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garyneal
JoinedPosts by garyneal
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32
WATCHTOWER CD ROM to be TERMINATED
by The Searcher inimho!!!.
reasons?
just have a look at one or two of my very many favorites from the wt library.
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How to stay married to a born-in JW?
by Frazzled UBM init is hard to work out where to begin.
i have been reading excerpts from this websikte for a long time and it along with a lot of the other sites have been incredibly helpful in helping me to understand what i have got myself into but i alos have no intention of getting out.
i love my wife dearly but in the 9 years i ahve known her and the 2.5 years we ahve been married i have gone through the full gammit of emotions, trials and trbulations and tactics to try to get her to understand that the society is not what it claims to be but to no avail.
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garyneal
Also one of the biggest single things that has swayed my wife is the meanness of JW's. And at no point has that come out stronger than when it was time for children to attend college.
Oooo, I am definately encouraging my kids to attend college then.
But seriously, my wife is currently working on her master's degree and she does not get a whole lot of flack. Of course, she sees the occasional meanness from the congregation as well. Like, one of the sisters not inviting our oldest daughter to her daughter's slumber party and another one being short with her this past weekend and refusing my wife's invitation to a party at our house.
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How to stay married to a born-in JW?
by Frazzled UBM init is hard to work out where to begin.
i have been reading excerpts from this websikte for a long time and it along with a lot of the other sites have been incredibly helpful in helping me to understand what i have got myself into but i alos have no intention of getting out.
i love my wife dearly but in the 9 years i ahve known her and the 2.5 years we ahve been married i have gone through the full gammit of emotions, trials and trbulations and tactics to try to get her to understand that the society is not what it claims to be but to no avail.
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garyneal
I am also what the Watchtower society refers to as an UBM who married a born in. Been married now for almost ten years and have been posting here for nearly four. I made a lot of mistakes, the biggest one is discussing doctrine. I guess I have been fortunate in some ways though as my wife was questioning many things about the religion before she decided to return to it so I have been gently working that angle over the years. I guess the only unfortunate thing for her is that her only two choices seem to be the witnesses or atheism even though I don't see things so black and white.
You need to school yourself on how cults work, some reading material that can be helpful is Combatting Cult Mind Control and Releasing the Bonds, both by Steven Hassan. Given my relationship with my wife and the other witnesses, I sometimes like to play games with them concerning their doctrines but I would not recommend you doing so, certainly not right now.
Teach your child how to think and reason past bullshit to ensure that he won't get sucked in to this or any other cult. I use to attend an Independent Fundamental Baptist church and they had some equally wonky and culty ideas.
Appeal to the authentic personality as much as you can, focus on things you two have in common and try to get her to enjoy her time with you when she is not at the hall. Spend time with your kid doing fun things, especially on meeting nights. She will eventually grow tired of attending the meetings all the time and want to spend time with you and your son.
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Are Jehovahs Witnesses a Cult?
by The Quiet One inhttp://sianrose.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/are-jehovahs-witnesses-a-sect-or-a-cult/.
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garyneal
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Bitter apostates
by Laika inwitnesses often go on about apostates being spiteful and bitter.
when you get cut off, shunned, or threatened with shunning just for the audacity of thinking differently, it's not surprising that getting angry at the witnesses is the reaction - it's like a self fulfilling prophecy.. but also, i recently posted an email from a 'friend' on this board who told me that everyone he'd spoken to about me said i had changed, become like another person.
it didn't occur to him that the day before i told my parents i'd quit the religion just 3 weeks ago, i met him for lunch, we had a good time and he didn't know anything was up.
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garyneal
So where are the parallels? I see very few, to be honest. As for the Godmakers book and video, it’s like watching F-Troop and thinking it’s an accurate historical depiction of the Old West and our relations with the American Indians.
Well, let's see...
- Both the witnesses and the LDS church refer to their former members as apostates and are to be shunned.
- Both the witnesses and the LDS church believe in a great apostacy that occurred during the early church.
- Both the witnesses and the LDS church view all other churches as being part of the great whore of Babylon.
- Both the witnesses and the LDS church do not allow their members to read information critical of their respective organizations.
- Both the witnesses and the LDS church white wash their history.
- Both the witnesses and the LDS church reverses their doctrines even when the previous doctrine was considered correct.
- Both the witnesses and the LDS church actively dismantle the beliefs of other religions so that when a member finds flaws in their own church, they have 'no where to go.'
