Gopher

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Posts by Gopher

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  11

  Excommunication in the scriptures...

  by cognac in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems to me that the following would be reasons for excommunication in the scriptures as long as the person was flagrant and unrepentant in this regard:.

  1 cor.

  5:10 a brother who is a:.

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  Gopher

  Cognac,

  It would also be interesting to think about the shunning enforcement, under which circumstances SHOULD not speaking to someone apply as compared to the rules enforced by the Watchtower leaders.

  Excommunication does not need to lead to the shunning that JW's are told to do. My understanding is that the only ones to avoid greeting were those attempting to introduce a false teaching into the congregation. It seems that other Bible-based religions are closer to the spirit of what the Bible says when they withhold privileges and sacraments, but hardly any religions enforce shunning to the point of even removing those who say a greeting to former members and to the point of cutting off their family members.
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  40

  Can I interest you in a room temperature "soda"

  by Lemon_Lime_Shasta in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  long time lurker (like half a decade), first time poster.

  it took a post about assembly food to get me to register here.

  i think we need to start a project to piece together the menu from an early nineties circuit assembly...would be strangely nostalgic.. i got myself a "worldly" education and took that opportunity to leave "the troof".

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  Gopher

  ATJ and Snap,

  I was still JW when I once visited my parents in Florida, and we took a tour of that assembly hall. I have 3 main memories -- the wall carvings (I think they had scriptures in French, Spanish and English), the pond in the back which may have had alligators, and the female tour guide about my age who wore a v-neck dress showing about an inch of cleavage which made my mom very upset (but not me, and my JW-elder dad didn't say anything about it). - Never thought I'd get to tell about it on JWN.

  LLShasta -- welcome to the forum!! How about the fried chicken wrapped in a slice of bread to absorb the grease? Yum.
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  18

  Are you content?

  by Newborn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i find it hard to be content...even though i have a nice apartment, good job, good health, family and friends.

  i'm of course grateful for these things but i feel that somehow i always long for something else.

  when i'm single i want to be with someone...when i'm with someone i want to be free.

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  Gopher

  Newborn,

  I'd like to try a different angle. If you think it's too off-the-wall, just ignore it.

  Is "contentment" what we really need or look for in life, kind of a settled-in, warm and fuzzy feeling? The things you describe in your first post about your living surroundings and apartment, or whether you're single or attached, are all environmental things, and not directly related to happiness or contentment.

  What we need is to feel EXCITED about life, to have new challenges, to have a reason to wake up in the morning and say "I want to do that". While it's important to eliminate factors in life that we are discontent with (bad relationship, bad religion, unfulfilling job if we can find a better one), these alone do not lead to contentedness.

  We need to try new things, break new ground, and help other people in ways meaningful to us.

  Those of us who belonged to a high-control religion know what it's like to have others try to define life's meaning for us -- it was to serve THEM. Now that we've become free, we must define our own purposes and what is interesting and exciting to us. It has little or nothing to do with circumstances, and everything to do with our goals, our progress towards them, and our interactions with others.

  Thats my 2 cents, and I'm glad I spent them here!
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  4

  Ex-Scientology Kids Share Their Stories

  by Dogpatch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is running last night and tonight on nightline.

  this is great stuff:.

  http://abcnews.go.com/nightline/story?id=4702271&page=1.

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  Gopher

  Their organization is clearly more important to them than cultivating or loving a family.

  Anyone who teaches you to disown family is pure evil. Sounds very familiar.
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  19

  why do I keep losing sleep over silly stuff?

  by finding my way in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i keep finding myself posting things on here and then feeling extremely embarrased for sharing my point of view.

  like i can't handle anyone disagreeing with my viewpoint.

  last night i had a hard time falling asleep because of what someone posted in response to my comment.

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  Gopher

  I have felt the same way, upset over an anonymous internet discussion where disagreement arose. Perhaps in my case it was partly due to being raised JW mixed with the introverted personality I have. At least in my family, we had a culture of avoiding conflict. I never learned then that conflict could happen between two people who actually might like and even respect each other. I thought conflict was always bad, leading me to hold back expressing my viewpoint -- or even worse, deciding to not have a viewpoint.

