Sorry guys , I wasn't able to put in a title or correct my typos and grammer before I was locked out of my post.
exwhyzee
JoinedPosts by exwhyzee
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untitled
by exwhyzee inwe hooked up with a family member who is married and in bethel 15+ years.
it's almost too exhausting to go into the details here so i'll condense everything into a few main areas that were talked about over a few days.. bottom line, my wife and i finally let them know that we are not jw's anymore and so far it looks like they aren't going to shun us.
we had a really nice time with them and their witness friends who assumed we were jw's too and couldn't have been nicer.. our bethelite family members had no idea what we had been through at the hands of he elders that was the final shove out of the organization and were in agreement that things were handled badly.
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untitled
by exwhyzee inwe hooked up with a family member who is married and in bethel 15+ years.
it's almost too exhausting to go into the details here so i'll condense everything into a few main areas that were talked about over a few days.. bottom line, my wife and i finally let them know that we are not jw's anymore and so far it looks like they aren't going to shun us.
we had a really nice time with them and their witness friends who assumed we were jw's too and couldn't have been nicer.. our bethelite family members had no idea what we had been through at the hands of he elders that was the final shove out of the organization and were in agreement that things were handled badly.
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exwhyzee
We hooked up with a family member who is married and in Bethel 15+ years. It's almost too exhausting to go into the details here so I'll condense everything into a few main areas that were talked about over a few days. Bottom line, my wife and I finally let them know that we are not JW's anymore and so far it looks like they aren't going to shun us. We had a really nice time with them and their Witness friends who assumed we were JW's too and couldn't have been nicer. Our Bethelite family members had no idea what we had been through at the hands of he Elders that was the final shove out of the organization and were in agreement that things were handled badly. They expressed concern about our welfare due to the end being so close and urged us not to let imperfect people cause us to punish Jehovan. Their comments are in bold below, followed by our responses.
The end is so close : We said. they have been saying that since the turn of the century and the dates they've laid out down through the decades have been 100% incorrecet including this crazy new "Generation" teaching. None of us was even supposed to graduate high school and here we are middle aged. I said, Millions Now Living Will Never Die turned into Millions that were living are now dead. How was this not a false prophesy? I asked them to explain the new light and they looked very sheepish while doing so. I truly beleive they aren't buying this new explaination.
"Jehovah has always had an orgainzation" Show me in the Bible where Jesus followers owned a multi million dollar printing complex and were required to go around using publications to explain God's word. (They had nothing to say to this.) How can this be his organization when they keep getting things wrong. Would a loving God purposly mislead them for decades....letting them spend billions of hours spreading Billions of pieces of literature through out the earth with misinformation in them?
"It really hurts us to have you think we are wasting our lives by being at Bethel."We don't think badly of your choice to be at Bethel if that's what you want to do. We would never turn our backs on you, but why is it that JW's have the power to shun us because we have finally said out loud that we don't agree with much of their doctrine and practices anymore? You are feeling are hurt by what we've said here but you must now have an idea of how badly it makes people of other religions feel when they get leaflets and publications left at their door that says that the religion they hold dear is hated by God and they are soon to be destroyed for being a part of it.
JWe are working 40 hours a week each and have pensions and IRA's lined up and still we aren't sure it will be enough to live on when we get old. We are worried that unless you stay at Bethel forever, you will be like so many of the elderly Circuit overseers and Pioneers we've known who are old and living at the poverty level . Their comment was "Jehovah will provide" (I mouthed this along with them as they were saying it.)
"Our publications don't say Jehovah is only going to save JW's" Really?? You must be reading different literature than we are. In almost every publication they call other religions" Babylon the Great", Arent JW's urged to keep busy warning people to get out of her before armegeddon arrives and finds them sharing in her sins. They say if they don't heed this warning and accept "THE TRUTH" they have blown their chance at everlasting life. How can that not mean that they believe that. How could anyone arrive at any other conclusion than JW's think they are the only religion approved by God and will be the only ones spared.
"At least they change when they realize they are wrong" They had no choice....the dates came and went and somehow no matter what they say, God always agrees with them! Funny how he changes his mind at the same time they do. When other religions have incorrect teachings JW's call it false religion. But when they discover their own teachings are incorrect, they call it a mistake and almost indicate that God's people weren't ready for the full truth but now it is being revealed at the proper time.
Where else would we ever meet such wonderful people (indicating their friends) We agreed that leaving the organization was social suicide for us. We have no friends now. But if it's a social club, lets call it what it is....there are so many that are ready to shun thier families or let them die but they don't have a true grasp on why they believe what they do. If you really press them on the more indepth topics, they don't really understand them. They simply have been convinced that everything they hear from the Society is true and don't really think about it much furthur. They are locked in by of the Social and Family complexities that are a huge part of who they are. Not necessarily that it is the only absolute truth in the world.
Anyway we discussed so much and it's too exhausting to hash it over again here all at once. Bottom line, it all ended well....they are lovely people and they, for once in thier JW lives, weren't the only ones equipped to present their point of view.
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Throwing this out there...
by NY23brown indo jehovah's witnesses tend to contact family members no longer associated with the religion, especially around holidays, and try to get them to "come back"?
i'm married (never been a jw) and husband hasn't been a part of that religion since his teens (he's now 39).
i've written here before regarding my in-laws sending people to our house from kingdom hall, etc.
