I liked that they didn't kill people in wars--but they had the strength of conviction to die for the love of their fellow humans and for the love of God.
It was not as it appeared. Not just that way at all.
for me, it was the idea of never dying and living forever.
plus being a bible scholar.
lol.
I liked that they didn't kill people in wars--but they had the strength of conviction to die for the love of their fellow humans and for the love of God.
It was not as it appeared. Not just that way at all.
i was a little nervous and a bit dazed, i think i will do better next time.
he offered me the memorial invite, i told him i had jw family who would invite me and he got interested and wanted to find out more, so i told him i wasn't interested in the jw religion, he asked why and i said i find it too controlling.
he thought i was talking about moral rules so started on about how jehovah doesn't want to restrict us 'blah blah', so i pointed out that i meant they're not allowed to read certain materials which is wrong if it's as true as they are confident of.. he then went on about how satan uses false teaching to manipulate us and so we have to be careful of what we read.
Laika,
Don't beat yourself up about not staying on track--"before I used my example about the catholic he managed to complain both about the Koran and teen pregnancy".
look at the wild flight HE was on!
he sounds a bit flustered and stalling for time to think.
He'll think about what you said--and may be a bit nervous about it if he's not intrigued.
maeve
this is, of course, a recurrent topic that's made possible whenever a kingdom hall decides to march out on your neighborhood and street.. today it happened again in my neighborhood as a drum up for the memorial observance scheduled for monday the 14th of april.. why christ's passion and death should be observed on a monday of holy week i failed to ask this morning.
perhaps someone else might like to volunteer, but it seemed just another reason to be sceptical about the whole thing, though hardly ranking with changing ancient chronologies to get jerusalem's temple destruction 2520 years before 1914.. anyway two gentlemen in white shirts and ties greeted me politely enough at my door and presented me with a flyer about an event which they described as momentous.
they asked me if i had ever intended one and i assented.
kepler,
That was delicious: "I observe that you have an awful lot of people WITHIN your organization that are very unhappy with it. Now here's a question for you. Why should I be interested in joining an organization that causes so many people so much grief?"
Thanks for saying that and asking them that question.
A real feel-good story. To an XJW, anyway.
Maeve
i was just thinking about how humans being imperfect and satan's influence was the root of everything bad that anyone has ever done.
well i know that apparently everyone is vulnerable which got me thinking about what "bad" things people have done while they were a jw.
i'll start it off.
I was not rebellious. But I did try to do something that I learned was not done--ever---because I was asked by a family friend to participate in a panel discussion as the U.S. prepared to make war with Iraq. He knew I was a JW and he had a group of representatives from various area churches who were to explain their faith's traditions for peace. It was the very subject that had enticed me into a home bible study(and subsequent baptism.)
I had no idea how rebellious was. Because I lived in an isolated rural situation --no running water and 5 children still at home with their father at that time absent--I could have no IDEA until the panel's organizer called me with some exasperation and concern that he had been receiving emails and messages that I could not possibly be a JW in good standing--certainly a person unfit/unqualified for representing the Society!
Later I found that it was the sharp eyes on this website that busted me out.
I learned that though I was to know the Truth and teach the Truth--that no women and only special permits let you say anything about the Truth except in a very narrow setting.
It was a shit-storm-feeding-frenzy on the board here. And I never knew it til I was "out" and started putting 2+2 together.
The old s**t-storm thread is on archive here titled: New JW Interfaith Meeting
It still makes me sick to remember it. My old avatar then was "not a captive" at the time I figured out all the back room drama.
Maeve
It's a cult!
I have wondered that, too....?
i had to take time away, missed everyone.
Welcome back.
We all survived the winter, hey?
life is tough when you've spent your best years in the borg...how do you reconnect when kids are grown and you're close to retirement age?.
Listen to Lois!
Hey---she used to be the go-to-ear on the Pacific side if you were having insomnia from the mid-west to the east---waiting for the Brits to wake up.....
But she really has gotten busy on the OUTSIDE of the cult and touches down not quite as often.
I am happy for you, Lois!
I'm having a slower crawl out of things than I thought--there are layers of stuff to clear off. But I'm moving on, moving on...
All the best, friends..wish I lived closer
Maeve
what can a person do who is stuck in the watchtower cult movement but don't want to be shunned or disfellowshipped but want to follow a course of passive resistants, like ghandi did to the brits to get them out of control over india?.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nonviolent_resistance.
I recall that it was necessary for the oppressor to possess a basic sense of decency for Ghandi's approach to work (thus ruling out the Nazi regime or Pol Pot) . The Brit's were sickened by their own aggressions to suppress the Indian's effort's to self rule.
It would either require a polarizing event that the WT/GB could not suppress and/or organizationas BOTR mentioned. The GB would remain unmoved, I am convinced by any suffering among r&f members. But the rank and file might move if the outrages were so public as to be viewed without secrecy. they might talk and think.
I personally don't think passive(if by that we are talking about "secret") resistence will bring the WTSTS to account for its corruption. Those secret things we might do on principle, fine. But I do not see it helping expose the extaordinary lies of the Corporation.
But if that is all at your disposal--passive means--until there is a better plan to rally 'round----Go for it!
in the past i've compared the wts to slavery, but this book validates what i've come to know about this organization.. .
'cuz slavery ain't sweet, no matter how faithful and discreet.
jesus states: "....the truth will set you free.
band on the run,
Southern slavery was monumentally vile, criminal, and any other ( inadequate) descriptor we can find.
But the value of the OP is not in making point for point parallels between the two. But the comparison dramatises a critical truth: people who long accept a institution that regards slaves and masters as a holy arrangement from god destroy the inner man long before the slave dies.
Also, a slave that feels they have intrinsic value is a threat to that system. A person who desires to exercise their free will cannot long survive slavery-- any who deny that the slavery structure can be maintained except through the most coercive means is deluded. The penalties must be severe. To accept the premises that underpin the operation of a master slave relationship corrupts not only the mind of the master, but of the slave as well. It's a living death of a person.
It reminds me of women who are subjected to powerful and long term verbal/psychological abuse who say they might have left sooner if their men had simply beat them--but their minds and self concept had been so distorted that they had no power to leave--so they thought--and so it was true.
As a side note: I am always glad when there is outrage that anything can be compared to slavery--Too often I have been around people who shrug slavery off as though it is no big deal--times being tough, wasn't it fine to have food and covering? etc...
Also--we are comparing U.S. style slavery. There were customs for slaves in various cultures that were not identical to the mode of work and status that existed here. Slavery in ancient Israel (if we can believe that jubilee years were observed) granted more than monetary value to the slave/servant.
ps. Did I mention that I hate the WTBTS?
i am captive in both heart and body, .
walled in by mahogany panels and .
useless fears of too long standing.
Good afternoon, Coco. (paint this yellow, please)
I am waiting for my forsythia to bloom still.
I am glad to see that two years on--- a door has opened in your cell.
Better.
I hope we live just long enough.....
to walk into the midst of bright fragrant blooms.
Maeve