Nathan Natas

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Posts by Nathan Natas

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  61

  Is this a normal JW practice? Warning, this will be a bit graphic.

  by Sequoia in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this post may be disturbing and i apologize, but i'm just trying to find out if this is a practice the jw teaches.

  i was taken advantage of by a guy claiming to be a jw preacher.

  he took me to his house supposedly so i could give his daughter piano lessons, and then he basically forced himself on me while telling me he was in love with me and wanted to marry me.

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  Nathan Natas

  "vial creep"

  Ha ha ha ha ha!

  Is that when a small bottle moves under its own power?

  Embrace as a lover might the curative potency of a dictionary.
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  32

  Beardless Jesus. Why?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  beardless jesus in watchtower publications between 1930s and 1960s.

  a simple detail 'deliberately' left out.

  the question is why?.

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  Nathan Natas

  "Pastor" Charles Taze Russell wore a beard. A great crowd of CTR's Brooklyn Fanboys emulated him. When Russel died, many Bible Students took issue with the way "Judge" Joseph Franklin Rutherford changed The Watchtower organization. The Sadlack brothers in Germany published a book titled "The Desolation of the Sanctuary" that addressed the concerns felt by many Bible Students. Rutherford was crafty enough to see how beards could be used to undermine his Theocratic Authority, so he outlawed them. Possibly the last Bethelite to sport a beard was William E. van Amburgh, who became an officer of the WTB&TS in 1901 and served the WTB&TS unntil his death in 1947. (Yes, he outlived Rutherford by five years).
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  39

  In praise of Randall Watters

  by nicolaou in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  exjw's of a certain age will remember randy's site well.

  freeminds was instrumental in waking me up along with ray franz's books.

  if net soup and armageddon okies mean nothing to you you're probably under 30.. whatever caused randy to post what he did recently is something i can only guess at but it won't be what i remember him for.. randy, i wish you well and thank you for all you've done over the years .

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  Nathan Natas

  As time passed, where once I had only the desire to do my part in bringing down The Watchtower, I began to see that I might be able to play a part by making THE MOST DANGEROUS INFORMATION IN THE WORLD available to seekers of truth wherever they might be in the English-speaking world.

  I decided to re-publish old (public domain) Watchtower publications.

  The most important of these, I felt, was "MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE."

  I bought an authentic antique copy of that damned booklet and set to producing my replica reprint version. I made a few "editorial decisions:" my replica reprint would be LARGER than the original. This served two purposes: 1) it made it palpably evident that this was NOT the original Watchtower edition and 2) it was FAR easier to read with the ENLARGED PAGES, each a high-resolution digital photograph of the original page.

  These pages were further digitally enhanced to remove the ink splashes and occasional malformed type in the original booklet.

  Some were CRITICAL of these changes. I ignored my critics, feeling that when they began their own publishing effort they could feel as free to do what they wanted to do as I felt I was.

  No one "assisted" me in any way. I had no 'minions' doing my bidding and all the outlays for equipment and materials came from my pocket. For a brief while I had fun with the creation of the UADNA organization - the "Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America" based on an orbiting space platform. That was done to stoke the paranoia that the Brooklyn Org was beginning to feel.

  But it was all just me -- I bought the antique originals at the asking price from those selling the antiques. I paid Randy Watters $300 for one copy of "THE WAY TO PARADISE" by W. E. van AMBURGH. I asked for no discount and Randy offered none.

  The hard-copy replica reprint of "MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE" is priced at $9.99. LULU gets the lion's share of the price for production costs and overhead; I get between sixty-three cents and ninety-nine cents royalty for each copy sold, depending on who sells it.

  http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/oldlightreprints
  

  I thought it might be nice if some of my replica reprints were available on Randy's FREEMINDS website, so I asked him if he would be interested. Here are the terms we agreed to: I would pay IN FULL for each of the hard-copy replica reprints and would pay IN FULL to ship those replica reprints to Randy so that his investment for the entire lot of books was $0.00. If you bought one of my replica reprints from FREEMINDS, know that 100% of what you paid Randy was pure profit for him. After all, he's one of the good guys, and as a "pastor" he is accustomed to the parasite lifestyle.

  He's working for YOU, you know.
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  39

  In praise of Randall Watters

  by nicolaou in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  exjw's of a certain age will remember randy's site well.

  freeminds was instrumental in waking me up along with ray franz's books.

  if net soup and armageddon okies mean nothing to you you're probably under 30.. whatever caused randy to post what he did recently is something i can only guess at but it won't be what i remember him for.. randy, i wish you well and thank you for all you've done over the years .

