today's study topic included disfellowship.
i'm a little confused i was told that the only way you can be disfellowshipped was if you did something you knew went agains jehovah and would not repent for it.
but the only person you can repent to is jehovah......... then i was told that the elders can however "keep the flock pure" b/c if jehovah is not happy with the congregation he can take his holy spirit away.
tatoogrl,
You go girl! Always, always, always ask questions. No matter what the topic, a JW will always tell you that asking questions shows weakness and an unbelieving heart. I should know, I've been on the receiving end of that two by four in the past.
As for Godrules, just read my signature line below. That's all I have to say in regards to your post.
lol, (only to you tatoogrl)
jjs
Opinions are like a**holes. We've all got one and most of them stink.
if you were granted to speak 100 words or less before the g.b.
and entire bethel family what would you say?
( all right maybe more than 100 words).
Winston,
This is a hard one to try in 100 words or less but here goes.
Dear Sirs,
I once hated you for convincing my mother that it was more righteous for her to die and leave me behind, than to accept a blood transfusion.
I once hated you for convincing me that I was a worthless, evil, demon possesed teenager because of my sexual orientation.
I once hated you for convincing my father, stepmother, siblings, friends and any witness worldwide to avoid me like the plague when I decided that I could no longer live by your rules.
I once hated you for convincing me that the world was an evil, empty and lonely place, and then throwing me into it cut off and utterly alone.
I once hated you for the years I spent contemplating killing myself because I knew that I could never be the person you kept trying to convince me I should be.
Finally, I once hated you for lying to me and everyone I loved by telling us your were THE only way to salvation.
I no longer hate you. I have long since forgiven you. Not for You, but for myself. Because I finally realized after much soul searching that my hatred for you was only hurting me. YOU never really loved me. YOU never really cared about my life, or the lives of the ones that I loved. YOU only cared that I was no longer a faithful little lamb eagerly willing to follow your lead. And in closing I would like to THANK YOU, for finally making those facts totally and utterly clear to me.
jjs
(Winston, sorry I couldn't keep it under 100 words.)
for those who don't know what a buckeye is, it is the state tree of ohio.
it also grows in michigan, but most michiganders try to kill them off and burn them at ohio state - michigan football games when ohio state loses.
the buckey tree produces brown fruit that look like a chestnut, except they are poisonous.
JAVA & larc,
I kinda figured Java meant the hospital and not the kingdom hall. Ha.
Feel free to email me also if you'd like. I'll warn you, I love to talk religion and faith but I'm a die hard athiest. I posted my "life story" about a month ago if you want to check it out.
Take care,
jjs
Opinions are like a**holes. We've all got one and most of them stink.
for those who don't know what a buckeye is, it is the state tree of ohio.
it also grows in michigan, but most michiganders try to kill them off and burn them at ohio state - michigan football games when ohio state loses.
the buckey tree produces brown fruit that look like a chestnut, except they are poisonous.
JAVA,
It's nice to find out I'm not the only XJW in town. I live just down the street from the KH in Kettering. Everyday I pass by it and shake my head at the stupidity. I just might take you up on that coffee offer.
Take care,
jjs
Opinions are like a**holes. We've all got one and most of them stink.
dont you think that it is stupid when you hear the dubs say that all appointments are made by the jehovahs holy spirit?.
how many times have you heard of elders/ms etc.
that were commiting all sorts of wrong doings while at the same time serving and passing judgement on others.. i remember when i was appointed ms there was a brother that was appointed at the same time, that accepted the assignment and served for almost a year before they found out he was commiting adultery all the while.. then you have the pedophiles that operate within the congregation some being elders etc.. i know for a fact that i could be a fornicator/drug user/closet queer/ are anything bad and keep it secret and i could move up the ranks as high as i pleased.. hell i could even be a undercover apostate/fornicator/all of the above and still get appointed if i kissed enough ass.. i could pioneer and lie about the hours,they would never figure it out.
Big Jim,
It wasn't the terminology you used that bothers me. It was the fact that you have no problem lumping gays (queers/fags/dykes..sticks and stones baby just sticks and stones) in the same group as fornicators/drug users etc.
LOL,
jjs
Opinions are like a**holes. We've all got one and most of them stink.
dont you think that it is stupid when you hear the dubs say that all appointments are made by the jehovahs holy spirit?.
how many times have you heard of elders/ms etc.
that were commiting all sorts of wrong doings while at the same time serving and passing judgement on others.. i remember when i was appointed ms there was a brother that was appointed at the same time, that accepted the assignment and served for almost a year before they found out he was commiting adultery all the while.. then you have the pedophiles that operate within the congregation some being elders etc.. i know for a fact that i could be a fornicator/drug user/closet queer/ are anything bad and keep it secret and i could move up the ranks as high as i pleased.. hell i could even be a undercover apostate/fornicator/all of the above and still get appointed if i kissed enough ass.. i could pioneer and lie about the hours,they would never figure it out.
