Posts by ThinkerBelle

28

Assembly baptisms/attendance - keep 'em coming!

by freddo in

jw
friends

don't forget to post your reported assembly and convention attendance and baptisms and whether they are higher or lower than customary (if you know).. here's some detail passed to me of the last circuit assembly held at surrey (uk) assembly hall.. attendance 922 baptisms 3 (half circuit).

ThinkerBelle

1329 attendance 6 baptized

One 10 year old ( parents had experience during afternoon sesh), the rest most likely teens/young adults and one guy that looked 40s-50s.

21

One day assemblies

by Sour Grapes in

this may have been discussed before.

the costs for using the assembly hall for a one day last saturday was $12,000 with another assembly for the other half of the circuit on sunday, which will ring up another $12,000.

if the assembly was for two days the friends might roll their eyes if it were announced the costs for the two days was $24,000.

ThinkerBelle

What I thought odd is that they first announced the surplus in the "circuit account" (about $15,000) and then go on to talk about the cost of the one day - ours was over $13,000 yesterday in an assembly hall building we built so no need to move equipment or rent - then they announce the incoming donations so far and give the deficit, which was like $2,500, never taking into account the surplus.

87

Jehovah's witnesses are the fastest growing religion.

by hoser in

jw
friends

that is what the speaker said in his public talk this morning.

ThinkerBelle

Thats funny! According to the guy that gave the last talk at the assembly yesterday, apostates are the ones growing so we need to be very careful so as not to be swayed against the GB.

9

Does growing up in a religious family make you MEAN?

by Divergent in

jw
friends

yeah, i was mean.

could it be that i was not encouraged to have non-jw's as friends, so i viewed them as insignificant?

could it be that i found it difficult to live up to "christian standards" and took it out on others?

ThinkerBelle

Interesting study, but I don't necessarily agree with it from my experience. I was always kind and empathetic to others. I shared my toys and I am a born in. I think a lot more plays into it than just religion like upbrininging, personality, and culture - which is affected by religion, but not wholly. My parents were always kind and helpful. My mom was a caregiver and I would help her with some of the day out excursions ( saw first had how people can be mean towards people who are "different,), so maybe that shaped me. I don't recall being mean to or being instructed to ignore kids at school. Sure, I wasn't allowed to hang out with them for the most part after school unless it was for a project, but in school I had several friends, even had "clubs" with a few in elementary. They were also religious from religious households and treated people kindly and me even as a JW. Maybe I don't relate to the story because I'm more of a humanist than most Christians too.......and my youngest son is the epitomy of kindness towards others and he's only known the JW way thus far.

Adding - however, I do know of many JWs and religious zealots who would fit this bill. I've seen unkind atheists as well (my BIL, for example).

30

Handing out candy

by mikeypants in

growing up my parents would barricade our home off by parking vehicles bumper to bumper - you would have to crawl under the cars or over the bumpers to get to our door.

also, we would turn off all the lights and hide in the back room away from the street.. that was the norm for me.

isnt that insane?

ThinkerBelle

This was posted on my fb from a JW friend......it made me chuckle. We'd always stay in the back room, but it was funny when it was on bookstudy night as people I guess would assume we were having a party with all the lights on and we'd get numerous bell rings that night.

372

On respect for the belief of others. Sorry for the long post

by StarTrekAngel in

i am inclined to start this thread in response to some comments made in other threads.

i have been coming around these forum for quite some time now so whatever you find in here is not just related to something someone may have said this week.

it can go months back as well.. i have seen many who claim to respect the belief of others but when it comes down to applying it into practice, things take a whole different tune.

ThinkerBelle

Great post STA! You can disagree with someone without being a jerk about it. I'm always hesitant to post on other threads sometimes because of some of the comments.

48

Your thoughts on Halloween , yes, no or maybe ?

by Finkelstein in

well its that time again when the ghouls come out to play.

i personally think halloween is a bit irresponsible and inappropriate from a sociological perspective.. there's something about the intent of frightening young impressionable children minds with frightening objests.

and feeding them candy which most likely cause tooth decay and stomachs is irresponsible activity conducted by adults.

ThinkerBelle

Oh please, this is the same type of nonsense that the Watchtower tries to say - that somehow the roots have some sort of evil beginning. Who cares!
This is 2015, these things have a different meaning for us. For us it's about letting kids having a little fun (minus the door knocking, i hate that), and about putting a costume, being silly, and enjoying it. Who cares if at some point in history some ancient civilization had some sort of agenda tied to this day.
Who cares if christmas trees, or wedding rings, or black cats had some sort of pagan ritual done by ancient and backwards civilizations. These things mean what we want them to mean.

