Posts by bluecanary

21

What happens when you pull an instant fade?

by bluecanary in

jw
friends

i left the jws one year ago by moving accross the country and not going to a new hall.

the dubs in my last hall knew i was moving and they know i haven't requested my card for a new hall.

what do they usually do in such a circumstance?.

bluecanary

If I understand correctly, the only reason you don't DA is to keep contact with one friend who already knows you're "done".

No, that's not it. The only reason I don't DA is because of the cretins in my last hall who thought I was either fake or weak as a witness. They will assume I left for one of those reasons, which is entirely untrue. I left when I discovered that the witnesses were not backed by God and not a minute before hand. And I fully admit to being just insecure enough to care about that misimpression.

I just want to be clear that I do not spend a lot of time thinking about this or looking over my shoulder. These are just feelings in the back of my mind and I was curious enough and comfortable enough to ask the members of this board what they thought.

As for my friend, I don't expect her to DA or DF because she has no need to. She's already inactive. She married a worldly guy who is now studying and trying to get baptized but their meeting attendance is erratic at best. She suffers from depression and has an emotionally abusive relationship with her witness father but semi-supportive relationships with other JW family. Neither she nor her husband works due to phyical and psychological issues.

She always relied on me to be a source of encouragement and upbuilding. That's one of the reasons she said she couldn't keep up a relationship with me anymore, because if I wasn't a witness, we could no longer have spiritual conversations. I'd like to show her that the opposite is true. I don't feel like I've yet done all I can do to salvage this relationship and I won't be ready to give up until I do. I see no reason why, if she so chooses, she can't continue to live exactly the same lifestyle, being a witness in name only as she is now, but not having the burden of guilt she carries for not living the proper dub lifestyle. I know how heavy the guilt they place on you is, even when you are doing everything right. She has enough problems without that.

13

How Does God Hear All Prayers???

by Decided in

jw
friends

when there are about 50 million prayers being given at any one time, how does god listen to them all?

does he know all of us by name or by a soul or something?

does he have a movie of our lives to judge us at our death?

bluecanary

The only way for a God to hear all prayers is if he is omniscient, which means that he would have to know everything about EVERYTHING at all times. In which case he would already know what you want to tell him and already know how things are going to turn out so the only value in prayer is whatever theraputic or cathartic aspects you get out of it.

8

No difference between Jonestown massacre and WT teaching

by JWinprotest in

jw
friends

can someone tell me what the difference is between jim jones convincing 900+ to kill themselves by injesting poison and the governing body convincing 7 million to die should they need blood to save their lives.

i don't get why government doesn't put them both in the same light..

bluecanary

Joseph Stalin said, "When one dies, it is a tragedy. When a million die, it is a statistic." Governments are more likely to take note of statistics than personal tragedies.

21

What happens when you pull an instant fade?

by bluecanary in

jw
friends

i left the jws one year ago by moving accross the country and not going to a new hall.

the dubs in my last hall knew i was moving and they know i haven't requested my card for a new hall.

what do they usually do in such a circumstance?.

bluecanary

Thanks for the responses.Thank you for understanding, OTWO and for the advice, Tom and Scully.

I'm still pretty new here, so I'm not sure what the best terminology is to use. My imediate family and I decided to have no more to do with the witnesses when we moved about a day's drive away from our last hall. I have no relatives who are witnesses and I'm not currently in contact with any former witness friends. I wasn't DF'd. I haven't informed any elders that I'm DAing. As far as they're concerned I fell of the edge of the world. What do you call that?

115

Say Something Nice About Alabama ...

by snowbird in

jw
friends

... please do.. i need a lift.

.

sylvia.

bluecanary

Alabama, Nat King Cole, The Commodores, Jimmy Buffett, Man or Astro-man?, Brian McKnight, Lionel Richie, Ruben Studdard and the Temptations.

34

Some things really ticked me off at the meeting last night...

by wantarevolution in

jw
friends

...aside from the snooze fest that was the "bible study", taken by a brother who was 5 minutes late - went 10 minutes over and obiously hadn't prepared shit for the meeting (this is the same brother that "encouraged" me to be 15 minutes early for all meetings to welcome people).

1) i had the no3 talk, about "christians helping the poor", no source material or anything.

i played it good, spoke about our duty to be good christians, and charitable to everyone, and how it is a conscience matter as to how we donate our money or charitable deeds.i even used a quote by mother theresa.

bluecanary

If enough people give talks the way you do, they'll do away with the talks that don't have source material. If they want you to only spout the partyline, they'll have to spell out what to say.

