Posts by ambersun

16

Proof That The "Truth" Is A Cult

by metatron in

jw
friends

once upon a time, an elder approached brother discouraged in the back of the kingdom hall.

he said, "we've missed you at the meetings.

is there some problem?".

ambersun

Is it a cult? I've had a long think about this and here's my two penneth worth.

My JW family choose to believe I no longer go to meetings because I have been stumbled in the past, resulting in my 'temporary' loss of faith in God, but they choose to believe that given time I will come back to 'The Truth'. They are OK with this and are loving and sympathetic towards me.

However, losing faith in God is one thing. If I were to tell them that I think their GB are unispired men running a glorified publishing company using them all as unpaid labour, I doubt if I would be treated with such gentle sympathy and understanding. Lovely as they all are, they are trained to never tolerate such apostate thinking so I constantly bite my tongue when I see my loved ones with health problems dragging their poor tired bodies out in field service auxilliary pioneering and 'placing' WT literature when they should be at home resting.

So, I feel reasonably comfortable knowing they realise I have doubts about God but instinctively I know never under any circumstances to critisize their GB. I don't think I need to spell it out whether I think it is a cult or not.

62

The classic features of a JW wedding are:

by highdose in

firstly a wedding/sales talk that mostly features heavily on how the woman should behave (hint, doormat) and lightly brushes over the fact of the husbands bevhaviour ( oh yeah he should treat her well).

the reception normaly at some crummy comunity hall with yellowed ceilings and chucks of damp plaster falling off the walls.

the seats normaly arranged facing eachother all around the edge, so that theres a huge unused space in the middle and everyone is climbing over everyone elses legs to get to their chair.. a big spread donated by everyone, normaly an ode to food poisoning.

ambersun

they always had polkas, waltzes, and the chicken dance thrown in at the reception. (in wisconsin anyways)

Yes, this was also the case in England before I left the borg. Chairs lined up against the walls all round the reception hall, the centre space left free for dancing, which usually consisted of groups of little girls twirling around being carefully sidestepped by middle aged and elderly JW couples who were trying to dance, as the music was always the sort that required a knowledge of ballroom dancing steps. This automatically excluded anyone under about 45 who hadn't received any ballroom dancing lessons. We all knew there would be no music played that evening that wouldn't be suitable for a pensioner's tea party.

Then after a while they would liven things up with the chicken dance and barn dances that everyone could join in. This bit was actually quite enjoyable!There was always a variety show where various talented members of the congregations showed off their acting or musical skills.

Then waving the happy couple off on their honeymoon, more ballroom dancing, mainly the older ones again with some young ones shuffling around the floor joining in out of boredom. Engelbert Humperdink's waltz "Save the Last Dance for Me" was ALWAYS played to signify the reception was over (at around 11.30pm) and everyone should go home to their beds so they could be up bright and early for fields service in the morning. Of course, there were eagle eyes everywhere monitoring the alcohol consumption and any 'improper' behaviour.

In fairness, I am going back a long time here, so hopefully things have changed these days.

11

Memorial Attendance

by DagothUr in

jw
friends

according to the jdub talk forum, the memorial attendance this year was pretty high.

my opinion is that it is a turmoiled year so some people seek refuge in religion.

they think it was because of their "increased activity" and i guess so does the gb think too.

ambersun

Oh dear, I have had to practically make appointments to speak to my JW family as it is, they all seem to be out knocking doors at every available moment this month and I know for a fact that at least two of them are not well enough to be doing all this and are risking seriously damaging their health.

115

Memorial - How many on here went and how many didn't?

by IMHO in

jw
friends

feel free to add why/why not?.

ambersun

I didn't go. Spent a happy evening at home with Hubby watching a film

34

The first thing I did when I left the WT....

by sherry123 in

jw
friends

was sing the national anthem out loud......alone......in my house.

what did you do?.

ambersun

Told the school we were no longer JWs so the children could now live normal lives and were allowed to have FUN. The teachers were cheering along with us!!

At the age of 40 I enrolled myself in the college course I was not allowed to do as a teenager (due to it being a total waste of time as armageddon would strike before I finished the course)

Enrolled my dog on an obedience course that was held on meeting nights. That gave me tremendous satisfaction!

Started having fun as a family, going out at weekends instead of spending them knocking doors and sitting in stuffy KHs.

The list goes on .....................

50

Don't you DARE to get up!!

by stillin9 in

interesting points from this week's wt study (dec 15 2010 study edition):.

par 12: "do i encourage my children not to view the song between the theocratic ministry school and the service meeting or the one between the public talk and the watchtower study as a sort of intermission,an opportunity for them to leave their seats unnecessarily, perhaps just to stretch their legs?".

why do they have to make such a big deal out of everything?

ambersun

I would think that if anyone found themselves in prison, the last thing on their minds would be singing Kingdom Songs, or any other songs for that matter.

