Posts by OnTheWayOut

27

Do you still go to meetings?

by NikL in

jw
friends

as i was sitting in the meeting last night i thought about this question.. sometimes it feels really lonely because i don't connect with most others in the congregation and i have to be so careful with the ones with whom i do associate.. quick rundown on my life...got baptized at 17...married at 20...became inactive at 28 wife still active though...came back to meetings with her 20 years later just to keep her quiet and see if they had changed (for a while i actually thought they had)...now i am still inactive and haven't gone out in service or anything.

i just go to meetings with my wife who is happy as a lark to have me there with her...just go to meetings and think...and think...and think.... anyway, i just wondered if there are any out there like me who are going to meetings and nothing else?.

OnTheWayOut

I have an active JW wife, but I just cannot go, will not go.

I faded out quickly 10 years ago, went to a Memorial as my last "regular attendance" meeting. Went to the Memorial one year later and have since been to a couple of funeral services at the hall.

I went to my father-in-law's funeral service at a Kingdom Hall this year. I mean- I want to be able to show my wife that I am reasonable and fair, that my reasons for not going regularly are not like her superstition of stepping into a church. Except for the closest family, I wouldn't even go for a funeral, though.

Take it for what it's worth, but I wouldn't go regularly to make my wife "happy as a lark to have me there with her." My wife regularly goes to different Kingdom Halls, supposedly to accommodate her other events in life, but I believe it's partly because her assigned congregation knows me and that they make her feel poor that I am not there with her. It's her misery to choose to go, I let her have it. I would rather go do anything else.

138

Jehovah God is Real

by TakeOffTheCrown in

there are many on this site that do not believe that jehovah truly exists; that he is not a real being.

but, he is as real as next breath you draw into your nostrils.. some of you say that there is no evidence that he exists.

yet, none of you can prove that he does not exits.. cofty, (you come to mind), i appreciate that you have stated, without reservation, that you do not believe that god exists.. yet, you cannot prove it.. hope in jehovah..

OnTheWayOut

Hope in:

Zeus
Jupiter
Odin
Ra
Marduk
Durga
Izanagi

I could go on. Yours is just one on a long list of gods.

45

Why Did JWs Abandon Brooklyn for the Sticks?

by Room 215 in

i may have missed this, but can anyone tell me what was the pretext the gb concocted to justify their abandonment of a perfectly suitable, high-profile, high-visibility complex in what is arguably the world's greatest metropolis for the bucolic isolation of upstate new york.

any how does the move square with their purported belief in the imminence of armageddon?

.

OnTheWayOut

Selling it to the rank and file was mostly telling them that being in NYC is bad when things like 9/11 happen.

I imagine hardly anyone considered how a cult compound needs to be isolated.

12

Taking up a Cause

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

so recently, my jw wife asks me if i ever considered taking up a cause.it was a question out of the blue, coming off of a discussion about politics.

so while it was unsaid, she was really getting at whether i was considering being politically active in some way.. i already have a standard answer that i have used before with other people, so i said it.

"no, i will be content to work and get by then retire and sit in the sun with a good book and a cold water.

OnTheWayOut

Replies on page 2:
LongHairGal- Okay, so you give me more to add to my answer.
"No, I will be content to work and get by then retire and sit in the sun with a good book and a cold water. Other than random acts of kindness and helping out in a crisis or disaster, no specific causes for me. I picked up a specific cause once before, and I was so deeply involved in it, really thought it was important and put so much of myself into it, but it turned out that I was SO WRONG. I don't want to do that again."

JRK- Okay, I could go that route too.
"Well, I am involved in a cause. I am spreading peace and love and rock 'n roll, one concert at a time."

25

Jehovah God Is Not Real

by Onager in

there are many of us on this site that do not believe that jehovah truly exists.. i think this is a great and wonderful thing to be celebrated!

i'd like people to list the reasons why they do not believe that jehovah exists.

this is open to all, not just atheists or agnostics, but anyone that believes that the god as put forward by jw.org does not and can not be real.. i'll start: .

OnTheWayOut

The Indonesian Tsunami is a huge reason why Jehovah must not be there.

SImply make it not happen, that's all he had to do. Instead, tens of thousands (if not One Hundred thousand) children torn away from parents and killed for nothing. There's no lesson for survivors there, and the pain is too great upon parents if someone comes up with a reason for such terrible suffering.

19

Looking for a bit of advice in a difficult situation

by Oversteer in

jw
friends

i'm looking for a bit of guidance here and not really sure where to turn.

maybe someone has been in a similar situation and can help me out.. currently i'm an awake, baptized jw.

have been for a few years.

