Posts by sd-7

mureen was an atheist...after seeing the film i knew something was happening to me, i was shaking all over....i knew there was something in the house as i could feel it with me wherever i went....i knew of a family of jehovah's witnesses near by so i jumped at the chance to study with them.... awake 7/22 p.31when the motion picture "exorcist 2 was show on u.s television, a mother and her 4 year old daughter in whitchita falls texas watched it together...one scene is said to contain cutting out of a girls heart to get rid of the demon.

sd-7

There were always rumors in my congregation that the events of 'The Exorcist' had happened in our territory, where there is now a gazeebo and garden area. They claimed no one was ever able to build a house on that site because of what happened. I guess I'm less worried about such things now. I don't think I'd ever want to see such a film, simply because I've got enough tangible things to be scared of that I hardly need intangible ones. There's plenty of fear offered out there at no charge.

My mom used to scare us with stories that the demons talked to her, and that they told her JWs knew the truth about them. "This stupid lady doesn't know who we are," she reported them saying to her. In hindsight, I have to wonder what that was all about. She seems otherwise sane. Her father was dying of cancer around that time, but...schizophrenia? Something odd about all that. I've no reason to doubt my own mother, but I'm forced to conclude that there was something else afoot with her at that time. It does raise questions, though, as to whether or not the voices completely went away after she joined up with the JWs....

--sd-7

28

Do JWs treat women like second-class citizens, like their husbands' property?

by matt2414 in

as an elder, i recall that the husband always had to be present on any judicial committee meeting involving his wife, but that the wife was not to be present on judicial committee meetings involving her husband.

has this changed?

if not, isn't that treating women as lesser persons than their husbands?.

sd-7

Yes. Just ask Selma. She'll tell you, once she's done sweeping her teeth off the floor...that'll teach her to 'make a point'...

It was true in my judicial committee two years ago--the elders didn't speak to my wife without me being present. But they were sure to send her out for my committee.

Women are usually the smart ones in JW congregations, and usually the more likely to help somebody out. A shame they can't be elders...You know, one thing about what Paul wrote was "I do not permit a woman to speak in the congregation." He said "I", not God. That was his personal opinion. He probably had no idea his letters would be considered scripture one day. Clearly, women received holy spirit same as men, so...that said, surely God didn't expect women to simply keep silent when the spirit was with them.

My wife did once say to me that she had a 'good owner'. I know it was a scriptural reference, but it still kind of weirded me out. Adults are equals, period. Screw any Biblical reasoning around that. Anything that violates the right of a human to equal treatment is wrong. Considering all that, no wonder so many JW women are depressed and screwed up. A shame...

--sd-7

94

If you got apostate vids on Youtube take em off now!!! Legal Dept to Sue!

by smithmandy1 in

i've posted this on the wrong section so i'm posting it on here cos its sort of to topic as i know many of you have vids on youtube.

legal department are beginning legal action against google and its uploaders regards to apostate vids that slander the watchtower and/or contain copyrighted material!!!

my hubby knows people who know so heres my warning lol.

sd-7

So, perhaps the 'slanderous' statements found in Watchtower literature, should they be identified in open court, will be expunged from all Library CD-ROMs in the future, hmm? I think that would be a sign of progress.

Plaintiff suing on account of his own bullsh-- being discussed in an open forum...how rich is that?

--sd-7

81

Help! I'm having serious thoughts about going back

by lola28 in

jw
friends

hello old friends, i've been thinking about going back and need you all to give me your thoughts on it.. the last year has been a horribe one for me, in the span of less than a year the following things have happened to me:.

lost my mom to cancergot hit by a carhad a professional set back that will cost over 600k to resolveended a three and a half year relationshipit just feels like every time i think things are going to get better something else hits me and knocks me down, a small part of me wonders wether i brought all these things on myself because i left the organization (yes i know how silly that sounds) and i have given serious thought about going back.

i need you guys to talk me out of it!.

sd-7

You're thinking of going back because you don't feel able to carry the burden of the pain you are in right now. But you need not cause further harm to your future by reentering an abusive situation. It cannot comfort you anymore. You were strong enough to leave. You can be strong enough to stay away, too. But remember, you don't have to endure for the rest of your life; you just have to endure today. Maybe tomorrow, you'll have a different perspective, things will seem a little better.

The reason it hurts so much is because we were taught to rely on the organization, to outsource our moral compass and even how we should feel, how we should cope with the pains and tragedies of everyday life. It is hard to take all that on your own shoulders. It is. But it's easier than betraying your own conscience. That's a burden and a pain that eats a person up far faster than any other.

