B_Deserter

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Posts by B_Deserter

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  12

  Jehovah's Witnesses: The Radio Shack of Religions

  by whathehadas in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if you ever been to radio shack, you would notice how relatively small the store is.

  yet according to advertisements and sales associate suggestions, they have in the store everything that you will need which is electronic related.

  they have all the answers for your technological wants simply put, or is this really the case.

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  B_Deserter

  I'd like to agree but that has never been my experience in a Radio Shack. They usually leave me alone.
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  27

  Convention 2009 - My best friend gets "love bombed" back in the "truth" and his sad SMS!!!!

  by Witness 007 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was so happy when my best friend {a witness} since childhood tells me he has doubts about the org.

  and how brothers are "two faced" and the "false prophecies", and how he "needs a woman soon or he'll visit a brothel".... he had not gone to meetings for months and his mum blamed me although he didn't need much convincing.

  well we went to the convention to please family and he enjoyed the lavish attention he got from so many "loving" brothers.

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  B_Deserter

  It's so sad to hear of people going back to the JWs "like a dog returning to its vomit." Their problem is that the JWs are like a drug to them, and they're mentally addicted. Every time they go back, they get love-bombed, and make the mistake of thinking that the witnesses are going to treat them like that all the time. It doesn't matter that it didn't happen that way the last time, and the time before that, etc. this time will be different in their minds. And then once the love-bombing is over they again realize that their problems didn't go away, and again they drift and fade away from the organization. Albert Einstein said that madness is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result each time. There's a lot of madness in the world.

  I think it also goes to show that many if not most Witnesses aren't in the religion because of how "true" it is. They're in it for emotional reasons. They don't know how to live any other way so they stick with the organization regardless.
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  29

  Are you a blood donor?

  by GLTirebiter in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  in another thread, creativhoney said:.

  the bible says there is no greater gift than you lay down your life for another, the bible refers to blood as life.

  i conclude we should all give blood.. and chalam replied:.

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  B_Deserter

  Twice a week I donate plasma. Not only do I help save lives by providing a vital fluid in the testing and manufacture of drugs, I also get beer money!
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  5

  Things in North Michigan?

  by dogon in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  how are things in north michigan?

  i hear that they are very bad for employment and business.

  i used to know a couple of people who were in the design of homes, i think their business was lake st. design.

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  B_Deserter

  I lived in Traverse City for a little over a year, and things were bad back then. There's just no work. The only manufacturing of any decent size is the one cherry cannery. There are rich people up there, but the only money in northern Michigan was made somewhere else and migrated up there. There are some rich subdivisions in Traverse City but Petoskey takes the cake by far. The only real economy is retail and services, and even then the pay is low and the industry dies every winter. When I moved up there the local lumberyard went out of business because the Home Depot came in. Then in a few short months they built a Lowes and a huge Menards (Menards is a midwestern home improvment retailer like Lowe's and Home Depot). That area cannot possibly sustain three large building supply retailers through the winter, it just can't. Nothing happens up there in the winter except for a financially marginal winter sports industry, the majority of which stays within the few ski resorts that dot the area. Like others said, it's a nice place to visit, but you really don't want to live there.
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  23

  So what's wrong with being a "Cult"?

  by The Berean in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i looked up the definition of "cult" on dictionary.com.

  definition #1 read as follows "a particular system of religious worship, esp.with reference to its rites and cerimonies.

  " that soundeed vanilla enough .... scrolling down to #2, i saw "an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal or thing, esp.

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  B_Deserter

  A leader doesn't have to be a single individual. It can be a group of individuals. My definition of a cult would be:

  1. A group based upon a unique set of core beliefs that exercises high to excessive levels of control over the daily life and actions of the individuals in its membership.
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  41

  WHERE in the bible does it say each creative day was 6,000 years? Ending around 1975??

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  could be 8,000 or 18,000 years long......if to jehovah each "a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years a day.

  " 1975 armagedon theory was based on this.

  {notice how this theory has since died off} my wife was told off by an elder for giving a talk on "creative days not 24 hours" but not stating each was 6,000 years long...she said she didn't believe it....he backed off and said okay then!

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  B_Deserter

  Blondie, here's an interesting article published a few years after the one you posted:

  It [Genesis] allows for possibly thousands of millions of years for the formation of the earth and many millenniums in six creative eras, or “days,” to prepare the earth for human habitation.

  This is from an article in the February 8, 1990 Awake, pages 10-11

  It appears 1990 is when the society officially abandoned the 49,000-year-old-earth theory.
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  58

  "I'm Perfect, You're Doomed" discussion...

  by Tuesday in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  has anyone read this book?.

  i figured i had to comment because everyone was telling me oh tim, youre going to love this book.

  she went to the same assemblies as you, she was raised in a similar household, she did poetry slams as well.

