Posts by Giordano

35

Ive come so far but I cant move on - WHY NOT??

by GoingGoingGone in

hi everyone, i havent been here for a while but i do pop in and read whenever i can.

the economic downturn has left my jw husband with much less work which means hes home a lot, which means little jwn-time for me :( so many new ones here!

yay!

Giordano

Volunteer for something. What seperates the volunteer from you right now is that they are doing something positive for their community, they work with others and build relationships with people in common cause.

So check which non profits you have in your community. Friends of the Library if your a reader. Friends of the museum if your interested in art. Anything related to Cancer might be interesting unless you need to distance your self from that. A lot of causes have thrift or up scale consignment stores if tretail would interest you. Master gardener. Animal shelters. The free Clinic. Historic Preservation. If your interested in going back to school check with community schools, colleges etc. and see if they use volunteers/interns. There are a ton of non profits in need of volunteers. You will not make any money but you will earn respect.

The reason I am picking that route is that you can control your time and just ease into it and you can pick your spot. One project or meeting a week, one small job accomplished can be a tonic. The working pressure is reversed with volunteers, because your free labor it's the organization that has to demonstrate that your wanted and they have to keep you comfortable on some aceptable level.

What do you get out of it? Purpose. Meet people that you have somthing in common with......... they are there to help which is why you are there. Seeing the same people on a regular basis allows friendships to build. Disacover what your good at.

You'll build job skills and your resume and quit often volunteer work turns into a paying job. If you can do a great job for free imagine what an employer will think of you if and when you decide to get a paying job.

64

Where do you think the US is headed?

by 2pink in

since you all are a critical thinking bunch...i thought i'd put this question to you.. i'm a born and raised us citizen as is my husband.

ever since we left the borg almost 2 years ago (wow, time flies when you're finally having fun!

), we've paid more attention to politics.

Giordano

I think the USA will do just find. Our debt was higher after WWII then it is now. I think our health and life span has improved and we still lead the world on many levels. Life can be great in this country. Life is great where I live.

Let me tell you about the place we moved to 8 years ago. It's a small city with 7,000 people, 35,000 total in the overall area. It is a beautiful area, a historic place having been founded in 1740. The country roads are a biker's dream. The streams and rivers are clean, trout streams aplenty, wild game, deer walk into the city especially during hunting season which I find delightful. We have one university with 1300 students and one military school (which after the first year is very liberal arts and engineering). Both schools share some facilities with the city like a five story library and after hours swimming pools. The campus is open, I can visit the museums for free or for a small charge. I can go to concerts and plays and dance or Jazz concerts for free or a small charge. I can audit a variety of classes (with the professor's approval) for free. The restaurants could be better but they are decent. There are a couple of coffee shops, a movie theater and the city library within three blocks of my home. My grandkids will attend K to 5 at a fine public school 2 blocks from our home. It sits above a creek and public walking trail.

We've lived here eight years and between my wife and I we are good friends with over 200 people. People I didn't know before we moved. I know most of the police, firefighters, city officials and city workers by name or sight. My doctor lives up the street, the mayor lives two doors away. I know and have been invited into the homes of my neighbors.

People make eye contact (it's not considered a hostile act) and nod to one another on the street. Most of those who are retired contribute their time. They sit on city boards and help with city issues, volunteer at the Free Clinic, the Food Pantry, Hospice, Habitat, Friends of the Library, conservation groups and I've just gotten started. There are many different churches and religious issues don't come up even the witnesses and mormons are laid back The most enthusiastic celebration is Halloween.

Merchants are honest so to the residents. Doors go unlocked. There's no rush hour and no traffic jams.The weekly newspaper has a crime watch section. At least one DUI, petty theft, a domestic dispute a bad check. Thats about a weeks worth of crime if that. Violent crime not in the 8 years I've lived here. The last vehicle fatality in the city......never. The speed limit is 25 mph and it is enforced, no one beeps their horn. Drunk and reckless drivers are not tolerated nor is violent crime. The schools are decent, safe, clean and not over crowded. This city is located in the Shenandoah Valley in VA . There are 10,000 great small cities through out the USA that you can move to for the kind of life that makes living worth while.

26

Star Chamber Tactics by the Governing Body (related to Merriman/May)

by Dogpatch in

jw
friends

the following is an excerpt from edmund gruss' "the four presidents," a book that consists of interviews with former high-level officials in the brooklyn headquarters of the watch tower society in brooklyn, who spent years working with the members of the governing body and presidents of the watch tower society.their true identities will be kept hidden likely until they pass on due to family connections still within the wt, but peter gregerson, barbara anderson, ed gruss, and dozens of others including myself personally know these interviewees and can attest to the truthfulness of what they say, based on total harmony with our own experiences which often overlapped.. .

what is a "star chamber?

"wikipedia defines it thusly:.

Giordano

The GB blessed with god's spirit or just crazy old coots.

37

Are JW EX elders in need of our contempt or sympathy ?

by eruption in

jw
friends

point 1. not so long i would have strung them all up and hanged them.. point 2. these guys were the real succers, not only did they become jw,s, they embraced and adopted the cults teachings, and to some extent subjugated thier familys happiness, and thier own,to elevate themselves, and achieve status and recieve privellages, ie not have a f-----g life.

point 3 they had the onerus task of making sense, of the ever changing (truths) and having to teach that crap to the rest of us, and cope with the subsequent questionings that would invariably follow.. point 4.they had to take the lead in (sales) distributing literature.

point 5.they were the authoritarian face of the society, and a lot of people, (myself included ) thought they were jumped up janitors and window cleaners with a chip on thier shoulders.

