I wouldn't mind meeting some of you, if it was close to me in Akron. That is, if you let "newbies" into your group. And, an old newbie at that. You guys all sound young enough to be my children! I'll just say, I was 10 when my parents joined the JWs, I was in for 25 years and have been out for 25 years (although family still in). Do the math, I am really old.
SafeAtHome
JoinedPosts by SafeAtHome
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59
On my way to Cleveland for the 2011 "Let God's Kingdom Come" District Convention!
by MrFreeze inwell, i would be... if i were still going to meetings.
i live in pittsburgh, pa. for as long as i can remember we've always had our conventions in cleveland.
i think the year i was born was when we started going there.
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On my way to Cleveland for the 2011 "Let God's Kingdom Come" District Convention!
by MrFreeze inwell, i would be... if i were still going to meetings.
i live in pittsburgh, pa. for as long as i can remember we've always had our conventions in cleveland.
i think the year i was born was when we started going there.
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SafeAtHome
NewChapter, Boloney in, boloney out. HA! My last memory of that assembly is eating lunch in the parking lot in a hot car with my cousin and his wife. I was going thru a divorce, thought my life was over , but actually, was just the beginning because it was the start of my journey out of "the Truth". Now my favorite place just down from there is the Country Maid Ice Cream place, we stop there every fall after one of our hikes during the fall hiking spree.
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On my way to Cleveland for the 2011 "Let God's Kingdom Come" District Convention!
by MrFreeze inwell, i would be... if i were still going to meetings.
i live in pittsburgh, pa. for as long as i can remember we've always had our conventions in cleveland.
i think the year i was born was when we started going there.
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SafeAtHome
It's nice to attend events, like baseball games, that stadiums are intended for. My only trip to NYC was in the early 60's for one of those 5 day conventions at Yankee Stadium. What an ordeal. That was our family "vacation" for that year, but there was not much time for sightseeing. I think we went to the top of the Empire State Building, but that was it. Another time we went to Detroit, another to Buffalo, which we actually did get to go over to Niagara Falls after that one. Woo-hoo! Man, I hated those conventions.
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On my way to Cleveland for the 2011 "Let God's Kingdom Come" District Convention!
by MrFreeze inwell, i would be... if i were still going to meetings.
i live in pittsburgh, pa. for as long as i can remember we've always had our conventions in cleveland.
i think the year i was born was when we started going there.
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SafeAtHome
Hey, I'm from the Akron area and the last big convention I attended was at the old Cleveland Coliseum (a misnomer, since it was in Richfield , about 30 minutes south of Cleveland) in 1984. Man, that place was the pits, or as you said, maybe it was because of the circumstances I had to be there. It was the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was torn down in 1999 and is now an overgrown field. The conventions are now held at the Wolstein Center on CSU campus, I think. It is not far from Progressive Field. We were up there for an Indians game one time, the same weekend a convention was going on and we saw a few JWs crossing the street. It was a hot, summer day, and there were these guys in suits and women in their "southern church lady" dresses with their badges on. Kind of hard to not recognize who they were. I was more appropriately dressed in my Tribe gear!
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JWs always deny the information control
by AuntBee inan active witness on fb just told me that they are taught to "always question what we are taught" and use not only the wt publications, but any research materials, and come to a conclusion about what they find!
this is not what i've heard from you guys!
does she go to some unusual-type kingdom hall, or is she mesing with my mind?.
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SafeAtHome
Ask her why a JW reading "Crisis of Conscience" while living in a JW home would have to hide it and sneak time to read it. Or why do JW's dismiss and label any other literature as apostate without so much as a glance inside or consideration of the credentials of the writer?
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GREAT BOOK ! May free your JW loved ones.
by wobble ini have just finished reading a great book entitled "believing bullshit" by stephen law, published by prometheus books of n.y. www.prometheusbooks.com.
in it the author outlines how we come to believe total claptrap most often because of the dubious methods used by the promoters of these ideas.. he does not set out to debunk the ideas themselves as the main purpose of the book, though in passing he has to do so with some .like alien abductions, christian science and homeopathy etc.
his main purpose is to expose the methods used to get people to believe,,and how even if the idea being put forward may be good, or a truth, to use such methods is not justified, and leads one open to being sucked in to an intellectual black hole if you are duped by them.. if this book is read by an active, believing jw they will not smell any rats, but by the end of it, if they are honest with themselves they will see the methods used by the wt as totally dishonest and reminiscent of snake-oil salesmen.. it may just free their minds enough.. i cannot praise it too highly, it is a valuable read for anybody, and shows why even college educated, intelligent people can be fooled by bs..
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SafeAtHome
Thanks, Open mind. My library has this one also, I just put it on hold. Sounds interesting.
