Posts by not a captive

24

Officially announced at meeting: I am an ex-parrot......

by not a captive in

jw
friends

i mailed my letter of disassociation three months ago.

no response.

i saw a friend(was once?

not a captive

Kisses for You, Shamus, you naughty rascal. Now I don't have that cloud of not quite belonging---Now I'm officially on the outs!

24

Officially announced at meeting: I am an ex-parrot......

by not a captive in

jw
friends

i mailed my letter of disassociation three months ago.

no response.

i saw a friend(was once?

I mailed my letter of disassociation three months ago. No response. I saw a friend(was once?) who is a JW asked if they had announced my disfellowshipping. She didn't know, hadn't heard. She had missed so many Thursday night meetings. I wrote my former Book Study Conductor to find out. Received a text message a couple of hours ago. Yes it was announced.

Does anyone remember Monty Python's Flying Circus? For some reason all I could think of was the skit about the ex-parrot. I am a parrot no more.

Hey, everybody! I'm an X-PARROT!

Maeve

13

Art Linkletter dies at 97

by straightshooter in

sad to hear that art linkletter passed away.

i remember his shows, they were very entertaining.

i especially enjoyed the "kids say the darndest things.".

not a captive

I always liked that man. He was open about the pain of his daughter's suicide. I didn't hear much about suicide then. Maybe it was just me. I liked him.

99

Is the Gospel of Matthew a clever fake ?

by wobble in

the answer to the above question hinges on when the gospel was actually written.

many scholars feel it was written some time after the destruction of the temple in 70 c.e.

if this is so, it is a clever fake, pretending to have been written earlier by an eye-witness to the events, or someone close to an eye-witness.

not a captive

Leolaia, Thank you for such very cool and even-handed information.

99

Is the Gospel of Matthew a clever fake ?

by wobble in

the answer to the above question hinges on when the gospel was actually written.

many scholars feel it was written some time after the destruction of the temple in 70 c.e.

if this is so, it is a clever fake, pretending to have been written earlier by an eye-witness to the events, or someone close to an eye-witness.

not a captive

It may be off-topic, Tammy, but someone had to put it out of its misery. Thanks.

45

Do other religions change doctrine?

by serenitynow! in

after visiting with a couple of jws over the weekend; and for the first time talking about my true feelings about the org with active jws other than immediate fam, one of them mentioned something interesting.

when i talked about how with the constant changes to beliefs that i find it impossible to believe that the gb can be guided by the hs.

so one of the jws said, "other religions change doctrines around too.

not a captive

45

Do other religions change doctrine?

by serenitynow! in

after visiting with a couple of jws over the weekend; and for the first time talking about my true feelings about the org with active jws other than immediate fam, one of them mentioned something interesting.

when i talked about how with the constant changes to beliefs that i find it impossible to believe that the gb can be guided by the hs.

so one of the jws said, "other religions change doctrines around too.

not a captive

People can claim whatever they like as long as it stops righ there. If they ask/demand/threaten my participation there is something going on well worth being skeptical about.

That is precisely where you and I agree, Terry.

It should be noted that there were people who became "buddies with a whale" after they made fun of the old fisherman. They were not forced to believe anything.They considered his story and went out with him in his panga--without a harpoon. They wanted to know for themselves if it was true that the Grey whale that they killed or that killed them had made friends with the fisherman. They took the risk themselves.

This story is anti-religion, anti-doctrine. It is "come and see".

I think it speaks to the raw elements of personal faith. Nothing more, nothing less. Personally, I believe that faith is always this raw. It is never processed for us by others. I think it grows after a moment of conception like the one described in the whale story. But faith like conception-- it's hard to say when it begins. And both need to gestate before they can breathe on their own.

A whale?

So what.

It hangs out by the guy's boat?

So what.

The whale doesn't destroy him?

So what?

But the guy reaches out to touch it and knows in the moment he does that the whale wanted him to. It moves in closer.

The fisherman doesn't make the story a religion. He just tells his story.

And he continues to visit the whale.

45

Do other religions change doctrine?

by serenitynow! in

after visiting with a couple of jws over the weekend; and for the first time talking about my true feelings about the org with active jws other than immediate fam, one of them mentioned something interesting.

when i talked about how with the constant changes to beliefs that i find it impossible to believe that the gb can be guided by the hs.

so one of the jws said, "other religions change doctrines around too.

not a captive

What happens with a one-off event? A fact that is not repeated.

On another thread I posted a story of a grey whale and a man meeting and becoming friends. He told the villagers what he had experienced and they said he was crazy. What if the man had died before the villagers saw the whale also?

Would that be a fact even if he was the only witness of it?

I find that religion is anyone who forces another to agree with their perception of reality.

I do not want to do that. But I do accept that a fact can occur that no one else believes has happened.

37