Jankyn

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Posts by Jankyn

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  19

  Request for Experiences

  by dedalus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may remember me from a long time ago.

  anyway, i'm back now and wondered if i could collect some of your experiences.. .

  my younger brother disassociated himself this week.

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  Jankyn

  Dedalus,

  Glad to see you back. Always enjoyed what you had to say.

  I was in a position similar to his children. When I was 8, my dad was df'd. My mother chose not to divorce him--at least, not legally--but she lived in the same house with him for another 38 years and managed to disrespect him at every turn. She also made it clear that he was evil and that to love him was to reject Jehovah.

  Guess what? My dad never said anything bad about JWs except that he didn't agree with them. He made us go to meetings with Mom until we were teens, then let us make our own decisions--and backed us up on it. He didn't force holidays on us--but he always made sure that, for instance, when we went back to school after Xmas break, we had some new clothes and new toys to talk about (even though, out of respect for our mother, those gifts were not wrapped in holiday paper).

  He also encouraged us to explore our interests--school activities, sports, hobbies.

  And at the end, none of the three of us are JWs. We were never baptized--not even tempted--because we saw close-up how the JWs treated our father. The lack of love from all of them--even our mother--was palpable.

  And, as one of my brothers always said, they didn't just df Dad. They df'd us all. My brothers and I were often excluded from congregation activities, disrespected and taunted because our dad was df'd, and always blamed if kids got into some sort of trouble--whether we were there or not! After all, we had a df'd father. We were bad association.

  One by one, when we reached an age of understanding, we asked Dad for his side of the story. He told us that he'd cheated on Mom, that he still loved her and asked for her forgiveness and for God's, and was forgiven. He simply didn't believe that a bunch of janitors and window-washers could determined whether he was repentant or not.

  I agree. After all, he stayed with us when it would have been a whole lot easier to bail. Bless him for it.

  He died a little over a year ago. All his kids and grandkids were around him, as well as many friends he'd made outside the bOrg. And my mother was there. But the JWs weren't there for her.

  Dad won.

  Jankyn
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  17

  Want all the Watchtowers from 1897-1950, 3GB free?

  by MinisterAmos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  watchtower bible and tract society - jehovah's witnesses watchtower publications - 1879 to 1949 .

  check out this link boys and girls..... .

  http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3539484/watchtower_bible_and_tract_society_-_jehovah_s_witnesses_-_wa

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  Jankyn

  Anybody notice the second user comment? "Witnesses will share their beliefs with you for free."

  Yeah, right. Just costs your whole life.
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  22

  Driving Under The Influence

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  someone told me recently that nearly one third of drivers have been pulled over because of drinking.....have you ever heard of this figure??

  ?

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  Jankyn

  I used to be a cop. (No kidding! Really!)

  In my experience, after 10 pm, every third car on the road has an impaired driver (now, this was in a fairly small town--about 50,000--so I'd expect the ratio to be higher in a bigger town. More folks just going out for milk, you know). And on weekends--Friday, Saturday, Sunday--generally one out of two cars had an impaired driver.

  Pull someone over for anything--seat belt, failure to use a turn signal, missing tail-light--and odds were, you'd be smelling booze and pulling them out of the vehicle to take a sobriety test. Catching drunk drivers was like shooting fish in a barrel.

  What's worse, rare was the fellow who'd admit to being impaired. The worst part of drinking and driving is that people who are the most dangerous--those in the .05 to .10 range--don't think they're impaired. But their reaction time, vision and judgment have all declined significantly.

  If you drink, DON'T DRIVE. Period. Take a cab. Call a friend. Sleep over. Don't get behind the wheel.
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  30

  What you are listening to/What you listened to recently?

  by KW13 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am playing mr blue sky - electric light orchestra - love this song and matches the mood i am in right now.. you?.

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  Jankyn

  The new Eliza Gilkyson: Your Town Tonight. Great Americana.
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  42

  How Were Intelligent "Sisters" Treated In Your Congregation?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as a rule, i believe jehovah's witnesses treat females as sub par to the menfolk.

  i knew a lot of women in the hall that were smarter than their mates.

  they begrudgingly got respect from most of the elders.

