Posts by Giordano

61

Would You Ever Go Back To The Kingdom Hall?

by minimus in

jw
friends

ever?

?.

Giordano

I've been back for four funerals, an Aunt who helped raise me, my sister and both of our mom's. We always had open communication with them and always visited. I do fidget a lot during the service ............... because it's such an insulting stupid service. It's embarrassing that they think it's a great witness. The only personal thing they mentioned about my Aunt was that the 'friends' really enjoyed her pasta sauce. A little more with my sister. To remember a life like that is heart breaking.

Of course they always talk about Lazarus, and I always imagine the same scenario. Jesus is giving a sermon and an apostle slides up to him and whispers in his ear "we've given Lazarus the knock out drops and he's going to be pretty pissed off if you waste time getting to the cave and waking him up". "How's the crowd looking?" Jesus asks. "The advance guys did a good job. Let's go.... we really need to bag this one, it's going to look great on the resume."

I try to sit in the back of the hall so when I can't take it anymore I can get up and head for the door, as I pass the attendants I mime that I have to go out for a smoke. When I come back in the attendants fan their hands or sniff imagining that they can smell the smoke on me.....I don't smoke.

103

My life ... and how JWD came to be - Part 5

by Simon in

my life ... and how jwd came to be - part 1. my life ... and how jwd came to be - part 2. my life ... and how jwd came to be - part 3. my life ... and how jwd came to be - part 4. i swear, i thought it was only a couple of years at most since i wrote part 4 of "my life and how jwd came to be".

i re-read it after someone posted to it and brought it back on active topics and it was kind of prophetic in a way ... well, i had the 5 years part right if nothing else:.

it would be nice to visit the site (or whatever one is around then) in 5 years time to let people know how we're doing and find only a few of the same people still around.

Giordano

Thanks Simon! I read all five parts and it's a terrific story. The interesting thing is there's so much material to find on this site, things can get buried hopefully bumping your story will allow some of the newbies to read it.

42

What is the longest you know of a Fader being out of the JW's and then DF'd?

by Think About It in

what's the longest amount of time you know of where a fader was out of the jw's and df'd later?

probably alot of factors in this.

could depend on how visible you are in your kh's town, the personality of the boe, what your "sins" were, what your "status" use to be, etc.

Giordano

43 years. No problems. We stopped associating if any of you recall 'my story'

33

What % of current JWs sincerely believe Armageddon will come within the next 30 years?

by jj123jj123 in

just to give you a little background about myself, i was a born-in, i'm in my late 20's now, i faded away a few years ago after researching the history of the wtbs on the internet.

my fade was aided by moving away with my job(i definately feel lucky about that).

eventually, i had discussions with a couple of my closer jw friends about why i no longer believed in the wtbs.

Giordano

When I was a 'yute' (Queens N.Y. speech for youth) I was told that a Catholic would never be elected President, Armageddon would come before that ever happened. I was told that we'd never land a man on the moon, man was destined to live on the earthly paradise. I was also told the end would come in 1975. That's three out of three .............how's that no higher education thing working?

56

What is the WT's Motivation? Who Benefits?

by InterestedOne in

jw
friends

another thing my jw friend says to me when i question the wt is, "what would their motivation be?

they're so humble and no-one gets paid except a basic living allowance for the workers at bethel.

they're not like those other rotten 'ministries' whose leaders get paid a lot of money, etc.".

Giordano

What I've never understood and I'd welcome an explanation is this: While telling everyone (once again) that the end is coming they started buying up real estate in Brooklyn! Apart from real estate that served a purpose like housing the Bethel workers etc. Why weren't they plowing their money into better world wide communications ie. t.v., radio etc. to really get their message out?

34

I'm upset

by littlebird in

jw
friends

my father in law passed away today.

he was not a witness, but as he got to be more and more house bound, he would attend sunday meetings with my husband or my brother in law.

tomorrow, a "brother" is buying the family dinner, im not welcome.

Giordano

littlebird I'm sorry that your experiencing this. I appreciate that you don't want to make this situation about you. It should show your sep- husband now cheesy this organization is. It's unfortunate that he works for a JW........always a bad idea.

