recent happenings close to home bewilder me by day, terrify me by night.
i am immersed in the profound waters of doubt and, sometimes, despair, as i struggle swimmingly to a far off shore that itself is encased in black mist.. yet, the shroud of fog does rise.
i am able to see outward, through the windows to my soul.
The loss of one's sense of purpose and the significance of life: memories and our meaning to others. What are we now in this world of others?
The re-shuffling of who we are NOW after the disillusion of our religion and the dissolution of our old self is a difficult event--not a task, really. It seems not a thing I am doing but rather a thing happening to me. As you say, an observer on shore.
That is what your thought pulled out of me, Coco.
Take care Coco.
Maeve
where in the christian greek scriptures do disciples of christ record how many hours a month they preached.. " " " " 10 hours for women and children and slack husbands with no ambition.
" " " " do they record how many back calls / return visits they made in a month.. " " " " have they set down how many bible studys they had in a month.. " " " " do they have pioneers ,special pioneers , aux.pioneers , with goals to reach each month.. " " " " do they have d.o.
, c.o., zone servants , etc.etc.. " " " " where in the christian greek scriptures is the word " organisation" applied to christianity.
This is RIGHT ON THE MARK, Smiddy.
Yes, Jgnat. Women and reading? Not happening in 1st century. Serving one another and eating together? These are so carefully managed by the Overseers of WT that it's ridiculous.
Aarrggghh!
Sir82, Good point! First century? Christianity was all over the place and totally unhomogenized!
BUT! as wasblind points out: The WT has pictures to prove their version of reality!
It proves that a picture is worth a thousand words--especially if no one is allowed to research outside The Society's literature/picture books. (like who care to really read it)
Maeve
the hope of a better world is what attracted me (and likely many of you other loiterers (grin) on this site) into the mental mindtrap of christian thought.
i guess its understandable, re-reading the words that the author of the matthew gospel that we know as the sermon on the mount, its easy to think, that if jesus ruled the world, everything would be ok.. i'm still interested in a better world.
so have many other thinkers (and revolutionaries).
Thanks for posting this, fullimestudent.
Can a better world be achieved if relatively wealthy people do not realize that no human potential should languish for doing laundry (or hours of other tedious chores) while we who use--what?--14 or 22 times the resources?
Can there be a better world if the wealthy ones in the "Air Line" not see the time, the lives of the poor as being valuable as our own?
No and no.
We cannot mine the world's resources, displacing native peoples, exploiting whole nations or groups for the convenience of modern life and think that this can be sustained.
Yes to the Sermon on the Mount. Yes to anyone who teaches us to be fair and satisfied with more just distribution of the worlds resources.
------------------
This is connected to that thread on inequality of last week, somehow.
...and no, it is not justin bieber peeing his initials in the snow.. .
Good morning! Good fun!
Maeve
our third annual shun run will be held again at 10am at papago park, tempe, az on saturday, april 12th.
this is a low-key public event that all who wish to see an end to organizational-induced shunning can join in.
lecture room on floor 4 at 2:00pm.. as part of this event, i write a letter to sdb:ssy, the otherwise anonymous jw author who informed me about the df'ing announcement in my case.
this sounds worthwhile. Maybe good for my part of the country.
has anyone here seen best picture winner 12 years a slave?
it was tough to watch at times, and made me tear up a couple times.
it was a very well written well acted film with great cinematography, and was extremely moving.. i think it was a deserving winner..
Yes.
I have spent 11 years and more collecting books and reading other sources that reveal the origins, effects, and afterward of American slavery. Also how the white and Native American slavery of the American colonial period played out. There is a lot of complexity in the business and the brutal personal and social effects of slavery.
Reading the enduring effects in convict leasing, debt peonage, Jim Crow laws and the faultering weakness of reconstruction in behalf of former slaves as well as the pogroms of black communities into the 1900's,you see how ignorant the public is--including many in black communities--of the DNA of slavery on U.S. society. Black and white.
I agree with LisaObeesa, all should see this film. If you are not well informed on the complicated befores and afters of black slavery, before speaking one way or the other on race issues in our communities---- see this film.
Yes, there was a war that officially freed blacks. But the slaveholders and those who felt/feel that blacks are fundamentally inferior and (choke, gag) benefited from forced labor i.e. free food and housing, they didn't have a change of heart just because the South was defeated in 1865. They raised sons and daughters, who raised sons and daughters. They were the landholders, business men and community leaders who shaped policy up to this day. The changes in civil rights since slavery were meager and were on paper but there were black men and women 100 years later who died in the south for trying to live according to those laws.
Racism has a long half life.
See this film.
" he said, "my name is bela paskin.
as they got off of the train, marcel went over to a phone and called the number on the dog-eared piece of paper.
marcel asked if he was speaking to maria paskin and she said that he was.
But I wonder if there isn't something, some force force that we are occasionally able to tap into somehow--LisaRose
I am glad you commented here LisaRose, and said what you did.
Some many months back I told on Punky's thread what praying for years for god's help had done for me. I vividly recall your comment being consistent to your above remark: it is selfish to think God heard and answered me since, as you mention, other people in pitiable circumstances get no response, no help.
I have considered the evidence that there is no god of christian theism. I don't trust any scriptures. But I too have had too many supernormal events that make me puzzle over the good that comes to us sometimes.
How to explain this isn't for me. But it is a wonderful story. I wonder if one of the results of rejecting the idea of our old God we find i difficult to respond to a story like this one that Rotten Riley has presented. There hardly any respondents.
I think you said it well--there maybe is some transient phenomenon that passes near or through sometimes--like being near a bus stop you didn't know about and it picks you up and takes you just where you needed to go--
I am glad you have experienced things like that. It makes one simply very, very happy!
i fumed when i read this.
enjoy picking it apart friends.... become imitators of god.eph.
one way to imitate jehovah is to adopt his viewpoint regarding matters.
This is what is their gravest sin as a religious mouthpiece and bible corruptor:
"This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of the one true God and the one whom he sent forth, Jesus Christ." John 17:3
Nothing justifies this translation, not scholarship, not reason.
The idea that Jesus spoke this as a segue to the everlasting-learning-program-of-everlasting-publishing-of-new-knowledge-by-the-WTBTS is revolting and dishonest.
They knock on your door and say ,"Read this scripture."
So you do.
Then they ask you, "What does that mean to you?"
You tell them.
Then they ask, "Is that what you have been taught?"
No, you say (the scripture is carefully mapped for this response)
"Do you need a priest or preacher to tell you what the bible says?"
NO?
So you are on your way to never ever know God (how could you, you are only a sheep. But we will cram nu-lite into you until you glow. You thought other churches forced dogma? HaHaHa! )
You are set up for life-time bible study--the very picture of "ever learning but never coming to an understanding".
Enough of the rant.
APOSTATES--indeed....................
here's my story.
i'm 24 years old and i live in brazil.
i'm a 3rd gen born-in jw and all close relatives in the borg (parents, grandparents, uncles, wife, inlaws) except my little sister (she's 16 and didnt buy jw doctrine).
Amento what Jamie said.
anyway, he applied for a lecturer's job at a college last week.
he had a phone call today inviting him for an interview.. i'm kind of in shock.
when we left 10 years ago, i was so upset after.
So happy for you, quellycatface!
It's great to live where you are happiest.
I hope the interview goes well!