OnTheWayOut

This is a quagmire. You are willing to break the JW rules, but the person receiving the gift is not. If you told the doctors in secret that you are willing to have blood, should it be needed, they still know your sibling is not willing. You leave them in a bad place- "try not to give you blood, and don't say anything if you do have to, and yet still risk the recipient's life."

If your sibling is not 100% with you, willing to just shut out other people from knowing that either of you will take blood if needed, then I would suggest you just walk away from it. I wouldn't even bother to find out if I was compatible, as that just gives your sibling more to report to the elders- that you went so far in pressuring them as to even see if it could be done. I might do it on the low down- ask the doctors to determine if I am compatible without telling my sibling, fully explaining the stupid JW thing. Your sibling could change their mind, but I doubt it.

I know a life is involved, but it's their choice.

12

Taking up a Cause

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

so recently, my jw wife asks me if i ever considered taking up a cause.it was a question out of the blue, coming off of a discussion about politics.

so while it was unsaid, she was really getting at whether i was considering being politically active in some way.. i already have a standard answer that i have used before with other people, so i said it.

"no, i will be content to work and get by then retire and sit in the sun with a good book and a cold water.

OnTheWayOut

My replies:
out4good4: "Whatever the hell I want" is definitely part of the plan. I got about 10.5 years to go.

OneEyedJoe: glad to help. I thought on that for quite awhile before coming up with the right explanation.

stillin: I am with you on the "already gave" part. Not so much with the "felt good to..." part. Oh, at the time, I felt good. But my angle is that I feel bad about putting so much into something I was wrong about, so maybe never again.

slimboyfat: one never knows. My wife's "service" is token at best. She may find some things more worthy of her time and I will support any effort to do good that is not part of religious recruitment.

kairos: sitting in the sun is kind of a zen/mantra thing. Everyone seek inner peace before spreading your message through any other cause.

Dagney: great thoughts. If "they" are going to criticize any good cause I take up, then I might actually take up a worthy cause just to rub it in their faces. But probably not. I like the freedom to not bother.

Nihilistic Journey: I have considered food trucks for the hungry and the like. Maybe one day I will have a passion like yours.

Darkknight757: I like the RAC thing- Should be RAK, but anyway- I have done some of that. No commitment, just a kind deed here and there. I may add that to my answer.

12

Taking up a Cause

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

so recently, my jw wife asks me if i ever considered taking up a cause.it was a question out of the blue, coming off of a discussion about politics.

so while it was unsaid, she was really getting at whether i was considering being politically active in some way.. i already have a standard answer that i have used before with other people, so i said it.

"no, i will be content to work and get by then retire and sit in the sun with a good book and a cold water.

OnTheWayOut

So recently, my JW wife asks me if I ever considered taking up a cause.

It was a question out of the blue, coming off of a discussion about politics. So while it was unsaid, she was really getting at whether I was considering being politically active in some way.

I already have a standard answer that I have used before with other people, so I said it.

"No, I will be content to work and get by then retire and sit in the sun with a good book and a cold water. That's it. No causes for me. I picked up a cause once before, and I was so deeply involved in it, really thought it was important and put so much of myself into it, but it turned out that I was SO WRONG. I don't want to do that again."

That really threw her for a loop. But she gathered herself together and came back with a good zinger.
"Some people help animals or children. You don't want to do that?"

"Well, that's a nice thought. I suppose there are many causes that are virtually impossible to be wrong about. If anything really gets me started with a passion, maybe if something happens in my life to really effect me, I will consider taking up a cause. But it would have to be a sure thing that facts cannot show to be the wrong cause."

Not an earth-shattering topic, I know. But that's the only progress I manage with my JW wife these days. Just as I don't have a passion for a cause, I don't have a passion for arguments about so many issues. I am not even standing up for liberalness and atheism on the internet that much these days.

14

My funniest stand up JW Jokes so far

by usualusername1 in

jw
friends

in the last couple of months, i have been practising my stand up.

so far these are my best jokes:.

not celebrating birthdays and christmas has saved me so much money.

OnTheWayOut

I like that last one. Ba-da-bing!

8

Was pyramidology a distraction to hide Russell's true source?

by Crazyguy in

russell was big in to the pyramid at giza but i'm trying to understand his line of thinking?

in the early 1840s and author by the name of john aquila brown wrote a book called the even-tide.

in his book he lays out the times of the end and his ideas on the book of daniel.

OnTheWayOut

Charles Russell and his father were heavily influenced by Millerites. I believe that they believed, at least Charles seemed to. He really seemed sure of Nelson Barbour's thoughts that the end of the world would arrive in 1878. He sold his businesses and heavily financed Barbour and 1878 came and went.

Russell went his own way and started the Watchtower Society.

So your guess is as good as mine on whether he still believed in the end of the world coming and pyramids pointing the way, or if he was just trying to be in the business of selling Watchtower printed material to make up for losing so much money.