Billy the Ex-Bethelite

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Posts by Billy the Ex-Bethelite

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  63

  Sparlock is helping Mormons

  by cedars in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  check out this awesome video - part 7 in a series where a mormon uses the witnesses as a proxy to figure out why his own faith is wrong.. sparlock, hassan's bite model, and even the 2013 "human apostates" convention talk all make cameos.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmesmlhydru.

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  cedars.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  CS: "First, Billy, I'm still waiting for someone to detail all the similarities. I've documented just how different we are. Have you read my posts?"

  I'm not interested in your religion, so I have no reason to read your posts.

  Have a nice day.
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  100

  My mother passed away this morning...

  by Tatiana in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for any old-school ex-jws here that remember my many posts about my abusive jw mother and my sister committing suicide because of it...she passed away this morning because she began to bleed out and refused a transfusion.

  she had been in the hospital for a month.

  it appears she suffered a stroke and wasn't found by the brothers & sisters for three days (they missed her at the meetings).

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  "Afterwards, people I hadn't seen for 20 years hugged me and said, "You know what you need to do! You need to come back to Jehovah!""

  Pffft. You could have responded, "What I need to do is come up with a bunch of money to cover the bills that she left behind for her family. Just a few years ago, she had nearly $80,000 in her nestegg. I come now and find that all that has disappeared along with the valuable antique coins that had been entrusted to her. Do you have any idea how she could have squandered so much? If I'd known that she'd become so irresponsible, I would have looked for legal protection for her assets. It's all very sad that she must have spent her last months in absolute poverty."
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  17

  I'm on the Stage Const. Crew - Here at the Arena right now!!!

  by tresdecu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after lunch i will be the guy nail gunning the plywood letters to the top part of the stage.

  so when i get to the word truth, i am going to mutter "bullshit, bullshit, bullshit....etc" the whole time i'm nailing the letters, obviously very quietly to myself.

  ;-) that way when i am listening to the bs tomorrow, i can smile to myself knowing the letters have been properly christened!

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  OUTLAW Good Dog!
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  16

  A Great Party Last Night.

  by Thoughtless in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  last night i went to a party with a (worldly) gal yesterday, twas great, but i feel like we are losing intimacy.

  i haven't told her about my religion because i am afraid she may judge me or something.

  i have a very complicated past and such, and the borg complicates it further.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Telling your nonJW friends about how you're stuck in a crazy religion is an opportunity to count your time "witnessing"

  Meanwhile, your friends will think you're THE MAN for going to college despite the JWs discouragement.
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  12

  I have to take my daughter to the meeting...

  by iCeltic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my daughter is visiting me from the uk and wants me to take her to the meeting, which i will do, but it's f'in killing me :( sat here crying for an hour, how pathetic is that.

  the last time i spoke to her about the j dub she nearly had a breakdown.

  what to do...

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  "My daughter is visiting me from the UK and wants me to take her to the meeting"

  Rather than focus on the distress of taking her to a meeting, rejoice with the fact that she's visiting you all the way from the UK!

  Plan lots of fun things to do. Drop her off at and pick her up from her meeting as if it were no big deal to you.

  Are either/both of you known to this congregation?
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  23

  Billy asks for your prayers...

  by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if any of you still believe in god(s), please pray to him/her/them and ask that she/he/they send(s) bad enough weather to my area to hinder travel, but not cut off power.. is that request too weird for this forum?.

  someday i'll share more details.

  peace, love, brotherhood..

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Oh my, has it been 5 years? That was very soon after I joined this forum. So much has happened since then, I can't remember the reason for the original request. I would guess that it was to get a CO visit, CA or SAD cancelled. Those were some totally rough times during the early "awakening."

  Regardless of what happened at that particular time, the more recent prayers to many gods and goddesses have been answered:

  Saraswati, goddess of education and learning, has blessed me with passing grades!

  

  Thor has granted me knowledge of thermodynamics:

  

  And FSM has generously provided abundant food:

  
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  25

  exJW Psychology 103--Let's Reconsider "Confidentiality"

  by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  over the course of decades as a jw, an elder, a bethelite, then learning ttatt and wanting to leave, i'd collected a lot of insight into the power of "confidentiality.

  " although the confidentiality in a judicial hearing is supposedly to protect the sinner, in actuality, i saw that it was about control and was protecting the power of the jc.. i didn't use any of this knowledge until i was called before the boe because the other elders figured they had grounds to remove me as an elder.

  it was a work situation that only lasted a matter of hours, but it was enough that they seized the moment.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  cha: "It must have been weird & hard to be at Bethel"

  It had its highs and lows. I was friends with some good people, very productive at my work, and had some fun. There were also plenty of jerks, stuff that went terribly, and some "is this a prison?" moments. I ignored a lot that just wasn't right, excusing it because "imperfect humans make mistakes." More and more I saw it as just a restrictive job that was going nowhere. I particularly saw that the "bethel family" was no "family" in any sense of the word.

  I suffered terribly from depression while I was there. Lots of bethelites were on anti-depressants. I say "were" because they were probably among the first that got dumped during the down-sizing.

  fran: I'd heard of those types, but don't have any personal experience with them. The closest I saw was a congregation that was ripped to pieces by two enemy factions that constantly attacked opposing families with gossip. So bizarre to look back at all that stuff now and see it for what it was.
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  42

  New member!!

  by Viva la Vida in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is my first post even thou ive been lurking for some time.

  i was raised in as a jw, and im still in because of my family.

  since waking up i found meetings, assemblies and fs stressing and thought writing in here might be therapeutic.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Welcome!
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  13

  Thomas Jefferson - July 4th

  by DNCall in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  july 4th is not only the date americans celebrate independence, but it's the date of thomas jefferson's death.. i think it would be appropriate, not only for this day, but for this forum, to share a couple of thoughts contained in the virginia statute for religious freedom, drafted by thomas jefferson in 1777. this statute serves as a precurser to the first amendment of the u.s. constitution.

  first regarding the nature of truth: ".

  .truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:" (emphasis mine.).

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Wise evaluation of truth: " Truth is great, ... and has nothing to fear from the conflict "
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  10

  Special Conmemorative 100th Anniversary Bible to be released next year!

  by Calebs Airplane in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as many of you know, the watchtower corporation has recently slowed bible production significantly over the past year... i'm sure there are several reasons for this.

  money being the main one.

  but i suspect that they are also anticipating a significant exodus worldwide after the 100th anniversary of jesus' kingdom with "the end" being no where in sight.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Maybe they'll add some new books, like Gospel According to Lett, Losch's Teachings on Education and American Football.