21

What happens when you pull an instant fade?

by bluecanary in

jw
friends

i left the jws one year ago by moving accross the country and not going to a new hall.

the dubs in my last hall knew i was moving and they know i haven't requested my card for a new hall.

what do they usually do in such a circumstance?.

bluecanary

Thanks for the defense oompa, but they pegged me right. I have a boyfriend with whom I am intimate. And if my ex gets remarried in or out of the witnesses, that's fine. I'm not going to help him with it and I'm not going out of my way to prevent it. I only asked the question out of curiosity for how the rules generally work. I'm not worried about, if for no other reason than the guy weighs more than 400 pounds and lives in his parents basement. And if you didn't think I needed a shrink before, I'm sure you do now.

I have one friend who's like a sister to me. I want to help her. Both she and her husband were present when I told her I was done with the Witnesses. My brother would also like to help a few friends. He has a better chance than I do, but he wants my help and I'd like my words to be credible.

Apart from those couple of friends, I'm done with the dubs. My family, whom I'm very close to, is out with me and I've started new friendships and a loving relationship with a wonderful boyfriend. I now look forward to starting a family, something I could never have with the witnesses. My only trouble these days is looking for work but I can't blame the dubs for the economy.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

14

I went on another Bible study yesterday - Any suggestions on what I could have said?

by BonaFide in

i was visiting a friend that is a witness yesterday.

his mother was preparing for the bookstudy with another sister who is very new.

we are on the chapter about blood this week.

bluecanary

I agree with you Black Sheep that what you mention is the most important teaching to debunk. However, I think that if you shoot directly for that one, you're more likely to make the person run for cover. Starting with the blood doctrine is, I think, a little softer and gentler way to shake them into a state where they're ready to hear more.

I'm organizing my information to try to wake up a friend and at the end of the section where I present all the info on blood, I ask these questions:

"In light of the evidence, does it appear that Jehovah is directing the Society in issuing medical directives? If Jehovah did not intend for people to die for the sake of a symbol of life, if the Watchtower Society has clung to this policy against all Biblical evidence, are they not blood-guilty on behalf of the many who have died by refusing blood transfusions? Jehovah has the power to resurrect, but does he not hold accountable those who are responsible for untimely deaths?"

21

What happens when you pull an instant fade?

by bluecanary in

jw
friends

i left the jws one year ago by moving accross the country and not going to a new hall.

the dubs in my last hall knew i was moving and they know i haven't requested my card for a new hall.

what do they usually do in such a circumstance?.

bluecanary

I left the JWs one year ago by moving accross the country and not going to a new hall. The dubs in my last hall knew I was moving and they know I haven't requested my card for a new hall. What do they usually do in such a circumstance?

If they get word that I'm not a witness anymore, will my ex-husband be considered free to remarry, even without proof of fornication?

I told my best friend (an inactive sister in another state) I wasn't a witness anymore. Her OCD husband (who is only just studying with the witnesses) said if I didn't anounce myself to the elders, he would. I have every reason to believe he followed through. I don't know whether he would have told his local elders or tried to follow-up with the last hall I was in (though I don't know how he could figure out which hall I was in). Would his local elders try to track my hall down? Is that possible?

It's not really important. I'd just like to stay off the radar. The biggest reason for me is that I busted my butt to be the best Witness possible. I often felt that others looked down on me as never being good enough. I recently learned that, in certain halls, my peers didn't like me because I was too good a Dub. Compared to them I was like an apostle. But I know there were some nasty people who never gave me the benefit of the doubt and I don't want to give them the oportunity to sneer and say, "Well, we saw that coming."

As for my ex, he is free to remarry acording to the law of the land. But not acording to the GB and I'd like to keep it that way. For one thing, I still respect the young witness women who are sincere in their beliefs and I don't want to see one of them suckered into marriage with that creep. For another, he is a charlatan who used the society's rules to get away with unchristian behavior. If he wants to play by those rules, I say let him.

9

At the hospital today I apologized to a disassociated sister

by BonaFide in

jw
friends

got back from the hospital awhile ago.

an older brother i know is very ill. in his 60's.

one of his family members is a girl in her 20's.

bluecanary

BF, you have no idea what that would mean to me, if an elder apologized for the way he treated me. Every elder I've known could only be self-defensive and self-righteous. I would freely forgive whoever gave such a simple apology. You did the right thing.