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GREAT BOOK ! May free your JW loved ones.
by wobble ini have just finished reading a great book entitled "believing bullshit" by stephen law, published by prometheus books of n.y. www.prometheusbooks.com.
in it the author outlines how we come to believe total claptrap most often because of the dubious methods used by the promoters of these ideas.. he does not set out to debunk the ideas themselves as the main purpose of the book, though in passing he has to do so with some .like alien abductions, christian science and homeopathy etc.
his main purpose is to expose the methods used to get people to believe,,and how even if the idea being put forward may be good, or a truth, to use such methods is not justified, and leads one open to being sucked in to an intellectual black hole if you are duped by them.. if this book is read by an active, believing jw they will not smell any rats, but by the end of it, if they are honest with themselves they will see the methods used by the wt as totally dishonest and reminiscent of snake-oil salesmen.. it may just free their minds enough.. i cannot praise it too highly, it is a valuable read for anybody, and shows why even college educated, intelligent people can be fooled by bs..
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SafeAtHome
Thank you, wobble, for the recommendation last month. My library got the book in and I just finished reading it. Wow. I had to remind myself that this was written for the general public, not aimed solely at JWs. In fact, although JWs aren't mentioned by name, they certainly can be included when religions, or cults in general are spoken of. Of particular interest is Chaper 8, Pressing Your Buttons. It talks about the methods that are used by others to shape our beliefs. It reminded me so much of what Raymond Franz said in the final chapter of "Crisis of Conscience" about how to be genuine, our faith must be individually arrived at and not be the borrowed convictions of others. The subheading, Belief Shaping Mechanisms, points to the exact methods the Witnesses use: isolation, control, uncertainty, repetition, and emotion (fear in particular). (Ray talked about these methods in his book.) Pressing Your Buttons calls these ones "mindless and uncritical followers"...who are "immune to reason, trapped inside an Intellectual Black Hole at the mercy of those who control the ideas at its core". Sound like any organization we know?
As the others said, I don't think you could get a JW to read it. They would say they haven't the time with their own literature to keep up with, or if by a miracle they did read it, they probably wouldn't recognize any of it as applying to themselves. Thanks again for the recommendation, I really enjoyed this book.
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Trying to Salvage a Friendship
by Quendi inmy friends,.
i need your counsel on a personal matter, and i hope you will give it in love.
as some of you know, i was disfellowshipped six years ago, but it wasn't until june 2010 that i made up my mind never to return to the wts.
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SafeAtHome
Quendi, With your obvious writing skill, I recommend you compose a letter as heartfelt as the one you have presented here. He will be more likely to read it through, perhaps, than listening to a phone conversation initiated by you. Your mutual friend assured you that he still has strong feelings about your friendship. That is a hopeful sign, that the JW mindset hasn't completely poisoned him against you. Perhaps in the letter you could talk about some of the old times when your friendship was strong.
You say he "is suffering many things". Typically JW's do not reach out to those suffering physically or emotionally (I have personal experience on both counts to back this up). Rather, their solution to everything is be more active in the service so you won't have time to think about your problems. If this suffering is mental or emotional, contacting you may add guilt on top of what he is already dealing with and the fear of being found out communicating with a DF'ed one may be too much to add to his situation right now. But a kindly worded letter from you, offering any physical assistance and unconditional friendship, well, maybe he will see what a contrast that is to what the JW's have to offer.
Make sure he has your email address, it may be easier for him to make initial contact that way than to pick up a phone. If you do this, I think you will have done all you reasonably can do without making him feel cornered. The next step will be his, if he chooses to take it.
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FSM: Austrian authorities accept colander as religious headgear
by J. Hofer inhttp://translate.google.at/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=utf-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3a%2f%2fderstandard.at%2f1308681039222%2foesterreichs-behoerden-nudelsieb-als-religioese-kopfbedeckung-in-fuehrerschein-genehmigt.
this is google-translated from german.... a "pastafarian" insisted in having his license picture shot with a colander on his head.
it's allowed (for muslims for example) to have ones head covered for legal documents if it is a religious practise.
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SafeAtHome
What a hoot! I religiously follow my Cleveland Indians. Can I wear my Tribe hat on my Ohio driver's license photo?
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DON'T SPEND TIME WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.
by Hairyhegoat inthese comments and the references to the old publications are a true find.
have a read of this and you will never become one of the jw's!.
don't associate with outsiders (non-jehovah's witnesses).
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SafeAtHome
These statements may seem ridiculously harsh to some more recent converts, but they are all too familar to me. Having grown up and been in during the 60's, 70's and early 80's when many of these references were taken from, I know they reflect what was pounded into our heads then. No higher education, no school activities, no competitive sports, do not play chess because of the military nature of the game (boy, I had forgotten about that one, but it brought back the memory of that!), and limited association with anyone not a JW. Even if they were good, moral, honest people, that didn't matter because they didn't love Jehovah and would all be destroyed at Armegeddon! So much more as to employment restrictions, where we could work, who we could have for clients if we owned our own business. What can be said at our own weddings or funerals and who may participate. The list goes on and on.
As a JW you feel you have never grown up, you always have to ask permission or check with the elders if something is permitted. The feeling of freedom, even after 25 years of being done with all that, is something I cherish everyday. Especially since I have family still in and see how their lives, schedules and choices are all made for them and revolve around the Kingdom Hall and what others may think. I am not bitter for the things I missed, just sad that I missed so much and sad for my family members still in because it is always a divider in what had been an extremely close knit family.