Posts by Retrovirus

28

Considering Shunning my JW Friend

by InterestedOne in

jw
friends

i had a discussion with my jw friend during which i asked her why a rational person should believe the world is run by demons.

in response, she questioned the existence of objective rationality.

she said that we should "agree to disagree.

Retrovirus

InterestedOne, I can relate because I saw my ex-SIL go this way. When we met, before she became my SIL, she seemed a stong, independent lady with a nice sense of humour. We became friends as well as relatives. Before her marriage she was "studying the Bible" ( ) with the jw and soon after she was baptised.

It made for an impossible marriage. My brother could and did compromise, but a jw cannot. Also my friendship with her eroded as she only seemed interested in converting me. Finally she set the local jws onto me. With the current Apostate Angst, she has stopped communicating entirely.

This "friend" of yours does as she thinks she must. She cannot leave the religion out of it because she must "give a fine witness" but she must also panic at every logical response, as it threatens her cult personality.

It seems that you will have to part ways, but if you can, do it gently. She is trapped and cannot be reasonable, but she can still feel hurt.

29

Has there been any recent counsel or articles advising JW's to avoid associating with 'inactives'?

by nicolaou in

i ask because over the last few weeks i've noticed a marked 'cooling off' from my brother and sisters.

i don't think i'm being paranoid - has anything specific been printed lately?

bloody faith!.

Retrovirus

Welcome, ChainedNo Longer!

You seem to have a lot of your close family "in", which makes this latest witchhunt very hard for you.

I'm a non-jw, and my jw SIL has now also declined to keep in touch since I failed to progress in my "Bible" studies. The jw ladies who were uber-friendly at the start of the visits have also disappeared. Ah well.

Hang in there, and I do hope that as others have suggested, once the present stridency wears off, believing jws will revert to more moderate behaviour.

I understand from another thread that you have at least one child, kudos to you for raising her/him out of the watchtower! That's a great thing to do for your child.

All the best, Retro

84

Being honest with yourself, could you have reasonably adjusted your attitude and continued on as a JW?

by miseryloveselders in

jw
friends

i ask this question in harmony with deedub's swan song thread which i linked below.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/205902/1/time-to-say-good-bye.

to some degree, i think i understand where she's coming from.

just speaking from my own experiences since stepping into the world of anonymous apostacy, i went through a few different phases of personal outlooks.

Retrovirus

Hi DeeDubs !

How did your return work out? Have you been lurking for a while (ie, did you know Miz is nor No Room for George?)

Welcome back, Retro

10

Does anyone know if they are still teaching the GT to newbies?

by aristeas in

jw
friends

it has been quite an eye-opening last two weeks or so since i discovered & joined this site.

i'm learning a lot and there's no doubt much still to learn.

i must continue to thank so many posters for contributing information not available elsewhere on a wide variety of topics.

Retrovirus

Thanks, Aristeas! My study was discontinued due to my lack of progress. I've been learning here how lucky I was!

41

A few notes on September 15, 2011 Watchtower, fresh off the presses!

by sd-7 in

jw
friends

september 15th, 2011 watchtower, page 28, paragraph 13:.

"if a human overseer in god's organization provides you with instructions that seem extremely detailed, you might at times feel frustrated.

jehovah, however, is a perfect overseer who delegates generously and trusts his servants.

Retrovirus

From the "Marry only in the Lord" section. . they actually had the nerve to ask

What did David do when he felt lonesome

well, we know what David did - with Bathsheba. Great example!

10

Does anyone know if they are still teaching the GT to newbies?

by aristeas in

jw
friends

it has been quite an eye-opening last two weeks or so since i discovered & joined this site.

i'm learning a lot and there's no doubt much still to learn.

i must continue to thank so many posters for contributing information not available elsewhere on a wide variety of topics.

Retrovirus

Yes, my "Bible" studies used "What does the Bible really teach" also. The impression I had was that progressing through the book sets the hooks in (Paradise soon, relationship with Jeh, membership of a loving conregation) long before proceeding to detail.

The jw ladies also said that there was no need to go through the appendix with the calculations in detail; it just "proves" Chapter 8 ()

77

My Last Thread

by Maze in

my interest in posting here has deadened lately.

this will likely be my last thread.

initially i participated here because i was interested in sharpening my perception against opposing points of view.

Retrovirus

What Ohiocowboy said, well, almost;

follow your heart and do what makes you happy, stop hurting yourself by judging others, have peace.

Best wishes, Retro

40

What if you admitted you don't mind being destroyed @ Armaggedon?

by Knowsnothing in

isn't that pretty much the end of a conversation with a jw?.

honestly, now that i think about it, what is the difference between judgment day(armaggedon) and death?.

just curious to see how my friends and relatives would react if i responded that way... .

Retrovirus

The jw ladies who "bible" studied with me also asked that. As a deist, I asked shouldn't God be served out of love rather than in expectation of reward?

The back pedalling was quite funny.

25

My dad wont make it too much longer, advise/experiences needed

by Coffee House Girl in

jw
friends

hello all at jwn,.

so my mom called to tell me that my dad wont be able to come back home, he has been on kidney dialysis (along with having congestive heart failure and diabetes and dimentia...) but now he is breaking down and will have to be admitted to a hospice center for the remainder of his time left (without dialysis wont be two weeks).

most of you know my situation, faded (not dfd or dad) but most of my family treats me like i am disfellowshipped except my mom and she keeps getting warnings from elders to cut off dealings with me- my dad is inactive but as head of the household he demands that i be able to visit and take care of mom and dad (so my mom must be submissive to his wishes).

Retrovirus

CHG, all my sympathies to you all. I'm glad your brother will be there and hope you get through this stressful time as painlessly as possible. It's great that your Dad and CSG got to meet.

The measures you took to get the elders to back off are still in place, and I hope they remember that and leave you and your family in peace.

"you better do something if you want to see him again in paradise" - OMG, just read this. Could anyone at all be so crass as to say such a thing? I most sincerely hope that doesn't happen.

Strenght and peace to you. . . Retro

216

Religious Reform

by Maze in

as a bible based organization, how do feel jehovah's organization should be reformed?

the answer is quite simple in christendoms churches:.

1. reject false doctrines like the trinity and 'all christians go to heaven' and use of images in worship.. .

Retrovirus

And yet the Watchtower Society offered a settlement. Why?

Contrary to what opposers may assume, the Watchtower's reported settlement offer of $50,000 was not made to Boer because they knew they were in the wrong and neither was the settlement offer involving the 16 persons made for that reason. The money was no doubt offered because they knew that it would cost more than that to go to trial and that it would be very time consuming. They were simply trying to offer a settlement as a way of curtailing expenses for a long drawn out court case

Poor, delusional Maze. Because of the gag order, this load of bad grammar cannot be verified. But, just this once, ask yourself . . .

If the Watchtower was so correct and justified, why did they issue the gag order??