I think my wife seems to forget that we live in a divided household no matter how many times I try to remind her of it. I try not to used the headship card and prefer to be egalitarian in our marriage but she is so often disrespectful to my opinions are perspective, particularly when it regards the Bible and religion, that I sometimes wonder if she really pays attention when they say that wives should respect their husbands. She certainly does not look any different than any other Christian who cherry picks the teachings they like and ignore the rest.
garyneal
JoinedPosts by garyneal
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26
Wife wants a Family Study after the special talk...but initially refuses Bible only study.
by garyneal inmy wife asked me to attend the special talk with her because she wants to attend something like this as a family and feels that she "enjoys worshipping together" as a family.
i have not been to church for at least a year and have pretty much abandoned the practicing of my faith but i can remember how i used to want to have a church going family so i obliged.
i feel kind of apprehensive about doing these things because she wants the kids and i to be on our best behavior and has even fussed at me for playing tablet games during other talks.
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Wife wants a Family Study after the special talk...but initially refuses Bible only study.
by garyneal inmy wife asked me to attend the special talk with her because she wants to attend something like this as a family and feels that she "enjoys worshipping together" as a family.
i have not been to church for at least a year and have pretty much abandoned the practicing of my faith but i can remember how i used to want to have a church going family so i obliged.
i feel kind of apprehensive about doing these things because she wants the kids and i to be on our best behavior and has even fussed at me for playing tablet games during other talks.
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garyneal
Thanks for the responses, everyone. I have asked her before why she feels like she cannot learn about God by reading the Bible alone and her answers range from "we cannot rely on our own reasoning" to "you've done it yourself, what have you learned?" I only agreed to the NWT because I know that if I made too big an issue over the translation (as I have done in the past) she will not concede. I guess I had to at least give some ground in order to keep the ragazines out.
Funny thing is, she would not even concede that bible gateway was a valid site for biblical translations until one of the brothers from her congregation mentioned it to me at his last visit. It is amazing the level of brainwashing these witnesses have that prohibit them from looking at any information that did not originate from the Watchtower. I guess all I can do is pity them.
The Searcher: Does that man still attend meetings at your last congregation?
DATA-DOG: I told her about the Candice Conti case and even posted the video of it on my facebook wall (that she can see). I normally, out of respect for my wife, don't post unflattering things about Jehovah's Witnesses on facebook but this one made me think because the abuses happened during field service and my wife will on occasion take the kids out in service.
Carla: Thanks for the response and suggestions. I know for a long time you have had problems with your witness and I recall you stating that you would (or perhaps had) taken your children to various churches. I was thinking of attending church with my kids again to at least expose them to what other Christians really are because I know they will get a generalized (and often wrong) view if them Jehovah's Witnesses. However, I am reluctant as I no longer believe in the exclusive claim that Christian have to God's grace and I do not want my children learning to fear Hell as much as I did.
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Wife wants a Family Study after the special talk...but initially refuses Bible only study.
by garyneal inmy wife asked me to attend the special talk with her because she wants to attend something like this as a family and feels that she "enjoys worshipping together" as a family.
i have not been to church for at least a year and have pretty much abandoned the practicing of my faith but i can remember how i used to want to have a church going family so i obliged.
i feel kind of apprehensive about doing these things because she wants the kids and i to be on our best behavior and has even fussed at me for playing tablet games during other talks.
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garyneal
Thanks for the quotes, Agape. I can imagine how this is going to play out. We come across a passage that may cause her to question some of the WT teachings. She either consults JW.ORG or one of the elders at her hall and then she tries to convince me with what she learned. If I do not find her research convincing, she will consider me defiant.
Maybe we should simply go back to our original agreement and stop discussing religion in our household.
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Wife wants a Family Study after the special talk...but initially refuses Bible only study.
by garyneal inmy wife asked me to attend the special talk with her because she wants to attend something like this as a family and feels that she "enjoys worshipping together" as a family.
i have not been to church for at least a year and have pretty much abandoned the practicing of my faith but i can remember how i used to want to have a church going family so i obliged.
i feel kind of apprehensive about doing these things because she wants the kids and i to be on our best behavior and has even fussed at me for playing tablet games during other talks.
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garyneal
My wife asked me to attend the special talk with her because she wants to attend something like this as a family and feels that she "enjoys worshipping together" as a family. I have not been to church for at least a year and have pretty much abandoned the practicing of my faith but I can remember how I used to want to have a church going family so I obliged. I feel kind of apprehensive about doing these things because she wants the kids and I to be on our best behavior and has even fussed at me for playing tablet games during other talks. Nevermind the fact that she played Ms Pac-man on her phone when she went to my cousin's church to watch her get baptized. Witnesses have double standards.
Anyway, the talk was okay, nothing earth shattering. Just how to have a happier family life. I even listened a little and felt I got something out of it. We were out of town visiting relatives that weekend and at the end of the day we go for our long drive back to home.
Not even a half hour into the drive she says that she wants to have family studies at home. I said, sure, but I do not want to be led by Watchtower material. I told her that I was sure she would not permit me to bring any Christian material to the "study" so I felt it only fair that we also used no Watchtower material. She said I could bring one Christian publication if she could bring one Watchtower publication. I said no and insisted that a Bible study should be nothing more than that, a BIBLE study. I told her that I did not want any religious influence tainting our reading of the Bible and telling us what the Bible says and quoting a few verses here and there to support that religion's views. I wanted a simple reading of the Bible that would permit us to see only what it says.
