Posts by Francois

11

Raised as JW

by ReverendRoy in

as a former jehovah's witness i can both empathize and sympathize with you and the many others that have written here.

i apologize for the long post.

although i have posted this under a different heading, commie chris recommended a new toipic, thanks!.

Francois

Reverand Roy:

I liked your quote from Rummi. He's one of my favorites. And just for the record, isn't it just like the Muslims and all other fundys to find a reason to reject love?

Since the Sufi mystics had spiritually evolved beyond the need for the Koran, the fundys attack and kill them because Muslims are the "People of the Book." And the Sufis don't need the book. Chalk up another one for the fundys.

BTW, I was also a disc jockey beginning at age 18. Financed my college education with that kinda work. And the groupies; Oh the groupies! God love the groupies!

Best,
Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

9

Are Elders Out of Control?

by metatron in

jw
friends

i remember a time when the society exercised a significant.

degree of discipline over elders.

brothers were commonly.

Francois

Gsark, you are so right about how no one with any personal honor and intelligence wants to be an elder or ms. And it goes further than that.

No one with any personal honor/intelligence wants to be a JW of any kind; not elder, ms, or R&F publisher. Makes you wonder how many people occupying seats in kingdom halls are there for reasons other than allegiance to the "faith". Reasons like maintaining relationships with wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, sisters.... well, you get the idea.

And as this phenomena continues to evolve (parents/siblings/etc. die, ending the need for anyone to stay in to maintain relationships) the quality of the membership of JWs continues to decline. The membership IMO can't help but become less intelligent, less interested or able to question questionable teachings, more likely to follow any teaching, no matter how absurd.

In fact, it's getting more and more like that now. Writers know it's important to design their writing to fit the intelligence of the reader, otherwise what you've got to say will go over their heads. Take a look at the writing in the Watchtower; simplistic, easy to read noun/verb combinations with very few subordinate clauses, much less subjunctive; very few polysyllabic words, etc. And the questions! My god, the questions! Questions of the "who's buried in Grant's Tomb" sort. Don't want those publishers missing the point, missing answering those questions. It's a HOOT!

When it's all said and done, the effect of the policies and teachings of JWs virtually guarantee a declining quality of member, less intelligent, less able, less questioning. And the type of leaders thrown up from among this sub-standard group...well, you can just imagine. If you think they're bad now...

Evil contains the seed of its own inexorable destruction. And the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses is manifestly evil.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

41

back to basics

by cnn77 in

jw
friends

as soeone raised in the truth my whole life i am struggling with a basic doctrinal issue.

the issue has to do with universal sovreignty and the ransom sacrifice.

let me try to illustrate by way of analogy:.

Francois

God makes a whole lot more sense if we could get rid of some of the more ridiculous notions that have been invented by people wearing funny hats over the millinea. Chief among there are:

Original sin, which led to the
Antonement doctrine, which led to the
Ranson sacrifice, which led to
All manner of foolishness, especially that craziness about the nature of a God who would dream up all the above nonsense.

Think how simple an approach to the spirit and spirituality would be absent these things, these primitive teachings left over from a time when the collective IQ of the entire human race was about 12.

It's time we abandonded these nutty notions.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

13

Reasoning With the Sisters

by GinnyTosken in

jw
friends

i received this from a mailing list and thought i'd share.. ginny.

a new publication is now available called reasoning with the sisters.

but more likely you are interested in your future.

Francois

I like the direct approach.

Go to an assembly. Wait for the keynote address. Pretend to go to the bathroom. Choose the sister who is the most comely from among those also pretending to go to the bathroom.

Walk right up to her and hold out your hand, the one with the hotel key. "Here's the key to my room. Can you be there by (insert time here)? We'll go out for dinner tonight."

End of report.

Don't waste your time on those wallflowers contemplated above.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

45

How the Net will reduce WTS ranks

by Seeker in

jw
friends

she is studying with one of jws.

she has a study with her teacher, and then she comes here and talks about it.

she learns that the wts teaches one thing to new ones, but something else entirely to those who are already baptized.

Francois

Imagine. When I was just a kid growing up in the Borg, I thought they were saying, "faithful, indiscrete slave."

And I was right.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

16

Any good times?

by tattoogrl333 in

jw
friends

just wondering if there were any positives to being a jw.

i have read most of the posts and see that a lot of people were jw for years and years and was thinking that not all that time could things have been bad?

oh and somewhere in gen. it is supposed to state that we are living in the 7th day now????

Francois

Farkel is right on the money as usual. They do like to get together at get togethers and get blotto.

