Posts by ilikecheese

44

It is SO depressing when you just can't get through to someone

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

i have been hitting a brick wall trying to pry my boyfriend away from this stuff.

it just makes me cry that it's so obvious to me how wrong it is, and he's not even batting an eyelash.

he knows about all of the scandals, all of the false prophecies, the coverup of sexual predators, that elders tell abuse victims to stay with their spouses, that they dishonestly use sources, and he just doesn't care.

ilikecheese

Nugget, it is good I suppose that if we do end over this, it will be just a longterm relationship rather than marriage. You're right, it is good to know where I stand now rather than later. It's just really sad to think about it. That something to petty would get in the way.

Shades, thanks for your offer of help. I'll check out that website you suggested. I have been praying. It's funny, too, because I'll start praying and end up opening to something in the Bible that I think will help on the first random page I go to. I like to have faith and think that's maybe for a reason. A few times I've really got him to thinking on the topics I bring up. He's even admitted that he feels some of the things that the JWs say may not be right. I even got him to come to church with me a few times. I thought I was making headway, but it seems like the more I make him think a little bit, the harder he sticks to it. It's like when he starts thinking, he feels guilty or something. He turns into super JW man! Rather than x-ray vision, he has selective vision?

Can you recommend any particular books apart from those Raymond Franz books? I feel so helpless particularly because I don't know what it's like. My family is free from any JW-ness. My only real experience prior to this was some poor kid who had to leave the class in third grade whenever we had a holiday party, just to sit in the office til it was over. He never liked it. I felt bad for him.

44

It is SO depressing when you just can't get through to someone

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

i have been hitting a brick wall trying to pry my boyfriend away from this stuff.

it just makes me cry that it's so obvious to me how wrong it is, and he's not even batting an eyelash.

he knows about all of the scandals, all of the false prophecies, the coverup of sexual predators, that elders tell abuse victims to stay with their spouses, that they dishonestly use sources, and he just doesn't care.

ilikecheese

I've told him about all of the Jerusalem stuff, and about the fact that the article talking about it was dishonest in regard to the source material. Thanks to this board and the people on it for all the info on that! Still didn't phase him, though. He still contends that they're the only ones who are living right. Makes me wonder how many times he may have been dropped on his head as a child.

Though I'm Christian, I wouldn't even particularly care if he was atheist or anything. As long as he wasn't a part of a destructive group like this. It's almost scary how unaffected he is by all of it.

44

It is SO depressing when you just can't get through to someone

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

i have been hitting a brick wall trying to pry my boyfriend away from this stuff.

it just makes me cry that it's so obvious to me how wrong it is, and he's not even batting an eyelash.

he knows about all of the scandals, all of the false prophecies, the coverup of sexual predators, that elders tell abuse victims to stay with their spouses, that they dishonestly use sources, and he just doesn't care.

ilikecheese

I have been hitting a brick wall trying to pry my boyfriend away from this stuff. It just makes me cry that it's SO obvious to me how wrong it is, and he's not even batting an eyelash. He KNOWS about all of the scandals, all of the false prophecies, the coverup of sexual predators, that elders tell abuse victims to stay with their spouses, that they dishonestly use sources, and he just doesn't CARE. I pretty much know at this point that I will never marry him and our breakup is imminent, but it doesn't make his refusal to reconsider this stuff hurt any less. I care about him and I want him to see the light.

Bleh. Any of you having similar problems? Want to share and commiserate? Down a few e-pints? Or two dozen?

32

Why don't JWs do much in the way of charity work?

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

so i argue with the boyfriend a lot about the fact that i think charitable work is every bit as important as preaching when it comes to serving god.

every church i've ever gone to has some sort of community outreach, if not several outreaches, that have little or nothing to do with preaching.

and i made the point that if these people know you're affiliated with a church, they'll think a little more kindly about christians, too, which would help in the whole witnessing arena.

ilikecheese

Thanks for the responses, particularly Blondie! That's a lot to look through.

I can understand the idea of some big name charitable organizations taking more money to pay for their own costs, but that's hardly the same as working through some local soup kitchen or food drive. Or even just having your church set up something within the community. That way you know who's running things and you yourself are contributing to something you can see and be more informed on.

I don't know. To say the very least, I disagree with most of their ideas with this.

32

Why don't JWs do much in the way of charity work?

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

so i argue with the boyfriend a lot about the fact that i think charitable work is every bit as important as preaching when it comes to serving god.

every church i've ever gone to has some sort of community outreach, if not several outreaches, that have little or nothing to do with preaching.

and i made the point that if these people know you're affiliated with a church, they'll think a little more kindly about christians, too, which would help in the whole witnessing arena.

ilikecheese

So I argue with the boyfriend a lot about the fact that I think charitable work is every bit as important as preaching when it comes to serving God. Every church I've ever gone to has some sort of community outreach, if not several outreaches, that have little or nothing to do with preaching. And I made the point that if these people know you're affiliated with a church, they'll think a little more kindly about Christians, too, which would help in the whole witnessing arena. But then he was saying something about how it's not really important at all and preaching is all you should really be doing. Kind of completely contradictory to what Christianity should be about, love, mercy, kindness, etc. And every church I've ever been to has encouraged not just tithing, but also giving to charitable organizations to help humanity in general.

What's the deal with JWs not doing that? Do they think Satan is running all charities, too?

