ok so obviously there's more bad than good(slight understatement i know!
) but is there anything you did enjoy about the religion?
just wondering cos i asked myself that question and the only thing i can think of (and it seems a bit materialistic to me lol) is that i could dress up in nice clothes and see men in suits!
It could well be that I owe them to be alive today : I stopped smoking, 30 years ago, after they showed me that scripture about presenting to Jehovah our bodies as undefiled sacrifices. Quite efficient, I stopped overnight, not being baptized yet.
Although I have largely faded from the JWs, I retain the fundamentals of their creed : unique God, no immortal soul nor hell, earthly hope, 2 classes (yes, why not). As for the rest of it, Jehovah knows better than we do, He will sort things out.
i just thought some might like to know the latest about actor and racing driver paul newman -.
lime rock park racetrack was closed down for about an hour and a half today so that he could take a few last laps in his gt1 corvette.. newman has incurable cancer and is not expected to live much past september.. there were not many like him..
About ten years ago, as a nurse, my wife worked for a charity (l'Envol, taking off) which was financed by Paul Newman, located in a chateau about 30 miles off Paris, in the countryside. In that chateau, low social condition children affected by incurable illnesses were given an opportunity to spend a free (fortnight, I think) holiday. Kudos, Paul.
this may not be my last post on jwd but i feel the time has come for some kind of "goodbye thread" nonetheless.. i first ventured on (french-speaking) xjw forums in 2003, when my own jw past was already old history and practically meaningless to any of my acquaintances in so-called "real life".
looking back, beyond mere curiosity i certainly felt the need to revisit this almost-forgotten chapter of my life story.
what especially drew me to jwd and made me stick to it for the past five years was undoubtedly the extraordinary diversity of this board, and the wealth of experience, information and reflection it offered.
Narkissos,
If you really leave, then the XJW community will lose one of its pillars. You definitely deserve the praises which are conveyed to you. I, too, have great respect for your biblical and linguistic knowledge, even though I don't quite feel on the same wavelength as yours, as far as religious sensitivity is concerned. Let's say, using B. Grizzuti's terms, that I retain some intolerance to ambiguity (but no self loathing, thanks God), as a -still- nominal JW, whereas, as I see it, religion seems now to be for you a mere matter for intellectual study. I will keep clicking, on occasions, on Theolib so as to get a glimpse of what you are interested in. In any case, thanks for your contributions to JWD...et bon vent !
i'm just wondering because i was raised to believe that a woman should get married and have children.
i think that this is an out-dated philosophy and that girls shouldn't be taught that they have to be in a marriage to be complete.
please, discuss.
I'm not a woman but, being married, I sincerely believe that most women (not all) find personal achievement in motherhood, which itself will thrive best within a lasting commitment, whether you call it marriage bond or anything else. The advantage of marriage is that it is a formal contract which provides a secure legal frame whereby each part knows what is involved, for parents as well as for children. Same reasoning when there are no children. Yes, marriage helps approaching happiness. One small detail though : it has to be a happy marriage, full circle.
there are so many reasons why i liked being a jehovahs's witness.
1. we got to count time when we share our faith with nonbelievers or our young children.
2. we didn't have to go to college to get a good job as a janitor or a window washer.
to pet a lion..............
Outlaw,
Would you really pet the lion or just pat it ?
just a thought(s) about how/why the society wants to cut off members from a normal societal relationship.
outside information: people need information outside their own bubble so to speak, so that they can know what really is going on around them.
members need information from the outside to know the truth.
WTBTS in the coming years as it becomes more isolated
Sacolton,
I don't quite agree. Like any organization, the WTS seeks its own preservation and survival (lot of material assets and existing infrastructure to save). I think that it will adapt and turn mainstream, just because men at the top, isolated though they are, understand, or some younger ones make them understand, that they can't row against the tide of globalized world with instant information through internet. As I can see around me even right now, there will still exist JWs in the future, not all of them ignorant but some quite well educated, who :
1- want to keep the religion which has taught them a creed somewhat different from other religion's, what they call "the truth"
2- consider that this organization provides a social network, and - a measure of - trust between its members. In this, the phrase "country club" looks quite fitting.
The WTS has already gotten rid of what makes it the most marginal : blood, voting, alternative service. IMO, JWs, in a few years time, will be just another adventistlike denomination. And, of course, another new religion will spring up on the fundamentalist and millenarist market, claiming that it is the only original christian religion, and so on, and on ...
i am in the area (neptune beach) checking things out.. .
purps.
ps isn't the beach awesome?
Hei, Purps,
enjoy Florida, which I only know through TV series and news. If it is as unsecure as they say in the papers, just watch out. Wish you success with your project.
warms my heart.... hello all you darling new people escaping from the borg!.
much love.
rob.
what they learned about the WT [...] etc which is all on the internet.
WingCommander,
I experienced that a few weeks ago. As soon as we learnt on JWD thet the book study would be suppressed from next january on, I arranged, by e-mail, for it to be known by a few JWs in my congregation and eventually two elders asked me how I had known, since the news had to be kept confidential until it was announced from the platform. I said that you can find everything on the internet and they were quite impressed. No more questions, so far.
pictures in the latest two wt study articles left me with an uncomfortable feeling, which leads me to wonder if hs is ever inspiring the gb members in charge (i suppose there are such ones) of editing wt study articles before them being printed.. first, there was that picture last week where a jw man is meant to give his work colleagues a fine witness as, during break time, he is reading his bible, and it is implied that, in doing so, he is triggering the interest of one of his work mates who, at first, looks rather suspicious.
in fact, that jw man is sitting ten steps away from his colleagues and reads his bible quite ostentatiously.
at watching that picture, instead of thinking of a fine witness being given, any onlooker will say that this mans attitude is pharisaic and delivers the message that he his holier than all those around who belong to the sinful world and he doesnt want to mingle with them.
supposed to be artist drawings illustrating a point
BluesBrother,
This is precisely what should worry GB members : They illustrate a point (giving a witness by means of reading the Bible) and they mean that illustration to be part of the teaching. Now, if the spirit which exudes from that illustration, i.e. standoffish and pompous attitude, is so blatantly in contradiction with the spirit of the Bible, humility, they should ask themselves the question : if HS isn't ringing the alarm bell in the course of writing, editing, and publishing the article in what the WTS views as the privileged teaching channel, i.e. WT study article, is HS with the GB at all ?
deep breath here....... my baby... nearly 15!...
has disclosed in the last several months .
that, altho born to us a girl, he needs to be a boy... we have had.
Chickpea,
unless one has first hand experience of such an event, I believe one can't really measure the extent of the upheaval that such an event can create in a family. I don't have that experience, so, all that I can offer, as a christian father, is compassion and an attempt to imagine and understand the feelings of the parties involved. All this I wholeheartedly offer to you and the members of your family, with sincere prayers to Jehovah that He may assist you all.
