Posts by Jim

My 0.02 worth. They have another 'set' that is staged behind the curtains, and don't want those to be the focus of the meeting, hence the large curtain is drawn to keep it concealed.

That is typically what the large curtains are used for in a regular theater.

Regards,

Jim TX

35

Apologies for outage

by Simon in

looks like the forum went down (right after i went to bed, doh!)..

i really should get some monitoring setup but it's been pretty rock solid for ages so i've never bothered.. must be something todo with all the tinkering i've been doing and the background job i started running yesterday.. anyway, sorry for anyone who's been trying to access the site..

Jim_TX

No worries. Thanks for having this site here for us.

22

The New New World Translation: What a Blessing!

by breakfast of champions in

this new new world translation just puts god's holy word in a whole new new light for me!

just check out this comparison, and add some of your own if you wish!.

numbers 31: 17, 18 old new world translation.

Jim_TX

I thought... that you should either be hot or cold, but not luke warm.

Isn't that the same as black or white... but not grey?

How does it go again... something about vomiting?

It _does_ kinda look pukey in color...

21

I guess I was ashamed of the JW religion...

by Jim_TX in

jw
friends

when i was a kiddo growing up, i wasn't one of those that we all heard at assemblies giving their experiences... "here, let me show you the answer from the bible..." <reaching into their a** bringing out a bible>.

no, i would sit there in the audience, and think... that person has balls to do that.. when i went to grade school, i tried to keep as low of a profile as possible.

it was bad enough that i had to start the day by not saying the pledge of allegience like all the other school kids.

Jim_TX

"I was similar when i was in my teens after the meetings i always waited outside the hall on my own for my parents to finish gabbing they were usually one of the last to leave. finally i got my own car."

'similar'? I would wait inside the hall, and not speak to anyone. I would usually move to the front of the hall where noone would be - as most would be in the back of the hall talking.

The little kids - 2 to 5yrs old or so would call me 'zombie', and laugh and run and play. I would ignore them.

Still sound similar?

21

I guess I was ashamed of the JW religion...

by Jim_TX in

jw
friends

when i was a kiddo growing up, i wasn't one of those that we all heard at assemblies giving their experiences... "here, let me show you the answer from the bible..." <reaching into their a** bringing out a bible>.

no, i would sit there in the audience, and think... that person has balls to do that.. when i went to grade school, i tried to keep as low of a profile as possible.

it was bad enough that i had to start the day by not saying the pledge of allegience like all the other school kids.

Jim_TX

"I am sure anyone that knew you when you were young, never grew up to be a JW.

How has your strict youth shaped you as an older person?

Have/had you ever discussed this with your mom? Did she ever apologize to you?"

Lois, calm down. Take a deep breath. Let out slowly.

Other kiddos had it much worse than I did. I just learned to not trust anyone.

RE: Did my mom ever apologize? For what? She is/was not wrong - in her eyes, she did nothing wrong.

I grew up with 5 siblings. My dad was killed when I was about 7-1/2, as did one of my sisters. My mom dove headlong into the JW religion after that.

I learned early on that anything I said - to anyone - could get back to my mom, and then I'd be 'in for it'. She was worse than sitting in a judicial committee.

Actually, I have to expand that a bit. She - and my siblings - were worse than sitting in a judicial committee meeting.

I remember one time - I had pulled deep within myself and wouldn't talk to anyone - or just enough to only say things like 'Hi', or 'Bye'. Or yes and no answers. (a friend described my behaviour as 'catatonic'.) I would wait at the KH after the meetings were over, and not speak to anyone. This was when my mom drove us to the KH, before I got my driver's license.

One night at the KH, this older man, a family friend (named Taze), came up to me and tried (in vain) to strike up a conversation that went something like...

"Hi Jimtx."

"hi."

"How are you?"

"fine."

There was a bit more along the same lines... and he finally got bored and left me alone.

When I got home, my mom asked me, "Well, what did Taze want?"

"nothing."

"Well, it must have been something, you two looked pretty serious!"

"it was nothing."

Then the others jumped in, like a pack of dogs attacking the wounded dog in the pack. All sorts of "You better tell us what it was!" types of remarks.

This would usually last for 10 to 15 minutes. If I could outlast them, they'd get tired and leave me alone.

To this day, I don't really trust anyone - enough to tell them much.

Oh - and I used to listen to the radio a lot. Mostly far away stations. It was my way to leave - if only for a short while.

21

I guess I was ashamed of the JW religion...

by Jim_TX in

jw
friends

when i was a kiddo growing up, i wasn't one of those that we all heard at assemblies giving their experiences... "here, let me show you the answer from the bible..." <reaching into their a** bringing out a bible>.

no, i would sit there in the audience, and think... that person has balls to do that.. when i went to grade school, i tried to keep as low of a profile as possible.

it was bad enough that i had to start the day by not saying the pledge of allegience like all the other school kids.

Jim_TX

" I could hide pretty well, by the time I got to high school."

Yeah... I knew where all of the best places were, to avoid other people (since I wasn't allowed to have 'worldly' friends - and there were not too many JWs that I knew of).

