Posts by ThinkerBelle

26

Living as Christians at the C.L.A.M this week

by Truthexplorer in

this weeks meeting under the section - living as 'christians', starts off with 'repentance makes a difference', which is a talk given by an elder taken from w06 11/15 27-28 par 7-9. in a nut shell it discusses those who have been disfellowshipped and then show repentance.

it then goes on to discuss reinstatement and how a certain amount of time must pass by before this can take place.

it makes the following point in the paragraph.. 'a disfellowshipped person is not automatically accepted back into the congregation after a certain amount of time has passed.

ThinkerBelle

I poured my heart out at my JC and the edlers didn't seem to pay much attention......I'm pretty sure they had their mind made up before I even walked in to that meeting. I was told that I wasn't repentant.......how do 3 imperfect men determine that??? These elders were the kind that lead thwir hall with iron fists and they wanted no incidents........but after me, there was a string of people that got trouble.

I was young at the time and immediately did what I had to to get back in, but my reinstatement took a long time because the elders in my new hall didn't (or wouldn't) take the time to contact the other hall even though they said they were going to reinstate me, but needed to talk to the othwr elders firat. Took about 6 weeks before they finally did it.

Such a screwed up process!!

46

Can somebody explain the songs and songbook obsession?

by careful in

i've been out a while and have only put in a rare appearance at a memorial or brief visit at a convention/assembly to keep people off my back, so i haven't kept up on the songbook.

but one thing i've noticed that the org.

has been doing that they never did when i was in is all these "supplemental songs" that keep appearing.

ThinkerBelle

What's worse is the child reditions of the songs encouraging the kids to get brainwashed too......ugh, I can't stand "Listen, obey and be blessed."

46

Can somebody explain the songs and songbook obsession?

by careful in

i've been out a while and have only put in a rare appearance at a memorial or brief visit at a convention/assembly to keep people off my back, so i haven't kept up on the songbook.

but one thing i've noticed that the org.

has been doing that they never did when i was in is all these "supplemental songs" that keep appearing.

ThinkerBelle

What's worse is the child reditions of the songs encouraging the kids to get brainwashed too......ugh, I can't stand "Listen, obey and be blessed."

46

A question .....

by Landy in

hi guys - new poster here.

i was brought up a jw in the uk and stopped going not long after i was married.

that was 20 years ago so i'm not really up to date with the current doctrinal flip flops or the new youtube obsessed gb.. came across this site while googling the name of a local elder who's just been convicted of possesion of a pc full of unpleasant pics of kids.. so, my question.

ThinkerBelle

Because it's not that easy for most and I even have a husband that is not in and agrees with what I've discovered (he used to be part of it, but left for other reasons, never baptised). I work with parents and I rely heavily on my mom to help with the care of children while I work. My inlaws are less than reliable and a bit crazy.....okay, maybe a lot and not responsible. I can't just up and leave yet because I rely on that help and I do have a few meaningful relationships with others that have kids as well, but it doesn't take hard work either to pretend to be one.........attend meetings to catch up on my reading - the electronic age has helped greatly with this (I do skip some sporadically every month...especially midweek), fabricate a service report; I go out for an hour maybe 1 saturday a month for show, but feign conducting study with kids for rest of my hours......and I really do talk to them about Bible things, just may not be the accepted JW theories.

13

He puts it in their hearts

by ThinkerBelle in

at meeting yesterday a thought came to me - my mind was wandering most of the session as it was so boring - about how the jws say that god will put it into the hearts of the political leaders to overturn religion at the start of the great tribulation.

they also claim this about maneuvered events in the ot too.

jws also claim that when someone has the right heart condition, they come to find jah.

ThinkerBelle

At meeting yesterday a thought came to me - my mind was wandering most of the session as it was so boring - about how the JWs say that God will put it into the hearts of the political leaders to overturn religion at the start of the great tribulation. They also claim this about maneuvered events in the OT too.

JWs also claim that when someone has the right heart condition, they come to find Jah. Such as if they prayed to find him and then a pair of JWs arrive at the door and they become ecstatically joyous that God directed them. Or like the watchtower yesterday about the hand of god helping us supposedly when we pray.

My point: If God - assuming he exists - can maneuver hearts to come to goodness, then why can't he manipulate people to come to love him? Why is he going to make essentially milions of people suffer and experience the pain and suffering of the Great Tribulation if he can just as easily maneuver things for good? I know, I know, free will yadda, yadda. But how is that free will since he only wants to be worshipped by his standards or you end up doomed to destruction?

Just something I was pondering on wondering if this is all a BS scare tactic story doomsday religions like to spout to keep people loyal. 😀

31

Disgusted By Today's WT Study 12/6/15

by JW_Rogue in

no, not because of the message of deluding yourself into seeing the hand of god working in mundane wt activities.

that is to be expected from this org.

what really bothered me was the quote in paragraph one.

ThinkerBelle

This definitely was a snoozer......all the ridiculous personal stories came out.

"God's hand".......the "placebo effect" in full force. I wish witnesses could hear themselves talk sometimes.....they have no real thinking ability.

35

Saddest thing about being DFd

by kairos in

jw
friends

i always enjoyed being kind.

when someone genuinely needed a hand or what not, it felt good to help family or friends.. i don't really miss them anymore.

i faded over two years ago, so they long ago shunned me.i think about them less and less and have even forgotten some names.i did enjoy some of the friendships and the association.

ThinkerBelle

The saddest thing about DF, at least for me when it happened, is the guilt you feel because you invariably "lost" those friendships. It shouldn't be that way as most who come back in do it because of shame and not because you're sorry for what you did, at least many I know felt that way. I hate that "arrangement"!!

20

Gas prices today & the book study

by LevelThePlayingField in

we all remember, one of the main reasons for removing the bookstudy was the high gas prices, well, have you looked at the gas prices today?

nationwide, the lowest is about $1.65, the highest is about $2.67.

isn't that right about the same gas prices as when they cancelled the bookstudy in the first place?

ThinkerBelle

Dare I say that the bookstudy was the most tolerable of all the meetings......only because we would have "goodie night" after......and man, we went all out with that!

Like Stuck said, we always were told to stick to your study group because when "times got tougher" these small groups would be our lifeline. So now what?? I notice a lot less commaraderie in the hall now too.

17

Other Religious Groups Critical of Higher Education

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

i was reading an essay online about how witnesses are critical of higher education and discourage it.

the editor's note said there are other conservative religious groups that hold the same view towards education.. there are?

do any of you know of any religious group that works as hard as the jws at keeping their members stupid?.

ThinkerBelle

Maybe the offshoot groups from the Biblr Students like Christadelphians, Dawn, Millelliasts........I don't know enough about them to say for sure or not, but since they follow Russell pretty closely, maybe they discourage it too.

29

What actually DID you learn?

by punkofnice in

my jw friends that still speak to me, tell me that they love the meetings because of the things they learn.. i wonder what they think they're learning?

it an avenue that always perplexes me because their replies are just so wishy washy or i get a blank stare when i ask.. what's you r experience?.

ThinkerBelle

I learned that brothers giving public talks who haven't gone to college pull out all kinds of sciencey "facts" that are just bogus to try to "prove the Bible" to a house of nodding heads while I roll my eyes because he's totally wrong. No wonder they don't want us educated!