Posts by vivalavida

77

Feeling rejected

by Esmeralda001 in

just a little disclaimer: english isn't my first language (i'm from france) thus the poor writing skills.here is the situation: i'm not a jw.

however, i'm in the process of becoming one.

in fact, i'm studying with the jw's, and i'll proceed to become an unbaptized publisher as soon as i finish the first book.to make a long story short i was introduced to the truth when i was 18een.

vivalavida

I won't be rushing into baptism without having the full picture. It isn't in my interest to let my study instructor know what I have been up to lately so i'll try to be discrete about me visiting "apostasic website" (like french jw like to call it). I need to gather info from both parties so that i'm able to fully understand what it is all about.

Hi Esmeralda,

I very seldom comment here, but seeing your "evolution" has prompted me to comment. Most people who land on this forum without knowing that it is not pro JW, run like crazy when they find out it's mostly ex-JWs.

In your case, you have the correct philosophy as I've quoted above, namely:

- Do not rush without having the FULL PICTURE and,

- Gather info from BOTH PARTIES so you can FULLY UNDERSTAND.

I think those two are key. Kudos to you! I just wish more people who are in would recognize the importance of those 2 factors.

Have a great day and greetings from Germany

Vivalavida

34

Caleb and Sofia used to brainwash children

by shattered_origins in

okay, i need to vent.

as a newly awoken individual, i have yet to "come out" to my hard core jdub parents.

my plan was to lay low and use my unbelieving husband and baby as an excuse for my "inactivity", it has worked for the last few months.

vivalavida

Shattered Origins, I don't post here often but this made me come out of my silence.

I agree that you have to do something to put a stop to this madness. So, I'd like to offer a TECHNICAL SOLUTION to the problem. I don't know whether your husband or you have some technical skills or if you can ask a friend to do this for you.

There is a free DNS service (DNS is like a telephone book that helps your computer find different websites on the internet) that allows you to block dubious websites and you can include specific ones like jw.org.

This way, at least from your computers / tablets / cellphones at home that are connected to your router or WI-FI nobody will be able to go to that website.

The service is called openDNS and you can find it here: https://store.opendns.com/get/home-free

Another option, if you only have ONE family computer, would be to follow these instructions provided you use Windows on your computer.

I know it all sounds very technical, but it is actually not that complicated and once it is setup, it should work without problems. Obviously, if your mom is accessing jw.org on HER own phone without connecting to your WI-FI it won't work. But you could offer access to it, so that every time she walks into your house it connects to your wi-fi and your filtering kicks in.

I see this as another option you could use which would enforce whatever you want in terms of websites.

Just my 2 cents!

Vivalavida

83

What woke you up?

by Israel Ricky Gonzales in

in march of 2014, i was a very active jw, a ministerial servant, gave a public talk, was an attendant for the memorial, and one of 4 cleaning captains for an international convention of 40,000+ attendees.

so what woke me up?

an innocent comment from a co-worker about the candice conti court case rang a bell that could not be unrung.

vivalavida

Pedophile story on NBC in 2007, then the Sept. Kingdom Ministry NOT condoning people to get together to study the Bible. My thought immediately was, "Do they have something to hide?"

I had already heard of the Mexico / Malawi connection and the UN debacle like 10 years before but deleted it from my mind. But after those two events mentioned in the first paragraph, I gave myself permission and just did what you did. Checked everything and "that was it for me"... FREEDOM AT LAST after almost 40 years in the religion.

11

Telling Parents About TTATT

by ivanatahan in

jw
friends

my parents are zealous jecultah's blindnesses, but my sister and i are not.

because of this, we are limited in our abilities/opportunities in life.

mu parents hate my sister because she went to college and started a full time job and thus isn't able to go to meetings or service.

vivalavida

How old are you?

15

Assembly Invitations: A Sad, Pathetic Anachronism

by metatron in

jw
friends

so, witlesses are handing out assembly invitations locally for their gatherings to invite the public to attend...... .

a meeting that's 50, 100, 150 miles away?

there was an era when placards were put in storefront windows and bombastic sermons were delivered by radio.

vivalavida

Yep, here in Germany they came to my house and handed the invitation. If I were to attend, I'd have to travel almost two hours to go there. I tried to talk about the invitation, but they practically refused, insisting that they JUST wanted to leave it and that was it. But they would love to see me there! LOL!

Weird!

Vivalavida

49

FAT BURNERS????

by DATA-DOG in

jw
friends

i need a good fat-burner.

i am getting some serious love handles, and a gross poochy belly.

yeah, yeah...i drink almost every night, and this has been going on for almost 2 years, blah, blah..hic!?

vivalavida

DD, just drop the carbs, specially the refined ones. Physiologically, whenever we eat more carbs than be stored in our muscles and liver, which is about 400 grams in total, it just gets stored as fat! And, if you don't use that by exercising, it stays there but normally, we keep eating carbs every day, at every single meal, plus snacks and dessert, which also tend to be carbs based. Results? Fat gets accummulated on and on and on until one day we wake up and realize, oops... I've got love handles, pot belly, beer belly or anything of the sort.

