I did and I enjoyed it - wish you weren't having to live in such a small space. But your sacrifices for an important cause are much appreciated also!
What you have done has meant everything to ever so many of us.
saltyoldlady
JoinedPosts by saltyoldlady
-
3
Memories at Herman's Hotel
by Dogpatch insorry about the double post, it wouldn't let me back in to put in the title.
memories at herman's hotel.
sunday, 24 april 2011 22:49this last weekend i had to cut my work and storage space down due to the landlord wanting some of it back (right!
-
-
-
78
How (not) to destroy a thread and turn it into a battleground
by Terry inwe are adults here and don't want jwn to reflect a hostile enviornment for lurkers who may.
wish to learn about the watchtower.
many first timers might be very curious to discover whether.
-
-
saltyoldlady
Ooooh - that mutt HAS TEETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
21
Good bye to all
by TotallyADD inin just a few days reopened mind and me will be taking that big trek up to the north country.
we have hit very few road blocks in the last months getting ready for our move.
we will not be able to get high speed internet were we are moving to.
-
-
saltyoldlady
The best of blessings to you on that long trek - and take special care of that 22 yr old putty kat for me! I am worried about him. Salty.
-
46
An explanation for the increase in anointed
by pirata inremember, if you see this in the watchtower, or hear it in a talk, you heard it here first .
evidently, since we are so close to end of this system of things, god has seen it fitting to fill the final spots held open for the 144,000.. there.
simple, elegant, and doesn't require an overhaul of the 144,000 jw belief..
-
-
saltyoldlady
Watch out - Pirata! With that kind of brilliance you might get "drafted" to the GB.
-
42
New Way of Doing Field Service?
by snowbird inas i was driving to work this morning, i saw a familiar looking car a few yards ahead of me that kept making stops where people were standing alongside the roadway.. when i drove past the people, i noticed wt and awake!
in their hands.. well, lo and behold, this jw woman to whom i once referenced in the link below was "placing" literature with them!.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/191371/1/a-visit-from-the-reformed-village-strumpet.
-
-
saltyoldlady
I actually experienced a Bible Study being started with "bus stop" witnessing and she came into our hall and actually got baptized too - a delightful gal. She was on the cell phone when the sister approached the bus stop - there were about six people there - and when the sister approached her last of all she told her aunt - there is one of JW's here right now wanting to talk to me - will call you back in a bit. This gal was at the moment talking to her aunt who is a JW someplace far away. She accepted the study pronto - it was the only time anyone would have ever caught her at a bus stop because her car was currently in the repair shop for maintenance stuff. She was an extremely talented individual, very bright, and very eager - in her early 20's - the "perfect" study.
But I myself detested this kind of witnessing - being old they thought it was the best for me as I don't walk very easily or quickly. BUT the truth of the matter is the hardest part of field service was the getting in and out of a car - my left hip is all but gone. And I hated giving my presentation to some poor soul who had no possible way of escape plus in front of a group of "amused" bystanders. This had to be the most gruesome field service duty I ever did. I preferred street work (which I also detested) to this by far. But I admired the sisters who could approach these strangers with such ease and naturalness and end up conducting "interesting" conversations. And the sister who conducted the above mentioned Bible Study was one of those.
One of the items I thought especially bad about the practice is - they would pile about six people into a van - run for a bustop - let two out and then the rest would just sit there in the comfort of the car drinking coffee, hot chocolate, whatever - eating doughnuts, or whathaveyou's - having a gay old gabfest about anything but spiritual things - until the couple worked thru the whole crowd at the bus stop. Since we lived near the end of several bus junctions there were always big mobs there to talk with and the usual 2 hour session would normally consist of very few "real" witnessing encounters per person but they didn't want to let us all out for fear the crowd would feel "overwhelmed." (Give me a break - let's get real - you guys are just plain LAZY).
-
63
How Many of Them Do You Know About?
by clarity inafter flipper's thread about the wt child abuse cases, i started to think about how many children i know of personally who have been sexually abused by a jw!.
as someone who is not especially 'in the know', it's amazing that i do know five of them.
one who was a small baby, at the time!.
-
-
saltyoldlady
Oh and a Ps to the above incidents - the SRA stuff did not result in much discipline from the elder body. One MS got his rank yanked - he was the father of the baby which makes the event even horrendous to me. One elder - the PO - was threatened with removal from his "rank" by an investigating high ranking official known to be a "trouble shooter" from WTSdom - this high ranking guy was asked to stay out here in the area and be the DO for several years because there apparently there was so much apostasy, and other troubles, etc. etc. going on out here. The PO in question threatened to sue if his rank yanked so the unthinkable happened - they let him remain as an elder and as the PO. Amazing to both the sister and myself. Something very strange about that to me. Does the WTS run scared of lawsuits? Perhaps only in the case that great scandal might be exposed!!!
And I forgot about a 5th incident - a young girl in that same congregation many years earlier was repeatedly molested by her step-father who was a brother. They did DF him - and he was put in the hooch for many years. The community brought this one up to me many times in my field service there but I also learned the details because the sister of the girl raped became a buddy of my daughter. The brothers would not allow the mother of the girl to divorce her husband for this activity because it was only porneia - not out and out adultery. Many years later those rulings got changed thank goodness. But this sister stuck it out and survived. The man was later reinstated in the congregation after his many years of jail service spent.
