Posts by In_between

59

Do you care that you offend JW's?

by wholewheat in

jw
friends

this is a sincere question.

do you worry about offending active witnesses?

In_between_days

Wholeweat,

To be perfectly honest, I try extremely hard not to offend JW's. The most challenging trait to display when you are talking to a JW though is tolerance, patience and self - control. I think this is why many exJW's attack and be rude to active members.

Jw's though, Im not sure whether they consider their own claims, and how that would offend members of different churches. For instance, my husband was somewhat OFFENDED when the JW's told him that his gifts of the spirit which he held very sacred (ie. Speaking in tongues) was from Satan,

I felt very OFFENDED and HURT when I was ignored by JW's after comeing out of the org (and I was'nt even baptised)

God loving individuals are very OFFENDED when they are told that they should use only one type of bible translation.

Householders are very OFFENDED when they are lied to by Jehovahs Witnesses at the door and told that they are not seeking to recruit, but merely show them a few scriptures about god's love.

Individuals are OFFENDED that they are that their personal relationship with god, no matter how great or life riveting, means nothing without the WT.

And finally, I am sure that not alot of people are over the moon when they are told that if they dont read the watchtower, and attend the KH, themselves and their family will DIE.

What do you think wholeweat? Do you think people in other religions are somewhat offended by the condemnation delivered by JW's?

109

Does being called an 'apostate' upset you?

by wholewheat in

jw
friends

do all of you ex-jehovah's witnesses get upset when you are called an apostate?

you all call each other apostates, so why should you all get upset if i call you apostates?

if you don't like being called 'apostate', what title would you prefer?

In_between_days

: Remember the brothers and sisters that have been in prisons for 30, 40 years in the past. They remained faithful to Jehovah, praying to Him daily, and yet never recieved any of the Society's publications.

ahhhh, yes the "No part of this world, no part of politics" - those witnesses went to jail for this, i'm sure you know about the malawi goings on, yes? mmmmm, wholeweat, do you agree that Jehovahs people should not be involved whatsoever in evil organisations, eg - the scarlet colored wild beast otherwise known as the United Nations?

18

Are you more interested now?

by In_between_days in

jw
friends

i may be alone here, but are you more interested in jw docrines, change of docrines, watchtowers, km's and othe jw publications now that you are an ex member as opposed to when you were a witness?.

i realised this the other day, when i was cleaning out a wardrobe and there was a "knowledge" book, i got so excited and read the whole thing, looking up scriptures as i went when they were quoted.

(this was accompanied by a soundtrack of consistant scoffs, snorts and "what the hells".?").

In_between_days

Oh, wait! I get it! You mean "study" and "research" defined as "looking up canned answers in the Society's publications and highlighting them in yellow."

LOL

Wholeweat, tell us, did you ever do research outside of WT publications or WT approved publications, if so, what?

69

Can 'truth' change?

by wholewheat in

jw
friends

.

in another thread i posted the following thought, but i wanted to post this for everyone to see and give their input.. the argument that 'truth' never changes holds no water.

according to random house webster's dictionary, 'truth' is defined as follows,"conformity with fact or reality".. the word 'conform' is defined as,"to bring into agreement".. if 'truth' never changes, then how can something taught in science that is considered to be 'exact', later be corrected by 'conforming with fact or reality so as to bring into agreement'?

In_between_days

Nice reply, but the statement that 'houses are hot' makes no sense, but my statement makes total sense. If tommorrow, it was announced that the 'Law of Gravity' was found to be innaccurate and inncorrect, and was 'updated', how would this viewed in the scientific community?

Wholeweat,

You are amusing, please stick around. I'll let someone else answer this. *chuckle*

33

Why dont JW's have a youth group?

by In_between_days in

something that has been alarming to my jw family is the amount of teens ("young ones") that have bailed out of the organisation, never to return.. they use the excuse, as would most jw's that "satan is getting them - he knows young ones are vulnerable.".

if you want my opinion, young people are getting far more educated - they are becoming far more broad minded than they were say 10 or 20 years ago.

because of the slow yet sturdy slackening of the "no college" rule, many more young jw's are attending university or college than ever before, and with further education comes more knowledge, more interaction with reasonable and intelligent conversations with educated people and most importantly -use of the internet ("satans latest tool, as put by a jw i talked to recently).

