simon17

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Posts by simon17

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  48

  I called Bethel about shunning family, unexpected response.....

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs
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  simon17

  I'm not sure, this seems to be the prevailing attiude around me. As long as you are not DF'd or DA'd, and as long as you're not consciously trying to "Make waves" people are not going to shun you. My family does not, and our relationship is pretty normal while we avoid the 'elephant in the room.' I still see people in the congregation and they are civil or friendly. We don't hang out, but that's to be expected. I don't think they would leave if they were at someone's gathering and I was there too. So I think his response is accurate. I think in some circuits or areas people DO go to extreme.s
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  71

  Were You Ever Comfortable Going From House To House?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  because i was raised a witness, i don't think i was "uncomfortable" knocking on strangers' doors.

  (weirdo).. but as i got older, i simply didn't want to bother anyone so i was at there door for no more than 30 seconds.

  at the end i hated being there..

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  simon17

  I was pretty comfortable with it, aside from in my home town when I could run into people from school. That was the worst. I hated going in my home town. I actually at one point compiled a list of all my contacts from school from the phonebook, alphabetical by their street name so I could easily reference if there was a house I needed to skip. It was a pretty clever system.

  I didn't actually want to really discuss anything and neither did the householders so we had our pleasant few seconds together.

  Later when I didn't believe it, I still found it tolerable. You were mostly talking to other people, observing random things, and out in (sometimes) nice weather. And really, if the weather was bad you were probably in the car doing R.V.s.

  This is the only part of things I will occassionally think back fondly to. A lot of funny shit went down in service.
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  25

  I wrote a D.A. letter

  by snakeface in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i used to be very active int he organization, "high profile" so to speak.

  always taking the gorup out in service, always having parts on the platform etc etc.

  almost 5 years ago, i simply did not show up anymore.

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  simon17

  Hard to believe they weren't checking up on you. If not for just general concern or interest, at least you'd expect them to be pissed you skipped your assignments for talks, service groups, etc. That always brings an earfull!
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  7

  Is the Blood policy simply a means of grabbing $ from the wills of faithful ones who prove themselves...

  by mP in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  since it all about money, stands to reason they want people to die so they can get something from their wills right ?.

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  simon17

  don't be ridiculous.
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  15

  Dating Coach for Ex-Dubs? Do we need one? There is one for ex-Orthodox Jewish women.

  by Diest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after i read this article on slate.com about a dating coach for ex-hasidic women, i thought this would be a great job for ex-dubs.

  i see a lot of the same dating issues in the posts i read and even in my own life.. i don't know who would take up the job but it seems like it could be interesting.

  help born-ins understand the intracacies of dating and relationships in the real world.

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  simon17

  Yeah I think this is a good idea, but the problem is everyone got stifled in such vastly different ways.

  Here's my example. I was sociable and likeable to worldly and witness people both. The problem was, as a believer, dating was completely discouraged unless you were ready to marry which I obviously was not in HS/college. So I would get close to girls, but then keep them at a distance as they started to like me. I'd get them to be friends, but I guess I enjoyed the sexual tension of being with someone I liked even thought I did nothing about it, and in fact actively discouraged it from progressing. So my wiring of what to do to go from liking someone to dating them is totally backwards.

  Also, I'm great talking to people but not at all if they are just complete strangers. I can't just approach someone random and start talking. If they are introduced to me I can usually hit it off with people I like. But now getting older, that doesn't happen so much! I think mainly I hate the idea of rejection. Dating was such a HUGE thing that to expose your feelings or intentions as a Witness was a MASSIVE things and if you got shot down it was a HUGE BLOW. Meeting random people shouldn't really be that way at all, but I feel like it is...

  EDIT: to be fair, as an INTJ, they say they are hyper-sensitive to rejection so I probably shouldnt blame the latter on JW-life entirely (or even mainly)
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  66

  Passing the time at JW Assemblies

  by Leolaia in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  love_truth, in describing the utter dullness of jw assemblies and conventions, just gave me an interesting idea for a thread.

  what were some of the ways you tried to make the hours pass?

  some of mine: looking at the interesting refracting patterns the arena floodlights made on my eyeglasses when looking thru them at an angle.looking for people i knew from my congregation and others in the mass of people in the arena.counting the number of people leaving the section to go to the bathroompractice writing people's names in elvish scripthaving a conversation with friends a row behind me by passing notes back and forthseeing how many pages of my bible stick together when i slam a wad of gum in between its pages.. what else?

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  simon17

  For about two years before I left I would only go for lunch. It was actually hilarious and ridiculous looking back on it.

  I'd get dressed up in a suit, leave my house and drive 1:30 and get there right as the morning program was ending. I'd get a program and come up with some random comment about one of the talk titles to use. Something like "yeah the symposium on xxxxxx was really timely." Then I'd make my rounds, seeing everyone so they thought I was there. The only other question I had to commonly field was "where are you sitting" to which I'd always say "oh yeah, off on the other side" lol. Everyone was speaking so automatically they didn't even notice how ridiculous an answer that was! Then I'd drive 1:30 home.
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  34

  I think people want to believe in an Armageddon

  by dgp in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the end of the world (aka "this system of things") has been predicted to happen "soon" many times.

  in my own lifetime, and not being a jw, i have been warned that the world would end like six times already.

  harold camping predicted one end of the world twice only last year.

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  simon17

  I think people just intrinsically want to know how things will turn out. Maybe they don't think explicitly about it, but the thought of the world going on without them is tough. The people, the discoveries, the diasters and triumphs and wars and progress. Realizing everything will go on and you'll not be able to know anything about what happens is just sobering. So belief in an end time means you DO KNOW how it ends (and if that happens in your lifetime, even better).

  I know I sometimes think about all the things that will come to be after I die. Imagine dying just 100 years ago and missing out on all that has happened. Imagine dying in ancient times, believing the Earth was flat and that sailing too far onto the ocean horizon was certain doom, not knowing there were other suns or planets out there? Then imagine what you'll be missing when you go. Amazing and sad at the same time.
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  37

  New light or did the speaker just pull this out his wazoo?

  by pubtruth in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i went to the last day of the dc here in west palm beach, just to make my mother company.

  wow, what a difference can a year outside the lie can do to perception.

  it was the same crap as you'd expect but there is a plot twist: the speaker was so into the talk he was actually starting to shout and wound up mentioning that they now know how many angels will be needed to destroy everyone at armaggeddon.

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  simon17

  So I guess 185K is the upper bound for Angelic kills in 8-hours?
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  22

  2013 CA and SAD programs released. More Safegaurd your mind control stuff.

  by darthweef in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  song no.

  1:30 song no.

  2:45 song no.

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  simon17

  I like the title of this thread and think it would be great if one day they really had a talk entitled "Safeguard your Mind Control" lol
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  53

  Anonymous have Bethelite info

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends
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  simon17

  Did they use Google translator to translate some original message into English or something? For goodness' sake, at least use spell and grammar check.