garybuss

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Posts by garybuss

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  13

  Holy S*** visit tomorrow from the PO

  by freeman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you folks recall, a while back i went ballistic when my boys told me they were going to now shun both their newly dis-fellowshipped friends because that is what the society said is the loving thing to do.

  sick!

  anyway, i informed the father of the two boys, an elder, that my younger unbaptized son (12) will no longer be studying or going to the meetings because i dont want him to participate in or have his young mind twisted by such unscriptural teachings.

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  garybuss

  To debate with a believing Jehovah's Witness apologist is like being in a pissing contest with a skunk.
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  24

  Control religion

  by garybuss in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  control religion and you control the people.

  the way to control religion is to control the sacred writings.

  the easiest way to control the sacred writings is to write the sacred writings and declare them inspired or divinely directed.

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  garybuss

  Control religion and you control the people. The way to control religion is to control the sacred writings. The easiest way to control the sacred writings is to write the sacred writings and declare them inspired or divinely directed. Control the writings = control religion = control the people. Interestingly to control the people is to control their assets and their assets can all be reduced to money. So to control the sacred writings is to control the money :-) Slick huh?
  
  Comments?
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  29

  I am still a JW, what shall i do?

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello, i know this board for about a week but didn t dare to register and post something, to let the cat out of the bag ... i am a jw :) i was shocked after i read through some of the topic here.

  honestly, i haven t seen any apostates in action until i started visiting this board.

  a little bit information to my person:.

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  garybuss

  Hi Neva

  You wrote: <I still believe that the JWs have the right religion but prefer doing other things instead.>

  That was the trap that kept me in bondage to them for years while I did <other things>.

  Why did I believe they have the <right religion>? What objective proof did I have? Or is that just their doctrine? I finally started to prove the Jehovah’s Witnesses are who they say they are. That is, the committee speaking for god. Since they base their claims on the Lutheran version of the bible, I read it. But why did they not choose the Catholic version? It has much more historical credibility to me.

  Why not just use the Hebrew bible like Jesus did? Is it credible? I found that by reading the bibles without Watch Tower glasses I saw different principles than I was taught by the Witnesses.

  Then came secular history and research into Judaism. The Jewish historians claim the Jews created god in their own image rather than the gods creating the humans. This I could bear out in other research as well. The article titled <The Bible> in the Encyclopedia Britannica humanized the Bible for me.

  The book, The Age Of Reason by Thomas Paine highlights conflicts inherent in the sacred writings. I tried reconciliation of those conflicts and failed to come to any other realization than this. The sacred writings are all 100% human in nature.

  Man created god in his image? Religion is man made, human in nature and used for the purpose of controlling other humans?

  Sort of offers a fresh perspective on things for me.

  Wish you well on your journey.

  gb
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  12

  Do not call... an idea + information required.

  by Andrew Farrell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone know the official wts process, and recognition of formal, or informal requests, to not be called upon?

  what is required?

  if a person contacted bethel, how often do they notify the local congregation of a request?

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  garybuss

  I called them and told them I want to be called on and I do want a Bible study. I’ll study with a different Witness every day. They put me on their don’t call list faster than the speed of light.
  
  I’m still laughing.
  
  Offer is still good. Any takers?
  
  gb
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  20

  BadWillie & Wife are the Local Needs!

  by badwillie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  last night's meeting at our congregation was exactly 2 weeks since our public reproof.. my wife was in attendance.

  the local needs talk was about...apostasy!.

  this of course lets the congregation know exactly what our reproof was for.

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  garybuss

  Being in the Watchtower is like being in a room with a cobra that only bites you when you leave.
  
  Best wishes to all who are thinking of leaving and congratulations to all who have. You are the bravest of the brave.
  
  gb
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  13

  How long it took you to find out

  by one in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how longo it took you to find out your mate was cheating you, kidding.

  really how long it took you to find out the truth about the truth or at least to become really distrust about the whole thing, and why.. to start i just knew, by summer 1974, that big a was not comming on 1975. the oil embargo, nixon etc kept me worry for a while.

  i even resigned a very lucrative and promising job to piooner.

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  garybuss

  Hi One,

  I stayed until the fear of leaving was less than the pain of staying. Looking back, I crossed that line and crossed back for years. The disconfirmation of 1975 didn’t bother me as much as the lies that followed. The lies angered me and gave me the courage, by way of anger, to look at other things I had been ignoring.

  I had my clash at a district assembly over a perfectly good, working candy vending machine with a hand lettered paper “Out Of Order” sign taped to it. I dropped a dime and two assembly cops belly pushed me away from the machine and out the Watch Tower Corporation door. Best favor they ever did for me.
  
