Posts by mindmelda

19

I Finally Feel I'm Ready to Move On (some adult themes)

by neverendingjourney in

jw
friends

i havent been a regular contributor to this forum, although ive been an avid reader for nearly 3 years.

because of my limited contribution, i havent really created a bond with anyone here, so i really appreciate you taking the time to read my story despite that.

my oldest brother had moved away by then, so my mother turned to me for support.

mindmelda

Oh, you poor guy. I was like you, I never went on a date until I was 26 years old, well, not a real one on one date. I was so naive!

I still feel like such a hot house flower about how to cope with the real world. My parents, sure that Armageddon would come any second, never prepared me for the real world as a teenager.

Then, finally, it seemed I must learn to drive, handle money, get a job, all that. And here I am 50 and still no NEW ORDER. Wow, I really wish I'd spent more time learning to be "worldly"..aka NORMAL.

22

How ZEALOUS a JW were you?

by BonaFide in

or maybe you are still a zealous jw.

i became a regular pioneer while i was still in high school.

i used to set my alarm for 5 am three times a week and walk a few blocks to do streetwork.

mindmelda

I was zealous for God, but not for the WTS! I would discuss the Bible with people for hours, never count the time. I would do it spontaneously. I never cared for the regimen of meetings or field service.

I was a lousy JW because I hate corporate rules, and they have tons of them. I hated conventions too. I can't sit for that long, it's torture.

But, I always loved God, even as a small child, before the JWs came to my house when I was 10 and studied with us. I was so curious, wanted to learn. I wish some other faith had got to me first, seriously! I'd probably be a pastor or a Christian counselor in any other faith.

15

I should be DF'd

by rockmehardplace in

jw
friends

i was thinking about this site and the purpose it serves.

each person has a different reason to be on here.

some of us are in and want out, some of are out and need to use this as a way of communicating the hurt and repression and anger that they have experienced whether self induced or wt induced.

mindmelda

They left me as much as I left them. I even asked for assistance, tried extra study to reaffirm the JW beliefs, and they could not answer my questions, would not give me spiritual assistance nor be encouraging.

I was given so little reason to stay a Jehovah's Witness, emotionally speaking, and intellectually, I had deconstructed some their beliefs without anyone able to refute me. I just made the few people I asked sincere questions of angry and frustrated with me, and pretty soon they started ignoring me.

For me, it was kind of like being in a bad marriage where I just couldn't communicate with the other "person" to be a Witness. I found it so emotionally and spiritually unsatisfying that I was really depressed about it, very guilty, and assumed it was all my fault. I wasn't trying hard enough, didn't have enough faith.

I have plenty of faith in what I believe now. And it sustains me emotionally in a way I never experienced being a Witness. I don't know, maybe I was just "doing it wrong" but it just didn't work out for me.

I really don't mind being "doomed" as far as they're concerned. My hopes are different now and the way I look at it, we won't know a lot of things until we're dead anyway.

I don't feel condemned by God anymore...I feel loved and sustained. That's worth anything to me!

24

Where do you stand?

by vikesgirl101 in

jw
friends

hi guys!

i love reading everybody's posts on here.

it's neat to see where the journey has taken them.

mindmelda

Stopped attending meetings regularly about 10 years ago, along with field service. The last three years, I quit going to the Memorial. I was baptized at 16, didn't know what was going on, decided as an adult that I didn't agree with a good deal of it.

I've never been disfellowshipped or disassociated.

24

Did You Ever "Grieve" God's Holy Spirit?

by minimus in

jw
friends

anytime the congregation's numbers were down or there were numerous problems in the hall, the elders would question whether anyone might've grieved the holy spirit.

did you ever??

?.

mindmelda

I never had it as a JW, so no. You have to have it first, I think. *G*

Remember, they limit access to holy spirit to an elite. On that basis, it's kind of stupid to accuse people of greiving it when they don't let them be born through spirit in the first place.

347

Must see video on Youtube where a JW is clearly defeated on the trinity subject...

by Tuesday in

personally i hate bible ping-pong.

i don't think it ever gets anywhere, i don't think it solves anything and i don't think the participants ever make any head room.

however i will say in this case, i have been proven wrong.

mindmelda

I detest Bible hopscotch. The over all theme of the Christian Scriptures indicates that there is a unity or oneness between Christ, God, and Holy Spirit that is absolute. The exact physiological nature of spirit beings or how they manifest themselves is pure speculation. We may not even be able to grasp their nature except in anthropomorphic terms, which I tend to think is why the Bible uses them. It's ridiculous to conceive of God as some three headed freak or having multiple personalities, but as a superhuman being who is capable of manifesting various expressions of himself, well...I can grasp that.

That's all I care about, really. It seems that Christ is the image of God that we can understand best, the expression of his love. That is more important than theological wrangling.

