Posts by Billy the Ex-Bethelite

60

what ever happened to the king of the north and king of south?

by nowwhat? in

after the daniel book came out, nothing has ben said about it in at least 10 years.

did that prohecy get thrown out the window when the soviet union fell?.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

They've swept it under the rug AND thrown it out the window. It used to be of huge importance, now it gets no mention. It was thrown out with:

All the hoopla about the cry of "peace and security". During the 80s, JWs would wet their pants whenever they heard either of those words in the news. But "the end" certainly didn't come "instantly" after any of that excitement.
The "drying up" and destruction of false religion. No talk of that. Christianity may be fading in Europe, but Islam isn't going away any time soon.
The UN acting decisively. It was supposed to become the 8th king that would grow teeth to organize resistance against "God's Kindgom". Haven't heard about that in a long time, like since the 80s.
They still point to "conditions getting worse", but not like they used to. I don't think they made a very big deal about the financial meltdown because they realized a recovery would follow... not armageddon. And they don't talk about the famine horsemen since so many JWs are suffering from obesity, not starvation.

When it comes down to it, they don't point to any proof that the end is near... other than that the GB says so.

41

My wife is feeling uncomfortable about the NEW LIGHT

by sosoconfused in

so my wife is aware that i am totally disillusioned and i am having problems with lots of things.

one day she can see the crap(such as this past watchtower question from readers about ivf... what a pile of insanity.

if someone carries me and my wifes baby i have committed porneia rofl!!!

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

It's a papal power-grab by some jokers in Brooklyn trying to turn attention away from the fact that the number of partakers is increasing at a rapid rate.

19

The moment the light went on in this newbies head!

by awakening in

i always knew as a kid tt wasnt for me.

i did not know ttatt but how could something thats supposed to be warm, loving and beneficial feel so wrong?

the light went on when i happened to be watching some chat show that had a family of white supremecists on.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Welcome!

There were lots of "lightbulb moments" through the years for me, but I had the WT blinders so tight that I somehow just ignored them. Eventually, there were far too many lightbulbs to ignore.

51

Orangeburg Assembly Hall - designed to be sold as a future supermarket?

by cedars in

jw
friends

i've just been watching a youtube video that reveals the new assembly hall in orangeburg, sc.. two things struck me when watching it.... firstly, everything is attributed to jehovah, right down to deciding the location where the hall is to be built.

"we examined over 300 properties," said one interviewee, "we were reminded that jehovah knew where the site was, we just had to keep looking and show him that we were persistent.

" other workers interviewed throughout the video attribute everything to god, as though it is impossible to build anything without divine direction.. here is the video.... .

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I'm not sure they have a future plan to flip it anytime soon. From what I've seen, several years down the road, after the property should have been completely paid for, the circuits are still charged a high rate per publisher to pay off loans, expenses, renovations, whatever. And the nicer the building, the higher the price.

Those publishers are going to be "paying off" this assembly hall forever.

60

My Son and I have about 5 Months Left

by bavman in

jw
friends

hello, i haven't been on here in awhile and it looks like a whole new crowd.

i disassociated myself about 8 years ago.

went through a divorce and shunning from most my family.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Like you already said, you know the people involved better than any of us.

My suggestion is to not allow this to turn into a point of argument or contention during whatever time you spend together. If he's like I was, he already gets plenty of conflict, lecturing, and abuse from the cult. He's a kid that's been heavily brainwashed. He probably needs love and understanding. Let him know that you respect his decisions as well, but that you'll NEVER "have to drastically limit" your contact with him.

Is he planning of college, pioneering, marriage?

75

Hubby and Wifey saying Hi

by free and happy in

jw
friends

so where do you start?.

i've been reading peoples experiences for several months now trying to figure out what i want to say but how do you put your whole life into a few words?.

i was a born in but have been happy and free for 5 years and luckily for me my husband felt the same way and we have freed our children from being brainwashed.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Welcome! The more the merrier!

That's quite an experience, another one that ought to be in the WT Yearbook showing what really happens in "the truth". Such horrible stories of politics, slander, and fighting are common, even at bethel and from gilead grads. I saw it in congregations, too. And it certainly seems to be getting worse. I think the finer people walk away from the battle, while the jerks take greater control in the cult.

"I drove to the hall, opened up and placed the briefcase on the platform. With a report slip and a pin from the notice board I pinned a little note on my briefcase. "we wont be needing these anymore"."

Would love to see a picture of that!

