Mulan

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Posts by Mulan

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  53

  American / European Incomprehension.

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  reading through some of the posts re the mcveigh debate, it's obvious that there is a huge divide between the usa and europe over many issues, in particular with reference to the way that society should deal with deviants.. i think that there is a lot of other cultural differences between our societies, and i'm just wondering if this is why the wtbts has had a far higher "conversion factor" in the usa than in europe.. some of the phraseology contained in the watchtower magazines is incomprehensible to europeans.

  i remember that words that are in common usage now, were, when first used in the wt, totally baffling.. the expression "no way" wasn't in common use until years after the wt featured it, like wise with "points up", also "right on" meant nothing to anyone.

  indeed, many return visits to placed magazine householders resulted in them asking a bewildered dub for an explanation of these then strange terms.

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  Mulan

  Hi E--man...
  Loved your post. I think I've posted this before, but when we were in England, we had a 'crash course' on words not to use in England!! Fanny was the most emphatic one. We had dinner at some friends of friend's house in Essex, and I asked about that, and the teenage girls turned absolutely purple. Of course I knew it meant the female genitals, but I had to cause a reaction. All over England, and Scotland, we heard the same thing........'we speak, English, but we understand American', from shops and people we stayed with in Bed and Breakfasts. Really great people, and we were very aware of the attitude towards Americans so were respectful, and tried to adapt to their way of talking, and asked if we didn't understand. A widow who ran the B&B we stayed in in Inverness, asked one morning at breakfast if we knew whether the "wee man was up yet", referring to the Japanese fellow in one of the other rooms. He was the only other person there, so we said he was up. Later we looked up the word in a Scottish dictionary and found that it meant 'young'. To us, it means 'small'. So, while we all speak a form of English, the dialects can be very different. In Wales, I can barely understand them at all.......they mix Welsh and English I think......on purpose.
  I love the UK. Can't wait to go back.
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  95

  I *witnessed* to the *Christians* last night--LOL!

  by LDH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thought you all would enjoy this.. i went to a b'day party for a friend who is a bible-thumper in the worst way!

  (10x worse than most jw).. i'm sitting around like a zombie while everyone is talking about how "blessed" they are to "know christ" blah blah blah blah blah.. then my interest got peaked as one of the women started quoting scripture talking about how the reason her life is blessed is that her great great grandmother was a russian mennonite blah blah blah and the bible says that god will bless your offspring if you come to know him.

  blah blah blah.. so i start asking a few well placed questions like "well what does that mean for the poor muslim sop whose great great grandmother was a muslim?

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  Mulan

  Aren't you being just a little bit presumptious? Even your screen name, 'god_knows'? A little high and mighty, I think. What makes you think you know what God wants, and what kind of people he is looking for? Why is your opinion more valid than mine?
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  24

  Sick of "prophecies"

  by lookingnow22 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm going to ramble (rant) again!.

  i am so sick and tired of hearing about this prophecy in the bible, and that prophecy in the bible.

  i'm sick of hearing they were fulfilled by this person, that organization, some event.

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  Mulan

  Thank you Alan. Well put.
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  95

  Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

  is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

  of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

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  Mulan

  That reminds me of my surprise when I found out the world wide organization wasn't really united. We were in Poland in 1989, as special delegates for the conventions there. Very fun!! We visited a local congregation, where they mentioned the distribution of the magazines for a contribution. I asked if they ask for money, and they still did. It was the first time I realized that the U.S. was the only place where the voluntary donation arrangment existed.
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  9

  Grieving

  by lookingnow22 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have grieved over many deaths in my short life, but now i am grieving over what i once believed.

  i'm past the anger now, so here comes the denial, and then the guilt.

  does anybody have one of those "men in black" memory eraser pen flashing dealies?

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  Mulan

  I agree with the other posters, but will add this: Don't suppress your feelings. When the grief comes, feel it, and deal with it, but don't swallow it and act like it isn't there. Just like when you lose a loved one, the grief comes and goes. So does the anger. You just move through all the stages. I am looking forward to the day when I don't think about it all the time. After six years, I wonder if that day will ever come. Maybe not.
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  6

  Crisis of identity when leaving the WTS?

  by Cautious in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi, just a question about something that i have been wondering about for a while.

  did anyone else have the feeling that they had to discover who they were when they moved away from the wts?

  for the majority of my life i had been identified as one of jw, that was how i saw myself and it impacted on everything and everyone else in my life.

