Posts by not a captive

17

confused which is the right religion?

by besty in

jw
friends

this might help you decide..... .

.

not a captive

I printed this--much simple than reading "Mankind's Search for God".

44

My Grandfather.

by The Finger in

my grandfather fought in the first ww.

he was in the trenches in france, he was gased and survived we always thought of him as one of the "generation" when we were kids.

he lived to almost 90, died in 1979.. he was always against the "truth" he mocked, he referred to my parents, his son, as a bible basher/thumper ect.

It is a tough thing to have others not estimate such experiences in the same way as oneself does. I have often wondered if Jesus didn't tell some of the people he healed "Go and tell no one" to preserve them from having their joy diminished in any way.

Here on JWN there is a lot of life that was taken up with falsified stories.The examination of the supernatural is really why this forum exists, in a way. The WTS appropriated the ancient text of supernatural events that humans said God had done. They overthought and made elaborate predictions and explanations that didn't help. Infact they compounded the problem of the old text's renderings by presuming insights that they didn't have.

So this forum is probably more cynical of apparitions and supernatural phenomenon than the average group of people.

Don't let yourself get upset.

What is important is being open to what really happened--and that goes for all of us--doubters and believers alike.

19

Why Did I Allow My Hopes to Get Raised?

by XJW4EVR in

jw
friends

a couple of months back, my son asked me to get in touch with my jw/elder father.

he is planning a trip to colorado to visit his mother's family there, and thought it would be good to see his grandfather.

since i have no contact with my father, i asked my cousin to broach the subject with him.

not a captive

I think Outlaw's onto something .

Your dad's religion doesn't have a formula for answering you. He doesn't have words to print out for you. Just take the actions that will help him say a word bak to yu.. then another.... and another. He's all froze up.

At least that's what it all sounds like. Hope it goes Great!

44

My Grandfather.

by The Finger in

my grandfather fought in the first ww.

he was in the trenches in france, he was gased and survived we always thought of him as one of the "generation" when we were kids.

he lived to almost 90, died in 1979.. he was always against the "truth" he mocked, he referred to my parents, his son, as a bible basher/thumper ect.

not a captive

Thanks for responding, finger,

I actually am not able to shake off people's experiences automatically. I only mentioned jumping to quick conclusions because of very odd occurrances that have had strange but natural explanations.

In 1974 I slept in an Irish cemetery near an isolated little town because my freewheeling bicycle trip didn't include advance rooming arrangements.It was early spring and evening falling, I rode up to the first B&B i saw and noticed an inordinant number of cars about (cars were not so common then as I hear they are now)Too bad for me, there had been a football match between villages or something and NO accommodations. I pedaled off.

Nothing on the horizon and dark moving in fast I became aware of an ivy covered stone wall by the road. It encircled an abandoned church yard. Everything was shrouded in a dark green ivy. Even the only relic left of the church, --A chimney? a spire? was an ivy monument. I stopped and saw the churchground were like a hammock of the same stuff. Maybe this could provide a safe night's rest---

Almost dark,I looked around and pitched my bike over the wall thinking that no drunken footballers would find me there and I might sleep and get a move on in the morning.

It was a dew-soaked and miserable night. I woke up long before dawn utterly miserable and rummaged blindly through my canvas rutsack for matches and a cigarette.(i smoked then) I lit one and could see my watch--long time til sunrise. I decided to scrounge around for branches to kindle a fire, warmup and killtime--and cook up a few rashers of bacon when it got light.

I stacked damp twigs on a hard flat surface where I had cleared away the everywhere-ivy to lay the fire--and just as I struck a match--I imagined I heard a sound where I crouched.

I stopped moving and listened more closely. It began again--scriiitchh, scritchh, scratch. Clawing sounds near my feet! I stood up and looked about and there was nothing but blackness with no horizon.

It seemed (aLa Edgar Allen Poe ) to be coming from underground! O GOD. was I scared. And even worse, when I scraped hard at the ground where I thought the sound came from--I found I had built my fire on someone's slab grave stone!

My heart was bursting with a terror, my ears were aching with fear hearing the clawing sound again!

Trying to be rational I decided it was more to the side of the stone, near my canvas bag. With light coming enough see my hand move to it Ishifted the bag and found the soure of he terror--An Irish hedgehog.

He had been working at the side of my rough canvas bag for reasons of his own and left off after I found him out. I was a laughing nervous wreck--

Knowing that if I had pedaled away without seeing the hedgehog I would be telling you"Tales from the Crypt" is what makes me careful of hasty judgements.

But.....

That said, my older sister who was working on a graduate degree in Ireland in 1972 had repeated and frightening experiences with a "presence" in her flat; t"it" became so agressive that she lost money in order to move out.

She was alone in her locked up flat after the lights went out. She thought she heard a large dog pacing through the room. This went one for a few nights until she lay in bed one night and felt "it" on her chest weighing her down and its breath in her face. She screamed and was up and that was the last night she spent there.