33

Blood Transfusion Increases Mortality in Heart Attacks

by Earnest in

i understand that the objection to blood transfusions by jehovah's witnesses is purely a scriptural one.

whether or not there are medical benefits to avoiding blood transfusions is, or should be, irrelevant.

however, for those who are not convinced by jw understanding of the scriptures in this regard, and those who don't believe either in the bible and/or in god, the fact that blood transfusion is associated with increased mortality in heart attacks may be of interest.. a systematic search of studies published between january 1, 1966, and march 31, 2012, was conducted using medline, embase, cinahl, scopus, web of science, and cochrane central register of controlled trials databases.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I'm not a doctor, but I often pretend to be one on the Internet...

Sounds like the article is talking about " A practice of routine or liberal blood transfusion in myocardial infarction " when the patient becomes anemic as a result. If these are cases where doctors pump in blood rather than repair the cause of anemia or bleeding, you can't expect the patient to have a great outcome.

40

I finally told my parents

by nolongerconfused in

so as some of you already may know, i have stopped going to meetings for good and have nothing to do with wbts anymore...did not write a letter of disassociation because i dont believe an organization should spiritually execute me for rejecting men's tradition and false doctrine...some of you may recall i spoke to my wife and are in good terms, even though she's still an active jw.

my parents are both active jw's...when i visited them yesterday, they clearly did not expect me to tell them i had left the "org"...to my huge surprise, after i explained to them i had found ttatt (truth about the truth) and gave compelling evidence of my reasoning, and using the scriptures, they totally sided with me...i was dumbfounded...one of my parents even brought up ray franz and his book coc....i was like wtf??.

they told me all of these years they never had the guts to say anything about the hypocrisy in this org and they were glad that i as their son was able to step up and believe what is right and what is on the bible...they re-assured their love to me and they were happy i had found happiness in jesus christ and the need to have a personal relationship with him and not through a man made organization.... i totally did not expect this response from my parents...but it just leaves me to think that there are thousands of active jw's out there feeling the same way and don't have the courage to step up to the org...still don't know what they are going to do, but i got the feeling they will do the same eventually and move on from the wbts.... have a great week everyone.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Now there's an experience that ought to be in the Yearbook!

25

Vengeance Dad Meme--I think I want to do some JW-based ones...

by sd-7 in

i was just reading some random memes and came across this one.

it's truly insane, but maybe my sense of humor is such that i laughed rather hard at quite a few of the ones using this photo.

i was thinking, how could i adapt this one to jws?

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

LOL! Too funny!

31

Music you never noticed was ...

by nibbled in

jw
friends

i have friends in very cool jobs.

my world interacts quite often with music stars, and i have interesting conversations.

for instance, i was talking with the members of animal kingdom, and asked the lead singer about the lyrics i picked up while listening them perform for the group a few minutes earlier... i felt stupid because i hadn't realized the name of the song, and only had caught a few lyrics... he wrote of mephistopheles.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

nibbled,

A few thoughts come to mind when you bring up about religion in music.

Music has to be about something. Lots of songs will be about love, sex, dancing, drinking, because that's a lot more interesting than singing a song about working as an accountant or waiting on customers. So if writing about things that are part of life, some elements of beliefs enter music because it's recognized as part of life for true believers. And for many musicians, their earliest experiences with music were in church. So I'm not particularly surprised that on an album where only a few of the songs are really new, they fill in the rest of the space on the CD with some hymns that the musicians sang when they were little kids or remakes of old showtunes or older musicians.

Similar charges are made in the other direction by fundies stating that popular music is promoting homosexuality, drub abuse, and infidelity. Music is about expressing something. If songs have to be made explicitly clear that any religious beliefs are out of the picture, and that the only person you are kissing is your spouse, well, popular music is dead.

I also think that spirituality creates more topics to write about that are actually easier to write about... "You are Not Alone" would obviously be easier to write and sing than a song entitled "You are Totally Alone." Certainly, if any expression of hope was removed because it sounded too religious, music would be totally depressing. How many times would you want to hear, "Let's Party 'til We Puke, Because When We Die, We're Gone Forever"?

I met George Bensen and some others in the music industry while I was at bethel and they talked about the zillions of times they'd been approached about doing gospel or spiritual type music. They talked about how commercial it was. It was easy music to do. You'd instantly have a funbase and could make lots of money. And it would sanitize your image. George mentioned all the gospel singers he knew that were gay, immoral, and lived opposite of their music, because it was about the career and money. If I was an atheist pop singer, I'd probably do a Christmas album because it would make me a ton of money during December.