Mad Sweeney

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Posts by Mad Sweeney

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  45

  How to convince someone to question the authority of the WT

  by LanaMich19 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have someone in my family that is a jw and she has engaged me in conversation.

  for the record, i consider myself an evangelical christian.

  after some debate and research, i backed out of a verse by verse debate and switched the convo to get on some common ground, asking if she believe the bible was the inspired word of god.

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  Mad Sweeney

  Ask her: In what way is Jesus Christ personally your king right now? What do you do to show him fealty on a regular basis?

  Her answer is likely to be that he leads "the organization" or "the faithful and discreet slave" and that she "goes out in service and attends meetings." These are both wrong, of course, but that's less important than the fact that she didn't even answer your question. You asked how he is personally HER king and she answers with his supposed relationship to the Watchtower cult. You asked what SHE DOES to show HIM and she answers with how she participates in activities of the Watchtower cult.

  This kind of thing is common among Jehovah's Witnesses. As a Christian, you are familiar with Paul's illustration of putting on the "new personality?" Cults like the Watchtower create a personality that subsumes the real person so that even when asked about what they do or feel or think they will very often relate those behaviors, thoughts, and emotions through the cult somehow.

  This is what makes nugget's suggestion in this thread so useful. "If you weren't a Jehovah's Witness, what do you think you would be doing right now?" It forces them to think in a way that they rarely allow themselves to think.
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  8

  High Court grants hospital permission to give blood to Jehovah's Witness child

  by mankkeli in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  high court grants hospital permission to give blood to jehovah's witness childfriday, october 21, 2011 - 05:50 pm.

  the high court has granted a dublin maternity hospital orders allowing it to perform, if required, an emergency blood transfusion to the unborn child of a jehovah's witnesses couple who is at risk of being delivered prematurely.

  today the court heard the child's mother, who is approximately 26 weeks pregnant, presented to the coombe maternity hospital in recent days with a spontaneous premature ruptured membrane.. .

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  Mad Sweeney

  Poor kid. Even if it lives its parents will be torn over how to feel about it. Glad the court did the right thing, though.
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  83

  Popularity Contest

  by Voices in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  everywhere i've gone, no matter what, there's always a 'popularity contest' (which i'm a loser to)... whether it was in the organization (based on how high you went up the chain of command or who you married for the sisters), the school system such as high school, college, etc.. or job.

  who does the hardest work, who does what, when how.

  even on this website.

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  Mad Sweeney

  Wait. So it's NOT Tim Tebow?
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  50

  Watchtower Society Sued For Covering Up For Molestor Derek Packowski

  by qua in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sacramento vicinity (loomis, rocklin, sunset congregations): court documents were just issued charging derek packowski and the watchtower society corporations.

  the papers were filed by the legal firm of nolen saul brelsford of sacramento, california.

  the child molestor and said corporations headed by the governing body over jehovah?s witnesses, were charged with not reporting to law enforcement and systematically conspiring and suppressing information about sexual molestation committed by packowski when he was in a congregation in des plaines, illinois, also after about 1984 and later in california at the loomis congregation from which formed the rocklin and sunset congregations.

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  Mad Sweeney

  So you had a thread removed. GET OVER IT! You're acting like a child.

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  17

  Need your suggestions

  by angel.face in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hey guys,.

  hoping to get your input.. i had a conversation with my dh recently and i asked him what would need to happen for him to question his belief system.

  he said that something unscripted needs to be taught by the society.. now there are many things i can bring up...i have heard you suggest not to argue with doctrine...but he is asking for it.

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  Mad Sweeney

  I like both Sab and Desirous' suggestions. You may add to Sab's the idea that Jesus waited until he was 30 and the Borg is dunking little kids.

  Does your husband "take the lead" in "Family Worship Night"? Ask him if he would be willing to take the next year and dedicate "Family Worship Night" to reading and discussing the Bible ALONE without ANY literature. You can take turns choosing what scriptures/passages to read and discuss.

  If you can get him to agree, then we will have plenty of suggestions for you. If he is unwilling to address God's Word free from the chains of Watchtower interpretation then you're extremely unlikely to reach him via the scriptures. But if he's willing to JUST READ the Bible and discuss what it SAYS, not what the publishing cult in New York interprets it to mean, then you have some hope.
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  66

  The Impact of Leaving

  by leavingwt in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i would like to share the information below with newer members and lurkers.

  we're not insensitive to what you're now going through.

  many of us have been in your position.