Big Jim,
While I agree with you on this subject I must express my opinion on the following statement you made in your post.
"I know for a fact that I could be a fornicator/drug user/closet queer/ are anything bad and keep it secret and I could move up the ranks as high as I pleased."
As a gay man I must object to the fact that you lumped "queer" (very derogatory term by the way, I prefer the term Big Fag) in with fornicators and drug users. Since I have no reason to believe otherwise I will assume that this was an innocent lapse of judgement on your part.
Take care,
jjs
Opinions are like a**holes. We've all got one and most of them stink.
for those who don't know what a buckeye is, it is the state tree of ohio.
it also grows in michigan, but most michiganders try to kill them off and burn them at ohio state - michigan football games when ohio state loses.
the buckey tree produces brown fruit that look like a chestnut, except they are poisonous.
larc,
My partner and I live in Kettering. I was raised in Middletown but moved to Dayton after my split from the Borg. Your post made me laugh. It reminded me of the awful candy my grandmother use to make that she called buckeyes. I don't know if they were really called that but they looked just like them. They were hard as rocks and I won't even begin to explain what they tasted like. Anyway we would hide behind the fence at the KH and throw them at the wordly kids in the neighborhood. That was the only way to get their attention since we weren't allowed to speak to them, unless of course we were going to preach to them. You know the old JW saying about bad associations spoiling useful habits. I guess I turned out to be the bad association! Who knew!! Anyway that memory brings back happy thoughts so thanks for sending a smile my way.
Take care,
jjs
Opinions are like a**holes. We've all got one and most of them stink.
i wish to conduct a legitimate poll, or at least as legitimate as it can get on this forum.
unless you are or were a jw, please do not respond or make comments.
please simply give an answer, without extended comments.
One that admitted to me he had been a molester B4 dunking, and one other who was rumored but never proven. That was in a total of 2 congs. Of course I thought the first one was kinda strange as I was 14 when he told me.
this is my first post to this board so please be gentle with me.
ha!
i wanted to tell my story, which in itself is not all that different than others i have read here, but here goes.
Prisca,
Thanks for the support. I really appreciate it, and I plan on sticking around. I didn't think that posting my story would make me feel one way or the other, but it turned out to be quite cathartic.
jjs
this is my first post to this board so please be gentle with me.
ha!
i wanted to tell my story, which in itself is not all that different than others i have read here, but here goes.
Hello. This is my first post to this board so please be gentle with me. HA! I wanted to tell my story, which in itself is not all that different than others I have read here, but here goes. Myself and my 5 brothers and sisters were all born into the "truth", our parents having both been baptized about two years prior to my oldest sisters birth. By the time I was in my teens, my family was considered the "shining example" of what a Witness family should be. My father was a highly respected Elder and my mother was a special and then a regular pioneer from the time that all of the children were very young. We were always the family you would see on stage at the conventions being paraded around and told how wonderful we were. I absolutely hated it!!! All I could think of afterwards was that they would not have used us as such a great example if they had just lived in our home for just one day. Things started to come to a head in 1977 when my father decided that he wanted another child. My mother, having suffered a miscarriage a short time before this refused to even discuss it. Believe it or not (but I'm sure you will) my father forced my mother to go with him to see the elders where he informed them that his wife was not subitting to his God given authority. And of course, the Elders being a group of Neanderthals took his side in the matter and informed my mother that she could face disciplinary action if she did not follow her husbands lead in this and all other matters. My mother did as she was told and against her doctors advise became pregnant. Her doctor was so upset at her and my father that even though he has delivered her last four children, he dropped her as a patient and refused to treat her. The doctor told her that he was not going to standby and watch her kill herself just to have another child. Of course my father said that the doctor didn't know what he was talking about and that he was sure everything would be fine since he had prayed to Jehovah (I hate even typing that word) and was certain that HE would take care of everything. Well needless to say since we don't live in a fairy tale world, things did not quite work out the way my father had promised. My angel mother passed away due to complications with her pregnancy in August of 78 at the ripe old age of 36 leaving one stunned husband and six devestated children behind. At my mothers funeral I could not get over the fact that the bros and sisters kept saying that J (sorry but I've typed it once and don't care to again) must have had a plan and that everything would work out in the end. These were grown men and women making assinine statements that I as a 13 year old kid new was total crap. After my mothers passing it seems as if the whole congregation went mental. Several persons that my mother had studied with and brought into the "truth" were suddenly being disfellowshipped right and left. Suddenly I wasn't allowed to even speak to people who had been like aunts and uncles to me. My father went