Key is to adapt your carb intake to your activity level. You barely do anything physical? You barely need any carbs. Protein you need according to your weight, so it's an easy to calculate amount. The rest, to make up your required calorie intake for a particular day, should be met with good fats. Olive oil, coconut oil, butter and the sort. Believe me, for people over 30, it's the easiest way!

If you want to REALLY understand how and why our generation gets fatter than previous generations, read Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" book.

One thing that I love, I get to have my bacon and eggs breakfast everyday and I'm still keeping fit, without doing any cardio whatsoever.

Hope this opens a something you can investigate a bit...

Just my 2 cents,

vivalavida

24

Don't Blame the Organization for Imperfect Humans

by ranmac in

i think everyone here has heard this as a response to questioning or serious concerns about the religion.

i think its a cowardly retort.

a flimsy cop-out.

vivalavida

Erm, one question: What IS the ORGANIZATION?

Organization is just an administrative structure to achieve a goal in an "organized" manner. It does not think, it does not feel, it doesn't even do anything. It doesn't breath and therefore cannot be blamed for anything.

It's the PEOPLE that are to blame, the people that come together with the intention of achieving something. The whole thing is completely illogical. There is, in the real world, no personification of an organization, like there is no personification of "wisdom". It's just a figure of speech that people have come to believe. It's just another CONCEPT that brings people further away from REALITY.

Seen from this standpoint, they are all guilty, the so called Organization and, more importantly, the people behind it. Now and in the past. It doesn't matter that they are imperfect, they created the concept to fool people and that makes them guilty as charged.

Just my 2 cents

Vivalavida

45

Horse Meat found In hamburgers in UK and Ireland

by Pterist in

london (cnn) -- uk food safety officials have ordered the testing of all beef products following the discovery of horsemeat in beef lasagna sold by uk firm findus, only weeks after many meat lovers were dismayed to learn horse and pig dna had been found in burgers.. http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/08/world/europe/uk-horsemeat-probe/index.html.

vivalavida

And Germany as well

vivalavida

17

Coca Cola Death? Should i sell my KO stock?

by skeeter1 in

coroner says coca-cola addiction responsible for womans death neetzan zimmerman .

when 30-year-old natasha harris of invercargill, new zealand, died of a heart attack three years ago, her family suspected the cause of death was linked to her extreme fondness for coca-cola.. drinking as much as 10 litres (2.5 gallons) a day left the mother of eight with myriad health problems, including cardiac arrhythmia, rotten teeth, and a full-blown addiction.. "(she would) go crazy if she ran out... she would get the shakes, withdrawal symptoms, be angry, on edge and snappy," harris's mother-in-law said last year.. harris's husband, christopher hodgkinson, recalled how his wife's health quickly deteriorated in the months prior to her death.

"she had no energy and was feeling sick all the time ... she would get up and vomit in the morning," he said.. coca-cola has persistently maintained that, despite her daily consumption of twice the recommended caffeine intake and over 11 times the acceptable amount of sugar, harris's death could not be definitively linked to her coke habit.. but a coroner report released today claims to have done just that.. wrote coroner david crerar: "i find that, when all of the available evidence is considered, were it not for the consumption of very large quantities of coke by natasha harris, it is unlikely that she would have died when she died and how she died.".

vivalavida

I agree that the sugar in Coke, specially the fructose can and does wrec havoc with the whole body, because we are not designed to handle the amounts of sugar that we "normally" force into our bodies.

But drinking it until it kills you is utterly stupid. It was her own fault. Even water can kill you if you drink too much.

vivalavida

50

"Why Do Many Male Jehovah Witnesses Who Learn TTATT Grow Beards"?

by ÁrbolesdeArabia in

the year once 1983 and the brother who use to study the bible with me drove by and had a full on "charles manson" looking facial hair and beard.

i asked tina, a friend what's up with him?

tina was 19 and a hot red-head woman who was partially in the religion but had problems with fornication.

vivalavida

I find it to be true in a lot of cases. I did grow a beard and still have it. I've been out officially for the last 4 years and decided to grow a beard very fast after getting out. Reason? I always wanted to see how I looked with one, besides I could never understand the logic behind it. Hippies? I think I've only seen a couple of them in my life (I grew up in Honduras in central america. Believe me, no hippies there.)

There is no Bible support for it. Actually the text talking about beard shaving states that it should not be destroyed. Interestingly, the next verse says clearly that tattoos are not allowed. Based on this, I always reasoned that it tattoos are not allowed in the religion based on that text (Lev. 19:28), then beard should be allowed based on the previous verse.

27 “‘YOU? must not cut ?YOUR? sidelocks short around, and you must not destroy the extremity of your beard. 28 “‘And ?YOU? must not make cuts in ?YOUR? flesh for a deceased soul, and ?YOU? must not put tattoo marking upon yourselves. I am Jehovah.

Actually the ban on beards it not an universal thing. I was once visiting a congregation in the southwest of Germany and was completely surprised by the fact that the Watchtower conductor, obviously an elder, had a full, well kept, beard.

vivalavida