Posts by Francois

46

What Caused Your First Doubt ?

by Big Jim in

jw
friends

for me it was when i was about twelve years old and my best friends dad was disfellowshipped from the congregation.. i could not understand how a god of love would treat someone so coldly.. i used to think what if that was the way my parents would treat me if i had done something wrong, that would be so hard and cruel.. as i got older another thing that bothered me was the beard issue.

it may sound pretty trivial however the society has always refused to make a good arguement as to why they would give you the old cold shoulder if you were to grow one.. two more items; first i could not understand why all the congregations and all the assemblys would give income reports.

and the society never did.

Francois

It started for me with reading "Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose." It's a sort of JW Apologia. I thought it was absurd how the JWs applied to themselves all sorts of prophecies and how they made the most incredible connections. Like claiming their little pamphlets they handed out prior to an assembly in Pittsburg, I think it was, were like "tongues of fire falling from heaven on the heads of non-believers" spoken of in the scriptures.

And applying to the guys who went to jail for refusing to serve in the military in WWII the prophecy about the "two witnesses" who were dead, then not dead, then dead again, only to be resurrected and I disremember what else.

They also had explanations for certain selected, but not all, of the nutty things that went on with Rutherford and some young chick, and Beth Sarim, and miracle wheat, and on and on and on and on. I thought, "this is the weakest argumentation I've ever heard in my life. And some of the things that happened in the past. My God, what a buncha bozos. And this represents GOD?"

Strange as it may seem, it was the beard issue that was the proverbial straw. And the three guys they sent over to "adjust my thinking" on that matter. One stole electricity with a power meter when he cleaned apartments, one was a noted boozer who was shit-faced when he got to my house, and the last was also a petty thief. Essentially, I kicked them out.

So it was their own book, coupled with the beard issue that did it for me.

Francois

105

Issue Facing Apostates

by Mishnah in

jw
friends

most of the stuff posted here is negative, hateful, and blasphemous against god.

even if many of you are right in saying that the jws are wrong on many and important issues, that does not make you right.

so unless you are convinced that there is no biblical god you are facing serious trouble when you die or if the lord comes during your lifetime.

Francois

Mishnah

When you say that God is being blasphemed on this site, you obviously have Jehovah in mind.

Jehovah is not God. Jehovah is a five thousand year old concept of God held by a tribe of illiterate, savage, desert dwellers. And at the time, it was the best concept going. But it's just a concept. It's no more reprentative of the real God of the universe of universes than I represent the embodiment of the virgin Mary.

Isn't it time you grew up and developed an up-to-date concept of God, say the one that Jesus presented? God as loving father?

Try it. You'll like it.

Francois

11

Pioneering and the New System - LOL

by Jang in

jw
friends

found this on one of the jw sites a couple of years back .... just came across it again and just had to share it with you all ... the mind boggles!!!!!.

pioneering and the new system.

we were sitting around, relaxing in the wonderful spring weather.

Francois

As I have said before: "A thousand years with Jehovah's Witnesses? I'd rather be dead."

6

Out of the Woods

by Mommie Dark in

jw
friends

some of you may recall that mommie's older jw brother was critically injured in a fall at work last winter.

he fell 30 feet from a ladder and landed on his hardhat; his initial prognosis of doom gave way to astonishment when it was discovered that he had broken no vertebrae... no permanent spinal injury at all.

after weeks in a drug-induced coma, the swelling on his brain subsided, and he woke, complaining, to the great relief of all family members, who recognize irascibility as normal behavior for one of us.

Francois

As a fellow "fallee" I am amazed that he's alive at all. The death rate of people who fall from twenty feet or more is very high.

I fell backwards off a ladder from just under 25 feet in November '98. I broke my:

heel bone
femur
L4 vertebra
pelvis - separated from spine at the sacro-illiac joint
radius
wrist
and hurt my feelings, too.

It took over a year to heal up from just the broken bones. Then another nine months to get out of a black pit of depression and despair.

And I will be on pain medication the rest of my life.

Your brother is very, very lucky. And you can tell your family it warnt no doin' of Jehovah. I'm DFed and I didn't die. Close but no cigar.

