my oldest teenage daughter (15) is a publisher and goes to all meetings with her father (we divorced, he picks her up).
i try to get her more involved in school and to spend more time with friends outside the congregation.
i'm to the point where i'm going to simply forbid it and send her off to collage early!
You know what - a DUB baptism Is NOT a Christian baptism, y'know "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"
It's just a baptism into the corporation. It's show; flash; BLING
SOOOOO... if it takes some of the pressure off of her, why not? Gets her out of the spotlight!
Blueberry creamcheese!! Yummy!!!
some may enjoy this new post at free minds by sherry jansma.
do we have to jump from the watchtowers frying pan into hellfire?.
one of the most appealing doctrines in the theology of jehovahs witnesses is their teaching on hellfire.
I'm beginning to see hell as a dark and silent place where are the souls of those forever cut off from God. Since God is life and the source, being cut off from him is the ultimate punishment, it is like flesh burning perpetually.
Since the soul does not die, it will last forever in this dark and godless place.
I think that hell and fire and sulphur are ideas used to communicate to fleshly beings what this pain feels like to the soul.
i do not know how to scan the wt if someone can it would be great but i wrote it out verbatim .
i think what the wt says speaks for its self.
am i missing something and or reading something into what they are saying.
The GB has more power than the Pope to change doctrine at will and garner praise and attention and loyalty.
Here's something FUNNY:
My dub mother is trying to get me to repent my evil apostate ways.
She keeps emphasizing that the GB has God's Spirit and that the Organization is God's chosen Organization and that I must be LOYAL to survive.
The day she mentions Christ and begins to emphasize Jesus' role in the outworking of God's will, then I will listen.
i do not know how to scan the wt if someone can it would be great but i wrote it out verbatim .
i think what the wt says speaks for its self.
am i missing something and or reading something into what they are saying.
I will scan if someone will tell me how to upload.
so got a voice mail from an elder today.
it has been 15 mos since i attended meetings.
he just said to call him back.
Follow Your Gut.
DO NOT talk to him.
... but if you do, be FIRM in saying you don't want to be contacted and LEAVE you alone. If you leave any room to insinuate doubt or the possibility you are not confident or happy with your choices, they will exploit this to the fullest extent.
Therefore, I say, DO NOT talk to him.
i started my fade in 2004 and completely quit regular attendance in 2005. i have, however, gone to all the memorials since.
i still consider myself christian and felt it was a somewhat decent way of respecting the sacrifice.. i am thinking of not going this year.. i am generally disgusted at what the memorial observation actually entails.
there is almost no talk about what jesus went through on that day or even the tremendous sacrifice involved and the love that motivated it.
yeah, I was done for this past year when the brother spent more time talking about Armagedoom than Christ.
And he was supposed to be a really good visiting speaker.
Oh wait... dubs are obsessed with Armagedoom... no wonder they liked him.
2 corinthians 13: 5a - 5 examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.. this verse just comes at me like a locomotive.. to examine something is to truly use my mental capacities and to look at something objectively.. how do i accomplish this, even now?.
i was raised in an organization that controlled my information and used fear of rejection as well as my need for approval to "inculcate" the "truth" into me.. by that right, i (and all born-ins) do not have the ability to examine our faith (as a jw).. there will always be an artificial pull either for or against the society (whether we are aware of it or not).. free will has been comprimised; therefore our "faith to our creator" has been tainted and cannot be judged as worthy or unworthy.. of course many of us have regained our ability to discern and look at things objectively.. but i believe that we will never be able to truly look at the watchtower organization without a slant.. not to say the conclusions we come to regards to the organization are not valid (because they are and have been validated).
my point is that the organization has no right to judge and ostracize any born-in for leaving and even for speaking out.. they broke us, and now they are demonizing us for the things we did in that broken state.
Born-ins are also subject to pressure from parents, a feeling that not following step is disobedient to mom and dad, and too most of their friends are witnesses under the same pressure. So, everyone is doing it, and if you don't, what's wrong with you?
We're only asked to examine "established" doctrine. Look at the questions and answers for baptismal candidates. They usually only cover age appropriate ones. I was never asked about things like prophecy beyond "why can we be certain that this is the end? and why can we be certain that God will soon fulfill his word?" and the answer was, "because he did it in the past and what he says will happen, happens, Isa. 55:11"
For young kids, you can imagine how simplified these questions can get. So, even in preparing for the questions there is no real push to examine your faith, only to learn the anwers to specified questions using specific scriptures.
it's so striking now when i read the wt.. every single gd article mentions the governing body, or the elders, or the hierarchy -- its sickening the level of control, absolutely sickening.. these guys must be so fearful and so eager to validate their claim to power.. next weeks study lesson is drowning in it!.
It's so striking now when I read the WT.
Every single GD article mentions the Governing body, or the elders, or the hierarchy -- its sickening the level of control, absolutely sickening.
These guys must be so fearful and so eager to validate their claim to power.
Next weeks study lesson is drowning in it!
for me, i would go back to the day when charles taze russell snuffed it.
i'd wait for judge rutherford to turn up at the ibsa headquarters, then run him over with a steamroller, in true buster keaton styleee!.
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Go back to 1960s France, make the right investments, chill, fall in love, enjoy life.
Good friends, good food, good love.
