Cadellin

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Posts by Cadellin

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  5

  Trying to locate a Steven Lett talk on Carey Barber (on JW Brothers)

  by Joliette in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it may have been his memorial talk, but i was trying to look for it, couldnt find it on the jw brothers website.. can someone please link it to me, thanks!.

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  Cadellin

  I don't know what talk this is, but I can tell you that Steve Lett didn't give his memorial talk; it was Samuel Herd.
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  84

  Being honest with yourself, could you have reasonably adjusted your attitude and continued on as a JW?

  by miseryloveselders in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i ask this question in harmony with deedub's swan song thread which i linked below.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/205902/1/time-to-say-good-bye.

  to some degree, i think i understand where she's coming from.

  just speaking from my own experiences since stepping into the world of anonymous apostacy, i went through a few different phases of personal outlooks.

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  Cadellin

  First, welcom Bafh and please tell us about yourself (when you're ready)

  This is such a good thread because so many of us have wrestled with these same issues as MLE raised. Many of us, including myself, are caught in difficult family situations and are struggling to negotiate how to be true to our consciences while not losing their marriage or their family. And yes, MLE, I've looked around our hall after a meeting and seen the camaraderie and thought, I could be part of this so easily--I know all the right things to say and movements to make. I'm not DF'd or DA'd btw, I'm inactive. That's the compromise I chose. My family can still talk to me, can handle this limited amount of "shame and sorrow" but still keep their heads up because I go to the occasional meeting and don't rock the boat. My husband is an elder who has told his body that he's "working with me." I show up often enough for them to believe it and leave me (us) alone. I keep my mouth closed.

  My rationale is that I can stand to sit through a meeting here and there (yes, I do have to resist the urge to lob my head several times against the wall when blatant stupidity is spoken) but my conscience will absolutely not allow me to knock on someone's door and tell them something I know is wrong or a lie. I won't do it. That's where I draw the line.

  But to return to full activity? No, uh-uh, nada, no chance, no way, no how. Not unless there is a dramatic about-turn in doctrine so that what is taught conforms to rational evidence (and I mean historical, biblical and natural), not unless women are accorded full equality, not unless honesty is embraced and admissions of error are made. And I dont see that happening anytime soon. Moreover, I have to applaud and echo Franklin Massey's observation about the chilling information control. That would have to be changed--open discussion without fear of judgment or discipline would need to be embraced. Thought control would need to be eliminated. Oh wait, I guess they wouldn't be a cult anymore! If all that happens, then, yeah, maybe I could adjust my attitude...
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  53

  2011 Yearbook - "Tracing All Things with Accuracy"

  by pirata in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  2011 yearbook - "tracing all things with accuracy", p.9-13.

  jesus said that the faithful slave would be discreet in giving the domestics "their food at the proper time.

  " christ thus indicated that those who dispense this "food" would be conscientious, prudent, and discerning in providing spiritual food for the household of faith.-matt.

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  Cadellin

  FM used the phrase "low risk admission." That's it, exactly. By admitting the "error" of a few silly things, they are hoping to innoculate readers against pursuing any deeper, more significant inconsistencies or inaccuracies. And it's working, to some extent. My mother, who'se aware of my problems with how the Society uses scientific quotes, pointed this Yearbook blurb out to me as proof that the Society is aware of the "problem" and is correcting it. See? Everything's good now, you only have to wait on Jehovah.

  YEAH, BUT it makes the most recent shoddy work in the latest 2010 Creation brochure even more reprehensible, IMHO, considering that the two projects had to be in the works at around the same time. "Let's distract the readers with our goofy little example of spider silk and they won't notice the omission of gobs of relevant context in our 'discussion' of how life began!"

  "Tracing all things with accuracy"--Yeesh!! And keep a straight face at the same time...
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  27

  who succeeded Fred Franz not as President but the theological guru

  by ex-Special Pioneer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for decades fred franz was the guru of the watchtower bible & tract society.

  he was obsessed with "biblical prophecy" trying to explain the book of daniel and revelation.

  who took over after he stopped writing and who is considered the authority on the jws teaching today especially the so called "prophetic interpretation?

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  Cadellin

  Recent books on prophecy have more to do with things like dress and grooming, Internet pornography, and meeting attendance. When prophecy is dealt with it is primarlily cut and paste from older Watchtowers.

  Good observation. It's all spun to be about rules of conduct, the preaching work and obedience and, increasingly, extremely simplistic with "dumbed-down" reasoning aimed at about a Grade 4 or 5 reading level.
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  44

  If you could choose one book to suggest to a JW...

  by SweetBabyCheezits in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm sure this isn't an uncommon question but i'll ask anyway.. suppose you had the chance to suggest one book, essay, article, or other writing with the goal of helping a loved one wake up... which one would it be?.

  bear in mind the goal is to subvert the programmed hair-trigger defenses that cause a complete shutdown of critical thinking.

  this automatically excludes anything that would directly place the wt society or its history in a negative light.