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  Mad Sweeney

  Awesome thread.

  Quendi, mad props on the Ulysses quote! One of my favorites. I would add to it Invictus:

  Out of the night that covers me,
  Black as the pit from pole to pole,
  I thank whatever gods may be
  For my unconquerable soul.

  In the fell clutch of circumstance
  I have not winced nor cried aloud.
  Under the bludgeonings of chance
  My head is bloody, but unbowed.

  Beyond this place of wrath and tears
  Looms but the Horror of the shade,
  And yet the menace of the years
  Finds and shall find me unafraid.

  It matters not how strait the gate,
  How charged with punishments the scroll,
  I am the master of my fate:
  I am the captain of my soul.
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  38

  Do you believe in past lives??

  by watersprout in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am currently studying for my ''crystal therapy'' diploma and in the last module which is next month it looks at ''past life'' regression... well i for one do not believe in living before so will probably doze off during this last module... anyway i have been told by some people i know that i have been here before... apparently i ''date'' back to ''atlantis''... i found it very difficult to hold back my giggles so i said ''really, i always thought i was brand new''... to which started a discussion on past lives.. i just wondered if any of you lovely folk believed in past lives and had ever had any of this type of regression done??

  i may not believe in it, but if it helps someone heal from emotional trauma then good for them and i'm really happy for that one.. just wanted some thought's on the subject.. peace.

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  Mad Sweeney

  I like the "past atoms" comment.

  Most of the atoms on this planet are recycled over and over - only a small amount of "new" matter reaches earth from space. I don't "believe in" anything but I also don't rule out the possibility of some sort of "atomic memory" going on. Do molecules from a person become part of soil which nourishes grass which is eaten by a cow which is eaten by another person? Perhaps quite regularly. At this point, however, there is no reason to think (no evidence) atoms and molecules from a living being possess ability to "remember" beyond the death of that being.

  So if it was real, that's probably how it would work (because there is even less evidence for a spirit world-afterlife) but pending evidence I see no reason to believe in it.

  On a different but related note. We can't even trust our OWN memories of THIS life as accurate representations of true events. Remembering OTHER lives in the PAST would be a crap-shoot even if it was real.
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  38

  Who is Rolf Furuli?

  by possible-san in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  is he a reliable scholar?.

  (most of anti-jehovah's witnesses in japan hardly know his name.).

  is he an active jehovah's witness?.

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  Mad Sweeney

  You are correct, possible, that he is an example of Watchtower "double standard." They do this with their attorneys, as well.

  Thank you to everyone who added details to this thread. Very interesting stuff.

  As for whether he is popular or known among Jehovah's Witnesses, in the USA the answer is NO. I never heard of him until I was researching OUTside the Watchtower.
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  17

  Would Christianity have survived if......

  by wobble in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ...........the roman empire had not adopted it ?

  they were far from being in the majority at the time,although growth had taken place over a large area, but within that area they were still a minority religion, often an underground one.. so hypothetically, would it just have withered and died, have torn itself to shreds with all the schisms and sects ?.

  i think that without the power of rome it would have done just that, perhaps the coptic church may have survived until the 21st century and perhaps the eastern churches, but the western ?

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  Mad Sweeney

  This talk of Mithras makes me want to re-read Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy again.
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  87

  Watchtower STUDY EDITION - Vehicle for Vitriol and REALLY crazy statements?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  is it me or do i notice that all the weird and hateful cultish statements are now appearing in the 'study edition' washtowels?.

  anointed are nuts - august 15, 2011 watchtower (the study edition) pg 22 qfr: memorial partakers.

  this is the number.

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  Mad Sweeney

  any random person can just walk in off the street on Sunday and get a free copy of the article for the meeting?

  I call BS. If congregations are found to be ordering extra magazines they're going to get a good "talking to" by the CO when he comes. The current arrangement is that the study issues are just like the Kingdom Ministry. The congregation orders the number it needs and NO MORE. A visitor can look on with someone else if they choose, or maybe a slacker JW didn't get theirs yet and there's an extra or two lying around in back, BUT THAT'S NOT THE PROPER THEOCRATIC ARRANGEMENT.