JWinSF

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Posts by JWinSF

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  15

  The LATEST JW Worldwide report on line

  by bj in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  you can check the worldwide 2001 report at:.

  http://observer.org/apps/pbcs.dll/article?site=wo&date=20011119&category=jwandsociety3&artno=111200001.

  joe

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  JWinSF

  They'll probably explain-away the decreases to the gullible [yup, yup, yeah, that's how it is, cuz Brookly says so] publishers. They'll try to make it look like it's proof that they're God's Organization by referencing "in the last days, the love of the greater number will cool off". The only problem is, that the love that's cooled off is the true unconditional love that's been replaced by the antiseptic conditional love of the JW theology.
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  5

  What are your favorite quotes about JW's?

  by Mindchild in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you have any favorite quotes of either something the watchtower said or quotes from outsiders about the witnesses?.

  here are two of my own.... "when i was a kid in the ghetto, a gang started going around harassing people, so some of the toughest kids formed a gang called the sharks to stop them.

  the other gang was called the jehovah's witnesses.

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  JWinSF

  Similar to Hmmm's posting above. I was taking a break at McDonalds down the street from the District Convention. I and a few other friends were advertising our support group for gay/lesbian current/ex JWs.

  It was during mid-morning so the place had pretty much emptied out of Dubz. When I got to the counter, the lady behind it said how she looked forward to the time when their meetings would be over [they go on for several successive weeks at the Cow Palace for the Northern California area]. She mentioned how rude many of them were.

  I just had to laugh inside. The Dubz are always "crowing" about how much they're appreciated in whatever town that they come to. Well, that's just more Corporate BS to keep the Dubz thinking that they are "the one true religion".
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  48

  Why I Do What I Do - Randy Watters

  by Dogpatch in

  1. jw
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  hi friends,.

  i have been overwhelmed by the number of witnesses contacting me on the net lately.

  traffic to the site has more than tripled since feb. 1999, and i am getting tons of email every day.

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  JWinSF

  Hi Randy,

  The response by the JW reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movies, "The Eqyptian" [1954]. Pharoah Ankenahten in search of the "One God" is battling with the Egyptian polytheistic priesthood. He astutely states (paraphrasing): "When a man living in darkness comes into the light, it hurts his eyes. And so he curses the light."

  Keep up the work. The others' eyes will get adjusted to the "new light" [LOL] and will soon be thankful for all of the other things that they can now see.
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  10

  A question about those who are disassociated

  by OUTLAW in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i disassociated myself i just walked out and didn`t come back.i gave the elders no explanation,i just told them not to bother me again,that was in 1974.when i read the posts on this forum,it seems as though some feel the need to give a formal explanation.why is this ?are the jws demanding an explanation if you leave?if so why would you go along with this invasion of privacy?i would appreciate it,if someone could bring me up to date on this...thanks...outlaw

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  JWinSF

  For me, it was a self-affirmation to let them know.

  I disassociated due to my sexual orientation. I WANTED them to know that I saw nothing wrong with my it and that I was going to [essentially] remove them from part of my life before they could remove me from part of their lives. [They couldn't DF me because up to that time, I'd not acted on my sexual orientation.]

  You're correct, that they don't need to know. In my case, I felt much better --- "out of the closet" --- by telling them why I was leaving.

  I also told members of the congregation that were close to me [before I'd sent in the letter of dissassociation] why I was planning to disassociate. I didn't "give a rat's ass" about what those who were not close to me would hear. But, I wanted those who were dear to me to hear the truth and not have only the viscious JW rumor mill that was bound to start as the source of their information.
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  8

  PO VISIT and THE BLOOD ISSUE

  by freeman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you followed the thread i posted earlier about the po coming by to talk about my objections to their shunning policy, you know that the po had to cancel and rescheduled the meeting till next monday.

  oh the busy lives of janitors.

  my wife, the loyal dub also told him that i have a problem with the blood issue.

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  JWinSF

  I have nothing to add other than that you did an excellent job of summing up the blatant inconsistencies of the JWs' stance on the use of blood.

  Wishing you the best.
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  46

  Mispronunciations at the meetings

  by TR in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  moxy raised a point in the "exaggeration" thread that aggravated me at the meetings.

  mispronunciations.

  moxy mentioned the word 'hyperbole' as frequently being mispronounced.. another one that bugged me was 'epitome'.

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  JWinSF

  Not restricted to JWs, but "here goes":

  [1] "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less".

