Posts by Strider Arekksu

15

Thinking about joining a youth group...

by Strider Arekksu in

jw
friends

yeah... as the title states i was thinking of going into a youth group for bible studying.

since the jw organization kind of stopped that and moved it to like a 30 minute session at the school and other meeting.

they said it was for us to study personally or with our families.

Strider Arekksu

I was looking into joining a Bible study group with other college kids my age. So, no one else has any comments on any of this?

15

Thinking about joining a youth group...

by Strider Arekksu in

jw
friends

yeah... as the title states i was thinking of going into a youth group for bible studying.

since the jw organization kind of stopped that and moved it to like a 30 minute session at the school and other meeting.

they said it was for us to study personally or with our families.

Yeah... As the title states I was thinking of going into a youth group for Bible studying. Since the JW organization kind of stopped that and moved it to like a 30 minute session at the school and other meeting. They said it was for us to study personally or with our families. The problem is, the people who do not have a family to have a Bible study with and who are to young to effectively study on our own, get kind of screwed over.

Since this has happened, I haven't really been motivated and have felt pretty isolated. I met this girl around my age at work, who invited me to a youth group Bible study. While I'm deffinitely not as hard core about my spirituality as she sounded, I think this would help me get good Bible study habits and be around young people who actually want to be better people by using Jesus as their example.

Why is it that JWs do not have youth groups? I think it would be an effective tool for the kids to grow strong together, being all the same age and growing and experiencing things together is a good way to develop bonds with people. But at the hall you can see the results of not doing this through like cliques and all that crap, excluding you from getting to hang out with others, while at youth groups there are events where EVERYONE is free to come, no one can get left out cause everyone knows about it. Even though I have been invited to a lot of things with the people in my congregation, I know a lot of people who ahven't and one of my freinds was hurt countless times because of it. She even went to the bathroom and cried once. I just can't take this.

39

I got a love letter!!!

by purplesofa in

jw
friends

hello my dear,.

my name is peace i am a memeber of jehovahs-witness and i saw your profile today at (www.jehovahs-witness) and i love it,i think we can make it together, therefore i would like you to contact me back throug my email address, i will tell you more about myself and i will also send you my photo as soon as you contact me back.

hopping to hear from you soonest, understand that love is one bless with love and trust thanks.. yours peace .

Strider Arekksu

Not particularly, no. At this point I don't care who.

13

Been thinking about things...

by Strider Arekksu in

jw
friends

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[endif].

i feel alone, but i think that's because it's my own fault.

Strider Arekksu

Thanks for the links man! Hmm sixscreensofthewatchtowe seems pretty interesting. I don't want to say much since I'm not fully done reading the whole site, but even though I see the proof, I'm not sure if the creator of the site is doing it for the right reasons, it seems to be more of a "here is where I think they make a twisted interp, and I'll kind of hint at the 'correct' one". Personally I hate that kind of stuff, but I'll give this guy the benefit of the doubt and do a thougrough run of the whole site, possibly do some back up research as well. Somethings are actually hard to follow. It's kind of hard to understand someone's, interpretation of people interpreting something, or their motive behind it at the least. This guy seems to at some pionts be taking things in the papers out of context. It's annoying sometime reading through stuff when it's written in such a subjective manor, sometimes it gets confusing.

39

I got a love letter!!!

by purplesofa in

jw
friends

hello my dear,.

my name is peace i am a memeber of jehovahs-witness and i saw your profile today at (www.jehovahs-witness) and i love it,i think we can make it together, therefore i would like you to contact me back throug my email address, i will tell you more about myself and i will also send you my photo as soon as you contact me back.

hopping to hear from you soonest, understand that love is one bless with love and trust thanks.. yours peace .

Strider Arekksu

Are you girls JOKING? How old are you gilrs seriously? For love letters to actually work on girls still in this day and age? I honestly don't beleive this. Of all the times I've failed for using these damn things. So are you saying all I have to do is give a girl a love letter to a JW and I'm set?

24

Singer Prince Refuses Blood Tranfusions to Help his Hip Problem

by flipper in

jw
friends

in the sacramento bee yesterday was an article on this.

not adept at posting links - but it's short so i'll post the sources quoted.. " rock star prince may be forced to choose between his faith and his health.

so contends britains guardian newspaper, which reports that hip problems are affecting the purple one's mobility, and his religious beliefs are preventing surgery.

Strider Arekksu

"devalues it's members by telling them to not be so concerned about their health and welfare."

While a little on the over generalizing side, I guess that's one way to look at it yes...

13

Been thinking about things...

by Strider Arekksu in

jw
friends

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[endif].

i feel alone, but i think that's because it's my own fault.

