Posts by mindmelda

34

What do you say, if someone asks if you go to church?

by Bonnie_Clyde in

jw
friends

clyde has a great answer.

he says, "no, i take my faith too seriously.

" he says that ends the conversation.

mindmelda

I go to a similar church to Outlaw's named KFC. LOL

But, yes, I've gone to other churches and I like Universalist Unitarians best. Only one that supports my almost agnosticism. LOL

I've gone to Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian churches. Talked to Ba'Hai's, Mormons, Wiccans, Druids, Pagans, Atheists (I know its not a church! before the atheists jump in and correct me, but it's an interesting counter philosophy to religion) Jews, Muslims...

I enjoy religion as a topic, and comparative religion and myth as an academic subject, so I talk to everyone I can about it.

I've found good friends in many of the different faiths above. I know one of the higher ups in the Ba'Hai faith for instance, and I'm telling you, Witnesses only wish they were as honest and diligent in business as these people are. I was truly impressed by their honesty and peacefulness. They're one of the real pacifist faiths, not Witnesses. They don't teach anyone will be killed in a war started by God and call themselves peaceful!

I found things in nearly all religions and people in all of them that have impressed me. One of the least impressive religions I've encountered, sadly, is the one I was in for 34 years. It only has a few things to recommend it.

They help people clean up their lives in some ways (but for the wrong reasons *sigh*), and they don't actively promote war or racism. However, they're so homophobic and condemnatory of other faiths, that that almost cancels out any pretensions to their claims not to be bigoted.

In case you don't have a dictionary, that's bigotry.

43

Don't buy anything at the meat market or yard sales or else you could turn out like me?

by dissed in

jw
friends

i don't know how this happened and how they met, but a relative, a jw elder and my old po talked about us leaving the wts.

(he said this to my wife).

they reasoned, how could someone, who was a pioneer, bethelite, worked at the rbc, district and circuit level, taught at the pioneer school, helped dozens to baptism, suddenly and inexplicably, leave jehovah's organization?.

mindmelda

I used to work in a consignment/second hand clothing store as an assistant manager, and I guess I was never invited to the Satanic ceremonies to curse and possess the clothes/dishes, furniture and books.

My JW relative once threw away a whole set of dishes a worldly relative gave her because the logo on the back had a unicorn on it. She thought unicorns were mythological animals and therefore, subject to demonic possession.

If only she'd read the King James version, she'd have known that unicorns are actually in the Bible!

Sadly discovered later on that she was schizophrenic, and she really thought because of all the JW warnings about demonic possession that she was being demonized through all sorts of objects in her house, because they were "talking" to her. It took her years to get properly diagnosed because of her superstition.

50

Profoundly Shock, Sadening and Traumatic Account of Mary Aguilar

by Scott77 in

after reading this internet link below about the profoundly shocking, sadening and traumatic account of mary aguilar, an ex-jw woman's systematic treatment and abuse, what do you think regarding the action her jw abusive husband, the congregational elders, and finally, the wts attitude when she finally reported the accident to them?

is there any related experienes that you might have come across?.

http://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/blogs/view/306.

mindmelda

Witnesses get into the same mentality an abused child...Mom and Dad must not be exposed because the child really believes their world will crumble and they'll have no where else to go if they tell someone else.

Very sad.

30

Does ANYTHING About JWs Make Sense To You?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i've been thinking about why people become jehovah's witnesses and why they remain in the religion.. it seems like almost everything they believe in is flawed.. the chronology, which this religion is founded on is a problem.. their understanding of bible prophecy is pathetically funny.

they teach everything in prophetic bible books ultimately apply to them.. their belief that the "faithful & discreet slave class" exists is ridiculous.

in all fairness, they cannot 'prove" anything they say about their organization as being "truth".

mindmelda

I remember one of the first moments of cognitive dissonance I had was in my twenties (Not exactly born in, but my mom converted when I was 12) and I was out in FS and I asked someone if they'd like to live forever, you know, the old magazine placement schpiel, and they said, "NO, not really!"

So, I tried, "Well if you could live here, would you want to?" Pointing to one of the typical paradise pictures with the obligatory scene of racial harmony, kids petting tigers or lions, everything green and a nice house, and I thought I was handling this objection really well.

The person said, "Nah, not really, those people all look like Moonies and that looks like some sort of bullshit utopian nightmare" and they politely said goodbye and shut the door.

I was like "Whhaaa"? but I started thinking, hey...that picture is kind of LSD induced, isn't it?

43

Don't buy anything at the meat market or yard sales or else you could turn out like me?

by dissed in

jw
friends

i don't know how this happened and how they met, but a relative, a jw elder and my old po talked about us leaving the wts.

(he said this to my wife).

they reasoned, how could someone, who was a pioneer, bethelite, worked at the rbc, district and circuit level, taught at the pioneer school, helped dozens to baptism, suddenly and inexplicably, leave jehovah's organization?.

mindmelda

I always knew Tupperware was demonized...it multiplies in your cupboards while the lids are always sneaking away at night. Surely a sign that the Devil is behind it.

The Witnesses are no different than fundamentalists when it comes to demonizing everything in a superstitious way. The same demon oriented urban legends abound among them, such as the Harry Potter teaches kids to become satanists and that KISS stood for "Kids IN Satan's Service".

