Posts by StephaneLaliberte

24

What Was Your Most Memorable Field Service Experience?

by Sea Breeze in

me: selling the wt and awake for 10 cents at 5 years old.

i don't mean to brag or anything, but i sold 'em like hotcakes.

i musta been a cutie at 5 yo.

StephaneLaliberte

I used to start all my presentations with:

"Hello sir/ma'am, we're having discussions with our neighbors this morning on a topic that has an impact on everyone and ... " I asked them a question.

then a man at the door said... "no. you're not having discussions, you're preaching. I can tell that no matter the answer I have for you, you already have a come back. If I say no, you'll say this and if I say yes, you'll say that. that aint a conversation, its leading up for a sell.

If you truly want to have conversations, ask open ended questions where you have no idea what the person will say. While they are saying it, don't think of a come back, simply listen to what they have to say. Once they are done saying it, new ideas might emerge. That's what a conversation is! You're just here to sell your ideas.

From that day forward, I never used that expression again when preaching. Later, when I was ready to hear what people really had to say, I used open ended questions, but that was when I was alone... never did it with other people with me.

12

Are JWs still reporting time?

by Vanderhoven7 in

here are some little child encouragers at work.. .

how do they report time since the halls closed?.

StephaneLaliberte

"and dont forget the 4 hrs per month per parent per child,"

I actually liked that rule as it allowed me not to go door to door for almost a year before fading out for good.

37

What are your personal reasons for hating the Jehovah's Witnesses religion ?

by Rocketman123 in

first thing comes to mind is that this organization through its leaders are not witnessing the true and honest version of the gospel teachings of jesus christ .. they are subjectively teaching/preaching a tainted version made up by the top controlling men of the organization, which i'm sure is connected to the proliferation and distribution of literature which these men publish themselves.

.

when jesus said that no one knows of the time not even he, he didn't say a select few will know .. the other thing that bothers me is this organization promotes human ignorance on many levels, admonishing education or knowledge that mankind needs for its very survival... there are many other religious organizations that do this as well but the jws is just one of these organizations.

StephaneLaliberte

I don’t hate the religion ... I think some of its tenets are dangerous and detrimental to people, that’s all. That doesn’t mean it should be wholly destroyed.
Hate is not the word... Hate is destructive to the hater and I avoid such emotions.
many of the people within it are good people, although duped , as I was once.
I don’t hate the religion either. Many aspects of the religion I don’t like though.

Though the WT paints apostates as "hating" their religion, it is not the reality. We hate some of their actions and teachings, but not everything as a whole.

37

Lloyd Evans removing comments he does not like, just like the cult

by mickbobcat in

i see posts that evans does not seem to like being removed.

i guess he is not a lot different than the control cult he left.

his rebuttal to the zoom assembly he said that dawkins made some silly comments about gender.

StephaneLaliberte

I agree, and said it before, he does control/filters the comments under his videos. He probably deletes more comments than he should and this is why he left this forum as he was not in control of the feeds.

While this indeed warrants criticism, I think comparing him to the Governing Body is too much.

1) He doesn't claim to be inspired or spirit directed. He corrects himself and admits his mistakes from time to time.

2) isn't head of some type of sect or religion where he's trying to control people. He's said often that people are in a better place when they leave the JWs and don't need to watch his videos.

3) Doesn't shy from working publicly with people who don't believe the same thing he does. - He often works with believers while he's openly atheist.

4) Doesn't try to break families apart based on what they believe.

5) Doesn't try to rationalize and or excuse pedophiles.

All this to say: Yes, he is a bit of a controller, doesn't always deliver on his promises, gets annoying with "his patrons", talks way longer than he should on many of his videos, and sometimes finds criticism where none is really warranted. Sure. But to go as far as to compare him to cult leaders who destroy people's lifes on a daily basis? Come on now...

