garyneal

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Posts by garyneal

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  14

  How many of you had trouble getting or keeping jobs because of JW schedule?

  by puffthedragon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  before i acquired a skill, i worked retail.

  like many jobs that work non-traditional hours, when you apply for a job in retail or a restaurant or something, you have to tell them what hours you are available to work.

  now most people looking for a job, unless they are in school or something, are available to work whenever the job requires.

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  garyneal

  This is especially true with Walmart, which maintains an open availability policy (you belong to Walmart).

  Not to derail this thread but that was one aspect of them (Wal-mart) that I hated most. I am glad I no longer have to work for them but there are a lot of people I know (my mom included) who still do. Many of them on my wife's side of the family and as a result, they are indeed weak witnesses. My mother-in-law draws disability so she gets to pio-sneer all she wants. What a truly excellent example of a GREAT CHRISTIAN! Don't work, live off disability, and serve JEHOVAH.

  I guess only people like me (who sees the hypocrisy in the whole 'God will provide' argument) can see why witnesses should not take this too seriously.
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  14

  How many of you had trouble getting or keeping jobs because of JW schedule?

  by puffthedragon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  before i acquired a skill, i worked retail.

  like many jobs that work non-traditional hours, when you apply for a job in retail or a restaurant or something, you have to tell them what hours you are available to work.

  now most people looking for a job, unless they are in school or something, are available to work whenever the job requires.

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  garyneal

  I had encountered something similar when I used to attend a church that absolutely demanded that we be present for Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night services. I recall trying to state on my application that I needed Sundays off and Wednesday nights off. Many restaurant and retail jobs expected people to work on Sundays so that did not always go well.

  The church would say that if we were really following God that He would provide the necessary job but I always found it hypocritical of them to go shop for groceries or eat out at restaurants on Sundays after church. I mean, someone had to work to provide those services to them (and don't give me that worldly people doing it crap, what if all people went to churches like ours? Where would they go then?)

  The last straw was when I recall going with my uncle, after attending his IFB church, to do a delivery job at a bottling plant. I asked him, "I thought Christians aren't suppose to work on Sunday?" He basically weaseled his way out by saying sometimes you had to do what you had to do. Right, I thought and it was not long after that I decided to make a way for myself and stop limiting myself by their assinine rules.
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  43

  This site: Jehovah's Witnesses refute! Deals with apostate accusations

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovah's witnesses refute!

  nederlandse versie.

  "the heart of the righteous one.

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  garyneal

  Hey, is this the e-watchman?
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  29

  This is harder than I thought...

  by SophieG in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok....i am trying to go inactive to fade.

  however all my family is in, except for one relative.

  i cannot move away.

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  garyneal

  You are in a bad predicament but if you really wish to bring this up to your family, perhaps you can show them an article that appeared in the July 2009 Awake article "Is It Wrong To Change Your Religion?".
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  27

  Protesters at conventions / assemblies...

  by garyneal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  first off, i can happily say that this year i did not attend a single day at this years district convention.. on saturday during the convention, my wife asked me to drop her off after lunch and later pick her up when the convention was over.

  while i was dropping her off, i noticed a single individual holding picket signs protesting the convention.

  it said things like, "was the ransom sacrifice worth it?

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  garyneal

  @trailerfitter

  I am doing good, thanks for asking.

  I've seen that you are not doing so well, I am sorry to hear that. The advice people have been giving you here is good. Just continue to be a good father to your kids and let the wife act out.

  I think for us, we're doing okay because while she and I are both still believers and have an attachment to our faith, we're also both skeptics now. We talk a lot about the deep questions of faith and find that we can trust each other in ways we cannot trust our other 'fellow believers.'
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  27

  Protesters at conventions / assemblies...

  by garyneal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  first off, i can happily say that this year i did not attend a single day at this years district convention.. on saturday during the convention, my wife asked me to drop her off after lunch and later pick her up when the convention was over.

  while i was dropping her off, i noticed a single individual holding picket signs protesting the convention.

  it said things like, "was the ransom sacrifice worth it?

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  garyneal

  Thanks for all your comments. I suppose I could see it both ways as some of the points argued both ways. One site leads to another and then another and so forth. That 4Jehovah.org site, for example, leads to freeminds.org if you start digging in for old JW literature (at least it did for me).

  I suppose it is all perspective, but I think we can all universally agree that the protestor illustrated in that video post wasn't helping anyone with his screaming. I would've been uncomfortable going by him myself as a mere passerby let alone a witness who attended that convention.

  The protestors at my wife's convention wasn't shouting or screaming, just simply holding up the signs. I stopped by one and asked her to show me the signs. Then I commented that I recognized two of the websites (the carm site and the 4jehovah one) and I think she also had a link to towerwatch.com (or something). Another protestor had a sign that asked about hell being real.
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  27

  Protesters at conventions / assemblies...

  by garyneal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  first off, i can happily say that this year i did not attend a single day at this years district convention.. on saturday during the convention, my wife asked me to drop her off after lunch and later pick her up when the convention was over.

  while i was dropping her off, i noticed a single individual holding picket signs protesting the convention.

  it said things like, "was the ransom sacrifice worth it?

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• 

  garyneal

  First off, I can happily say that this year I did not attend a single day at this years District Convention.

  On Saturday during the convention, my wife asked me to drop her off after lunch and later pick her up when the convention was over. While I was dropping her off, I noticed a single individual holding picket signs protesting the convention. It said things like, "Was the ransom sacrifice worth it?" and gave links to various websites. Two of them I recognized were http://www.4jehovah.org/ and http://www.carm.org.

  Recognizing that these were Christian based websites made me wonder who amongst the witnesses that would even bother to look up those websites would be swayed by them. I found in the past that witnesses simply believed that they had the correct Bible interpretations and would often ignore or try to counter other interpretations (leading to Bible ping pong). I figured, though I could be wrong, that these protesters would've been more effective with links to jwfacts or freeminds and other websites that tend to hang the watchtower with their own words.

  What do you all think?
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  24

  URGENT: NEED HELP FOR A FRIEND FIGHTING HIS JW WIFE FOR CUSTODY

  by Mary in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  i just got a call from a friend of mine who is going to court on friday to fight to see his children because his jw ex-wife doesn't want him to have access to them anymore.

  in a nutshell this is his situation: met her about 12 years ago after she had left the borg and they got married and had a couple of kids.

  she decided that she didn't want her children murdered by jehovah at armageddon so after being gone for 7 years, she went back and went back with a vengence.

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  garyneal

  marked
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  68

  Interracial Marriage

  by Quendi in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here is a question i want to pose because i do not know the correct answer.

  i have seen many interracial married couples among jehovah's witnesses--moreso than i have seen in other religions.

  however, i have been told that once upon a time, interracial marriage was frowned upon by the wts hierarchy.

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  garyneal

  Is it just me or was it alway more acceptable for a white guy to marry an asian woman?

  I noticed that too growing up it was more acceptable to see asian-white or even asian-black than it was to see black-white.
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  68

  Interracial Marriage

  by Quendi in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here is a question i want to pose because i do not know the correct answer.

  i have seen many interracial married couples among jehovah's witnesses--moreso than i have seen in other religions.

  however, i have been told that once upon a time, interracial marriage was frowned upon by the wts hierarchy.

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  garyneal

  I cannot speak for the Jehovah's Witnesses regarding these kinds of marraiges but I do recall a member of an IFB church that I use to attend speaking against interracial marriages when I had revealed to her that I was dating a black woman (I am white).