit of the game that the rest of the planet knows as football. As a newcomer, watching "highlights" is absolutely the best. I'm sure I'll appreciate the subtleties of the game as time goes on. Too bad you were denied that.

flipper: "! Ah- Sweet is the Freedom ! "

Indeed.

mamochan: "There was no other cong. in the hall, we could have had the meetings any time, but the elders were stuck to those times."

Yeah, unless there's some outside pressure, meeting times never change.

minimus: "I was asked to pray to get the meeting back under control."

Do you remember the topic that got the crazies so worked up?

om

36

Greetings

by Monsieur in

jw
friends

i visit this site often for various reasons, above all to see the opinions of those in regards to their present state in life in relation to past or present tendencies in thinking (religious, morals, etc).. i had not found anything constructive or worthy of adding to this conversation but for one reason or another here i am doing so now.

i am presently an active jw member.

i believe that our faith provides a haven or parameters from which members can significantly obtain structure and order in many different ways.

Open mind

Welcome to JWN Monsieur!

Flipper said: "Don't think too much about God or the meaning of life or your head will explode."

(One of the wisest things I think I've ever seen come out of the Flipster's fingers.)

Our lives are short. Make the best you can of it and hope that if there is a God, it/she/he isn't a jerk. (I donned my "tasteful" cap in choosing my words.)

om

147

Weird "new world" artwork from the 2013 calendar

by cedars in

jw
friends

my mother-in-law has a strange obsession with calendars, and orders the society's calendar each year.

this year's calendar is especially weird.

it features images depicting future events - in particular, the society's vision of the new world order.. i've taken the opportunity to scan some of the images for you all to check out.. please note - there are captions for each of the images, but i don't have the english language version of the calendar so i'd rather just quote the scripture used so as not to reveal which country i'm in.. .

Open mind

Snickering at snooker.

Good one.

om

152

How Long has it Been since you Last Attended Meetings and What Caused...

by flipper in

jw
friends

..... you to stop attending ?

injustices ?

disagree with the teachings ?

Open mind

Memorial 2012.

We will just be "Easter" JWs from now on.

My trigger moment for really plunging in to researching JWs was giving a Service Meeting talk hammering home the importance of shunning DFed relatives. In the talk I told the entire congregation that my family had 100% shunned my DFed older brother for 20 years. If we can do it so can you!

After the talk, a sister whose 20-something daughter had just been DFed, came up to me with tears in her eyes telling me what a great job I had done and that she was REALLY going to try to apply the direction from The Slave from here on out. Lots of others also gave me strong commendation as well. I really poured my heart into that talk.

Getting ready for bed that night, I looked at myself in the mirror and REALLY didn't like what I saw. The shred of non-cult humanity that remained inside me won out.

om

51

Clapping at the meetings and assembly

by NewYork44M in

jw
friends

i had a random thought this morning about clapping.

growing up in the wt culture i learned the proper protocol for clapping.

before the assembly speaker gave his talk, but not after.

Open mind

Actual experience: The Clapper Talk. (Last talk of the District Convention.) In recent years it appears to have gone the way of the DoDo. It was always full of JW Global growth statistics and cheesy "experiences". For lack of anything better to do, my brothers and I would actually keep a tally of how many times there was applause during The Clapper Talk (tm). Usually it was at least 15-20 times.

Another bored, Distriction Convention past-time: Try to be the first or the very last person to clap in the whole audience.

My personal Fantasy: As a non-believing observer, wait for a meeting where someone is announced as DFed or reproved, start a slow clap, stand up and keep up the applause while walking all the way out of the KH. Will never happen since we only go to Memorials now.

om