garybuss

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Posts by garybuss

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  18

  WT argument about knowing God's name is a fallacy!

  by JimmyPage in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  all of us who grew up jw have heard this argument a million times: to have a close relationship with someone you must first know them by name.. but how would you feel if your kids called you by your first name?

  instead of showing a closeness, it would be looked at as a sign of disrespect.

  their calling you "father" would be the real indication of their special relationship with you.. so it is with god and so it was with those who considered the divine name too sacred to pronounce..

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  garybuss
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  9

  I'm making an anniversary gift & it makes me sad

  by homeschool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's my sister's 10th anniversary this friday, and i got all gung ho with making a cd with baby pics through wedding day for both she and her husband.

  but as i was getting finished making it, a flood of memories came back as to how i was not only not in my big sister's wedding, but i was barely even invited because i was having jw doubts at the time.

  grrrrrrr, kinda left me in a sad mood..... i get so angry at the borg for making both my sisters exclude me from their weddings .

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  garybuss

  I don't know your family, but in my world, the Watch Tower Society never made anyone do anything rude or offensive to me. All the people did their actions of their won free will. I've seen people who didn't want to follow Watch Tower Corporation directions . . . and they didn't.
  
  It's a nice game to write the relatives a free pass by blaming their chosen behaviors on the company they work for but I'm not buying it. My relatives disrespected me because they wanted to.
  
  
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  7

  Can I get help with a question

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  can anyone provide the link of watchtower year and month, that mentions that the resurrected jehovah's witnesses (all resurrected) will not be able to marry again.

  as they will no longer have a desire for marriage..

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  garybuss

  I can't wait to see the first picture of a re-created fruit eating eunuch petting a lion.
  
  
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  27

  Did people with those signs outside the assemblies and meetings strengthen or weaken your beliefs?

  by BonaFide in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whenever i saw people with signs against the witnesses outside the assemblies, it always strengthened my belief that the witnesses were right.. what about you?.

  bf.

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  garybuss

  Did people with those signs outside the assemblies and meetings strengthen or weaken your beliefs?
  
  It was the literature and the people inside that convinced me to quit associating.
  
  
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  38

  We're not a cult because we don't have communes

  by carla in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  have you ever heard a dub say that they are not a cult because they don't live in a commune?

  (aside from all the other reasons they are a cult- see other thread about wt mind control) my question is, isn't bethel rather like a commune?

  and what about the wt farms?.

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  garybuss

  It doesn't matter if a dog says he's not a dog. He still has a tail, scratches fleas, barks at the mailman, and buries bones in the backyard.
  
  My favorite view of a believing Witness is in the rear view mirror.
  
  
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  28

  Why exactly, DO the JWs continue to beat on doors? What is the POINT?

  by WuzLovesDubs in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i mean...it accomplishes nothing save making them pests all over the planet.

  they dont get money from it, not enough to make any damn difference anyway...the magazines are limited to only two a month and they dont do subscriptions any more.

  how many people actually are brought in this way?

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  garybuss

  Why exactly, DO the JWs continue to beat on doors? What is the POINT?
  
  The door to door exercise is the product of the Rutherford era. It was actually a pretty good idea. Direct book sales increased sales as well as revenue. Rutherford was the P. T. Barnum of religion. Door to door sales was just one element of Rutherford's command to "Advertise, advertise, advertise . . . "
  
  The Rutherford witnesses staged demonstrations, incited riots, picketed churches on Sunday mornings, and set up sound cars to play Rutherford phonograph records that disrespected the churches and the government.
  
  The Witnesses have sort of lost a purpose. Credibility is at zero. The door to door distribution is ineffective to it's stated purpose in the 21's century. The Witness produced printed material lacks credibility and appeal to non-Witnesses. At best, it's busy work for the Witness people.
  
