Posts by lilbluekitty

24

Which do you think is the most pernicious teaching of the JW's?

by Chariklo in

as i turn things over in my mind, one jw lie stands out.. that god doesn't listen to all prayers.

unless i have it wrong, and i don't think i do, jw's believe, and have been endlessly, ruthlessly taught, that only those living by "jehovah's righteous standards"...that awful glib phrase again...will get their prayers listened to.

in other words, god looks at the number the person is calling from, so to speak, checks who it is, looks him up in his book of misdeeds, and angrily slams the phone down.. the jehovah god of the wt is petty and mean-minded.

lilbluekitty

"Jesus is not the mediator of the great crowd, only the mediator of the 144,000"

31

Talking Points for when Witnesses Come to your Door

by truth_b_known in

jw
friends

a few weeks back i came home from work and found the latest copies of the watchtower (armageddon fearmongering) and awake!

(social media site nonsense) lying on the counter.

it was obvious witnesses had stopped by the house.

lilbluekitty

I haven't had the courage yet to answer the door when the people from my hall come to "check on me" and give me the mags. I'm still the home but hiding chick because I'm a fader and am not ready to tell them I'm simply no longer interested. Generally my husband (a non-JW) answers the door and takes the mags, hands them to me and I then throw them in the trash. I wish I had more courage.

49

As a JW, did you eat at any religious restaurant?

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

my jw parents refused to eat food from religious restaurant, they have very good reviews.

i was wondering when you were jw, did you go to any religious restaurant?

.

lilbluekitty

Up in New England we used to have this donut/coffee shop called Bess Eaton donuts that put scriptures on the coffee cups. Some JWs were highly offended at anyone that ate there. Me and my mom said, what's the difference, they're the same scriptures we read.

36

Which Beliefs and Doctrines Helped Push You Out?

by ilikecheese in

okay, so this is my first post, but i've been lurking here for months and months.

i have to say this is a very informative and hilarious site.

you guys are great to read!

lilbluekitty

The main ones were the flip flops on the blood doctrine, i.e. "blood is bad but fractions are okay," the overlapping generation bullsh*t, their non-biblical things like women can't wear pants to the meetings or any other dub function except the RBC or that beards or goatees are wrong, shunning, marking talks, having to report field service time to someone when to me it's only God who should know and also it should be about quality and not quantity, disfellowshipping for smoking, calling people apostates who become Christians or really any other religion or the fact that my father's side of the family shuns me as an apostate even though I was never df'd, the baptism of very young minors, disfellowshipping and subsquent shunning of minors, being shunned for not going to meetings, the fact that they're ashamed of Jesus and that they (at least some) don't believe Jesus is coming again when he clearly says in the Bible multiple times "Behold I am coming quickly", other non-Biblical teachings such as the UN being the eight king and calling all Christendom the worst of all religions and comparing all Christians to Catholics when not all Christians are Catholics, lying about what Christians teach such as JWs idea of the trinity, the fact that they don't believe Jesus is divine when the bible clearly shows over and over his divinity. Etc, etc.

15

Had dinner with friends-found out none of got Baptized because we loved God

by PaintedToeNail in

jw
friends

my spouse and i had supper with some long time friends this evening.

we got onto the subject of baptisim, and out of the four of us, we all got baptized for some other reason than love of jehovah.

i find this to be really sad.

lilbluekitty

I think I sincerely wanted to "do the right thing" but my new understanding of baptism is that it's just a public declaration of the faith you already have. I was 18 and thought it was going to save me and make me have faith. I think I thought it was some type of magic or something. Being raised in, ever since I was like 5 years old all I ever heard about was getting baptized from my parents. I was around 10 or so at one assembly drawing in my notebook and my mom wrote at the top of the page during the baptism talk: "That better be you up there one year from now." My mother was always telling me I'd die in Armageddon if I didn't get dunked. It totally sucked and got worse when my younger sister got dunked at age NINE. People constantly were harping on me for the fact that my sister had done it at such a young age, where was my faith? Didn't I love Jehovah? Crap like that. I dedicated my life at age 14 but only to Jehovah, not to Jesus. Finally at age 18 i couldn't take the pressure and finally asked to get dunked, but only if I could do it in a regular pool with way less people watching me. I did it at an elders' house in his back yard.

