i thought the name of this thread was so on time for this thread demostrates one of the sad things about claiming to speak for god, when one actually does not.. when i was a newly appointed elder at the tender age of 27 .
i was introduced to the world of the judical committee.. it was in fact my first case.
i had gotten a call from the po before the meeting stating that their would be an elders meetings to discuss some judical matters.
Gee I missed all the cool questions when I was DFed. Guess it was cause im a homo.
No one asked if I was on top. I wasn't, :)
No one asked if I was wearing a thong. (maybe because I look like a sumo wrestler in a thong).
Can I go back and ask for a better questioning?
hugs
Joel
things have gotten desperate in the us for the borg.
they lowered the hours required by the pioneers to 70 and there was this little surge in the number of pioneers and yet there was a negative "increase" in this country.
so...desperate times call for desperate measures.
Writing to people in obituaries is nothing new. I did that 20 years ago when I was a pioneer to get my time started in the morning.
Do they actually have booths in malls? I would have loved mall work when I was a witness.
hugs
Joel
sorry all you uk guys and gals who taped eastenders, but i couldn't resist it.. must be the badness in me i guess...... englishman.
Yes, I love Queer As Folk. Although I am stunned at what they are allowed to show on TV and on a Sunday night no less.
hugs
Joel
this is only the second post that i've made on this board, so i hope that by posting this a second time, that i'm not violating some rule that i'm unaware of.
if i am, then i apologize to all.. however, this answer to stillintruth is on the fourth page of his last post, and i want to make sure he and as many others as possible can see it.. you will note that i sign my real name to the bottom of this.
that is meant as an open challenge to any and/or all to do something about it.
Stillintruth has less respect for the watchtower than we do since he is a baptized witness of Jehovah in good standing and completely ignores there council not to associate with apostates and the disfellowshipped.
Jehovah makes it clear in the Bible how he feels about such behavior.
I myself despise hyprocrisy more than any other human trait.
Even though he comes here secretively, Jehovah sees his secret sin.
According to watchtower doctrine, StillinTruth's behavior will cause Jehovah to withdraw his holy spirit from Stillintruth's congregation. I wonder how long he will continue to bring reproach on Jehovah's name that we are not capable of bringing since we no longer claim to be Jehovah's Witnesses.
hugs to all
Joel
www.joelbear.com
all this talk about whether door to door work is fruitful or not has really got me thinking.. so i was wondering, (a) how many jw's or ex's here were actually converted on the door, and (b) how many jw's or ex's here ever obtained a convert on the door?.
i made 2 converts whilst a jw, but 1 was the son of an interested person, the other was a wayward son of a weak sister so i get a zero.. my dad worked at london heathrow as an air traffic controller, he got 6 other controllers to join up, so if you're arriving in the uk, don't fly apostasy airways!
for all his frequent bouts of vac pioneering, i don't think that he ever pulled a live one off the doors, so he gets a zero too.. my mum was quite a puller in her time but they were all friends of friends who came to sit in on bible studies etc, so, sorry mater, you get a zero also.. as a matter of fact, i'm wondering if the door to door work isn't completely pointless!.
During my time as a pioneer I had probably 30 bible studies. One Sunday I actually had 7 of them at the meeting at one time, 4 of whom I picked up in my horrible pioneer car (We called it Myrtle the Turtle and the accelerator would stick and cause the car to go full throttle unexpectedly, it was quite an adventure).
I had 3 of my studies get baptized. One was a guy whose whole family were witnesses and who was in love with a pioneer sister in our congregation. She broke it off right after he was baptized, however he stayed a witness as far as I know. One other was a study I took over from someone else right at the end of the truth book, so I don't know if I should count him or not, but he was the result of door to door work.
The third was an elderly lady who I called on myself. She had studied with the witnesses as a young woman but had never become associated. She was about 80 years old. We baptized her in the whirlpool of a local health spa since she was unable healthwise to make it to an assembly. Her family later put her in a nursing home.
She called me one day to tell me she couldn't be a Jehovah's Witness anymore since her family was going to force her to take a blood transfusion. She was broken hearted. I told her not to worry about it, that she knew she loved Jehovah and that he loved her. She died shortly after that and her family wouldn't allow her to have a witness funeral. Irene epitomized why I wanted to be a pioneer. I brought her hope and gave her some comfort during the last years of her life. I will always count my time with her as some of the most cherished of my life.
hugs
Joel
www.joelbear.com
sorry all you uk guys and gals who taped eastenders, but i couldn't resist it.. must be the badness in me i guess...... englishman.
Just don't tell me how Queer As Folk ends
have you noticed the holier than though attitute is very similar in fred hall and stillinthetruth?.
at least you know had some brains and some bible knowledge.
he spoke with a forked tongue and not his ass.. we all know that dear old freddie is sufferring from premature alzheimers but this stillinthetruth character must be a stooge.
Fred is clearly not a JW and most likely a child or emotionally troubled person. I see nothing productive in replying to him.
Would you argue economics with your 3 year old?
hugs
Joel
www.joelbear.com
to all those who have in some way left the organization (be it disfellowshipping, disassociating, dis-whatever):.
come now, i know the amount of people who "realized that wt doctrine was in serious error" and politely handed in their letter of resignation has to be very small.
the level of bitterness and hostility towards the closest-to-what's-biblical organization has to develop some other way.. what did you do?
I would like to add that clearly Still is happy being a Jehovah's Witness. Therefore, he should certainly stay a Jehovah's Witness.
I don't see the purpose of this board to try to convince people not to be witnesses, but to assist those who are unhappy.
Clearly, this is similar to the witness belief that one should only try to witness to people who want to be witnessed to. I think they are right. I have no interest in proseletyzing people into not being witnesses. Some people are happy being witnesses, so be it.
Witnesses are not the only organization I think is full of crap. That list would be a long one and include not only religious, but political, commercial and social organizations as well. If I spent my life trying to convince people that all this organizations are wrong, I wouldnt have time for anything else.
I believe that life is about living your life and not letting any organization, be it your job, your political party, your religion or anything supplant your own individual path towards happiness. Groups are interested in promoting their group interest, not your interest as a person. If there is a god, we don't need a group to prosper in a relationship with him/her.
As for me and my household, we will continue to help people learn what makes them happy in life and assist them in accomplishing this.
hugs to all
Joel
www.joelbear.com
i'm starting this thread because dedalus made such a good point in his post in the "what.
" thread.
i won't quote his whole post here, but here's the link:.
My family has been ripped to shreds by alcoholism. Drunken tyrades, all night drinking binges, physical abuse toward spouses, mental cruelty toward children, on and on and on. Every member of my family is a witness in good standing. This behavior contributed greatly toward my losing my faith and then deciding to live my life in a different manner.
Yes, I have my own weaknesses. But, I have never let my weaknesses and behaviors inflict pain or harm on others. I will Jehovah (if he exists) be the judge. I'll set my life up against the lives of witnesses I have known any time.
hugs
Joel
www.joelbear.com
i've been reading the thread about children and brooding over the whole issue of kids-n-cults for a couple of days now.
yesterday i had to outwait a group of immovable amish youth blocking the doorway out of the local grocery store(to many local amish, 'english' are generally invisible unless they want to sell us something.
), and they got mixed into the brain stew with the jw kids and the recent moral self-righteousness of certain jw posters here.
Wendy,
You have to realize that humans are just animals and a certain percentage of those human animals are cruel. Just like there are mean dogs, there are mean people.
When you stop expecting too much from animals you are granted a highler level of peace in your life.
hugs
Joel
