Posts by erandir

4

A MUST READ::: a book that I've not seen mentioned

by smellsgood in

jw
friends

son of the revolution .

it's about liang hengs experiences growing up during the cultural revolution, led by chairman mao ze dong, after upending chaing kaisheks totalitarian regime.

amazing the parallels at times to religious cults.

erandir

a&w, your post reminds me of that hilarious and recent emoticon-only thread.

13

Dreams of KH, Assemblies, etc.

by monophonic in

jw
friends

so, i attend more meetings than most jws with all the dreams i continue to have regarding the meetings and assemblies..

usually the dreams aren't nightmares, but i'm supposed to give a talk and i'm given what i'm supposed to say and i tell the brothers there's no way i'm getting up there and giving the talk unless i can go off the outline..

most of the time, the dreams bleed into other areas of my life, like last night i was at the assembly and i saw this supposed life-long 'friend'....

erandir

Just a couple of dreams about a couple of elders who personally irk me...and having a stupid argument with them...in my house for some reason even though I would never ever invite them in real life.

46

You Are Much Too Harsh About The Watchtower Society

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

you are much too harsh about the watchtower societysince you were, little we did our best to raise you.

you always received good.

grades in school; we always did our best to feed, clothe and give you every-.

erandir

Hmmm...how would I respond to this?

Well, let's see. I was in a similar situation when I first became a witness...just in reverse. My parents were pretty pissed off at first. But with time, they realized I was living a basically normal life and that, being the good parents that they were, they couldn't pretend their son didn't exist and tried very hard to compromise their beliefs to accomodate ours. We just never talked about spiritual/religious things and never got together on holidays.

I received a veritable Prodigal son's welcome (minus the animal slaughter, Crumpet) when I announced to them I left the witnesses. I felt so bad about how they must have felt all those years...as if I had walked out on them, and they never understood it. Now it's all water under the bridge. They just wanted a normal family again, and I'm helping that happen now.

So I know the flip side of all this. It probably doesn't help much, though.

Using that experience, my advice would be to give it some time. Maybe the parents will come around to accepting the child's decision and be a family again...just minus the spiritual/religious discussion and the holiday stuff. It's better than nothing.

56

BirthdaysSimple Deconstruction of the JW Rationale

by AuldSoul in

to deconstruct the jw rationale surrounding birthdays, a few simple guidelines should be followed.. (1): don't waste any energy trying to convince a jw that birthdays are not pagan, if they suggest that, readily agree.

whether or not the celebrations are pagan turns out to be a non-issue that distracts from the main point.. (2): stay focused on the fact that jws disfellowship people for celebrating birthdays.. (3): stress the point that there should always be clear scriptural reason for disfellowshipping someone.

ask them often throughout the discussion whether this is the case, get them to reinforce this need to themselves.. (4): remember, the first goal is deconstructing their rationale, not giving them a new rationale, not convincing them that celebrating birthdays is a good thing.. once you have these well in mind, the deconstruction can begin.. jw rationale, in brief:.

erandir

Listener,

Your two cents are like 4 cents in my book. Thanks. (I have a very good exchange rate, I guess.) That's valuable reasoning to have because I still have a wife in the org (I don't want to call it the borg, btw, cuz i'm a big star trek fan and don't want to insult star trek by comparing it with such a loathsome thing. )

69

Do YOU Believe Everything That Posters Say Here?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i don't.

i believe most, though.

erandir

No way, I don't believe any of ya because the WT says that apostates speak in half-truths and even downright lies!

Wait a minute! You all say the same thing about the WT.

I'm so confused!

22

Kingdumb Hall Smell

by Wordly Andre in

jw
friends

ever notice all the kingdumb halls smell the same, like new books or something.

i haven't been inside a kingdumb hall since a funeral i went to a couple years ago, but right when i walked in, it was the same smell.

what got me thinking about this is i have a new book here, smells like kingdumb hall, but i guess what do you expect from a "religion" sorry publishing company, to smell like.

erandir

It's either insense used to cover up the smell of burnt chicken from the secret rituals that the elders and their wives perform in the hidden basement on Saturday nights...or it's the new carpet.

35

What Did You Hide From Others While You Were A Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i see that some here were actually "in the closet" while they were witnesses.

some kids practiced "fornication" regularly but the only ones who knew anything about it were other youths that would never tell about the secrets.. some marriages were simply horrible.

but no one would've ever had a clue.. was there anything that you ever concealed from the elders or other witnesses that would've gotten you in trouble?.

erandir

I hid visiting sites like this one in my search for answers to my nagging doubts.

Later, I hid visiting regularly and even posting on this particular site.

Also, I hid what I really thought of a couple of real a-hole elders in my congregation and some other witnesses I used to work with.

I won't even come to grips with admitting any sexual issues in my present relationship, oral or auto.

56

BirthdaysSimple Deconstruction of the JW Rationale

by AuldSoul in

to deconstruct the jw rationale surrounding birthdays, a few simple guidelines should be followed.. (1): don't waste any energy trying to convince a jw that birthdays are not pagan, if they suggest that, readily agree.

whether or not the celebrations are pagan turns out to be a non-issue that distracts from the main point.. (2): stay focused on the fact that jws disfellowship people for celebrating birthdays.. (3): stress the point that there should always be clear scriptural reason for disfellowshipping someone.

ask them often throughout the discussion whether this is the case, get them to reinforce this need to themselves.. (4): remember, the first goal is deconstructing their rationale, not giving them a new rationale, not convincing them that celebrating birthdays is a good thing.. once you have these well in mind, the deconstruction can begin.. jw rationale, in brief:.

erandir

Poppy brought out the point about the use of dogs in the bible and how the bible portrays them. I particularly liked that line of reasoning. Thanks, undercover!

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/134852/2401202/post.ashx#2401202

Auld, can you give us something about busting up the reasoning behind the attention-to-self thing that some witnesses use as a reasoning against birthdays. I think there is a reference to a scripture that says something about better is the day of ones death than the day of one's birth.

7

This past week's "Questions From Readers" Scans

by deaconbluez in

just to catalog these by week:.

.

erandir

I'm printing them all out so I can make a bound volume of them and keep them in my prominently displayed library.

69

Do YOU Believe Everything That Posters Say Here?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i don't.

i believe most, though.

erandir

I love the Onion!