Posts by chicken little

17

PO's were not listening to the special day program. Why I wonder?

by life is to short in

jw
friends

please do not judge me for going last weekend to the one day that my husband had.. i truly did not mean to even attend but at the last minute i thought if my husband goes in by himself he never sees any of the stupid points they bring out, so i dressed in one of my not so meeting skirts and a top that was very comfortable and thought i would go to starbuks when it got too much for me to handle.

i lasted about 45 minutes.. first we got there late, my fault and my husband went to use the bathroom before we found seats so i sat back and watched.. there the table that they always have in he hallway and one lone po sitting at it by himself manning it.

my husband came out and we found seats.

chicken little

You poor thing I do not think I could have got my foot over the threshold let alone sit and listen. My husband used to be busy doing lots of other things at the assemblies and he volunteered for the firstaid section and would sit outside in the sun when there was no one around. I on the other hand had to sit with the kids and make them listen. He admits now that he had the easy deal, after some years I had a serious depression and I would go and book my self into a restroom which we had at our complex for the old and sick. There were two beds with a door that slid shut but could not lock and headphones to listen to the talks. I just pulled the blanket over me and was out for the count until the lunchbreak. Same after lunch, I got through a few years of assemblies like that and it was my husbands turn to look after the little one. I found out he went for lots of walks around the grounds and drinks etc, to make it through the day.

As to the miracles...I just call that kindness that true friends would not need to boast about. I have helped many people in the past and never gave it as an experience, I have also received food and other things unexpectedly when we needed help but I can see that that is not a unique Jw thing, loads of people do it.

My husband has just become a samaritan for the Red Cross and he said that the amount of self sacrifice he has met among the people he works with, who volunteer their time and energy to help others, it is just amazing and they are very humble people that do not blow their trumpets about what they do.

Well I hope your Starbucks coffee cheered you up and maybe a stiff drink after you got home.

Love
Chicken little

76

Prayers for my daughter, Ali, not a good update

by coffee_black in

jw
friends

my last update on my daughter was so good...but it didn't turn out that way.

she was cleared to go back to work, but with limitations... she couldn't lift more than 10 pounds.

her employer wanted her back but wouldn't agree to the lifting restriction.

chicken little

So sorry Coffee Black, do hope that she gets well enough for the operation, much love and best wishes to you all.

Hugs chicken little

62

The classic features of a JW wedding are:

by highdose in

firstly a wedding/sales talk that mostly features heavily on how the woman should behave (hint, doormat) and lightly brushes over the fact of the husbands bevhaviour ( oh yeah he should treat her well).

the reception normaly at some crummy comunity hall with yellowed ceilings and chucks of damp plaster falling off the walls.

the seats normaly arranged facing eachother all around the edge, so that theres a huge unused space in the middle and everyone is climbing over everyone elses legs to get to their chair.. a big spread donated by everyone, normaly an ode to food poisoning.

chicken little

Poor gifts! I have attended scores of weddings and that is the one thing that I have noticed that stands out as different from "worldly weddings", they think that a cheap present is good enough, and that is not because they do not have the money but they just don't think it is important to give an appropriate gift for the occasion.

The most skinflint wedding I attended was where my daughter was asked to be the only bridesmaid. We paid for her dress and shoes and flowers ourselves and when she arrived at the snack reception after the photos were taken all the food was already gone, eaten by the guests that did not wait for the bridal party. The evening meal was for family and close friends and she was not invited but told that she could come later for the dancing. That poor girl sat at home in her dress waiting for a phone call from her dad, who was serving at the meal for the family, telling her that we could drive out for the dancing. At midnight I told her to go change because they were obviously not going to call so late. I was furious for her sake and vowed never to let her be a bridesmaid for a witness wedding again. Scrooges.

44

Have You Ever Experienced Depression?

by minimus in

jw
friends

my mom does and has every ailment under the sun.. i know more people that are under meds for depression than not.. fortunately, i do not suffer from depression but i wonder how many do or have, especially if you were a witness..

chicken little

Yes. Comes in seven year cycles for me, severe when I was a witness, lesser so now. Medicine helps, freedom from mind control is another factor in getting better. It is also a fact if you have had depressive parents or grandparents your chances of having depression are higher.

76

What was your most embarassing WTF experience with a fanatical witness??

by Reality79 in

we've all known those fanatical witnesses who are guilty of pdf (public display of faith) and always have to make a big song and dance to the whole world and let everyone and their dog know they're a faithful witness of jay hoover!.

1) when my mother first came in 'da troooof' this wacky, over zealous 'sister' was studying with her - you know the type.

this woman was one of those not so subtle individuals who would always talk loud in conversation and say the name jehovah a million times even when the conversation could have been about basketball.

chicken little

Had so many it is impossible to right them all down, will take a few of the worst. On service with a sister from Lebanon, she insists on speaking to male muslim men on the street, we get into deep ..... straight away and I end up having to drag her away. She then passes a baby pram and puts two magazines into the pram. I go back and take them out and tell her never to do that again, if I was a parent and someone did that with a flyer I would be hopping so she should never do it again. We did not work together again.

