Very interesting...but they're not passing collection plates at all, right? But then, when your brain is on the collection plate, why would they need to?
--sd-7
Posts by sd-7
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29Complete Donation What Happened?
by Marvin Shilmer incomplete donation what happened?.
today i added a new article to my blog showing part of a never before publicized letter where the watchtower organization makes admission of how jehovahs witnesses actually responded to the 1990 change to its complete donation arrangement.
my article is titled complete donation what happened?
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32
exJW Psychology 104--One Way to Play the Depression Card
by Billy the Ex-Bethelite ini had an interesting conversation with bobby (*some names have been changed) last weekend.
he's also a successful fader going back several years before me.
but i found we had something in common that i hadn't realized.. bobby had never been particularly happy growing up.
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sd-7
Good thread. I certainly struggled with depression myself--still do, really--and part of it is certainly the result of never standing up for myself and sort of participating in the self-immolation the WT encouraged. Finding out it was all a lie made it all simultaneously worse and better. I see now that the organization was a useless crutch--couldn't move with it and I'm not exactly going anywhere without it, either. I was already pessimistic and paranoid of things and people, yet I seemed to trust all the people I shouldn't have, even after waking up.
There were times in the past when I wanted to forget TTATT, but they were very brief. The more I've learned, the more I appreciate how much deeper my intellect has become and how much my moral code has evolved. In itself, that's hugely exciting and has been a source of comfort. It's sad because I have to shut down my emotions in order to survive it all. I have to care less about the people I care the most about, because I know that they have to avoid me or keep me at arm's length. Even my children...will grow up to shun me. Knowing that I have no one in my life, at home, I mean, to share my deepest thoughts with--yeah, that's pretty sad. I'm sure Mrs. sd-7 might well feel the same way, for all I know.
I do know that it's better to see that leaving the WT did not in itself make my life any worse. Mostly it was marrying the wrong person that did that, and dating an equally wrong person just before that that kind of messed up the exit strategy (there was a strategy? Not really, I wanted to self-destruct at that point because it was overload for me emotionally). Mainly it's the stress of marriage that has made the depression a bit of a challenge, and knowing that the JW stuff is still in my home and my life. But I have myself to blame for that and I own the responsibility for it. It seems that while I thought I no longer had to fight against myself, I still proved my own worst enemy in the end.
Being a JW meant endless war. Leaving just meant that the enemy became more complicated and less clear, but war didn't really end. I was left with only myself to trust and I see that I can't even do that without endangering my own hope for a peaceful life beyond the WT.
I still think humanity is probably doomed, just not in the same way I did before. It's depressing to know that there's no hope to return to, only the hope I can create for myself, in my own mind. The only thing left is to see the end of it all, to see where it's all leading, to see the kids grow up, run the clock out, and die as irrelevant as I was when I was born.
The only good thing that came out of TTATT was that I now know a little more than I did before. Meaningless in the end, but a slight improvement.
--sd-7
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37
Prodigal Son DVD, Seen it? Totally Unrealistic to me. You?
by Wasanelder Once inhere's the basic rundown:.
ok so little jw (21 going on 15) decides to get a job with a computer firm.
leaves family construction company to do so.
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sd-7
I remember seeing the actual drama at the convention. I just assumed the kid got a job at Best Buy or something. I thought it was peculiar that they conveniently skipped over the judicial committee at the end, what with that not being part of the Prodigal Son parable at all...
I suppose I encountered one of those loose "worldly" women on my way out, but surprisingly she was quite capable of drinking and driving without having a car accident. Guess I was lucky. Then there was the JW woman who ended up being all seductive...but hey, she was kind enough to turn me in. I sure didn't want to go back home after all that, though. Hmm. Reminds me of when my JW wife (the aforementioned JW woman) and I separated. My non-JW dad actually wanted me to come back home after that. Kind of funny in its own way.
Makes me realize that the only way the Prodigal Son's dad will welcome him with open arms is if he's pagan and non-JW...
--sd-7
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84
100 things I learned from watching "The Prodigal Son" DVD
by Perversion of a truth inthese are things that were said or insinuated, i start with the first 15.
enjoy!!.
1. working for a corporation in the city makes you fall out of the truth.. 2. if you become inactive or leave jehovah you will make your whole family sad and ruin everything.. 3. all worldly people cheat.. 4. all worldly people curse.. 5.
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sd-7
the mother exclaimed "this is like a death!"
I die a little bit more with everything I hear about this video...
