PaintedToeNail

Joined

• started 61 topics
• posted 1,503 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by PaintedToeNail

• 
  97

  I did it !!!!

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  7 years ago i started on a path i had long ago given up on as impossible.

  i met with my elders and told them i could not justify carrying on as a jw.

  i went and got my high school qualifications and my higher education diploma (a levels with distinction) in just 12 months.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  Dr. Snare-Congratulations! All your hard work and effort have paid off! May you have a wonderful practice and a great life.
• 
  33

  Baptisms only at regional ( district ) assemblies from 2014 / 15 service year?

  by dozy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just a rumour but i guess it makes sense - i've a friend on a circuit committee ( he knows it's not "the truth" but for family & work reasons he stays in ) & he says that the wtbts have told them not to book a swimming pool for next years one day assemblies as the plan is to have only one baptism a year at the main regional ( what they used to call "district" ) convention.. with the drop off in baptisms so that sometimes there isn't anyone baptised or just a handful , i guess this is inevitable.

  i remember going to a baptism a few years ago - we had hired a municipal 25 metre swimming pool and only one person ( a rather confused and scared middle aged lady who hadn't been in a swimming pool since her youth ) was being baptised - it was all something of a farce with the "worldly" staff looking on very puzzled at such an elaborate & expensive ceremony for one person.

  ) also with both assemblies being one day with just short morning & afternoon sessions , i suppose it is sensible to ditch the baptism talk - it tends to be something of a snoozefest anyway at the end of the morning session.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  It makes one wonder what they are going to do with all those assembly hall pools.
• 
  16

  Where does the need to worship god come from?

  by Socrateswannabe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  where does the need to worship god come from?.

  this is a question that i asked myself repeatedly when i used to believe that god exists.

  i struggled with this because i have never had the urge, and i imagined myself an ingrate because of it.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  Socrates-I understand where you are coming from. I never had the urge to worship either and felt guilty for not feeling that urge, especially since my parents were/are so keen on it all. Whenever that point was brought out at the meetings or in literature, I always had the thought :"Not me, what is wrong with me?"
• 
  2

  International Conventions and JW Mathtardation

  by zed is dead in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  there is going to be an international convention in indianapolis at lucas oil stadium this summer.. the capacity of the stadium is 67,000 people in football configuration, with no one seated on the playing surface.. they read a letter stating that the stadium only will hold 38,000 people for the convention..

  wtf?!.

  maybe they do not want to have everybody that wants to avoid the detroit i.c.

  1. 
  2. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  At the venue the WTBTs uses for DC in my area, they rope off the top section and only allow seating in the bottom portion. It may have to do with crowd control, no teenagers able to sneak up to the top tiers and make out or goof off.
• 
  20

  The Best Public Talk I Ever Heard (though the speaker was disfellowshipped thereafter)

  by exWTslave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the best public talk i ever heard was one i heard in a jw kingdom hall.

  unfortunately, the hurriedly formed jc disfellowshipped him within a couple of weeks for not worshipping the octo(headed) gb.

  this happened two years back when i was his fellow-elder.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  He definitely went out with a Bang! They had no choice but DF him, there were more than two witnesses...
• 
  26

  Seeds of Doubt.

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seeds of doubt.

  what was it about the jw religion that first gave you serious doubts as to its truthiness?.

  for me it occurred in late 1984 when we were studying the brochure the divine name that will endure forever which had been released at the summer convention that year.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  I was reading the book "Awaken the Giant Within" by Anthony Robbins. There is a point in that book about beliefs and how they are legs holding up your 'table' if one of the belief legs gets kicked over, does your belief still stand? I started examining what I believed as a JW and realized that the 'legs' cannot hold up the 'table', there isn't proof. Shortly thereafter, there was a Watchtower study article that said something to the affect 'Even if you are going out in service and to meetings and studying, if you aren't doing it because of love Jehovah, your works are invalid.' I never did any of those things out of love, it was only to save my own skin at the big 'A'.
• 
  48

  a list of good movies/tv shows to get a JW to think

  by nonjwspouse in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  ones that have themes that come uncomfortabllly close to the cult dynamic.. i already got him to watch the obsolete man on twilight zone.

  he sauggested watching some old tz again tonight so i wioll pick where is everybody, and escape clause.. i have heard oters say the movie truman show was a good movie as is the matrix ( though i detest violence).

  any more suggestions for my personal handy dandy list?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  Recently watched episode 12 of season 3 of Star Trek:Enterprise "Chosen Realm". My kids instantly picked up on how similiar the WTBTS was with the religious fanatics in this episode. The 10 year old was saying things like "This is just like at the Kingdom Hall" and rolling the eyes. Both of the kids watching said "Dad has got to see this"!
• 
  19

  Will the jw's get all excited about Russia in the Ukraine?

  by hoser in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  usually when world events like this take place the dubs start into how the end must be so close they can almost taste it.

  maybe there will be some speculation about the king of the north and south again.

  .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  I know my parents and husband will be in a lather about this. Yet, I am calm, even after being raised a JW and having 40 years of brainwashing and occassional bouts of fear. After reading a little about history, you can see how things are repeated over and over again. Russian aggresson and war in Crimea are not new things. Yet the WTBTS will probably use this to attempt to get people out recruiting more.
• 
  6

  A simple mental exercise can calm many of their fears...

  by ILoveTTATT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so one of my "closet apostate" friends is a young girl.

  she's only in her mid teens, and knows ttatt... but sometimes she holds back because of the fear... the crazy amount of fear... she reads a lot of conspiracy theory/illuminati stuff... so that doesn't help.

  so she said "so many prophecies are being fulfilled!".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  bump
• 
  10

  religious freedom my foot, cringe- worthy moments in FS

  by sparrowdown in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember talking to a highly educated man out witnessing once and the subject.

  of freedom of religion came up.

  the guy simply asked if the freedom of religion we.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  PaintedToeNail

  Sparrow-very good observation. So much is bull when you look at it from another direction. Welcome, by the way.