Posts by shopaholic

22

Finally I get to introduce myself .

by Nick! in

on october 6th i registered in this forum, and gave a brief description of my personal experience, promising i would expand later.

the time has gone by very rapidly, other different priorities have kept me away from this forum, which i will not cover otherwise i would take even more time going down to the core of the subject.

my objective, in this forum, is to be of help to others who might be at a loss and who are confronted with the difficult issue of being loyal or leave the organization.

shopaholic

Hi Nick. Welcome to the board.

How on earth, a group of about 8000 people is supposed to “provide (spiritual) food” to the house of God and “manage” the Lord possessions on Earth, providing directions to local Bethels worldwide and finally individual elders if no one of them know each other, and the Society itself doesn’t even know how they are called?

This is so true. I remember asking my mom and a couple of elders this question as a teenager. There was a guy in his mid-30's and an older lady (probably in her 70's) that use to partake at the Memorial. I had to be about 14/15 at the time when I asked how often they met with the other anoited to discuss what was going to be in the Watchtower (I honestly thought they all got together). They both explained that it didn't work that way. So when I found out they had never been to visit the headquarters, I had questions! But of course I was told to "just believe" and trust in Jehovah. If I could turn back time...

Nick, this was a great first post. Thanks for sharing!

9

Black Friday and JW's

by kwr in

is a jw allowed to shop on black friday as long as it isn't a christmas gift?

shopaholic

My family always shopped on Black Friday and took advantage of all the Christmas Sales. This was true of most witnesses in my area. There were no hang-ups about asking someone if they caught the "Christmas Sale".

4

Five Full Weekends...

by WTWizard in

have you noticed that certain months are pioneer months?

of course, the months of march, april, and may are always pioneer months because of the crapmorial.

those are the months that they push everyone to pioneer, and just about say that everyone must pioneer.. notably, there are other months.

shopaholic

LOL....as a pioneer I loved having 5 full weekends in a month...because it usually meant I had one weekend free. But then I soon saw the practical value in always taking at least 1 saturday a month off just for me...that's why I never arranged to have bible studies on saturdays.

64

The Bible - God's Word or Man's? - What Convinces You?

by sweet pea in

having believed the whole bible, hook, line and sinker all these years i get the impression many of you have come to the conclusion that we should take it with a pinch of salt and not hold to it so dogmatically.

and some possibly believe in it just as much as you did when you were a witness.

to save me some time please, lovely people, as i am very lazy - could you share with me why you do or don't believe in it - what evidence there is either way and if there are any particular books that you found helpful in coming to your conclusions?

shopaholic

I wish I had a reset button on the back of my head

If you find out where to get one, let me know! But seriously Awakened007 made a great point, I am starting to be convinced that religion is partly cultural and geographic. There are other religions that base their beliefs in their "holy" writings and will die (right now if asked) for their god(s) and beliefs. You're more like to find more of these religions outside of North America. I'm coming to the conclusion that the bible is like any other book, you take what you want from it and leave the rest on the table. Wait, isn't that the same thing religions including the JWs already do?

22

What song sums up how you feel now?

by sweet pea in

jw
friends

for me now i've officially left i finally feel i'm moving on and making a new life.

christina aguilera sums it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eki_s04w-im .

shopaholic

Mile In These Shoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U5EQ-e32hY&feature=related

20

Why all the Testing?

by zack in

the bible is full of stories about god needing to test people, either as individuals or as a group, the most notorious being the testing.

of adam and eve.. why does an omnipotent and omniscient being need to "test" his creation?

are we like products in a factory?

shopaholic

I'm good. Thanks for asking.

26

Childhood fears

by beksbks in

jw
friends

i'm sure this has been asked, but is there anything that you were horribly afraid of as a child, that you most likely have gotten over since?.

i was just watching x-files, and there was a spontaneous human combustion scene.

that was one of my big fears as a kid once i heard of it.

shopaholic

I always thought the demons were out to get me. Even as an adult I was absolutely terrified. Every now and then since I was a kid, I would have these episodes of fighting someone in my sleep and it felt like someone was pinning me down and wouldn't let me move. When I was finally fully awake, I would pray and search my house (or room when I was a kid) for what might have attracted demons. Nothing. I know plenty of JWs that have been through the same experience. Then one time I was reading something (don't remember what it was) but learned that I was actually having a form of a night terror but its called something else for adults. True fact: I haven't had one episode since I've faded although I now have Yoga DVD's in the house.

Oh yeah, as a teenager I was afraid to do Yoga because I might "catch a demon". So I always sat out that portion of gym class.

95

most disturbing movie scene you've seen?

by knock knock in

jw
friends

i haven't seen this topic on here so i thought i'd.... hmmm, maybe it's because it's just too disturbing?

to me, the scene in saving private ryan - the two soldiers in the small upstairs room fighting hand to hand to the death (by stabbing).

i think that is the most disturbing thing i've seen on screen and there were plenty just in that film alone.

shopaholic

28 days...I didn't know it was a total gore-fest...I didn't make through the first 30 mins. LOL....I thought it was going to be a medical sci-fi movie...I was grossed out for weeks!

20

Why all the Testing?

by zack in

the bible is full of stories about god needing to test people, either as individuals or as a group, the most notorious being the testing.

of adam and eve.. why does an omnipotent and omniscient being need to "test" his creation?

are we like products in a factory?

shopaholic

"So, we think all these changes are a TEST. We think the original understanding is the correct one. So, I marked, "No Blood products of any kind on my No Blood Form."

Hey Rabbit, my sister and your kids must be related because my sister told me the same idiotic thing around Jan 2006. At this time I was still very active (but knew something was up) and when I filled out my blood information, I basically said "do everything and give my anything short of whole blood to keep me alive". I sent my sister a copy of my paperwork, like we're supposed to do, and she was surprised and told me that her and her husband decided to the scriptural thing and abstain from all blood and I should do the same. I told her its a conscious matter and my conscious wants to live and her response, "No, a true christain would abstain from it all." Then I told her I was going to remove her as my contact person because it was obvious she would let me die needlessly due to her definition of a true christian.

Yep, they're all brainwashed! Its funny how I would hear people say that for years and always thought the problem was with everyone else and not the JWs.

31

Why was I so blind?

by James Free in

jw
friends

now that i can see right through the crap that is the jw religion, i sometimes ask myself - how come you blindly believed all that rubbish for 30 years??!!

i am so annoyed with myself for that - i have a degree, yet i was totally duped for such a large part of my life.

and now that i can see how so full of holes it all is, i kick myself for not seeing it before.

shopaholic

I too ask myself this sometimes. I can't believe how devoted to the religion I once was.

Same here!