hallo,.
i would like to discuss some items in one topic:.
1)most of the people who left jehovah's witnesses also left institutional christianity,i mean they did not join another group (or did they)?.
I want to be a Christian now, but most of the other churches I've looked at in my area are unappealing.
I live in Texas and the hard core fundamentalism here is a turn off, ugh. Too much rapture, gay bashing and Republican politics mixed in for this Independent liberal mystic!
Still looking. *G* Some liberal doctrine non-denom church would probably suit me. A few of the more liberal Presbyterians or Lutheran churches I've found moderately attractive too.
feeling guilty already about being on here, the familiar words are recalled in my mind "don't go on any jehovah's witness websites except 'watchtower.org'!
so here i am, desperate for some help.
i'm 21 and have been studying for 2 years, i was made an unbaptised publisher in february and it was all going great until i had a problem with getting a little tipsy, the elders had to come scrape me off the floor of my witness friends house and take me home.
Man VII, I guess I knew that, but when you write out their interrogation tactics like that, it's just effing sick! Remember, this is procedure all spelled out by the WTS elder manuals.
I bet they all have to run home and whack off after a committee meeting, it's JW porn for creepy old dudes. EW! *totally creeped out now*
feeling guilty already about being on here, the familiar words are recalled in my mind "don't go on any jehovah's witness websites except 'watchtower.org'!
so here i am, desperate for some help.
i'm 21 and have been studying for 2 years, i was made an unbaptised publisher in february and it was all going great until i had a problem with getting a little tipsy, the elders had to come scrape me off the floor of my witness friends house and take me home.
I hope you keep sexually safe and decide to have sex with someone because you want to express love for them and not just because you're lonely and depressed.
I'm glad you have good friends who care about you and are helping you feel better.
Think about how Jesus disciplined his disciples, never with harshness, but with love and forgiveness. Unfortunately, you rarely get that from JWs, who train the elders to be quite punishing and inflict as much guilt as possible over relatively minor mistakes.
They're really punitive and harsh about "sexual misconduct", as it's the most difficult aspect of human behavior for them to control. They believe in micromanaging people's sex lives, even married people are told what kinds of sex to have and when. Buzzkilling sex is a big agenda for the WTS...they were originally an organization that totally encouraged celibacy, you know.
But, that's one of the identifying traits of a cult...unnecessarily strict and invasive control over people's personal lives and choices.
The Bible does not promote promiscuity, true, but that's for our own sakes as promiscuity is widely recognised as a sign of low self esteem and poor self image. But it doesn't stipulate overly harsh punishments and shunning for a perfectly normal sexual indulgence. That's the WTS idea of a good time, not God's.
homosexuality has been going on since the beginning of time.
many animals (that jehovah made) are homosexual or bisexual.
throughout history, homsexuals have been reviled for their actions and their sexual orientation.
Yeah, but think how weird you'd feel if watching Brad Pitt gave you a hard on when you know you're into women?
I remember Jamie Foxx talking about meeting Prince, and making the comment, "God, he was so pretty, for 2 whole seconds, I was gay!"
I think he got over it, though. LOL
BTW, I'm really pissed at Prince for drinking the JW koolaid and making those stupid homophobic comments in public that he does now. He was a lot more intriguing when he was just his old weird self instead of JW weird.
i never felt comfortable knocking on door and i hoped no one would be home.
my presentation was short and to the point because i did not want to get into discussions.
as we walked from "door to door" i secretly wished i could be like all the ones i saw in the nighborhood.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan says it best, "You want to make someone really uncomfortable? Talk to them about Jesus. Even if the Pope said, 'I'd like to talk to you about Jesus.' you'd be like, 'Whoa freak, keep that stuff at the office.'"
LOL Too bad the JWs don't actually talk about Jesus that much, but point made. It FREAKS people out to ambush them about religion. Why does the WTS think that's the best way to get them interested in JWs?
It's true that Jesus and the apostles spoke publicly about their beliefs, but it was a common thing to that time to present and debate your views in the public marketplace, as we didnt have a lot of other forms of communication in those days. No newspapers, no TV, no internet, of course. Town criers were common up until the widespread distribution of newspapers in the 1800s.
It seems to me that when the disciples went to talk to people in their private homes, it was people who had already approached them and expressed some interest to what they were discussing in the public forums.
What JWs do is nothing like what is spoken of in the Bible. Jesus didn't say to go find people and annoy the crap out of them on Saturday morning!
i never felt comfortable knocking on door and i hoped no one would be home.
my presentation was short and to the point because i did not want to get into discussions.
as we walked from "door to door" i secretly wished i could be like all the ones i saw in the nighborhood.
I always felt uneasy that I was selling religion door to door like vacuums and Avon. I had done door to door selling and frankly, it felt like the same thing.
I couldn't bring myself to do a lot of formal field service for that reason, but I did a lot of incidental witnessing simply because it seemed more natural to me.
But, I made the mistake of actually listening to other people! LOL Some well informed "householders" had theological convictions that I couldn't overturn or refute.