Also, on the subject of forcing young children to sit through two hours of meetings designed for adults, the contrast between how children are treated at KHs and the Methodist church up the road to us is quite an eyeopener.

A couple I know who did not belong to any particular religion decided, out of curiosity, to go to the local Methodist church one Sunday with their very young daughter who had never been inside a church before. As soon as they walked in they were given a very warm welcome, but the warmest welcome of all was directed towards their little daughter. A nice, kind lady asked her if she would like to join the other children in the Sunday school while Mummy and Daddy sat in the main church listening to the Vicar. She gently took her by the hand and lead her into the adjouning room, smiling and chatting all the time to put her at her ease.

Well, the parents had a peaceful hour giving their full attention to the sermon while their daughter enjoyed herself in Sunday school learning about the bible in a gentle, fun, age related manner. When the service was over, all the children came skipping out of Sunday school with drawings of the bible characters they had been learning about during the hour. Everybody was stress free, no children had been forced to sit still on uncomfortably hard chairs staring straight ahead of them listening to a droning voice that they could not understand. The children were treated with respect and dignity, being taught in a manner appropriate to their ages and most importantly of all, made to feel welcome.

Given a choice, if I were a child I know for sure which religion I would prefer to join!!

61

Going Door to Door with Scrolls

by VM44 in

does anyone know where this anachronistic and propagandistic picture came from?.

did a watchtower artist draw it?.

.

ambersun

In those days, there were no printing presses. Scriptures were copied by hand, AND were very expensive. Few could afford hand-copied copies!

Exactly right, PublishingCult.

Who had the job of copying these scrolls? After all, someone had to do it as they wouldn't write themselves. Are we to believe these men spend their entire nights sitting up at their dining tables by candle light writing out dozens of copies neatly by hand in order to devote the daylight hours to going from door to door giving them out to householders who were most probably illiterate anyway?

How would these men afford all the papyrus and ink? It is hightly unlikely they would be able to charge enough money to cover these costs. Also, the writers' cramp they would experience would be excruciating to say nothing of sleep depravation in order to get all the scrolls ready for an early start out in field service next morning. Really silly.

Mind you, even when I was a JW I always tended to be very sceptical about things like this that other JWs just accepted as wonderful upbuilding 'facts'. Sometimes I felt like pulling my hair out in frustration at some of the highly improbable examples they gave us in the WT, but thanks to JWN I realise I was not on my own

90

Stupid not just once but twice, and it is praised

by therevealer in

jw
friends

12 the watchtower ?

5 what good results there can be when.

children are trained to keep a simple eye!.

ambersun

lol at pontoon

90

Stupid not just once but twice, and it is praised

by therevealer in

jw
friends

12 the watchtower ?

5 what good results there can be when.

children are trained to keep a simple eye!.

ambersun

I especially hated the stories about people who supposedly swam across crocodile infested rivers, hacked their way through a jungle or climbed over a mountain to attend their meetings.

That brings back some memories lol. Don't forget the one about the man braving bandits to get to the meetings knowing he would be murdered if caught. They did catch him in fact, but the bandits were so impressed with his faith that they let him go. Yeah, right . Then there was the crippled elderly sister who crawled for miles to the meeting on her hands and knees rather than miss it when there was nobody available to take her. Who on earth was this martyr to the faith? Possibly this Ethiopian girl's grandmother?

73

My Labrador died can anyone please help me. I can't stand the pain.

by Witness 007 in

my wife recovered from depression just 14 months ago and things have been going well.....so much so that i started a buisness for her and we are two weeks into it.

my labby was ill vomiting abit of discomfort, i thought great, you ate something bad again!

the vet gave him a shot and sent us home.

ambersun

My heart goes out to you Witness 007. I know only too well what that pain is like. When our dog died we were all overwhelmed with grief and still miss him terribly, but thank goodness the heart wrenching pain has now eased off.

Also, please rest assured that you are quite normal in your feelings of guilt, wondering if you could have done more at the time. I was exactly the same and tortured myself for ages as I went over and over his last days in my head thinking of ways I could have made things better. This is all part of the normal grieving process and WILL pass in time even though you may not believe it right now.

Hopefully by reading these posts it will help knowing you are not on your own with your unbearable pain and anyone who has lost a beloved pet will know the pain and the emotions you are feeling right now. Try not to beat yourself up over it. Your lab was really lucky to have had such a happy life with owners who adored him.

Take care Witness 007. Please be assured time is a great healer