Posts by exwhyzee

41

....and a new wrinkle

by outsmartthesystem in

jw
friends

so i was giving my daughter a hug at bed time last night.

she stands up at the foot of her bed and wraps her arms around my neck.

she then asks why i don't serve jehovah anymore.

Ask her some real questions that will make her think and might reveal what is influencing her. Don't say one way or the other if you think her answers are right or wrong, you are just trying to understand what she is thinking about.

What does the word "serve" mean?

Why do you think Jehovah wants or needs to you to serve him?

How do you know for sure if you are serving Jehovah and if you are doing it correctly?

Is it possible to serve Jehovah incorrectly?

Would he be angry if you were trying to serve him but were doing it incorrectly?

Do you know a place where it says in the Bible that to serve Jehovah you have to leave books and magazines at peoples houses. Did Jesus do that?

Etc...Etc....

10

Help! Do you have this kind of mailbox? I can't close the door!

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

i have a mailbox like this.

i just could not close the mailbox door.

there is a small white roller that is supposed to close the mailbox.

exwhyzee

Is it that you can't close the door or is it that when you close the door it falls open?

If it falls open, the plastic roller may have gotten pushed out of line creating a loose fit. If the roller has a bracket, you could possibly pry it back into place.

Another thing you might do is add a little WD-40 to make sure the roller is rolling well enough and allowing the door to seat properly.

It's hard to say without seeing a photo of the closing mechanism.

6

Convention food tickets for sale on eBay

by slimboyfat in

it really is amazing the things that seller kenyakelly gets a hold of, a constant stream of the most rare watchtower items.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1986-district-convention-green-food-tickets-watchtower-jehovah-nice-/390439358400?pt=antiquarian_collectible&hash=item5ae7ffcfc0.

and can anyone remember what was the significance of the different colours?.

exwhyzee

How did the seller arrive at the asking price of 32.99 and are the tickets still valid ??

70

Why did you become a Jehovah's Witness ?

by Gnosis in

why did you become a jehovah's witness ?.

initially upon entering the religion what were the positive things you experienced ?.

how did that particular way of thinking both benefit and harm you ?.

exwhyzee

Was raised as a JW after my Mother started studying when I was about 2. Grew up with the warm fuzzy understanding that armageddon was about to happen any day and my non JW Father was soon to be destroyed for not getting baptized and I would be too if I became old enough to understand but didn't get baptized. You can imagine the head games it played on me and my siblings to be among people who were gleefully anticipating the day when God was going to kill everyone including our Dad. His children and wife were basically hijacked away from him, we never go too close because they even went so far as to say that some associates of JW's like he was, could turn on us during the tribulation. Although he was a much better man than MOST of the JW's I knew, we wondered if he would someday turn us in to the authorities (whoever that might be). He studied but just couldn't bring himself to the point of being able to go from door to door. He was much to modest and humble to ever go to someone's home and advise them about something as abstract as God let alone tell them that God was about to destroy non JW's. Everthing he knew about Blood Transfusions was what he learned during his study with the JW's. He died a horrible death in front of his whole family because he signed the NO BLOOD paperwork before having an operation and wasn't coherant enough to resend them when it became evident that he was bleeding to death. We were assured that we would see him again in the new system because he "took his stand for Jehovah" yet they wouldn't let us have his memorial service at the Hall because he was unbaptized. New System yes...Kingdom Hall NO. About a year later they started allowing the use of "blood fractions" which would have made him realize these people don't know what they're talking about and have no business advising anyone about medical procedures.

Growing up as a JW was a safeguard because I basically didn't get to do anything other than go to school, watch TV and go to the meetings. My Dad was a champion swimmer and diver and I showed promise in that area during P.E. in High School and was asked to be on the swimming team but of course that was tantemount to falling out of the truth in those days. So I stayed home and waited for the next day to arrive or armageddon to show up, whichever came first. Was told I'd never graduate but I did. Was told I didn't need college education so I went on to spend a year in Bethel and now here I am with grown children asking myself.," Hey....wasn't I supposed to be perfect by now?...Didn't the mouthpieces of Jehovah say I'd never grow old in this system ?? "

We left the religion after a perfect storm of events involving doctrinal changes, personal realizations about the religion, an emotional crisis from having lived under the constant dread of armageddon since childhood and the shunning of our Son by close friends and family while he was undergoing Cancer treatment shortly after being DF'd unfairly. Memeorial 2008 was the last time I was in a KH. Heard about the ransom of Jesus and Jehovah's loving kindness while the whole crowd of people who knew him from birth walked past our deathly ill Son as if he didn't exist. That was the last straw....will never set foot in one of those places again. Thanks to JW's I don't want anything to do with God, religion or religious people ever again.

56

Add your favorite JW prayer cliche'

by King Solomon in

you know what i'm talking about: the trite, often-repeated phrases that convey the person offering the prayer has drawn a mental blank, and utters these words while their brain desperately searches for the next cliche', so they can conclude the ritual with the required tag, "in jesus' name we pray".... (is that like the postage stamp?).

ok, i'll kick this one off, and take the most obvious:.

"forgive us where we fall short....".

exwhyzee

" We stand before you with bowed heads and humble hearts"

"Be with those suffering for your name sake or undergoing persecution that they may stand firm against the machinations of the Devil who knows he has but a short time left until you bring he and his wicked system to an end"

"and may we be ever mindful of our sinfull inclinations and where we fall short of doing your will"

" And be with us as we leave this evening to our homes, and may we wake refreshed to serve you yet another day"

49

Ironic new Awake cover...

by cedars in

i kid you not.... .