And sorry gang - this just brings to mind a recent episode where I did know the people involved - that my daughter explained to me. Another brother up in that same congregation recently - about 2 years ago also got put in jail for sex offense with a teenage girl in the congregation during field service activity. My husband and I were good friends of that couple - he did have a previous jail record also but I did not know the details - apparently it was sexual offenses against minors. He was not an elder or MS in the congregation but here he was allowed to mix with the young people without restrictions and with the most of us not knowing the background. So this brings the count up to six for me. I try to forget these type of things - hope I don't suddenly remember more and pop back here.
-
63
How Many of Them Do You Know About?
by clarity inafter flipper's thread about the wt child abuse cases, i started to think about how many children i know of personally who have been sexually abused by a jw!.
as someone who is not especially 'in the know', it's amazing that i do know five of them.
one who was a small baby, at the time!.
-
-
saltyoldlady
I had a Book Study Conductor who molested two teenage boys about the same time - he was removed from being an elder but that was all - apparently because only one witness to each event - the young teenager being molested. The elder would not confess guilt. At the same time this elder was involved in a court case by a family of an elderly widow claiming that this elder had bilked their mother out of a great deal of money. I knew he had redecorated her huge old mansion for her and redid the landscaping too and she dearly loved him. Never heard all the details of the case except he was denied contact with her any further - he moved away and was eventually df'd by some other elder body - as a young man about 20 plus years before the above incidents he had been df'd for homosexual activity with another pioneer at my last congregation. Don't suppose that would count as molesting children so we will only count this as 2 cases. But this was a case of the brother having a previous record for homosexual activity being reinstated and then eventually - in about 6 to 8 years made an elder and given freedom with young people.
Then a sister in a different congregation had her small baby - about 1 or 2 years old at the time molested in what was described as group activity by adult men in the congregation, some of them in positions of authority. When she intercepted them they managed to get her put in a mental institution for two weeks. And while in that congregation I was also told by a sister who had just moved into our territory from their flight out of California that their son had been used for Satanic Ritual Abuse and that the same activity was occurring in the congregation we were currently in. She did not know I knew about this young child incident as I kept my mouth mum period but she struck me as being a truthful witness about these events. Their alarm was horrendous. So this makes 4 events I have learned of during my 33 plus years. My daughter knew of more up north in her area but we will not count those as I do not know as much knowledge of the people involved. Just say it is not as rare as you could wish. I would prefer to think the SRA was phoney baloney and someone's hyped up fear but it appears it is REAL and not just somebody's imagination I am sad to report.
-
209
The trouble with Christianity. TRINITY.
by whereami ingotta love pat.. "ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.
ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity.
it is the mere abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of jesus.
-
-
saltyoldlady
Oh Terry and Wontleave - I LOVE YOU! You made my day. You have me laughing so hard my sides are hurting.
-
80
Struggling
by anniegirl76 ini have been df-ed for almost 9 years.
just out of curiosity, has anyone decided to find another religion or belief after being jw?
i struggle with my feelings, my mom and brother, aunt, cousins are all jw.
-
-
saltyoldlady
Annie - For me going to an "interdenominational" local Bible Study group at a community center has been a wonderful blessing. I am elderly so it is a BS at a Senior Center and yes the BS is sponsored by a local church which is also interdenominational but they make no pressure whatsoever to join their particular church body and our little group of about 24 souls represents a great variety. But the community interdenominational churches will generally not put a lot of pressure on you to accept some strict doctarian view - just to put faith in Jesus Christ will be their only requirement or emphasis. And they will offer you wholesome spiritual fellowship. You also might search out the possibility of a local chapter of Bible Students - their views are similar re rejection of a trinitarian dogma or the hellfire concept. Tho I rejected the local chapter because they still hold on to the 607 BC date for the beginning of the Gentile Times. They did not demand conformity from me in that matter however and they are delightful people. I just didn't find them to be as open-minded about Bible chronology research as I desired.
As to your other question why is it so often they lump JW's and Mormons together - and as "cults." I could not give you a scholarly answer to that - others will do a much better job than myself but both organizations do have views that are definitely OUTSIDE the mainstream Christianity views. A study of what exactly constitutes a cult will also enlighten you as to the similarity of how these two organizations function even though their beliefs so very different. And another very glaring similarity between the two groups is the fact they both "peddle" their religion door to door - I suspect this last factor is the major reason they are so often uttered in the "same breath" when other Christians are choosing to be judgmental of one another.
Oh and by the way a big welcome to you. Looking forward to getting acquainted.
-
97
1984 WT cover -- Watchtower's Final Failed Prediction?
by FatFreek 2005 inthe infamous cover of that 1984 watchtower (27 years ago) was perhaps the last prediction / prophecy of the watchtower society.
will there be any more or have they finally learned their lesson?
some think they are like a race-track junkie and are addicted to predictions.
-
-
saltyoldlady
#8 looks so much like Don Cecil - an elderly CO we used to have who retired into our circuit - Don't think I have spelled his name correctly - but it was pronounced Cee-cil. Had a deep wonderful resonant speaking voice. Came from down south - had Cherokee heritage in him. But my id of him for this pic is not "for certain."