humbled

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Posts by humbled

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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

  Along these lines of thought, Jgnat, Apog, Miss.fit and DJS,

  Dr. Tyson in a conversation with Bill Moyers this past month spoke of the unfortunate necessity of appointing a "name" for phenomena before science knows exactly what a particular phenomenon consist of--Before they know what a thing actually IS. The naming of it presents into the minds of the less knowledgable layman a misleading expectation/description of what may actually constitute thing so named:Black Hole, dark matter were a few(if memory serves).

  A problem in discussing GOD also has to do with the problem of naming a perception many of us have of a thing that draws us like gravitational force. How can we talk about that sense of the unseen and inexpressible THING(possibility? unknown-or-unknowable?) and how it relates to searching for, needing, and improving on what is good? To name it is to create prejudice in the minds of ---all of us--laymen all in the matter.

  Personally, to ignore a pull that is as strong as gravity seems as wrong as those who in scripture and theology may have invented "GOD" definitions and attributes out of ignorance.

  Maeve

  and,speaking of gravity--Where does it come from? why does it work? Science says it is a mystery yet.
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  43

  Private meetings banned??

  by franticfran in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have just spoken to a brother who is part of a group of single brothers and sisters who meet together once a week to discuss bible topics and he has been told by and elder that the organisation "banned" these private meetings years ago.

  i told him i remember that article but he is adamant that the society would never do that (!

  ) now i am fairly sure i remember that article whether it was in a km or one of the mags i cant recall but i am sure i remember them saying we needed nothing more than the food that the slave class provided (another means to control us),does anyone have the details of that article because i have said i will find it and let him have it.

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  humbled

  First thing I was asked when a CO had an interview with me about a burdensome matter I had researched for some years."Have you been meeting with others? Is that why you have this concern?"

  It seemed a strange line of inquirey then. But I got to understand how nervous the Org. is/was about independent study. especially in groups.
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  123

  Imagine A World Where Being "Gay" The Norm & Being "Straight" Would Be The Minority!

  by Dis-Member in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  imagine a world where being "gay" the norm & being "straight" would be the minority!

  [short film].. .

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnojgdw0gpi.

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  humbled

  (Sorry, double post :>)
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  123

  Imagine A World Where Being "Gay" The Norm & Being "Straight" Would Be The Minority!

  by Dis-Member in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  imagine a world where being "gay" the norm & being "straight" would be the minority!

  [short film].. .

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnojgdw0gpi.

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  humbled

  I'm heterosexual. A woman. I am more than a vagina. Or breasts.

  There is more to the attraction between males and females than the orifices we have, Moomanchu.

  The attractions between people have to be more than how they have sex.

  When we are very young or very, very old, sex is not the powerful force it is in the times between. But attractions and affections are present whether we are young, too young for sex or old, too old to do much. But we still love who we love.

  It is not about this hole or that. It is in our brains, our hearts, if you will.
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  10

  Laughing with Mrs Brown & the Mormons

  by clarity in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  tgif ........ here are some laughs for friday nite.

  at home.

  enjoy!.

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  humbled

  I'm showing a string ofMrs. Brown to my husband tonight. What a hoot!

  Thanks for the laughs, Clarity.
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  44

  edx-Course --> Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul

  by fastJehu in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  link to the course: https://www.edx.org/course/harvardx/harvardx-hds1544-1x-early-christianity-927.

  intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rj3nxoyt7k.

  it's my first time for a edx-course and i will try "early christianity: the letters of paul".

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  humbled

  Putting Jesus in a Harvard class room with Paul is the same problem Jesus might have figured when he was sawing boards with his papa---as soon as your beliefs were subject to the approval of your "betters" you were skinned.

  Saying that are attributed to Jesus the carpenter showed up in more places than the NT would lead you to believe. But THE CHURCH wouldn't tolerate them. The writings were burned whenever the church could find them. And the Church persecuted and killed those who valued the writings

  That Paul was a resurrection-believing Pharisee pushed the NT's emphasis on Jesus being raised and the promise that salvation=resurrection. Resurrection=salvation as the center of the NT epistles is the tragedy of Christiaity-- a tragedy in our times.

  The teachings that were banned in the early church were in the gospels that the churchfathers burned.

  Theology is the whip in the hands of the "learned" once more. Priests and scribes--don't people wait to hear God speak through them?

