Posts by mindmelda

24

Is This a Silly Question? (The answer started my fade)

by journey-on in

jw
friends

me at 20: "wasn't the urim and thummim like a ouji board?

if it's wrong to use a ouji board, wouldn't it have been wrong for god's people to have used the urim and thummim?

isn't god the same today as yesterday and tomorrow?

mindmelda

I had so many questions like that that were never answered. I was always told I was weak for asking them.

I guess that's convenient for people with no real answers to some questions.

My husband's fade started with an elder telling him in response to a legitimate question about why JWs believe that only 144,000 go to heaven (one a guy at work asked him, not even his own) "Because we do, that's why." My husband explained it was someone else's question, and was then told, "Well, if I have to explain things like that to you at this point, you have a serious problem." The answer is as always, "because the Bible says so" but then he asked why that number is taken literally when nothing else in Revelation is. Then he really had a problem, because no one could answer and when they can't, they get upset with you and start smelling apostasy.

It's was always "our problem" if we didn't understand the incomprehensible or believe the unbelievable.

I guess it is our problem, in a way. Our problem is the inability to be totally gullible. LOL

14

We Should All Be Extremely Proud if Ourselves!!!

by cognac in

jw
friends

we all somehow escaped at least mentally a cult.

considering that most of us were brainwashed, i find this very incredible.

it is extremely difficult to get people out, sometimes impossible, but we all somehow made it!.

mindmelda

Well, it's better to engage things rationally regardless. I still have spiritual beliefs, they're just a lot more reasonable. I quit looking at God as if he's Santa Claus or a magic fairy that will "ding" fix everything wrong with life if I just go to enough meetings and go out in service enough.

14

We Should All Be Extremely Proud if Ourselves!!!

by cognac in

jw
friends

we all somehow escaped at least mentally a cult.

considering that most of us were brainwashed, i find this very incredible.

it is extremely difficult to get people out, sometimes impossible, but we all somehow made it!.

mindmelda

I've noticed that the twinges of guilt about leaving it all are getting fewer and farther between. I still occasionally blame the bad things that go on in my life with leaving the Witnesses, though. Probably because life has been kind of upside down for us lately, with the job loss and my husband's health problem (leg infection) in the last few weeks. It becomes easy to blame that, after being told for most of my life that leaving the organization would result in terrible things happening to me. Good things also happened to me since I quit going to meetings, and even when I was going again, my house was foreclosed on...there's no real rational relationship between my association with the Witnesses and what has happened in my life.

I think that superstition will take a while to overcome, but at least I realize it's a superstition.

8

Swine Flu-1, Jehovah-0

by Mastodon in

back home (puerto rico) things are starting to get bad with the swine flu.. i just heard that, yesterday, the sister of someone i used to know in the borg, died.

she had the h1n1... and she was at the district convention the day before (sunday).

i guess that putting the 'kingdom' first and trusting jehovah is not as smart as taking tamiflu.... .

mindmelda

Since I've seen Holier than Thou Witnesses go to meeting with the flu, colds, even mild cases of pneumonia and bronchitis, not to mention other communicable ailments just to show how spiritual they are, this doesn't surprise me at all.

Common sense and ordinary courtesy are not always valued above demonstrating your righteousness in front of others.

We have a flu season every year in America, usually in the fall and winter months when people spend more time indoors and children go back to school...the main concerns about this one is it may be worse than usual, and they may not develop a vaccine quickly enough to get it out to the public in advance of the flu season.

6

Jehovahs Witness Statistics Online?

by shamus100 in

anyone have the stats for the dubs online, such as memorial attendance, baptisms, etc?.

i appreciate your replies.

.

mindmelda

Interesting. The more time that goes by, the more that will have to die at Armageddon, because the world population is far outstripping the number of Witnesses needed to preach to them. More are NOT being "saved" as the end draws near. Why does God delay then? Does he want more to die?

Makes no sense at all, really.