I never converted anyone to JWs in 36 years, thankfully. I tried to have respectful conversations with people instead of preaching at them, so maybe that's why. Also I had a lack of conviction about many WTS doctrines after I actually studied them so I guess I was never really a convincing spokesman for the WTS. I got into Witnesses as a child and of course had no idea there were other theological ideas and arguments out there until later, when I read and discussed them.
My baptism at barely 16 years old was based on a really rudimentary and incomplete understanding of JWs...if I'd known then what I knew later as an adult, I'd have never done it.
I don't think it works well unless you mindlessly preach AT people the sermons you're taugt and then those who are looking for someone to do their thinking for them are the ones who respond to that.
homosexuality has been going on since the beginning of time.
many animals (that jehovah made) are homosexual or bisexual.
throughout history, homsexuals have been reviled for their actions and their sexual orientation.
The "homosexuality is a birth defect" argument has some supporters but so far, they can't offer a medical treatment or prevention, so it's worthless as a way to deal with the fact of homosexuality and bisexuality.
Kinsey, the sexual researcher, found that human sexuality is on a continuum. Most people are neither 100% heterosexual or 100% homosexual, suprisingly enough.
That's why a society who sees sexuality as "two choices" is scientifically ludicrous. Our own sexual behavior informs us otherwise.
Kinsey discovered that many people who identify as primarily heterosexual have occasional mild to strong homosexual urges, fantasies and behaviors.
And people who identify as primarily homosexual have an occasional heterosexual urge, fantasy or behavior too.
I have a young gay friend who admitted to me that he about died once when he discovered that watching Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" got him aroused. It totally freaked him out that a WOMAN did that to him and I had to assure him it was normal. It didn't mean he wasn't gay, or mainly attracted to men.
But, it demonstrates why people can fake being straight or genuinely experience an attraction for them that isn't their usual one, and that makes them believe they are "cured" of homosexuality. Or on the other side of the coin, "OMG, am I GAY NOW??"
Our society is so homophobic, some straight guys have a hard time admitting that certain situations, they get an occasional homosexual ping too.
Other societies view that as normal and even allow people to play around or experiment with it, and get it out of their systems, but in Western culture, one homosexual act defines you for life, especially for males.
A lot of primarily heterosexual males are shamed into denying any homosexual experimentation, but people are going to end up being what they are, so we need to learn to relax about it as a society. And yes, some people will find themselves in the middle, experiencing attraction for both sexes. Also perfectly normal.
I've been a sex ed teacher for many years now ,btw.
homosexuality has been going on since the beginning of time.
many animals (that jehovah made) are homosexual or bisexual.
throughout history, homsexuals have been reviled for their actions and their sexual orientation.
Bisexuality and homosexuality are common among "higher" animals, such as dolphins and bonobos.
You can easily google it.
I've read some good scientific arguments for effeminate male behavior also being biologically influenced, seems to have to do with male hormone fluctuations during pregancy that affect the fetus's brain.
Nothing is 100% genetically hard wired, but there's significant evidence for sexual attraction and gender oriented behavior, which is a "brain thing" being heavily biologically influenced.
It's not condemned in the Bible either, so I figure the main reason people are annoyed or hate it is just plain old bigoted social conditioning. You see or feel your parents nervous and fearful about something and you take it on unquestioning as a child, and the cycle perpetutates.
The only way to break it is to experience that your fears are unfounded.
In other words, go out and mingle with some nice queers and you'll get over it soon enough.
There are probably people of all orientations who are TMI about their sex lives, just shut up already. It embarrasses me to see any couple making out in a frenzy of passion in public...get a room! Kissing, handholding and flirtatious conversation is normal between couples and doesn't distract me.
But, if hetero flirting and PDA is fine with you but the queers better shut up about it and keep their hands to themselves, then that's just your discomfort with homosexuality coming to the fore.
homosexuality has been going on since the beginning of time.
many animals (that jehovah made) are homosexual or bisexual.
throughout history, homsexuals have been reviled for their actions and their sexual orientation.
If you've had any group of people villainized to you a good deal of your life, you're going to be afraid of them.
I used to be afraid of anyone "worldly" of course, because you're taught to be. But, I'm not anymore.
I always found men and women equally attractive, but I never acted on the attraction to females bit. I was always scared to, but I had a terrible crush on my female JW roommate...I was really horrified by it at the time. *sigh*
I'm happily married (to a guy) and have been for 21 years, and yes, my husband knows that I also find women sexually attractive. I think it kind of makes him happy, too! LOL
Although I am faithful to him, because UM, MARRIED and I like men equally well. I don't like cheating, either. Dishonesty is not good for relationships.
suppose it happened:.
how much damage would a news headline like that do to jw's?.
how could a 'watchtower leader' who claims to be 'godly' end up in a sex shop, shortly after saturday morning fs?
Okay, I giggled when you said being a Greek to the Greek. I never took that scripture that way before.
*LOL forever*