I cannot say anything about it. She discounted any pranks of the landlady--why lose a paying renter? I am sure there might be an explanation--but I don't know what it is to this day and neither does she.

6

Guestbook for Raymond Franz Legacy.com in association with Atlanta Journal Constitution

by blondie in

http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=4428254747150.

not a captive

Thanks for telling us, Blondie.

43

Exposing the Sickness: they printed letter to editor on the WT's treatment of Ray Franz in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Sat.6/12/10

by not a captive in

closure isn't needed.

in georgia recently, a religious "criminal" died.

this one had been brought to account.

not a captive

My youngest daughter got a text from her gf that she was surprised to see the letter in the paper last night.

I hope she shares it in her church today (and is thoughtful of the perils of all authoritarian religion)--not just the WTS.

32

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 06-13-10 WT Study (HOLY SPIRIT)

by blondie in

jw
friends

comments you will not hear at the 06-13-10 wt study (april 15, 2010, pages 7-11 (purpose).

as we have seen, jehovah used his spirit in the past to protect individuals as well as the nation of israel as a whole.

why doesnt god protect individuals today?.

not a captive

Awesome. I've avoided this weekly thread for two months.

This is the closest I've been to the WT in over a year--except to throw them in the dumpster when I find them..

Blondie, your work in producing this commentary is amazing to me--like a forensic specialist doing an autopsie to establish what killed the victim. It gives me the creeps to think of sitting in the KH as I used to do, and actually trying to make sense of this.

I think you are doing something great here--and not something many of us could stomach even though it is a great public service.

So I hope you washed your hands afterward and had a stiff drink. Maeve

19

Umm ... Have I Missed Anything?

by RAYZORBLADE in

jw
friends

i've poked my nose here on occasion; not as often as one would think.

in some cases, more than a year or two.. what have i missed?.

anything anyone would recommend?.

not a captive

Hello, RAYZOR.

I stumbled into this site shortly after I mailed my letter of DA and purchased a copy of COC.

I cleared out of the Organization but--- it is taking a while for the WTS to clear out of me! This forum has been a way to accelerate the process. I recommend it to anyone leaving the WTS.

I knew I was moving out of my apartment and away to the hills, when I came on the Forum. I tarried because I found a place where I love the care, the share, the flare, the dare, and the rare of it all.

My boxes long ago would have been packed but for this place. No place else could I throw thoughts that had to lie silent in my head for 20+ years. I could throw them in the arena and they were man-handled with such dexterity, respect/disrespect, care, bizarre humor and seriousness. Since everyone knows what it means to have suffered the destruction of being a ghost in the WTS , the very fact that these kinds of threads go on here helps us recover our substance. Yeah, a little "substance abuse" is beneficial here.

Then Ray Franz died--and that kept me longer. It was a milestone moment for everyone--Ray the man I never heard of while a JW!

Apparently there are attempts to leave this site behind to make a new life. (It is hard to limit oneslf to only a few minutes a day here.) But for me it is not aplace I plan to leave forever; its a touchstone now, not for illness but for recovery. I hope it is a part of a new life for me.

I may not have internet(for a while at least). So I'm glad to meet you before I go. So it is not only hello, but.....

Good bye, too.

Maeve

116

Nazi Propaganda: Propaganda Techniques

by alice.in.wonderland in

the manipulation of information - jehovah's witnesses official web site.

"by clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise.

" adolf hitler, mein kampf.

not a captive

Do you believe it is true, that an imperfect human or group of humans would not be infallible in matters of interpretation or prophecy?

116

Nazi Propaganda: Propaganda Techniques

by alice.in.wonderland in

the manipulation of information - jehovah's witnesses official web site.

"by clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise.

" adolf hitler, mein kampf.

not a captive

Alice,

I think that early on C.T. Russell was a sincere student of the Bible. And the WT archives have quotes from him saying that he didn't invent some of the teachings that are assumed to be his...The teachings about hell are from either George Storrs or Henry Grew. He was just trying to see what the Bible said for himself.

He did use information from others. And I just want the same opportunity to seek for myself.

Do the scriptures authorize the FDS to do spiritual food distribution? It may be. But the were not commissionedto lord it over others by making a new, true religion. Luke 12 and Matt.24 talk about this. Jesus warned that if the slave began to beat his fellow slaves he would be punished with the utmost severity.

Now, I have a question.

If some brute of a co-worker is beating you and your boss shows up, who do you think he needs to ask if you are Okay? Should your boss ask the guy whose beating you or should he ask you? The guy beating you might just say he's keeping you in line. But it's you who will know he's lying, it's who will know you are being beaten.

They are not offering spiritual food as free choice now, Alice. If they were in the beginning as Bible Students, remember it was free choice. But what they are doing now is just plain brutal.