Posts by humbled

25

Should it be considered sexual harassment?

by Addison0998 in

on thing that really makes me angry and disgusted is when i think of the way in the past that the elders pressured me over and over again to have a meeting with them over a petty make out and petting incident.

they asked such instrusive, personal questions like, “did he touch your breast, for how long?

under or over your clothes?” i know that this happens to thousands of people, especially young women, and it’s just not right, it makes me so angry that i almost feel tempted to confront the elder who especially did this, when i see him at the convention in a few weeks and tell him what a sick person he is and how much trauma he caused me, manipulating me and pressuring me to answer such instrusive questions while he sat there and took notes!!

humbled

Sexual harassment—yes.

They say it is a “sin” not a “crime”—so how much info did this guy need?

Omg! Sure wish l could remember book, chapter, verse where they gathered how much of sinfulness to charge you with:

”10 seconds through the shirt... let’s see- - with buttons or without. Were you buttoned at the time, sister?

Yeyaaah. Okay . Was that an underwire bra? Demerits for you if it wasn’t padded.

No, Brother Snigger, the elders manual says it definitely IS worse if she is unpadded. Definitely. Not only is padding allowed,it is encouraged — theocratic war fare you know. No loss of merit for that.

But thin sheer honesty !! And in a brassiere! No, even when felt through a well-buttoned shirt.....tsk, tsk. I don’t care if she is only a 34B!

Sister, that will cost you one shunning and 50 cents due immediately!”

16

On this Fathers Day...

by babygirl30 in

jw
friends

i have never really spoken on social media about my jw family shunning me.

i didnt even discuss or answer any questions about why they didnt come to my wedding, my birthday parties, why there are never any pics of them with me/us together.

until today.... today i woke up and had this insane desire to be open.

humbled

Keeping anyone’s secret is the burden no one should bear.. not when they are consciously perpetrating the behavior.

Good for you, girl. Rock on!

20

Reassigned, ...to complete erasure from memory and near poverty.

by Lostandfound in

a complete scandal is the reassignment to nothing of the thousands (?

) of bethelites, over age cos etc, .

out on the street atfter decades of unpaid service in very many cases.

humbled

Sad isn’t big enough for these stories.

69

Austria Begins Closing Mosques and Deporting Imams

by cofty in

austria, a member of the eu since 1995, is a country of 8.8 million people with a muslim population of around 600,000 mostly turkish immigrants.

in 2015 it passed an 'islam law' prohibiting foreign funding of religious groups and creating a duty for muslim organisations to have 'a positive fundamental view towards state and society'.. many mosques in austria have continued to receive money from turkish muslim organisations so the new right-wing government have decided to enforce the law.

seven mosques have been identified for closure and 60 imams are to be either deported or refused visas.

humbled

I second that request.

Scotsman, could you elaborate?

Clearly the Austrian government is concerned with the problem of assimilating a vast number of people. You have read the thread.

As an American in a southern state l find that in a room of people of different backgrounds, classes, occupations will give entirely different responses to certain questions. They will or won’t say there is a serious problem in our state with child welfare, homelessness, drugs, prisons, housing, transportation and jobs.

Persons who live apart from the working classes and the poor—they think the poor who are sinking under their burdens simply have a moral problem. I live in the middle of it and their plight is complicated.

l think the problems Countries face with radical Islam are likewise complicated.

Please don’t thing me dismissive or rude to say that an elderly Viennese historian might see the historical follies of the past in the crude responses of fearful citizens and yet fail to see a real problem provokes that concern. She may be in a class far removed from the frictions. I just suggest it because l see it here in my state. As for history and it has been there too that the rulers can be unaware of the struggles beyond their salons and libraries. “Let them eat cake!”

169

Universal sovereignty on trial

by Factfulness in

i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

god failed to prove his right to rule.

humbled

SBF—you describe the position of(l will call it) non-agent cause without nailing it to a one word description lbut continue using a hack word “God”that triggers most people for whom it has various and prejudiced meaning. Perhaps your loose and poetic as “God” doesn’t fit into science. It certainly is not a universal concept.

Cant you find a better point of entry for discussion than the ill reputed “God” of the Bible? Or at least give it a different name.

169

Universal sovereignty on trial

by Factfulness in

i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

god failed to prove his right to rule.

humbled

Slimboyfat— Some reasons people have for believing in God in the first place include: 1) the fact that anything exists at all rather than nothing 2) personal experiences or encounters with the divine ....

It would be wrong to ignore this thought, slim. It very likely is root and branch where the idea of god arose in the first place —with rigid theologies soon to follow.

Many of us have had experiences so compelling that we are forced bear witness that they did indeed occur even if we are loathe to admit it. If it were universal and normal experience then others wouldn’t be suspicious of our mental state and our motive.

Some weeks ago there was a thread that invited us to share our experiences of the supernatural. (For obvious reasons this applies to your second point for why folks might believe in god. ) It drew a lot of stories...and a few critics.