  The sign was a lie. To me it represented them and the way they do business. I was fed up and I never returned as the same person.

  gb
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  3

  Has anyone read this book?

  by openminded in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when god becomes a drug?

  by father leo booth.

  the title seemed interesting, thought i would see if anyone has looked at it or heard of it before i buy it.

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  garybuss

  Hi Open

  I read it along with 3 or so other similar books on religious abuse and addiction. The Subtle Power Of Spiritual Abuse, and Churches That Abuse are a couple that come to mind.

  I met Booth after a speech he gave in Iowa a few years back . . . hit a dead deer in the road on the way home in the dark. Launched that car.

  The book is worth a read for sure. Booth is/was an Episcopalian priest so his perspective is from a religious viewpoint. I have tried to remain open to hearing and reading opinion from a viewpoint that differs from my own. Helps me understand the issue. A sage once told me that if I can’t argue a point, pro and con, equally well, I don’t understand the issue well enough to write/talk about it.

  gb
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  3

  funny thing happened on the way to the hall ...

  by alliwannadoislive in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  oh i so need a good laugh right now .... please share with me any funny moments from your jw life - anything:.

  service related or.

  love.

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  garybuss

  Dear Randy,

  Last month we had a critter clawing at the door of the Kingdom Hall on the side boards that hold the door in and we all thought it was a badger so we had a special needs part on the service meeting and then we got up a committee and brother Newly Ben Haad and Bubba and Rusty Fenders with the wife who wears them short skirts decided we would get a trap and try to catch it alive since we do not believe in killing. Sister Busty suggested last Tuesday after the book study that we use fish meat as bait since the smell always attracted animals to her.

  We made a live trap out of the box the new cob tank heater came in last fall with some clothes hangers and an old door screen. Sunday after the meeting we sat it up and I went down there Monday morning to check it and we had caught our own tiger cat, the one without any ears.

  The next night Newly set it and put in some peanut butter on a bread crust and the next morning we had a half grown raccoon. We got it in the back of the Olds and took it out to Briar creek up near where Sis got her first subscription from that blind lady. The coon got loose in the back of the car and it took us most of the afternoon to get it out. All in all we caught 5 coons and 2 cats and one squirrel.

  That was not the funniest thing that ever happened but it was one event that kept us the busiest the longest. We still ain’t sure we got the critter digging at the door.

  Clem

  PS: We have heard you got your mail box enlarged since last month when we sent the pumpkin. Sorry about the $42.20 postage due.
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  32

  Letting go of JW relatives (Long)

  by MegaDude in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been out of the jws for some time now, seven years.

  like many of you, i left a lot of acquaintances, friends, and family behind.. the acquaintances were fairly easy to let go, the friends very hard, and the family, well, near impossible, at least up until now.

  that she should listen to both sides of the story without fear and make her own decision.

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  garybuss

  Hi Mega
  
  Wish you success. All my attempts to have human relationships with believing Witness relatives have been failures. In the end I have had to accept their decisions to shun and snub me. The burden of reconciliation resided with them. The choice of initiation of contact resides with them as well.

  At first the snubbing hurt me. Now it just pisses me off. Blackmail of the lowest kind. Just think of a person who would snub and shun her own child, or brother or sister and use religion as an excuse. The religion is not at fault the shunner is.
  
  I quit giving them opportunities to shun me. I have contempt for them and their religion. I do not have blanket forgiveness in escrow waiting for them to stop over and pick it up someday. They got a heck of a lot of making up to do to ever get anywhere near me again.
  
  I have thought of bargaining with a shunner but never done it. I’d rather slit my throat.
  
  Happy weekend,
  
  gb
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  12

  Thoughts?

  by Adam in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there are those who have left the jws and become athiest/agnostic/skeptic.

  some would say those people have had their faith in god so shaken by the corrupt, man-made religion of jws that they have fallen into confusion and need to be shown the "right" way.. then there are those who have left the jws and found another version of christianity they feel is the proper way to worship the god of the bible.

  some would say that those people have only swapped one religion for another and have failed to realize the greater truth that there is no god or that you can't know for sure which religion is correct.. i'd like to hear who people think is right and why.. and the more important question:.

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  garybuss

  Hi Adam, All

  Faith is belief without proof. That principle kept me in trouble for a lot of years. I did not have faith in god. I never saw any gods. I had faith in people. Those people were salespeople and they sold me on an idea. Only problem, their idea was not based on reality. In the end it all fell apart like a two dollar suitcase in the rain.

  All religions were man made. The history abounds. No question. The invisible god of the Jews is an easy critter for me to not like. The sacred writings of the religions were all man made. No magic . . . No ghosts . . . No gods . . . Just man.
  
  Religion was created to allow man to control man. Every religion I have looked at uses fear, dogmatism, tradition, ritual, blackmail, and superstition. If a businessman used those same tactics he would be in prison. Only religion is allowed the right to abuse with impunity.
  
  gb