  The business model of the Witness conglomerate is paper book focused. Without the paper books and magazines, there's nothing for the Witnesses to do. Meetings focus only on the paper books, door to door activity only utilizes the paper books, recruiting and personal reading rely on the paper books. Without the paper books, what will the Witness business have?
  
  Obviously, the content of the paper books is irrelevant. Just look back 20 or 50 years. There's no loyalty to the content. That's why there's an endless stream of new books. Without changed views and updated business policy, the paper book manufacturing would stop.
  
  To point: The reason Witnesses beat on doors is "it works" . . . not for the people at the door, not for the Witness people, it works for the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation$.
  
  
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  19

  Counting Time: Is it Scriptural?

  by cameo-d in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what is the purpose of punching jehovah's timecard?.

  doesn't wt psychologically imply that jehovah "owes" them paradise because they have "worked" for it?.

  it seems there is a scripture somewhere about "love does not keep an accounting".. perhaps one of you can find the scriptural incidence.. .

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  garybuss

  Counting Time: Is it Scriptural?
  During the period that I challenged my assumptions and worked to re-educate myself, I made a Watch Tower Corporation flow chart with two columns, one for religious behaviors, and another for business behaviors. The reality I found was this: I was challenged to find behaviors of the Jehovah's Witness people that has any connection to worship or faith, without promoting the Watch Tower Corporation or distributing their production.
  
  The reporting of sales activity, sales charts, sales (service) meetings, distribution of items manufactured for sale (now called "donation" after 1990), calling groups "companies", and identifying workers as "publishers", are all business activities. In fact the basic identifying characteristic of an individual seen as a member in good standing requires the secular activities of study of sales techniques, promotion of the Watch Tower Corporation, and distribution of Watch Tower Corporation produced literature.
  
  So by way of a challenge: Make a list of everything the Witnesses formally do that is only dealing with worship and faith that has nothing to do with fundraising, literature distribution, or promoting the Watch Tower Corporations.
  
  I'll be interested to see that list.
  
  
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  51

  What Were Your Consequences For Leaving The "Truth"???

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  was it as bad as everyone says, that if you leave the organization, you'll go back to the world, get into trouble and suffer?.

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  garybuss

  What Were Your Consequences For Leaving The "Truth"???
  
  My life got better and better every day. The day I realized that the Jehovah's Witness people had taken everything they could take from me was a light bulb day for me. I tell them today . . . if I have anything you want . . . come and get it. I don't want it!
  
  This leaves them powerless over me. Some of them have shunned me till they died. Good! Thanks! Some have slandered me. Thanks again! None of the Watch Tower Witnesses have charged at me me with good deeds and friendly behaviors.
  
  The Witness people didn't show me much respect when I associated with them, so it seemed like it was pretty easy for them to disregard me when I dropped off the radar screen.
  
  
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  8

  Surrounded 24/7

  by Skip it in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was not associated with this "organization" until the age of about 19 when i was dating my current wife.

  she was df'ed for the 1st couple of a years that we were together and thats when my intense resentment started.

  i gave in to her bs after hearing the overwhelming fear from her about the generation that was about to end and how she had to get reinstated because she is just the happiest person when she's a witness.

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  garybuss

  You wrote: "This religion has driven a wedge between my family big time."
  
  I found if I'm married to a believing Jehovah's Witness, I don't have a family. The Watch Tower Corporation has the family. All I have are conditions and rules so I can play second place in my own home. Second place to a book business. Sorry, I'm not up for that. Been there, done that. If my wife prefers a book business to me, they damn well better be willing to support her, cause I'm not gonna.
  
  The whole story is it's not a religion problem. It's a marriage problem. For me, life's too short to have even one bad day.
  
  
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  32

  My story in the Monticello Times

  by Shepherd Book in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i took the advice of some here and "went to the press".

  here's the resulting article: http://www.monticellotimes.com/articles/2009/04/09/community/879zimmerman.txt.

  i think it turned out rather well..

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  garybuss

  Good job! That's the way to do it!