paul from cleveland

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Posts by paul from cleveland

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  43

  Interesting Comment From an Active Elder

  by DarioKehl in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was recently speaking to an elder "off the record" while helping him do some house repairs.

  i have a comfortable enough relationship to speak openly with him about things, but am careful to disclose the extent of my disbelief in wt doctrine.

  anyway, this guy wouldn't last a day in the mafia because he can't keep anything confidential.

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  paul from cleveland

  Thanks Bobcat, your reasoning makes perfect sense.
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  43

  Interesting Comment From an Active Elder

  by DarioKehl in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was recently speaking to an elder "off the record" while helping him do some house repairs.

  i have a comfortable enough relationship to speak openly with him about things, but am careful to disclose the extent of my disbelief in wt doctrine.

  anyway, this guy wouldn't last a day in the mafia because he can't keep anything confidential.

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  paul from cleveland

  "Jesus gave the reason for partaking as: ". . . in rememberence of me [Jesus]"

  Paul put it this way: "For when you [partake] you keep proclaiming the death of the Lord . . ."

  But in the Kingdom Hall, when you partake, you are proclaiming your 'hope,' that you are 'anointed and are going to heaven.

  In the Bible, it is all about Jesus. In the KH it is all about the partaker."

  Bobcat, I've never looked at it that way before. That makes sense!
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  74

  Living Through the Brief Liberalization of Jehovah's Witnesses, Never Recovering

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with the book crisis of conscience detailing the turbulence at bethel during the early to mid 70's, the transformation from autocratic rule to governance by committee or a body of men, many of us can speak to how that felt among the rank and file of the local congregations during those years.

  we learned new concepts based in large part to research done for the aid to bible understanding volume, then we were asked or coerced into unlearning those principles, going back to the old ways.

  some of us never readjusted, finding ourselves very different from our more hardline compadres.. the inertia for the changes that eventually were initiated in the congregations came from the discovery that the greek words episkopos and presbyteros were used biblically to refer to all qualified men in a congregation, not just one.

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  paul from cleveland

  That's very interesting. Do you feel that the expectations surrounding 1975 had anything to do with this?
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  29

  How Did You Get Rid of Your Bound Volumes?

  by Eiben Scrood in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my town will no longer collect old books like that as trash and they're pretty hard to burn.

  my solution has been to include one in every bag of used cat litter when i clean the cat boxes.

  i've gotten rid of around 30 that way and i'm about halfway there.

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  paul from cleveland

  I'm not proud of this but I'll confess. I was angry because I felt I was disfellowshipped unjustly so I took 20 years of bound volumes and ripped them to shreds. That night I took them to the Kingdom Hall and dumped them in front of the door in a big pile. I'm sure when they arrived the next day the loose pages were blowing all over the neighborhood.
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  51

  Who Or What Influenced You The Most To Leave The Organization?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any person or situation ?.

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  paul from cleveland

  I couldn't live up to the expectations. I felt so guilty all the time that I finally gave up. I hated God. I thought he made a standard of thought and behavior that was so high that I could never reach it.
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  9

  HELL ain't what it use to be! Pastor in trouble for doubting it!

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  faith hell-questioning pastor rob bell says new book has led him to profound brokenness .

  bell's recently-released book.. nashville, tenn. (ap) evangelical megachurch pastor rob bell said he did not anticipate the firestorm he would stir with his book that questions the traditional christian belief that a select number of believers will spend eternity in heaven while everyone else is tormented in hell.. bell said tuesday that he not only didnt set out to be controversial, he had no idea his best seller, love wins, would bring condemnation from people like southern baptist seminary president albert mohler, who claims bell is leading people astray.. the last couple of weeks have been most painful in my life, the pastor from mars hill bible church in grand rapids, mich., told a crowd of about 1,600 at nashvilles belmont university on tuesday after an audience member asked him about the criticism he has faced.

  it has taken me to a place of profound brokenness.. but he said that with gods help he has been able to learn and grow from the experience.. even before the book was published last month, religious leaders and their followers were branding it heresy, hailing it as a breakthrough or landing somewhere in the middle.

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  paul from cleveland

  interesting
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  53

  DISCUSSION board.......or.....COMMENT board?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the following is only my own personal analysis.. take it or leave it.

  but, by all means jump in and have a say.. .

  i think more and more we are losing our grasp on a wonderful venue at jw-net.. as a discussion board, i mean.. at one time, there were a great many wonderful and interesting discussions by a variety of persons with varied backgrounds having a good.

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  paul from cleveland

  Thank you Berengaria! I'll send you a PM.

  Terry, Regarding this board, for me, it's a place to learn, a place to be entertained, and a place to meet friends. The tone will naturally ebb and flow depending on who is posting and what's going on with world events and the Watchtower. I love it all.
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  53

  DISCUSSION board.......or.....COMMENT board?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the following is only my own personal analysis.. take it or leave it.

  but, by all means jump in and have a say.. .

  i think more and more we are losing our grasp on a wonderful venue at jw-net.. as a discussion board, i mean.. at one time, there were a great many wonderful and interesting discussions by a variety of persons with varied backgrounds having a good.

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  paul from cleveland

  I like both the deeper discussions and the lighter comments. Sometimes I want to learn. Sometimes I want to laugh.
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  59

  I don't belong here anymore

  by sizemik in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  these are some things i have been thinking about .

  .. when i first found this site i registered immediately ... never was a "lurker" ... and i've been here about six months.. everyone was very warm welcoming and i felt at home very quickly ... very pleasant at the time, but as time has progressed i look back and feel a bit "love-bombed" ... much like a religion i used to belong to.. i have found that this site is a bit "cliquey" ... groups of posters frequent at similar times and enjoy their familiarity with each other and that's great ... but they also sometimes exhibit a coolness toward those outside their clique ... almost as if your 'post count' is the first thing by which you are "judged" ... much like a religion i used to belong to.

  some posters develop a personal dislike for others and not only jump on their threads but even deliver the odd "slap" on unrelated threads to increase the discomfort for the object of their dislike ... not unlike a religion i once belonged to.. some posters even follow others around the board looking to counter or use snide or clever put downs at every opportunity ... a kind of intellectual "rivalry" that was common to those in that religion i used to belong to.. many posters like to use 'in-house' jargon and labels eg; "newbies" for those recently joined.

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  paul from cleveland

  Murray, I totally disagree with you. I've found this to be a very loving and supportive community. Sometimes we just see what we want to see.

  Like my mother always told me: "Two men looked out from prison bars, the one saw mud the other stars"
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  29

  What drove you? Love or Fear?

  by fade_away in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this has probably been discussed here before, but i'm new so sue me.. i think the religion of jehovah's witnesses has been an amazing but tragic social experiment proving that the mind is most vulnerable to brainwashing when it's in an unhealthy state.

  it seems to attract the bipolar, schizophrenic, depressive, and the paranoid.

  it preys on negative emotions like sorrow and fear.

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  paul from cleveland

  Fear