AnneB

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Posts by AnneB

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  43

  Is it just human nature to gossip or are JW's worse? Feelings are hurt....

  by mamalove in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it is so strange how once you distance yourself from your kingdom hall and friends, that they find it necesary to discuss and contemplate your departure and put out all kinds of statements that simply are not true.. i am licking my wounds today because some kind of nasty things were said about me to a friend of mine who is df, from her ubber righteous sister.

  it was via text, so it was there to read.

  the thing i can't figure out is i have nothing to do with this woman.

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  AnneB

  'Wayyyy worse at the KH! After I left it was said that I went to Brazil with a man I met on the internet, that my youngest daughter had been living on the streets and had a child before she was 15, that I had abused my children in secret for years....blah blah.... At the time I was in shock that my "friends" would even listen to such things about me, then I discovered it didn't start with my friends, it started with my JW family!

  Whether you believe in the Bible or not I ask you to consider the story of Job. He tried to tell people that he hadn't done what they thought he did and what good did it do him? Let it go. Roll your eyes and wonder what sane person could believe the slanderous things being said about you and what kind of person would make the things up, then get your thoughts back to whatever it is you're doing with your life now and don't let any of the idiocy slow you down or sidetrack you. That's all they want is to get you off course 'cause if you can make it without WT in your life they'll all be proven to be the "sheeple" they are. You've got gumption...you're trying to figure things out. And they have.....stories???

  It took me years to stop hurting but now I'm past the pain. Where are they? Still gossiping about the same old stuff they were years ago!
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  14

  Branch office in Guam -- on Jehovah Street?

  by FatFreek 2005 in

  1. social
  2. current

  i found this interesting, a 2009 kingdom ministry with reference to the branch office in guam.. .

  *** km 2/09 p. 4 announcements ***.

  the address for the guam branch office is watchtower bible and tract society, 143 jehovah street, barrigada, gu 96913.. it peaked my curiosity so i decided to see what this street looks like from satellite.

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  AnneB

  The name "Jehovah Street" probably was done by the officials as a gesture of goodwill toward the people who put up the KH. I know of other examples: "Kingdom Lane" after a KH was built in a small town. The KH was near a small, unnamed lane out in the country and of the dozen or so houses scattered along the lane three were occupied by JW's. The other example that I can think of is in or near Wakefield, MA where the county named the road to the KH something "theocratic"-sounding (can't think of what it is right now, too many years gone by). It's not a big deal, happens all the time. Doesn't mean bribes or special favors, it's just the way things are done....Main Street, Oak Street, Industrial Parkway, etc. For those of you who remember old Yearbooks or Awake! issues, there have been stories about locals in some countries naming taxis and buses things like "Jehovah Saves".
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  40

  Watchtower contradicts the Bible on HELL

  by brotherdan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in the public edition of the april 1 wt, the questions from readers twists scriptures, meanings, and language to come to the conclusion that hell is not a place.. whether you believe in hell or not, you have to agree that their methods of arguing this point are dishonest.

  note this quote:.

  "jesus knew that the very thought of burning.

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  AnneB

  I noticed years ago that WT doesn't have a unified basis for what it teaches. Sometimes it seemed that the people writing the articles didn't have a clue what others had (recently) written.
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  8

  Anybody know who owned 25 Columbia Heights before WT?

  by agonus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious.

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  AnneB

  If I remember correctly, there's an old WT Yearbook that has the history of 25 Columbia Heights in it. As I remember it, WT wanted to buy the building but Squibb bought it before WT could. Once Squibb took posession they discovered that the building needed shoring up and Squibb had to spend millions sinking concrete pillars 90 feet down under the whole building....so, as you can plainly see, it was Jehovah's way of preventing WT from financial disaster. Further, when Squibb moved out and sold the building to WT, all the expensive work had been done and the building was ready for WT to move into and start printing!

