i heard that many in my jw family are seriously crowing those words.. do witnesses have short memories or what??.
they sound more like false prophets to me.
they can't keep crying wolf..
Every time things get tough or bad, which they will do periodically, they start in again. I was around in the mid to late 70s and between Watergate, the oil embargo and the worst recession in 40 years until now, they were just about to wet their pants they were so thrilled.
You never saw anyone doing the happy dance so fervently over 99% of the human race getting wiped out and it's the same now. I guess this is what happens when you don't have Christmas to get excited over anymore.
i think we have a tendency to get ourselves involved in subjects that might be "r" or worse rated because we couldn't as a jehovah's witness.. any talk or discussion of something considered "wrong" would get you into trouble.. many of us who were brought up in the religion never had any real "normal fun" growing up.
we couldn't associate with "worldly" people and even jws were considered "bad association" if they didn't fit the congregation's ideals.
we couldn't tell an off colored joke.
I reverted back to my original sense of humor after leaving Witnessville. I was raised in the military, and didn't become assimilated by the Borg until the age of about 12-13.
Plenty of time to learn to swear, literally, like a sailor. I also wasn't raised religiously, before becoming Witnesses, my parents were definitely unreligious agnostics who never went to church unless someone was being married or buried in one.
I try to watch my mouth now, because I dislike offending people unnecessarily, regardless of reason, but I don't have any qualms about swearing, cursing or telling dirty jokes.
I don't do it here so much because of the rules, but honestly....I love to use foul language in certain situations. I go to a lot of karaoke and comedy clubs in RL and online and there's a lot of raunchy humor there, and I feel right at home. I can be classy if I want to be too, but rowdy raunchy humor is fine with me.
i considered myself immune to ex jw stuff.
no amount of old watchtowers or anything would change me.
it was seeing treatment of others by elders and the bible itself, which woke me.
Frankly, it was just reading the Bible itself. I'm not particularly literally minded, and I could tell that a lot of it wasn't meant to be taken literally.
Also, catching the Watchtower constantly contradicting itself over the last 34 years. I have an almost photographic memory for what I read, and I'd catch those things pretty easily, which isn't too hard, since they change their teachings as often as a teenage girl changes her clothes.
please answer the question(s) which corresponds to your current belief, if you believe in a. the bible and god.
b. just god, but no bible c. neither (atheist).
i'm asking for mutual benefit, in my quest for the truth (still a work in progress), some of the things i've run into you may want to think about, and in your answers will show if anything i haven't thought of or checked into yet, as well as all readying this.... (all the hours you've spent, vs just my own, having many combined may bring up a few good things for us all from everyones answers ).
I haven't believed in the Bible as infallible or as a literal guide for some time now, it simply doesn't seem to work. I think it's useful in some ways as a spiritual book, however. I'm a great believer in the power of ALL myth, though. I do think many things in the Bible are misread or even mistranslated into English. It no doubt accounts for some of the more unpalatable mainstream Christian beliefs that make no sense, like homosexuality taboos.
I believe in "spirit" which is what I term as supernatural or divine power, perhaps even entities, but I don't define it as strictly as most Christians would, I'm sure. I'm a Universalist, which means I believe all belief systems have some validity, as does all belief, including atheism and agnosticism, the humanist beliefs ( I'm aware that for some atheists, the word "belief"itself is cringeworthy, but it's just whatever you think is true, based on what you know as far as I'm concerned), although I don't feel compelled to embrace all beliefs just because someone else wants to.
I doubt I could ever be an atheist, because I believe in the existence of a supernatural realm, which doesn't seem to be impossible scientifically, as far as I know. I choose to believe in it based on personal experience. I regard those experiences as intimate ones and I don't really share them with everyone, so don't ask. I believe all spiritual expression is personal, internal and private, so that's like strangers asking about my sex life, which is rude.
That's one thing I always hated about being a Witness, that prying into other people's personal beliefs, mainly to try to change them. I'd have felt more comfortable doing a sex survey, frankly.
comments you will not hear at the 05-09-10 wt study (march 15, 2010, pages 10-14)(baptized in whose name).
review comments will be in red or headed by comments.
wt material from today's wt will be in black.
Outlaw, they're so crooked that they shit corkscrews.
please note that this list is intended to apply to the fundies alone.
not to all nonbelievers.
so let's turn the mirror and grab some popcorn:.
There isn't an absence of religious influence in legal process. It's well documented that some of the underlying principles of the American legal system are based in part on Judeo Christian ethic. Not entirely, of course, there are many other influences, but anyone who believes that Western culture, including our judicial and political processes hasn't been influenced by Judeo Christian ethic hasn't been reading the same history books I have.
Not saying it's terrific, just that it's a fact of history.
