just finished reading the august 1, 2001 watchtower.
the second study article is entitled how to make your advancement manifest.
well, after quoting ephesians 4:11-14, heres what paragraphs 8 and 9 advise:first, since oneness is to be observed, a mature christian must be in unity and full harmony with fellow believers as far as faith and knowledge are concerned.
This might be a little hard to enforce.
He does notadvocate or insist on personal opinions or harbor private ideas when it comes to Bible understandingJust imagine having to take a lie detector test while being asked questions about your private ideas or personal opinions at the end of every meeting. Ultimate brainwashing and mind control.
esther
just so certain ladies do not feel alone in cringedom i will confess my red-cheekers !.
i was a well-developed 15 yr old getting too volupteous for my school uniform ( ok too fat then) and the zip had bust on my only school skirt.
my mum replaced it using an old zip from another garment which happened to be quite a bit longer than a normal skirt zip.an unmarried brother came to visit one morning and was sat in our living room having a cuppa while i was frantically getting ready for school.
Free, thanks for sharing. As Francois said, it always happens to the bashful ones. As Tracy says
You've got more balls than a woman's got a right to, sharing such embarassing stuff with us. I have been laughing sooooo hard. Hey sweetie....don't worry about the spare tire thing...trust me...all they saw was the "enormous boobs".
I have also been laughing so hard. I love the way you told your stories, too. Thanks again
esther
with the news that the killers of jamie bulger have been released, it would be interesting to know how people feel.. from the mcveigh thread it seems that many americans believe the death penalty would have been appropriate.. i do not know whether many in the us know of the case in britain of a 2 year old being tortured and murdered by two 10 year olds.
but now 8 years later they have been released.. i know of the arguments that they have been rehabilitated since killing jamie bulger.....but is this really justice?
Those two enticed Jamie, just an innocent toddler to go with them, then tortured and murdered him.
That shows they have a very sadistic inclinations.
ISP, you said
But life is not going to be any slam dunk for these 2. They will live in fear of anyone uncovering their identities. Their recent pictures have been leaked already and they have to be in constant contact with their parole officers. They also have to box clever when people inquire what they have been upto these last 6 years or so. Some people , i.e. local parole officers and clerical workers will know their identity etc. It is a matter of time before the info gets on the net or something.
I hope so!!
esther
i have just read amazing's 'tribute to a circuit overseer', and it set me to wondering how many co's actually have the commonsense displayed by harry snow.. esther
Thirdson, thank you.
When I first associated with JWs, there were actually a couple of COs that I liked. They were very friendly with everyone, as far as I knew. The congregation was very small, so the COs visited us, and none of them put on airs or anything like that. However, I was not baptised at the time, so I didn't know much of what was going on.
esther
i have just read amazing's 'tribute to a circuit overseer', and it set me to wondering how many co's actually have the commonsense displayed by harry snow.. esther
I have just read Amazing's 'Tribute to a Circuit Overseer', and it set me to wondering how many CO's actually have the commonsense displayed by Harry Snow.
esther
i love quotes of wisdom, so i thought i'd post some for others who like them too.
.
bew
Nothing can stop a man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude -W.W.Ziege
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain -Dolly Parton
Courgage is not hte absence of fear; rather it is the ability to take action in the face of fear -Nancy Anderson
esther
i was raised a poor white child in the deep south...ok, florida, where i still am.
i was the typical slightly self righteous witness, miss goody goody, left school at 16 to pioneer, which i did for 4 years, met a guy and married him.
he had 2 kids from a previous marriage and we had 2 kids of our own.
Tracy, thanks for telling your story. You have overcome a lot to gain your present happiness. Long may it continue. It is really good that you have and Doug have each other, and Dana and her family, too.
It's strange, isn't it, that a lot of pain and unhappiness is caused by this religion, but it takes a while to realise where that pain is coming from? It has been nice 'talking' to you in chat.
Troucul, it is nice to 'meet' you. Thank you for your story.
esther
esther
to anyone who can give me an honest answer:.
for the past few months i have been dating a disfellowshipped witness.
the witness is being shunned by other witnesses and has been going through this for around 2 years now.
Wanderingjew, hi. You said
Within one website I read that marrying between a Witness and a non-Witness is strongly discouraged, but it didn't mention if it was, in fact, forbidden?
Witnesses are told that they should only marry in the lord, so they should only marry a JW.
While it is not expressly forbidden, you need to realise that for a JW, if something is strongly discouraged, it might just as well be forbidden. This is especially so in the case of a JW who is disfellowshipped and is trying to get reinstated.
To get reinstated, she needs to be living an exemplary life, and that, unfortunately, means that if you and she are not already married, she will be urged to break off her relationship with you.
It is a pity she doesn't read boards like this
esther
back in late 1973 when i got my fatal doubts about the wtbts, i was sure that the society would crumble soon after 1975 when yet another prediction failed.
i was not alone with this thought; a british author by the name of stevenson (an exjw that had written an expose) allocated an entire chapter in his book about the likelihood that there would be a very major falling away in 1976 or soon thereafter.. but it didn't happen.
yes, there were several years of consecutive worldwide declines.
Skimmer, I think that the change in the generation doctrine has given people doubts. I never did believe what they wrote about that, but I thought that that would be put right. I suppose I still believed that Jehovah would clean up his people, starting at the top.
Also, I thought that there had to be a true religion, and believed that the JWs were the closest thing to the truth. I have recently realised that that was because of the resurrection hope. I wanted that to be true, so let myself be partially blinded.
However, I slowed down. I withdrew from the school, started missing meetings regularly, became irregular in FS, then inactive, then finally decided to leave.
I know there are others with doubts still active, mostly for family reasons. So there may well be a constant trickle away from the JWs.
esther
i have not shared my "story" with you yet.....i will give you the just of it right now, and go into further detail later.. i was baptized three months ago.
i started having doubts right away.
i am currently inactive and have no plans to return.
Open_mind, I agree with the answers you have so far received. Especially do not put anything in writing and don't talk to an elder at all. Remember, even if he is your friend, he is an elder first, and as such, he puts the organisation above everything.
If you need to keep up the business with JWs, one way is to follow expatbrit's advice
attempt to stall for time. Claim a busy schedule, ill health, whatever. In the gained time, make altering your business interests your top priority. See a lawyer regarding existing contracts with JW's. Once business is no longer a factor, you have more optionsis good.
Or you could follow the advice of Cautious
pretend that you have not doubts anymore and then slowly fade, after a period of "doing the right thing".
I hope everything works out for you
esther
