not a captive

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Posts by not a captive

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  24

  Pics of tornado damage by our house that hit FRI night

  by purplesofa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  three of my kids live within two miles of where this tornado hit friday night.. it was a pretty frightful night.

  my daughters apt was three inches from getting flooded.

  we moved what we could to upstairs and on shelves.. stayed in half bath with grandbaby with pillows and blankets over the baby.. my son has been working at this site where it hit to help out.. these pics were taken today (sunday) can't imagine what it looked like yesterday, they said there were over 300 (worldly) .

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  not a captive

  I feel helpless when those warnings come. Glad you are okay. Those trees were big ,the ones that were twisted in two. What a wreck!
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  127

  LOVE your ENEMIES: where Jesus goes wrong

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  matthew 5:44 "but i say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,.

  luke 6:35 "but love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.

  the most radical teaching attributed to jesus has implications if followed.. an invading hoarde of mongols would not be resisted.. a christian husband would not only allow his wife and daughters to be raped; he would be compelled to forgive the rapist, pray for him and offer.

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  not a captive

  My one of my daughters went to Calcutta and taught children at a school that was for children of prostitutes. Desperate women worked the only job they had available to feed their children. After a while she saw that no amount of teaching these wonderfulchildren could remake the society that reduced their caste-bound mothers to sex-bondage. She would watch a child whose hair she had just combed the lice from wander unprotected into the slums, taking their chances in a world where they would never, ever be valued.

  Now this daughter of mine hates JW religion--for good reason--but I have always told her "Don't throw Jesus away with the JWs" And I had talked to her about that before the JWs tore that Jesus from us one little rip at a time--like a bandage over the wounds of our life. It left our hurts exposed and painful. Unprotected. That's how it seemed to me.

  She wanted to help these children into jobs when they had achieved so much--they could do work that could raise them from poverty but it turned out that their own world had no mercy. She said after a while she saw the problem of these people, the children, as needing not a redistribution of money but a redistribution of worth. Because there was nothing she or anyone else could do to remake their world. It is a world that men have made for them.

  Jesus gave me the assurance that I have worth. Why would I deny that sense of personal value to a person no matter how they are treated by others or by what is done to them. I believe I have value even if I am treated like shit by others.

  Don't know if this is of interest to you--but it has helped me through a manure-filled life and I know of others it has helped too. No I don't mean the JWs.

  Maeve
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  82

  Some thing for woman to think about

  by is there help out there in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  almost all woman want to get married and have children.

  if you are a faithful jw woman there is a good chance this will never happen.

  70% of jw are woman and 30% are men.

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  not a captive

  Yes, I know a young widow with two young boys that has been lonesome and miserable for the 20-odd years since she was baptised. It makes me cry. She wanted a mate. She fell for a non-JW and was DF'd then came back. All alone.
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  127

  LOVE your ENEMIES: where Jesus goes wrong

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  matthew 5:44 "but i say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,.

  luke 6:35 "but love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.

  the most radical teaching attributed to jesus has implications if followed.. an invading hoarde of mongols would not be resisted.. a christian husband would not only allow his wife and daughters to be raped; he would be compelled to forgive the rapist, pray for him and offer.

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  not a captive

  I'm sad for what your uncle did to your daughter, Quentin. My sister was raped by a neighbor when she was in kindergarden.I often feel that the greatest gift you can give a child is a childhood free of molestation. I have several friends who have suffered these things. The world is full of heartless creeps who cannot feel a shred of self-control or remorse for the evil stink they leave in other's lives. In a child's life.

  I don't think Jesus tells me that I have to feel the same feeling for the guy who hurt my sister as I do for my sister. I try to understand.

  The best I can do is think how when we have our first kid we learn what love is; we have our second kid we learn what real justice is. We are all God's children. If we are God's children but one does something horrible to the other, even though he loves them both , the harm one has done to the other must not be ignored. That would be really, REALLY wrong. Not to let the injured child know that they were wronged would block the first way path to healing. And the abuse must not be allowed to go on and the abuser punished.

  The saying "Least said, soonest mended" is not true. Oh, how wonderful it would be if saying nothing would heal the child. My parents tried that, but it didn't work.

  But what about a perpetrator? They have to be outed for the wrong, call the evil act what it is it is. "Anyone who causes one of these little ones to stumble it would be better for a millstone to be tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea." It is at the discretion of the victim to cover over or not. But a criminal on the loose is a sentence of the same crime on another child.

  Jesus was not passive as regards these things--not as I see it. He looks for restoring the injured one first. I believe the greatest freedom is when the victim reaches the point where they can leave the shame and the criminal has to bear it. Those who cover and protect a wrong and the wrongdoer are as guilty as the one who did it. They make the victim bear the burden of pretending nothing happened.

  I believe this discussion of Jesus and love gets derailed because we don't talk honestly about things that are truly wrong. That is what make "faders" sick inside.When people have to stuff their feelings, pretending things are fine when they are not. But that is another topic. Jesus spoke out and they killed him.

  That said he did forgive the ones that nailed him dow(but not the pharisees)

  Sorry for talking so much. Your post hit a nerve. I'm sorry for you and your girl, Quentin. I am hoping you all get better. Maeve
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  41

  How Many 18-35 year old JW's have Exited the Cult in Your Family ?

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just wanted to start this to get a pulse on how many young jw's are exiting percentage wise recently in the witness organization.

  in my family i have 8 young people aged 21 through 35 .

  these are my son and two daughters and my older siblings 5 adult children.

