i was df'd when i was 20 or so for fornication.
i got reinstated when i was 24. i had a son during that time and i was worried about us if we didn't get back to the fold and 'protection' of the organization.
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I told them that if they thought I cared, they were missing the whole point.
That's great, James-woods! Those little jabs that show how little their authority matters.
I was publicly reproved when I was 21 for loose conduct. I thought their decision was loving at the time, now I wish I had been df'd so I could have reached the conclusions that took me another 17 years. But then, I probably would not have been ready for it.
on facebook tonight there was a post asking to take a personality test, in posting the personality tests a trend started emerging that certain personality types seem to leave around the same time.. i came out as an intj which is introverted intuitive thinking judging.
which a good paragraph describing it was:.
intjs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "does it work?
INTP
Age 38
Finally stopped ignoring the cognitive dissonance.
Notice everyone so far is EN/IN? I just took a webinar on this and it said that EN/IN are intuitive/forward thinkers/explorers/inventors. Whereas, ES/IS are sensors. Sensors prefer the world stay the way it is and prefer tradition to exploration. Which tells me the majority of people packing the churches are sensors.
" provocatively" of course meaning alot.
in my cong it meant moving your body in any way at all.. the spirtual ones of the cong of course would not dance and if they did would do a kinda slow motion running type dance.
totaly embassring to look at.. .
We never had dances when I was growing up, not even at weddings. The first dance I went to was for somebody who had moved west from Wisconsin, and I was 20. I had no clue how to dance and no inclination to make a fool of myself. Even now, I prefer darkened clubs with thumping music and lots of alcohol.
Though this reminds me of a bible study I had when I was pioneering. It was a young 16 year old girl who had no father and only a spiritually weak mother. The girl asked me herself to study with her. She used to tell me how she was always criticized at witness dances for the provocative way she danced. I assumed it was some stodgy, old-school witnesses that hated to see anyone have a good time...until I saw her dance. She actually danced like a stripper! All she lacked was a pole. I asked her who taught her to dance that way and she said nobody, it was just her way of dancing. I didn't think anyone could dance like that without training. But I did understand why she might stand out in a JW get-together.
hope this works, i've never posted a link before.
interesting article on religion and personal income, not that any of it comes as much of a surprise.
i apologize if it's already been posted.. http://www.ktxs.com/news/28138610/detail.html.
We contacted the local kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses for comment but received no response.
This made me LOL. Well, no duh.
i'm listening on youtube the songs from the musical "the book of mormon" and i'm having a revelation: the mormons and the jw have a great lot in common!
it's a great show, i think..
I once asked my dad, an ex-mormon/JW convert if he ever noticed the similarities between the leadership of the LDS and JW's. CT Russell/Joseph Smith were both really charismatic and deeply loved by their followers. Then they died and men their exact opposite took over: Rutherford/Brigham Young. They were harsher, more dogmatic and as a result a lot of schisms formed.
He told me I was flat out wrong. There were no comparisons and please don't ever bring that up again. Ho hum.
i'm listening on youtube the songs from the musical "the book of mormon" and i'm having a revelation: the mormons and the jw have a great lot in common!
it's a great show, i think..
Yes, I have been dying to see that show! I think it was my curiousity and research into mormonism that helped me see that JW's arent that different or special.
i have heard ex members of the mormon faith speak about.
the injustice once they leave, but it,s not about the doctrine.
but the shunning.
Mormons are criticized for their beliefs by those who leave. I think we are more aware of JW apostates because of who we are. But Mormon's have apostates too. I think their reaction to Bill Mahr and his film crew when filming REligulous were the actions of a group that is used to being depicted badly. I have a lot of family who are mormon. I also have a bit of an obsession with Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (Polygamists), those who have escaped from their ranks are bitter opponents re: the cult mindset, the information control, the abuse, the apocalyptic view, and the isolationism.
JW's aren't as unique as they like to think they are.
growing up as a jw, you see the world differently than most everyone else.
you see the world as something that is going to end very soon.
all that we know will be gone by the time we're adults.. when we were young, we were living in the last days and were expecting armageddon before we grew old.
Breakfast of Champions-- I remember worrying armageddon would come before the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy was released. Let me just say, Return of the King was worth putting off armageddon.
Last winter I was giving a massage to a sister from another hall who doesn't know I have faded. She has waited tables her whole adult life and now her body is breaking down. She needs regular massage but can only afford two a year, when she is in so much pain she can't work any more. She is in her 50's but she looks much younger, so I asked her why she doesn't get another job that's easier on her body. She told me she has considered going back to school, but worries about not spending as much time as possible in the ministry. She said, "What if armageddon is only six months away? I should spend the time wisely." Well, it's six months later...and we're still here. But I bet if I talked to her she would predict another six months. Sometimes I wonder if they don't deserve what they get.
interesting comment on the talk page of the wikipedia article on the governing body here:.
one dopey jw (wandering-teacher) who complained that the article was "biased" against the jws was supported in a comment by another assumed jw (galik) who whined that the article was "peppered with quotes from known opposers of jehovah's witnesses in order to use this article as a propaganda vehicle".. wandering-teacher replied: "thanks for the support, galik.
the difficulty of having a neutral point of view in the ... article strengthens my faith that i have made the correct religious choice for me.".
I was attending a convention in Tacoma Washington which always had apostates picketing outside with bullhorns. I heard one young brother from Bethel observe that as long as the apostates were there, he knew he had the right religion. Because there were no apostates picketing the local Catholic church.
I recently did an anthropological paper on anti-catholicism. Catholics have been hated a lot longer than JW's.
today's wt lesson: serving jehovah with all seriousness, excerpt from paragraph 11:.
"if a brother has been baptized at least one year and to a reasonable degree meets the scriptural qualifications for ministerial servants outlined at 1 timothy 3:8-13, he can be recommended for appointment.".
how often have you seen someone become a ministerial servant one year after baptism?
PYRAMID And I were in a congregation that needed MS. PYRAMID was reaching out doing mikes, sound, literature, and attendant. He was getting the required nat'l average in service. When they brought him up for appointment to the CO he was shot down because he didn't show enough productivity in his service: not enough placements and return visits. After years of trying so hard to tow the line, this broke his zeal and he stopped trying. So Burnedout has a very good point about the CO's control over things. Another brother who was doing less than PYRAMID got appointed over him because he was more gregarious and friends with all the elders. PYRAMID was shy and just did his job without much complaint.
This taught us, it's a popularity contest most of the time.
