This is something that has always perplexed me and my husband both. Where does the money go. Assuming they are building a stockpile of money and wealth, who will eventually cash in on it? Is there someone up at the top actually looking to profit? When and how will they personally benefit from financial prosperity?
If all the money is reinvested into worldwide work- then it seems that those running the show are also believers and that makes it much harder to feel purposely deceived and more misguided by the misguided.
I don't know, I've just always wondered where the profits went and who was due to benefit financially from the whole farce.
Posts by AlyMC
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59JWs selling Bossert Hotel-New York Times Article 1-30-08
by AndersonsInfo innew york times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/nyregion/30hotel.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin.
hotel where dodgers celebrated a title is up for sale .
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AlyMC
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7
It's tough letting go
by B_Deserter inyou know, we all like to talk about how awful the congregations we attended were, but at the end of the day, most of us are here because we need support letting go of our friends and family.
personally, i had and still do have occasionally (because i haven't faded yet) great times with some of my friends.
yeah, it's all based on our religion and they wouldn't be my friends if i didn't believe it.
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AlyMC
Maybe the true friends, will stay your friends. Even though I'm openly agnostic and openly make choices they don't agree with- a few special ones have remained good friends with me over the years regardless. I don't preach to them and they don't preach to me... but we're still always there for each other.
It really was hard letting go though, and for me it really upset me to be thought of as "weak" when I felt stronger than I ever had before. It is a tough transition, and somehow if you allow yourself to really complete the transition- you will find a peace and happiness that you couldn't find before. -
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how can I try to find a lost freind that may have been DF'd?
by Alex Delta incan anyone tell me how they may approach this situation?
you've been out for a while and you move far away.
plenty of time passes by and you know by the odds at least some of those friends you had growing up as a witness should be df'd or they've disassociated them selves.
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AlyMC
I've reconnected with a few old friends through myspace by searching their name :)
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Joy Or Sorrow When You First Found Out It Was False?
by serotonin_wraith infor me, it was joy.
i was raised in the religion, and i always figured i'd be dying along with 6 billion others because i hated the meetings, the preaching work and the rules, morality and threats of 'jehovah'.
i did not want it to be true.. for others here, finding out it was false was a hard time to go through.. as well as asking which feelings you had at first (joy/sorrow/or add your own) i have a follow up question for those who found it hard- what was it that made the impending deaths of 6 billion people okay for you?
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AlyMC
I always thought it was false, so when I first started connecting things myself I was conflicted. Then when I started really seeing it, I was nervous about my future (would my partner stay with me, etc). Once I came to peace with it, I was relieved.
eta- I gues I shouldn't say I always thought it was false... it was more that it was never "real" to me or in my heart. But I thought something was wrong with me, not it. -
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My step daughter (5th generation) is checking out JWD
by wings inshe is 27, and a very special sensitive soul.
would anyone be willing to post a link to their stories for her?
i think it would help her understand she is not alone.
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AlyMC
Welcome, Mandy :) I don't have my story written out anywhere, or I'd share it.
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Watchtower teachings
by jacethespace ina while ago i did a thread about the nephillim and was wondering whether the fallen angels were physical beings.. some here mentioned the watchtower reasoning about how the fallen angels who had children with the women [ in genesis 6] took on human bodies then discarded them when god sent the flood over the earth.. i thought about this and looked at the scriptures and realised that there is no scripture to back the watchtowers reasoning up on " the sons of god" taking fleshly bodies.then discarding them in the flood.this shows how the tower has an "answer for everything" mentally.. is there any other beliefs that the watchtower has gotten us to believe in which cant be backed up by scripture?.
while i was studying i was intrested to know what happened to enoch.in genesis 5:24- and enoch walked with god and he was not for god took him.i was told that god put enoch to sleep to spare him from the wicked around him that would have killed him.although there is no evidence either in the scriptures for this.it just shows how the watchtower interprets things for themselves..
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AlyMC
The teaching of Jesus as Michael the Archangel? Judas not partaking?
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What are your Guilty Pleasures of a geeky/nerdy variety?
by Crumpet ini don't mean the ones we know about already - things people wouldn't think you did or enjoyed to look at you.. i love watching ray mears extreme survival and learning about how to survive and find food and shelter in extreme climates even though there is a strong possibility that i shall never try and escape naked from a japanese prisoner of war camp, or crash without a flagon of water into the sahara, or come stuck in my ship in a freezing ice plateau in deepest antartica.
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what's your guilty geeky pleasure?.
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AlyMC
I actually read through some of these things thinking "crap, that's geeky?" I guess not knowing that much of this is geeky is inherently geeky, eh?
