humbled

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Posts by humbled

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  52

  Theists - does your god DESERVE to be respected or worshipped?

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  or should she abdicate for lack of action / leadership?.

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  humbled

  I like your post, snare-- It is something I've been thinking about.
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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

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  humbled

  (I'll know soon if the PVC fix holds up.Good fun. All muddy, but no water to clean up with.....)

  Adamah--Not a "he" here. I ain't so young, but still-- I's a female the last I looked.

  But to finish--

  I suppose I am not a-- Christian, maybe not a believer. I can't say either the Nicene or Apostle's Creed without so many asterisks as to make a credo meaningless.

  Cofty, It is immaterial to me whether Jesus was raised from the dead or whether he is going to rule over all things. What he taught, the jist of it --including the non-canonical gospels that have surfaced, is about love--and, yes the Golden Rule which allows self-love to reflexively teach anyone fundamental fairness.

  The stuff that came after, the doctrines and rules, I don't believe he wanted that. It is slavery.

  I do not know if I believe that Jesus has the power rule the natural elements, I don't know if he is alive in the way Christian doctrine teaches. But I still follow his teachings because I have a strong sense that he lives in a sense through his teaching--(I couldn't say his "spirit" was alive , could I?)--so I'll take my chances --even if he were really going to judge me.

  Because the need for love and fairness is pretty much universal, it makes me wonder if THAT is not the "kingdom of god" Jesus is said to have preached--. Was Jesus reaching toward a Good that was hard to apprehend--even for himself? Did he realize a god (or Good it says in the gospel of Mary) that didn't fit the picture of the OT Jehovah? "He makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous."

  I would feel really foolish saying these things if I didn't already know what a shambles the theologians have made of the Jesus story. And God.

  I pray sometimes even if I don't know for sure if who or what is there. Even if Jesus is dead as a door-nail, he had the right ideas.

  Jesus neither sent nor failed to prevent the tsunami.

  Love and fairness is our problem to deal with ourselves.

  Edit: Water working again! Nightmare over
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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

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  humbled

  Cofty, I am glad you brought up the Golden Rule.It is foundational to virtually all cultures in all ages. Not even original to Jesus or the Jews.

  The god of theism has trouble fitting into the skin of Jesus. It was an uncomfortable fit for Jesus as well.

  I suppose I am not a-------------(sorry gotta stop here , pipe brokewater spewing. will finish later. It froze.
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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

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  humbled

  You said it true, EdenOne: no one can answer for God in the matter of suffering.

  Even the one OT story comparable to the disaster of the tsunami (of the OT God showing mercy and giving warning before a (possibly?natural) disaster) was the Jonah story.

  But in this case God sent a man to warn the bloody Ninevites of impending doom unless they repented. But even though in that solitary episode when God's mercy outshone Jonah's, the account only confounds us in the present discussion.

  Jonah who wantedthe city destroyed, has God reprove him saying,"And for my part, ought I not to feel sorry for Nineveh the great city, in which there exist more than one hundred and twenty thousand men who do not at all know the difference between their right hand and their left, besides many domestic animals?"

  Why didn't God do it Boxing day 2004?

  The stories in the OT do not add up to a coherent whole so why wouldn't I struggle with the NT sories that people tell me grew out of it?

  Eden, I personally have this dilemma: without buying any of the dogmas attached to Christianity, I still confess my own experience of Jesus' life that made a new person of me. I was "saved"--but without any hope of heaven. I was saved in a practical and real way that has given me and, by extension,those around me a better life. Jesus rose above the OT dogma.

  Cofty, You have done me (maybe others) a service forcing a hard look at our biases. But I hope you allow that having established that the OT God teachings do not add up to anything you can hang a hat on you will allow that there still is the intrinsic need for love and fairness.

  The universal currency of love and fairness is so imbedded that it is the cause of the outrage on this thread...

  Where does that currency come from? I wish you would frame a thread along that line, cofty.
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  19

  i finally had "the truth" talk with the hubby

  by monis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been inactive for a couple of years.

  he has too, but wants to go back.

  he has never researched anything about jws.

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  humbled

  Let him marinate as someone else suggested.

  And after a while ask him what have been some trying moments or troubling issues that seemed to conflict with his conscience. There will have been some--we just were taught to repress them.