  Now that I'm on the outside, I had to learn to do what you did -- express my thoughts, but then also to realize that in the end the world would be a boring place if everyone agreed with me or vice-versa. In other words, nobody is necessarily better or worse for holding a different view (wrong though it may be, LOL).

  Also as an introvert in the JW's, I bought the idea that there is absolute truth. We were trained to mostly tune out thoughts that conflicted with what the Society taught us. For me it was a new thing to actually slow down and really listen to what people were saying, and not assume they were upset with me or thought ill of me if I had a different view. Growing up JW for me had a bad effect on my ability to relate.
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  74

  “THE REVELATION, IT’S GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND"

  by maputo95 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you have the revelation, its grand climax at hand" book"?

  it is a fascinating book backed up throughout with scriptures will open your eyes but you must read it from beginning to end.. the above is a quote from my jw friend, inactive for 30 years and thinking of sheepishly returning.

  is the book cited above a scholarly and dependable commentary on revelation?.

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  Gopher

  Lilith,

  Was it one of the images on this page? --> http://www.watchtowerlies.com/watchtowerlies_019.htm
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  20

  Whatever has happened about swine flu?

  by badboy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  don't seem to have heard so much about it lately.

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  Gopher

  Young kids are filling up the hospitals, from the news report I saw today on TV. If you ask the nurses you wouldn't hear them say it's just media hype.
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  20

  Law of Attraction

  by INTK in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just wondering if it is okay to practice the law of attraction as per the book "the secret".

  if you are committed to jehovah, would the law of attraction simply be something to improve your life but at the same time staying grounded with god.. is this to be avoided by brothers and sisters or is it okay if you do practice it knowing that jehovah did create the laws of the universe.

  i can't find anything in any past watchtower or awake articles.

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  Gopher

  "The Secret" is a self-help book filled with "this world's" thinking, including visualizing personal success and attracting success by focusing on it.

  The Society warns against too much attention on personal success which may run counter to the goals they feel a True Christian should have, such as privileges in the organization and a greater share in the ministry.

  In this system, JW's are encouraged to not use the world to the full. According to them, people can really only succeed by a full share in the ministry and surviving into the new system. The things that lead to success according to the Society are the fruitages of the spirit, not the laws of attraction.

  Having said that, I bought a book based on the same principle called "The Secret to Teen Power" for my 15-year-old niece for her birthday. I think she will enjoy it.
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  68

  OBAMA WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

  by WuzLovesDubs in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  he couldnt bring the olympics to chicago but he accomplished this coveted award after only a few months in office.

  somebody out there sees this man as doing what the planet needs.

  perhaps.. but i for one am not as shocked as most.

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  Gopher

  But Bizzy Bee, when Reagan was undercutting the school lunch programs across America, at least reasonable people prevented ketchup from being counted as a "vegetable" (one of Reagan's great ideas). (But the corporations still got ushered into schools with their Coke machines and Pizza Hut lunches for kids -- better than funding school lunches through regular taxes, right?)
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  14

  Understanding the family issue!

  by ry.hans in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  my partner has been diss-fellowshiped and out of jw stuff for just over ten years.

  its my understanding that family and providing is an important key to any religon.

  so why is it she classed as a bad association if she is family.

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  Gopher

  "Her father has told her brothers and sisters not to talk to her, but her father still claims to love her, how can this be??"

  My parents don't talk to me or my sister, because they are taught -- (1) we are a spiritual danger to them because we could influence them to leave their religion and lose everlasting life, and (2) they are taught that isolating a person will make them feel lonesome and induce them to come back to Jehovah's Witnesses. And if you make them come back to Jehovah's Witnesses, you have loved them by saving their hopes for eternal life.

  Maybe that sounds crazy to you. It sounds crazy to me. The more people shun me, the more I want to stay away from them.

  Jehovah's Witness leadership is mainly concerned with reason (1) above -- they are afraid that if they allow their people to talk to former Witnesses, they will lose many of their people.