Nickolas

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Posts by Nickolas

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  86

  Sleeping with the enemy

  by Nickolas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been wondering of late about the extent to which jwn's minions (one of whom i am beginning to see myself to some extent) differentiate the machine from its parts.

  what i mean is, what degree of separation is discerned between the watchtower bible and tract society and its individual members?.

  henry milner, who is a polical scientist at the university of montreal, posits that those who rely heavily on the internet for their information ultimately become dogmatic.

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  Nickolas

  Thanks for the clearer distinction, OUTLAW. Since I'll never be IN, I'll never directly experience the ugly downside everyone talks about. I'm ok with that. I sympathise with all you folks who do experience it, though. I wondered in another thread I started how Jehovah's Witnesses for whom the light has come on live with themselves afterward. Bringing all those people into the Watchtower before they exited themselves. Those who do live with themselves have also forgiven themselves. Oddly, some of those who have forgiven themselves withhold love and forgiveness for people who are doing exactly the same things they did, until those people see the light themselves. Those still IN need to think the same way the people who are now OUT do or they are perceived as evil. In another thread I'm following someone is quoting Matthew 7:3. It seems appropriate here, too. Oh, but how the Watchtower fucks people up, even well after they have left it.

  Perhaps this subject did belong in the Adult and Heated Debate category, after all.
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  22

  Mass Apostasy- Sign of the Lord’s presence

  by mankkeli in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this quote is from the watchtower 1980 8/1.

  "are you profoundly shocked and unduly disturbed when you see or hear of a christian you know yielding to doubts, cooling off and perhaps even becoming rebellious to the point of deserting the christian congregation and trying to draw others away with him?

  if so, you may be comforted in knowing that, sad as such occurrences may be, the scriptures forewarn us that they will happen.. among the various causes of apostasy, one of the foremost is unquestionably a lackoffaith through doubt.

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  Nickolas

  Dagother's threads started to posts ratio - 18/790 = 2.3%

  Nickolas's threads to posts ratio - 77/2227 = 3.5%

  Paula's threads to posts ratio - 26/583 = 4.5%

  Sab's threads to posts ratio - 319/5541 = 5.8%

  TheQuietOne's threads to posts ratio - 12/204 = 5.9%

  QuestionEverything's threads to posts ratio - 38/464 = 8.2%

  mankkeli's threads started to posts ratio - 34/53 = 64.1%

  I'd say, just from this small sampling of folks who've chimed in since I made my comment, that mankkeli's thread:post ratio is a little higher than usual.
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  86

  Sleeping with the enemy

  by Nickolas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been wondering of late about the extent to which jwn's minions (one of whom i am beginning to see myself to some extent) differentiate the machine from its parts.

  what i mean is, what degree of separation is discerned between the watchtower bible and tract society and its individual members?.

  henry milner, who is a polical scientist at the university of montreal, posits that those who rely heavily on the internet for their information ultimately become dogmatic.

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  Nickolas

  If someone broke into my house in the night I would not hesitate to bash their head in with a baseball bat. I'm not a violent person at all, but I strongly believe that there has to be an extreme reason not to break into someone's house. Sure there are reasons for the person doing it, sometimes desperate reasons. I could sit there, like a duck, and analyze the ethics of the matter or I could just swing in protection of my family. Apprehending these types, locking them up for long enough to develop a good grudge with the system, and then setting them free hasn't historically done the trick. At some point you got to protect yourself or even your society.

  In many, if not most, jurisdictions outside of the USA, this will land you in jail and then you'd have to prove defense of life and limb in court. If the burglar turned out to be a 15 year old kid looking to steal your iPod, it would be best if you have a really good lawyer.

  Rutherford calling up ALL the children in the convention auditorium and telling them that the convention they were attending might be there last. It's been decades since he did that. He used wildly irresponsible and blatant fear mongering to extort the minds of developing children with their parents clapping in approval from the crowd.

  Rutherford is guilty as charged. Those kids are innocent. Their parents are brainwashed.

  They nit pick daily about the PEOPLE that they live amongst. Their dress, their grooming, their choice of entertainment, their bioligical and sexual needs; they ridicule all of it while they live in ignorant hypocrisy. They hate the world around them and they define the world as anything nonJW. They are frightened just as a burglar would be in my living room at 3:00 am. He needs the money and Witnesses need hope. Both have their reasons and both could be willing to kill for them. Should we swing? Each household is different.

  You are generalising. I don't experience any of this first hand. Are my JWs different from yours? Or is it that I am just different from you?
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  13

  It doesn't seem like 5 years....

  by Open mind in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...but 5 years ago today, i made my first post here on jwn.. .

  i was an elder, had a true-believing jw wife and our unbaptized publisher children were beginning to feel pressure from other jws to take the plunge.. .

  amazing how much can happen in 5 trips around the sun.. .

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  Nickolas

  I was serious. Thanks for the link. (And thank you for the head's up, too, you may be entirely right.)
• 
  86

  Sleeping with the enemy

  by Nickolas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been wondering of late about the extent to which jwn's minions (one of whom i am beginning to see myself to some extent) differentiate the machine from its parts.

  what i mean is, what degree of separation is discerned between the watchtower bible and tract society and its individual members?.

  henry milner, who is a polical scientist at the university of montreal, posits that those who rely heavily on the internet for their information ultimately become dogmatic.