--sd-7
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55
What was your WORST Field Service encounter???
by TheCoolerKing insomeone mentioned to me the other day about going door to door back when i was a jw.
"weren't you scared to do something like that, knock on a stranger's door?
actually it's been so long that i had almost forgotten.
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sd-7
You know, I always figured there could be danger in the recruitment work. The worst that ever happened to me was getting bitten by a dog--it was rather small, and it jumped up and nipped my hand hard enough to break the skin. Otherwise, nothing else really comes to mind.
--sd-7
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65
intel on warwick project
by stuckinamovement inthe committee assigned to build the new complex was called into a meeting with the governing body.
they were told " you finish this project by january 1 2017. we want the keys to the complex and will be headquartered there by that date, do you understand?".
when the brothers protested and said that it would take 6 years for the project to be complete and if they moved that fast there would be many mistakes, the gb responded, "we don't care, that is your deadline".
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sd-7
RFR Realty and Kushner Companies have agreed to acquire a six-property portfolio in Dumbo from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York for $375 million
That's a lot of cake. Meme: YOU CAN'T GO TO COLLEGE--BUT I JUST MADE $375 MILLION
--sd-7
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90
Can this logic be refuted?
by notsurewheretogo ini was an elder until march 2012 until i resigned.
i then stopped going to meetings in october 2012 and have enjoyed 9 months of freedom that i have found to be jouful!
i loved learning ttatt and sites like this and jwfacts.com have been excellent.. i told the elders that i needed a break and that they should not contact me unless it was a social visit and true to their word they have done that.
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sd-7
They couldn't charge with me apostasy if you go by their own definition of apostasy...I am not a bitter person hellbent on getting people to leave Jehovah...nor have I sourced any material outside the WT...
It doesn't matter whether you actually want people to 'leave Jehovah' or source material outside the WT. Even quoting WT literature in a non-conventional way indicates you have had contact with apostate material. But as you said, the answer to the loyalty question is the difference between success and failure at the end, and I guess if you've got that figured out, why am I talking to you? You can just do whatever you feel like, 'cause you've got it covered.
--sd-7
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7
Niece: I'm too young to date!
by Nosferatu inmy 20 year old niece and my mom are the only jw relatives i have.
her mom got kicked out for smoking and my brother ended the marriage because she was a bitch anyway.. but it's really unfortunate that my niece had to be dragged into the jws.
i really wish my brother would have put the brakes on it more.
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sd-7
Well, I'm not sure why this is such a big deal. Seems to me there's only trouble to be had with a young person who doesn't fully understand themselves or the power they wield to be dating someone. Especially with the JW mindset, marriage is sort of a thing that a young person can be tempted to shoehorn into their lives with the wrong person and far too soon, especially because it's the only way they feel they can experience sex. Or someone likes you and you're automatically thinking marriage. I guess this is an issue I have no frame of reference for except my own crap relationships that didn't turn out too well. "Only pain will you find," the way I see it.
It can be a painful process even if marriage isn't the endgame. Being single can mean a lot more freedom, money, and peace and quiet. And Blu-ray Combo Packs. Especially the Blu-ray Combo Packs.
--sd-7
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6
WW I, the Gentile Times, and the Last days...the not so exact science of chronology
by Separation of Powers inessentially, the jw position regarding the end of the gentile times and the significance of 1914 revolve around a principal element, namely, that the "great war" (ww1) was an indication of the anger of the dragon, i.e satan, after being cast out of heaven per revelation 12:7-9 and the start of the sign of the last days.
this has always been a sticky point for the organization....why?.
because, based on their chronology, the gentile times ended in october 3/4 of 1914 with the last days commencing from that point on.
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sd-7
LOL @ Londo111!
--sd-7
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34
Food For Logical Thought...
by braincleaned insometimes we waste hours and hours debating a subject like the flood, and the impossible scientific and evolutionary consequences that it entails.
we go into great debates about how all of is is possible, what a "kind" means (species, obviously not)... etc.... but believers will not stop believing... so here is something even a child would think of more logically:if god is all powerful and love why would he have not just made the wicked drop dead, painlessly?
simply, humanly.
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sd-7
Well, once you get used to killing, it's not enough to just condemn people to eat bread until they gradually grow old and die. You've gotta be a little more vicious than that. I can only assume he enjoys the killing or else he'd find a more humane way to go about it. I mean, he does have a God Complex, after all, so dealing with the defiant in as horrific a way possible is kind of in line with that....
--sd-7