for me, it's having friends that i don't have to hide my lack of meeting attendance/service from.
it's amazing how they teach you that only jws can be your real friends, but in reality, it's all contingent upon your religious "performance.
" sure, if you're not going to meetings, they'll try to be "friends," by encouraging you to go back.
I think the best thing is the ability to be open and honest about how I feel about things. Stupid little things, like I enjoy listing to Rush. When I was a JW I couldn't say that, since it could "stumble" someone.
It is really nice to be able to speak freely.
i wanted to say thank you to the wbts for enforcing a 'no-contact' rule on all those that have left the organization.. only by experiencing first-hand my former best-friends treating me like a complete stranger (see 'garbage') for standing up for my own beliefs was i finally able to tell the society 'good-bye' forever and not feel guilty about it.. i know this was not the wbts's intention from the alienation practice.
it's intention was to make me feel guilty and lonely enough to come back to them.
however, it has backfired on them and finally given me my freedom.. thank you, society, for lacking kindness and understanding.
"bull crap and more bull crap who do you think youre fooling, they will all lap up this sob story"
What is the meaning of this trash?
out of all religions, catholicism, to me, is wrong and clearly could never be the truth.
"The belief that Mary worship is acceptable is counter to all Bible teaching. Infant sprinkling and baptism is unscriptural. Forbidding the clergy to marry or have children is a perversion of scripture and we can go on and on."
Wow, you are certainly well trained by the WTS ... these are some of the most well-worn anti-Catholic chestnuts in existence.
May I make a book suggestion? "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" by Karl Keating is a good piece of Catholic apologetics, in my opinion. Keating responds to your concerns directly, and I think very well.
I am not Catholic but I found this book interesting.
please dont comment saying to "run" or "get out while i can" thank you im not new to this, so i can handel it.
i have been with my boyfriend for 3 years, we started dating in high school and now i am going to college and he is working.
i am 20 and he is 21, i was raised catholic but my mom and i are too open minded for the church so we left.
"Most anyone who is religous beleives the same thing, premarital sex is wrong ... So if you want to say that it shows him to be immoral than so are most people."
I think the main issue is not the sex, but the duplicity. Your boyfriend is a practiced, compulsive liar. He is leading a double life. If he is so successful at deceiving his family and fellow believers, is he not capable of deceiving you as well?
this may be the topic of an old thread but, if the g.b.
and wts don't have good motives, what is the point of the whole religion?
i mean, it doesn't appear that anybody is getting rich or am i missing something.
Forgive me for being incredulous, but can't you guess at an answer to your question "what is the point"?
The Watchtower Society is like any other major multi-national corporation based in New York, like Merrill Lynch, Pepsi, IBM, TIAA-CREF... the list goes on.
Regardless of the current financial outlook, those corporations need to survive another day so the management and workers can continue to get paid and everybody can remain employed.
Every company is ultimately in the business of making money and the WTS is no exception. The point is to manage the organization such that it is profitable.
I suggest that you read Crisis of Conscience. The author does a good job of explaining the desirable lifestyle enjoyed by the Watchtower senior management team.
many who leave the witnesses go on to affirm other recognisable sets of beliefs.
some become christians of various sorts, others tend toward patriotism as a kind of rejection of the anti-patriotic stance of the watchtower, while yet more simply affirm in general the secular values of mainstream society.
do you believe jehovah's witnesses are wrong?
It seems that you are still somewhat associated with JWs. I'm guessing that others / outsiders, i.e. co-workers, "worldly" relatives, think of you as a JW.
Just a thought - if you get the response "I believe in nothing" from a relative, for example, you may simply have met someone that doesn't want to engage a JW in yet another religious debate. You haven't necessarily met someone that believes in "nothing".
please dont comment saying to "run" or "get out while i can" thank you im not new to this, so i can handel it.
i have been with my boyfriend for 3 years, we started dating in high school and now i am going to college and he is working.
i am 20 and he is 21, i was raised catholic but my mom and i are too open minded for the church so we left.
"He understands my side but says "thats what the bible says so..." so my question is how do i get him to get over that and compermise?"
He won't get over it since the headship principle is to his benefit. JW men are good at spewing Watchtower nonsense when it suits them. You notice he did not quote the bible on the subject of sex outside of marriage, right? The bible's view on that subject wasn't to his liking, so he forgot to mention that fornicators will end up in the Lake of Fire.
"how can I ease the tension?"
Ditch him and find another man that you can have an equal relationship with.
lets have a free for all .
i would say why dont you have a book study anymore but that one is done to death... we had a witness recently and i asked for the latest jw only mag (he didn't realise i used to be in his cong... have i done that good a job at fading?
) it was a laugh to see the two of them struggle to come up with an answer.... ok lets here the best you can come up with, there has to be some better than mine, what question will leave them stuck for an answer...... .
Where in the bible does it say that membership in a human religious organization is a requirement for salvation?
apparently my posts are too hard to read.
i will try to post with as few words as possible for you uneducated ex witnesses who never got a chance to go to college.
some of you have been more than kind, but a lot of you are just assholes.
"... for you uneducated ex witnesses who never got a chance to go to college ... a lot of you are just assholes"
Did they teach you to use this kind of language in college? Which college?
i've always wanted to ask this question to those that have decided to leave the organization.. what will you do when the great tribulation begins?.
right now folks, a lot is happening in the political world.. gordon brown (prime miniter of england) last week gave a speech to the un stating that it is time for the un to step in and solve the world's problems, (specifically mentioning the economy and hunger crisis worldwide.).
barrack obama is shaping up to be the next president, a fellow who sure knows how to persuade and lead great crowds.
"What will you do when the Great Tribulation begins?"
I will rejoice that the end of false religions, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, is upon us.