  [2] "A whole nuther thing" Instead of "Another thing".

  [3] "Nucular" instead of "nuclear".

  [4] "Does (he, she) have a temperature?" instead of "Does (he, she) have a fever?"

  ...to name just a few.
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  51

  Crisis of Conscience: POLL

  by Grout in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well, i'm finally reading coc, and i must tell you that despite already being an ex-dub i was *shocked*.

  the thing that got me was the gb's apparently unselfconsciously acting above all the rules that they would apply so harshly to everyone else.

  maybe i'm naive, but i didn't expect that level of hypocrisy.. so what did you find most shocking in coc?

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  JWinSF

  Most shocking?

  Gosh, can't narrow it down to any one item. It's been some time since I read it [1994]. But, what I found equally appalling was their invasion of bedrooms resulting in breakups of marriage, their inconsistent treatment of the members in Malawi vs. Mexico, their cold-hearted treatment of Franz's friends, their equally cold-hearted way of dealing with Franz.

  Wait until you read "In Search of Christian Freedom"! You'll see that even then they were on very shaky ground with 1914 and the blood issue. You'll also see that almost all the "sacred cow" theological stances are bogus.
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  6

  Oct 7th BBQ in San Francisco

  by Introspection in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  summary: real people, phony religion.

  i'll let the others fill in on the details.

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  JWinSF

  It was great meeting all you guys.

  In the past we've done the picnic/BBQ in July. This year was delayed. Sorree our weather was so crappy.

  We also have historically done something in January [indoors]. Dunno what the status of that is yet, though.
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  26

  how long were you out before...

  by lydia in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello all.. i'm just trying to get a handle on everyone in here..so how long have all of you been out of the borg?

  also how long was it till you got on here??.

  lydia

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  JWinSF

  I decided to DA in January 1994 and advised the elders of it. They didn't really try to change my mind. I read the books "Crisis of Conscience" and "In Search of Christian Freedom" by Raymond Franz after I initially made my decision to DA and knew that when I sent my letter in March 1994 there wasn't any reason why I'd want to remain in the corrupt and untruthful Organization [my decision to DA initially was due to my sexual orientation].

  I got on the Internet in the summer of 1996. First a regular on Watchtower Observer's message board, then a regular on H2O. When H2O made changes a while back and the frequency of posts declined, I came here based on a friend's recommendation. That was a few months ago.

  And, I'm from San Francisco
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  82

  Prevalence of JW Suicides - Real or Imagined?

  by AMNESIAN in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in one or two recent threads i've seen reference to the possibility of a rising number of jw suicides being another of the organization's very dark realities about which it is vigilant in keeping concealed from its pub populace.

  is there anyone reasonably informed regarding this?

  is there reason to suppose the incidence ratio among jws is any higher than among any peoples/religion?

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  JWinSF

  My personal feeling/belief is that suicide is disproportionately higher among JWs than among members of other religions in general.

  The reason I say this is the following experience a few years ago at our first "A Common Bond" conference. It was in Washington, D.C. We wanted to have a memorial for those who'd committed suicide [but not in the JW way that doesn't really memorialize a person's life but rather shamelessly is used to promote the Organization]. The idea came up because in an email group that many of us participated in, someone brought up the subject. Then another mentioned they knew of a suicide and/or contemplated/attempted it themselves. It snowballed as many commented they personally knew JW suicide victims.

  At the Conference during the Memorial [there were approximately 60 of us in attendance] we were asked by a show of hands how many people personally knew of someone who'd committed suicide. Virtually everyone in the audience raised their hand. It was then asked how many contemplated it themselves. Again, a high number raised their hand. It was finally asked how many actually attempted it. Can't remember the exact number, but I'd venture to say that about 10% had raised their hand.

  Even though the audience was a gay/lesbian audience, we were basing our collective experience on knowing anyone who'd actually tried/succeeded in committing suicide. In my case, I knew a straight sister in Michigan who succeeded in committing suicide. I also knew a sister in California who'd attempted multiple times to commit suicide. I personally was planning my own suicide in the summer of 1993, starting to plan out how my disabled mother and sister would continue be taken care of [they were both in nursing homes at that point].

  So, yes, for whatever reasons, I firmly believe that being a JW does not in itself make one want to live. If anything, the pressures can either make a person of strong conviction consider suicide or can make someone who is predisposed to suicidal tendencies to follow through.

  Far from being congregations of "Jehovah's happy people", the organization has immense blood-guilt, IMO.