My uncle moved to a small town in Tennessee in 1958, just after he graduated from college (yes, college). He was very active and in short order was the congregation overseer. Coming from south Georgia, our family was accustomed to inhaling, um, drinking copius amounts of beer especially since only half of us were JWs.

Now the JWs in the small Tennessee town drank, but they hid it. Apparently there had been some sort of terror as CO in previous years and so everyone hid their drinking. After my uncle took over, he started having get togethers at his home at which he would have beer, and I mean beer. Beer by the case, iced down in number three washtubs. Beer coming out their eyes. Beer coming from every pore. Beer sloshing around in their shoes. It was great to see all the freedom to get sloshed openly.

Too bad it stopped there.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

9

df'ing in absentia...

by MoodyBlue in

jw
friends

i was wondering... can the elders df you in absentia if you haven't admitted to doing anything wrong??.

my ex wanted his scriptural grounds for a divorce and i told him he had them.

he went to the elders with this info and they called me up last night to try and get me to confess ( which i didn't- i told them it was none of thier business) they told me that they were having a judicial for me wed at 7, and i said i wouldn't be there.

Francois

Three years after I stopped going to the KH, the local gestapo got wind that I was smoking and sent over a detachment of their best and brightest (read: IQ = 79).

After a couple of meetings in which I had my fun with them (like pointing out that I had worked with brother A in his cleaning business between contracts once, and noted he had an electric meter that he used to steal electricity from Georgia power; and brother B was three-quarters shit-faced there in my living room on Mattingly & Moore, his rot-gut of choice; and brother C, a gutter installer, was using inferior materials and charging superior prices), I told them they didn't have the objective moral authority to question me on an issue of subjective morality.

Besides, I told them, as long as they tolerated in their midst the continuing presence as an elder of C.B. Mitchell, troll of some note famous for taking young publishers to Braves games and getting stinking drunk and for "skinning the sheep" (you know the kind, drunk on his own importance and authority and referring to himself constantly as a "glorious one") they could not claim any sensitivity to moral issues of any kind.

In short, I said, you guys have no moral authority to judge me in any way and to stop coming to my home; they would not be allowed in again.

They DFed me a couple of months later. When the letter arrived, certified, I returned it unopened. But I know that's what it contained. I was - get this - living with my JW parents at the time, having just gone through a divorce, and MY OWN FATHER spread the DFing news throughtout the entire family even though my parents lived 300 miles from the congregation just outside Atlanta, and my JW family lived no where near Atlanta. I continued to live with my parents, though, even though they weren't even supposed to be speaking with me. I guess you can pick and choose among the rules that apply to you and the ones that don't

Anyway, yeah, they can and do try people in absentia in their ecclesiastical kangaroo courts. Gives'em a sense of power.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

26

Is pedophilia an unforgivable sin?

by cnn77 in

jw
friends

in my opinion it should be and a pedophile should never be allowed back into the organization.. the children they abuse suffer for the rest of their lives so why should a pedophile have forgiveness and be reinstated?

Francois

Well Philo, it seems there may be an area where we can agree. You make good points regarding pederasty and your though-provoking question technique hits the nail on the head.

I've spoken with pedophiles and to a man they assured me that if they ever got out and got the chance, they would most certainly re-offend.

There must be a balance between justice and mercy. When pedophiles, who murder many of their victims, offend society and their victims via their behavior, they prey upon the most helpless element of society.

God may forgive our actions while at the same time allowing the consequences of our actions to play out fully. I frankly feel that pederasts should be executed.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

6

September 8 Awake

by KSJordan in

the main topic is help for depressed teens.

yet when i was a teenager and depressed, did the elders help me?

the elders made rude little comments about it.

Francois

Yeah, I have a thought about it. Being depressed is IMO worse than death, since you find no joy in living but can't seem to die. People who are depressed should receive the gentlest and most considerate behavior we are capable of offering. Anything less makes us potential accessories to homocide in my opinion.

The last thing a depressed person needs to hear is "snap out of it." If we were able to just snap out of it, we wouldn't be depressed in the first damn place.

Be cool. Help a depressed person by understanding how much intense, inescapable pain they're in...and be gentle.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

21

Will the WT defend by default?

by Jim Lad in

jw
friends

hi, folks, my wife is taking legal action in alberta against her pedophile stepfather who denied everything (when reappointed a ms), and since made an elder despite "unprovable accusations".. will, the society automatically step in to make a defense just because he's an elder?

we already had this go through all the "proper channels" right to the legal dept.

of canada in 97/98, so this story isn't new to them.

Francois

God I love this interent.

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.