Posts by garyneal

26

My mom got stumbled by today's Watchtower

by JerkhovahsWitless in

jw
friends

the photo on page 26. she noticed it and was wondering before i even brought it to her attention.. why is it ok for the jw posing as the "worldly person" to wear a cross necklace?

aren't jws suppose to destroy their crosses prior to becoming a jw no matter the monetary or sentimental value?

why can the watchtower keep cross necklaces on hand as props?

garyneal

marking

Interesting, I need to locate that WT.

38

Are JWs discouraged from seeking mental help?

by Kristina1972 in

my husband was raised in this religion, but was never baptized and does not go to meetings, although my mil is heavily involved.

although my husband doesn't practice his religion, he believes it is the truth and i hate asking him questions, because he is very defensive of the religion.

he and his mother, many years ago before i knew either of them, were treated for severe depression and hospitalized (at different times as a result of them going through divorces.

I remember back around 1991 the pastor of the church was talking about alcoholism and drug abuse. He said that he would never recommend any kind of therapy that was not Bible based. A friend of mine who had been to such secular therapy told me after the sermon that he disagreed with the pastor on that because he got good results himself.

I was also a telephone worker of the local crisis line at the time and one of the Christians from that same church asked me how I handled the calls. Even though the crisis line was Christian based it was best to leave religion out of it out of respect for other's beliefs. When I told him this he said something along the lines of, "I cannot see myself working there and counseling someone without quoting some scripture." The scripture could indeed be helpful if the caller is a believer and clearly shows interest in such things but is typically strongly recommended against.

I just thought I'd add this as it seems like diehard fundamentalist religions typically feel the same way though not to the extremes that the WTS demonstrates.

32

Knock Knock...."Who's there?" They came to MY DOOR!!

by Terry in

it is a peculiar experience.. once you are out of the kingdom hall forever and haven't been in field service for many years...... a knock comes at your front door and you answer it only to find:.

jehovah's witnesses!.

that happened to me......finally.. in the last decade i don't think i've encountered anything other than mormons or drug ministry fund raisers at my door.. but--this time, it was the real thing.. it was two sisters and they weren't much older than their 20's.. they didn't know i was satan himself, of course and i was reluctant to interrupt them and tell them.. what to do---what to do?

garyneal

wow, nice to hear a little about your history

55

Why Jehovah's Witnesses Are Discouraged From Using the Internet

by AllTimeJeff in

at a recent series of circuit assemblies, the governing body put out warnings on what in their view is the latest danger from satan, designed to break the faith of jehovah's witnesses everywhere.. facebook.. yes, thats right, apparantly, the gb is concerned because a lot of people are having "facebook sex".

they are meeting old friends who aren't jehovah's witnesses and getting it on with whomever would willingly sleep with them.

evidentally, the gb would like their flock to believe that when jw's get on facebook and other social networking sites, fornication happens.. now, this is news.

garyneal

good post jeff

15

SISTERS ON THE RAMPAGE!!

by highdose in

jw
friends

it was well commented on by the older ones in the borg that the sisters were on the rampage when it came to trying to get themselves married.. it was normal practice for sisters in the same click or age group to visvously stab eachother in the back, exlude them as much as possible from social events and gossip about them as much as possible.

by the time i had left this was such an established practice that it seemed normal.. all this in the hopes that they would be able to bag one of the rare single and sane brothers... at least this is what it was like in my part of the world... what about yours?.

garyneal

I think if I had found the Jehovah's Witness religion back when I was looking for religion in the early 1990's I would've loved this aspect of it since I was also single and had never had anything of a girlfriend at the time. Of course, I would not have lasted long in this religion given all of its legalistic rules that tend to contradict one another. If I had gotten married to a sister and later apostatized from the religion, my life would've been turmoil unless she too was getting fed up with the religion.

Not being in the religion allowed me to develop my critical thinking skills which protected me from being indoctrinated into the bOrg inspite of the exposure to WT teachings over the past 6 years.