In_between_days

, during a visit to Australia, J. F. Rutherford, the Societys president, found that a class for children was being held apart from the convention for adults. He immediately arranged for all the children to be brought into the main convention, which was greatly to their benefit.

um.... how?

18

Are you more interested now?

by In_between_days in

jw
friends

i may be alone here, but are you more interested in jw docrines, change of docrines, watchtowers, km's and othe jw publications now that you are an ex member as opposed to when you were a witness?.

i realised this the other day, when i was cleaning out a wardrobe and there was a "knowledge" book, i got so excited and read the whole thing, looking up scriptures as i went when they were quoted.

(this was accompanied by a soundtrack of consistant scoffs, snorts and "what the hells".?").

In_between_days

Wholeweat,

I see now from some of your posts you are a JW, but did I read that you are inactive? Why?

Wholeweat, to help you come to my understanding of why I do not believe in Jehovahs Witnesses as god's organisation, it is important to willingly open your mind. This is something I did: I started a fresh mind and looked at JW docrines, the main beliefs they base their org on. The most prevelent of these, I believe is the 1914 beleif and the "annointed" 144000 - these are ones I could'nt quite get my head around.

What I did, is read the publications by JW's that addressed thes docrines, and look up the scriptures cited that were meant to back them up. I then took a deep breath, and made my mind fresh - I made myself think I was reading the bible for the first time, knew only of god and jesus, and no other religion or it's beleifs.. I then read those scriptures AGAIN and asked myself a very awakening question: "WOULD I HAVE COME TO THIS CONCLUSION MYSELF???"

Would you have? If not, what has made you think this way?

18

Are you more interested now?

by In_between_days in

jw
friends

i may be alone here, but are you more interested in jw docrines, change of docrines, watchtowers, km's and othe jw publications now that you are an ex member as opposed to when you were a witness?.

i realised this the other day, when i was cleaning out a wardrobe and there was a "knowledge" book, i got so excited and read the whole thing, looking up scriptures as i went when they were quoted.

(this was accompanied by a soundtrack of consistant scoffs, snorts and "what the hells".?").

In_between_days

Wholeweat

So you were never a witness? People that are worshippers of Jehovah love to study and do research.</P>

My parents were witnesses, and I always felt like I was never allowed to make the choice. ; I attended all the meetings and went witnessing for about the first 18 years of my life, but not because I wanted to. I was never baptised, I didnt want to be until I looked into it properly, I did, and that is why I left.

I did like to study and research when I was in, but not in reference to JW publications. I always found them very wishy- washy and unrealistic, even as a child. I knew that there were so many questions that could'nt be answered, because if I actually did ask a question at a family bible study, the answer was always completely confusing, and I did'nt understand the reasoning. I kept getting told that the closer I get to Jehovah I will understand and never got proper answers.</P>

<P>I believe gods words in the bible when he says: "Come to me as babes" meaning that the bible is not meant to be so vastly complicated that it takes years of study to understand something the WT enforces. I believe that if you ask someone why they believe in something e.g - 1914 or 144000, they should be able to show you the answer straight from the bible without any other book. If they cannot back this belief up by the bible simply, and need to pull out a man made book to describe it, that is mans opinions, not gods - simple as that.

<P>Im not sure if you are joking and a ex member wholeweat, or if you are a JW wondering why I posted this - but either one, that is why I did'nt like to research and study when I was a JW.

peace

33

Why dont JW's have a youth group?

by In_between_days in

something that has been alarming to my jw family is the amount of teens ("young ones") that have bailed out of the organisation, never to return.. they use the excuse, as would most jw's that "satan is getting them - he knows young ones are vulnerable.".

if you want my opinion, young people are getting far more educated - they are becoming far more broad minded than they were say 10 or 20 years ago.

because of the slow yet sturdy slackening of the "no college" rule, many more young jw's are attending university or college than ever before, and with further education comes more knowledge, more interaction with reasonable and intelligent conversations with educated people and most importantly -use of the internet ("satans latest tool, as put by a jw i talked to recently).