There may have even been subtle differences in the way that each of the Biblical writers perceived God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit for all we know. Apparently, a bit of private interpretative difference was not punishable by death.

Don't make the mistake of desiring total uniformity of religious doctrine or thought that the WTS does. It's not humanly possible.

10

The recession, has it affected you?

by mindmelda in

jw
friends

it's affected my family a lot because my husband is in construction.

he's doing commercial work now for a company after losing his own small business.. it's also the reason we moved 1600 miles to texas.. i see real problems ahead for the usa, the lack of employment is a huge factor that has yet to be addressed and unemployment is more severe than anticipated by the government.. so, what are your brilliant solutions for the recession?

if you could sit down with the president and his staff and tell them what you think, what would you say?.

mindmelda

You're great to take in your family, but that's what's going on all over. We also lost our house in the recession and rents where we live now are going down, but I'm locked into one that is too high, I think. I'm going to try to find a cheaper place or negotiate it down with my landlord, as rents are steadily going down even here in some areas of Houston. The house we're renting sat empty for 6 months before we rented it, after the rent was lowered. I suspect that it would sit unrented again if we left, (it still needs minor repairs from Hurricane IKE, for one thing) and that might get me a slightly lower rent. We'll see.

Groceries are cheaper, housing, goods...everything but gas is cheaper. That's why I tend to call this a "mini-depression". The American dollar is quite devalued, which ironically has contributed to the rise in the cost of oil. It's one commodity that keeps and gains value, apparently, when all else is losing.

Getting people back to work is the key, I think. That was the single one thing that the gov't did during the Great Depression that genuinely worked in the long term, creating work programs and education opporunities. Everyone was too quick to judgment thinking this wasn't going to be slow painful recovery. We won't be seeing the bottom of it for some time, no doubt.

14

Is Paul responsible for founding "christianity"?

by cameo-d in

did jesus really have the intention to start a new religion?.

did he really plan his own execution in order to save mankind from eternal damnation?.

did jesus actually regard himself as a divine being, knowing it would be an infringement of the first of the ten commandments?.

mindmelda

Paul gets a lot of words in, is all, seemingly because he was a prolific writer. Some religions rely more on him for structure than others, but it's also evident that even in the first century there were differences in that way and that it was generally accepted that not all congregations of Christians were exactly the same.

They strove for a certain uniformity in belief in the main concepts of Christian belief, but differed on others that were less vital, from what I can see. Kind of like Christianity is now. The absolute conformity of belief the Witnesses pretend they have never existed and may not have even been intended by Christ or the apostles, from what I can see.

I say "pretend" because if you've just traveled around the country or gone to another country, Witnesses can be quite different in practice and appearance from place to place.

10

The recession, has it affected you?

by mindmelda in

jw
friends

it's affected my family a lot because my husband is in construction.

he's doing commercial work now for a company after losing his own small business.. it's also the reason we moved 1600 miles to texas.. i see real problems ahead for the usa, the lack of employment is a huge factor that has yet to be addressed and unemployment is more severe than anticipated by the government.. so, what are your brilliant solutions for the recession?

if you could sit down with the president and his staff and tell them what you think, what would you say?.

mindmelda

BTS, the mental and emotional toll of the recession (or mini-depression as I like to call it) has to be taken into account too. There are people out there wondering if they're going to keep their jobs, people wondering if they can find another job, and people wondering what they'll do when their unemployment runs out.

And now, people wondering if they will ever see prosperity again in their lifetime as we pay off this debt and how much will our children inherit. We've left nothing for the next generation except debt. Shame on the gov't for that!

Well, sure, the politicians have to protect their phoney baloney jobs, don't you know! Seems to me there were a some people who got rich at the expense of a lot of ordinary people, and it's all coming back to bite them in the ass.

Karma, such a bitch! But, for all of us, as we ordinary folks got taken down with the fat cats, of course. That''s the hell of it, it's all interconnected.

12

Oh well another cult uses it....

by mouthy in

http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/523105.html?nav=5021.

mindmelda

I'm not sure the Masons are a cult, because they seem to lack the coercive elements, even though they have codes and secrets...it's more like an exclusive club or a fraternity, not that those are all wonderful either. But, it is interesting that their lore has contributed significantly to the formation of other cults, like the Mormons.

The LDS religion is full of very obvious Masonic symbolism, and it only takes a visit to their center in Salt Lake like I did once to notice it. Stars, moons, pyramids and all seeing eyes everywhere!

I sometimes wonder how much even Witnesses subtely derive from Masonry, as Russell was obsessed with some of their symbolism, such as pyramids and even astrology.

Masonic symbols are all through our culture in various ways from what's on the dollar bill to how cathedrals are laid out. I don' t know how evil or insidious that all is, nor do I have any conspiracy theories about it, but it is an indication that human beings love symbolism and certain images and ideas tend to become meaningful and gain a power of their own through repeated usage.