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exwhyzee
If he spent his childhood as a Witness it wouldn't take much to bring back a lot of the haunting guilt he was raised with especially if he hasn't resolved it all completley.
Sometimes it's best to let people feel what they feel. The more you try to fix them the more they dig their heels in or find justification for the mood they are in. It can be irritating to have someone try to talk you out of what you are feeling rather than let you work through it. It might be best to carry on as best you can and try not to take it personally....work around him as best you can for now. It's easier for him to blame you for his bad mood than to own up to it himself especially if he feels you are making him face or think about whatever it is that's bothering him.
Just my two cents?
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please suggest classic xmas movies...
by highdose innow theres, sound of music, its a wonderful life, philadelphia story, the great esacape... what else though?.
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exwhyzee
This is one our kids could watch as JW's
This song brings back happy memories of Christmas vacations spent snuggled up in a blanket by the fire watching movies with the boys.
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Happy Festivus!
by charlie brown jr. inhappy festivus and as always............. be careful during the feats of strength!!!!!!!
!.
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exwhyzee
We had a Festivus party at work today complete with am aluminum pole, a donation jar for the Human Fund (pizza) and an airing of the Seinfeld episode. We have a dog friendly office so my pooch and another guy's dog were entered in the "feats of strenght" portion of the celebration which was followed by a mock "airing of grievences" where we sat around talking about how we had dissapointed eachother this year. Lots of fun....no guilt for this former Witness and no religion or anything serious to think about.
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A Smurfy Tale: Papa Smurf Meets the Jehovah's Witnesses
by Sic Semper Tyrannis inbrother and sister bishop had to be the most annoying witnesses in our congregation.
sister bishop was a shrill overweight busybody who had nothing else better to do than spread rumors about both people and inanimate objects.
on the other hand, brother bishop was a rail thin cuckold of a man nearly 20 years younger than his wife.
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exwhyzee
Papa smurf once gave the number 5 talk in the back school at our hall.
The Ministry School conductor shouted " in the name of Jehoooovah I rebuke you Papa Smurf... you also need to work on gestures and repitition for emphasis ! "
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How come you have to wait on Jehovah? Shouldn't he be faster than you?
by dgp inif jehovah created the universe, knows it all, et cetera, and then he has a direct line to the governing body, how come you're always told to "wait on jehovah"?
can a simple earthling be faster in his or her reasoning than yhwh?
can s/he notice something jehovah will miss?.
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exwhyzee
Waiting on Jehovah doesn't mean waiting like you wait at a bus stop for the bus to arrive.
Waiting on Jehovah means...you know....waiting...like a Waiter "waits" on tables.
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Feeling down.... BIG time
by Free!! ini know i don't post here often.... i just lurk around and read most of the threads daily (from my phone)....but today is one of those days that i just feel like "blah"... i dont care about anything, i realize i dont have anything, all my friends are busy or with their own set of problems... and i just dont want to bother then.. it sucks..... i just need to vent, let everything out... i really want to scream, but i cant... i wish i could run away from everything and just start fresh, i feel like a failure and i just dont like me at all....i was so down a few days ago i was thinking about going back to the hall, because i feel so lonely... but i refused to let my depression make me do something so silly... .
thanks for even looking at this thread... i just need it to vent or i am going to explode.... :(.
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exwhyzee
FREE....It's part of being a human to experience the full range of feelings....good and bad. It's just your turn to feel crummy.
Don't trust your thoughts, feelings and beliefs while you are in a low mood. Shoo them away like flies at a picnic.
Don't try to come up with any logical answers right now.
Remember the H.A.L.T. principal. Hungry Angry Lonely Tired and be suspicious of your thinking patterns if you are any or all of these things.
Set this matter aside for now and "change channels" in your mind.
Do something you might do for fun if you were feeling better....fake it till you make it.
Remember, this too shall pass.
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Why the hell do I feel like this suddenly?!?!
by freshstart intoday i saw a friend that is still a hardcore jw.
she knows we're not going to meetings, but seemed pretty cool with it and was willing to have lunch with me, so i thought why not?
she mentioned something about the convention coming up in a couple of weeks, and all of the sudden i got so nostalgic and felt like maybe i wanted to go.
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exwhyzee
We often look back on the past with a certain amount of sentimenatlity and gloss we over the unpleasant parts. It might be good for you to go....once you are there you will have your question answered pretty quickly. I went to a JW funeral recently and after three years it all seems so odd to me now. The part that was nice was seeing all the people I used to know. But that in itself does not make a religion true, but it is a good enough reason sometimes, to make people stick around until something better arrives.
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Born ins..Were You Forced to Be a JW Growing Up?
by LostGeneration inmyth: parents who are jehovahs witnesses.
force their children to follow their faith.. fact:witness parents strive to inculcate love.
for god in their offspring, just as the bible.
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exwhyzee
Fact:Witness parents strive to inculcate love
for God in their offspring, just as the Bible
commands them to. (Ephesians 6:4) Nevertheless,
they realize that when a child becomes
an adult, he or she will make a personal
choice with regard to worship.
—Romans 14:12; Galatians 6:5.They need to take a look at what is happening in their own organization. Yes , when a child becomes an adult he or she makes a personal choice but there are consequences for those who don't make the one they like, especially for Witness kids who were baptized when they were only 9 or 10 or even 13 or 14? How many of us knew kids like this who were punished for leaving once they became adults? There is no choice for them other than stay in or loose their families and friends. Thant's what I call being forced.