What am l wallering around is the notion that when we elevate these strange encounters and make them a point of theology we do harm. To call these events an encounter with the divine can be harmful. Framing the tale to prove or disprove god might give hope to some but often inflicts a great deal of pain for those l not similarly “blessed”.

There would be no stigma attached to simply recounting strange happenings if religion and theology didn’t demand to co-opt our story. It would be delightful if we could learn to tell our stories without having to fit it inyo another’s moral framework

We could if the theologians let us alone. And if science would not judge us either.

But we too are at fault . We have to let go of the need to force others to believe along with us. After all, what is divine anyway?

The effort to “true up” all these stories and theologies is unending. Your point #2 is where we should let the mystery be .

24

Child trafficking issues in India

by MaxPayne in

this is the message that was posted on the jw inbox announcements tab.

i have copy pasted it as it was.

if anyone from india has any information related to this, please do share.. regards.. urgent: child trafficking accusations.

humbled

Trafficking of Child and women is a serious concern prevalent in India. According to a report published by the US Department of State, India is the source, destination and transit country for human trafficking who then get involved in forced labor and sex trafficking. The statistics of the Ministry of Women and Child Development states that 19,223 women and children were trafficked in 2016 against 15,448 in 2015.

Corney— the above is from a longer article on the subject.

The vigilantism that has grown in response to the increase in India’s sex crimes is terrifying. The failure of the citizens and their government to examine and dismantle the deep class divides and the misogyny that lives along side it reminds us in every country to deal with human rights abuse openly, throughly and swiftly.

India is a wildfire of sex abuse and paranoia.

purrpurr— l don’t know the process by which the supposed trafficking is done in Indian KH. Maybe the posters from lndia know what is or is not occurring?

15

Born ins: did you have "near life experiences"?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i recently watched the 90s movie fight club for the first time and heard the phrase "near life experience.".

for me, a different definition of this phrase would be someone who grew up in the truth and led a very secluded and restricted life (like me) but on rare occasions actually experienced something that was considered quite normal by most people.. growing up in "the troof" was depressing.

it was characterized by long periods of loneliness.

humbled

Born in the 1952 — not born in. My near life experience was being stuck in a poor foreign country for a year when l was 21 and finding out what it meant to be poor too. It shook up my world because it didn’t match with what l had ever known before. It put me on the road to thinking for myself.

But l had a long road ahead.

i love what you all wrote of your lives. There is power in each person’s quick sketch of the “near life” moments. This is a surprising thread.

169

Universal sovereignty on trial

by Factfulness in

i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

god failed to prove his right to rule.

humbled

The problem of evil is very real, but God writes the end of that story as well.—Perry

Perry, the horrors of suffering that go on wholesale around the world are overwhelming in their specific details .The days of gang rape , torture, blugeoning of an 8 year old Muslim girl herding horses is a sample of the personal evils that the God in its infinite wisdom passively gets to witness daily.

If the god is truly wise then it would know that isome of us cannot believe there exists mystery so bizarre that the human mind in this world or any other should believe that a loving powerful god simply watches such suffering as that 8 year old endured.

Do you know there are minors not yet in their teen who quite incredibly become pregnant when they survive such assaults that don’t kill them? They die later though. The baby can’t fit through their little girl pelvis.

People speak for God. They say a lot of things.

Personally l suspect some atomic force field that drifts around like the jet stream or an ocean current. sometimes good and sometimes not. Good, evil, Like the weather.

I used to be intrigued with the story of the pool of Siloam You know that story where folks who needed healing would.wait by the pool, wait for .an angel to stir the waters . and you’d ‘pay someone to lift you down into it —and you just might get healed . Maybe. It could be that god is kind of like that. Maybe good hearted but limited. Weak but trying to be there for you.

Maybe god is love. But that doesn’t mean it is strong enough to change things. Love doesn’t conquer all. It should try . . But it didn’t save that little girl. She suffered a long time. Her parents loved her. They said she was so innocent.

I feel certain that a god of love is not all powerful. And so it weeps . it weep constantly. In fact it’s tears are what formed the pool of Siloam, I am nearly sure of it.

The first reason god cries is for pity. Pity that it can do so little to help children in terror and pain. And secondly it cries for shame. The shame that humans could believe that a loving god would actually permit such a little child to suffer while possessing the means to stop it. Stop the suffering.

.” Yes, god is watching us all. He knows our suffering. Yes, God just watches it happen.. Just watches. And is so full of love, and power and wisdom snd just watches.”

But he will fix it later? That is what we say.. But god doesn’t say anything.. God cries.

23

You won't believe this ... Jehovah's rich blessing has befallen me !!!

by dubstepped in

jw
friends

my dad died a couple years back (not how you thought this would start, i know).

he was an elder, and a very emotionally abusive father, well before the point where he ever shunned me.

he died pretty much penniless, and never would buy life insurance or anything.

humbled

Hey, undubbed!

As in “hell-o, devil’s advocate!”