I remember my first wife (now ex) - who graduated from the same high school I did a couple of years later saying, "I never saw you at high school."

My comment back to her was, "I know. I hid pretty good."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to know where the best places to stay low were... the library... the main office (although some of the ones in trouble frequented that place a lot), etc. I also knew how to move quickly if trouble ever broke out. When someone yelled 'FIGHT!', you can bet I was making tracks in the opposite direction.

21

I guess I was ashamed of the JW religion...

by Jim_TX in

jw
friends

when i was a kiddo growing up, i wasn't one of those that we all heard at assemblies giving their experiences... "here, let me show you the answer from the bible..." <reaching into their a** bringing out a bible>.

no, i would sit there in the audience, and think... that person has balls to do that.. when i went to grade school, i tried to keep as low of a profile as possible.

it was bad enough that i had to start the day by not saying the pledge of allegience like all the other school kids.

Jim_TX

When I was a kiddo growing up, I wasn't one of those that we all heard at assemblies giving their experiences... "Here, let me show you the answer from the bible..." <reaching into their a** bringing out a bible>

No, I would sit there in the audience, and think... that person has balls to do that.

When I went to grade school, I tried to keep as low of a profile as possible. It was bad enough that I had to start the day by NOT saying the Pledge of Allegience like all the other school kids. That usually drew unwanted attention.

Then later, when the teacher handed out the seasonal mimeographed papers to be colored (which I loved to smell) - Halloween - No. Thanksgiving - No. Christmas - No. Easter - No. St. Patrick's Day - No. 'Well, here, then. Color these pretty fall leaves.'

As I got older, in the higher grades, it got a little easier, but I still had to keep a low-profile. I wasn't allowed to join things like National Junior Honor Society. No band (extracurricular). No choir. No joining football or basketball teams. Nothing.

Again, I wasn't one of those JWs that walked around the campus carrying a bible with me. It was a green bible. Different. Just like the religion. Different. Most other religions had cooler bibles - black with gold edging. Yes, I know that you could get one of those from the JWs, but you had to pay a lot for them, and my family was poor.

I also never took my 'study' books to school, either. I may have been dumb, but I wasn't stupid. I had a large enough target painted on my back as it was. I certainly wasn't going to have anyone ask me questions about what I was reading. Questions that I would have to answer. Nope. Not going to do that.

Somehow, I got through all of that and graduated. Oh - and I wasn't allowed to walk across the stage to get my diploma. Something about 'all honor goes to god' bull crap. So, I had to skulk to the main office later afterwards, and they gave it to me. No ceremony, just 'here's your diploma'.

When I went to a local junior college, I met this neato kid my age. We got along great! We had similar ideas, and we liked to talk electronics and stuff. One day, he came out to visit me where I lived south of town. My room mate at the time was one of those 'bible thumper' JWs that never passed up an opportunity to 'witness' - or in my case - embarrass me - in front of this friend.

My new friend looked at me - and I kinda turned beet red. I wasn't into preaching that much - especially to friends. I'm sure my friend left that day thinking... 'wierdo'.

I never saw any other religions being agressive like the JWs were... except for a few 'nut case' religions... I believe they were called 'holy rollers' or some such. My mom knew one of those, who would come over occasionally and preach at her... whilst she would preach right back at him. Neither got anywhere convincing the other. I think that they liked to argue religion - then tell others about how bat-sh** crazy the other was later to their friends.

Anyway... I got this thought this morning on the drive to work... I guess I was ashamed of the JW religion when I was growing up. Probably why I left it later.

Of course, nowadays, I have no desire to be in ANY religion. They're ALL nonsense - in my book.

Regards,

Jim TX

16

Which KHall Did You Go To Or Visit, That Had The Nicest People, (Like JW's Are Supposed To Be?)

by LoisLane looking for Superman in

jw
friends

.

this was inspired by the poster "integ"'s thread: warmth of the khall.. the nicest group of people i have ever met at a khall was the one in key west, florida.. loislane .

.

Jim_TX

Your question reminds me of when I used to visit my mom and siblings.

They would sit there and go on and on (and on and on...) about how nice the people were at the KH where they were now attending - unlike the last one.

Forgetting that six months prior, at my last visit, they were crowing about the KH that they were attending - unlike the last one.

It seems that for some reason, they would go through KHs every 6 months or so, and move on to a new one.

Not sure why. It may have had something to do with my older sister being a deaf interpreter. She can be a bit caustic, and perhaps she ticked off the folks in charge or something.

From what I understood, there was a lot of political stuff involved with the deaf and the interpreters.

Anyway, they would always have a 'new congregation we are attending' story everytime whenever I would visit. I would just sit there, nod and smile - while inside I was busting a gut laughing, because they were putting down the previous KH they used to go to, that not more than 6 months prior, they were singing their praises.

San Antonio had a large number of KH congregations when I used to go... 20... 30? (I don't remember exactly), and I know that they have more now. I would wonder how long it would take to rotate through all of them, if you only stayed 6 months at each one. By the time you rotated back to the first one, there would be new people there, and you could start all over again.

Jim_TX

Posts by Jim_TX