Posts by Mum

26

Obama Calls For Collectivized New World Order

by Dis-Member in

obama calls for collectivized new world order"people are anxious.... the old order isnt holding"during a fundraiser in seattle this week, president barack obama called for a new order based around a collectivized system in order to quell peoples concerns about geopolitical strife and the economy.. people are anxious.

now, some of that has to do with some big challenges overseas, said obama, adding, but whether people see whats happening in ukraine, and russias aggression towards its neighbors in the manner in which its financing and arming separatists; to whats happened in syria ... to the failure in iraq for sunni and shia and kurd to compromise ... to whats happening in israel and gaza..... part of peoples concern is just the sense that around the world the old order isnt holding and were not quite yet to where we need to be in terms of a new order thats based on a different set of principles, thats based on a sense of common humanity, thats based on economies that work for all people.

... but here in the united states, what people are also concerned about is the fact that although the economy has done well in the aggregate, for the average person it feels as if incomes, wages just havent gone up; that people, no matter how hard they work, they feel stuck.. .

Mum

I agree that Obama is a breath of fresh air! He has behaved naively many times, actually believing he could reason and compromise with other politicians who have no idea what being a decent human being is.

He has fought the good fight as best he could, but usually was too willing to concede to his opponents. He did get us healthcare to some degree. I think that will be his legacy.

He and his wife grew up very differently from the babified, rich politicians they are surrounded by. It's good to have a president who knows how the real world works. It sucks that he is surrounded by infantile narcissists who are used to getting their own way and constantly throw tantrums.

38

Did you ever actually believe the JW fantasy version of "Paradise"?

by Darth Fader The Sequel in

i am sure this topic has probably been discussed many times before but,......... i would like reassurance that i am not the only one who gagged every time i heard a jw pontificating on their fantasy version of what "paradise" will be like.

particularly when it comes to the animals.

more specifically, that the animals will all become vegetarians.

Mum

Like marmot, I was first introduced to the concept of the JW paradise as a child, and was greatly enamored by it. But I love to read, go to restaurants, and do a lot of things that I never saw depicted in the Paradise drawings. I was also a drama queen, and, at some point, had to face the fact that life would be pretty bland in that food-and-festivity paradise. There weren't even any gourmet chefs. Everything grew on trees and induced goofy grins.

There was a TV commercial (perhaps a public service message) that started out with a picture of someone relaxing in a natural setting while a voice in the background was narrating an account of how peaceful and serene this place was. Then, a more strident voice chimed in with "but REAL worlds are different!" Then there was a spiel about some kind of health problem or other problem that needed to be solved. This TV blurb set me to thinking. I was a closet reader, and I read The Women's Room, which I call "The Feminist Manifesto" by Marilyn French. There was a group of college women in this book who would get together and try to imagine perfect worlds. In the end, there was always a hidden flaw that they uncovered, so they gave up on the idea of a perfect world. Wow! The book that helped me to muster the courage to just leave was Your Erroneous Zones, by Dr. Wayne Dyer. I was struck especially be a description of a scene from the Russian book, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (sp?) in which Ivan is asking himself whether his whole life might be a lie, and musing on what he needed to do to get a real, authentic life. Powerful!

29

FROM FEET TO FINGERS: THE WATCHTOWER EVOLVES INTO JW.ORG

by steve2 in

jw
friends

with the official letter from the gb to all bodies of elders, a stylized jw.org banner can now be appended to kingdom hall signage.. what an auspicious year this will turn out to be for the organization!!.

among other outcomes, the "link" with the old, baggage-ridden "watchtower bible & tract society" recedes into the background.

furthermore, now you don't pretend to need feet trudging door-to-door - your worker is done at the press of a few directed fingers.

Mum

Somehow, I don't see how the "internet org" is going to work in their favor. How are they going to market a "religion" that turns people into automatons and sucks all the joy out of their lives? Their success in the past has been mostly because of one-to-one contact, IMHO. I remember my 9-year-old hillbilly self being quite impressed with the JW family (my dad's boss's family) who came and studied with us.

Avon Cosmetics used to be (and still may be) the #1 cosmetics company for the same reason.

I can certainly see people being turned off if they have those Sparlock videos or horrific coloring book for kids. Would you want to bring your kids into that kind of mentality?

In one sense, this internet business is just another flip-flop. Just a short time ago, the internet was considered all that is evil and a serious danger, as dangerous to JW's as to North Koreans. Now it's their shiny new vehicle.

34

Why is shunning wrong?

by noonehome in

consider an example i often hear.

youre sitting at a dinner table.

the topic of conversation is regarding your mother.

Mum

Shunning people because they have learned something else and believe differently from you or just want to be themselves (all JW justifications for shunning) is the heght of immaturity, stupidity and rudeness. I have a friend who hates Catholicism, but she doesn't shun Chatholics.

