hi... i'm a newbie here.
i have been associated with jw's for quite some time however there is one aspect of being a witness that i can't quite come to terms with that is the prohibition on celebrating a person's birthday i have of course read the arguments for this but find them somewhat unconvincing.
is it really the case that everyone follows this direction?
Just look at the picture of the GB, thats a bunch of old men who loves having fun. RIght? Wrong, the only fun they have is screwing with people's lives and their pocketbooks.
Celebrate birthdays, holidays, etc. We do have free will to do things that have no harmful effect on others.
acts 10:34 speaks of god as not being partial.
in the majority of pictures, the married couples are only of the same race and none of them are mixed.
i noticed that in other pictures of the so-called paradise, its segerated amongst races too.
Acts 10:34 speaks of God as not being partial.
In the majority of pictures, the married couples are only of the same race and none of them are mixed. I noticed that in other pictures of the so-called paradise, its segerated amongst races too.
What is the hidden meaning to this?
what's the main motivating force behind the average jw?.
i'd say it's a fear of their own death.
fear of dying.
They also are fed if they aren't doing enough that JW will be bloodguilty and die at Armaggeddon. In MacLean's magazine a few months ago with the title 'God Is Poison', one of the paragraphs call the god of the Old Testament Jehovah as a tyrant. Since the GB reflects this quality, they too are tyrants and will keep pushing this idea to motivate the drones especially those that pioneer. I hate it how the SO would give talks and then keep saying 'Your lives and those that you call on will be at stake'.
what's the main motivating force behind the average jw?.
i'd say it's a fear of their own death.
fear of dying.
Once they got the person into the organization, fear and peer-pressure takes hold. The fear of being rejected from the social circle that the drones project as love when one is shunned. The negative peer pressure of preparing for meetings, going to field service, that whatever we do is never enough in the eyes of the GB. In the ranks of the MS and elders, there is a lot of competition which is another factor that motivates many brothers. These things drive a JW to keep going and 'wait on Jehovah' while they suffer psychologically. More and more of those that I know in the organization suffer from mental illnesses and some have committed suicide from this fear and negative peer-pressure.
a couple months ago my jw mom told me that in all the book study groups for their congregation they were told to go out and by emergency kits because "things were getting so bad".
i restrained myself from rolling my eyes.
has anyone else heard of this happening?
That disaster kit won't be much help if it is buried under whats left of your house while you're outside in the PJs.
When living in an area that is prone to future earthquakes like where I am, its a good idea to be prepared because anything will happen except for WTS's Armaggeddon.
ok just got back from the dc in kansas city.
i know there has been a thread on the dc already but i will post "highlights" or lowlights depending on one's opinion, of the dc in kc on this thread.. 1) bethel speakers so far 1 from patterson bethel, 1 from brooklyn bethel and 1 from walkill bethel + governing body speaker anthony morris 111. friday major talk on christ on last talk by morris.
illustarted earthquake in armenia few yaers ago.
Morris came and gave the talks last year at our DC. It was amusing seeing a long line up of people waiting to shake his hand like he is some prophet.
The GB are the false teachers. If the WTS has the truth then why are they so afraid of letting its members think for themselves? I dislike them and plan to walk around with my iPod outside whenever one of them speaks.
I plan to stick the screws into the elders by taking night courses in university and working on Saturdays. That will show how much appreication I have for the GB's control tactics. Oh, I forgot about my family responsibities too. HAHA
i left the organization in my heart a year ago, i stopped going to meetings a week ago.
this was recently announced for the upcoming convention.
jeans and t-shirts are not to be worn in public after each day's convention program.
On a hot day when its like 30 to 40 degrees outside, I wear a t-shirt and shorts. I'm not going to put my health at risk from sunstroke for a cult that doesn't care about their members.
a theme regularly running through ex-jw / apostate posts is their conviction that the worship of jws is at best of a high control basis or at worst exhibits cult-like tendencies , so they often delight in the freedom that they now enjoy.. but in reality , how much control is exhibited on the average witness?
to take one example , at least 40k are dfd in an average year , and one would assume 3 - 5x this figure are reproved privately or publicly.
that means that over a 10 year period 20% - 25% of jws are seriously flouting the strongest moral code of jws , usually for immorality , emphasized in wt after wt , meeting after meeting.
Desperate times brings desperate measures for this cult. Just look at the WT studies recently.
thats right give us your explanation of what personally drew you to the jws.
and what is your opinion of it today ?.
for myself i was born into it so there wasn't really any choice for myself, but now that i've been out of it for some 30 yrs.
It was my first experience with organized religon and they answered my questions on 'the purpose of life'. I'm not totally athetist at that time but it took like 4 years of convincing me that there was a creator. At that time I was foolish to think they got the right answers.
If only I miss my bus back home from college (yes to the horror of the elders, I got post-secondary education), then I miss those two sisters and none of this crap would unfold. We all got screwed over by the WTS
recently at a theo night, it was mentioned that the cong was behind in their donation to the society and it was specifically mentioned that the mags and books cost $$4 and the donations weren't even with the amount of mags and books being requested.
does this not show that the society is still after the congregations for the money for "free" mags and books?
what a bunch of hyprocrites.
For the past decade, I have never contributed a cent to the borg. Goes to show that I wasn't really that converted as many elders wanted me to be. And yes, we got this same letter read this past week and all the drones after the meeting drop in their change. Just like trained monkeys in a circus. Except for me because my money goes to a worthy cause, feed the starving children in Africa, help people in poverty, etc. Not helping the greedy GB. Does anybody know if these crooks live in big mansions or not? If they do, it will be the icing on the cake that will wake up the drones to revolt. Many of them are living in poverty while pioneering and 'putting Jehovah first' *blech*
