Posts by mindmelda

4

Trickle effect

by 5thGeneration in

jw
friends

well, i guess this was coming since i haven't gone to the kh in quite a while.. the slow stream of decades worth of friends dropping me like a hot potato is picking up steam as the rumour mill is spinning at full force.. any advice on how you all dealt with the inevitable?.

not very fun, not very fun!

.

mindmelda

I quit going regularly to meetings years ago, and only a few phone calls and one or two short visits to bring me magazines were the result.

It was amazing at first, no one came pounding down the door to beg me to come back! But, to me it just speaks to the lack of real friendships among the JWs.

Everything is conditional upon your status with the congregation and your level of activity, so no one dares get too chummy lest they have to break it off if you don't keep the terms of your contract with the WTS.

My family still talks to me, they're not that active either, so the others ignoring me doesn't bother me too much. Not a "friend born of distress" at all, are they?

21

Answers to Bible Questions from the DC recordings provided by AuntBee

by insearchoftruth in

i listened to this recording and wanted to provide a summary of what i have heard......in essence the end is here, keep on the watch, how can we tell the end is here, we tell you so, so keep on the watch....what about those who had incorrect expectations, well they were awake and watching, but mistook some of the signs, but the end is still soooo near.. .

the speakers pace is sooooo slow, even on the fast speed of playback, it seems to me to be slow.

he starts with an explanation on how they have a wealth of information available to them, and most of the questions they are answering come from the theocratic library, but one must be willing to do the research (i guess only amongst somewhat current publications, and of course only use the watchtowers information).. .

mindmelda

Ever wonder WHY Witnesses are so concerned with when the end will come? Other Christian faiths also believe in the coming of Christ, and believe we're even living in the "end time" in a vague sort of way, but don't constantly dwell on Armageddon's timing.

I believe it's because Witnesses don't live a healthy normal life in the here and now, so they're really banking on it coming in their lifetime....literally.

I remember when I was 20 and an active Witness that the idea that I'd have to face aging or retirement never once occurred to me.

My parents were fortunate in that my dad always worked for a big company (a job he got through his advanced education, btw, which they didn't see fit for me or my brother to have...my mom also went to college) and has a decent 401K and a pension plus SS.

But, of course we never thought much of such things back then, to talk out loud or plan on growing old in the current world sounded like you disbelieved Armageddon was coming in your lifetime.

My parents came in in the early 70s, like so many, with this promise of the end coming "soon" or even at a specific date, 1975 and then hints of 2000 being "it". It's now 34 years later and you wonder just how long the WTS can keep tap dancing?

Without iminent Armageddon, just how long can they keep people strung along? I've heard my mother say that "even without it, I still want to live the way God wants us to live" but how does that make a Witness any different than any other Christian sect? Most Christians want to live as they believe God wants them to live! Nothing unique in that desire at all.

39

What Was YOUR Worst Quality As A JW?

by minimus in

jw
friends

for me it had to be that i was trained to be judgmental.

i'm naturally a person who doesn't believe everything someone says---just because they say it's true.

still, a "good elder" is supposed to be watchful of what might "contaminate" the congregation.. so, it's time to bare your soul.

mindmelda

Too liberal, too questioning, but I was also pretty arrogant, thinking I knew everything about the bible, which is a joke to me now.

I was constantly being told that I didn't "hate what is bad" enough.

I take that as a compliment now.

29

Witnesses Who Were Hypocrites!

by minimus in

jw
friends

some jws truly believe and live their faith.

but many witnesses lived double lives or spoke one way in front of the congregation but privately, they were just the opposite.. i knew an elder and his wife who owned a liquor/convenience store.

they sold tobacco and lottery tickets but claimed that the real owner of the business was the wife's "worldly" father, which was hogwash.. were there any real hypocrites that you knew about?.

mindmelda

Witnesses want to be perfect now because the religion is a religion of works. Since you can never really do enough works to be perfect, you're constantly in a crisis of self loathing, and then out of self loathing, you do stupid harmful things.

You either need to get religion that frees you from this constant feeling of condemnation, that teaches God's forgiveness and unconditional love, or get into that mindset through non-spiritual means, which is what psychology does. (I once heard a psychologist say that psychologists are the secular version of priests, and I believe that's quite true).

A lot of modern cognitive behavioral therapy is based on that same idea that you cannot work yourself in to approval, self acceptance needs to be intrinsic to being human. In other words, what is embodied in the "you're good enough" self affirmation speeches common to psychology and self help.

You can't use excessive guilt as a control mechanism with people because it's negative reinforcement, which is proven to have it's limitations. Positive reinforcments of "yes, you're good enough, you're forgiven, you can do better" are much more emotionally useful, regardless of where you get them.

29

Witnesses Who Were Hypocrites!

by minimus in

jw
friends

some jws truly believe and live their faith.

but many witnesses lived double lives or spoke one way in front of the congregation but privately, they were just the opposite.. i knew an elder and his wife who owned a liquor/convenience store.

they sold tobacco and lottery tickets but claimed that the real owner of the business was the wife's "worldly" father, which was hogwash.. were there any real hypocrites that you knew about?.

mindmelda

We had an elder's wife once who slept with some of her husband's Bible studies, his brother, his father and god knows who else. A real nympho. When she was caught having sex in a parked car in a parking lot of a grocery store with one of the Bible studies, she cried rape. Everyone believed it because she was such a social charmer. Later, it came out she was lying and got DF'd all the other stuff was exposed too.She was reinstated pretty quickly, though.

