Posts by dungbeetle

60

My interview with Jehovah's Witnesses

by Danni in

jw
friends

i know i said i wouldn't post here again because of the way i made everyone upset over alanf,but i thought you all might want to know what took place and i do need some advice.. .

yesterday i took a little time out to talk with jehovah's witnesses.

at first they were more than happy to answer my questions.

dungbeetle

>"I know I said I wouldn't post here again because of the way I made everyone upset over AlanF,but I thought you all might want to know what took place and I do need some advice."<

Why would you want to stop posting here just because some of us got upset about you telling a stranger to 'go get psychiatric help', which I considered inapapropriate in the circumstance, and it was only my personal opinion anyway, and many of us have personally MET AlanF, and he says he doesn't take offense half as much as some of the rest of us did on his behalf!!!!! <pant pant>

You gotta love this internet discussion board thang, huh!!!

Anyway, back on topic----you go Danni!!!!!!

What they usually wind up doing is throwing bible scriptures at you like they do at the meetings. "Now turn with me to Genesis, now turn with me to Revelation, and so on, not giving you a chance to catch your breath. What to do about that I don't know.

here's something for you: at the kingdom hall, a young boy can carry a microphone. a girl cannot. why? To me, if they forbid a girl from carrying a microphone, they should forbid a girl to clean the kingdom hall toilets as well.

Why can a 13 year old boy get up and give A BIBLE READING but a woman with a college education, advanced teaching credentials, and ten years on the writing staff at Bethel not get up and just READ THE BIBLE? Even sitting down,, she can't do it?

These are the kinds of questions they have no answer for, other than "that's just the way we do things'. Any interview with a Jehovah's Witness should be follwed with:

WHY DOES THIS NOT FEEL WRONG TO YOU? And then walk away.

I've seen it work a hundred times at least.

Hee hee.

(((((Danni))))

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

12

JW Child Labor--Prince v. Massachusetts

by JAVA in

jw
friends

while doing some research, i came across a united states supreme court case the society lost in 1944 on the topic of child labor.

the two paragraphs below are from, odd gods, new religions & the cult controversy, edited by james r. lewis, prometheus books, new york, 2001, pp.

78-9.. "one of the earliest cases involving children in a religious setting was prince v. massachusetts (1944).

dungbeetle

There is such a need, in my opinion, for a website just for this. JW and the law.

There is such a need to counter the assinine claim they make about "getting rights for everybody". Yeah, right.

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

19

Blood Or Shunning - Which Bugs You More?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

i'm curious about this.

it would appear that active jw's who have reservations about the societies teachings, are usually doubtful about the prohibition of accepting a blood transfusion.

oddly, few seem to have any qualms about the shunning policy whilst they are still associating.

dungbeetle

I really wish that if someone makes a post directed at certain individuals, that they would, in the beginning, just SAY so....

Sister Cygnus...I don't measure my worth as a human being or the value and quality of my life as fractions of a number. Just as I don't measure other human beings by the number of hours of field service or meeting attendance, or the degree of agreement they express with Watchtower doctrine. Not anymore, anyway I HOPE....

I don't need to 'ask' COMF about Hepatitis C...I can go to this site just as one example:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/fact.htm

there are many more like this. Besides which, my husband has been diagnosed with it. Every morning before my feet hit the floor, I look over to the other side of the bed and I am reminded of this dreaded 'new' plague spreading like wildfire through the American population, (twice as many have it as AIDS) and the tremendous social and financial burden it already presents to the American public that will only get greater if we can't do SOMETHING about it. Write your Congresspersons, folks!!!!!

What I get from Englishman's thread and the postings here is the issue of CHOICE...as a JW I have no CHOICE about refusing blood...I HAVE to do it or my life is ****.

I AM a trained medical person, thank you very much.

True blue JW supporters like You Know and his type get disturbed by people like me because we prove the Watchtower wrong---there are many people who make personal CHOICES about things that are similar to JW's, without all the biblical mumbo jumbo they spout. Come on, how many times have we heard it.."Jehovah's Witnesses are the only ones who...(pick one)." <gag> <choke>

btw, Sister Cygnus,how could people live for up to twenty years with Hepatitis C when the virus was not identified until 1989 and the test for it wasn't licensed until 1990?

I hope you are right, tho.

Englishman, I hope you get some responses from your INTENDED audience.

Good topic, I think.

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

37

"Stupid...Hateful..Evil.."?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

at first glance, most people would say that there are lots of very good jws around.

ok, we reason, maybe they are a little misguided, but most of them mean well.

we particularly like to think that way about our friends and loved ones who are in the organisation, we dont want to regard them as being unkind and uncaring.

dungbeetle

I totally agree with the E-man here. Even in the bible, God saved family members along with the righteous ones. God is the one who set up the family structure (biblically speaking) and JW's are willing to chose a group of old men in brooklyn over their families.

The hard part about sitting through these meetings, is hearing about 'the faitfula nd discreet slave' over and over again. This presents 2 problems...

1) a group of old men in Brooklyn do not constitute 'the fds' to me. I need evidence that these increasing number of partakers actually are in agreement with all these ridiculous polices. You would think it was obvious they were----but is it so?

2) the Borg itself has admitted that more and more non-anointed are climbing up the ranks. What constitutes the FDS---50%, 60% anointed?

So the idea of choosing this 'arrangement' over your children and parents is worse than ridiculous. It's inhuman and over the course of the last year, my sympathy for anyone except the most elderly of JW's is eroding faster and faster.

One thing is for sure----it's a lot easier sometimes to become a Jehovah's Witness than to try and help the ones who already are. Believe me, I know.

just my 1/2 cents worth...