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  Nickolas

  Nor should one want to, dear Nick (again, peace to you!)... because that really is THEIR underlying foundation, yes? Even though most of them can't/don't see that, of course. Some believe in fighting fire with fire, though. Yet, sometimes doing that causes the whole dang thing to burn down. Water, then? Methinks so - better to cool things down... (Smile).

  I'm seeing an entirely different side of you, Shelby. Thank you for being so forthwright.
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  22

  Mass Apostasy- Sign of the Lord’s presence

  by mankkeli in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this quote is from the watchtower 1980 8/1.

  "are you profoundly shocked and unduly disturbed when you see or hear of a christian you know yielding to doubts, cooling off and perhaps even becoming rebellious to the point of deserting the christian congregation and trying to draw others away with him?

  if so, you may be comforted in knowing that, sad as such occurrences may be, the scriptures forewarn us that they will happen.. among the various causes of apostasy, one of the foremost is unquestionably a lackoffaith through doubt.

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  Nickolas

  That's 34 threads you've started and 39 threads on which you have made a grand total of 53 posts. So you've commented on 5 threads you haven't started. You must have something important to say. Still waiting, though. Are you doing any listening while you're here?
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  13

  It doesn't seem like 5 years....

  by Open mind in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...but 5 years ago today, i made my first post here on jwn.. .

  i was an elder, had a true-believing jw wife and our unbaptized publisher children were beginning to feel pressure from other jws to take the plunge.. .

  amazing how much can happen in 5 trips around the sun.. .

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  Nickolas

  Slan juh va, OM.

  I continued serving as an elder for a couple years, using that time to plant seeds of doubt in my wife and children.

  May I have some of those seeds, please?
• 
  86

  Sleeping with the enemy

  by Nickolas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been wondering of late about the extent to which jwn's minions (one of whom i am beginning to see myself to some extent) differentiate the machine from its parts.

  what i mean is, what degree of separation is discerned between the watchtower bible and tract society and its individual members?.

  henry milner, who is a polical scientist at the university of montreal, posits that those who rely heavily on the internet for their information ultimately become dogmatic.

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• 

  Nickolas

  I understand a distinction you're providing, unshackled. Shunning by any estimation is dispicable behaviour. It is so transparently a deliberate control mechanism of the Watchtower that one cannot but detest it. I struggle with this myself because it has been only recently that my wife has begun to shun her nephew. I know she dislikes doing it, she knows that I greatly dislike her doing it, but she does it anyway because she is told to. It's not as if anything much has changed. We moved around a lot for 15 years and saw him only once in all that time. He is not a close family member, but still a family member. Despite the periodic blowups over the past 33 years I was settling into a kind of laissez faire attitude. I had no problem with what she believed until it started hurting someone, and it was when my wife refused to be in the same house with our nephew who announced a visit is when I decided to join this board and try to figure out a way to get her out. These people are under the mind control of the Watchtower. Call it or label it any way you want. Once I graduate from the I'm-here-to-learn crowd to the I'm-here-to-help crowd I'm going to want to have the best ability one can to help people leave. First thing one has to learn is you can't snap them out of it with hate.
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  91

  Awake! November 2011 - correct cover

  by processor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there was an error on the latest awake!

  cover.

  here is the correct version.. .

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  Nickolas

  Cowtown is ever the same darlin, but I have a vacation coming up so I'm pretty happy about that!!

  Not trying to make you jealous, poopsiecakes, but I've been on vacation nonstop since I took early retirement at 56 3½ years ago. Think deliriously happy....

  I liked that vid the first time you posted it, unshackled. If only people would take off their cognitive dissonance glasses as they watched it, eh?
• 
  86

  Sleeping with the enemy

  by Nickolas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been wondering of late about the extent to which jwn's minions (one of whom i am beginning to see myself to some extent) differentiate the machine from its parts.

  what i mean is, what degree of separation is discerned between the watchtower bible and tract society and its individual members?.

  henry milner, who is a polical scientist at the university of montreal, posits that those who rely heavily on the internet for their information ultimately become dogmatic.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Nickolas

  My comments were geared more toward what I perceived to be statements from you that those who come here and/or whine and moan about JWs really shouldn't... because YOU haven't experienced much ire from them (JWs).

  No, you're in left field, dear. I have done my fair share of whining and moaning too (and I certainly have not characterised my experiences with Jehovah's Witnesses as "great"). My statements should be perceived within the context of a depersonalised general prejudice applied against all Jehovah's Witnesses. I think you know something about prejudice, Shelby. Don't get me wrong. Taken as a discrete subset of humanity I do not count many of their number as friends and none of them as close friends.

  So much of how we perceive things comes down to, well, how we perceive things. If you tell me that you are aware of a different world than the one I see and you futher tell me that you are aware of what goes on in that world, I hope that I can be courteous enough to allow you to live peacefully with those beliefs. The way I look at it, if I live to be as old as my dad when he died I have about 8,000 more days in which to live, and then the lights go out and all this stuff won't matter anymore. If I can live in peace and harmony with people and they can live in peace and harmony with me for those 8,000 days then all is well. If they're being decent with me because they want to win me over, well so be it. I'll be decent back and maybe take an opportunity or two to gently shift their paradigms. Win/win.