The meaning for you may be different than the meaning for me, so......who cares if this is the stance I want to take. I was answering the original question, not soliciting judgement as I wouldn't pass judgement on someone who does want to celebrate. My kids get a candy pack at school from their teacher for Halloween, I don't take it away from them, but we just won't go trick-or-treating. I know this is a typical JW line, but kids can dress up, have fun, and eat candy at other times and for other reasons too, heck, my kids are always dressing up at home - this is just one of the things I won't be participating in and that's my choice to make.

48

Your thoughts on Halloween , yes, no or maybe ?

by Finkelstein in

well its that time again when the ghouls come out to play.

i personally think halloween is a bit irresponsible and inappropriate from a sociological perspective.. there's something about the intent of frightening young impressionable children minds with frightening objests.

and feeding them candy which most likely cause tooth decay and stomachs is irresponsible activity conducted by adults.

ThinkerBelle

If I leave the org (or should I say when), this is the one holiday I would never embrace. To me, it's the institution of evil and I know of several "worldly" people that feel the same way. I feel the same, nothing against candy or kids dressing up, but the intent of the holiday is all about evil, not for us.

137

Something interesting!

by John Aquila in

i was invited to a small get-together by a long time friend.

we both served as elders for years.

he is in his late 70s.

ThinkerBelle

I'm in the 30-40 range, but I can't say that I ever really questioned anything until now and might have just been content keeping on keeping on if I hadn't dug in simply out of tradition (I never really took any of it to heart like some of the youth) - they never really encouraged us to. The majority of the people around my age that I grew up with are no longer JWs. I think there is definitely a big gap between the older generation and how they worshiped to the present day, but my parents fall into the age range that Aquila's group above was and they, especially my mom, seem to embrace all the changes and don't really think about the past - sometimes I wonder how much they really know about the past or just think it's progressive. I asked about what it was like in 1975, thinking of how many were affected by this, but my mother just said, "oh well, the society never put anything in print, it was the local brothers reading into it"........so I guess the WBTS knows what they are doing when they publish crap like that because the JWs will just eat it up and take it for face value. No wonder they don't encourage study or looking into the older pubs.

7

If you still believe, do you go to church?

by ThinkerBelle in

while i'm still finding my journey and figuring out what exactly i believe in, i'm curious to know if others on this board who do still believe in a god attend other churches and what drew you to them.

sorry if this topic has been brought up before, i tried to do a search, but didn't find what i was looking for.. having been born and raised in jwland, how easily do you give up those doctrines that have been so thoroughly engrained?

even sort of celebrating (more like acknowledging, no party) my son's birthday seemed so strange to me because i've never done that, but it felt good to see him smile about it.

ThinkerBelle

While I'm still finding my journey and figuring out what exactly I believe in, I'm curious to know if others on this board who do still believe in a god attend other churches and what drew you to them. Sorry if this topic has been brought up before, I tried to do a search, but didn't find what I was looking for.

Having been born and raised in JWland, how easily do you give up those doctrines that have been so thoroughly engrained? Even sort of celebrating (more like acknowledging, no party) my son's birthday seemed so strange to me because I've never done that, but it felt good to see him smile about it. I've thought about joining another church if I can successfully fade (If I still believe in a God and Jesus when all is said and done); I have a close non JW friend now that goes to a non denominational church and while I know the beliefs are kind of a free for all in that type, they seem to do a lot for and with the kids. I guess I like the idea of a group community that shares the same belief/morals, maybe that's the JW talking, but we hardly ever have "get-togethers" anymore and it just seems sad as my kids really aren't close to any kids in the hall except for two and I'm not very fond of many of the school kids in his class either. At this point, I still think I believe in a creator and I guess my biggest hurdle is "this can't be all there is" so I do still want to believe in something better - my husband and I have discussed this as he's been questioning the existence of god for many years now when I wouldn't listen or came up with a JW reason for certain things. Now that I no longer believe in the JW business model, I'd like to explore my options and see what others have done in finding their faith or finding that feeling of community. It just seems hard to find a religion who's beliefs I could actually ascribe to after everything I've been taught. It seems that those who end up as a witness get jaded and leave faith altogether, but I'm not sure that's my path (a few people I grew up with that were DF and never came back attend other churches, but many have just abandoned it).