13

Help me get my mom out!!!!

by Aeiouy in

jw
friends

you didn't make yourself that way and you weren't "just born" that way.

your personality will be changed by the world, there is no getting around it.

i have loved you since before you were born.

garyneal

I see a lot of the same tactics my wife uses on me. It's amazing that so many people can act in the same way and it shows how the whole mind-control thing really keeps people in line.

In light of some of the comments from Perry and Nugget, maybe I should reconsider that 'Bible Study' with my wife so I can get the opportunity to question their beliefs. Hey, worth a shot considering that my wife is seriously considering getting baptized in the name of the father and the son and the spirit directed organization.

138

JWs having Facebook Sex - Strongly warned to get off FB at CA yesterday

by shopaholic in

jw
friends

so it appears that jws are letting their freaky side come out on fb for everyone to see.. there was talk on the ca yesterday strongly warning all true lovers of jehovah to delete their fb accounts.

the talk was solely about fb.

the speaker mentioned that jws are associating with people that would not associate with in real life, often using the excuse that the person is a relative.

garyneal

My JW sister was removed as a regular pioneer because she had a Facebook account. She wouldn't delete the account so she was demoted. She thought it was completely ridiculous that they asked her to get off FB.

As do I and hopefully my wife would consider this equally ridiculous. She is regarlarly on Facebook and has lots of friends (many of them 'worldy' no doubt). I sincerely hope someone at her congregation says something this stupid to her.

I remember the pastor of the old fundamentalist church I use to attend would rail against the Internet saying that we are 'inviting Satan into our homes' with things like CYBERPORN. (Remember that word?) This, of course, was in the mid 1990's when the WWW was becoming very popular. Needless to say, I realized then how full of crap his words were and realized that I was attending the wrong church.

145

GETTING SUCKED IN? Ask the right questions to get the right answers.

by Terry in

it is too easy to get sucked in to the wrong argument at the wrong time.. asking the wrong question leads to the wrong answer.

a wrong answer does nobody any real good.. i once had a heated discussion with an old friend who is still an active jehovah's witness.. he came back at me with this:.

"okay, then--if jehovah's organization is a false religion, where is the true one?

garyneal

marking

47

Jehovah's Witnesses - Trained to Argue

by AllTimeJeff in

although a cult, jehovah's witnesses should not be underestimated as to their smarts.

sometimes, exiting jw's, due to indoctrination, feel a lot of guilt for leaving.

of course, the governing body wouldn't have it any other way.. upon leaving, many for the first time feel a freedom to express themselves, which is as it should be.

garyneal

Jim,

Agreed. I mean, look at Rush Limbaugh, I've noticed on his radio program how he gets loud whenever someone presents an argument that does not agree with him and his staff constantly screen his calls to allow mostly 'dittoheads' to get through.

winstonchurchhill,

I used to think that the witnesses were much closer to the truth about the Bible than most religions because they would teach things that, although most christian denominations disagreed with, were indeed true when you look at some of the facts objectively. Like for example, Christmas, and the idea that the teaching of Adam becoming a living soul used the same hebrew word to describe the animals also becoming 'living souls.' I think the NIV now uses living creature rather than 'soul.' But when I looked at some of their errorneous teachings and how dogmatically they would defend them, I began to realize that they are no different than the other religions that they criticize in regards to dogma.

If they changed their ways and really held to what one of the brothers said and really dug into the scriptures and truly tried to take what the Bible literally says as opposed to what they THINK it says, that will be a religion worth joining.

138

JWs having Facebook Sex - Strongly warned to get off FB at CA yesterday

by shopaholic in

jw
friends

so it appears that jws are letting their freaky side come out on fb for everyone to see.. there was talk on the ca yesterday strongly warning all true lovers of jehovah to delete their fb accounts.

the talk was solely about fb.

the speaker mentioned that jws are associating with people that would not associate with in real life, often using the excuse that the person is a relative.

garyneal

marking for later