She vehemently refused and went on and on about how my understanding of the Bible from all those "atheists" would somehow taint my reading. It went on for at least five minutes with how I had no way of actually learning about the Bible by merely reading it and how she insisted that if I wanted to just read the Bible I could do it on my own but under no circumstances was I to try insist on it being done during family study. Out of shear frustration I finally said, "Fine, if that is the case then I absolutely forbid you to have any kind of family study with my kids and I have the authority to do that." Her response was, "Well, you know that you gave up that authority by not taking up the role of the spiritual head," just to get me goad even more.
Then I laid it on her. "If you insist on sneaking around and teaching my children your Watchtower teachings then I will tell them everything I know, and I mean EVERYTHING! I was holding back, but since you insist of being this way I won't hold back anymore. You see, if you had at least agreed to the strict Bible reading I would've allowed for some of the independent stuff you already do with them." Just to make it clear what EVERYTHING is, it encompasses my knowledge of Watchtower history, the false dates they laid forth, the changed teachings, the murderous and contradictory blood doctrine, the false 607 BCE year, the overlapping generation, and so on. It would also continue with everything I know about the Bible itself such as the documentation hypothesis concerning the authors of the five books of Moses, the anonymous authorship of many of the Pauline epistles and of all four of the gospels as well as the early history of Christianity (not the JW version either). While we're at it, let's discuss the atrocities found in the Bible like God condoning slavery and promoting genocide and bashing baby's heads upon rocks and Jesus mutilating a fig tree when it was out of season for figs, etc..
Fifteen minutes later, she agreed to allow for a simple reading of the Bible for our family study but insist on a single translation, the NWT obviously. I agreed.
Perhaps many of you, being or having been witnesses yourselves, can explain to me why a Bible study cannot be a simple reading of the Bible? During our argument I recall stating that if we had been a family that attended another church there is a good chance that we would have been okay with simply reading the Bible and asking for guidance from the Holy Spirit. Not these people, not my wife at least, to her it is impossible to learn anything about God from simply reading the Bible alone. Is it really a common viewpoint amongst witnesses? To a Christian who has been to protestant churches, this notion is absurd.
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Why people don't believe in God
by pressman indo you want to know why i think people don't believe in god?
well i believe people don't want to believe in god because they are scared.
they know that if they finally do gorge the confidence to believe in him, he might discipline them for their skepticism.
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Worst Memorial Talk Ever!
by The Searcher ini honestly have never heard such claptrap being delivered in a memorial talk.. the speaker repeatedly put down the way other religions administered the bread & wine, and claimed that witnesses do it exactly as the bible describes.
oh yeah????.
he forgot to mention - when reading aloud 1 corinthians 11:25 - that after passing the bread, a full meal was to be shared, before the wine was passed around!
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garyneal
At the annual 'reject Jesus' party now. -
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JW.org Lapel Pins for I.D. ?
by ShirleyW intoday was the first time i've seen a bro wearing a jw.
org lapel pin, actually much, much larger than an actual lapel pin.
square shaped, the background was olive green but the letters were white in bold letters.
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garyneal
Whatever happened to "walking by FAITH, not by sight..."? That was the reason JWs wouldn't wear a cross (or, in their case, a "torture stake", ha) and why they looked down at people in Christendom for having a visible symbol of their faith.
Good point. I was thinking something similarly when I recall back in years past when I used to wear a cross and later a WWJD bracelet. To me, it was simply a symbol that I used to show the world who I identified as and the kind of life I was trying to lead. I would imagine JW’s that wear these logos do so for similar reasons.
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If someone asked you, 'Are you a righteous person'? What would be your answer?
by Esse quam videri inwhat would be your answer?
are you are a righteous person?
on a scale of 1-10, how righteous do you feel you are?.
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garyneal
The Christian in me would just simply say that no one is righteous and therefore we should go ahead and dispel with the notion of attempting to compare our
penis sizesahem righteousness and therefore this question is totally invalid.Now, if you want to substitute moral person for righteous then the question becomes valid again but don’t expect an unbiased answer when you ask someone how moral that person thinks of himself or herself. A truly humble individual would refuse to answer or at least qualify it with “I would like to think I am a good moral person…”.
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Can you discredit "wait on jehovah to fix all evil" elder's padded line even told to victims of pedophiles?
by PokerPlayerPhil ini am sick of being told this same crap after decades of suffering at the hands of wicked men and women, how many of you have had to fight these irrational expectations we are supposed to grin and smile when people are actively trying to screw with us and elders say .
good it is that one should wait, even silently, for the salvation of jehovah (lamentations 3:26; titus 2:13).
my life in the organization has not been entirely bad, there were many good people and plenty of jerks like you all experienced in this adventure we call life.
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garyneal
Well, perhaps I would say that maybe the Candice Conti case and the amount awarded by the jury is Jehovah's way of making things right. -
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NFL player quits career to become an idiot
by Captain Schmideo2 inhttp://www.jwleather.com/news/jason-worilds-quits-nfl-to-knock-on-doors-as-a-jehovahs-witness.
jason worilds quits nfl to knock on doors as a jehovahs witness.. 3/19/2015.
120 comments.
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garyneal
Well, he obviously took this video seriously.