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  Nathan Natas

  “Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.” -- Ecclesiasticus 44:1

  I suppose I am grateful that I didn't leave the WTB&TS in the mid-1970s because I was a fanboy of (name infamous apostate here), but because once out of my teens I found the religion less and less rational as it was also shown to be more and more hypocritical and dishonest. In my youth they told me what God's Righteous Organization would be like, then they showed me that they were not it.

  I came along well after William J. Schnell, to whom I feel no obligation. In 1978 Barbara Grizzuti Harrison published "Visions of Glory," but I was already undergoing my personal metamorphosis into an apostate. Years later I realized that BGH and I were in attendance at the same NYC Polo Grounds assembly; for her it was a last look back at the ruins of -- no, not Jerusalem -- Babylon, and for me it was my final "WTF" series of cascading dissonance, my last JW Assembly. BGH and I were alo both native NuYawkers, so there was a sympatico I felt for her manner of expression and also the sentiments she expressed. I felt I knew her, but I never felt the need to seek her out until I learned that she was dying, and I felt obliged to thank her for her work. She was perfectly gracious and cannot ever fall from the pedestal I put her upon.

  I spent years "in the wilderness" before I discovered JWD, and in those early days had great fun with some of the folks who came here to think and to have fun. I recall BBOY NEKO and NAEBLIS and MR. MOE and others who are no longer here. There were a few to whom I should have shown a bit more respect and to whom I ought to have listened a bit more carefully, but they also are gone now. There were mighty Viking scholars who were willing to "throw down" with anyone who thought that Watchtower chronology was even remotely correct. O those were some GOOD TIMES!

  When the pedophilia scandal hit, it hit big, and it was GOOD to have a share in that fine work. Then the unbelievable UN scandal hit! Wow, wow, WOW!

  Randy and FREEMINDS had a great impact and served so many good purposes, but Randy made some really bad personnel decisions and FREEMINDS fell into a virtual black hole. Combine that with the effects of "time and circumstance" and medical misadventures...

  HEY! Weren't we all SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING YOUNGER BY NOW?

  Whazzup wit dat?

  I've lost friends to death, but I am not unique, you have too.

  Where was I?
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  19

  Aethiest

  by midnight in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what happens if you openly declare you are an aethiest, i don't mean go round forcing my view on everyone , but when pressured to go to the kingdom hall etc you stated you are an aethiest and no longer believe in god , surely you can't be accused of apostasy as you simply don't believe in anything ?

  anyone experienced this ?.

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  Nathan Natas

  Midnight asked, "What happens if you openly declare you are an aethiest...?"

  You learn how to spell the word correctly.
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  5

  Scientology: A War Without Guns' on ABC News 20/20 Tonight

  by Gayle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ‘scientology: a war without guns’ airs on abc news’ ‘20/20,’ friday, january 6. posted 1/5/2017 .

  ‘20/20’ reports on ex-members of the church of scientology: those who are crusading against it and others who still practice outside the church .

  actress leah remini sits down with anchor dan harris to discuss her fight against the church.

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  Nathan Natas

  Thanks for the "heads-up"!

  Leah Remini was in Scientology for most of her life before she experienced her own crisis of conscience and woke up.

  She has NEVER been one of Jehovah's Witnesses, so why would she "come after the Watchtower"? As GREAT as she is on Scientology, she has no JW-cred.

  The best we can hope for, I think, is that Leah and Mike ally with former members of other destructive cults like the Moonies (Steve Hassan) and the Dubs (Barbara Anderson) for example, and that this anti-cult coalition works to change the laws that give religious organizations the protection that permits these religions to persecute and torture former members of these cults.
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  18

  help me think like an elder

  by Homer notsimpson in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok guys, i have been tasked to ask for your opinions regarding this case.. and be honest.

  my brother sexted a girl a little over a year ago, they never dated, and she got mad at him.... she got engaged and the engagement ended in august.. she attempted suicide, then talked to the elders an told him she was gonna tell on him too, now that was in august, the sister told my brother that since she didn't know his hall they couldn't do anything.. we found that doesn't seem right, so hes been freaking out, but ita now two days away from 2017 and the elders haven't speaked to him yet.. why could that be?

  could they give him all this time to confess?

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  Nathan Natas

  HOMER NOTSIMPSON said, " My brother sexted a girl a little over a year ago..."

  His name wouldn't be "Carlos Danger," would it? He should keep his weiner in its bun.

  But his defense is easy-peasy; all he has to do is INSIST that he didn't do it and explain to the elders how easy it is to "spoof" an email, and he should be off the hook. As a bonus, the girl may be asked to explain why SHE would bear false testimony and fabricate her evidence by spoofing an email. She'll be in water so hot she will be soup in three minutes.