.

cedars.

exwhyzee

If that girl is anything like me at that age, she's spent her entire youth preparing for Armegedon and is thinking ..

"This is kind of interesting but I don't need to learn this stuff or do my homework since the world is going to end any day now and all the people around me including the teacher, are going to die.

After a childhood spent sitting through endless assembly talks, she has probably learned how to utilize her District Assembly survival skills by "tuning out" the minute someone starts imparting anything that resembles more mind numbing information .

24

I think we are being shunned

by hoser in

jw
friends

it seems like lately we have been missing out on a lot of invites to congregation gatherings and our field service group has gatherings but we never seem to get invited.

btw this is not a bad thing.

hoser.

exwhyzee

You probably aren't being shunned per say. Despite what they claim from the platform, it's a very " Out of Sight...Out of Mind " group of people. There is always someone else to talk to or include in things if you're not there. They spend their lives looking for new vicitms while once willing ones are dying on the vine before their very eyes. After over 20 years of being quite active and social at the same hall it took the elders nearly 3 years before they came looking for us. I think they were too embarrased to show their faces at our home after realizing how it was their actions that broke the camels back. Without saying anything to anyone, our last meeting was a Memorial and our phone stopped ringing immediately.

24

did u know any jw self-made millionaires? any multi-millionaires?? how would u know???

by oompa in

jw
friends

and what do you make of the overall social structures within the org?

and not just in the usa............................oompa.

it is not a caste system...you can move up the ranks.

exwhyzee

I grew up with 5 former JW's who became millionaires. One very brainey friend left the "truth" in his 30's after being reproved by a group of bumpkin Elders for something laughably minor (think Sparlock). He and his wife along with one sibling, left the Org. and put themselves through college after realizing that they'd never get anywhere they hoped to be without having degrees. Without giving away too much information, I'll say he went on to invent something we all use everyday thanks to Microsoft. His wife travels the globe as a designer, buying goods in the worlds markets and overseeing projects for in an international business you see on every street corner. The former JW sibling works for a major aerospace company and is working on a experimental project you have heard about that will change the world if it happens. All were really teriffic people who realized that they had been duped and had wasted their extreme youth and early adulthood by following a man made orginization.

One friend that was one of my groomsmen in our wedding, develops properties around the world and was heavily used in the Societies international building work. He claims to have witnessed much corruption while working in this capacity but tried to overlook it, putting it down to men's imperfection etc. He was also sent around the country to deal with many of these child mollestion cases that are coming to light. I had never heard of these cases until I came to this site. Then out of the blue he contacted me and in the course of the conversation without any prompting from me, gave me his first hand account of the horrors the children he dealt with, had been through. He eventually left the "truth" claiming that the society forbade him to alert a certain congregation that a convicted child molester he had previously dealt with, was being released from prision and would be moving to their area to begin attending meetings again. He went against their directive and was removed. He is still youngish, is a multimillionaire and runs with famous people, celebrities and sports stars you have heard of and has recetly offered to send his plane to fly me to a certain event you are familiar with. Having been a JW all my life I don't think I'd know how to act around such sophisticated folk. He assures me that most of them are very ordinary in real life and are often baffled at their own acclaim and are often searching for someone they can trust.

7

Bathroom Designs to avoid Mold?

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

in my home, bleach has been applied on the upper part painted sheetrock wall in the bathroom shower area because of mold 3 times in 4 years.

actually i am tired of it.

i always run the exhaust fan everytime i take a shower.

exwhyzee

Make sure your bath fan is adequate and the ductwork is clean/clear.

Use a paint on the walls with mold inhibitor.

Get rid of the carpet (holds spores)

Use a cleaning product like this

Make sure the crawl space under your house has an adequate vapor barrier. (prevent moisture from entering living space)

Make sure your attic is well ventilated. (keeps attic dry and helps rid residual moisture that may enter from the living space)

84

YOU have the power to eradicate evil in the world. How would you accomplish this?

by jam in

jw
friends

you alone have the power to eradicate the evil in the world.. where would you start?

you get rid of the lowest of scum in.

the world, mass murderers, child molesters, rapest, anyone that.

exwhyzee

By taking away the time, or even the ability to feel/perceive time, in order to try to stem the evil things you list above, what goods - possibly overriding goods - are you eliminating?

Did I say anything about taking away time? How cuold there be any order without time? I said I'd change our perception of time as it relates to our own mortality much like it is in the animal kingdon. Animals go about their daily lives doing what they do and they are "programmed" to preserve their own lives yet they don't have a concept of how much time they have left in life and are therefore under no pressure to accomplish, to produce, to accumulate wealth etc as we humans are because we know we only have so much time to get things done before we are too old to care for ourselves anymore.

And is this not evil too? For example, simple charity given to help someone's current situation in hopes of a better future would be eliminated. After all, nobody would care about the future.

With evil eliminated, there would likely be no need for charity nor the need for a "beter" future because the present was free of evil. People would still care about the future but they wouldn't fear it.

You are possibly doing more harm than good, and the evils you remove from the world could be replaced with greater evils. I do not think you can eradicate evil from the world this way (or any way)

Ok so lets leave everything as it is for fear we may add more evils by removing existing evils. Why try to improve anything or even bother having this discussion if that's the case?

If I paint my house it might make my neighbors house look even shabbier and make him feel bad and that wouldn't be very nice of me so I think I'll leave it as it is and never paint it in case it causes some other problem.