Last night I had a phone call from a concerned friend who knows we face a JC.
He means the world to me and is like my second dad. He is a loving, intelligent wonderful man (a little opinionated, but aren't we all?)
We had a long conversation and I won't bore you all with the details :-) but the highlights were as follows:-
I mentioned the CHILD ABUSE SCANDAL -
Him: "where did you get that information?" (classic - as if that's relevant!)
SP: "it doesn't matter, the newspapers actually"
Him: "oh, well you can't believe the newspapers, they are lying"
SP: "but you can't and criticise the Catholic Church because you believe the stories about them, when your religion
is guilty of the same thing!"
Him: SILENCE
I mentioned 607 -
Him: "I will believe the Bible's chronology over secular chronology any day"
SP: "You can't have secular chronology without biblical chronology, I can prove Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 from
the Bible and from the Watchtower.
Him: SILENCE
I mentioned the FLIP FLOPS on ORGAN TRANPSLANTS -
Him: "I've heard all this before, everything can be explained away, its like when the society changed their view
of the secular authorities, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter"
SP: "When it involves people lives, it does. It's not good enough to say "oh, I'm sorry those ones died when we
threatened to disfellowship them if they had a transplant and then we changed our minds"
Him: SILENCE
I mentioned the ALTERNATIVE SERVICE issue -
Him: "What's that then?"
I ended up suggesting he read CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE -
Him: (Laughs) "I don't need to read Crisis of Conscience"
I think he does but he is afraid to - his whole world will fall apart, withoutu going into detail he has too much to
cope with right now.
My aim wasn't to win an argument but to try and help him understand those of us that leave due to intellectual reasons and hopefully to plant some seeds. Who knows what will happen next.....
sweet pea
JoinedPosts by sweet pea
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Discussion With A Close MS Friend
by sweet pea inlast night i had a phone call from a concerned friend who knows we face a jc.
he means the world to me and is like my second dad.
he is a loving, intelligent wonderful man (a little opinionated, but aren't we all?
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sweet pea
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PROOF that the GB lurk HERE ???
by AlphaOmega ina while ago, i posted this thread.... http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/135699/1.ashx.
in which i said.... this is strange, i read that in 1995 they did away with the "generation" teaching, yet the official watchtower website still says this, over 12 years later !.
thus, all the features of the last days must take place within the lifetime of one generation, the generation of 1914. so some people who were alive in 1914 will still be alive when this system comes to its end.
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sweet pea
I have no doubt that if you are in a situation where the elders are trying to gather evidence to condemn you to a life without friends and family then they will come here to find out as much as they can.
If Bethel receive any correspondence from the elders regarding an individual's case they will come here as well.
We were pm'd by someone on this board who had heard a rumour about us 400 miles away. He recognised us from something we talked about that mirrored a comment included in the gossip about us. If HE put two and two together and he doesn't even KNOW us then I'm sure people that DO know us (if they are here) will work it out.
There are many reasons why they come here and even if they didn't have any, they would still come here - how could they resist? An intellectually stimulating group of like-minded, caring, funny people all joined by a common background and cause. A secret club that no-one knows they have infiltrated? A no brainer.
I wouldn't be surprised if they're even allowed to 'count their time' on here! LOL -
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Active Elders who post on JWD
by Honesty indoes your conscience torment you knowing that you are misleading the flock of god as you continue teaching them the heresies of the watchtower society?.
why are you staying in the organization and posting here at the same time?.
do you really believe that you can help your families to reject the watchtower society while remaining an elder and visibly appearing to support their lies and false teachings?.
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sweet pea
I have the utmost respect for those that can bear to stay - it must be torture, its hard enough doing it all when you believe it all, let alone doing it all when you think it's a load of BS.
The pain of being shunned by friends and family is unbearable - I can understand that many cannot face that pain and have a plan to try and minimise the damage of leaving, however long that may take.
If the society can promote the telling of lies/withholding the truth in certain situations, in the name of 'theocratic warfare' (can't remember the WT that ran this article - maybe someone can help out?) then I don't see anything wrong in living a 'double life' as an unbelieving elder'.
In a cult, all the normal rules of life do not apply.