  Gently encourage the loving part of him to bond with you and the generous feelings that the WT represses in us:justice, openness, good fun, etc.

  All the best!
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  65

  How Cold is it Where You Are?

  by PYRAMIDSCHEME in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with the polar vortex swirling further and further south and breaking records how cold is it where you are?.

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  here in gettysburg pa last night night we hit a low of -4 degrees but we were blessed with some wind that dropped the wind chill down to -22..

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  humbled

  It's the southern part of the U.S. where I live. N.W. Arkansas. The past few nights were in the single digits for us.

  One of our water lines froze.

  Our red hen was so cold that she sat down at my feet when I fed them yesterday. I took her in by the wood stove and warmed her. That evening she reported in for an overnight bed in the house. When the rooster saw her this morning he warmed himself with some hot chicken-love as soon as her feet hit the ground.

  SHEESH! Not cold enough to stop some things.....

  It's 23 f. now. Looking for it to get above freezing today.
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  67

  marriage without affection/sex/touching

  by zeb in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  yes thats my situation.

  some where along the path of life the wt guilt trip was dumped on our marriage and we havent had sex for years.. anyone else?

  the hearts and flowers and gifts and doing the cleaning, the house work and paying the daily accounts never being drunk on drugs playing the horses or screwing others yep its all there but nothing coming back due to the wt guilt trip.. they made so much of 'oral sex' and 'pornea' incorrectly quoted at that and ventured thereby into areas they were patently very ill equipped to comment on.

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  humbled

  TD--
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  31

  Where else is there to go?

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i left the jw's, close friends and some elders discussed my desicion with me,without fail they all concluded the same thing.... "but where else is there to go?!".

  at the time, the question just confused me, i could not see why it confused me or the very telling nature of such a comment.

  i never thought that once.. firstly, this indicates that many jw's remain jw's simply because of this tunnel vision perspective... everything in their periphery is valueless, but the wt on which they focus is everthing.

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  humbled

  Right on, Snare,

  So many remarks in OP reflected the last comments the elders had for me--and I didn't have an answer. I just knew that shutting down one's conscience was spiritual death any way...

  Good to review the fear that used to govern our 'choices' inside the Halls of so called "Truth"--

  Maeve
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  67

  marriage without affection/sex/touching

  by zeb in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  yes thats my situation.

  some where along the path of life the wt guilt trip was dumped on our marriage and we havent had sex for years.. anyone else?

  the hearts and flowers and gifts and doing the cleaning, the house work and paying the daily accounts never being drunk on drugs playing the horses or screwing others yep its all there but nothing coming back due to the wt guilt trip.. they made so much of 'oral sex' and 'pornea' incorrectly quoted at that and ventured thereby into areas they were patently very ill equipped to comment on.

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  humbled

  I've been married 38 years, my husband is 19 years older than I am. I was a JW for 22 years. He and I have 7 children.

  We have had PLENTY of trouble in our marriage. But I think it wrong to use sex as a weapon in marriage. If troubles are not being dealt with and you need to address them--don't withhold sex and think you will maake a point.

  I had a legal separation from my husband--no sex then, of course. The matters we had to deal with went beyond sex.

  I know non-JW couples who do not have sex. It causes a level of tension and sadness. They work together and are admirable in many ways--but in all three cases the women have shut it down.

  I think it is fair to say that even if a woman is not "into it" that much(and maybe more especially)a man appreciates/needs your gift.--Get a bottle of scotch or some wine and say "Welcome home, baby" and turn off the lights.
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  67

  How Long Have You Been Viewing Thiis Site? Does It Serve Its Purpose For You?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been here forever.... this site still gives us some of the most up to date info about jws .

  it keeps evolving.

  sometimes it is the place to be and i think that's especially true for newbies.

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  humbled

  Approaching 4 years. I joined the moment I found the site. I never looked for information outside the Borg until I divorced the WBTS for unreconcilable differences.

  My first name here was Not a Captive.

  No internet for @ two years, then, much humbled, I reappeared as Humbled.

  The people on this site have nursed me through many different phases. I have learned and explored through discussions here. I have researched and read. I have thought and lived through so much since leaving the soul-bruising WT. And I have said things here that were hard to say, things hard to admit.

  I love this community. Yes, I do.

  Maeve Courteau