  On the other hand, having a teacher of goodness, love and forgiveness--well, this brave teaching is good and well conveyed by folk to simple folk. Without a priest.

  To my thinking, a salvation that relies primarily on having the perfect "Credo" impeccably memorized has long allowed "Christians" to enslave, and kill, steal, etc. The salvation that was earthier, imo, is the one that doesn't looks to living with kindness NOW.

  Paul got into the early church and --even if with good intentions--really subverted the beauty and the accessability of Jesus' teachings.
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  33

  "Salvation" By Langston Hughes

  by darth frosty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "salvation".

  by langston hughes.

  i was saved from sin when i was going on thirteen.

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  humbled

  Love him.

  My youngest daughter would identify with that "not hearing Jesus". she resisted baptism--She never jeard the call either.

  George Washington Carver born 150 years ago near Diamond, Missouri. Not far from here.
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  32

  Is it Humanly Possible, that the writers believe this stuff?

  by objectivetruth in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as many of you know, whom have been in the org for a while.. the wt is hard coded into your mind.

  sometimes, i will read a wt, to make sure that i hadn't imagined all of the ridiculousness... and then i read a wt like this : http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2004168 (is linking to this legal?).

  i especially enjoyed this section : .

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  humbled

  The more convoluted the teaching, the less I felt it was important. Jesus seemed to follow the K.I.S.S.principle so I decided all the infinite data of the WT literature seemed optional.

  But it just got more layers added.I guess it took me a while to figure out I was in the wrong place.

  ps. Xanth and Julia--about "talking to myself on here": I HEAR you. Some times it is like putting a note in a bottle and throwing it out to sea.

  But sometimes I feel like I've put old SH!+ in a bottle and thrown it out to sea. Such is the nature of this forum that we end up uncorking each others' bottles--who knows why there is no answer or response. But sending them out has helped me anyway.

  Love you, Maeve
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  16

  The kindness of (worldly) strangers

  by moley in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  yesterday i went surfing, when i had finished and got changed i tried to start my car, no joy.

  there were about 12 cars in the car park and the occupants of 8 of the cars all tried to help out at some point as they could see i was having difficulties, one guy even drove to a garage 5 miles away to get me a coffee i didn't even ask for as it was a freezing cold day and a couple of them let me sit in their cars to warm up while i waited for the rac.

  contrast this to a time when i was in and my car wouldn't start (different car lol) in a kh car park and all i got was snarky comments, or advice in passing but no one stopped to help out.. i know who i prefer, has anyone else been helped by the evil worldly's while ignored by the loving jw's.

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  humbled

  I wasn't raised "in the Truth" so I had already experienced people outside of the KHs who were tremendously kind and giving.

  There were numerous acts of kindness to me and my family within my years as a Witness in several congregations. But there was a troubling feature to some of this. We were well liked yet not really involved with any "cliques". there were cliques and if some weren't personally likeable or they were troubled (and isn't that what defines humanity?) they were not noticed so much.It bothered me.

  There were individuals who were notable for kindness, but it seemed that this was their nature. When, for instance my car was destroyed, an fine old elder simply,quietly gave me his sound, drivable old Toyota (he was a convert).

  Other faith communities or individuals of other faiths I was around did as well or better than the JWs in the area of kindness. that's what I have seen.

  In the 90's we went to a very small midwestern congregation where there was only one youngish elder(a convert). He tried hard to implement fairness without favoritism in the way the cong worked(the cong was on the verge of dissolution when we moved there--No elders at all, there'd been a scandal of some sort and many members were under "reproof"). But the system ate away at them too. I heard that his children became notable for behaving like "sons of Eli" and got off scot free.

  O, the kindness I received from non-witnesses after my exit--

  I got cancer--And the local JWs knew of it. the son of my bible teacher (He not a JW) saw me often. But his mother --of course not. An atheist old friend of mine made it her business to drive me daily to my radiation and checked in on me always--and many many others--many, many others. I never lacked for love. It was wonderful.

  Maeve
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  19

  Should I Tell a Witness that I Am an Apostate?

  by Band on the Run in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i sometimes join discussion groups.

  the witnesses do get mentioned.

  i try to make it humorous but some bitterness seeps through.

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  humbled

  BOTR,

  She is a bold one! Rare to find a witness that takes time away from the treadmill to discuss with "worldlings".

  What are you discussing, if that's okay to ask?