Posts by mindmelda

41

Name Things You Can Do Now That You Couldn't As A Witness

by minimus in

jw
friends

a couple of things that come to mind: celebrate holidays and go tieless..

mindmelda

1. Discuss and write about politics, which I LOVE.

2. Express myself verbally and sexually...in other words I swear and quite hedonistic about sex now without guilt

3. Wear what I like

4. Write fiction with a few romantic and violent/actionscenes...you know, like real life? I write stories about the samurai and Japanese myths and culture, a love of mine, among other things.

5. Not feel odd when people wish me a Merry Christmas or Happy Birthday whatever...I just say it back.

6. Examine and attend any religion or philosophy I'm interested in. I studied astrology just because I was always curious about it.

7. Talk to ANYONE! I don't think of other people as "worldly" anymore...thought I'd never get over that!

8. Sing and perform in public....Anything I want to sing! Not being allowed to sing programs and solos in the school choir was traumatic for me as a teenager, because many of the programs were holiday oriented. I had to take a failing grade in something I loved. I'm a trained mezzo soprano now! Singing makes me HAPPY!

9. Read and watch what entertainment I like.

10. Not look at my lovely step children, children and granchild and feel like they're doomed because they're not JWs. Best thing of all. *G*

11. Get more education. I went to night school and took some education and child psychology courses and I'd like to do more.

17

Were there any "dynasties" in your congregation?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

did your congregation have any so-called dynasties, or "a succession of rulers who belong to the same family for generations"?.

my last congregation had a family who had or seemed to have complete control over most aspects of congregation operations.

they like to run the show and make it obvious that they are in charge.. then there are those who receive unearned privileges because their father is an elder who fast tracked his son to eldership.. .

mindmelda

Oh yeah. The PO of my former congregation employed some of the other elders and ministerial servants, until some of them went out and got other jobs. Talk about your conflict of interest!

I always thought he ran the congregation like he did his business, which was rather ruthlessly, as he was a millionaire (he downplayed that quite a bit, and always made sure people knew he donated quite a bit of his bucks to "Kingdom Interests").

But, he was always really proud that all 4 of his children were active Witnesses, and also quite materially successful. Unlike most JWs, he sent his kids to college. He wanted them to have good jobs and actually looked down on Witnesses who didn't want higher education! But, that was because he had one...he had a PhD in something, very unusual for a Witness.

I always thought of him and his wife as the President and First Lady of that congregation. LOL

3

Cognitive Dissonance

by mindmelda in

jw
friends

i just got off the phone with my mom and during our conversation (which was good, actually, mostly personal, family stuff), i got a big hint of the cognitive dissonance that witnesses often operate under.

you have to understand, my parents live in an area that is about 75% lds, or mormon.. she was mentioning a young lady my aunt is studying with, and she said the following.

"she has a boyfriend, and your aunt met him.

mindmelda

That's just the point. :) She thinks only Mormons act that way because they don't have "The Truth". My mom has never really practiced the headship thing, you see. She was baptized in 1973 and I can't remember her EVER being submissive, not like the Watchtower says wives should be to husbands.

She just ignores it and always has. She doesn't submit to my dad in any way shape or form and pretty much has pretty openly "ruled the roost", just as she did before she became a JW.

But, she seems not to believe that the Witnesses even teach that...she just glides right over it and always has. She also doesn't believe one has do to field service (she hasn't gone door to door FS in over a decade), but thinks she is a very good JW. She does get in time doing what she likes, writing a few letters. She likes to write letters so will do that.

I know other Witnesses who are the same, just pick out the bits they like and because they don't out and out fight with the elders over it, they just glide along. Of course, there are other Witnesses in her congregation who think she is not a "good" Witness, but she pretty much ignores them.

It makes me wonder if there are people like this in most congregations?

12

My Bad Apostate Ass Scared Them Off!

by AK - Jeff in

this morning - a wonderful sunny spring day - grandmunchkin #3, wifey and i went 'garage sailing'.

we encountered a nice little sale, that happened to be at the house of someone we have come to know from an uptown art business in our little town.. as we snooped, and shared a little polite conversation with the owner, lo and behold - up walk two of my former good friends - marsha and sally, both dyed-in-the-wool witnesses.

marsha is partly my fault - i started the bible study with her husband that ended them up as the religious fanatics they have become.

mindmelda

Yay! I regularly "anti Witness" on the internet, but occasionally get a chance to do it in person.

By the way, the internet forum "Ship of Fools" is having a really good dissection of Jehovah's Witnesses under their heavy discussion forum "Purgatory". I can't cut and paste URLs here because I use Firefox, but Google Ship of Fools and it takes you right there. Many of you may enjoy the discussions there in general, I have for some time now.

I've been having fun discussing JW doctrine, history and general whackiness with the curious. A few others there doing the same.

2

about mormons

by megaflower in

jw
friends

does anyone know how they treat a house when they get someone home.

do they consider it a retun visit as the jw's do.

my nephew encountered some mormons today(got a call from sis) as she saw him talking to them when she returned home.

mindmelda

I live in Mormon country for 30 years, and have talked to thousands of them.