--sd-7

31

How an original STAR TREK episode nearly cost me my first JW marriage in its first year...true story I find funny/sad

by oompa in

jw
friends

so i'm 21, just married, and raised in my fathers image and thank god he liked sci-fi...a genre i was able to escape to new worlds in.

he even took me to a trekkie covention when i was albout 12 at the greensboro coliseum and it was packed.

we had watched every episode over and over...i thought.

sd-7

I only discovered Star Trek maybe, what, 5 years ago? Reruns on TV Land of the [evidently true] Star Trek caught my eye. Bought the entire Original Series, and the entire TNG series (still watching Season 7 of that), and watched Enterprise on Netflix (which only really got good in Seasons 3 and 4). Seen only a few of Voyager and DS9. Original Series and TNG are my favorites by far. Loved the 2009 movie, Chris Pine really owned the role of Kirk. Though I like Zachary Quinto, there's only one Leonard Nimoy, period, and the nuances of Spock were his alone. Quinto's Spock seems to have too much anger simmering at the surface even before the whole Vulcan destruction thing. I loved Nimoy's performance because so much of it was conveyed while keeping his face neutral.

Anyway, there is so much forward-looking stuff in Star Trek, and I think it really spoke to me even as a JW. (I don't remember when I finally worked up the courage to watch that 'Catspaw' episode, but I knew Star Trek required a scientific explanation for everything, so I took a chance on it when Mom wasn't around to notice...) Just the thought that man was capable of uniting...utterly anti-JW, but I always believed it was possible anyway. I hesitated to attribute all good or bad things to YHWH or Satan because that just wasn't...logical.

I can see wanting to watch a TV show over going to a meeting, but I was fortunate enough to be able to have my own VCR after high school, so I taped a lot of stuff. But that is the sucky thing about being married to a JW--they will ride you to no end over petty crap like that. As if you really miss that much by not going to one flippin' meeting. I always remember such joy and relief missing a meeting and finally getting to see what shows came on Tuesday nights. Ah...but Star Trek was about uniting people! How could it harm a marriage?

Well, Capt. Archer said it well, "Whenever a group of people starts thinking they're better than everyone else, the results are always the same."

--sd-7

40

My take on the new Be Jehovah's Friend DVD

by blond-moment in

jw
friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvrx7ej2b8m.

sd-7

Awesome video. I think you're much cuter than Janeway, by the way, but with a voice that's equally as awesome.

But that's so true--those are your options, drone or double life. For the most part, I went with the drone path, or else just immersed myself in solitude. Better to be alone than to subject your relationships to constant WT/parental scrutiny. Even as an adult this kind of crap continues. You literally can't enjoy anything without some kind of annoying thought-stopping questions going on. I wonder if this is why I started writing down my thoughts, because there was no way to actually talk about them with anyone at home? Hmm.

Oh, and another thing, what kind of kid would rather ride bikes with their mom over doing so with friends?

Not I. Then again, what kind of kid would rather ride bikes with their mom over playing with SPARLOCK??? My mom loved riding bikes, and I couldn't stand it. Actually cut myself after a fall once and never really wanted to do it again. Well, I never wanted to do it at all, but what was I going to do, say no to my mother? I was in constant fear of a beating, even though I rarely ever got beat, just watched my brother get beatings and it scared me enough to obey.

On the plus side, my mom was fairly liberal, so...we got to play games that had fighting or even magic in them, but not too much. Like, we could play The Legend of Zelda, but not Ghosts & Goblins or Castlevania. Or we could play Street Fighter II, but not Mortal Kombat.

But yeah, Caleb is lucky. Some kids may well have gotten spanked over something like this. Don't know if my mom would've spanked over something like that, though. Maybe, depends on the day....

--sd-7

33

Sparlock: The Sociology of the former Jehovahs Witness community

by Las Malvinas son Argentinas in

jw
friends

thewatchtower bible and tract society has unwittingly unleashed quite a viral sensation within the ranks of its former members.

to summarise what has happened so far:- become jehovahs friend dvd is released.

it is an animated feature aimed at children with modern computerised graphics.- the antagonist of the relatively brief cartoon is a self-described warrior wizard by the name of sparlock which was obtained by caleb, the young subject of this material.- the unnamed mother in this dvd guilt-trips young caleb into disposing of his sparlock toy.- the video goes viral within the ex-jw community, with youtube videos being posted of the video.

sd-7

sd-7: I’m not even sure this video will go down that well even within the JW community. Some will think that it’s for kids and not pay as close attention as the Society would normally want them to. As for the children to whom this is directed to, they have plenty of more entertaining things to watch. What this effectively does is force parents to throw out the Pokemon and Harry Potter type material (if they even had it in the first place) and replace it with more vanilla forms of entertainment.

