garyneal

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Posts by garyneal

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  26

  Has the Watchtower ever admitted making a mistake?

  by moomanchu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with all their flip flops, errors and changes, do you know of any printed admission of mistakes made ?.

  have they ever apologized for wrong doctrine?.

  i think it's because of too much pride..

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  garyneal

  New light and overzealous witnesses. This is how they explain their changes and failed prophecies.
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  22

  Why do they just clutch at straws?

  by creativhoney in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my ex husband has been spending a lot of time in my company, and i always use the opportunity to throw another quandary his way.

  - when i start, he usually puts his hands to his face and says ohhhh not this again.

  - i say why are you so afraid, im only asking you a question or offering a fact.. when he does listen to an argument i offer, most of the responses are just clutching at straws.

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  garyneal

  C-H

  he also said last night that it is fortunate that women dont get stoned for fornication (lol aside, these days they get stoned and commit it ) - because they said that to me in my judicial, and I asked if he agreed, - he said well its gods law, yes but do you agree? I could see how torn he was - when presented with the argument like that, he knew damn well it was an outrage, but he didnt want to argue against his 'belief' of be seen to be wrong - he has a major issue with admitting he is wrong on the tiniest level

  Then he obviously does not know his Bible. Stoning women for fornication and children for disobedience is part of the old law which Christ fulfilled. Furthermore, when the OT jews brought an adulterous in front of Jesus as they were about to stone her, He did not condemn her. "He who is without sin, let him now cast the first stone." The jews did not condemn her, neither did Christ, neither should we.

  About smoking, the elder at my wife's KH admitted that there is nothing in the Bible that condemns it. However, he said it was based on love, love of yourself and love of your brothers and family. Smoking is damaging to health, both to the smoker and those around it. I think it is a disgusting habit myself but I would not condemn others to disfellowshipping if they smoked. Keep it outside or away from non-smokers if you must do it.

  I drink sodas and I know they are not healthy either, so how can I judge?
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  22

  E-watchman website closing down.

  by yadda yadda 2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  robert king recently announced that his website, www.e-watchman.com, is going to close down because he no longer has the services of his administrator, and because the website has fallen to a lower google rating because of recent inactivity.

  says he is moving everything to a blog..

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  garyneal

  Don't know what to say about him. I read his 101 answers to the 101 questions to ask a Jehovah's Witness. Boy did he really defend witnesses on question 101. Too bad he neglected mention some of the unloving things witnesses do while he was denigrating trinitarians.

  What about his review of Don Cameron's book Captives of a Concept. He made both Don Cameron and Raymond Franz out to look like they are offering 'freedom' that is not true freedom but really bondage. Does he even know what he is talking about?

  I guess he thinks he is the Martin Luther of the WTBTS.
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  70

  Does anyone here believe that Jesus never existed?

  by Newborn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if so...why?.

  i don't know what i believe so i'm just curious.

  /newborn.

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  garyneal

  marking for later comment
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  62

  Dec. 15th WT - WT Society REALLY Minimizes Earning a Decent Living

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's ridiculous.

  i saw this so much in my 44 years in the jehovah's witness cult.

  whether it was elders, pioneers, or other people in the cult criticizing others for working too much at their employment or missing some service or meetings due to employment.

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  garyneal

  Wow, I don't really know what to say. Given that my wife is trying to reach her 'spiritual goals' and become more and more a JW has me wondering what she will do if she begins to take this drivel seriously. Her dad worked and her mom would sometimes criticize her dad for putting work ahead of life, but I understand the man, he needed a way to provide and her mom has been on disability and full time pioneering for around 20 years. Her dad did make MS and was even offered the position of elder, but he turned it down because he wanted to put his college first. After all, the man was laid off and trying to train for a decent job.

  I hope my wife does not turn out like this and if she does, I am definitely going to instill in my daughter how backwards and hypocritical all of this is.

  Now to be fair, my father-in-law was poor at managing money and would even get into heavy heavy debt and sometimes intentionally not pay his bills. My mother-in-law did the best she could and even went as far as to tell her husband that her disability check was going to pay the mortgage because they almost lost their house when he failed to make the mortgage payments.

  Still though, I find the attitudes of the WTS towards building a better future for yourself and your children appalling. The Lord will provide for us, but He also blesses the work of our hands. In other words, we must be doing things ourselves to make things better and not always just sit back and expect 'manna from heaven.'
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  48

  V (ABC Mini-series)

  by sacolton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://abc.go.com/shows/v?partner=rm&cid=knc-rm+v_title_fall_launch+google+v_abc.

  anyone gonna watch this?

  looks awesome!.

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  garyneal

  Yeah, this show is getting more and more disappointing. If they don't make improvements fast, I doubt it will get very far.
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  62

  Dec. 15th WT - WT Society REALLY Minimizes Earning a Decent Living

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's ridiculous.

  i saw this so much in my 44 years in the jehovah's witness cult.

  whether it was elders, pioneers, or other people in the cult criticizing others for working too much at their employment or missing some service or meetings due to employment.

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  garyneal

  Of course, I was never a witness but I did hear talks like this or something similar in the meetings and assemblies. I also remember back when I was very involved in my old Independent Fundamental Baptist church how the pastor would stress that one should not take a secular job if it requires the person to work on Sundays or Wednesday nights.

  This was particularly hard for me at the time as I was a young person, not long out of HS, with the only job prospects being restaurants and retail stores. They tend to like working their staff on Sundays and Wednesday nights. The hypocrisy I saw in that situation was where I would see Christians shouting Amen to the ramblings of no work on Sundays then leave for a restaurant or a grocery store after church let out.

  Someone had to work in order to provide that service to these hypocrits!

