Posts by mindmelda

17

How Far Should We Allow Religious Rights to Go?

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just curious.

i know there has been a lot of debate regarding the mosque in ny, but this incident is in another state.

should she be forced to pay or not?

Ladies: Would You Work Overnight?

by snowbird in

i've been offered the option of working from 8 pm until 4 am.. pay is a little more.. the only drawback is the drive to and fro.. have you ever done something similar?.

syl.

mindmelda

I've always loved night shift or swing shift jobs...I'm by nature a night owl. Night shifts also tend to be quiet.

It'll be rough on you if you're a morning person.

65

Why has God allowed this to go on for so long

by watersprout in

jw
friends

why has god allowed this system to go on for soo long?

he's god he doesn't need to prove anything to anyone!

why have the billions that have lived on this earth had to suffer for what two people did in eden?.

mindmelda

What...life?

That's all that's been going on for so long. Just life. Life is messy, horrible, complicated, painful at times, also rewarding, fun and interesting and no one gets out of it alive.

28

i was virtually a born-in dub, as my mother was baptized when i was four or five; i was the bible study of two separate long-suffering brothers in my home cong before i walked out, never getting baptized.. i absorbed all the teachings of the witnesses, and always believed that the bible was in some way the word of god.

now i am re-reading living in sin, by john shelby spong.. although at the time he wrote the book he was a bishop of the episcopal church, he states that the bible, or at least the hebrew scriptures, was written by the israelites using their imaginary god to explain their victories and defeats; to provide an explanation of their history.. i had always taken it for granted the god had chosen the israelites to be his people: but maybe they chose god.. why would the creator of the universe choose an obscure tribe in the middle east, leading them back and forth across the desert and in and out of captivity, interfering with everything they did; while totally ignoring everybody else living on the earth at that time?.

a modern analogy would be god coming to earth and choosing the brooklyn dodgers as his chosen team and ignoring every other team, and coaching them so the dodgers would always win.. what sort of petty, bored, lunatic bigoted god would do that?.

mindmelda

Maybe he likes desserts....oh, right DESERTS! LOL

There's absolutely no reason for God to choose any one people over another, and Christian teaching belies that idea, which was more or less central to Judaism. A huge revision or evolution of religious thought from "God will only save us, the chosen" to "God loves and saves all mankind".

Except for religions (cults) like JWs who go back to the "God will save us, the chosen" ideas of the Old Testament.

Religious de-evolution, I guess.

7

The irrelevancy of the JW culture and doctrines in my life. My Advice to the new members.

by onemore in

jw
friends

ive been missing meetings and curtailing my fs activities, even avoiding many of my jw friends by declining invitations to do non-theocratic activities with them (reverse shunning...take that jws!!!

), and unless i decide to da (or get dfd) a complete fade will be very hard to achieve (mainly because of my loved ones), but im learning to master the art of what i like to call the: less committed witness (or 1st degree fader).

i have submerged myself into the study of the gospel (using non-jw material) and the history of the christian church.

mindmelda

I think because you're taking a positive rather than a negative approach to it, it's working for you.

I did something similar...I went through the negative aspects of fading away then started making something positive out of it.

Still, I'm glad I don't have to sit through assemblies or meetings. Never did care for them, except for the social aspect.

13

Interesting experience on SL...JeHOvah's Witness and I have an encounter

by mindmelda in

jw
friends

i go to a women's discussion group on sl, second life, which is a virtual community where you do all sorts of things, including entertainment, discussion groups, media, and just socializing through the use of animated avatars which can be quite realistically human or whatever you want them to be, really, aliens, elves, dragons, vampires, etc.. anyway, a woman there brought to the discussion a situation where she had her real life husband wants to divorce her for a witness woman he had met..and get this...she had come to his door after the couple separated and offered him a bible study, and apparently instead, it turned into a romance and then, according to the woman, her husband and this woman are hitting the sheets.

(you're not supposed to call on the opposite sex alone, and do doubt this is one reason...too many lonely witness women who'd jump on the first piece of dude they meet!

lol).

mindmelda

I agree....I get a kick out of "Witnesses" on the internet (no way of ascertaining if they are or not, but I run into this a lot) who are not really acting like Witnesses.