52

If you could pick out critical errors to the JWS religion what would it be ?

by Rocketman123 in

many that have come to this forum have left the jws religion and moved on with their lives but from a outsider's viewpoint what do think makes the jws religion wrong or incorrect as a active christian faith ?.

somethings come to mind such as its long continuous end times/armageddon soon doctrine which has really been a core doctrine for decades going right back to its beginning .. maybe they should have adopted the stance as other christian based faiths and adhered to jesus's own words when he said " no one knows of the time not even he ".

.

StephaneLaliberte

The Watchtower never admits it is wrong or apologizes for the pain it caused with its teaches.

I second truth b known.

The religion and its leaders should display Christian qualities. They are not exempt from this requirement. One of these things is asking forgiveness for your sins, which they don't do. Moreover, if you say you disagree with them on even insignificant matters, they will cast you out labeling you an apostate/anti-Christ. This is the furthest thing from being meek and humble Christian leaders.

11

Another Gem of a conversation with my PIMI Dad

by joe134cd in

the following is a conversation i had with my pimi father regarding a news segment on tv dealing with csa.

joe: that’s terrible the incidences of csa happening in the community.

dad: yes it is.

StephaneLaliberte

I had a conversation with my dad who’s in. He understood that the WT is facing, and will face, financial repercussion for the way they handled abuse. He doesn’t stand behind the WT for this type of mishandling that he’s seen, and, to some extent, participated in. He knows that the victims suing the WT are doing it for a just cause and that they (the victims) deserve to win. The only thing though is that he was afraid that this could mean the end of his religion.

I told him that even if the WT lost all of its assets, including kingdom halls and assemblies, this would not translate to the end of the religion. The members would still be able to connect (through teams, in parcs, in community centers, etc), share their beliefs and live their faith. With time, they would be able to start new, build new halls, new bethels and go on. Financial penalties imposed on a corporation are not the same as straight up persecution as it is the case, for instance, with Russia. The religion, the belief system is not banned, but specific organizational policies are no longer accepted. These financial restitutions can and has resulted in change within the internal policies of the organization and we’d only assume that they would fix this thing if they are starting from scratch. But it wouldn’t be the end of the religion.

20

Strong female characters in film before the 'Woke Era'

by LoveUniHateExams in

since about 2015, hollywood has congratulated itself and circle-jerked over the 'strong women' characters they've written.

i'd say this roughly began with rey in the force awakens (2015).

what hollywood forgets is that strong characters have to have a personality, otherwise audiences don't really relate to them.. well, hollywood should really stop patting themselves on the back as if they've done something special.. strong female characters have been a staple for decades.. here's one: private vasquez, from aliens (1986).

StephaneLaliberte

20

Strong female characters in film before the 'Woke Era'

by LoveUniHateExams in

since about 2015, hollywood has congratulated itself and circle-jerked over the 'strong women' characters they've written.

i'd say this roughly began with rey in the force awakens (2015).

what hollywood forgets is that strong characters have to have a personality, otherwise audiences don't really relate to them.. well, hollywood should really stop patting themselves on the back as if they've done something special.. strong female characters have been a staple for decades.. here's one: private vasquez, from aliens (1986).

StephaneLaliberte

Marry Poppins

18

In History Who Is The Most Influential Person To You?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think jesus christ was the most influential person in history.

of course some people think he never really existed but everyone has an opinion.

who do you think made the most influence on you?.

StephaneLaliberte

When reading "Hitler" in one of the answers here, I was like "What????" But come to thing about it, yeah, he's been very influential in terms of what not to do and how things can slowly get into a nightmarish state even in a civilized world. So, often, we thing: Don't do this or don't do that, cause that's how the nazi's started!

Interesting really.

35

Go Bag and Catastrophes

by StephaneLaliberte in

i live with my parents in law and yesterday, my mother in-law was very nervous about an email she got from the brothers in her congregation.

it was asking if she would be able to receive people over at our house should there be a catastrophe.

so, she asked me if i would agree with this.

StephaneLaliberte

That's the thing, a part of me wanted to calms my mother in law, but I know she's been conditioned to reject anything that remotely sounds contradictory with the WT. Instead, she'd be even more worried that we would not pass armagedon, so I played the game, for her, so that she may find some peace in believing that we might have a chance.