Posts by B_Deserter

26

"The point is that Christians have implicit trust in their heavenly Father; they do not question what he tells them through his written Word and organization." Watchtower 1974 July 15 p.441

by Scott77 in

"the point is that christians have implicit trust in their heavenly father; they do not question what he tells them through his written word and organization.

" watchtower 1974 july 15 p.441,courtesy of yesidid.

when you analyze the above statement, what is your reaction?

B_Deserter

That's pretty much a slam-dunk rebuttal for any JW who says the society allows open questioning of their teachings.

20

years ago i remember reading something published by the watchtower about men not being appointed as overseers if they had a vasectomy i have searched the cd library but cannot find the information does anyone remember where i might find that information?.

ld.

B_Deserter

I was raised a JW and honestly didn't know this was a no-no until I was well into my 20s. I was talking to a friend and said "well I could just get a vasectomy." She got really quiet and was like, "you can't do that." I'm like "what? why not?" Her: "You're mutilating yourself, there are articles about it." It just floored me at the time. We could use condoms but not get a vasectomy? What's the difference? The intent is to have sex without it resulting in pregnancy in both cases. Where I'm from I guess it's just not something that gets covered.

27

Question? Mayan/Baktun/144000 cycle/2012??

by mind blown in

i recently ran accross this info.

from what i gather the 21st century will be indeed be an interesting time...... if anyone knows anything more.....it would be truly appriciated...... .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/baktun.

B_Deserter

I'm sorry, but thinking the world will end when the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 is like thinking the world will end when the calendar on your wall ends on December 31, 2010. All calendars have to stop at some point.

31

Can you believe someone actually made this.........?

by iknowall558 in

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B_Deserter

If I had a dollar for every time a JW in real life saw that cake and said "It's spiritual food! HAR HAR HAR!" I'd be a very rich man.

1

Gary Gygax

by B_Deserter in

i've seen gary's name on a few lists of celebrity jehovah's witnesses.

after some looking i discovered that gygax was not in fact a jehovah's witness.

there were a few interviews in which he self-identified as one, either to be ironically humorous (due to the intense anti-dnd stance of the watchtower) or because he felt a certain affinity to it, but it's not really accurate to consider him a jw i don't think..

B_Deserter

I've seen Gary's name on a few lists of celebrity Jehovah's Witnesses. After some looking I discovered that Gygax was not in fact a Jehovah's Witness. There were a few interviews in which he self-identified as one, either to be ironically humorous (due to the intense anti-DND stance of the Watchtower) or because he felt a certain affinity to it, but it's not really accurate to consider him a JW I don't think.

31

who had a child molester in their congregation ?

by looloo in

i have done this thread a long time ago , but a few newbies have joined recently and may have had some experiances to share , there was 2 in the congregation i was involved with (i was a "study" ) one was from bethel in america and got deported after his prison sentence and the other was reprooved for abuse then carried on abusing in the congregation , years later he abused my daughter and after i found out i reported him to the police , but he had got off "scot free" for 20 years untill i reported him .

i believe the one from bethel was reported to the police simply because elders kids were affected ..

B_Deserter

I didn't know about this, but there was an elder in my hall who gave me guitar lessons for a few years. He had a stepdaughter I had a HUGE crush on for the longest time. So I tried to buddy-up with him to make it happen (because when you're a naive, ignorant 14-year-old JW boy, these things make sense), and needless to say it didn't work. There always seemed to be this weird vibe between him and his stepdaughter anyway, like an elephant in the room nobody would talk about. The girl's mom seemed to be a nice person, but mentally off a little bit, like she was constantly under a lot of stress and had to fake like she wasn't.

I recently got back in contact with the girl and turns out her elder stepdad molested her from the time she was 6 until she was 12, and his wife (her mother) was right there in the bed while it happened (I always wondered why she was popping anti-depressants like candy). Talk about a fucked up situation. I idolized that guy, too. He seemed to be the epitome of the "cool elder." It kind of shocked me when I find out but at the same time it didn't. I think I always knew there was something wrong between those two.

43

Ex -JWs ASL Congragations

by Scott77 in

anyone who was part of asl congregations?

what was your experiences witnessing in asl/deaf territories?.

.

B_Deserter

Geez I didn't think I'd get attacked on this. Why is it that when someone mentions something that happens, everybody always ASSUMES they're saying it's the case EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME? There are maybe two, three deaf people in the ASL congregation in my old hall. The rest are hearing people who learned ASL. I honestly don't think that justifies an ASL congregation, and knowing those people I think a lot of them aren't learning ASL to help anyone, they're learning it because they get to be part of an elite group of "need-greaters" without really having to do much at all (not saying it isn't work, but they don't really have to disrupt their lives very much). I know this because it's happened with other foreign languages as well. Spanish I remember fondly. All the teenagers were learning spanish to go "work" in the tropical paradise of the Dominican Republic (or, as they called it, "the D.R.") and everybody would treat them like absolute GODS when they got home. You can't tell me that this isn't a huge draw for at least some witnesses to learn ASL. But not once did I say Lady Lee that this was YOUR motivation for this or that it's everybody's motivation. There are those in the group who genuinely want to help. But foreign languages are becoming a fad in Witness culture, and I do question the motives of a lot of them. It would be great if everyone in my old hall learned ASL to talk to the handful of those among them who use it as a primary language. But I think a lot of them are doing it to display as I said before their "spiritual plumage."

