Jewel

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Posts by Jewel

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  35

  What are your fears?

  by Bumble Bee in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember growing up we were told not to voice our fears outloud, lest satan hear them and use it against us during the gt.

  as a result i grew up pretending i wasn't afraid of anything, that i was the strong one, which is sooooo far from the truth!

  lol i have learned that i am stronger than i thought i was, but there is a part of me that just once would love someone else to deal with the fears and tell me it's all going to be ok. .

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  Jewel

  Caterpillars of all types. I have a horror of getting one in my hair <<shrugging>> Despite that, I've helped my kids raise dozens of them and we mark and free the monarchs. I NEVER touch them, though...

  Getting old (or at least looking it)

  Something happening to my kids

  I used to be afraid of the GT--no matter how "good" a Witness girl I seemed to be, I knew I was questioning everything too much to survive the Great Tribulation. I can remember New Years Eve of 1975-watching the year tick by and realizing (with HUGE relief) that nothing was going to happen at all...
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  70

  How to make love & marriage work w/a JW

  by StillinLove in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  please dont comment saying to "run" or "get out while i can" thank you im not new to this, so i can handel it.

  i have been with my boyfriend for 3 years, we started dating in high school and now i am going to college and he is working.

  i am 20 and he is 21, i was raised catholic but my mom and i are too open minded for the church so we left.

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  Jewel

  Remember, too, that if you have kids with this guy, AND the kids are raised as Witnesses it will affect EVERY aspect of their (and therefore your) life. Not only will your family NOT celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Easter, or birthdays, they will not be allowed to do these things in school either. No elementary Christmas concerts, no Christmas party in second grade, no flag salutes, no Halloween costumes. They will be uncomfortable in every art class that involves them coloring a Christmas tree or making a clay pencil holder for Father's Day. They won't be able to play on any teams, serve as class secretary or be on the yearbook staff. You won't ever put candles on a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to them with the proud grandparents standing by. You won't be able to plan any family activities for the weekends because they'll be likely out in service on Saturday and at meeting for two hours on Sunday. If he takes them to the meetings without you, you'll have to be OK with the thought that it is likely they'll be taken to the bathroom and spanked with regularity from infanthood

  They won't be allowed to listen to much popular music, read Harry Potter, or plan for their futures. They won't be able to read science fiction, believe in evolution or have "worldly" friends (unless they sneak around and lie to their dad the way he is lying to his parents). They won't be encouraged to go to college. They will be taught that women should be in subjection to men, that demons can torment them in the night and that they will be destroyed utterly if they disagree with anything they hear at the Kingdom Hall. They will spend four hours a week at meetings, sitting quietly for two hours at a pop. They will not go to football games, proms, or Christmas at your mom's house.

  These are not exaggerations. Is this how your picture your life...and theirs?
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  15

  Ever have one of these? I had two.

  by Gregor in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  3 a (1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3) : an illuminating discovery b: a revealing scene or moment.

  the word, of course, is epiphany.

  my first was the "simple and striking" realization that i was in a manipulative religous cult.

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  Jewel

  I've had a few epiphanies:

  1. When asked how to tell true Christians, Jesus told his disciples-simply and clearly-"...that they love one another". By that definition, in my experience, the Witnesses weren't "it".

  2. Satan is an invention of Christianity...he doesn't exist in pagan religions.

  3. Even if Yahweh was a real god, I wasn't going to worship him because he didn't deserve it.

  4. There is no paint in existence that actually covers in one coat.

  Jewel
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  4

  Life in a Theocracy! Related to the earlier Barbie thread...

  by CaptainSchmideo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.cnn.com/2008/world/meast/04/29/iran.barbie.ap/index.html.

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  Jewel

  Fundies are fundies--and frightening--whatever their ideology...
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  27

  So I was thinking about the earthquake we had last week...

  by TheSilence in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  and i was thinking about my reaction to it.

  i woke up at 4:40 in the morning because the bed was shaking and the thought process in my head went along these lines, "the bed is shaking.

  mike is out of town.

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  Jewel

  I remember sitting in bed on 9/11 reading to my little kids with the Today show on in the background. When the second plane hit and then the buildings crumbled, I had this moment of panic....could this be IT?? I'd been out for at least 10 years, but when faced with those horrible images, my first thought was Great Tribulation. That only lasted a couple of seconds and then I was disgusted that the whole fear of the tribulation thing was still hiding someplace in the back of my mind.

  When I heard about the earthquake--I slept right through--my first thought was, "dam@, I'm going to hear about the signs of the end from my mother...AGAIN!"
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  15

  What big changes made by the Borg bothered you when you were in?

  by LovesDubs in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i came in in 1984. at that time they were beating it into us not to have kids or go to college because the end was soooo near and the generation that saw 1918 was about all dead and we couldnt go much further.

  they were touting the whole peace and security cry and then there was the peace and security convention in like 1985 that had us all abuzz after which of course nothing happened.

  then they went and changed the definition of the generation in 1994 saying of course since armageddon didnt come after the 80 years had gone by that defined the old one that they basically had to go to plan b...or plan m by now, and that the generation was now everybody since 1918 who has or will live during the time of the end ad infinitum!!!