Once, years ago, I was watching a TV program about the pope visiting the U.S. The pope was sitting in a big chair behind a Catholic woman who was lambasting the Church for its treatment of women and proscription against birth control The pope was sitting very calmly and taking it "like a man."

In ths sane world, it's fine to leave one church and go to another. The family might try to get you to "see the light" and go back to their church, but they won't treat you as if you don't exist.

There was a post on this board years ago about a JW couple (I think one partner was "apostate") who had a child and were divorced. The JW member of the couple would not speak to the "apostate." Allegedly, a judge ordered them to stop being childish and to consider the welfare of their son or daughter.

There are extreme cases in which I can understand shunning and it probably is justified. If someone tried to hurt my child, I think I would avoid them and shun them. Even then, if I had something to say to them, I would say it.

17

Elder ignores me at Walgreens here in Milwaukee.

by Joliette in

jw
friends

a month ago i went to walgreens to get some snacks and a newspaper.

i was walking out when i noticed an elder that i grew up with walking towards me.

he kinda looked in my direction, the turned his head away and kept walking with his nose in the air.

Mum

I don't live near anyplace where I was a JW, so I don't really meet up with any of the ones I knew. If I did see one, I would give him/her a hearty "Hello!" Let THEM look like the asshole because they are the ones who deserve it! I don't hate or discriminate against them, and I deserve the same cvourtesy. If there is a judgment day, we apostates will be out in force to witness to the truth about these arrogant, self-aggrandizing, uneducated, ignorant hypocrites!

34

If You Can Get Out Of The Jehovah's Witness Religion---DO IT!

by minimus in

jw
friends

i realize some people feel they can't just leave the religion.

they have family, friends, position.. some elders mistakenly believe that they might be able to reform the cult from within.

the truth is, the religion is never really going to change.

Mum

It's not easy to leave, but SO worth it! I can no longer live my life in such a manner as to try to stay on the good side of some autocratic, petty demagogues! If you can't be persuaded to just leave, I hope you will break some of the rules to have the kind of life you want when you're away from the JW clan and their haunts.

Do whatever you need to do to make yourself happy. Life is short. We're alive NOW. Nothing else is certain.

14

What now?

by thedog1 in

i don't know if it has been a good thing or a bad thing to have found this site.

i stumbled on it about a year ago as i mentioned in previous posts.

it has opened my eyes to so many things, but right now all is confusion.

Mum

Your post reminds me of a guy I saw on 60 Minutes (an American "magazine" show, for those who don't know about it) who had been a 4th-generation prisoner in N. Korea. He had grown up in the prison and had no concept of life in the outside world. Even after years of freedom, he still could not understand the concepts of "love" or "romance."

This poor, deluded man actually turned in two family members for breaking rules, and those family members were executed. He stated that he really thought they deserved to die at the time because he had no other frame of reference.

Being in a closed society, cutting yourself off from regular, non-brainwashed human beings, and being required to turn others in just to survive, do not create healthy, happy human beings. Even though it's painful for you right now, it is a blessing to have a different perspective when attending the brainwashing sessions. Knowledge is power. I hope you will find the strength to break free.

Best wishes for a happier future!

61

Would you do this to your kids? Is this cold or am I crazy?

by BU2B in

my mentally in jw wife is trying to organize a "princess party" for my 4 year old daughter and her little cousins and friends.

she was looking at prices of a tent for the backyard party in case it rains.

she asked the hardware store how much and they said 90 dollars for the day.

Mum

LOL, berrygerry! Seriously, I cannot imagine having so little feeling for one's children or grandchildren! In my family, we take turns babysitting my great granddaughter for free while her mom works full-time. We love having her around and are constantly amused by her little "experiments." She's 1.5 years old and a pure delight (most of the time)!

Your in-laws' wiring is crossed or shorted out in some manner. Are they robots?

30

Denmark Assembly Hall and 7 KH for sale

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

this is the real estate page: http://propertysale.dk/salg/helsinkivej.html.

.

Mum

According to some poll I heard about, Denmark is the happest country in the world, i.e. the honest-to-goodness, really happiest. It must be hard to convince happy, secure people to believe conditions are deplorable and sell them on North Korean-like propaganda.

36

Women elders, what difference would they make?

by Freedom77 in

jw
friends

okay, let's do a big what-if: suppose the gb for its own unfathomable reasons suddenly got new light (tm) and decided to start appointing women elders and ministerial servants.

they would, of course, refer to the examples of junia (apostle), and priscilla and phoebe (deaconesses in wordlyspeak) in the greek scriptures; never mind what mental somersaults it would take to get them there.

stranger things have happened in wt history.. that being the case, would having women in positions of real authority make any significant difference in the congos or in the borg as a whole, and why or why not?.

Mum

Thanks, Birdie!