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  B_Deserter

  Again my opinion, some of us who need to leave the organization sin purposely so that the decision is made for them, then there are those who will stand up and say "Look I don't believe this, and I'm leaving."

  The thing is though that the society really doesn't like to acknowledge the latter group. My personal example is a good one in this regard. I told my parents I didn't want to be a JW anymore two years ago. What did they and the elders do? NOTHING. I had an elder AT MY HOUSE every week studying with my little brother, who KNEW that I didn't believe the Watchtower anymore. He made NO attempt to talk to me or anything, it was only AFTER some Witnesses found out that I had been sleeping with my girlfriend that any serious shunning took place.

  So I personally can see why some people would run off and commit some "sin" in order to get disfellowshipped or get out of a situation. Sometimes it's the only way the Witnesses will do anything. Throughout my two years I was extremely tempted to do something in order to get disfellowshipped. If I left because I disagreed with doctrine, then I'd be faced with arguments and debate ad naseum, and at that point I could barely stand the stupidity of the Watchtower articles, let alone three elders and me caught off-guard in a back room. If I went off and had sex, then it'd be simple. They'd think I was just being selfish (which they would think regardless of my reasons for leaving anyway), and just give me the assembly-line disfellowshipping they're used to. Is that a cowardly way out? Maybe. But I don't owe them an explanation.
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  58

  "I'm Perfect, You're Doomed" discussion...

  by Tuesday in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  has anyone read this book?.

  i figured i had to comment because everyone was telling me oh tim, youre going to love this book.

  she went to the same assemblies as you, she was raised in a similar household, she did poetry slams as well.

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  B_Deserter

  I enjoyed the book and don't pity her. It doesn't bother me that her story confirms the watchtower stereotypes or not. Those stereotypes are going to exist regardless. Honestly I agree that she has only herself to blame for many of the poor decisions she made.

  So often we expect a book by an ex-JW to be some expose on the organization focusing on historical and doctrinal minutiae. I did find the first half of the book funny. The humor to me was a mixture of Douglas Adams and Wil Wheton. Halfway through though it gets dark and stops being funny. I have to confess it was not an enjoyable read through the second half, and I had a lot of the same feelings Tim had, namely, she was really a bad person. I mean the part where she gets married to a guy that normally wouldn't have a chance just shows a lot of cruelty on her part. Her story actually made me feel a bit sorry for her dad and ex-husband. I know I'd be devastated if I came home one day and all of the sudden my fiance told me she didn't love me anymore, after giving me ZERO indication that there was a problem. And so her character is flawed. So what? I mean would you rather she just shut up and not talk about it? I mean you can fault her to a point, but just because she didn't have the inspiring exit story where she goes off to college, marries a wonderful worldly guy and now lives in a house in the suburbs with a 2-car garage/runs a multinational corporation/competes in the Iron Man Triathlon/etc. doesn't mean that her story isn't somehow legitimate.

  I just don't understand why some of us think that every story by an ex-JW needs to have an anti-Watchtower angle to it.

  As far as the whole "manatee joke" allegation I don't really see it. It's a memoir so it's going to jump around a bit, but it wasn't like she wastalking about the horrible singing at the Kingdom Hall and then immediately breaks into a "it's like that time I slept with Bill clinton" sidetrack. Maybe I'll have to read the book again.
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  16

  Republican Witnesses and Democrat Witnesses

  by inkling in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it seems to me that witnesses are political in .

  much the same way they are racist: i.e.

  but not out loud.. i recall a conversation during a coffee break.

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  B_Deserter

  Most witnesses where I lived definitely fell on the left side of the spectrum. NPR was popular with everybody and in fact the PO would often use the phrase "I was listening to NPR the other day and..." in his talks. Also, I don't any JW I met that didn't hate Bush.
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  93

  what is best evidence against noah's flood?......

  by oompa in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  keep it simple if possible........i like the ice core samples.........thanks, this was not my big issue but i may be able to use it.......oompa.

  feel free to direct me to another thread btw...... or maybe i should read the second page of olins thread!.

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  B_Deserter

  How about the fact that a 400 foot long mesopotamian barge from the bronze age with no keel would have broken apart and sunk almost immediately. Even recent wooden boats with keels regularly leaked due to the pressures put on that size of a craft by the current. Wood planks regularly separate causing water to leak in. In large wooden vessels such as those water had to be constantly carried out or else the ship would sink. Take away the keel and you lose 90% of the vessel's stability. Then add the weight of every "kind" of animal, along with the food required to feed them for a year, as well as the resulting excrement, and Noah's ark wouldn't have held together for 40 seconds, let alone 40 days and 40 nights.