66

Eurozone crisis- the jw's are crowing about it like mad!

by highdose in

jw
friends

over the past few weeks i've been told that the eurozone will go into melt down and that this will be the start of armargeddon because the goverments will then turn on religon to get their money instead.. i have been told that the greek pm almost rejecting the greek bailout plan would lead to armargeddon.

of course much to the jw's disapointment the greek pm resigned and the greeks did accept the bail out.

thus saving the greek banks from collapse and thus the rest of the european banks.. i have been told that italys debt will mean they will plunder the vatican for its wealth!

ilikecheese

Haha this reminds me of the pastor at my church. He keeps using everything that's going on to say "Oh, it's the end of the world!! Jesus is coming back to save us!!!" Okay... If I actually get anyone to go to church with me, they'll be convinced we're a bunch of loonies. We probably are. I might need a new church. :P

For anyone who is Christian, I liked what one pastor I listen to on the radio sometimes said: "People have been saying we're in the end days for 2000 years. Everyone else was wrong. The people today probably are, too." But there are a bunch of Bible dudes everywhere saying it's the end of the world. They need to chill out and just let it happen when it does... if they believe in it.

15

JWs are the Modern Day Pharisees

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

i've been reading the gospel of matthew a bit lately, and it kind of strikes me how much the pharisees seem to resemble the jws.

i'm sure this topic has come up several times before, but i've been thinking about suggesting this topic to my jw boyfriend to see what happens.... probably nothing good.

i'm up for a good whiny argument.

ilikecheese

I've been reading the gospel of Matthew a bit lately, and it kind of strikes me how much the Pharisees seem to resemble the JWs. I'm SURE this topic has come up several times before, but I've been thinking about suggesting this topic to my JW boyfriend to see what happens...

Probably nothing good. I'm up for a good whiny argument.

Seriously, though, I was especially moved by Matthew 15 and the manmade doctrine deal/the blind leading the blind, etc.

13

Ya know what I really hate?

by outsmartthesystem in

jw
friends

i personally know a lot of witnesses that are on government assistance.

whether it be food stamps.....government subsidized housing.......medicaid....whatever.

first and foremost i am not bashing government assistance.

ilikecheese

I always wondered why JWs would accept food stamps, and a lot of them do thanks to the minimal education the organization preaches. If you say the government is evil and that you should have nothing to do with it, isn't it immense hypocrisy to accept their help? But I've heard some explain it away by saying they pay taxes and so they deserve it.

I wonder if by some crazy instance there was someone running for president who wanted to abolish food stamps and it looked like they'd be elected, would some JW food stamp recipients secretly vote? Hmm...

26

sorry...but how do they not notice???

by oompa in

jw
friends

that their bible is different from any bible anyone else reads in that it has added the name jehovah to the new testament greek scriptures??

when it is not there in any ancient manuscript????

i mean they put it there where it aint quoted at all....like all 12 times in revelation....i mean how can they not have a problem with that???

ilikecheese

I point that out to my JW boyfriend a lot, particularly the fact that "Jehovah" isn't even anywhere in the New Testament. Oh, and the fact that the Jews didn't use "Yahweh" much either out of respect for the holiness of the name. But nope, they gotta say it all the time! I also think it's funny that it's very easy to research the fact that a lot of the scriptures are changed just because they disagree with what they say. One look at a real interlinear Bible and it exposes the nonsense.

BF doesn't seem to care, though... His answer is always, "Well, ALL Bibles have translating errors and promote their own ideas. The rest of them were written by Trinitarians!" So obviously the Trinitarians fabricated John 20:28. (He didn't actually say that, but he may as well have. )

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!

ilikecheese

Thanks very much for all of the responses! I haven't been online much since I posted this topic, so I'm just now getting around to responding. I'll definitely see if the 1995 topic has any bearing on him. I'm not sure if he would have known much about that because he's only been around it since after that time. This website also taught me about the UN thing; I had no idea about that! That's a really good thing to point out since they keep talking about how they're the only "non-worldly" religion. I always thought that was a pretty stupid claim, considering any devout Christian would be going to church several times a week, reading the Bible daily, witnessing frequently to friends, and trying earnestly to live the Bible and avoid worldly temptations, too. The whole idea of being separated completely from the world is completely unrealistic anyway. You'd have to find employment in religion, only read the Bible and Bible related books, stop watching sports, stop watching films, not have pets, not celebrate any achievements, etc.

Black Sheep, thanks for the offer of help and the information about sources taken out of context. Do you or anyone else know of any sort of website that has good examples of that? I have no problem googling it, but if you guys know of any place that shows the occurences of it, that would be great. Wobble, thanks for the book suggestions! Cinciguy74 and Rydor, your posts had some good examples. Jonathan, I've looked at that website you post a lot (I'm assuming it's yours), and it's got a lot of great information. Thanks for sharing!

This isn't completely on topic, but as per the whole "spiritual Israel" thing, how do they teach Romans 11? I mean, the whole thing is basically about how God won't forget about the Jews because they're "beloved for the father's sake" and it talks about how they will come to Christ (mirrored in Zechariah 12) at some point. Then the remnant spoken about earlier, I assume and have heard commentary assuming that those are Messianic Jews. They have been around since the time of Jesus, clearly. So it seems to say that they haven't been abandoned because throughout the time of Jews, there has always been a loyal remnant. (And in post-Jesus times, that would be Jesus loving Jews.) So do they kind of ignore that chapter 11 is clearly talking about actual Jews and say the whole thing is about "spiritual Israel?" Or is it something else?