Nigerian sister, very fierce face when speaking about the truth, pioneered in the same town I did. She had a track record for hunting down not at homes and was often on the platform giving experiences. She told of one man she had called back on hundreds of times to get him home, one day she finally saw someone was home, when they would not open the door she shouted through the letterbox " I know you are in there, I am warning you that you are going to die at Armageddon". She was applauded for her bold witnessing.

Young guy we studied with became a very zealous witness, we had to literally hold onto him when he got going on the doors, he would be jumping about waving his arms and being very excited. One day I was on the floor above him and I could hear him talking to a householder, when the householder refused to believe in a creator, this young guy grabbed him and pulled him out of the doorway and made him look at a tree outside. He was talking so dramatically that I was cringing upstairs, when I went home I told my husband that he should not be allowed out alone on service.

So many memories haha.

10

Ministerial Servant prosecuted for fraud in 2001 is made up to Elder

by James_Slash in

sorry guys, i can't link the full article (as i don't know how) but this is the address.. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1g1-111236724.html.

this is the news article (only in part as it is now archived) but this guy i know personally and he was made up to an elder a couple of years ago:.

a birmingham technician who went bankrupt after losing almost pounds 100,000 on rash speculations on the stock market has been ordered to do 200 hours' community punishment.

chicken little

Maybe they forgive but I bet he is not in charge of the accounts!

40

Admitted!

by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

just wanted to drop in and share the good news that i have been accepted to "the big city university" this fall.

sorry i haven't been around much lately, this is a busy semester as i'm just getting on with a really exciting life.. wow, has my life changed as i look back over the years!

and jwd/jwn has been an important part of the positive direction that my life is now headed.. my previous thread and history are in the private section for members.

chicken little

Hej Billy,

I have always enjoyed your posts; I am really happy for you that you get to use that wonderful brain of yours and make something more out of your life. Congratulations on your acceptance.

Love

Chicken little

25

The Effects of JW Child Abuse into Adulthood

by PublishingCult in

my two oldest brothers, jim and ron, were coerced into baptism when they were but 10 and 11 years old.. .

they were indoctrinated heavily, of course, and they tried to toe the line and be good little jw boys as best two unruly fatherless boys could.

the nature of a boy won out and they both got into some mischief about a year later.

chicken little

So sorry for your loss; thank you for sharing your personal experience even though it is so painful for you. I truly hope you remember the good times that your brother managed to have.

Love

Chicken little

46

A question to the ex-JW's...

by losthobbit in

i'm curious about what made you realize that your ex-religion was not "true"?.

i've had discussions with many religious people, and they're always trying to protect their beliefs, rather than allowing anything i say challenge what they believe.

was there ever something someone said to you, or something you read that maybe made you doubt your beliefs for the first time, or had a similar effect?.

chicken little

Hej,

Welcome to the board, good question. I wish I could say yes, that it was listening to outsiders raising my awareness of something being not right in my religion. Sadly I was like most Jws, trained not to listen to anything remotely critical of the religion I belonged to.

Most witnesses develop a feeling of great discomfort when facing questions that rock their faith or belief in the organization. Its termed cognitive dissonance, I think.

I think that leaving the religion is very much a personal matter and cannot really be speeded up by outside intervention no matter how well intended. I know that if my friend who left some ten years before me, had tried to get me to see things her way, I would have pulled away from her and become very defensive. She never tried to sway me and when finally I woke up and started to listen to the gnagging doubts I could take the steps that led me out.

I now have a friend that is still in, I would dearly like to share what I know, but again she becomes defensive and retreats, so I just keep being a good friend. I do borrow dozens of novels from the libary and life stories, I read somewhere that you cannot be a fanatic if you read novels! So by getting her to read, which she loves to do, then I hope it will help open her mind and allow her true personality to come through.

Others on here may have had other results but the best advice I can give is be happy, talk about your positive life experiences, avoid scriptural discussions and do fun things with the person if they will allow that.

Best wishes

Chicken little (In from infancy, left at 46!)

81

Here i am....

by makersmark in

here i am - born in truth, hard-core spiritual everything all my life, early reg.pioneer, ms, elder, assembly parts, tour at bethel, etc, married now...... i'm trying to examine jw teachings a little closer...... i've spent the last two weeks reading many many posts, info , references on where ex-jw's are coming from.

i'm kind of concerned about a few things lately..... honestly - some points make sense to me - some don't - here are my general thoughts:.

-wt getting un membership for access to library - doesnt bother me - some passports and other governement documents have similar forms and requirements..... -blood issue - some counterpoints to the jw 'rules' makes sense (original intent of scripture is unbled animals, white blood cells similar in mothers milk) etc -however a lot of 'apostate' reasonings and proof are inaccurate.

chicken little

Excellent post, really good responses. I was in from infancy, pioneer, married to elder, moved to serve in another country etc.....

Nagging doubts as to the inflated position of the governing body, unhappy with the generation changes and finally I read George Orwell's 1984, quite an eye opener when I compared it to my own religion and its methods of control. When I saw that the organization had its own way of changing its history, even down to altering what went into the bound volumes of the watchtower compared to what was in the actual watchtower we had placed in the service. Well I just had to start examining and that took me out. My family are now extremely happy and living a life of peace and harmony, we are deeply involved with humanitarian work and feel fulfilled and contented. If so called apostate books worry you, try reading Orwell's books as a start.

Thanks to all the other posters, fantastic reasoning.