Strider Arekksu

I also know how easy it is to mess up like the people in congregations do. Sometimes I'll sit in car groups and listen to people gossip. Some of them do try to resist, but the more I guess "carefree" ones just laugh off the doubt that the other will have. I'm surprised the little things I've done for people don't get twisted up. I've given gifts to a girl in our congregation, because she was being so kind to me (I gave them for no reason other than as thanks). to this day I'm still surprised it was not twisted into me liking her. I'm sure if she thought I liked her she wouldn't nearly be so open towards me. Well anyway, my main point is that gossip probably is a contributing factor into a lot of this stuff when people hear about personal descions that people make in their life. Sometimes it's really hard trying to escape from the frustration that flawed human nature brings, but I guess its something that we need to condition ourselves to deal with. But in a group of humans there will always be gossip. Every single partime job I've had there was gossip, you just have to be prepared for it I guess.

13

Been thinking about things...

by Strider Arekksu in

jw
friends

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[endif].

i feel alone, but i think that's because it's my own fault.

Strider Arekksu

"I was wondering how you feel and think about the WTS stance on a person's personal conscience matter causing them to be autoDA when it colides with current WTS policy?"

Oh, I've noticed people tell this scenario a lot. I'm actually a little confused about it though. I haven't read tons of watchtowers and I can't remember a lot of the stuff in the things that I actually have read. I do find it strange that people are treated like that though and then eventually disfollowshipped? Doesn't make sense to me, but then again I don't know these people and I don't know the whole story. I honestly do believe the elders and members of congregations would treat people like this though. If people misapply and mistreat their brothers and sisters I can't really blame the litarature cause it never says to assume and judge people based on their descisions (as far as I have read). In the end it just makes them all hypocrites, and I can't stand hypocrisy a thing they claim they do not do, which makes it worse.

Again I've never seen the WTS get involved with this stuff, it's usally just the elders and sometimes only goes to the CO. The only time I've seen WTS get involved with stuff personally is when people in congregations were clearly acting poorly and it was effecting more than just one person. My only beef with the WTS is the 1975 fiasco and the organ transplant stuff. I think that alot of stuff that goes on in the organization the WTS doesn't hear about because the people who do this stuff know that they'd be knee deep in crap I guess.

13

Been thinking about things...

by Strider Arekksu in

jw
friends

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[endif].

i feel alone, but i think that's because it's my own fault.

Strider Arekksu

Thank you guys, I feel a tad better after letting that out and getting back some responses. Although I haven't been paying too much attention at meeting lately (mostly due to fatigue), I do know that a lot of people have different opinions in the religion and a lot of them are freely expressed. I've heard people on the stage talk about not using the term "wordly" and also read somethings in the litatrature that discussed and stress not judging people for certain dicsicions they make based on their conscions. Looks like things are getting a little more loose in terms of rules and stuff.

13

Been thinking about things...

by Strider Arekksu in

jw
friends

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[endif].

i feel alone, but i think that's because it's my own fault.

Strider Arekksu

Hey, I've been having some real issues lately. I don't know if it's about this religion, the people in it, maybe its just life in general, I'm kind of just lost you know? I'm not particularly in a position to really to disregard this religion are anything and I guess I don't see real reason I why I should based on my circumstances.

It's just me, it's not like I lost family going into the religion, or would lose any going out. I'm alone (which is also a problem I'm having). My grandma is what got me interested in checking the religion out, she was dedicated, but she was not "brainwashed" like people like to say, which is what made me respect her and the things she advised and told me. She did not have high education but she was VERY wise. She's gone now, and I thought that I would try to get into the religion to really understand what it was she felt.

When I first started going towards the end of high school I went to a friend’s congregation so I could be with people my age and people I knew. When I got there, since I was so young and knowledgeable of the “truth”, (based on personal study and questions with my grandma) I got supported real fast among the older people. I HATE reading answers word for word and I always expressed how I really felt during comments and what not, it seemed that everyone loved it when I commented. I kind of find it strange that people here and other places complain that they only accept cookie cutter answers from the paragraphs, from my experience; it's not like that at all. Anyway, even though I was always a little nervous, answering questions and making comments was never a problem for me.

It seemed that my friend was having problems with cliques and what not, he claimed that all of his childhood friends there started ignoring him and not talking to him and only meeting him half way in convos, especially a particular girl he grew up with. I never really understood this though. I admit that there were indeed some problems with the young people there and they did treat him bad (I've witnessed it), and they were indeed cliquish, but I never had a problem with it. I was invited to some things but not EVERYTHING, and I didn't really care if I was. I'm anti-social to a fault and am more comfortable with the friends I grew up with in school, so I was never bothered by this. My friend explained to me that the person studying with him would get on him for hanging out with non-believers (we hung out with the same ones). I never got hounded for hanging out with my friends who were not in the truth. I felt obligated to stand by my friend’s side even though I was not in the predicament he was in.

