most witnesses never could explain exactly who the "faithful slave" was (according to the society's explanation).
the resurection of the sodomites was another bewildering thing.
were they or weren't they going to be resurrected?
I could never explain or understand, and neither can most Jehovah's Witnesses, why we were permitted to celebrate anniversaries but not birthdays (which are simply a type of anniversary).
Yes, John the Baptizer (!) was beheaded at a birthday party. So what? Jesus was murdered on a hill. Should climbing hills be banned?
from jw.org, here is the new definition of the generation from the april 15, 2010 watchtower.. .
article: holy spirits role in the outworking of jehovahs purpose.
13 third, holy spirit is at work in bringing bible.
One just hopes that they apply this change logic to the blood doctrine, and soon.
Amen to that.
many of us leave due to injustices committed inside the organization.
i did initially.
i had doubts about some doctrines for years - but not until after leaving the witnesses was i free to be able to confirm my suspicions and see that yes, i did have valid reasons to have doubts all those years .
For me it was neither doctrine nor injustice.
The JW people I knew and sometimes loved were good and fair people. And like, I suspect, most JWs I wasn't wrapped up in doctrine. Studying all the silly dates and things was just something we did because in our cluelessness we thought that was the right thing to do.
I think I started waking up from the haze while out in "service", ironically.
I recall, while auxilliary pioneering, going from door to door in the sunshine and meeting exceptionally nice people, with real lives and real personalities, and starting to think:
"Hang on, what am I actually offering these good people? A lifetime of meetings every second day, doing more, doing more, (excluding useful stuff like charity work), then having their entire families and all their friends destroyed at Armageddon?"
It was only after I successfully faded that I came online and realised that almost all the doctrines are a complete crock of bull.
okay, i am in a bit of a dilemma.
since i believe in honesty between marriage mates, i have been telling my wife about this board and my participation on it.
i feel it is only right so that she won't feel like i have anything to hide.
Garyneal
Thanks for your honesty, and I wish you and your wife the very best.
A few things.
1. I couldn't have said this better than Greenie did:
Also, I know folks on here are telling you to pull the headship card, but if you don't believe in it or in what the WTS teaches, I don't think you should use it. In a warped way, that would add credence to their teaching. I understand the sentiment, but I'd rather win on merit than on a technicality.
I think all advice should be gender-neutral, applicable whether you were a man or a woman. So the advice to activate the antiquated headship nonsense doesn't sit right with me.
2. As Bourne said:
Just know what problem you're fighting.
I fear the JW issue, as huge as it is, may be masking a control issue in your marriage. And it may not be as simple as her needing to control you. Possibly you have a need to be controlled? Either way, this won't be solved by deciding whether or not to visit an internet discussion board populated by previous Jehovah's Witnesses.
3. She is in a high-control group, and you are not. Make it very clear that she is overstepping a mark by trying to control your internet activity. She threatens to cut off your internet access? What a red flag. WAY out of line, by any standards.
4. Garyneal, you said:
I've given up trying to plan things for the two of us now.
Isn't that a bit dramatic? It sounds like yours is a marriage worth saving. Don't stop loving her.
But I think you need to sit down and have a good, hard, painful conversation about love, divorce, and why you are together. If her heart truly is elsewhere (and not just in the Watchtower, but perhaps somewhere else in the Kingdom Hall) then perhaps you have to consider letting go. Secretly discussing intimate details of your relationship with an elder or elders is something I would consider a deal-breaker, personally.
Marriage is difficult enough even when religion isn't involved.
5. Moshe said:
The goal is- I don't agree with all 100% of the WT teachings, JW's are weird - no fun to be around, and JW's don't display the biblical fruits of charity that Jesus commanded- = maybe I don't like being a JW anymore.
His three steps are fantastic - the small things, fun, and charity. They tap into the truth that adherence to the JW religion isn't about doctrine at all, really. ("The creator of the universe is about to kill everyone except Jehovah's Witnesses." How retarded is that?)
What keeps people in is the social stuff and the life-control elements. And guilt.
Good luck, dude.
must have been a dub giving him a tract.. if she's deemed crazy, then for sure shes a dub..
Woman Jumps on Pope
crikey, i would hate to see
the REST of her bucket list!!!
Okay chickpea, that's the funniest thing I've read on the internet all day!
this week's congregation "bible" study.
the drone running the show asked an auxiliary question (tm):.
"so, what could be some of the consequences if people weren't honest in reporting their field service?".
The whole "reporting if time" thing was the final deal that broke the back of this camel.
How can any current JW think that it's a normal and correct part of worship?
I believe I always reported honestly, working out my time in 15-minute segments, until the day I woke up and realised what bullshit the reporting of hours was.
Thank God I woke up.
if someone sends an email or text to an elder telling them that they are involved in a wrongdoing and not planning on stopping and then does not respond to reply emails or text messages from that elder, what will happen?
can the elders announce at a meeting that so and so is no longer a jw or do they have to inform them first?
i have a friend that did this and 2 elders came by her work to see her but she wasn't there, then they tried to call her at work but she told her co-workers to tell them that she was in a meeting.
"Disfellowshipping" in the Jehovah's Witness sense is not a legal process in any country on earth that I know of.
So the so-called notification processes Blondie is speaking of are rubbish.
i just went to the silentlambs website and there is a link to criminalcheck.com where you can find registered sex offenders by zip code.
so i typed in the zip code of the territory from my old congregation and i was surprised at how many people popped up.
there was three pages of names and on almost all of those names i recognized the street address as one that i went door-to-door on.
Do "modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses" even contemplate how antiquated the whole going door-to-door thing is?
It may have been somewhat normal in first-century to third-century Rome. It may even have been normal in the door-to-door encyclopaedia sales era of the 1960s in the West.
But now? In 2009/2010?
Do elder fathers really, with a clean conscience, send their teenage daughters out to preach door-to-door?
"Millions Now Dying Have Never Lived"
Brilliant, Heaven! Why don't our friends and family GET this??
eh?.
how easy would it be for you to stop posting on internet forums, social networking sites, and other internet activities?
is it something you've ever thought of doing?
I think we're extremely fortunate to live in a connected age. I embrace my connectivity, leverage it properly and enjoy it.
Unfortunately some people use connection as a proxy for living real lives. It is these people that must think about their use, or abuse, of their online lives.