That's a few I got from watching the movie (both of them) and their blood atonement doctrine was downright shocking. Now, I will admit, I have not really taken the time to thoroughly research the Mormons so I cannot be 100% certain to the accuracy of the movie. However, Qcmbr has posted a list of what he refers to as "Touchstones of failed reason" and every one of them was touched upon in the movie. I think these are the issues that are causing Mormons today to reconsider their faith.
Otherwise, on the surface, they appear to be a wholesome family oriented religion and I can understand why Mormons today would not be so willing to leave their religion. Just as Jehovah's Witnesses like my wife aren't willing to totally abandon the religion because of all the good it gives to the adherents (morality, family oriented, etc). However, for outsiders of both religions (like myself) who had already found a faith in another church or who managed to find the good wholesome traits elsewhere, convincing them to become either a Mormon or a Witness is tough sledding especially if that individual takes any time what so ever to investigate the religion beyond what the missionary calling at their door is willing disclose. Oh and another thing they seem to have in common, it would seem like, just as the witnesses of today know little of the history of their religion, mormons of today also seem equally as ignorant in regards to the history of the Mormon church. However it does seem like the Mormon church is more open to discussing their shady past (unlike the Watchtower's governing body) so there may be some hope for them.
I think just as most witnesses are good God fearing people who just want to live good lives and use their faith to seek God, I believe the same can be said of most mormons. But I agree with Qcmbr when he said that given its current path, eventually "...it will be a broken force with increasingly fundamentalist strongholds unless it does a CoC, renounces crazy and descends into mainstream Christian mediocrity." I believe the same thing holds true for the witnesses.
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Touchstones of reason failed by Mormonism
by Qcmbr insorry , i said i'd post this last week but i played pc games with my bro instead.
my bad.. simple basic errors in the mormon meme that are missed by active members.. history.
book of mormon purports to describe actual historical events most notably two huge civilisations on the americas , one of which is israelite.
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garyneal
I watched the movie called "The God Makers" which you may or may not be familiar with. Some of the points you highlighted were also highlighted in the film. They also mentioned that there were multiple accounts of Joseph Smith's encounter in the woods with God. One had him seeing Jesus alone, another with a multitude of Angels, and another with God and Jesus alone (which I think is the official account). Is there truth to this?
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I am JESUS...
by new hope and happiness inwell i got your interest.
actually i am mike whos life has been an adventure of improbable tales of more adventure failure and a little romance...yatta yatta boring.
but if i say i am " jesus" " even if iam off my rocker my life really would become a life of adventure of improbable tales of more adventure failure and real romance...yatta yatta..i am jesus...
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Bitter apostates
by Laika inwitnesses often go on about apostates being spiteful and bitter.
when you get cut off, shunned, or threatened with shunning just for the audacity of thinking differently, it's not surprising that getting angry at the witnesses is the reaction - it's like a self fulfilling prophecy.. but also, i recently posted an email from a 'friend' on this board who told me that everyone he'd spoken to about me said i had changed, become like another person.
it didn't occur to him that the day before i told my parents i'd quit the religion just 3 weeks ago, i met him for lunch, we had a good time and he didn't know anything was up.
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garyneal
My God, the parallels between them and the witnesses are astounding.
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Mormon's using the web to escape their cult.
by cantleave inhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/us/some-mormons-search-the-web-and-find-doubt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
when fellow believers in sweden first began coming to him with information from the internet that contradicted the churchs history and teachings, he dismissed it as anti-mormon propaganda, the whisperings of lucifer.
he asked his superiors for help in responding to the members doubts, and when they seemed to only sidestep the questions, mr. mattsson began his own investigation.. but when he discovered credible evidence that the churchs founder, joseph smith, was a polygamist and that thebook of mormon and other scriptures were rife with historical anomalies, mr. mattsson said he felt that the foundation on which he had built his life began to crumble.. around the world and in the united states, where the faith was founded, the mormon church is grappling with a wave of doubt and disillusionment among members who encountered information on the internet that sabotaged what they were taught about their faith, according to interviews with dozens of mormons and those who study the church.. i felt like i had an earthquake under my feet, said mr. mattsson, now an emeritus area authority.
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garyneal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Se2rzU_VY
My God, the parallels between them and the witnesses are astounding.
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You atheist really annoyed me
by confusedandalone inwhen i first came to this site.
whenever i would try to talk about somethign from the bible that the jw's got wrong or reason on a scripture that had so much feeling you would stomp all over it.
talking about "flying spaghetti gods" and laugh at what seemed to be my expense and then leave the thread never to return and add any substance.
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garyneal
This from the man who is busy starting a new religion that is 99.9% JW theology.
Let the reader decide...
Whose website it this?
Oh Eden?