I want to get re-baptised at my church because I hadn't dedicated my life to Jesus then but I did finally in November. I'm just waiting til I can get my husband's side of the family together so I can have my own cheering section, since no one from my side of the family will come. =(

63

The 2012 JW Survey is now online!

by cedars in

i'm delighted to announce that the 2012 annual survey has now been launched and is ready to receive your votes!!.

please visit www.jwsurvey.org and give us your votes at the earliest opportunity.

this latest survey is obviously available to all those who voted in last year's survey, as well as to those who have never voted before.. so, what's different?.

lilbluekitty

The question (for faders) about which hope a person has (or something) should have another option, like for people who believe they're going to heaven but who don't believe they're of the 144,000. I voted "I'd rather not say" because I didn't agree with the other options anymore.

Unless of course I read the question wrong and was supposed to put what hope I believed I had before: that was the earthly hope.

10

Is there really an anointed class?

by free thought in

jw
friends

i am of the anointed but care not for the title as i believe that those having put on a christ-like personality can also be born again .i encourage those jws not to be swayed by peer pressure and heed gods calling.

the year book will very soon not mention the growth of the anointed since the generation change.. things jws have to consider>.

1* when the scriptures refer to " i have other sheep not of this foal" it may mean gentiles as well as jews of which the new covering of circumcision applied .. 2* the term little flock is similar to the term little book a phrase of commonality used in greek translations .. rutherford acting as veto, to the majority fds as in singular and not plural invented the two class system ,( read his book doors close in 1936 ) which i no doubt will be yet another of wts do not re-print list .. rutherford had an irion handed approach and was not liked among his very own peers i believe god used him only for his legal expertise ( espionage act 1918 vs. usa constitution ) but thats about it.

lilbluekitty

I'll just put in my two cents here, it's totally my own opinion and may not even be entirely correct: the 144,000 to me are actual Jews and therefore unless a person came from a Jewish line they cannot be "anointed." The NIV and ESV Bible translations use the terms "holy ones" or "saints" and I assume they refer to that number. Basically, they get to go to heaven first, in my opinion, because they are the "firstfruits." Other than that I do not agree with what the WT says about them, for instance I can find nowhere in the Bible saying that regular people can't partake of any sort of Lord's Supper or communion, nowhere saying only people of that number can partake and so I do partake because I want to remember what Jesus did for me. That's all it really is to me. The JWs try to turn it into this big thing. Anyway, I think the number and people were already chosen probably in the 1st century because many early Christians were Jews by birth then. Anyway, just my own personal opinion and ramblings.

18

Any of you have a hard time finding a job since leaving?

by lilbluekitty in

i was raised as a dub and my mother never pushed me to have a job.

even when i tried to have jobs she woudln't let me because to her pioneering was the only thing i should be doing with my life.

i did graduate high school and attended a community college for a year but i haven't worked in nearly 7 years and with a gap that large i can't find work.

lilbluekitty

I do have some interesting skills, I just don't know how to put them together yet.

I type at least 50 wpm, I've taken several tests to prove it. I'm quite good at spelling and rarely even need to do spell check. I taught myself Adobe Photoshop when I was 13 and can do web graphics and some HTML/CSS coding. I'm a little rusty at the coding but it comes back to me pretty easily when I use it more often. I'm good at writing and proof-reading, I know Microsoft Word and Powerpoint. I have good organizational skills.

The problem is filling in the gaps. I don't remember how to use Excel, at least not the newer versions, definitely not formulas. I don't know the rest of the Adobe Suite such as Illustrator and I'm not good with a graphics tablet and pretty awful at drawing anything realistic, I'm more of a flourish and doodles type person. I don't know how to use InDesign at all and I really wish I did because visually I can do page layouts, I just don't know the technical aspects. This is where going back to school would really help me, if I could.

The biggest problem is less to do with me being patient but more to do with my husband and his side of the family staying patient with me. I've known my husband for 4 1/2 years and I had been out of a job for 2 or 3 years already by the time I met him. He just thinks of me as lazy mostly because he's never really seen me work. I did volunteer for a few months during the fall last year and he saw that but it's not enough for him because it didn't pay. Right now I'm trying to be the best housewife I can be for the time being, I cook and clean and try to keep busy around the house. I've babysat his relatives but they don't pay me so I only do it when they absolutely need me, I told my BIL and SIL they cannot just drop their son (who is 13, mind you) at our house and expect us to watch him at the drop of a hat. Anyway I think you get the idea. I'm going to have to try to get myself more well-known around here and I'm thinking maybe volunteering some more someplace else might not be a bad idea to start.