But, I think it goes back to what came up in the discussion that many Witnesses have a double life in some fashion. They really don't like living like a Witness (what sane person would?) and the internet has become one more way for them to act out like they really want to act, or just like all the worldly people they're supposed to avoid fellowship with.

And yes I agree that another purpose of disfellowshipping related to the "keeping away corrupting influence" part I mentioned is it's a way to keep valid criticism of Witnesses teaching and organization from reaching the rank and file.

As to "virtual clubbing" it's a lot of fun, especially for old farts like me who just enjoy listening to really great music but live in BFEgypt and have no place, time or money to go actually out dancing and whoop de doing it up.

It's actually been a boon to me and my husband's romantic relationship, we have a ball together on SL, for an hour or so a couple of times a week.

The performers are often very talented and "live". at least audio-wise, they use streaming audio to put on virtual life shows from little home made studios in their homes.

26

JW's: Did You Tattle-Tale To The Elders When You Heard Things?

by mentallyfree31 in

just curious...how many of you went to the elders and reported to them things that you heard through gossip?

.

and how many of you knew things that could get people disfellowshipped, but decided not to tell the elders?.

mindmelda

LOL I only did that once when I saw an Elder's daughter at a movie making out big time with a worldly boy. She'd lied and told her parents she was going to a movie with a JW friend (female).

They were covering for each other so they could date, apparently.

But, this girl was really nasty to me when I worked for her parents, so I did it to get her in trouble. Revenge motivated entirely. Informing is always spiteful, I think.

35

Do you believe the Bible?

by Cagefighter in

i don't want to high jack african gb's thread but something got me thinking.... moses, abraham were inbred and hearing god's voice... paul never met jesus yet he is the only apostle coming down like a hammer of gays and has this "close bond" with timothy.

then there is the issue of "horus" the egyptian god and is this where the story of jesus comes from.

i have searched the internet for information on horus and have not had much luck finding anything authorative either way.. my question is do you or don't you believe in the bible and why or why not?

mindmelda

To a point. I believe some people have valid metaphyiscal experiences, at least, it's valid to them, and they act on it.

But, do I think the Bible is infallible and should be taken literally? No...the way religions and people in religions function who do take their spiritual books literally seems to be adequate proof to me that that's not a great idea.

91

Newly Exiting JW's ( Last 5 years ) How are you Doing in Life? Let Us Know

by flipper in

jw
friends

considering the fact we've had so many newbies here i thought it would be good to just open it up to you folks to see how life is going for you since you exited the witnesses ?

it's hard many times to move on- however with lots of ex-witnesses on the board here who have been through similar experiences - perhaps those of us who have been out awhile can give you someideas on how to move on in your post jw life to make it a little easier .

so fire away newbies and recently exited jw 's.

mindmelda

My husband and I (and our three kids of course) have had some very hard times financially in the past two years, but that has nothing to do with being a Witness or not being one, we're simply victims of the current horrible economy, which shows virtually no signs of real improvement any time soon. But, we were inactive long before that.

Although before I quit talking to them altogether, one Witness suggested to me that loosing our business and house was a sign of Jehovah's disapproval of our inactivity.

Hey....thanks for giving me one more reason to LEAVE, Ms Elderette. It was the Congregation Overseer's wife. Screw her anyway, ya know?

13

Interesting experience on SL...JeHOvah's Witness and I have an encounter

by mindmelda in

jw
friends

i go to a women's discussion group on sl, second life, which is a virtual community where you do all sorts of things, including entertainment, discussion groups, media, and just socializing through the use of animated avatars which can be quite realistically human or whatever you want them to be, really, aliens, elves, dragons, vampires, etc.. anyway, a woman there brought to the discussion a situation where she had her real life husband wants to divorce her for a witness woman he had met..and get this...she had come to his door after the couple separated and offered him a bible study, and apparently instead, it turned into a romance and then, according to the woman, her husband and this woman are hitting the sheets.

