Posts by NameWithheld

146

Friends we are too unbalanced.

by sleepy in

jw
friends

well sometimes we are.. look we have the knowledge and experience to help a lot of people.must of us have one time been jw's and understand how many think.so lets not put them off by being too negative.. when we were witnesses most of us were quite happy .

we tried to be good people , to put into practise principles that many people think are good.

we did this sometimes even when we didn't want to , because we thought god would hold us accountable and because we cared for people .

NameWithheld

Again, why is this so hard for people to understand? You must seperate the 'people' from the 'organization'. For the most part, the 'people' are good, kind-hearted people. Of course, there are bad apples. In the end you find that JWs as 'people' are no different than any other group, comprised of many good people and some 'bad' or maybe more accurate to say, power-hungry and opportunistic people. Most people do tend to seek their own gain in life, JWs are no different.

However, the 'organization' itself is very harmful. The 'organization' has one purpose in life - to grow in power and money. The 'organization' will do so by steamrolling over anything and anyone in it's path to obtain what it wants. The difficult part becomes the fact that willingly or not, the JW 'people' do everything in their lives to promote and protect the 'organization' thereby selling themselves out. This doesn't make them 'bad' people neccesarily, but may make them participate in events that shatter other's lives. And all the while thinking that they're 'pleasing' god.

Also, the 'organization' can be an enabler for horrendous activity. I know that the Slack's thought they were 'doing god's will' when they beat poor Lauree to death. I know that the parent's of the many, many children I grew up around that were abused physically and mentally thought they were 'doing god's will'.

When did the elder's step in and stop the abuse? Never that I saw, in fact, it was often the elder's DOING the abusing and/or encouraging it.

In the end I see little to NO 'good' from the 'organization'. Imagine if the efforts and $$$$ of all those 6 million JWs were pored into "REAL" relief efforts - how many children and homeless could be helped? How many sick? Hungry? Nope, instead they offer empty messages of 'comfort' that you will die 'Real Soon Now' unless you conform to the 'organization's will'.

19

INDIANA posters

by dubla in

jw
friends

i was talking on the phone about a week ago with a poster from this forum, and when he found out i was from south bend, indiana, he asked me if i had gotten together with the group of indiana posters that were having a small gathering (around bloomington i think?).

the truth is, i havent had one-on-one contact with too many from this board up till now, save some frequent chat room visitors, so i didnt realize we had an indiana following.

after my name appeared on the whos who page, i did get emails from a couple people familiar with the area, but i would like to get in contact with the rest of the indiana posters.

NameWithheld

I'm very close by as well ...

15

"UNCONDITIONAL LOVE"-REALLY???

by Bill Parker in

jw
friends

unconditional love really?

some today believe that all anyone has to do is believe on the lord jesus christ.

just believe that this unconditional love is enough for us to gain this free gift.

NameWithheld

"I was wondering if you have forgotten Jehovah's underserved kindness that He has given to all of mankind? "

Where? I must not have been in that line the day he was handing it out ...

Oh, you said "underserved". Ah yes, it is a bit under-served isn't it?

11

Claims by Jehovah's Witnesses

by joelbear in

jw
friends

jehovahs witnesses claim to be happier than non-jehovah's witnesses.. jehovah's witnesses claim to be happier because they live in a spiritual paradise where everyone is more loving and more moral.. one of the reasons i left is very simply because i found these two claims to be false.. i disproved them by one simple action; getting to know non-jehovah's witnesses.

the more i did this, the more i found that happiness and kindness were traits that were not associated with any particular religious, social, business, ethnic or political group.

happiness and kindness instead were associated with very individual qualities: self confidence, good naturedness, humility, generosity of spirit and patience, among others.. i continue to try to apply these traits to my life and study those around me who display these traits.

NameWithheld

Yep, I responded to this thought in another message you wrote awhile back. One eye-opening 'thing' for me was finally being involved in a 'worldly' group of sorts, and slowly realizing that that group of people behaved EXACTLY the same as JWs. No difference. Some good people, some bad, lot's of gossip, politics, etc. Once your eyes open to the fact that the JW world is no different than the 'real' world you can begin to realize many other things. Step one to removing the rose colored glasses.