But, they tend to not follow up unless you really show an interest in their teaching to the point of wanting to agree to a 6 week course of "Bible Study" right away.

Bible study consists of getting you to accept a King James Bible and then teaching you about Mormon lifestyle. Doctrine is optional to a large degree except the bare basics.

16

1925 - What the Society was really teaching.

by Ultimate Reality in

having trouble w/ images.

please delete & i'll repost.. .

2009 - "since 1925, jehovah's witnesses have recognized that world war i and the events that followed amount to sure evidence that christ's presence in heavenly kingdom power began in 1914" (w.09, 3/15, p.16).

mindmelda

Actually, they were still using 1874 as the date of Christ's presence up into the 30s until Rutherford changed that for good.

Oopsy.

3

Cognitive Dissonance

by mindmelda in

jw
friends

i just got off the phone with my mom and during our conversation (which was good, actually, mostly personal, family stuff), i got a big hint of the cognitive dissonance that witnesses often operate under.

you have to understand, my parents live in an area that is about 75% lds, or mormon.. she was mentioning a young lady my aunt is studying with, and she said the following.

"she has a boyfriend, and your aunt met him.

mindmelda

I just got off the phone with my mom and during our conversation (which was good, actually, mostly personal, family stuff), I got a big hint of the cognitive dissonance that Witnesses often operate under. You have to understand, my parents live in an area that is about 75% LDS, or Mormon.

She was mentioning a young lady my aunt is studying with, and she said the following. "She has a boyfriend, and your aunt met him. He's not the usual Mormon guy, very nice and didn't think he OWNS women or that they're not equal to men."

I just about choked on the soda I was drinking. My mother actually believes that JW men are not taught that same thing!!??

She was always big on Women's Rights and Civil Rights before becoming a Witness, was part of all that in the 60s. Can it be that she just ignores the parts that don't work for her and always has?

I started noticing that it's not uncommon among Witnesses, though,when I stepped a bit outside of it. They just ignore the bits of it that aren't personally appealing, but as long as you parrot the words publicly, no one cares that much, except maybe if one of the elders decides to get up in your personal life for some reason, then everything is subject to scrutiny.

Because last year, I remember an elder's wife saying to me (trying to love bomb me back into meeting attendance) that: "Well, our husbands DO own us, according to the Bible, you can't get around headship...but it's a loving arrangement, of course."

This said after I mentioned how repugnant the LDS church viewing men as "owning" women was to me.

18

For those of you going to meetings, assemblies or conventions, try this.....

by awildflower in

jw
friends

the last official 'meeting' i went to was in january at our two day assembly.

believe me i didn't want to go but i did and took a different kind of notes.

for one i wrote down in my note book words like "faithful and discreet slave", gb, organization, fruits of the spirit, jesus, and put a check mark next to each time i heard one of them, (just like when we were kids guys!).

mindmelda

Interesting. When I got baptized in 76, I believe they used the older version of the baptism question.I got baptized in Montana, so they may not have "caught up" with the changes.

I've noticed that in the small backwater congregations, things take longer to catch on. I first became acquainted with the Witnesses (or I should say my family did) in a small town in Wyoming in the early 70s.

46

What was the stupidest advice you ever taken from the Kingdom Hall?

by asilentone in

.

mindmelda

I agree with onefootout...all that nonsense about the evils of oral sex and masturbation. And all without one single scripture to support forbidding it, just a lot of vague insinuations about how "unclean" it all is.

Humans live in a perpetual state of ritually defined "uncleaness" as we're born sinful (going by the Bible here, like they claim to do), so what's the big deal?

I don't know anyone who REALLY does that home bible study thing faithfully, do you? I've had a lot of JWs admit that to me over the years, they just don't have the time or patience and the kids hate it.

Of course they do...they're kids.

8

Sunday's WT study

by M.J. in

hi, just popped in to scan the board for some kind of review of this past sunday's wt study.

i couldn't seem to find anything.. i'm assuming no one is doing a "wt comments" type of thread any more, but i missed it can someone point it out?

i found a couple of interesting statements made and wanted to brush up on the implications (it's been a while so i need a refresher).

mindmelda

The Witnesses use revisionist history to prove that everything before 1914 was lovely, then Satan and Jesus had it out and Satan was cast down to earth and made everything awful after that.

The truth is that life was not comparatively idyllic before 1914, but there was and is an unfounded perception in America that it was a "Golden Age". It's a very American eccentric view of that historical period that makes me laugh when I encounter it here and there.

Alan Greenspan is a guy that didn't see the recession coming and said he forgot to calculate human greed into his economic equations...and we're going to use him as some sort of perceptive authority on historical events?

The WTS cracks me up on who they use as a source for "authoritative" quotes at times. Often it's people who don't agree with them philosophically at all, but happen to say something they can wind into their articles to make them sound journalistic, like they accept a wide variety of opinions and views.

Lolapalooza time!