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  Mulan

  Hi Cautious. I went through what you are too. I think it is a fairly common thing, so don't worry about it too much. You are about to find out who you would have been without the cult. I know, for myself, I became MUCH more outgoing. I have always been extroverted, but now I am even more so. My personality sort of exploded!! It was hard for my husband, especially, to deal with me, because I also became extremely independent, and refused to let him control me any longer. We had to come to an agreement really, and he had to change his ways of 'asking' me to do things, because if he gave me a command, like in the old days, I would tell him off. He was pretty shook up for a long time, but it's great now. We both came out of the Borg at the same time, so had many changes to deal with. I recently read "Combatting Cult Mind Control" by Steven Hassan, and it describes the process pretty clearly. It made me see what happened to me. I also lost 50 pounds. But........I've gained back 40. That was dumb, huh?
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  95

  I *witnessed* to the *Christians* last night--LOL!

  by LDH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thought you all would enjoy this.. i went to a b'day party for a friend who is a bible-thumper in the worst way!

  (10x worse than most jw).. i'm sitting around like a zombie while everyone is talking about how "blessed" they are to "know christ" blah blah blah blah blah.. then my interest got peaked as one of the women started quoting scripture talking about how the reason her life is blessed is that her great great grandmother was a russian mennonite blah blah blah and the bible says that god will bless your offspring if you come to know him.

  blah blah blah.. so i start asking a few well placed questions like "well what does that mean for the poor muslim sop whose great great grandmother was a muslim?

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  Mulan

  Hey Francois, my brother gave me a book five years ago, when I was just making my exit from the Borg. It is called Living Buddha, Living Christ. It literally screamed at me that if you live the Buddhist philosophy, you are also living Christianity. So, to all the critics of me and those who believe as I do, "what does God want? People who believe in Christ. Or Christians?"
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  5

  Anyone from Central NY?

  by betweenworlds in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't live there now, but i was just wondering if there are any folks who post here who might be from my old stomping grounds when i was a dub.

  hoping to connect up with others who i used to know who now realize that the truth isn't the truth.. bw.

  ps: i was from the rome/utica area

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  Mulan

  I am not real familiar with how New York is laid out. I have a relative near Kingston, who is like us. Former Bethelite too.
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  12

  A funny thing happened at the book store

  by OrangeBlossom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i recently ordered another copy of "in search of christian freedom" as i got rid of my first one (long story) and since it had been a couple of years since i read it, i decided to get another one.. since i live in a fairly small town, i decided to give a fake name, in case someone worked at the book store that might be a jw.

  it was saturday morning (a time when all good little jw's should be in field service) so i felt it safe to go pick up my book.

  i walk into the store and headed for the counter but was stopped in my tracks by an elder and his family.

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  Mulan

  A close relative had a similar experience with her husband, who is a miltiant JW. She is having doubts, very serious doubts, so ordered "In Search of Christian Freedom" delivered to her office. She read it in her car, so no one at work would see it (she has gotten very paranoid), and gets up at night to read it in the bathroom at home. How does she get away with that, at home? She put a jacket on the book from another book called "Managing Menopause". She left the book on her nightstand, and he never opened it. I just howled over that. She said he would NEVER open a book with that title, and she didn't get caught. That was several months ago.
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  95

  I *witnessed* to the *Christians* last night--LOL!

  by LDH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thought you all would enjoy this.. i went to a b'day party for a friend who is a bible-thumper in the worst way!

  (10x worse than most jw).. i'm sitting around like a zombie while everyone is talking about how "blessed" they are to "know christ" blah blah blah blah blah.. then my interest got peaked as one of the women started quoting scripture talking about how the reason her life is blessed is that her great great grandmother was a russian mennonite blah blah blah and the bible says that god will bless your offspring if you come to know him.

  blah blah blah.. so i start asking a few well placed questions like "well what does that mean for the poor muslim sop whose great great grandmother was a muslim?

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  Mulan

  Hi Jan, your experience mirrors conversations I have all the time with these people. So irritating. I have had it with fundamentalists, including JW's, who are every bit as much fundamentalists as the Pentacostals, ramming their religion down people's throats. Maybe a different shade, of fundie, but still a fundie. You made a good point with her.....I hope she thinks about it at least.

  As for you, god_knows........I am not giving credit to Jesus for healings. I don't believe that is done in our day. Doctors do what they know how to do. Random healings just don't happen. As for love for neighbor.......of course I feel that. Abuse? I don't think I am doing that. Nor is anyone who posted on this thread. I just don't agree with their theology. Am I not allowed to disagree? And, NO, I do NOT agree that the only way to salvation is to accept Jesus as your savior. Having said that, I am off for awhile. Time to make dinner for my loving family.