From Wiki:
Western thought as we think of it today, is shaped by ideas of the 1900s and 1800s, originating mainly in Europe. What we think of as Western thought today is defined as Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian culture, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and colonialism. As a result, the term "Western thought" is, at times, unhelpful and vague, because it can define separate, though related, sets of traditions and values:
Several ideas in the Constitution were new, and a large number were drawn from the literature of Republicanism in the United States, the experiences of the 13 states, and the British experience with mixed government. The most important influence from the European continent was from Montesquieu, who emphasized the need to have balanced forces pushing against each other to prevent tyranny. (This in itself reflects the influence of Polybius's 2nd century BC treatise on the checks and balances of the constitution of the Roman Republic.) British political philosopher John Locke was a major influence, and the due process clause of the Constitution was partly based on common law stretching back to Magna Carta (1215). [ 10 ]
I'd like to point out that one of the reasons that the Magna Carta was drawn up in the first place was to try to control the election of the Archbishop of Canterbury because as the Pope's representative in England, he had authority over the King himself.
So, the conflict of whether religious authority supercedes secular has been around as long as human government itself. Some forms of governance attempted to solve the conflict by simply declaring the human entities in control as the representatives of God or the gods, or making them deities themselves.
It's only been in more recent times that there was some attempt to secularize government...but I'm sure it will take more time for government to become completely secular, if ever. I'm just not sure we're there yet as a culture. There are still a majority in most countries who while perhaps not as church oriented as in the past, still give a nod to the religious or have spiritual beliefs that they want acknowledged by government in some respect.
thank you all.. it seems that we former jw's have excellent reasons to be be upset.
between being lied to about how russell and rutherford started this fruity little cult, having to deal with the coverups of pedophiles and other criminals, the mysoginistic treatment of women, being lied to about 1914 and the related date of 607 bce, the ridiculous and ever changing blood doctrine, being lied to about gb involvement in the un, the changed it once and now back again understanding of what a "generation" is, being lied to about when the end of this system was supposed to come, being lied to about 1975, being told not to go to college and instead explore the underrated world of window washing with the outstanding income potential it produces...... *panting* i am sorry, i am out of breath...... my point is this, (and i speak from experience): former jw's are pretty raw.
and thus, easily exploitable on internet boards by trolls.. trolls see this.
I find most trolls hilarious, but I've always found my humor in strange places...like the Kingdom Hall. LOL
recently, in my area, a number of people have gotten caught looking to pay for sex from a call girl.
a catholic priest was one of the "johns" that got arrested.. i know there are some that argue that it is debasing.
still, for a million years, it's been going on and there are willing parties who want to engage in this activity.. if two consenting adults want to have sex with one another and are willing to pay and accept the services, is it a horrible thing, in your opinion?.
We waste a lot of time and money trying to legislate so called "Christian morality" in America. They figured out in Nevada a while ago that regulating prostitution to make it safer for everyone was easier and definitely more profitable...even for the workers.
now that i am free from my bonds to an organization dictating to me what i can and cannot do (in bed included), i cannot stop.....i feel like an addict on coke or something, i have been with my bf for eight months now, and perhaps it is a combination of the newness of a sexual relationship with the release from my spiritual bonds, but....i feel like a cat in heat 24/7.
of course my bf is not complaining even though i see he is physically tired parts of the day that i actually leave him alone (to go to work or sleep after hours of lovemaking).
i wonder if anyone else has gone through similar experience.
I've always been like that. But my husband and I never paid much attention to WTS sexual bullshit. In fact, he's molesting me at this very moment. LOL
That stuff is so unhealthy for marriages and any other kind of intimate relationships. Geez, it's hard enough to stay together without their buzzkilling bullshit pissing on your party.
unbelievable!!.
just came across this tidbit from the finished mystery, from the organization, in the early years.
keep in mind that these bible students were supposedly selected out of all mankind on the earth to feed christs sheep at the proper time, with "spiritual food"...here is some of that "food" that was supposedly from christ himself:.
This all reminds me of what practicing Mormons have said to me about the supposedly "inspired" work of Brigham Young, "The Pearl of Great Price" which contains a significant amount of LDS nuttiness, particularly about Blacks, Indians and Women. Just typical racist and sexist BS that is totally unacceptable now to most people, but typical of 19th century thinking among some people.
They tend to dismiss it...even though at one time it was definitely part of LDS practice and doctrine. I had one tell me, "I try to forget we have that particular book from the prophets." LOL
Well, at least the LDS religion comes right out and declares the Twelve as latter day prophets. Witnesses dance around that a little, but still, the GB is no different than the Twelve in Mormonism, in practical terms. The are the Witnesses "latter day prophets", no doubt about it. They're just squeamish about outright usage of terms that make them seem in competition with the original twelve apostles, even though it's essentially performing the same function in their version of Christianity.