(you're not supposed to call on the opposite sex alone, and do doubt this is one reason...too many lonely witness women who'd jump on the first piece of dude they meet!

lol).

mindmelda

I go to a women's discussion group on SL, Second Life, which is a virtual community where you do all sorts of things, including entertainment, discussion groups, media, and just socializing through the use of animated avatars which can be quite realistically human or whatever you want them to be, really, aliens, elves, dragons, vampires, etc.

Anyway, a woman there brought to the discussion a situation where she had her Real Life husband wants to divorce her for a Witness woman he had met..and get this...she had come to his door after the couple separated and offered him a Bible study, and apparently instead, it turned into a romance and then, according to the woman, her husband and this woman are hitting the sheets. (You're not supposed to call on the opposite sex alone, and do doubt this is one reason...too many lonely Witness women who'd jump on the first piece of dude they meet! LOL)

Anyway, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for me to discuss the whole Witness thing, about what they teach and such. I might add, as it's important, that the group is run by a woman who in RL is a psychologist and a relationship counselor.

Okay, so I'm explaining that this lady won't be a Witness for much longer if her congo finds out, since premarital sex is a no no, and I explained disfellowshipping.

Turns out the counselor has had more than a little experience with Ex Witnesses, and their psychological problems, so everyone was curious and we talked about the cult aspects and such and it's a very interesting discussion and everyone is naturally appalled at how and why Witnesses disfellowship individuals. I'm chuckling evilly at this point..anything to keep anyone from ever talking to a Witness at their door ever again, you know?

Anyway, someone in the group who hadn't spoken up to this point pops in with, "Well...I'm a Jehovah's Witness and nothing you're saying is true."

I pan my viewer over to the speaker, and she's (her avatar, rather but you pick and dress them how you like) dressed like...well...a HO. Seriously...half her huge tits hanging out of a very tight low cut bustier, and a skirt so short it's more of a belt. Half her virtual buttocks are exposed.

I start to crack up. "Oh, I see you're a JeHOvah's Witness." I'm being a total snark, but since when to Witnesses dress like this even virtually?

Lots of people dress like this on SL, to be sure, but it's because it's a fantasy land and a lot of women want to be sexy and whatever. I dress my avatar pretty sexy at times, but then again, I don't claim to be a Witness anymore, either! And, I'm usually out "clubbing" (virtually) with my husband, anyway, we go dancing and to listen to the music we like. I'm mainly doing it for him, because hey, we're 50, but we're not dead yet, you know?

Anyway, everyone is cracking up, because I've just described how "Amish" Witnesses can be, and all, and how they are pretty Puritanical sexually speaking, no sex without marriage, no homosexuality, and how extreme modesty is proscribed for Witness women.

The counselor turns to the Witness and says, "Is it your fantasy to dress so provacatively because you can't do that in RL?" and the woman admits, that yes, she can't dress like this in RL, but she wants to be sexy and attractive who doesn't? She also admitted that she's on SL to have "virtual romance" which some people on SL do...it's a romance confined to the SL world. Sometimes, as in any internet encounter, this bleeds over into RL if the people desire it, but there are many people who have a RL relationship and then another virtual one on SL, including virtual "partnership"which amounts to virtually acting out living together or marriage...sex included by means of fairly realistic bodily parts (avatars can be made anatomically correct, including working genitalia) and animations.

I ask her a few very specific questions about DF that she can't really come up with a good defense, everyone else tells her to "give up, you're defending an ancient tribal practice from the Stone Age that's barbaric and has no place in a world that professes to be civilized" (my Pagan friend who was there added that, which I love!) and we went on with the discussion. I also compared DF to "emotional prison" as it's purpose is the same as the reason we imprison criminals...to isolate them from the rest of society and to punish them for a "misdeed". We then discussed it fro that point of view, whether prison is merely repression of behavior, control or actual change or rehabilitation. Are Witnesses really changing people with DFing or just punishing them enough that they'll do anything to end the very real punishment of shunning, isolation?

I'm going to continue to go there every morning I can and continue the discussions and see what happens.

But, I'd like to think that we gave the JeHOvah's Witness something to think about.