You are doing a great job (but I hope you are able to leave soon....) :-)
SP -
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Could the WTBTS get JWs to kill?
by serotonin_wraith ini'm not saying those in power would even contemplate doing this, but i wonder just how far jws would go to obey their leaders.
would they go as far as to kill, if they thought god had given that message to 'his people'?.
it would probably take years of subtle changes in their message so that it didn't come as a big shock.
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sweet pea
The more malign cults have introduced physical separation from society at large ie living together in a commune, with guards of one sort or another preventing the doubters from departing
I think this would need to happen first before you could build up the necessary 'all is lost, we are doomed anyway' mentality required to start killing.
So a more useful question might be 'If JW's were ordered to 'flee to the hills' would they?' -
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How many GB to change a light bulb?
by TJ - iAmCleared2Land inq: how many members of the governing body does it take to change a light bulb?.
a: the light bulb does not need to be changed.
the light bulb, in an antitypical way, represents the light that emanated from the most holy, from between the cherubs atop the ark of the covenant.
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sweet pea
The advertising industry doesn't miss a trick does it?
Can you believe the banner ads are trying to sell us light bulbs at the top of this thread? LOL -
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Is Active Disbelief a New Development?
by metatron inin decades past, i can't ever recall anyone who 'left the truth' , who openly believed it was false.. i knew lots of people who drifted away but none who actively proclaimed that what the organization.
taught was false.
usually, you would bump into them and they would say , "i know its the truth but.
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sweet pea
I believe we're at the start of a tipping point. The internet is changing everything. I don't see how anyone today from 15 years old and up will not go to the internet to check out Jehovah's Witnesses and hence are only a few clicks away from peeking behind the curtain and having everything unravel before them.
The last person in our congregation before us to leave openly because they no longer believed that only the Society had the 'truth', was 13 years ago. I may be wrong but I don't think it'll be another 13 years before someone else leaves our cong for the same thing.
If more of you currently living a 'double life' made a stand, more people would follow you.
Again, IMHO, its like when you're on a course and no-one wants to put their hand up and ask a question for fear of looking stupid (insert your personal fear of choice...) but you do and then loads of people come up and say that they were thinking the same thing but were nervous to put their hand up and ask. There must be an awful lot of people questioning secretly right now or is this wishful thinking on my part? -
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What Does Being Spiritual Mean To You?
by sweet pea inright now, to me being spiritual is all about being led by your inner spirit and includes .
1. being in tune with the goodness within and treating people how you would like to be treated.
2. being in tune with nature and appreciating the beauty and complexity of the universe.
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sweet pea
Right now, to me being spiritual is all about being led by your inner spirit and includes
1. Being in tune with the goodness within and treating people how you would like to be treated.
2. Being in tune with nature and appreciating the beauty and complexity of the universe.
3. Recognising there is a higher power and worshipping in a way that feels right but does not
include meetings 3x a week, field service etc, or going to a church. Just talking internally
to this 'Being' counts, together with the above.
Thoughts? -
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sweet pea
and a Happy New Year!
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Lurking has its faults
by RisingEagle ini've been researching prior postings gathering info but mostly reading because i've been 'out' for almost 14 years.
i still have numerous relatives that are still 'in' and when we get together those still in seem to get a sort of kick out of discussing super double secret goings on with 'new light' and changes in the cult.
it's been fun to be able to say, "oh you mean the change in length of the sunday talk?
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sweet pea
Welcome Mr and Mrs Eagle!
Great story so far - my hubby and I are similar in that I'm sure people thought I wasn't marrying well as Besty obviously wasn't going to be a 'strong spiritual head', but I loved him, he made me laugh and he wasn't your average 'dub'. 10 years later we're going strong, stronger than ever now we're singing off the same song sheet.
Keep posting, don't worry about bringing up stuff that's been covered before. There are so many newbies joining here these days that I'm sure they're wondering about all the same things as you are right now and everyone here loves to help and give their 2 cents worth. It reaffirms to everyone that underneath we're all the same and we haven't been wondering alone all these years. -
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What's your name for 'Watchtower Speak'?
by sweet pea inhaving put some distance in between us and the wts, i can't read any of the society's publications without feeling extremely uncomfortable and irritated by the tone and language that the society uses.
it all sounds the same - patronising, guilt-inducing, condescending, intellectually unchallenging, etc.
as far as i'm aware the term is 'watchtower speak'.
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sweet pea
Honesty - that is a truly disgusting picture - LOL
I think the winner so far is Dubbish, to rhyme with rubbish.