34

I'm upset

by littlebird in

jw
friends

my father in law passed away today.

he was not a witness, but as he got to be more and more house bound, he would attend sunday meetings with my husband or my brother in law.

tomorrow, a "brother" is buying the family dinner, im not welcome.

Giordano

"Tomorrow, a "brother" is buying the family dinner, Im not welcome. Even though my father in law was not a jw, and out of 11 kids , only my husband and brother in law are. "

And your not welcome because ..........your a smoker?

And the other 9 kids?

36

Confessions of a Wayward Pioneer

by Giordano in

jw
friends

frank was concerned that they might be dumping them in the woods or something so he wanted me to check it out.. i had a hard time convincing h and h to let me join them in service, finally i dropped a few hints that i was a pretty laid back brother who didn't always follow wtbts policy......... which wasn't far from the truth.

this guy was hard core.

Giordano

I visited a couple of times but really didn't get to talk with or hang out with Bethelites. It you want to experience it from the point of view of those who served there check out:

http://www.freeminds.org/organization/brooklyn-bethel/

The freeminds.com site has a bunch of inside information on Bethel, some of it is absolutely amazing.

30

As a woman in the truth what went through your head when you realized that us sister had to cover our heads?

by life is to short in

ok i was raised in the "truth" but no one ever studied with me.

my parents were abusive and i got nothing from them or anyone in the "truth" no bible study any attention nothing from anyone.. i read the great teacher book to myself at the age of seven, and when i was in my mid teens i started studying on my own with no help from anyone nor any answers my questions expect to be rebuked if i asked the wrong question so i quit asking it was god's chosen religion after all who was i to question anything.

i conducted the sort of study and this elder looked at me and said where is your head covering.

Giordano

I think it was a cringe worthy experience, speaking as a male. My mother did it, pleased that she was getting the rituals correct. Some vague notion of respect. After I was Baptized and went out in service it was very easy to note that the sisters were by far the backbone of conversions.

In my post 'Confessions of a Wayward Pioneer' (freeminds.com has it up if anyone wants to take a look) I describe, all to briefly, that there were more qualified sisters then me....... (a young wet behind the ears pioneer) in the congregation I served in.

As far as my wife went she never covered her head that was one of her deal breakers. I just made sure she was never put in that situation.

'Paul, who was a man of his times, accepted uncritically the patriarchal attitude that women were clearly inferior' (Spong).

There was nothing inspired of god about that concept. Of course during the hundreds of years that followed everyone who had a hand in bible writing and translations continued to support that idea and it is suspected by critical historians that some may have embellished it.

32

Violent entertainment and it's effects

by sabastious in

the watchtower has always talked about violence in entertainment.

it is one of the watchtower's historical hot topics.. and for good reason too.

virtual violent entertainment is a very new phenomenon in our world.

Giordano

I started playing ghost recon with my Grandson when he was five we'd sneak away and play in the den. Bad Gramps, I know. But he is and has always been a gentle child, he's 12 now. He'll still ask me to play the game with him. "Come on Gramps lets bust a cap through a terrorists head." Admittedly it's an old game and perhaps the newer ones are more destructive. But his parents limit his time and he doesn't get to play violent games at home.

One great show for violence loving ex JWS is the TV show 'Sons of Anarchy' on AMC. Also available on DVD. A motorcycle gang that resembles the Sopranos by way of Hamlet. The acting is very good and the violence is sudden and often unexpected.

On occasion I'll come across something that grosses me out. It's too over the top. When the Exorcist first came out my son pestered me to see it. He was way to young for that movie, so I told him when he turned 13 if it came around I promised to take him to the theater. Figured he'd forget about it by then and/or it wouldn't be back. Wrong on both counts. So a promise is a promise and we're watching the movie when it gets to the scene where the little girl/demon uses a cross too............and I hear my son say "ok I've seen enough ..... time to go" and out we went.

The Braveheart movie? At the end when the black masked torturer approached the Mel Gibson character with his disemboweling ax/hook I swear he said "This is going to pinch a little." When my dentist tells me that it's time to go.