I know the PO of our last congo covered up both his sons looking at porn and shoplifting, never filtered down to the congo. I heard it from "worldly" people.

That kind of stuff goes on constantly among Witnesses, they're only human but trying to be perfect all the time, so all they do is get better at hiding being flawed.

57

...Does it Bother you,when other Posters Disagree with You?...

by OUTLAW in

jw
friends

i`ve been on this board,since before noah built his ark (take note badboy..lol!!

).........it`s hard to post publicly,at first..it was for me....eventually you get used to the board and start to speak your mind..that can draw criticisim from a few,or sometimes many posters......personally i could care less..if you don`t agree with me,so what?.............does it bother you,when other posters disagree with you?

...outlaw.

mindmelda

I've been on the interwebs for some time now, I even moderate a forum. Let's just say if I had a nickel for every time I ever got flamed, I could retire now.

Between negative commentary on my fiction, my views, my changing views, my personality, my ideas, my stupid ideas, my silliness, my art, my family, my politics, my hair, my clothes....

Well, if you put it out there in public, there will be wank. I think that's an internet rule, someone must have written it down by now.

I can truly say the only thing that ever really scared me was some guy who kept coming after me even after I apologized nicely for inadvertantly offending him. I mean, he was livid and it was about religion. He was a Reform Jew who hated being "lumped together" with Christians with the term "Judeo Christian" and I had used the phrase somewhere on a post, and he literally went ballistic, could not quit chasing me down and getting his friends to do the same over it.

Almost to the point of internet stalking...I closed my blog to the public for a while until it died down.

21

I got caught on this site... AGAIN...

by cognac in

jw
friends

well, about a year and a half ago my hubby found out i was on this site.

world war iii just about broke out.

he has known i've been coming here but it's just something we didn't talk about.

mindmelda

In a way, it's not too different from the kind of crazy logic that drives anti abortionists to murder doctors in the name of God who do abortions, or Islamic extremists to kill "infidels" in the name of Allah.

If you think God is on your side, telling you to do it, suddenly it becomes just dandy because God's commands supersede human laws or rules.

Let's all just be glad that the WTS doesn't wholeheartedly sanction outright violence, or some of the crazier Witnesses could get the idea that murdering worldly people was more productive than converting them.

According to their beliefs, it could be rationalized. Die now as a murder victim, get a resurrection as one of the "unrighteous" into the paradise. Die at Armageddon unconverted to Jehovah's Witnesses, you die forever.

You just have to get past that prohibition against murder in the Bible. Give them enough Bible hopscotch, could the JWs manage it? They got them to believe it's wrong to take blood and some other crazy stuff that way.

Although since the majority out preaching in some places are older sisters, the idea of arming them all with guns gets pretty silly.

"Watch out, JW Granny has a gun, and she's going to get you into the paradise the hard way if you don't read the Watchtower and convert!"

25

Where is the Love

by dearone in

jw
friends

hi i'm dearone i have been reading here for quite some time.

presently am an active witness in good standing with two teenage daughters.

what originally brought me her was disillusion with the lack of love i experienced in the congregations i have attended.

mindmelda

Raymond Franz's quote there always reminds me of what Christ said of the teachers of the Law in his time:

"How terrible for you, you teachers of the law and you Pharisees. You hypocrites! You clean the outside of your cup and plate while the inside is full of what you have gotten by violence and selfishness. Blind Pharisee, clean what is inside the cup first and then the outside will be clean too."

Matthew 23:25, 26

Some might think Jehovah's Witnesses are not violent, but upholding a non scriptural teaching like refusing life saving blood is no different than murder. Coercion, bullying and contempt are the attitudes that can lead to murder.

Jesus spoke of those who addressed a brother with an unspeakable word of contempt, that it made one liable for Gehenna. I've seen that sort of contempt shown to those brothers and sisters Witnesses feel are not "good enough" or towards those they deem as "ungodly" "worldly" or "apostate".

There's no basis for that contemptuous attitude in the scriptures at all.

111

The Watchtower Didn't Make Me An Atheist

by B_Deserter in

ive posted on this before, but i figured i should lay my thoughts out again on the subject.

there are some in the ex-jw community who are saddened because the watchtower organization has turned me and others like me off to god.

the watchtower attacks and debunks other religions on a regular basis, often giving us the sense that if the watchtower is wrong, then there cant be a god.

mindmelda

Can't religion change to fit existing evidence too? Mine does. LOL

I guess it depends on how you define religion. If it's something unchangeble and stuck in traditions that are no longer or were never useful, then yeah, it's a problem for me. I don't want that.

I think I can be spiritually incorrect enough to accept change, though and still have this notion that God exists.

I find myself wondering if God is like Schroedingers's cat or Tinkerbell...if we quit believing in a god, does he exist anymore?

Maybe Odin or Zeus don't exist anymore simply because no one believes in the poor old things these days. Except for your few odd pagan groups, of course.

Yeah, I'm having an existentialist kind of day here. LOL I need a black beret, a cafe au lait served in a dirty cup at a sidewalk cafe in Arlens and a pack of nasty Turkish cigarettes.

7

Crop circles - the work of demons or E.T.s?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

what do you make of this?

it seems to complex to be a hoax and one would need an optical perspective to make this kind of pattern.. even if that were possible, how could this be done in one evening under cover of dark?.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5540634/phoenix-crop-circle-may-predict-end-of-the-world.html.

mindmelda

Wow, how artistic! Why would aliens know anything about human mythology and recreate a mythological symbol?

Looks like the work of a random bunch of struggling artists to me.