no mention of them being mentally diseased or using "lies" to deceive god's people, just that they are out to attract followers for themselves!.
p.s.
i was cringing at the thought of sitting for 3 1/2 hours for the afternoon session but fortunately my one kid got sick!!
The "Human Apostates" talk at my recent DC was very tame as well. The speaker did use the term "mentally diseased" once, but that's as severe as it got. Most of his points were tied to apostates trying to draw others to follow them.
Those Danish articles were interesting, especially the one where the JW statements were compared to Nazi party propeganda statements against the Jews. How ironic.
my parents attended the funeral of an elderly family member today.
being out of state i was unable to attend.
i asked how it went and was told that "worldly" people don't care enough about anyone to mention anything personal.
Ugh...that reminds me of two recent funerals.
One was an elderly (non-JW) relative. After the funeral mass, one of my JW relatives got in the car and said "What a sad funeral. So impersonal! The priest only seemed to care about delivering the typical Catholic Mass." I responded "What are you talking about?! Sure, it was mass, but the priest spent almost 20 min talking about him, what kind of person he was, his family members. He spent more time talking about him than any JW memorial talk outline calls for. Aside from the mass, it was one of the nicest funeral talks I've heard!" That observation went over like lead balloon. They knew I was right, so they just clammed up and pouted all through the wake.
The other was a JW funeral. The sister died young, suddenly. Lots of co-workers attended the funeral talk, which predictably followed the JW "sales pitch". Afterward, an elder and his wife sitting next to me turned to one of her co-workers and said, "Wasn't that such a nice service?" The co-workers response: "Actually, I'm a little appalled. I knew she was a Jehovah's Witness, but what I liked so much about her is that she didn't preach to all of us at work, or force anything down our throats. I'm sure she'd be appalled that her church was trying to convert people at her own funeral! This is the most offensive funeral I've ever been to." The elder and his wife, blushed and quickly ended the conversation without disclosing they were Jehovah's Witnesses themselves.
this is my first post here.. first a few details about myself.
i am 33, married, from switzerland and i have a little baby boy.
i am still a jehovah's witness and i am still attending the meetings.
If you decide to go with Option #2, and you actually end up in a situation where you decide to accept blood for yourself or your son, you could always use the following line of reasoning (whether you actually feel this way is irrelevent):
"I love you/son soooo much, that I was willing to risk everlasting life for you. I realized that I wouldn't want to live forever if you weren't with me. And knowing that even if you were resurrected, we'd no longer be married was too much for my heart to bear."
and you could always tack on:
"And I couldn't live with myself if you/son died and a month, a year, 50 years later, the WTS suddenly said it was okay, just like they did with organ transplants."
Then your decision comes off as self-destructive selflessness rather than a rejection of Jehovah's the Governing Body's requirements.
R_O
... that they actually have more of a desire to get to knoww you then jehovah's witnesses.
for years at the kingdom hall although i was an elder everyone "knew of me" but no one knew me.
i realized that i never really had a friend who knew anything about me as a person or my background.
Interesting observation, confusedandalone. I'd have to agree. When I saw your Topic line, though, this is what I expected to see (a bit of a derail, sorry):
................................
The more time I spend with "worldly people" the more I realize....
...that JWs are uniquely expert at putting in too little money on a group check at a restaurant. Go out with JWs...ALWAYS short, and not by a dollar or two. Go out with a group of non-JWs and everyone has kicked in WAY too much money. You practically have to force money back in people's hands.
when i was young there was endless speculation about "the persecution".
i have very clear memories as a child sitting in the old kingdom hall in coatbridge hearing it talked about from the platform.
it was a frequent topic at home.. sometimes there was lurid detail about what sort of torture "they" might use against us to make us betray others.
I remember my father having two copies of the oh-so-precious Congregation Contact List (only elders were permitted to have it), listing all the friends' phone numbers and addresses. We were under strict orders that, if persecution were to suddenly break out and he was at work, it was our job to tear them up into little pieces and flush them down the toilet so the police would have a harder time tracking down the friends.
I also recall having a reversable coat when I was young. I remember speculating how it would be that much easier to escape from the police out in service now that I had this fancy new coat.
it's a well known phenomenon i've observed from jwn, my own cos. a new co we had once who was fresh from being a normal elder and after a couple of visits he said, "well i've finally become a true co...i now have food intolerances.".
i mean, only once did my husband and i ever have a co around for dinner and they couldn't eat this, he couldn't eat that, she couldn't eat this...it was so hard to cook something with none of the zillions of things they were 'allergic' to.. and then after all that the wife couldn't come anyway because she had a naturopath appointment or something.. why do all co's seem to have weird dietary problems?.
.
I've been told by more than one CO that it's the only way they can have some semblance of control over their diet. When left to the their own devices, the friends TM will typically make that "special meal" with rich cream sauces, or will make the "budget" meal, which is typically some type of pasta dish. If they didn't give the friends some type of guidelines, they'd be putting on 20 lbs a year and need bypass surgery by 45.
I can sympathize somewhat. When I have lunch meetings and conferences, they turn into carb fests. I've seen colleagues ask for a special gluten-free meal, only so they can take a break from the carbs.
R_O
http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/2013/07/25/151958.htm.
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I love the Google translation:
" When Jesus walked on earth, he called his religious opponents married long-fry."
"Did you hear what happened with Andre and Susan? They're married long-fries now!"
"we should be mindful".
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
During the prayer:
"Jehovah, we thank you for the provisions you provide."
(Yeah, my eyes are open during the prayer.)
on this thread:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/257481/1/i-cant-find-any-bibles-seems-to-be-a-shortage.
some (well, me, mostly) are speculating that the wts is planning to distribute a "new new world translation" some time soon.. if that is true, what changes do you think they would include?.
I'd laugh if they managed to slip in some Org buzzwords into the NT (e.g., "those taking the lead" becomes "elders and MS's; Barnabas and Timothy become "District Overseers", the "Governing Body" rules on the circumcision issue, etc.)
just curious as to who on here still regularly attends meetings and goes out in service?
as i sit at the district convention i can't help but think who else out in the crowd is just like me.
doesn't believe what they hear, but are still here..
We are still regular meeting attenders. My other half, although not "awake", doesn't really like going to the meetings and finds them even more of a chore than I do, which makes it easy when "better offer" comes along-- friends from out of town, a brunch invite from non-JW friends, beach weather...you get the idea.
As for service, we're techinically "low hour publishers" TM on paper, but in reality we haven't been out door-to-door in almost 3 years. Thankfully, no one seems to really notice, or is willfully blind to the situation. We're well-liked in the hall, good speakers and regular, eloquent commenters, so we've been able to fly under the radar for quite a while now. My other half never complains about getting to sleep late on the weekends, but will occassional express feelings of guilt around this.