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  Cadellin

  This might be too subtle, but I might suggest Neither East Nor West by Christiane Bird. It's about one woman's travels, by herself, through Iran. I read it before I woke up w/respect to the "truth," but I have to say that it jarred me.

  At one point, Bird is visiting an ultra orthodox Muslim city in the north of Iran (Qum, IIRC) and she has a lengthy discussion with a cleric. The reasoning he uses to support Islam, as well as his general world view, was so similar to JWs that it gave me a jolt. I remember thinking something like Moslems think they have the truth but they're wrong--yet their epistemological support structure is virtually identical to ours. So if it's possible for them to be deluded, then what about us... The cleric's rationale regarding believers and non-believers could have come from an assembly part, no kidding. If I had to pinpoint one moment where I started to wake up, it was then.

  Then, of course, I started discovering all the quotes taken out of context in the Creation book and my whole world fell apart. But that's another story...
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  27

  Yoga......JW view

  by confuzzled777 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i needed a place to come vent.

  i went to a yoga class last sunday and loved it!!

  i am going again tonight with my hubby.

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  Cadellin

  I have been so relaxed at the end of a yoga class, laying flat on my back for final relaxation--corpse pose!!--that I have almost fallen asleep. This, in the middle of the day, in broad bright daylight and on a HARD WOOD FLOOR. It's amazing.

  And I've been doing Vinyasa, not Hatha, though I'm not sure there's a huge difference. I've also done power yoga, which is like vinyasa, only moving faster through the poses.

  Love the Smurfette Yoga pants. I wanna pair!!
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  131

  so oompa got df'd this week...

  by oompa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  no call to invite me to a committee meeting...no notification of deciding i should be df'd....no telling my jw wife of the announcement...not a chance to appeal what i did not even know what was going on...my mini-serve son is devasted....he even researched it....told me to go to page 153-154 of the od book...never heard of it but it is a green hardback given to all who are to be baptized.

  wow...the elders broke every rule in this book as to my case.... i have no respect for these men that can take away your jw family without even telling you they are going to.

  my jw son has now begged me to meet with my committee...even though there is prob zero chance they can reverse the decision...that chance is from when they let you know...and you have to appeal by letter within 7 days (i cant make this stuff up!!

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  Cadellin

  Oompa--I'm so sorry. This is a terrible blow, especially on top of the physical struggle you're going through in trying to recover from the accident. I'm amazed and stunned.

  Actually, instead of sending the story to French and Russian governments--or maybe, in addition to--why not see if the Bulgarian gov't is interested in hearing about these "sanctions" to your (unconscious) acceptance of blood?
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  27

  Yoga......JW view

  by confuzzled777 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i needed a place to come vent.

  i went to a yoga class last sunday and loved it!!

  i am going again tonight with my hubby.

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  Cadellin

  As I was fading, I very much wanted to try yoga--I had heard so many great things about it. And, yeah, I'd read the extended, hyperparanoid view of the WT. It took a lot of coursge to walk into my first yoga class but I'm SO GLAD I DID! First of all, there were no demons lurking in the corners. As any reasonable person knows, spiritual and cultural significances of practices change with time and place. The yoga that is practiced in the average American gym or health club is a far cry from the kind of meditative spiritualized experience that that WT is so worried about. Where I go, we listen to hip-hop music while we do down dog! There's no meditation, though we do close our eyes and engage in deep breathing, which is incredibly relaxing. I absolutely love yoga and find it is fantastic for both strength and flexibility. I think its sad that extremist fear-mongering has closed off this incredibly healthful avenue for your friend.
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  60

  Hello. I have made myself a footnote.

  by NewChapter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  first time poster.

  i guess this makes me the scary a word.

  arent apostates jealous?

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  Cadellin

  Welcome, NewChapter! Looking forward to hearing more from you!

  Leo said: Well, that was until they discovered Ardi (transitional between quadriped and biped):

  And don't forget Sahelanthropus tchadensis, at 7 million ybp! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahelanthropus

  Lucky you for getting to see Lucy! We got to see her when she visited the Seattle Science Center a year or so ago.
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  24

  So, circuit assembly. Ni-i-ice...

  by sd-7 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  randy newman might say, in this moment, .

  moving on, had to get that out of my head, um...so.

  i feel like this is the worst time to be writing anything, as i'm in a rather foul mood today.

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  Cadellin

  I can't have a spiritually united family without selling my soul and compromising my values

  Hey, sd-7, it's totally fine to vent. We're listening and--most importantly--we understand. What you said above really resonates with me--you totally hit the nail on the head. You and many of us, myself included, are right plop in the middle of an impossiblity, a paradox of heart-wrenching proportions.

  Hang in there. Don't sell your soul. Don't compromise your values. But do what you need to do to keep going, and find happy again.