107

What would Christianity look like without Paul's writings?

by AK - Jeff in

jw
friends

a thowoff from ren's thread obviously.. i am firmly convinced that what is called christianity today - is actually just pauline theology.. if you removed all the portions of the nt that are attributed to paul, and actually accepted as primary the words of jesus and his direct followers - the worldwide movement would look far different doctrinally.

and as far as the fundy's go - they would be lost without the deep judgmentalism and rules oriented thinking of this writer [whomever he really was].. if ren's thread could go 15 pages and counting - why not this one?.

thoughts?.

mindmelda

I feel mixed about Paul. I hate his tendency to get legalisitic and harsh on morality and human behavior (he seems a bit of a misanthrope to me), but he makes a few brilliant arguments about some of the basic Christian teachings.

But, there's no doubt that he wrote 2/3s of the NT, perhaps because he was well educated and had nothing much better to do in prison in Rome for so long.*G*

I do believe that the more orthodox and conservative versions of Christianity owe a lot to Paul and are more Pauline than anything else, even going beyond Paul in their legalism.

Personally, I'm a bigger fan of plain old vanilla Christ...without anything added. *G*

9

Are Remodeled Kingdom Halls Supposed To Be Windowless?

by minimus in

jw
friends

my exjw friend wants to know..

mindmelda

Depends on where they're built. In lower crime areas, it doesn't raise your insurance to build a KH with windows, although a lot of windows become a problem in conserving energy and controlling the lighting in a KH, so even those tend to have only smallish windows with shutters or blinds.

As with many other things about the WTS, the KH plans are designed with money in mind. Windows are kept to a minimum to reduce costs in building, insurance and maintainance.

21

The Problem I have with 'Christians', 'Muslims',and 'Jews'. Of ALL varieties.

by ThomasCovenant in

abraham was prepared to cut the throat of his son because 'god' told him to.. once you accept that as perfectly natural and normal you can accept anything.

absolutely anything.

no questions asked.. some accuse witnesses of being sneaky and underhanded.

mindmelda

Christianity is supposed to have put all that OT stuff behind them, as they are now humans with whom God is reconciled (if they recognize that crucial difference and what it means...a good many do not, it seems). Before the Savior, mankind, even the Jews, were in an adversarial position with God.

God dealt with even the Jews harshly for that reason. They had a truce of sorts with God, as long as they kept his conditions, but were not reconciled to him as Christians have opportunity to be because of accepting the Savior.

It is a different relationship, so Christians who still behave in that OT manner towards God, that he is their enemy who demands the sacrifices and blood of a conquering divine being, have not realized their relationship has a different basis. You treat friends differently than enemies, family different than strangers.

Also, if you're not a believer in God, it works pretty well as a metaphor for the idea that the concept of God evolves with us, the more peaceful and cooperative we are, so our deities become.

13

Watchtower and the occult?-outrageous accusations

by cameo-d in

thank you for this great opportunity to plug some of my threads.. folks...you read it here, first!!!.

in the aug. 15 2009 watchtower, the rag shows photos of john milton and isacc newton with the caption {they} "knew about the hope of everlasting life on earth.".

both of these people were involved in....well, don't let me spoil the surprise.

mindmelda

LOL...It always used to puzzle me why the WTS could use the Catholic Encyclopedia to back up their views, but the rank and file were discouraged from readting non-WTS literature.

What's the difference between that and Catholic priests in the Dark Ages being the only ones who could read and keeping the peasants ignorant?

None! They believed that the unwashed masses were too stupid to educate and keeping them ignorant was a good way to control them.

And they were right. That usually works. Now that most people can read, they control by telling you WHAT you can read. Same difference.

22

Jack Van Impe Ministries

by truthlover in

jw
friends

does anyone know anything about this gent?

see his program on tv with his wife and he can expound on over 14,000 scriptures.. he also speaks of the nearness of the "lords day" of armageddon, of a final destruction.... is he in line with your thinking??.

.

mindmelda

I've always found the JW antagonism towards fundamentalists amusing. It's not so much based on different doctrine, I think as it is as being rivals in the same "business". LOL

JWs are using a technique given up on by even Avon to sell their religion, door to door direct sales. If they really want to rake in the big bucks, they're going to have to utilize televagelism and the internet. They have actually made small forays into those areas but their antagonism to anything new fangled (JWs are such Luddites..in the old Zion's Watchtower, they had articles raving about how that new telephone device was going to be the downfall of civilization, just like they do now about the internet) is holding them back from the really big money maker, TV.