today was the first of the two parter series on browbeating the inactive to get back to the meetings.. my other half who has been inactive for a short while received an email from a "friend" who's still in, acknowledging it's been a while since they last made contact and could they stop by to see how we're doing?.
the moment of truth - friends who ignore you and make no effort to contact you when you leave suddenly get a guilt trip over an article in the watchtower.. anyone else here had their door bell rung, received a phone call or email from a "concerned" friend due to this study article, or is it still early days?.
Interestingly, my wife who is still in and very strong, wanted to go away this weekend. So we packed a few things on Sat and disappeared into the wilds for Saturday. Stayed at a very pleasant hotel and had a lazy Sunday morning.
I am sure I will be 'ear-marked' for a visit soon though!
i suspect a few witnesses were not "straight" but didn't act on their sexual preferences.. i knew one up and coming bethelite who was approached by the bethel heavies and talked to about his "effeminate mannerisms" and was pretty much told that he could become a more prominent menmber of the bethel family if he "became more masculine looking" and preferably found a bethel sister to marry.
he followed the counsel and was thereafter a regular designated bethel speaker at district conventions.
interestingly, all of his bethel buddies thought the whole scenario was a hoot, knowing that he was really an effeminate man suddenly now looking very hetero..
Probably.
The Society adopts only one position on Gay people and that is they are all bad abd doomed to God's condemnation. I hope we here are a little more enlightened than that.
when i look back, since i was born in the 50s, i see most oldtimers that i grew up are still connected to the organization.
that is, those who were in the 50s and 60s.. those that came in the 70s seemed to leave, pretty much.
the ones that came in the 80s and 90s seemed to be mostly mentally unbalanced and some still go to the meetings but many suffer from depression and are not as active as they "should" be.. are most of the witnesses that you knew still practicing or are they gone?.
Many of the real old timers have now passed away. I remember when I was growing up there were people in my congregation going back to WWI and we had one ex-missionary who had been to the 2nd Gilead class. These are all long gone.
The congregations today are oftem made up of 2nd, 3rd and even 4th generation witnesses.Many of today's elders are sons of elders. And, unlike the 60s and 70s I don't see any new famillies joining the religion. Where new ones do come a long as individuals and often they are the strange and disfunctional.
man wants kidney back from estranged wife .
(necn/abc) - during the summer of 1990, dr. richard batista gave his wife his heart.
more than a decade later, he gave her his kidney.
"For better, for worse, in sickness and in health" perhaps.
since the jehovah witness baptism is more or less worded like a contract, when someone disassociates does that mean the baptism is considered voided?.
The Society is in the enviable position of constantly being able to make up new rules as they wish. What I can say is that in my 50 years in the 'truth' I never came across someone who got baptised a second time, though I do know of very many who were disfellowshipped or DA'ed who came back.
Personally, my baptism vows were the old wording - so my baptism was not a case recognising myself as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, merely acknowledging myself as a sinner who would hence forth seek to do God's will. Seems to me that I could take that vow to almost any other religion!
i searched for this here and didn't find any posts about it.
i just found this while searching for info as i was debating a jw on another site.
this is the most mind-blowing, spaced-out, insane bunch of mess i've ever heard.
And they say, "do not go beyond the things written"!
sane people define spiritual an inner way of being, of growing closer to the source or higher power.
it is "fostering a transcendent experience that lies beyond all names and yet the experience longs to be articulated and made concrete in everyday living.
it is easier to describe what spiritual direction does than what spiritual direction is.
The Watchtower society certainly has its definition of 'spirituality' that would not be recognised outside of the organization. Personally, I met very few what I would term 'spiritual' elders. Most of their conversations used to center round the latest auto they had bought or the latest soccer game. It used to frustrate me no end.
I do think there is such a thing as spirituality; a sense that there is something outside of our physical needs and desires. It is what makes us human and gives rise to the greatest humanartistic and intellectual achievements.
I only hope that I can find the inner peace and calmness that comes with finding that spirituality before my time comes to die. This is probably why I like the ideas of Budhism at the moment.
i started a thread on yellowstone's super volcano having major tremors over the last week...also this week a meteor exploded over alaska causing a sonic boom.
in the movie "deep impact" president morgan freeman tells the world that a huge meteor is coming and life is about to end for many.
this would never happen in real life.
Even worse news......
Today it was announced that our Milky Way is far bigger than previously though, which means we are closer to colliding with Andromeda. Better start worrying about it now, it is only a few billion years away now.
i've been using google's chrome browser for about 4 months now and love it.
i love it mainly because it's simple and so fast compared with ie7.
i know there are a lot of browsers that are better than ie7, but this thread is not about which is the best browser.. i'm curious to find out what others think vis a vis ie7 vs. chrome.
I got it - just me being thick. Just to need to click the html button
eyeslice
i've been using google's chrome browser for about 4 months now and love it.
i love it mainly because it's simple and so fast compared with ie7.
i know there are a lot of browsers that are better than ie7, but this thread is not about which is the best browser.. i'm curious to find out what others think vis a vis ie7 vs. chrome.
