i was looking over the watchtower site on facebook this evening, and was just mesmerized by many of the posts.this stuff can't be real (can it)?
nelson birdwell ?
it's like something out of mad magazine, or better yet the onion !.
You know, this demonstrates a very excellent way for people so motivated to infiltrate and erode the org from within. As shown, it's not very difficult to say something obivously idiotic without going outside established teachings at all.
To be effective though, participants would have to be able to manage to make statements like these emphatically while keeping a straight face at all times ... not an easy skill.
does knowing that jws are not god-chosen organisation they claim to be break your heart when you see them do fs in extreme conditions, like during a hot summer day or in snow?.
It's no less meaningful work than most people's jobs. Only difference is, it pays less.
a few weeks back, in the midst of the haiti tragedy, much discussion took place in cyberland about the tolerance [or indeed the insistence on] suffering by a loving god.
the furor over haiti has settled a bit [as unfortunately most tragedy is wont to do far too quickly in the human mind], but this persistent matter continues to chew at my subconscience.
today i came across this:.
It is the human mind that insists on trying to assign a "reason" for everything. "Reasons" are things invented by people. "Deserving" is a concept invented by people.
when you are done watching the opening ceremonies, come in and say hi.. hey outlaw, they are doing the prarie tribute as i write this.
hope you like joni mitchell.... ;).
I've loved the Olympics since I was single-digit ages. I am psyched.
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was watching the american apprentice the other night and saw them dishing up these.. they looked amazing.. do they taste as good as they look?.
They're usually a bit heavy on the onion.
last night i got a call from a chap in the uk, who recently left the jw's.
he wanted to compare notes with his us counterparts.. he said that a few years ago, (i think about 2 years ago) the society cleaned out all the literature from every kingdom hall, particularly russell and rutherford books and anything prior to 1950. giving each hall a computer with the watchtower cd rom for them to use for research.
he wanted to know if the same was done in the states.
I really beleive that anyone wishing to find real reasons for JWs today to question their teachings needs to look at the teachings of today, taken at face value.
The fact that 100 years ago the organziation said that heaven was located in the Pleiades doesn't really help anyone understand what is wrong with what they do say today. 100 years ago mainstream medicine advocated ingesting mercury for medicinal purposes. The fact that they later contradicted themselves and now admit that mercury causes far more harm than good does not invalidate or undermine the practice of medical science in general.
we all regardless of our spiritual beliefs have in common a past damaged by brain washing and mind control.
there is no doubt that our mental health has been affected to different degrees.
but we usually go and continue our life trying to patch the injuries on our own.. one of the reasons we find it so difficult to deal with the world is precisely that.
As much as I support it as a useful practice, I see psychotherapy as still being more of an art than a science. In other words, you can't take a "recipe" for psychotherapy, hand it to anyone good at following directions, and produce a successful therapist. It's frighteningly easy to find therapists who ... to put in plainly ... suck. A large percentage of them are neurotic robots trying desperately to find an answer to their own problems by pondering those of others. I don't know if there is any more efficient way to find a "good one" than just trying one after another; if there is, I'd certainly like to know the method.
That said, when the therapist is intelligent, empathetic, open-minded, intellectually curious, and knowledgeable, it can be a great service to those who can't find the way out of the little box they've built around themselves.
totally unrelated to anything except that my mind has been on this long-running documentary series lately, this is an episode of frontline broadcast originally in 1985, about a teacher in a small school in bfe (somewhere in iowa iirc) who, starting in 1968 i believe, taught her class about the realities of racism.
(commentary requested.).
a class divided.
Totally unrelated to anything except that my mind has been on this long-running documentary series lately, this is an episode of Frontline broadcast originally in 1985, about a teacher in a small school in BFE (somewhere in Iowa iirc) who, starting in 1968 I believe, taught her class about the realities of racism. (Commentary requested.)
"youth" book and "young people ask" admitts that 97% boys and 92% of girls masturbate but of course none of the holy decent witness teenagers would ever do such a thing and earn jehovahs anger!
how realistic is this?
97% of the world have t.v's or a telephone!
Obviously there's nothing wrong with it and everyone knows it, whether they admit it or not.
this post was motivated by another thread, namely.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/188552/1/onereason-for-a-gentleman-fader-to-stay-reasonably-associated.
this thread makes reference to the fact that a 40 something brother has a real chance with twenty-something and less sisters.
I can relate two pieces of information I know first- or secondhand...
1. Maybe ~ 4-5 years ago, T and I having a long conversation about nothing in particular, and at one point her mentioning that she and her mother were at a meeting and she realized at one point all these older guys were looking/staring at her. Later she asked her mom about it, and mom said " oh those are are probably just older brothers who prefer a younger wife" or something to that effect, the idea being that it was nothing terribly unusual
2. when I finally met her mom, I was in town for a social visit and also to look at some real estate as I was on my year-long "sabbatical" between jobs and was considering moving to their city. The 3 of us spent the better part of a day together looking at houses etc. I remember at one point we were chatting about things and I guess the topic of my concurrent job search came up. I Said something about how the jobs available for me (both here and where I was looking) are narrowed by the fact that I wasn't really interested in taking a job in the military-support/defence industry. She let out a huge "YES!" when I said that. Day or two later she and T was apparently discussing me and mom said she thought I was "cute". So obviously again, no particular problem with he age difference.