Now when I said that I don't like the idea of ASL congregations, the reasons for that were due to my ignorance of the subject, and I apologize for that. I didn't think it really made a difference to the deaf person anyway but when you brought up the interpreter issue I realized that I hadn't thought of it that way. I can imagine being able to just "say" your answer without having someone repeating it in another language would be quite a relief! I know if I were in a room where everyone spoke spanish and I had to say everything through an interpreter for any decent length of time, I'd be happy to find a group that spoke english.

136

Memorial 2010 Your Experiences

by scotinsw in

just got back from memorial.

only went so that i could say to my parents that i had gone and to remind myself why i left.. oh my word!!!

it was sooooo painful.. got there a bit late - it was a couple of minutes into the talk.

B_Deserter

I fell asleep on the couch watching V

2

Transporting Illegal Aliens

by Scottiebear7 in

i wanted to get your take on this:.

one night, i was sitting home watching tv while my wife and stepdaughter were at their thursday km meeting, when i got a phone call from a number i didn't recognize.

mind you, i'm not a witness, never was, certainly never will be.

B_Deserter

I don't know how it is where you live, but where I'm from (West Michigan) JWs generally don't allow their members to conduct bible studies with the opposite sex. Usually after the initial few calls, the study is "handed over" to someone of the appropriate gender. Women study with women, men with men. Being alone with them in the car is another red flag, as in my experience without having at least one JW male in the car with them knowledge of this would result in MAJOR scandal in the Kingdom Hall. In fact, simply being alone with a worldly person of the opposite sex has been grounds for disfellowshipping, especially if it happened more than once.

But I know what you mean. JWs tend to thumb their noses at immigration laws on a fairly regular basis. In fact I know a former roommate who harbored an illegal "brother" for quite a long time. They quite literally think the laws do not apply to them, because they're God's special people. I've also noticed a tendency organization-wide that lets Hispanic Witnesses get away with things no other JW could get away with. Back in the 70's when Malawian brothers were being killed and tortured for not buying a 50 cent party card, the Mexican Witnesses were allowed to bribe officials to sign off on falsified military service records (army service is compulsory in Mexico), and here in the US the JWs faced jail time for refusing the draft. Everybody else has to "make a stand" for the faith, but if you live in Mexico you seem to be exempt from having to do so. I'm not saying this to be racist, but when I was in the organization I definitely got this vibe of "Mexican JWs can do whatever the hell they want."

4

What It's All About

by B_Deserter in

according to jesus, the second greatest law, after loving god, is "love your neighbor as yourself.

" it is the principle that binds the entire body of the law together, and every rule a christian should follow should have its motivation in these laws.

"love they neighbor" answers the question of why christians behave in a certain way.

B_Deserter

According to Jesus, the second greatest law, after loving God, is "love your neighbor as yourself." It is the principle that binds the entire body of the law together, and every rule a Christian should follow should have its motivation in these laws. "Love they neighbor" answers the question of why Christians behave in a certain way. Even those of us who are non-Christian like me realize the wisdom in this statement. It is not solely Christian, but universal, taught by nearly every major religion and philosophy. It finds its roots in the oldest moral writings of mankind. It is very probably the first moral code humans ever came up with.

But this is not the Watchtower organization's motive for making laws. Its motivation is this: "never make the organization look bad." That is the basis for Jehovah's Witness law. Why can't JWs in the United States have beards? It makes the organization look bad. Why can't a couple be alone together on a date? It makes the organization look bad. Why can't a victim of child molestation report the crime to the police without retaliation by the elders? It makes the organization look bad. Why can't I eat bacon in front of those Muslim bible studies? Because they might be stumbled and think badly of the organization. Why can't our Kingdom Hall have black people and white people worshiping at the same time? Because the local community is very racist and won't be "receptive" to the organization.

It's also why certain things are allowed in certain areas, but not in others. Beards, for example, are fine in south France, but not in south Jersey. In the organization, love is not what it's all about. What it's really all about is IMAGE. IMAGE is everything in the organization. It's not about how holy you are, it's how holy you APPEAR TO BE to the elders. Want proof? How about the arrangement of PRIVATE REPROOF? There is no distinction between public and private reproof in the Bible, but it is an arrangement the organization came up with in order to deal with sinners who HAVEN'T MADE THEIR SIN PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. They get a lesser punishment (it isn't announced on stage, so no public humiliation) solely because people DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT. If you get drunk with friends once in a while, usually nothing happens. BUT get a DUI and your name in the paper and you're booted before you can say the word "disfellowship." By booting you the organization's image is secured, and that's all that really matters.