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  Jankyn

  Yep, Scully, I saw the exact same thing happen twice. The first time, it was one of my brilliant aunts--who took their counsel seriously, found a "manageable" brother to marry, and started feeding him answers. She made him an elder. Seriously. She would prepare all his materials for him and, during meetings, furiously scribble instructions for him. They're both old, trapped and miserable.

  The other time, it was also one of my brilliant aunts. Eventually, she was identified as a "Jezebel-like" influence, because her methodical study of the Bible raised so many questions that no one (meaning none of the WT-bot brothers) could answer. She was eventually disfellowshipped. She became an Episcopalian, eventually taking a lay clergy role in her church, and died a happy and fulfilled person.

  I shudder to think about the way that minds like Scully's, Blondie's, Mary's and Leolaia's (to name just a few) were treated in the bOrg. And I'm so grateful that you're out.

  Jankyn
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  16

  Help! - Need Work Ideas for My 13 Year Old Daughter

  by BlackPearl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my daughter is getting to the age where she recognizes a need to make some summertime money.

  she wants to buy a new cell phone and a few other things, and wants to earn the money herself.

  i own a small business, and i would have her help me around the office but there isn't much for her to do.

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  Jankyn

  See, that's where starting her own business might work. Someone's already talked about babysitting. How about she takes in ironing? Or does light house and yard work? She can brainstorm for other things that people don't have time to do for themselves, but might be willing to pay for.

  If she's really determined, a good one in some neighborhoods would be a dog waste removal service--she invests in gloves, boots, a poop-scooper and a wagon, then charges enough to make a profit. It's a stinky, nasty job--and that means it's something people are willing to pay to have done for them.

  The biggest advantage to starting a small business is all that she leanrs. She learns how to calculate what she'll need for supplies and add in enough to make a profit, as well as developing the sort of entrepreneurial skills (like pitching her ideas and personal strengths to people) that will serve her well throughout her life. (Just about the only good thing I can say about my JW upbringing is the speech and sales skills I got out of it.)

  My brothers built up a nice business when one was 8 and one was 13 by buying old ratty bikes cheap, repainting and repairing them, and then re-selling them for a profit. Craigslist and other on-line ad services would make this one do-able.

  Just a thought...

  Jankyn
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  3

  A good quote

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "if you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you .

  do read the newspaper you are misinformed.".

  -mark twain.

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  Jankyn

  It is difficult

  to get the news from poems

  yet men die miserably every day

  for lack

  of what is found there.

  --William Carlos Williams
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  3

  Movie:September Dawn (Mormons and the Mountain Meadows Massacre)

  by CaptainSchmideo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i read about this event years ago.

  it's even alluded to in the very first sherlock holmes story, "a study in scarlet".. but a lot of people, even in the us, have never heard about it.. here is a link to the trailer:.

  http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/septemberdawn/trailer/.

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  Jankyn

  Great book on the subject: Sally Denton's American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, Septemer 1857. Denton is a wonderful historian of the American West; her newest book, on John C. Fremont and his wife, was reviewed in the NY Times.
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  28

  If I handed in a paper like that ... I'd fail!

  by Frequent_Fader_Miles in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  something always bugged me about the society's publications.

  they'd always use phrases like "many persons do this" or "one expert says", or "many believe".

  the person being referred to or quoted is always veiled in obscurity.

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  Jankyn

  Yep, that's what started me on the road out of the bOrg--at ten years old! In 5th grade, I wrote my first research paper (a five-pager on Brazil, with a map!) and learned about citations.

  Suddenly--and clearly--I saw that the WT was not playing by the information rules that everyone else accepted.

  Of course, later I became an English teach and happily flunked students who write like the Writing Department.

  Jankyn
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  26

  GOD IS NOT GREAT - Christopher Hitchens

  by Dansk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  apologies if someone has covered this already, but i'm a third of the way through this marvellous book which i'm enjoying more than richard dawkin's the god delusion.

  the full title of hitchens' book is god is not great - the case against religion.

  it pulls no punches and is extremely well written.

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  Jankyn

  I don't usually listen to audio books (prefer to read 'em myself), but I got this one because it was read by the author, Christopher Hitchens. It's really neat--the guy has a great voice, and his points are well-made.

  Jankyn