In_between_days

Something that has been alarming to my JW family is the amount of teens ("young ones") that have bailed out of the organisation, never to return.

They use the excuse, as would most JW's that "Satan is getting them - he knows young ones are vulnerable."

If you want my opinion, young people are getting far more educated - they are becoming far more broad minded than they were say 10 or 20 years ago. Because of the slow yet sturdy slackening of the "No college" rule, many more young JW's are attending university or college than ever before, and with further education comes more knowledge, more interaction with reasonable and intelligent conversations with educated people and most importantly -use of the internet ("Satans latest tool, as put by a JW I talked to recently)

Not that I want the WT to actually suceed in keeping it's members, this does bring me to the question of What exactly is the WT doing to keep it's young ones in the org?

I dont know if I am correct, but from my personal observations I would guess that 60 - 70% of JW leavers (or simply ones that become totally inactive) would be youth, would you?

I had a discussion about this with a JW and stated that the org has nothing to offer young ones, to which they were quite mortified. ("A paradise earth"?) Even if a JW youth were to believe in the docrines of the org, what reason would they have to stay?

Many of you may have looked at other religions, ones in particular that have such things as "Youth Groups", are quite sucessful in having teenagers that actually ENJOY the goings on of their religion:

- Youth meetings are held seperately, taken by an older youth (group leader) discussions are open and talks are relevant to youth.

- Youth organise concerts and other christian get togethers, interaction is encouraged.

- All young ones are invited to attend, not just the "Strong ones" in order to encourage everyone.

Personally, I was amazed when I recently discovered a religion that has teenagers that actually enjoy attending their church services and witnessing. I do not agree with the docrines of this church (I do not with any) yet I see that other religions make an effort to involve their young people, and it's not done in a nazi enhanced way, as you will see conducted when JW elders organise their 2 gatherings a year for young ones that hardly anyone attends.

This appears to be working for other religions, why have'nt JW's ever considered this? It seems as if they would rather fob the matter off (Satan has them) than address it, or put actions into place to help their situation? What are they scared of?

My husband put this to a JW recently, who did'nt really know what to say about the matter. My husband said: "Dont you have a suggestion box? Cant you put this forward as an idea"? (hahahahahah)

Seriously though, id like some feedback.

3

This is how Ladies keep Jws away

by WildTurkey in

jw
friends

In_between_days

This reminds me of something.

One of our C.O's when he came to visit, had a WHOLE BOOK of "humourous" (ahem) cartoons that some JW had done regarding witnessing, the whole congo loved them and could'nt get enough, thought they were hilarious. Has anyone heard of these cartoons before, id be interested to see them again.

18

Are you more interested now?

by In_between_days in

jw
friends

i may be alone here, but are you more interested in jw docrines, change of docrines, watchtowers, km's and othe jw publications now that you are an ex member as opposed to when you were a witness?.

i realised this the other day, when i was cleaning out a wardrobe and there was a "knowledge" book, i got so excited and read the whole thing, looking up scriptures as i went when they were quoted.

(this was accompanied by a soundtrack of consistant scoffs, snorts and "what the hells".?").

In_between_days

I may be alone here, but are you more interested in JW docrines, change of docrines, watchtowers, KM's and othe JW publications now that you are an ex member as opposed to when you were a witness?

I realised this the other day, when I was cleaning out a wardrobe and there was a "Knowledge" book, I got so excited and read the whole thing, looking up scriptures as I went when they were quoted. (This was accompanied by a soundtrack of consistant scoffs, snorts and "WHAT THE HELLS".?")

My point is, when I WAS a witness (born and raised, totally pushed into it) and attended meetings I could'nt wait to leave, did'nt listen to hardly ANYTHING and regarded the publications as extrememly boring. I would never, ever read a JW book by myself and my parents were constantly trying to get get me interested and attentive, and would be overjoyed if they saw me doing this exact thing.

Now I do, and show lots of interest, I ask thousands more questions, I research and discuss, and now they are even more unhappy with me.

Does anyone else find themselves doing far more "Personal study" than they used to?

In_between_days

Posts by In_between_days