i feel that assad even though he is bad is a better alternative then islamic extremist taking power.
what do you think?.
You really gotta wonder about further efforts to destabilize countries in the Middle East - just to make room for ISIS (et al.)...
Now that we all know the typical and likely flow of events...why would it be good to have this Assad character gone, in favor of some other savage murderers?
Qui Bono?
the humanist organisation in the uk wants to protect non-religious people who leave their church/religion from being punished for doing so.
they want the religious hate crime legislation in the uk to be extended to people who are not religious.
i hope they will succeed.
It's cruel, it's unpleasant, but it should not be illegal. As a "victim" of shunning, I'd rather live in a world where shunning was allowed than live in a police state that could dictate who I had to talk to and associate with.
Not to mention, as I've progressed forward in life - OUT & AWAY from the JW religion...
It has occurred to me that, there certainly are instances in life where, I absolutely reserve and demand for myself the right to associate (and NOT associate), with whom I please.
If I must be a 'victim' of such - even for specious reasons - then that is the price that I must be willing to pay for their own right to my own free association.
I suspect that we all recognize the right of all people to make such choices for themselves. Probably, what is really most objectionable are the pervasive and insidious demands that the WTORG foists upon its parishioners. Namely, that they turn over their choice making in the use of such, to the organization's demands.
Please realize that this, too, is a person's rightful choice to make. A person has the absolute right to turn over the responsibility for making all of life's choices to a group of religious charlatans, who they have likely never even met, for unfalsifiable promises of everlasting life in the world to come.
i haven’t been to a meeting in months.
just got a sympathy card in the mail from a “sister”.
i don’t know her beyond her face.
I really liked this -
The thought was nice but that whole life is a chapter I have closed and will not allow it to be reopened no matter how well intentioned someone is. I didn’t respond at all because a Witness has nothing to offer by allowing them into my life.
Presume the best.
Prepare for the worst.
Do not respond.
If you're trying to put distance between yourself and a place, you don't keep turning around.
You don't need a dialogue with people who have an unspoken agenda concerning you.
i have been thinking... why would anyone want to join the religion or actually stay in the organization.
i understand that people don’t want to lose their loving family and dear friends so some stay in.
but what does anyone really ever get because they are jehovah’s witnesses??.
It also strikes me that what we have here is some kind of perverse symbiotic relationship between the jovie converts and the jovie faith. The jovie faith needs the converts just as much as the converts need the faith,
This also explains the great sense of loss that a jovie feels when they leave the jovie sewer.
Great insight, here. I am seeing a parallel to individual relationships that are abusive, but tolerated. The abused party's internal calculus concludes that it's somehow better to be abused, then to not be in the relationship at all. Thus, it continues on.
The WT, like an abusive partner, makes sure that there's a high price for leaving. It's been mentioned a million times - the WT can't be reformed. The DFing is an essential tool of control for the
i saw on another forum a post somebody made about the melbourne assembly.
it seems the religion is still knocking full time jobs/careers and saving for retirement.. you would think at this point in time - after thousands of bethelites were sent home; many thousands of rank & file jws are at or near retirement age with no preparation - that the religion would change its tune, but no.
they are still stubbornly sticking to their guns on this issue.. i’m sorry for any young jws who listen to this.. i’m just glad i never followed their advice and certainly would not want to be in any congregation surrounded by these desperate people!.
Once again, the WT seems firmly committed to generating for itself precisely the kinds of people
who can least bear the financial and intellectual burdens of actually maintaining this thing.
It's thinks like THIS that make me pause and consider the possibility that they actually believe their own nonsense,
This cult is on a slow but steady march toward its own demise. I kinda wish it would speed up, though. I'm tired of this crap.
watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.
too much time on the media for nothing.
it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.
No, the House can pass Articles of Impeachment by a majority (of those present to vote). The Democrats could pass the articles now.
Yes. I was wrong about the height of that bar. It's even lower than I thought. And it's not happening, which I think lends credibility to the notion that...
(not UN-like military interventions in the 3rd world).
There's more to be gained by execution of the process, than there is from a final conclusion derived from said process.
i have been thinking... why would anyone want to join the religion or actually stay in the organization.
i understand that people don’t want to lose their loving family and dear friends so some stay in.
but what does anyone really ever get because they are jehovah’s witnesses??.
They offer simple answers to the BIG life questions.
And the prospect of (certain forms of) love and friendship to awkward folks, as long as you follow the rules. This can be really powerful for people who have difficulty making friends on their own.
Sometimes, people know that their understanding of reality is suspect. So when some unapologetic-ally prominent assertions are confidently made, all of a sudden the sense of responsibility shifts: from the person to the group. The freedom to be wrong can be terrifying.
watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.
too much time on the media for nothing.
it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.
I'm not yet convinced that this impeachment endeavor will progress to the US Senate.
Prior to that, it must pass through the House by a 2/3 majority.
The sweet spot of effectiveness of impeachment as a political tool for the Democratic Party lies somewhere between NO effort to impeach, and Full Senate Trial to remove Trump - IMO. In other words, having the Trial to Remove, and being unsuccessful in such is WORSE than not having anything happen in the first place, because it serves as a indicator of pettiness, and impotency at even that.
In the absence of any real power to remove Trump, the utility of impeachment hearings is to keep allusions and innuendo of wrongdoing freshly in the MSM, on a continual basis. But perhaps this is also subject to laws of diminishing returns, insofar as the more fluff and nothing folks hear, the more weary they are of the story...and the more frustrated they are with lack of meaningful political action on their behalf...
Until/unless they have the numbers, why would the Democrats want the vote?
…(and for the very first time), i thought i'd post a new topic completely non-wt-related... about a subject matter i have a particular affinity for.... ..i'm a major movie geek (most people here already know that), but one of the many things i especially like are what i call "middle-finger victory lines".. they are memorable (and extremely quotable) moments of dialogue, wherein the protagonist says an extremely cool or badass comment to a very deserving defeated opponent.... ...usually (but not always) said when victory has just been literally snatched from the clutches of certain defeat, and serving as a tall, proud, and victorious flipoff to the often (but not always) shocked-at-the-sudden-turn-of-events enemy.. my ten favorites:.
"smile, you sonofabitch.
"sheriff brody to the shark......just before firing his last bullet into a scuba tank lodged in the charging shark's open jaws.jaws (1975).
"My sons were better men."
Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) - The Patriot (2000)
some people on this forum have said that they never really believed any aspect of wt teaching, that they couldn't wait to get free of it all.. others seems to have been really gung ho, believing it all until something happened that got you questioning "the truth.".
i would say my own high water mark was about 50%, which put me squarely on the fence, trying to decide if i should be in or out.. how about you?.
Probably about 75 to 80%. Varying constantly, though.
Once I realized that the religion is an 'all-or-nothing' proposition, I think it helped force me out.
If Jehovah were content to destroy me at Armageddon for doubting even <1% of 'The Only True Religion', and I knew my remaining 20-25% an insurmountable obstacle...really, why bother at all?!
In this way, the cult makes moderation untenable. The only way I could remain in would be to either force myself to believe (is this even really possible?) every remaining last bit of nonsense...
Or else, practice deceit and subterfuge by pretending to. And still probably die at Armageddon, because Jehovah is a reader of hearts...
And even though I could fool my family and the congregation at large...Jehovah would really know I was faking...
Might as well head out into the world, and enjoy whatever days you have...