  "Brother Danger" may find himself invited to be a ministerial servant so he can join the good ol' boys 'round the cracker barrel at the back of the Kingdom Hall, spiritually speaking.
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  8

  Scientology series, Leah Remini

  by nonjwspouse in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i did a quick search on this topic here and didn't come up with anything.

  if anyone has the chance to watch this a&e documentary series on scientology hosted by leah remini it is very very good.

  the parallels are just to obvious to ignore!

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  Nathan Natas

  NONJWSPOUSE said, "I did a quick search on this topic here and didn't come up with anything..."

  Did you take the time to press "enter" after you entered your search terms?

  Here's a bit of what I just got:

  
  

  
  

  One useful tip to doing searches is to START with the least number of search terms; notice I used only "Remini", not "LEAH REMINI AND MIKE RINDER EXPOSE THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY."

  Here is what a bad search gets you:

  
  

  
  

  If using ONE WORD results in too many hits, add additional search terms one at a time...
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  24

  The JW governing body are all overweight, creepy looking little men

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  having seen a few of these tv productions and some youtube clips of their assembly parts, how can jehovah's witnesses really take these silly little men seriously?.

  you take one look at them; their overweight, fat little bodies.

  their entirely shabby, overhanging suits.

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  Nathan Natas

  There are few things that please Jah more than a fattened calf or a saggy triceps.
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  25

  Anyone else watching the Leah Remini series "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath" on A&E?

  by NikL in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife and i started to watch this last night and have covered only 2 episodes so far but it is really interesting.. there are so many similarities between scientology and wt.

  not in beliefs of course but in their shunning, of their version of apostates etc.. it was amusing for me to see my active jw wife watch and get all indignant.

  at one point a statement was made that a religion "shouldn't separate families" and she muttered to herself "absolutely not".. i am kind of hoping that jws will watch and see what is being carried on by a high control cult and eventually recognize it in their own lives.

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  Nathan Natas

  I too am finding "Scientology and the Aftermath" completely FASCINATING in several ways.

  First, there is the shared experience - both XJWs and XCoSs dealt with the cognitive dissonance that always comes before we make a mad dash for the exits; the strange looming awareness that "something is not quite right" in the thing that just a day ago seemed like the ultimate path of truth. It is very easy to empathize with the pain and heartbreak of those who are subjected to "disconnection."

  Second, I realized that I knew very little about the teachings of Scientology -- like WHY THE HELL do they use a cross-like symbol of the church? I found the explanation interesting...

  First, Christianity does not have an exclusive claim on the cross -- the cross was used by humans since before they were modern humans -- it is just an "X" -- so get over the feeling that the CoS "has no right" to use -- or abuse "your" cross...

  ...and it may be "abuse," because the 8 pointed cross used by Elron (I'm joking) Hubbard is derived from the cross used by L. Ron's buddy, Aleister Crowley. There are multiple levels of meaning concealed in the 8-pointed cross, ranging from the simple mundane 8 points of the compass that L. R. H. was so familiar with, he being a sailor. Then you can look at the CoS cross as a 4-pointed Christian cross with an "X" laid over it, harkening back to Hubbard's explanation that there was NO jesus, so let's just "X" him out...

  Me personally? I'm not a Christian, so I have no emotional ownership issues with the cross. I just think this is a great example of how something that LOOKS LIKE one thing can actually mean the exact opposite of what the uninitiated might think it means.

  In regard to some other CoS teachings, I would say they appear to be AT LEAST as ethical or "moral" as Watchtower/JW teachings. No drugs, no alcohol, many really valuable and helpful (in my opinion) psychological ideas -- better than Watchtower/JW teachings by a long shot, and that is due to the fact that LRH was an intelligent modern man and not an Israelite goatherd or "upper crust" member of the Jewish priesthood, who were not very much higher than cavemen when you get down to it.

  During the most recent show Leah and Mike discussed the CoS forcing abortions and divorces on people, and this I found repellant.

  I am curious about the CoS teachings regarding human sexuality issues, and I am always amused to hear how the CoS has a love/hate relationship with that whole "Xenu" mythology, which they mix up with their other teachings, tiny marshmallows and canned fruit cocktail into a hilarious theological Jello Salad.

  Yummy!

  I admire Leah and Mike for taking the stand they've taken, and I fantasize about having them meet Barbara and Joe Anderson to discuss the "apostate" experience.

  I have read that Mike Rinder has his own Scientology organization, and I'm curious about what CoS teachings and organizational practices he would throw overboard (to keep with the naval set dressing).

  Some of the things that Leah, Mike and their XCoS guests have related, like Karen telling about how her son was having sex with a 40 year-old woman, and how that same son died very young and she was not permitted to see his body -- these stories made my head explode.

  I hope Leah and Mike see their hopes fulfilled and that somehow a way will be found to stop the damage being done by these CULTS to an end.