True enough. Most JWs won't notice anything odd about it, save maybe the dad having a near-doorstep Bible study with Caleb over something as simple as tracking dirt in the house. I think that would've bothered me a bit even as a JW, because this little kid is getting hit over the head with scripture over extremely trivial matters. I think that sort of treatment invites rebellion in the future, the kind that probably is far more potentially self-destructive for Caleb than it needs to be. Or he'll be a zealot and one day make videos like this for his own children...

I just visited my JW mom recently, and it seems she'd gotten into that Sparlock sort of mode in putting all her 'bad' movies and games in a box and getting them out of the house. Not sure she'll throw them away, but could be the convention will move her to do just that. So even though Sparlock will not even remotely be noticed by JWs as it has been by us, what was done to Caleb is really being done to adult JWs as well.

I think Caleb's mom represents the Society and Caleb is any JW, and it's the same sort of manipulation that happens from "the spiritual mother". There have been pictures in recent WT magazines of teens or young adults throwing out their music or movies for the same reasons given to Caleb.

My expectation for my own home is that it'll be yet another movie to put on the TV as the kids play around and maybe look at the nice colors but don't really notice anything meaningful about it. They're not old enough for this scenario to happen yet, so...like many other kids who see this, it's going to become old news in a short while like most other WT-produced stuff. Who knows? Might even show up in a few months on a Service Meeting part, but that'll be about it.

--sd-7

33

Sparlock: The Sociology of the former Jehovahs Witness community

by Las Malvinas son Argentinas in

jw
friends

thewatchtower bible and tract society has unwittingly unleashed quite a viral sensation within the ranks of its former members.

to summarise what has happened so far:- become jehovahs friend dvd is released.

it is an animated feature aimed at children with modern computerised graphics.- the antagonist of the relatively brief cartoon is a self-described warrior wizard by the name of sparlock which was obtained by caleb, the young subject of this material.- the unnamed mother in this dvd guilt-trips young caleb into disposing of his sparlock toy.- the video goes viral within the ex-jw community, with youtube videos being posted of the video.

sd-7

Excellent points, Emilie. And I think what you said is kind of the whole point of this Sparlock fixation--it has become a sort of tangible symbol of everything, top to bottom, that the Watchtower Society has made us 'throw in the garbage' for the sake of obeying its rules. All the friendships, scholarships, better jobs, movies, books, music, clothes, facial hair, wow, they controlled a LOT of things about our personal lives. The manipulation present in that very brief video just summed it all up, the entire JW experience.

You could say it was a textbook in short form on how to erase the authentic person and replace him with the cult persona.

Personally, it's just more fun to lampoon/satirize/etc. Sparlock because it's a cartoon, and because MILLIONS of people will actually take this as the gospel truth. It's two sides of a coin--it's fun to toy with, but also horrifying. In my case, I would say that I laugh to keep from crying.

To be sure, there are bigger issues to address, but Sparlock simplifies them in one adorable purple toy. That's my take.

--sd-7

21

20 Things You Never Knew About Sparlock the Wizard

by jookbeard in

jw
friends

well i cant really think of any , but feel free to add some.

sd-7

1. Sparlock is the last survivor of a 10,000-year-old Order of Warrior Wizards.

2. Sparlock helped the Warriors Three seal the evil Natassia with a magic spell 5,000 years ago.

3. Sparlock's archenemy, Natassia the Dark Witch, has broken free and assumed human form.

4. Sparlock's sword, the Star Blade, was forged of alchemy and steel; a magic star spell has made it unbreakable.

5. Sparlock's shield is known as Natassia's Mirror--it can reveal the true nature of hidden Dark Witches. Why Natassia kept it remains unknown; it is believed that in times far beyond recorded history, there were many Dark Witches, and that Natassia herself destroyed them and absorbed their dark magic.

6. The Hat of Sparlock protects him from magic spells cast against the mind. He cannot be confused, put to sleep, or paralyzed by magic spells so long as he wears it.

7. The purple gauntlets he wears protect him from most melee weapons. Only the Unholy Blade can penetrate it, and the Warriors Three sealed it quite separately shortly after Natassia's defeat. Only they knew where to find it.

8. Sparlock was born approximately 8,000 years ago, to Spylock and Kylock, who belonged to the Order of the Green--a magician's order that focused on protecting nature.

...Hmm. I guess I better stop there.

--sd-7