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  Jewel

  Dates me, but 1975 was a biggie for me. Then, in 1977 when I started college and all my "theocratic" friends stopped talking to me. So much for "...by this you will know them - that they love one another." I don't think college is a big deal anymore--now that the "light" is getting so darned bright...
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  30

  Is anybody else both fascinated and creeped out...

  by Jewel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...by the flds brouhaha down in texas?

  obviously the doctrine is way different, but there are so many similarities: the haunted look in so many eyes, the oppressively patriarchy, the lack of feeling, the use of fear and separation for control, the whole everyone-else-is-evil mentality.

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  Jewel

  However, unless something has happened in the media since this story broke, technically speaking, every one of those marriages complies with Texas law.

  Well, it seems to me that anything AFTER the first wife probably does NOT comply with Texas law. In addition, Texas law also expressly forbids the marriage (consenting or not) of anyone under the age of 16. At least one girl is 16, has been considered to be "married" (in a spiritual way, though it seems these old guys bring the physical into it pretty quickly--what with having a room with a bed for consumations right there in the temple) and already has 4 kids. Let's see, 16 minus one year per child....ummmm think that might have been below the age of consent-even if she had been convinced she was doing "the prophet's" will.

  They condemn the church leaders for allowing the abusing of women and children and then go on about how anyone could allow themselves to be brainwashed into such a cult.

  Oh, the irony of it all...

  I guess the fact that I was a Witness-and (at least briefly) a real believer-that makes this both horrifying and fascinating...there but for the resumpmtion of independent thought...

  I don't feel a bit sorry for the adults (the real adults). It's one thing to take on a religious life of hell on earth, but another to impose it on your kids. Any adult (as in over 18) woman who stood by and watched 14yo girls married off against their will deserves to lose her children. I was able to come up for air long enough to get out before I had to become a "submissive wife" so I'd like to think I wouldn't have stood by and watched it happen to young girls without trying to blow the whistle....
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  36

  1914 & “Generation” – What change?

  by johnnyc in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i have read through many posts on this website that refer to the fact wtbts changed their viewpoint on generation and its relevance to 1914. there was just an article out in the wt (last six months) that reiterated the fact this viewpoint did not change, and that the wtbts still expects the generation who were around in 1914 to physically see the conclusion of this system and the visible second coming of jesus here on earth.

  the wtbts did state they consider anyone being born in 1914 would be applicable, which is a change from earlier discussions, but they have not (from what i have seen) said that generation could pass away altogether.

  sincerely i ask: if anyone has that information i would love to see it.

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  Jewel

  This is all pretty interesting. I've been out (pretty much) since I married (an "Unbeliever"!!) in 1984. Since I was out there supposedly preaching about "this generation not passing away" in the 70's (and I remember someone from the stage saying the "age of understanding" was 13) I know this was not even questioned at the time. **To be clear, we were going out in the Field Service all through the 70's and early 80's telling people that Jesus became the king in heaven in 1914, there were all kinds of global "signs" to that effect and that the generation that "saw" those signs would not die before the Great Tribulation. "Seeing" the signs at that time meant old enough to know something cosmic was happening and that was defined as being "about 13". **

  I've since asked my mother (still in) a couple of times about this because it seemed to me that anybody in their early teens in 1914 would be gone. First she told me that the "understanding" on this had changed so it could include anybody ALIVE in 1914-including newborns. More recently she told me that the "definition of generation" had been changed. Her explanation was a little vague-I could tell she was uncomfortable. Though she's a diehard, she's smart enough that this stuff makes her nervous. I didn't pursue the topic at the time, but thanks to all of you I think I understand the new definition. No wonder she was uncomfortable...
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  30

  Is anybody else both fascinated and creeped out...

  by Jewel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...by the flds brouhaha down in texas?

  obviously the doctrine is way different, but there are so many similarities: the haunted look in so many eyes, the oppressively patriarchy, the lack of feeling, the use of fear and separation for control, the whole everyone-else-is-evil mentality.

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  Jewel

  Yeah...It makes me so relieved to be out and it make me wonder how far some Dubs would go on instructions from their "prophets". I remember when the Jonestown thing happened, I knew that there were some in the congregation I'd left (at the time fairly recently) who would have downed that kool-aid in a minute if the GB had suddenly decided that THIS was the way to get a jump-start to the New Order.

  One of the reasons I was sure I was not going to make it through the Great Tribulation when I was in my late teens was because I knew that I could never be a good Witness wife. I wanted to be married, I wanted kids, but I knew I'd never be good at bein in "subjection" to my husband.

  Soooo...I haven't been to a regular meeting in over 20 years and I still wake up on Sunday mornings and feel absolute ELATION at the thought that I don't have to go to meeting...

  Jewel
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  30

  Is anybody else both fascinated and creeped out...

  by Jewel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...by the flds brouhaha down in texas?

  obviously the doctrine is way different, but there are so many similarities: the haunted look in so many eyes, the oppressively patriarchy, the lack of feeling, the use of fear and separation for control, the whole everyone-else-is-evil mentality.

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  Jewel

  ...by the FLDS brouhaha down in Texas? Obviously the doctrine is WAY different, but there are so many similarities: the haunted look in so many eyes, the oppressively patriarchy, the lack of feeling, the use of fear and separation for control, the whole everyone-else-is-evil mentality.