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

20

MY MUMS IS DIEING O F CANCER?

by mark smith in

jw
friends

my mums in hospital in nottingham england she is a current jw and has stomach cancer.she is a lovley mum but has been brain washed not to have the blood so they left the opp to build her up.

because she would need blood during the opp if she is weak she will die on the opp table.but she has got worse and weaker so now am losing my mum through waiting.she would have had a chance.

but now it looks like she has 2 weeks of life left.why???

dungbeetle

I was just about to ask if there was anybody there that could give telephone or even in-person support. Leeelder beat me to it...(((leeelder))).

I wish you the best with your mother dear. You both are in my prayers.

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

4

Stange Bedfellows

by Carmel in

jw
friends

after reading dear yo yo mudda's question about whether or not each of us is df'd and for what reason, i was at first thoroughly pissed off at someone making such and inquiry.

after reading the other responses, it was clear my angst was shared by many.

i began to think how similiar yo yo's demeanor is to old yk.. naw, couldn't be.

dungbeetle

I've been wondering about that myself since day one.

Things that make you go hmmmmmm.

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

99

Farewell to all

by Amazing in

jw
friends

i already said farewell in my apology post to julie.

but many of you may not have read it since it was specific to her.. i was planning a long farewell statement because i have a number of things i want to share, but decided i would do that in private if anyone wishes.

you can reach me at [email protected].. i chose to leave for a number of reasons, and some stated on my last post.

dungbeetle

I was so angry over this whole thing, this is the first time I've been able to post since my second 'elders' culpability thread.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=18081&site=3

I must admit, reading over Joelbear's post, I got to thinking about the 'black and white' mindset that many of us here on the board came from. I too have to be careful not to fall back into that, and sometimes I have more success than I do at other times.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=19051&site=3

But one thing I know, although the debate started out about JW's and elders and culpability, it ended up being about what people THOUGHT about the issue. I learned a lot about what people felt while they were in this organization.

And mostly I learned I that I was not alone. Indeed, that I had never been alone.

Amazing's behavior disappointed me, too. I admired him very much--- But I still do. After a lot of time (whatever a 'lot' is)out of the org, we can all forget how much damage the Watchtower has done, and we can distance ourselves from that and forget we had anything to do with it. I know some of us (perhaps Amazing too?) got a reality check...."hello..these things really happened, we really had a part in this". He admitted he was surprised by the board's reactions, and so was I.

And lastly, I can appreciate and respect someone and disagree with something they say. I do it to msil all the time! And he to me!!! I can dislike someone and have no respect for them, but be in agreement with something they say.

And really, this multi thread 'discussion' is NOTHING compared to some of the stuff I saw on the H20 archives. And you say that was heavily MODERATED? Yi yi yi...

Can we all just get along? I think we can. I think we do.

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

49

Brief Explanation

by joelbear in

jw
friends

my path needs to be revamped.. i do plan to have a serious discussion with elders and attend the kingdom hall.

where that will lead, time will tell.. i am not leaving mitch.

even if i did become a jehovah's witness and celibate again he would love me just the same and i him.. you cannot become ungay.

dungbeetle

I always think of JW.COM as a M*A*S*H unit--meatball surgery. We patch up and throw things together as best we can because we are injured ourselves.

I've done the JW bashing as well. I REFUSE to believe they are the victims everyone says they are, but I do not believe they are as 'evil' as the Watchtower says we are.

Joel, you make a distinction between those who commit heinous acts, and those who harbor them. Other people make no distinction. Neither is whooly right or wholly wrong, in my opinion; there is a place for each end of the opinion spectrum and good work is getting done by both sides.

When you look at the anger and the frustration, and then look at all the work getting done by both sides...it is truly a modern-day miracle!! But it comes with a price. A price we all are willing to pay.

Kisses, darling.

I wish you well, dearest.

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

9

Send a gift, or no?

by ashitaka in

jw
friends

an old friend is getting married this year.

best friend, actually.

but at one time, we talked about each other being the other's best man at our weddings.

dungbeetle

It's always safe to send a card----with your email address.

If he respnds positively to that, cool. If not, then you haven't wasted a gift.

You can send him a photo of your wedding...just a friendly reminder.

Tough situation, sorry for ya.

((((ashi)))

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"

17

Devaluing People

by Magog in

jw
friends

is it possible that when we see posters get upset, and then leave, that they feel devalued by the group?.

when we leave the witnesses, are we not devalued as apostates by those who remain witnesses, some of whom are lifelong friends?.

could it be when we find a place like this, we discover again that we are valued, so that anything threatening that sense of belonging hurts too much as a reminder of our exit from the witnesses?.

dungbeetle

Just thinking what a sub-group we are here....

1) Jehovah's witnesses,
2) JW"s who are now (mostly) ex-jw's
3)ex-jw's with computers
4)ex-jw's with computers who are online
5) ex-jw's online who come to discussion boards
6) ex-jw's on discussion boards who lurk, then post

then when you add to that the ones willing to do research, do web-pages, travel to apostofests, and on and on, it gets really specialized.

You see what kind of person it takes to be here in the first place. I think a lot of us here are really very sensitive individuals who feel very strongly our beliefs and emotions..thus the coming and going.

But at least they are ABLE to come, and to go. They/we do have choices. That is something.

((((( Simon and Mrs. Simon))))

In 1975 a crack team of publishers was sentenced to death by a judicial commiteee. They promptly escaped from the cult and now live life on the run. If you have a problem ... and if you can find them ... maybe you can contact the A--postate Team"