Giordano

The only ones I thought contemptible were those that relished any power they could weld over others. Ones that were in love with own voice and who gave TALKS THAT THEY DIDN'T BELIEVE IN. Didn't apply the rules fairly, abused their power and overstepped the boundaries of their position. All of which points to the fact that they were weaklings more impressed with their role then their value. Those that manned up and grew a pair and left that position have my respect as long as they weren't those I described above.

91

Why did you leave the 'Organization'?

by XPeterX in

jw
friends

in a few words.....

Giordano

The triggers was the Blood issue and Armageddon, we wanted to start a family and I didn't think the blood issue was anything but a hebrew recipe. Drain the blood roast over a hot fire and season to taste. Who wants to die for that. So I said to my wife "New Rules" If Jesus didn't think it was important enough to mention it then it's not worth believing.

21

ALERT: Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

by chickpea in

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/.

the new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water.

a former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach.

Giordano

Thank you for taking the time to pass this on. With summer starting and 3 grandchildren this was really good information. I copied it and sent it off to my son.

43

HBO: Game of Thrones

by leavingwt in

i haven't read the wildly popular books, but i've found the new hbo television series, game of thrones to be quite entertaining.

so far, two episodes have aired, and i think i'm hooked.

there are more than a few interesting characters, both good, bad and in between.

Giordano

It's in the reading Nickolas ......... the books are wonderful. They'll make you feel like a kid again back when we could become giddy with anticipation. I am making allowences for a few of the slower moving episodes. But some, when they take place in the north are very good.

Tec the Imp was one of the two strongest charactors in the books. Daenary's being the other......she comes into her own!

33

Amazing Awake Experience, Former druggie looks up JWs in the phone book and starts studying

by LostGeneration in

no looking up jws on the internet first?

and uses a phone book, who even owns a phone book anymore?.

here is the an "experience" from pg 7 of the august 2011 awake.. my teenage years were a blur of alcohol,.

Giordano

Tom Waits! Didn't he used to say it's better to have a bottle in front of you then to have a frontal lobotomy?

55

I talked the first time in 20 years to a non-JW and need a divorce...

by Intel in

jw
friends

this is very difficult to write (forgive me for any spelling mistake, i am not a native english speaker).. i cannot tell my complete story on this board - i eventually will, once i have broken the last "link in the chain" that has kept me captive to the borg.

i can't tell my story, because.....basically i will be known.....as a more or less "famous" jw..... i have been lurking this site for many years, wrote here under another name - this eventually was found out and i had to do "damage containment".

i had to "go back" and tow the party line....all my family (extended and close) are witnesses, all my "friends" and even work & business relationships are jw.

Giordano

First get some personal professional help. Whatever is coming you'll need to be stronger and gain more insight into yourself and your family. Your a mess right now and so is your wife. Explain to your wife that you had hoped you could have gone on a spiritual journey together but now understand that she has the assured expectation of faith while you do not, at least not at this time. You will privately work to resolve a number of issues and out of respect for her, family and friends and the congregation will refrain from discussing spiritual matters. That you intend to be a loyal and loving husband and a loving father. Suggest marriage counseling for you and your wife to resolve non spiritual issues. Encourage your wife to attend her meetings, go out in service etc. Also get her to understand that you do not want your child disciplined because she doesn't always understand the proper decorum at the Hall. Suggest to her that since you will not be attending meetings you'll be happy to be the baby sitter. In a few months reevaluate. Above all prepare for a potential break up of the home by getting legal counseling, understand the financial considerations and things like visitation rights but above all get and study the JW Divorce techniques and lies they will be prepared to use. Preparation also includes avoiding anything that can be brought against you in a court of law, anything that would deny you continuous contact with your child and any statements going forward that can be used against you by the elders. What you want to achieve, at the minimum, is a fade and access to your child.

2

Is the WBTS still living in the 19th century?

by Giordano in

jw
friends

i have always sensed a disconnect about the society.

especially the way the rank and file is treated.

is it because they are still operating with a 19th century mentality?

Giordano

I have always sensed a disconnect about the society. Especially the way the rank and file is treated. Is it because they are still operating with a 19th century mentality? The WT was started in an era when higher education usually meant the 8th grade. When medical practices were often dangerous and harmful or in the case of beneficial treatments, not well understood. When Science had barely penetrated daily life, when communication meant tracts and printing presses. When critical historic study of the Bible was virtually unknown and most people considered every word in the bible inspired from god. When women were in a continuing fight for basic rights. When William Miller and his Adventist movement could reach out from the grave and infuse his simplistic millennium end of the world beliefs into the thinking of the founders and future stewards of the WBTS. Reviewing the lives of it's Presidents and a sampling of the GB I noticed that almost every one of them was either born and educated in the 19th century or if not were in turn educated by those who were. And that continued all the way through to the succession of Fred Franz. Does this extremely limited 19th century thought process still influence the 21st century WBTS? Is this time warp one of the reasons 67% of born-ins and thousands of converts are abandoning this religion/cult? Do JW's have more in common with the Amish and Mennonites, less the quaint attire, then with the contemporary population?