Did your brother have any other injuries?

F

22

JUSTICE #2 - Making Mole Hills into Mountains

by Amazing in

jw
friends

making mole hills into mountains .

we had a wonderful and most exemplary family in our congregation.

they are hard workers, hospitable, caring, generous, suffer with you through hardship, kind, compassionate, and as loyal to the organization as any family could be.

Francois

Amazing, it is obvious that you weren't an organic part of the problem you described and I regret if that point wasn't as clear as it could have been.

I know of two other elders, friends of mine, who were frequently the odd men out in JW Kangaroo Courts, just as you were in this one, and who could not fairly be said to have been culpable. And they, like you, are out of the Borg. Couldn't live with what the glorious ones were doing to their membership. Call it "skinning the sheep."

You and they demonstrate moral superiority by refusing further participation.

I'm sorry if you took my comments as being aimed at you personally.

Francois

16

Can someone fill me in please?

by claudia in

jw
friends

can someone fill me in on this quote i took from a jw board?

since when is skydiving a no no?

sheesh!

Francois

Well, do you all remember that the Borg has also come out against playing Chess? PLAYING CHESS!!

Now, I ax you, why should playing chess attract the interest of the Borg? At the time, back in the early 70s, the Awake article went on and on and on about how it was a destructive game in which one attempted to "smash" and "murder" the opponent; chess players were quoted as being out to "destroy" the person on the other side of the board.

Of course, they were quoting Paul Morphy, a certifiable nut case world champion who once challenged God to a game; also Bobby Fischer who was not known for his mental stability; and other semi- and un- balanced chess geniuses.

Of course, I've ignored the anti-intellectual B.S. from the Borg regarding chess for all these thirty years. I just bring it up here to add fuel to the thought-fire that the Borg attempts to control the most minute aspects of its member's lives, and can use some of the most creative, albiet baseless thinking to do so.

Your move.

Francois

14

Why Should I

by hippikon in

jw
friends

dear friends.. i am at a turning point.

why should i resist the borg?

why should i dedicate a sizeable portion of my life to shooting down religious bigots?

Francois

Ginny:

Great post that.

And you're right in that there's a lot more to life than being an "ex" anything.

On the other hand, I actively if reluctantly helped people into the Borg once upon a time. I feel now it's more than a little appropriate for me to: 1) warn people about this dangerous cult, and 2) help those who want to get out to do so, and to do so with as little damage to themselves as possible.

I can't find any ethical reason that would allow me to take the attitude that these folk got themselves into this mess and I owe then nothing. It would be like setting a leg hold trap and then taking the attitude that anyone caught in it had done it to themselves. Sort of.

Also, I've met lots of nice people here on this board, people who can empathize with my own anger and hurt. And there's quite a bit of humor on this site, too. And ya gotta admit that people who were once in the Borg and who had the good sense to get out constitute an impressive bunch in general. These people proved that they are usually several notches above the average Borgite in intellectual capacity. They have sensitive bullshit detectors. They are independant thinkers in addition to being more intelligent than the cattle who stay in the Borg. Virtually everyone here has a non-standard sense of humor and when they "meet" here for humor purposes, boy do the sparks fly!

In short, the folk here represent a group of 'way above average people. I wouldn't want to take us on in any debate.

I mean it just makes sense that God (as opposed to Jehovah) would certainly want to destroy an ill-motivated, evil, wicked, mean, bad and nasty bunch like us.

Francois

15

Hi Everyone

by JW72 in

jw
friends

hi all, i don't know if anyone will remember me.. i haven't posted for ages, just wanna let everyone know that i'm still alive, if anyone cares.. i see nothing's really changes here.. ooooh except venice's picture, very nice..... chris

Francois

Regarding V; what else could we want?

To be 30 years younger?

F

53

WHY APOSTATES THEMSELVES ARE DOOMED!!!

by You Know in

jw
friends

all mankind stands condemned before god, and yet some are more reprehensible than others are.

as an example, christ called the original christian apostate, judas, the son of destruction.

so too, and not surprisingly, the activities of modern day apostates are said to awaken the judgment from of old, so that "the destruction of them is not slumbering.