One of those subjects we all study at some point in school, is the holocaust. I remember thinking before I learned about it, that I knew all the horrors of this event already. After all, it had been mentioned on many programs. The film footage was shown often in the news, and people talked about it. My history teacher took a different approach than this. We all set down in the afternoon to watch the video that was on the subject. The instructor started the program and on the screen we saw the video footage of carnage. We saw bodies stacked up like lumber, and being pushed into mass graves. We saw people walking around looking like death, with each bone showing as if nothing existed any more, except for the skin and bone. The sunken eyes of men and woman mistreated and tortured worse then anyone could ever imagine. It was like looking at the definition of hell, as people from some religion consider it to be. In these stacks of lifeless bodies laid the smaller bodies of children, who only knew life to be hate as these people tortured them into a death they did not deserve. The movie really touched everyone, seeing all this death and hatred in one moment of time that would be there marked in our brains for a life time. The movie ended and everyone was speaking among themselves about how terrible this was, and how they hated Hitler and the Nazi party. The teacher then went to the door and invited a old man in. He was very slow in moving, yet he had one of those smiles that told you he was a loving old guy. He set down and the instructor introduced him, "Every one this is (He said his name) he is a survivor of the concentration camps and I thought you would benefit from hearing him speak." The man cleared his throat and told us about his life, his voice was strong, but we could hear the pain in his thoughts as he mentioned how he lost his entire family to the hate. He mentioned seeing his father shot in front of him, and the fear he woke to each day and the hunger he dealt with through the night. He then ended and asked if people had any questions. We raised our hands and people asked careful questions, they were afraid to ask anything that would upset him. I wanted to know something though, so I raised my hand and asked, "Do you hate the Nazi's." He paused for a minute and said, "you would think I should, right? Well I don't. You see I feel, as I have gotten older, that to hate them is to let them win. All they were was hate and anger and evil behavior. I was not that way when I went in as a young man, and I refuse to be about that after I lived through it. You can hate for many years, but you can love for a life time." Now some may say, how do you remember so many details about a class from high school that happened 13 years ago. I respond, how do you not remember something like that? It taught be a lesson that has come up more then I ever thought it would. You see when I walked away from the Jehovah's Witnesses and into the world. It was not some blind decision. No, I learned something about the real truth of the society. Something that made me realize that I could not stay in a organization of false teachings and control. So in all honestly, I was angry. I spent days upset, and night thinking about all the years I had wasted. I was in a daze for what seemed like forever, when it was really just a few months. I remember one morning getting up and talking to my wife about something else I found that was wrong. It was a beautiful morning, the sky was blue and the birds were singing a morning song. I did not notice though, I was to busy thinking about this waste of time, and those wrong teachings. I ate breakfast and started to walk to my car, on the way I passed a rose bush I planted years earlier and always took good care of. I walked by it and right there in the middle was the first rose in blown for the season. It was awesome looking, all huge and colorful and full of life. It was weird, as I stood looking at this flower I got this amazing flashback in life and I remembered something from high school. It was this old Jewish man, and he said these words "You can hate for many years, but you can love for a life time" and my mind suddenly woke up. I realized, in all of my frustration about the Witnesses and the time they took from my life. I was actually losing more time with the anger and frustration, when I should have been living it. I should have been reading things I wanted too, learning new things, going new places and basically loving and not hating. If this old man could love after what he had seen, then I could love after what I had seen. It was time to learn to live again, and I was ready to go. Life is so much about these small lessons and things mentioned we never think will apply. The joy to me, is finding the reason for them later. Funny thing is, that trigger to find joy was such a simple thing. "I just needed to stop and smell the roses" and thus I remembered "You can hate for many years, but you can love for a life time." My thought Dragon
kenpodragon
JoinedPosts by kenpodragon
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You can hate for many years, but you can love for
by kenpodragon inone of those subjects we all study at some point in school, is the holocaust.
i remember thinking before i learned about it, that i knew all the horrors of this event already.
after all, it had been mentioned on many programs.
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DO YOU SWEAR MORE THAN BEFORE???
by minimus inone of my best friends, an ex-elder, swears alot.
years ago i never would have sworn.
but they say bad assocaiation spoils useful habits, so what the -----.
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kenpodragon
Here is my thought on swearing. "Sometimes the word just fits!"
I would not say I swear a lot though, hardly every, but when something happens and I want to. I will, it is better then trying to think of other fake swear words to replace them. Like "Fudge, Shucks, Shot, Darn, Gosh" and other odd sounding things. One rule I live by though, I never swear in front of children. Want to know why? The little buggers tell on me. LOL
My thought
Dragon
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THIS SITE BY FAR HAS THE WORST...
by surferdude inand yes this post is a joke,,, but the content is not,,, i know i am not perfect, but come on!!!!!!
usually ,i look over at the profile and i can let it slide if the person is from sweden or something and english is a second language.
but too many of the times that is not the case
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kenpodragon
My spelling isn't bad, I am just trying to create my own language.
Take Care
Dragon
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Do Jehovah's Witnesses turn God away from you
by kenpodragon ini have a lot of friends in my life.
some are real close and some are casual friends.
in all, i still enjoy my connection with them and i enjoy the time i get to spend with them.
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kenpodragon
Beck
I have seen it too. Both ways though, with the other party trying to control who my friends are. Very upsetting when you figure it out though. I was more applying it to the manipulating elders do with people relationship with their God on this though. Just as frustrating and hurtful too. Makes me sad to see what they do, and I don't even believe in Jehovah anymore. I still believe in love though.
Take Care
Dragon
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Do Jehovah's Witnesses turn God away from you
by kenpodragon ini have a lot of friends in my life.
some are real close and some are casual friends.
in all, i still enjoy my connection with them and i enjoy the time i get to spend with them.