Superstitious mind set encourages those things, and the WTS just encourages you to replace your current superstitions with theirs, or convert them to becoming JW superstitions. They don't encourage anyone to get rid of "magical" thinking because if they did that, it'd keep them from persuading you to believe their own "miracles" and " modern day fulfillment of prophecy".

I think humans are rather prone to magical thinking, but some of it is much more harmful and able to be used to manipulate and exploit than others. At least astrology is warned to be "for entertainment purposes only" when you read your horoscope.

Astrology still makes a boatload of money, so hey, they could do that and still rake in the bucks, and be a lot less harmful.

76

Submission and stupid rules

by Lady Lee in

what a load of crap this stupid belief was.

i'll give you a couple of examples.

i was the sign language interpreter for our congregation and there was about 15-20 deaf who regularly showed up.

mindmelda

This is what happens when religion, any religion, but the Witnesses are especially guilty of it, uses people according to some artificially imposed caste system based on an untruth instead of ability and natural inclination or talent.

If a man can do it better, fine. If a woman can, fine. But, assuming a man can do anything better than a woman just because of gender is also a disservice to males.

I think this stupid rule should go away for the sake of men as well as women. It makes no sense. There are women who are great scientists, great with numbers, great with mathematical concepts, who can build a house, drive a truck and do all sorts of things we have deemed "man's work" and there are men who are great cooks, sewers, child care givers (My dad was a much more nurturing parent than my mother, for instance) grade school teachers, and nurses, more traditionally "women's work".

The best OB nurse I ever had during the delivery of my last child was a male nurse/midwife. He was terrific! He'd delivered 5 of his own children (his wife was also a nurse) and he knew just what to do, was a great hand holder, very reassuring, and loved his job. He was the head of the OB nursing staff at that hospital, as a matter of a fact. I delivered that kid without any pain medication and he was a great coach, everything you'd want in a midwife.

76

Submission and stupid rules

by Lady Lee in

what a load of crap this stupid belief was.

i'll give you a couple of examples.

i was the sign language interpreter for our congregation and there was about 15-20 deaf who regularly showed up.

mindmelda

In the first congo I was in, there was a sister who was quite a brain with numbers, in fact, she was a CPA. She handled the congo finances for years since there was a dearth of elders and ministerial servants, and it was a small congregation.

Finally, when it grew, they took the job away from her although she'd been doing it quite well, and gave it to an inept brother who proceeded to totally screw it up, of course.

But, because he had outdoor plumbing, it was deemed that he should handle it...badly.

That sister is no longer a Witness, by the way. She left the Witnesses years ago, (YAY!) left her janitor husband who was an alcoholic dope and eventually married another CPA she had been working with, and they have their own very successful business, last I heard. Of course, the Witnesses painted her a harlot and a terrible person, an "unsubmissive" wife who drove her poor husband to drink and was frigid....all sorts of awful things.

She was never submissive enough to be a Witness because she was a SMART person. I remember her being very unhappy as a Witness, never smiling and obviously struggling to stay married to her husband, who was also a pretty obvious alcoholic. On Hall cleaning days every weekend, he always smelled of beer and sometimes was definitely drunk.

22

Oklahomans shaken by crucifix that raises the stake issue

by glenster in

back to the god and godzilla difference:.

"some worshipers at a catholic church in oklahoma are outraged over a. crucifix hanging above the main altar that they say shows an image of.

genitalia on jesus, the oklahoman reports.".

mindmelda

LOL..It's actually just some overly emphasized abdominal muscles. Medieval art often had poor anatomical structure, because it was considered a sin to actually look at a naked body. Da Vinci actually broke church law to draw anatomically correct human beings, and so did other Renaissance artists, such as Michaelangelo.

Both gayer than pink toe shoes on a spring lamb, by the way. They enjoyed looking at nude male models in their studios and did extensive studies of them in secret, but that gave us our first accurate representations of the human form in art since Greek and Roman times.

66

What's your Favorite TV show of all time?

by serenitynow! in

jw
friends

if you can't tell from my username, i am a seinfeld fan.

seinfeld is the best show ever!

law and order is second.. jada.

mindmelda

Currently, Bones is my favorite. I like Criminal Minds too, although I was happier when Mandy Patankin was on it. It's still good, though.

I'll catch an occasionaly epi of NCIS, but I'm getting bored with it after this long. My favorite characters are Ducky and Abby, though...the mains, eh...okay, but not my favorite. I could just watch a show based on their two characters, actually

Old TV shows, "Starsky and Hutch" (I used to watch this on the sly during my high school years because my mother thought it was about two gay cops and totally immoral...which is why I loved it.)

Star Trek, all incarnations

Firefly, which I never got over them cancelling

Dr. Who, all incarnations

I used to watch "The Sentinel" when it was on UPS and then Voyager would come on...my best TV night back then.

41

Shared Child Abuse News with JW about Nancy Garrido being a JW

by flipper in

went to the post office the other day and saw this older jw , an elder, was outside holding the wall up leaning on it while being frozen standing there like a mannequin holding watchtowers and awakes .

i had one of my news releases from a sociologist explaining that phillip garrido used nancy garrido and the jehovah's witnesses to get out of prison so he could have access to children for sexual crimes ; thus enabling him in 1991 to kidnap jaycee dugard.

the title of the article is : " sex offender phillip garrido used jehovah's witnesses to get early parole ".

mindmelda

I award thee an internet!

*applause*