off the deep end emotionally which wasn't surprising since all of his children were convinced he had killed our mother just as if he had picked up a gun and blown her away. He couldn't deal with us at all so he brought our 60 year old grandmother to watch us while he stayed away from home as much as possible. My grandmother tried her best but no 60 year old woman should be asked to take care of six kids between the ages of 5 and 15. To make a long story short my father decided that what he needed was a new wife to help him care for his "wayward" children. So 10 months after my mother passed we suddenly had a new stepmother. I have always wondered and have remarked to her in the past that she was either the bravest person I had ever met or the most stupid. Anyway, that was just the begining of the newest drama that was brewing. Can you tell where this is going? You guessed it. My stepmother became pregnant on her honeymoon. Less than one year after my mothers death, my father had finally managed to have another child. My older sister and I went ballistic! And this time we were not the only ones who were fit to be tied. I thought a couple of my mothers friends were going to kill my father. It got so bad that about 2 years and yes another child later, my father decided that our family needed a "fresh start" so he moved us away from everyone we knew into a congregation where he could once again be the big cheese and have his ever growing ego stroked again. That's where the trouble really started. I had by the age of 16 decided that I was not going to be baptized as I had no desire what so ever to be a JW. I told my father how I felt and he proceded to punch me in the face. I decided that the best thing for me to do was to leave before things became more violent but my father would not let me out the door and when I continued to try he made two telephone calls. One to the local travelling elder brigade and one to the cops. He figured if one couldn't stop me then the other probably would. He was wrong on both counts. I may not have left that night but as far as I was (and still am) concerned our relationship was over. I may have had to stay there physically but they couldn't force me to be there mentally. About this same time my stepmother figured out that I was smoking. Well you know the drill, I was called before a commitee and was told I had one week to quit or I would be DA'd. Remember I never took the dunk so when they threatend me it really ticked me off. I had been holding on to a secrect that I had never shared with anyone but I figured now was the time to spill the beans. If they were going to kick me out and shun me over cigarettes I figured it was only fair that I give them a really good reason. With my father sitting in the room I advised the commitee that I would not quit smoking and reminded them that since I had never committed myself to being a JW that they had no right or power to do anything to me at all. Well that got thier collective attention. Then I looked one of the elders right in the eye and advised them that if they were going to DA me then they might as well know the entire truth. I advised the commitee that I was a sexually active homosexual and had been for over a year. I also informed them that I was in a relationship (well as much as a 16 year old can be) with a man 15 years my senior and that not only was I not about to change, I had absolutely no desire to. Well you would of thought that Satan himself had just entered the room taken a giant dump in the middle of the floor. My father literally turned green. I thought for sure he was going to have a heart attack on the spot. Well that did it as far as the elders and my father were concerned. I was DA'd on the spot and my father told me to get my stuff and get out. I did and I haven't looked back since. I moved out on my own and to my suprise I learned that the world was not full of evil nasty people who couldn't wait to cause me trouble. In fact the only ones who caused me any major trouble in my life were the JW's. I had no contact with anyone in my family except for my older sister for six years. Then the WBTS suddenly had some "new light" and decided that it wasn't fair of them to DA someone who had never wanted to be a JW to begin with. That was mighty white of them. Suddenly my father was free to contact me. I decided that since he had made the first move I would at least hear what he had to say. At that point I was still smoking and most definitely still gay and it didn't take me long to realize that my father was only hoping to bring me back into the fold. I even went to the KH with him during a moment of lunacy and it took about 5 minutes for me to remember why I had left in the first place. I spent the rest of the meeting sitting in my car in the parking lot smoking where I had a nice conversation (that's gay speak for car sex) with a nice Ministarial Servant, I kid you not. Since that day 10 years ago I've spoken to my father twice, the last time being 8 years ago, and that's the way I like it. What I think is really funny is that I am the only one of my brothers and sisters that's managed to have a pretty fantastic life. I have a good job that makes me decent money, a nice home, and best of all a great partner who has stood my side come hell or high water for the last 8 years. All this while my oldest sister has been Df'd for years and is now on husband number 4. One of my younger sisters has been DF'd 3 times and is now on husband number 3 and my youngest brother spent time in prison for breaking and entering. And yet I'm still considered the black sheep of my family. Only in JW land is that even remotely logical. Well there you have it. Sorry to have rambled but once I got started I just couldn't stop until the whole story was out in the open.
LOL jjs
Opinions are like a**holes. We've all got one and most of them stink.