  The final blow was when a good christian relative of mine, who would agree with and strongly promote the whole no work on Sundays rhetoric, when to perform a job on Sunday and took me with him. I asked him, "Wait a minute, I thought we were not suppose on Sundays." He, of course, said that we try not to but in some cases we have to.

  I guess on balance it depends on your priorities and trying to strike a balance.
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  77

  Are Jehovah's Witness men good catches?

  by garyneal in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  i've stated this before on this message board but i was kind of curious about this and wanted to get some feedback from the group.

  in particular, the ladies who are either current or former jw's.. about a year or so ago, my wife went with me to a church i was attending at the time.

  we then later that morning attended a kh meeting.

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  garyneal

  Just keep in mind Gary and DGP that you're below their level according to some margin of society's rules and standards.

  That use to bother me, but now I know it is just a thing of their's. I guess they tend to look at you on the outside only. My JW in-laws seem pretty nice and according to some standards, one could say they are 'below' my level. But I guess in either case, it is really best not to judge. One thing, for certain, we are all below God's level.

  Just remember, when I am at a meeting in the Kingdom Hall, I'm almost certain to have a 'please pass the jelly moment.' Maybe I am just not classy enough to be a witness.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xBydH93eDY

  I think the first time I was bothered by it was when I was first dating the woman who became my wife. She told me that her father told her that she 'lowered her standards' when he learned of our dating.

  At the time when I met her I was very tolerant of other peoples beliefs and respected their beliefs. I think I was a bit too tolerant in this regard. Not to say that we should not be tolerant of other people's beliefs, but if your beliefs are important to you then you should be careful to choose a mate who has similar beliefs to yours. In a way, I did not know what to expect, I kind of thought of JW's as Christians that just did not believe in Hell or celebrate Christmas. The fact that I had a JW friend who celebrated 'Friendship Day' on Dec 25 and my wife celebrated Christmas too made me think that JW's could be open to practice it in some form.

  Butterfly:

  My wife and I grew up in a small city and moved out together to a much larger city due to job prospects. In the smaller city, I would think the witnesses were more strict and had a greater tendency to gossip. The elder at my wife's current KH is a very nice man and so is his wife. When my wife and I now talk about what a JW is suppose to be like, I just say, "I don't know what a JW is suppose to be like. I only know what a Christian is suppose to be like. But the elder of your KH seems to be a good one and your mom has good christian traits as well." When my wife says that JW are suppose to be good christians, I say, "Well they have good goals then."

  dgp:

  My mother-in-law was a witness when she met her husband, he wasn't one at the time and she would not get involved with him unless he studied and become a witness. He did so and they have been married now for over 25 years. He is not as 'spiritual' as she is but he did manage to climb to the ranks of MS and was offered the title of elder which he turned down for now. I think for someone who really wants to be in a witness family, then being as uncompromising as she helped when selecting her mate. I guess we could all learn from that example regardless of our faith. She was true to herself and true about herself to her potential husband.

  Butterflyleia85, your mother seemed to really love your step-father. She tried to compromise. That doesn't seem to be the case with me or Gary Neal, or most witnesses.

  I really need to state for the record that in spite of the differences my wife and I have, we are still very compatible in many ways. I think if we could remove the religion from our lives, we'd almost be the perfect pair.

  At times she is very uncompromising and very stubborn and it irks me to no end. But at times, I can be a complete butt-hole as well. But I still find myself a bit dismayed when she asserts the Society's position concerning issues that can be really dangerous (blood). I try to present a balanced view over this, even stating how the Society is on point about the risks of disease and the 'overuse' of blood similar to how some doctors over-perscribe anti-biotics. I just try also to point out how it can be deadly to deny blood in extreme cases. Plus I point out their hypocritical stance on allowing blood fractions but not allowing witnesses to donate.

  I suspect that she will eventually run into her own cognitive dissonance but I hope it does not take a drastic situation for her to to have to confront this. May the Lord help us both find the truth about Him and His purpose for us.

  Thanks for the replies everyone. My wife just had her IUD removed so we may be blessed with another child in the near future.
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  18

  My Hyprocrite friend just got reinstated I found out on my facebook.

  by Butterflyleia85 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this seriously cracks me up.. i made a bold move and posted this.

  (because i know there are some on my facebook that are jehovah witnesses, but i support the exjehovah witnesses now, i honestly hate hyprocrites but i also understand the struggle it is to be on one side by force and still be attached to the other side because of family, i respect honest people and it's not my place to expose people, that what the jw elders do, i keep to my own business).. remember that july 2009 awake!

  well notice these words on page 29:no one should be forced to worship in a way that he finds unacceptable or be made to choose between his beliefs and his family.

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  garyneal

  I checked out Amber's pic when one poster said that she had that 'hot' look. I would have to agree as I would never take her for a Jehovah's Witness. Is that a 'worldly' boy she's hanging out with?
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  77

  Are Jehovah's Witness men good catches?

  by garyneal in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  i've stated this before on this message board but i was kind of curious about this and wanted to get some feedback from the group.

  in particular, the ladies who are either current or former jw's.. about a year or so ago, my wife went with me to a church i was attending at the time.

  we then later that morning attended a kh meeting.

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  garyneal

  EmptyInside:

  After reading your post and the posts that YKnot wrote concerning the man shortage. Maybe I should've become a witness at an earlier age after all.

  But in all seriousness, you're right, no real witness man would consider either one of them if he is looking for a 'baptized' sister. Especially if the 'baptized' sisters are almost pouncing on any available brother who isn't too off putting.

  Butterfly:

  Since your dad wasn't a witness, how would you describe your childhood? I ask this because, as you know, I am not a witness, my wife wants to become one, and we have a daughter.