I did have my own business selling digital scrapbooking kits I designed online. I barely made more than about 8 bucks a MONTH and after doing it for 2 years I finally decided to call it quits because my husband just saw it as me sitting around and playing and barely making any money for all the efford. I did have people advertising for me and I did self-promote as well but most designers in that field barely make anything, at least not enough to support a household. I thought of putting it on my resume but I'm not sure of how it would look. My resume looks good right now but it basically looks like a crazy quilt or something: a few months at a credit union as a file clerk, a few months as a student worker in an office, a few more months as a student worker at a library, many years of being a catering assistant, and volunteering as a cashier and shopkeeper at a used clothing store. *shrug* I'd rather not put the JW stuff down because then I would have to explain myself too much and I don't like talking about it with people face to face. I'd rather let the past stay in the past and move on with my life, you know?

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it everyone.

18

Any of you have a hard time finding a job since leaving?

by lilbluekitty in

i was raised as a dub and my mother never pushed me to have a job.

even when i tried to have jobs she woudln't let me because to her pioneering was the only thing i should be doing with my life.

i did graduate high school and attended a community college for a year but i haven't worked in nearly 7 years and with a gap that large i can't find work.

lilbluekitty

@finally awake: I live in South TX so all daycare jobs here require that I would be bilingual and could speak Spanish fluently, which I cannot. I'm from New England and never learned any Spanish because it was never needed up North. I'm trying to learn by listening to those Learn Spanish cds but I'm barely able to pick anything up and my husband doesn't speak it either. If we ever moved further North, I'd probably be able to get a job at a daycare, but being able to move would require that I had at least some income besides the measly amount I get from SSI. =/

@besunny, no, that's really not my thing, if I could to anything in the health field I'd much rather it be medical records, I'm a behind the scenes type, I'm not a people person at all.

@Band On The Run, I'll have to check that book out, it sounds interesting. As far as job clubs are concerned, I don't think people around here even know what that is, I live just a couple miles from the Mexican border and the culture is mostly teen moms and farm laborers. We have a Jobforce Solutions place for TX that I signed up for, they send me emails of jobs I even partially qualify for but so far, nothing I could really do. I'll have to see what that book says.

@rebel8, yes, that's a major problem. I have only ever been on one job interview which was 2 1/2 weeks ago and I did poorly. They said I'd passed the initial interview but I never got called back. I did find out over 4,000 people applied so I don't think I have much of a chance for that one LOL. I have put down my volunteer experience on my resume (I worked as a cashier at my town's literacy center's used clothing store so I could get some retail experience but I have trouble thinking on my feet like that, it was really stressful.) As far as being a tailor is concerned, I don't have any of the skills. I have some catering experience (i.e. food prep and dishwashing but so far none of those jobs I've applied for have contacted me.)

18

Any of you have a hard time finding a job since leaving?

by lilbluekitty in

i was raised as a dub and my mother never pushed me to have a job.

even when i tried to have jobs she woudln't let me because to her pioneering was the only thing i should be doing with my life.

i did graduate high school and attended a community college for a year but i haven't worked in nearly 7 years and with a gap that large i can't find work.

lilbluekitty

I was raised as a dub and my mother never pushed me to have a job. Even when I tried to have jobs she woudln't let me because to her pioneering was the only thing I should be doing with my life. I did graduate high school and attended a community college for a year but I haven't worked in nearly 7 years and with a gap that large I can't find work. Every time I would try to get a job, she would tell me that it's not important to work, that I should pioneer. Well now that I've left the dubs (I faded), I've been applying everywhere in my area with no luck. I did get one job interview but I never heard back. I'm desperate. My husband only has a part-time job (the hours are just under full-time) and it's not enough since I'm not working. I barely have any skills because the only work I ever did as a Witness was babysitting and helping my mom cater, aside from a couple of student jobs I had. I can't afford to go back to school but my husband makes too much for me to qualify for financial aid; I'm in that limbo stage which totally sucks.

Add to that the fact that I was never taught to drive and I doubt very much I'm even able to drive. My husband has taken me several times to try to teach me and it's pretty hopeless. I have Asperger's so I really have no idea where I am in "space," he kept telling me I was "drifting" when I thought I was in the center of my lane. I can't back up for sh*t either, it's just beyond me. We can't afford driver's ed for me because it's over $400.

What am I supposed to do? I've even tried applying at Walmart and even they won't hire me because of my huge gap in employment!

I've tried Snagajob, USA jobs, the town I live in, and the town's near me and their websites. Nothing I qualify for. I'm totally willing to start off at minimum wage but no one will hire me. I get really upset every time I look at the job search sites, seeing all the places I don't qualify for.

My skills are mostly office-type skills such as data-entry and file clerk type jobs but there are very few around here and they generally require me to have accounting skills as well, which I do not have.

Any advice is much appreciated, I'm at my wit's end.

P.S. I have been doing volunteer jobs and putting them on my resume but it's still not enough to get me hired anywhere for pay.