I really think this is one reason that the GB stresses the 'need' to stay away from ANY non-JW group of people, including stuff like charity, so as to keep all the JWs confined to themselves, never having the opportunity to see that people are just people, no matter what they label themselves. This is especially true for JWs raised as JWs.

9

Judgment Day Before 2024....

by sunscapes in

jw
friends

the link is http://www.caspro.com/caspro.htm.

recent guest on art bell show... http://www.artbell.com/.

as posted on website under "a brief history": .

NameWithheld

No no no, that's all wrong. God spoke to me and told me how it is. He said that you have to take a year for a month, and a day for a year. So you take 607-587, then apply a mixture of salt and brimstone to the calculation. Then multiply the 2,520 days that are months, then add the distance from the earth to Palidies (sp?) or wherever it is that god is staying this week. Divide that by 1914 and add the length of a generation. Turn the resulting months that are days into years (see above). Once that's done you come to YIKES! Nov 30, 2001. Ooops, better say goodbye to everyone tomorrow.

Sheeesh, this isn't that hard you know, you guys need a color chart or something? I can ask god to provide me one, though we'll probably have to use crayons to color it in ... he can't stay in the lines.

<NOTE: I hearby certify that the above prophesy is 100% correct and from god. If the end doesn't come in 2 days then it's not my fault, you guys just didn't beleive hard enough!>

6

JUSTICE #5 - Comfort the Depressed - Not!

by Amazing in

jw
friends

elders: comfort the depressed souls not .

sister hurting was going through some difficult times, both physically and emotionally.

she sought professional medical help.

NameWithheld

Nope, I find no post titled "JUSTICE 18" or any variation. Nor do I see one titled part 2 of #16. Maybe he posted them without "JUSTICE" in the title?

17

There's a new force on the board

by Yerusalyim in

jw
friends

with this post i enter the hallowed ranks of the jedi class.

may the force be with you.. yerusalyim.

"vanity!

NameWithheld

So long to go .... must write more posts ...... must write more .....

I feel like I haven't been making the monthly average, maybe I'm weak

10

An added point for "THIS GENERATION"

by Bill Parker in

jw
friends

this generation.

i was born in the year 1932!

if someone were to ask me: are you part of the generation of 1914?

NameWithheld

Oh, I get it, you will be able to pin-point the exact 'generation' once the "Great Tribluation" starts (maybe, or maybe not till after the big "A"?). So in this case, Jesus' prophesy is total bunk and worse than useless since there is no way to know what it means till after it's done. Good job there ...

10

An added point for "THIS GENERATION"

by Bill Parker in

jw
friends

this generation.

i was born in the year 1932!

if someone were to ask me: are you part of the generation of 1914?

NameWithheld

HUH?

This guy makes as much sense as the WTBTS ... What's all this tree stuff? How are we trees?

As for "This is where we now stand" how is where we stand today any different in your scenario than, say, 1950? or 1975? or 1990? All of those dates were 'real close to the end' according to JWs.

"All those alive right at this moment .. are the generation he was talking about" - is that right. So you now are the sole interpreture of Jesus message now eh? How do you know that it's the people alive today? What about when they are all dead and gone. Will it then be the people alive in 50 years? Your weak explination is weaker than the garbldy-gook the FDS spewed in 1995.

17

What Should I Do (JW that Mentions Birthday)?

by Free Eagle in

i have become somewhat friendly with a jw lady (i am also a woman and have gotten to know her over the past four years).

i am unsure of her status in the religion.

i am not a jw but have educated myself regarding jw customs, etc.... in conversation we found we were born in the same month, and she told me when her birthday was.

NameWithheld

Oh, maybe Jehovah won't kill us since we ate Chinese instead of turkey, so we weren't really celebrating Thankgiving ...

Nah, it seems Turky day is probably the most 'lax' holiday for JWs, (since they can't really pinpoint the 'pagan' aspect of it perhaps?). Lot's of JWs use T'day just like us pagan 'worldy' people, to gather with family, eat lot's of Turkey and watch football. Of course, they'd never decorate w/ Pumkins, etc since that would be 'celebrating' it ... pretty warped huh? JWs have the marvolous gift of being able to justify most anything they really want to. They usually say something like, "well, we're just taking advantage of the 'wordly' holidays time off to gather with family".