  Maybe it wasn't a Yearbook...as I'm typing this I'm hearing GB member Dan Sydlik's voice telling the story so it must have been something he talked about at a special event.
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  6

  Child custody booklet... have they ever denied it existed?

  by Aussie Oz in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hey all.

  i seem to remember reading something online a year ago about the society denying that it existed.... may have been in a court case or something and the jw lawyer denied it until the other side pulled it out.... any ideas?

  or did i dream it?.

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  AnneB

  I can't say they denied it existed, but when the elders discovered that I had a copy they asked if they could "borrow" it to assist another publisher since there was no time to send for another copy. (This was when the booklets were new, back in the '80's.) Gullible me, I was happy to oblige, not so happy when, after repeated requests for its return, the elders told me it was "lost", while at the same time "counseling" me about having a booklet that was meant only for elders and attorneys.
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  5

  Good Samaritan - so funny - :)

  by Gayle in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  (which one is the jw?

  )listen to the end, quite funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ghioufq1o

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  AnneB

  Liked his acccent!
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  27

  Are JW's coached to be vague?

  by InterestedOne in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i recently emailed my jw friend a couple of questions about jw beliefs, and she gave a generic, vague response that did not answer my questions.

  are jw's coached to answer in vague terms?.

  i have been attending the tm "school," and although i see the "demonstrations" teaching jw's to give misleading opening lines at the door and canned answers to questions, my friend's response was not exactly canned.

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  AnneB

  Google "squinting modifiers" or "two way modifiers". Essentially, it's all about writing in such a way that you can't be sure if a sentence means one thing or another thing. WT is great at that! JW's are vague because the literature is often vague. There are many such techniques designed for "wiggle room" instead of clarity. Quite useful when doctrine changes or elders want to "beat" a publisher into submission, eh?

  Is it done purposefully? At one time I would have thought "no", but then I read something Barb Anderson wrote concerning the magazine article "Women Deserving of Respect". Does it mean that all women deserve respect or that *certain* women deserve respect? Apparently there was quite a bit of dissent around publishing the material at all. The result was an ambiguous title and vague material. The Writing Department knew all along that they weren't presenting a clear message.
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  10

  The Chicken Dance

  by zoiks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so... how many of you participated in this at a jw wedding?

  tell us, don't be shy!

  i'll go first: i participated in the chicken dance on at least 3 separate occasions, all jw weddings .

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  AnneB

  The Chicken Dance and The Elecric Slide...what *were* people thinking???
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  14

  Do you believe in censoring information at all?

  by sabastious in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as witnesses we all grew up with our information heavily censored.

  it has got me to thinking: do i think censoring information is ever a good thing?.

  i had this bethelite friend back when i was a witness and he would be careful who he told about the craziness behind those doors.

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  AnneB

  IMO, information (more properly, data) should never be censored however it should be presented at an appropriate time in an appropriate way (if possible).

  Example: When my son was six we discovered that a child molester lived two doors away. He began to follow my son to and from school every day. As soon as I became aware of it I walked him to and from. When the molester tried to accost my son while he was in front of our own home we had to explain quite a lot of things that a six-year-old commonly wouldn't learn until he was much older. We wanted him to understand what the danger was, not just comply with our wishes blindly since, doing that, he might be put into a situation that we hadn't covered thus wouldn't know how to handle. Had we censored (held back information) he would have been even more vulnerable, more likely to be victimized. BTW, we moved soon after.

  Give people information. If it's too much or too deep it will go right over their heads and no harm done. If, though, something comes along later they may just remember some of what they heard and it may be of assistance.
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  20

  Good apostate

  by phoebed in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  guys, i have a little time and i wanted some advice.

  i really like to be "good" and "super good" in everything i ever do.

  i am kinda "perfectionist".

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  AnneB

  If you want to be a reeeeeally good apostate ya hafta outthink 'em.

  Start here to learn how it's done: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Clear_Thinking/clear_thinking.html