Posts by Open mind

59

New to this site. Scared, Lonely and in a lot of pain due to shunning by my family.

by wonder*woman in

jw
friends

this is my very first post to this forum.

i am begging for some much needed encouragment and support by those who are kind hearted and know exactly the pain shunning causes.

i am a 30 year old former jehovah's witness and a mother of two beautiful girls.

Open mind

((((( wonder woman )))))

You're among friends here.

What a beautiful, painful first post.

Wishing you strength on your path.

om

8

Stop bashing Awake! (You just might be making it better.)

by Open mind in

the august 2011 awake!

contains the most secular article i've ever read in this magazine.

it's entitled "ibn battuta reveals his world".

Open mind

james-woods: "can we be sure this was not copied word for word from some un-named source?"

Anything's possible, but I doubt this is very likely. Now re-writing and paraphrasing? Oh yeah.

InterestedOne: "I have always wondered if they watch this site and pull ideas from it."

Plenty of threads have been done on this topic. At minimum, someone (perhaps a paid non-JW 3rd party provider) keeps an eye out for copyright infringements and WT has taken legal actions to protect their rights. It's also pretty easy for a non-believing poster here to make a casual comment to a well-connected COBOE who talks to a CO who talks to the Branch. Enough CO reports pile up and even the bloated bureaucracy that is Watchtower may slowly make a change. Just not big enough or fast enough, IMO.

om

8

Stop bashing Awake! (You just might be making it better.)

by Open mind in

the august 2011 awake!

contains the most secular article i've ever read in this magazine.

it's entitled "ibn battuta reveals his world".

Open mind

The August 2011 Awake! contains the most secular article I've ever read in this magazine. It's entitled "Ibn Battuta Reveals His World". The three page article reads like it could easily have come straight out of National Geographic for Kids. It's a biographical essay about a 14th century Muslim man whose claim to fame was traveling. He racked up 75,000 miles during his lifetime, "a feat unequaled before the age of steam".

The first thing I did when glancing through this article was to jump to the final paragraph looking for the usual JW sales pitch. It wasn't there. Next I scanned for scriptural references. Not a single one. My interest now peaked, I actually began reading the article slowly and carefullly. (Yuck, I know.) 99.5% of the article shows no bias in favor of the Bible, Christianity and certainly not JWs. Nor does it bash Islam one iota. Only one little word betrayed the providence of this article as being the Watchtower Writing Department. Here's the quote. See if you see the same thing.

*************************
"On his way to Jerusalem and its Dome of the Rock shrine, he stopped at Bethlehem, where he noted the veneration that professed Christians gave to Jesus' birthplace."
*************************

Professed? That's right. Per WT dogma, by the 14th Century "true" Christians pretty much didn't exist anymore.

But hey, other than that tiny little bit of deeply veiled self-promotion, this article was about as neutral and secular as anyone could ask for.

I'd love to hear anyone else's review. Also, I'd love to hear ideas about how or why an article like this made it into Awake!

om

p.s. I'm sure the article is available to anyone on Watchtower.org

54

JW's who remain in the organisation but try to reform it - pissing against the wind

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

i came across a website that presents decent argumentation against three main areas of jw doctrine.. http://jwreform.org/index.html.

who do these people think they are?

do they really believe that the wts will sit up and take notice of their objections?

Open mind

One of my relatives who is soon to become an Elder disagrees. He's going to be a force for change within the local BOE.

Ah to be young, idealistic and full of head-beating-against-a-wall energy again.

*sigh*

p.s. I've carefully tried to demonstrate the futility of his plan, but to no avail.

54

Growing up a Jehovah's Witness - New Video

by jwfacts in

i have put together a video - growing up a jehovah's witness 1960 -2010. it aims to show the things a witnesses would be taught as they age over those decades.

it is 15 minutes long.

this is my first attempt at a video and it took a while to work out how to use final cut, so please feel free to make suggestions if anything should be changed.

Open mind

Just got time to finally see this.

Excellent job.

There were a couple quotes I hadn't seen before. Possibly "billions" will die at Armageddon. Straight from the Watchtower.

"...billions of lives may shortly come to a swift and decisive end." Watchtower, 1965, April 1, page 212.

I'm going to add that one to my repertoire for the next time a JW apologist tries to tell me that "Jehovah is the judge" and that we don't know that he's going to slaughter "billions" at Armageddon. Yeah, well, the Watchtower specifically said that "billions" being destroyed is a distinct possibility. Gotta love a God like that. If you don't He'll kill you. Sieg Hiel.

Thanks again for all your hard work.

om

39

Tying Your Shoes With Modesty and Soundness of Mind

by Franklin Massey in

jw
friends

the lack of intellectually stimulating material within the jw religion right now is astounding.

there is clearly a lack of spiritually dense material and a surplus of ridiculous, childish babble.

the regular "food" that jws are being fed is illustratively equivalent to pureed baby food.

Open mind

FM said: "I also heard that the Ian Knot was first developed in the homosexual community"

I think you're getting it confused with pastel colored dress shirts.

om

125

Once again I say goodbye

by mouthy in

jw
friends

i find the board is getting very unfriendly of late.

used to be great to be aboard.

but the snipping that so many.

Open mind

Hey, if we take up a collection and buy you a ticket to Tom Jones' next show will you stay?

I will miss your presence here Grace, but do what you need to.

Best regards,

om

39

Tying Your Shoes With Modesty and Soundness of Mind

by Franklin Massey in

jw
friends

the lack of intellectually stimulating material within the jw religion right now is astounding.

there is clearly a lack of spiritually dense material and a surplus of ridiculous, childish babble.

the regular "food" that jws are being fed is illustratively equivalent to pureed baby food.

Open mind

Tying Shoes Together in Unity

Dear Brothers,

The Branch has received reports from the field that in certain areas of the country, some of our brothers have adopted a method of shoe tying that is different than the majority of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is known as the "Ian Knot" and we provide the following video link in case you are not familiar with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OazKbYP7Sd0

Apparently, some brothers eagerly embraced this new method of shoe tying, reasoning that since it only takes one second to tie, that would leave them even more time available to advance Kingdom interests. Sadly, this line of reasoning does not reflect the "wisdom from above" for a number of reasons.

Pride. Ian, the knot's namesake, whoever he may be, could easily succumb to an exaggerated opinion of himself should this knot become widely used among the friends. Would it really be worth putting his spiritual well-being at risk just to save yourself a few seconds each day?

Unity. Although more and more of our brothers have internet access, many do not. How will those who cannot afford access to this video feel when they are not able to master the knot as well as the more affluent members of the congregation?

For the sake of the unity of the worldwide brotherhood as well as the spiritual health of anyone named Ian, it is best if those in positions of oversight strongly discourage its continued use. Should an exemplary brother or sister continue to use the knot after receiving repeated, loving counsel to stop, they would no longer qualify for any privileges of service within the congregation.

Please accept our warm Christian love,

The Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

p.s. (Your shoe's untied!)