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kenpodragon
Beck
Good thoughts indeed!! I agree and I have been very careful, human weakness though does cause me to think to much on it sometimes.
Take Care
Dragon
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Do Jehovah's Witnesses turn God away from you
by kenpodragon ini have a lot of friends in my life.
some are real close and some are casual friends.
in all, i still enjoy my connection with them and i enjoy the time i get to spend with them.
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kenpodragon
Mac
I agree with what say and feel very close to what you are saying.
Take Care
Dragon
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Do Jehovah's Witnesses turn God away from you
by kenpodragon ini have a lot of friends in my life.
some are real close and some are casual friends.
in all, i still enjoy my connection with them and i enjoy the time i get to spend with them.
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kenpodragon
I did confront the friend who said this, like you would expect they "sugar coated" their reasons. In the end though, like I mentioned, it weakened that friendship considerable.
When I left the Witnesses, I left Christianity. Nothing against Christians at all!!!! I just felt something else was right for me and made more sense in the world. To be honest, in my new type of thinking. I am actually more forgiving, although I seem to have less things to forgive for. Mainly because I have very few rules to my life and I do not wear my emotions on my sleeve.
Life is a wonderful adventure.
Dragon
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Do Jehovah's Witnesses turn God away from you
by kenpodragon ini have a lot of friends in my life.
some are real close and some are casual friends.
in all, i still enjoy my connection with them and i enjoy the time i get to spend with them.
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kenpodragon
I have a lot of friends in my life. Some are real close and some are casual friends. In all, I still enjoy my connection with them and I enjoy the time I get to spend with them. One time a few years ago, I was talking to a old friend I had not seen in awhile. He was kind of offish, and I asked why. He said, "well such-in-such (who was mutual friend) was upset with something I did, and said he was going to bad mouth me to you and we would no longer be friends." I was irritated at this and told him, "never think another friend can change my opinion of another, just because they have a problem. What ever friendship is between us, is just that between us." He smiled and we shock hands, and went back to a close relationship. This reminded me of something, and taught me a interesting lesson.
When Witnesses disfellowship people. They make the statement that the people are no longer in God's favor. They say that God has forsaken them and left them to perish with the world at Armageddon. I always found such statements hurtful, and I remember the pain in the eyes of the individuals. I remember the families acting as if the people had died, and mourned them like a death in the family. The elders would go along and say this to 100's of people yearly, and yet what were they really doing?
In my personal convictions now, I do not see what ever God is out there as forsakening anyone. I do not see a man sitting on a thrown in some heavenly palace, smiling over the fact that his worldly organization kicking people out for things they had weaknesses on. In fact, I see God as more of the energy of life, and it rewards for love and punishes for hate. So when I see these men sitting in the judicial committee and saying, "I think this person needs to be disfellowshipped for committing fornication." They are just people in a darkened room, trying to find a light switch that does not exist. They are not doing anything that brings joy to people, and thus I question what they think "spiritual guidance" is to be. As many know, I was a elder for a short time before I left the religion, so I know what took place in back rooms and meetings.
So I wonder something, if God is out there ... the Christian God, or any other. Do you think he would want someone talking to his friends, the people that get life from him, and saying, "we have a problem with you and thus we are going to turn God from you?" Well I do not have to think to hard on this, for I had a learning example to go by. When my friend told me what happened, I was hurt for him, but I was angry for the other friend for doing this. It strengthened my friendship with one who thought it was gone, and weakened my friendship with another who thought it was theirs to control. It helped me to see what true friendship was, and how people should only treat each other with love and never think they are more important then another.
Thus the lesson I learned, if a God is really out there, and honestly that is a huge "?" for me. I would feel a comfort in knowing that the emotions I feel on matters, would be equal if not stronger in the creator of life.
Just something to think about
Dragon
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JW's, no worse than anyone else?
by sleepy inas far as i can see most jw's no worse than anyone else on this planet.
humans are often in "conflict" with the opinions of other humans , believing their ideal is "right" while others are "wrong".in general the people that make up jehovahs witness, that is seperate from those leading ,are often trying to do their best to do what they think is right.this sometimes leads them to do things i believe are wrong even .but so do many other people and groups do things i think are wrong.am i the only one who is right?i think not.there are no rules to being human just choices, some based on what some feel to be scientific reality other on spiritual fealing other on something else.
who desides what is the best, is there even a best way of life?so while i belive jw's are factualy wrong and this causes them to do , what seem to me to be illogical things so do most other people just in different ways.edited by - sleepy on 1 october 2002 14:17:32.
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kenpodragon
I agree!!! Who is to say what is really right or wrong. If the diversity of life has taught us only one thing, I think that is that variety is the spice of life. We have the right to believe something, and should not criticize others for feeling different. Even facts are debatable, for they all depend on perspective.
My thought
Dragon
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Looking at it through a JW's eyes..
by kelsey007 inscandels and dissention were prevelant in the early christian congregations.
it was fortold that wickedness would penatrate the brotherhood as the end approached.
(so therefore they have pediphiles) given 9-11 and the threats of war and on and on and on (not to mention the hurricanes) all this only means the end is fastly approaching.
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kenpodragon
Kelsey
Good points! Something to add to that. I was at a assembly once, and the speaker said "people in other countries worry the most about USA Witnesses, why? Because they have it so easy they forget the meaning of their faith." What this tells you is this. People get more religious when the heat is on, and not less. When the going gets rough, people grab a hold of God.
So with all that is happening, and all that has been in the news. Yes, Witnesses do want people to do these terrible things. Not because they are sick, but because they want a reason to belief. They want something to make their faith strong. What worries me, is when things happen that we caused as Ex-Jw's. We are inadvertently doing this for them.
My thought
Dragon