Even though I was not suffering, I saw the problem for what it was. A lot of the elders though didn't, one of them even cried when he found out what was going on. Some knew and didn't care, some didn't know how to deal with it. I know some people reading this would problem think badly of the religion itself, as much as I wanted to get mad at the religion, I looked beyond that and saw the whole picture. We would get many different letters from bethel and stuff about the problems we were having with cliques and people not opening up, so at least in my mind, the watch tower guys were doing their jobs or at least attempting to, not covering it up or making excuses for it. I can't really blame the religion if the elders don't follow through with making sure these issues are not only addressed but settled. I felt that it was similar to blaming Jesus for allowing a man to journey with him who would latter betray him and cause trouble for the whole group. I felt that I couldn't blame Jehovah for the incompetence and imperfection of men. I was expecting perfection from the organization and that is a flaw that I just recently found within myself. To be fair, Jehovah does not expect perfection from me, so I guess I shouldn't expect perfection from an organization God uses (or so they claim he does)? It was difficult to know this fact, but if I ever had a big problem with it, I was obviously free to move to another congregation. Some congregations are better spirited than others and usually have a very different ethnic majority, but that's a whole deeper issue I'm not going to touch in here.

As of late, I have been trying to get through college and get a BFA in Graphic Design sense I am in love with art and music. I also have had problems with my circle of friends, and my family schedule has been thrown off of whack since my dad changed jobs. I haven't been getting out in the ministry and I haven't really been commenting because I'm so flustered and disorganized in my life. Despite this I have yet to be pressured by anyone in the congregation, never looked down on me for going t o college, they still talk to me, they still invite me to stuff and I never come, even though I say I'll try. The younger ones will come see me while I'm working (especially the girl my friend had an issue with, she makes sure she comes to see me if she is nearby). All in all they have treated me very well and I did nothing but shit on their kindness because of my own screwed up predicaments. I feel so bad that sometimes i want to cry, but I can't. I haven't cried in like years. I feel alone, but I think that's because it's my own fault. I was trying to go to college so I could get a good job and move on my own and provide for my future family and not go insane in the process.

I haven't made a lot of progress since baptism. I usually don't have any of the general common doubts or anything. Some of the mind shakers such as the blood transfusion issue in stuff don't really bother me, but that's mainly because I just don't want someone else blood in me, it's cheap medical procedure and sometimes can cause problems for patients, when I found out they didn't agree with it, I didn't really care honestly, but that's just me I guess. Strangely, I'm a bit of a cynic. What bothers me most is just the fact that it's just the same thing, and I feel like they are preaching about a day that is never coming (but may very well need to). It gets annoying, because even outside of this religion people play games and clown out and I get annoyed with it too. I was talking to a sister my age about relationship issues I had in the past and how I felt that women were crazy, she said that religious women were the craziest of all. To be honest... from the girls I dealt with outside of the religion, it would be pretty damn hard to compete with them even with religious craze thrown in. Studying history, people and governments especially in the western hemisphere have done pretty screwed up things that really need something like divine justice to straighten the matter out. While I don't believe that only witnesses would survive the apocalypse, I've honestly never read or heard it expressed that way to begin with (at least in this period of the society).

There was once a time where I made a very selfish prayer. It was my junior year in high school and I went to the homecoming dance. There was a girl that I had a crush on and I just wanted a moment where I could dance with her. I was never very good with girls at that age, and I just wanted to slow dance with her and that would have made me happy, I could have immediately left after that. In the back of my mind I felt that I would never get an answer to such a selfish prayer, boy was I wrong. Towards the end of the dance, a slow dance song came on, and everyone found a partner to dance with except her. She wondered around the area with a sad look on her face, like something out of a cheesy movie. I was right there...frozen... I won't lie, I was nervous, but I was mostly stupefied. Stupefied that God actually answered my prayers, to this quality. I couldn't believe it. But by the time I regained my senses someone else came in and offered to dance with her. I was upset. I went home and cried, because I felt that God was so kind to answer a selfish prayer, but I spit on it like a fool.

Ever since that night I have never prayed for anything for myself, honestly. Not without the doubt that it wouldn't be answered at least. I felt that he would think that I would just waste it again. I've done things own my own and never asked God for help, and while at first I had no problems with it, now I feel that I'm going nowhere fast. I'm lost honestly and I don't know what to really do, I just know who to trust anymore. And it’s hard to trust anyone these days; everyone seems to have an agenda.

I guess my distrust also goes towards the society, even though I personally have no reason to really distrust them on a major scale, some people do for one reason or another. But I don't know, if the society is trying to accomplish something other than what they claim, all I can really see them doing is controlling and brainwashing a bunch of people I guess. But in the end that doesn't really accomplish anything. "Hey I have a whole bunch of people who believe everything I say to a fault, let's not take over the world or anything, let's just become social outcasts of society!" Yeah that sounds like a perfectly sane goal to me... I'm really not sure what to do, maybe I should retrace me steps... regroup my thoughts so to sepak.