I love foreign films with subtitles. I love comic books. I love anime. I love fantasy books (elves and such). I read text books for fun if the subject is interesting to me. I can't live without my blackjack (pda style phone)... I am a little ADD and was always missing engagements and never accomplishing anything before I had it. On my list of "biggest turn ons" is someone using a word that I don't know. I love that. LOL
But on the flip side, I have a horrible memory and can't remember trivia type stuff to save my life. I can't read manuals or anything else that I'm not completely interested in. I have to figure out anything I'm making as I go- it kills me to read directions. I am easily amused by electronics, but don't enjoy perusing electronics I don't need. And I can't help but giggle at people who get into anything fantasy related to the point of being... umm... well... behaving silly.
So I'm not ALL geek :) -
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Jehovah's Witnesses more likely to be swindled by quack medicine and conmen
by B_Deserter inwe all know how every congregation has that elders wife who takes it upon herself to be the hall's resident doctor quinn: medicine woman.
they are constantly pushing herbal supplements and natural medicines at the very least, and at times even getting a little "spiritistic" with some of the crazier quack devices out there.
do i think they're stupid?
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AlyMC
"My beef with the natural medicine crowd is that they fall into a trap of faulty logic and bogus claims. They can't explain how their "cures" work, just that they do, and when they make the attempt to explain how, it's always based on faulty assumptions and assertions about the human body that are just...plain...wrong."
I totally agree. I tend to lean towards a natural lifestyle in terms of whole foods and avoiding synthetics when practical,cloth over disposable and so forth- so it tends to be an unpopular opinion among many of my peers. But many of the logic they give you only sounds good on the surface and isn't back by *existing* technology that should be able to back it. I can go off on this subject, so I'll just leave it by saying that I totally agree. -
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Tell me about the weirdos in your congro.
by karter inwe had a guy who used to bang on about natural remedies.. at the doors and meetings he would tell everyone what was wrong with them and what to take to remedy it he even told the brothers of for sell coke at the assemblies.. however there was know remedy for his mental health apart from that he was a fat little porker who looked like you could grow spuds on his teeth and washing wasnt big on his agenda last i heard he joined scientology.. we had 4 sisters in the congro pregnant one nut case confessed to the elders he was father to all of them.. one sister used to attack the po's wife in the kh then stand up through the meeting and abuse at the speaker after that they would call the sike team it wasnt uncommon for her to go door to door at midnight.. last i heard she became a counsellor..
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AlyMC
wow, I guess I had relatively sane congregations. I remember when I realized how many women had chronic fatigue syndrome, and wondered how many were really just depressed and thus drained. They had their 30 bottles of vitamins, but then ate at McDonalds all the time. I wondered how unhealthy eating fit in with the supplements and why they were so many JW (sisters especially) who were just so jaded ... yet claimed complete joy. I always found it really sad.
I'm still really into natural cleaners, healthy living, whole foods, and even some supplements... but to me that is still a lot different than the complete belief in snake oils...
I literally laughed out loud about the girl who got pregnant at the convention. We were always so bad at the conventions- we never went without booze and pot and we were always hooking up with some group of brothers. I'd always have a room with friends- so no parents were really checking up on us all that much. Man, if you could survive the day of boredom you could actually have a lot of fun at the conventions. lol. -
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Mother wants me to leave!!!!
by why??? inhi everyone, hope all is well.
i've been reading and posting here for a little while about my situation.
well it has just reached another high point.
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AlyMC
yeah, I'd just play it cool about the BF around the house and tell your mom you're working on that. I'd be honest and tell her that you feel she is being unfair by making life changing ultimatums so close to your graduation, but for the sake of keeping the peace you are "trying to sort it out". Work around it as much as possible...
I'd just focus on graduating and gaining employment. That would be the first hurdle. Change halls when you move out on your own (preferably to a hall your mom wouldn't have connections with) and then stop going. When you do go, leave right after and come in late. Don't make an impression on anyone, be boring and neutral. When you stop coming, you'll rarely be thought of.
Assuming you aren't actively associating with witnesses and sharing your personal life with them or sleeping with him in broad daylight- they'd be hard pressed to get either 2 witnesses or a confession. So regardless of assumptions, they wouldn't have grounds to DF you.
Marry when you want to marry, not to avoid getting DF'd. Nobody needs to be privy to your choices enough to have that be a risk factor. I don't see a reason you can't become inactive and live your life without getting DF'd if that is your goal. Once you're out awhile, people stop expecting you to play by their rules. You'll just be another poor sap who was misguided by satan. lol.