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  not a captive

  Just skip to the pink stripe unless you want the details.

  I was baptized when pregnant with my sixth child and had one more afterward:

  Husband never in. Of our children :

  1. Quit studying in 11th grade. She graduated from college and is doing very well.

  2. Baptised at 14 and had doubts spring up by the time she graduated. On her way to Alaska, via my sister in Washington, she went to a Tacoma, Wa convention. She called to tell me she didn't believe it any more. I never quit talking to her. She told me a year ago that she finally is able to pray again. Ahe hates, HATES, this religion. She was treated badly when she voiced her doubts to her favorite elder. She bounced around and eventually went to college and graduated. She is okay but I worry about her still.

  3. My son studied for a year and quit.

  4. This son never studied.

  5. This son studied on and off finally got baptised at 21 and got DF'd for general hell-raising and drinking. Very up-front. Had some friends who were good to him and an elder who was truly like a father. No on talked to him after that. It really messed with him. The whole thing. In fact when I was going through my own year of decision he kind of was critical of some of my conclusions---like he really believed it was the "Truth" to him.

  6.This son went to meetings with me for a while when my husband would allow it. But that was stopped when he was still little.

  7. This girl stopped studying in the 10th grade and I would not force her to go to meetings. She was never baptised. She has a full scholarship to college.

  Two were all the way in and now are all the way out. My youngest got way in but refused to be corraled.There was direct pressure from the elders to get a Bible study with someone other than myself. But she told them she didn't need more knowledge--she needed a relationship with God and knowledge wouldn't give it to her. She was strong.

  Even though I hate that I exposed my kids to this destructive cult I did at least recognize how bizarre I is to cut them off if they were "out"-especially when the natural course of life has its own ways of limiting contact when someone is doing drugs, drinking a lot, stripping or just doing a lot of crazy living. You probably aren't seeing them much unless you are liking that too--which might be the bigger issue for a Christian. So I talked to mine.

  My family had plenty of issues aside from the wounds caused by me being a Witness. But I still hate what it did to us.
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  12

  THE JERUSALEM BIBLE...2 SAMUEL 7:3...

  by Quentin in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  2 samuel 7:3...nathan said to the king, "go and do all that is in your mind, for yahweh is with you.. all other translations i have read, including the nwt, say "heart".

  why did the jb use the word mind....?.

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  not a captive

  The Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says that word in the Hebrew was leb or lebab---the heart; also used(figl) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect, likwise the center of anything.

  Does that help? Maeve
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  9

  Why will you ALWAYS be a Witless - even by denying it??

  by hamsterbait in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  no matter what anybody here says, you should never ever disclose to your friends you used to be a dub.. you are either.

  1: an active witless.

  2: weak.

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  not a captive

  I have another view of your friend's question: He wants you to talk about it.

  I have plenty of people for friends since I have time to pursue friendship with them (every minute was taken before with work, family and then WT stuff took everything else). They always new I was a witness before but didn't know how hard/ impossible it was to interact with them while under the control of the religion. I think your friend should hear you tell him how people might get hooked into the Organization and that it is very hard to get out.

  He should appreciate what a strong person you are to shake it--and then he just might shut up about it! Maeve
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  30

  My awakening and realization that I have been told a lie

  by Soldier77 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi all, new posting, but i've been lurking for a while.

  i thought it was time to "come out" as it were and voice my story.... i was born into the jw cult surrounded by all of my jw family.

  grandfather was an elder for almost 40 years till he passed, both of my uncles are currently now elders and have been for the last 15 years.

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  not a captive

  As he said, " The Truth will set you free"

  Glad you saw through the Organization's claim to be the true religion, Soldier 77. Be truthful as you go along, stand your ground. I am still working through what it means to be "out". But it is definitely a new kind of "happy" for me every single day.

  Others will give you help along your way. But if the Organization hasn't destroy your faith in God, then you will find a different way to relate to Him even as you have begun to read the Bible with new eyes.

  The elders will tell you differently if/when they discover you are not with the program any more, but God will not abandon you. God bless you.

  Maeve
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  5

  Why Jehovah’s Witnesses “Universal Sovereignty” Doctrine is Fallacious

  by sabastious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  not a captive

  Sab,

  The whole theological construction of the Organization is rotten. Just ditch it all and find for yourself the mustard seed that Jesus told us about. Even if there is infinite knowedge floating out there in the great beyond, most of us wake up each day with the obligations to pay rent and feed our family. The WTS has beat us all up with its "provisions" promising we know so much now. It steals our mustard seed.

  But the mustard seed of faith is where it is at for me. Scripture may have been messed with but neverthe less I am convinced that the essence of God's word was yet in the Logos, Jesus. That is MY mustard grain. And just as fervently I believe that any teaching that was ever derived from a committee's vote is not God's word and cannot be. Because our relationship with God cannot be tainted by a group, we cannot doubt that we can hear the word when we ourselves listen. Neither can we compel another to believe as we do.

  If ever we have a new "go" here on the earth, "vindication of God's sovereignty" would only be that we gently listen and repose in our faith. But we would not be organized.

  Glad you are up and running today, Maeve
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  20

  Did The Witnesses "Do A Job" On You?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  were you really screwed up because of having been a witness?.

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  not a captive

  I laughed, BrokenPromises! That's how I feel.

  Or as my dad used to ask "How do you tell when a duck has diarrhea?"

  ( Maybe that makes sense if only if you've been around ducks. But if it doesn't then you get my first point anyway.) Maeve