ok, i was told all about this being "the city different", but damn!!!!.
they announce the fbi weed search flyovers a month in advance in the newspapers.. if you get pulled over and are found to have been drinking, they escort you home!!!!.
this place is crazy...but i like it!.
my wife has been wanting to hang out down there....may have to take a vacation, look at some real estate for a second home or something.
sounds like my kind of place.
even though san francisco will be very hard to ever leave and will always need to keep one foot here.
well, i've known the truth about the witnesses for over two years.
and i've been pretending to be one ever since.
i'm sure most of us did that for a period of time, some longer than others.. i think it has changed my personality, especially since i've been a teenager the whole time.. .
i believe you're surviving how you have to at the moment.....everyone's situation is different, but it took me a long time to fade as well, i think the thing i carry with me the most is the self-guilt for letting the brothers abuse me how they did over the years while keeping my mouth shut and agreeing. if i didn't do that, my life may be quite different, or may have ended in suicide b/c i was very fragile emotionally at the time and several friends had just killed themselves, but that wasn't taken into consideration b/c congregation gossip made me guilty until proven innocent and individual concern, aka, the lamb weeping in the corner from many tragedies never acknowledged, was not a concern. and had nothing to do with christian philosophy.
you gotta do what you gotta do. i think you'll realized the effect of the whole bs situation will affect you more than how you're currently coping with it.
big hug from california.
i remember being a pioneer and telling people how stupid they were for believing in a "burning hell.".
the analogy they told us to use was..... "if you had a small child and they were bad could you take that child and put it's hand over a flame and burn it's flesh and hold his hand there....dispite his screams and his pain?".
of course the answer was always...."no".
i'm reading "foreskin's lament" right now, about 40 pages in, buy Auslander, and i'm laughing my ass off b/c he nails it re: the god that's going to kill him at any moment.
even killing the first born of the Egyptians during the plagues....how many of those died innocently, if it really happened, just because their parents made certain decisions.
.
we had to stomach knocking.. why can't we get some media exposure on truth about the truth?.
.
Oprah? she's a bitch. I know from first hand experience that i can't elaborate further on, but she's a bitch and is so litigious she outranks the wtbts for her idiocy....she'd probably side with teh wtbts then go shoe shopping with Gail.
dr. phil? maybe. but i could see him siding with it as an evangelical religion and followers who "choose" to shun family members.
michael moore would be fun, but his rep is in the dumper when it comes to objectivity, so even if he bashed the wtbts it might work in their favor.
the knocking documentary was pathetically picked up for distribution, wait, i mean PBS airing, b/c the director beefed up all the numbers of attendence of pre-screenings by getting all the congregations in every area to watch and pay for the film over and over again to 'get their word out'. the idiot doesn't even know 'their word' is that he's gay and going to die by god's hand....or he does and is a genius and looking to purchase his first home with cash.
and, in his brilliance, he's self distributing, with the backing of the congregations, making much $$$. he found his niche, but i don't think hollywood is ever going to take him seriously and if i find out he's negotiating with anyone i'll send a note over to let them know the situation.....and post who he's negotiating with here of course.
we need a jw who is on the way out, who is a bethelite, who can do hidden camera stuff. oh, if only hi end technology was available for the whole raymond franz situation.
we need audio recordings of governing body meetings, JCs, etc.
anything produced by any current filmmakers, the wtbts would be on their asses and making a pretty picture....i think it would backfire.
if any bethelites passing through want some help with a project like this, i'd be happy to offer advice.
are you in the governing body and really wish you had a film career? let's rock!
i know a soon to be former elder who is a really good guy.
we can discuss anything and he never looks down his nose at me.
nor does he take any of my very candid discussions any further than between us.
couldn't tell you how many racist comments among the elders and MSs as jokes, in all white halls against blacks, in all black halls against whites.
sounds like your experience was just another blown out of proportion bs political move.....like 90% of the decisions in jws, more political, legally motivated that having any real biblical motivation behind it, though they like to pretend this lil' scripture here is the reason.
hopefully your friend sees through the mistreatment and gts out.
i have been emailing with several jws in my congregation about the osce issue.
i pointed out the hypocrisy of not allowing us to join the ymca, but then having osce ngos.
one sister emailed me that a sister in her congregation just received a letter from the society stating that it is ok for her to to join the y. she needed to join for rehab purposes.
i know someone who had to give up his scuba diving license b/c it was registered with the ymca.
straining the gnat.
straw in your brother's eye.
washing up to the elbows.
we were also admonished in one of the congregations we were in to not shop at salvation army b/c it's a religious organization.
so glad i'm out of that crap.
the watchtower library 2006 is now available in english via bittorrent.
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3861516 .
and use a suitable client such as utorrent or azuerus.
:All the articles are based on the bible, or so it is claimed. Also the bible is so old it is public domain. Therefore all works based on it are public domain.:
the bible is public domain, but not articles written after 1920-something so no, wtbts articles aren't public domain unless they didn't bother to renew copyright on recent material.
the new world translation isn't even public domain, if you tried to republish it, they could come after you.
i opened my myspace and received this letter:.
hello sister ,.
hope to find you in good health am a jehovah wittness xxxxxx by name i saw your profile, am single looking for a good jehovahs wittness sister to be my life patiner, am black african if u are in trested please contact me here to see my pictures [email protected], or call me +xxxxxxxx.
lol.
stay far away. anybody. everybody.
that's not an offer, that's a threat.
i don't know if this is a worldwide thing because i didn't go the meeting where the arrangement was announced, but it's being done in my congregation anyway.
during those 6 months the member assigned to the pioneer is meant to make time to work with the pioneer as much as possible, so they can strengthen each other.
the idea is meant to be that eventually each member of the congregation will get a go.
we were put in that bs program before i completely faded...and didn't want to do it, but when they 'urge' you and you say no, the problems mount up.
so we did it, but kept making excuses and only had to do service three times with this pioneer couple who were clueless kids who grew up the the wtbts, well, we did too, but they never ever had a rebellious year and the hubby probably prayed every time he gave himself pleasure. one of those couples whose whole existence is based on the wtbts and take that away and they would turn to dust.
funny thing was, i used to be a pioneer and he handled himself horribly at the door, disrespecting people, being argumentative, and i got way better response b/c i didn't years of pent up _____ down there.
i think he was kind of glad we continually flaked on them b/c he couldn't hang with my gentle mentality.
so, so, so, so glad i'm outta there.
ok, here's the thing.... i have a 2004 ford taurus.
it's really nice with sun roof /power seats/heated side mirrors/the works and it's mine but with a payment of $310.
i was just offered to take a 1995 saturn (still runs decent) for the taurus but with the '95 i will not have a payment though there will be more maintenance on it.. i love my taurus, it makes me feel like i'm still human but i'm very much strapped with finances.
debt is american capitalism at its worst. if you can get out of any debt, including car debt, do it. it's all a set up to be completely stretched thin and a slave to pathetic jobs to keep and continue to buy stuff we don't need.
there's actually some great books on how to save and create wealth, and they alway have the same philosophy towards debt.....get out of it and build a savings account.......find a decent mechanic to check out the older car. we have a car from the 80's that keeps pluggin' along and put about $600 year on repairs on it...almost the same to keep a new car oiled up, etc. the way the car companies have set up closed transmission systems and stuff, where you can't even check trannie fluid yourself without going to a dealer....it's ridiculous.
i'm all for zero debt, unless you're making payments on a decent property that you're living in.
