Posts by ilikecheese

8

does their daily text for today point to the examples mentioned being a big problem

by therevealer in

*** text for february-19-12 ***.

sunday, february 19. happy are those hungering and thirsting for righteousness.-matt.

5:6.. genuine christians today need to guard against being unduly influenced by the pleasure-mad spirit of this world.

ilikecheese

"For example, some people have turned to ... various illicit activities in an effort to excite their senses."

I'm just imagining extreme jaywalkers right now...

32

"You should never look for/expect happiness in this world"

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

my jw boyfriend says this all the time whenever i'm venting about life and some of its disappointments, career aspirations and how hard they are to make happen sometimes, problems with friends/family, or just random stuff that gets to me.

i'm not a negative person or anything; i only get moody occasionally.

i am a woman; it's kind of required.

ilikecheese

Sorry, I'm on the internet very infrequently and have the attention span of a puppy when I am, so I forgot to check this. To the person who asked me if my BF knows the lengths of desperation he's driving me to, making me consider listening to Hasselhoff CDs rather than him, he probably does. When he starts preaching, sometimes I just walk away. When I sit and listen, I probably look like I've lost the will to live. Or I just throw the Bible I carry in my purse at him. (Yes, I carry the Bible in my purse; don't judge me!)

I feel sort of compelled to explain us. When we first started hanging out, we didn't think it would even really be a serious relationship. We just started hanging out, and being in our early 20s, we hardly thought it would lead to anything serious. Definitely not marriage or anything. But then those darned feelings developed. I honestly don't know if I ever want to get married because infidelity rates scare the poo out of me, and also people in general scare the poo out of me. But we kind of just started having those feelings, without really expecting it. We've been together for a long time, but if we have an expiration date, I'll get over it. I'm not overly needy and I'm fine being alone, so I'll be sad, but I'll power on. That being said, I wouldn't marry him if he sticks to the JW thing. I've thought about it, and accepted that we really can't get married with such different beliefs. If I did have kids, I wouldn't want them exposed to the insanity. Or to be forced to choose between family and religion. That's a seriously screwed up way to be brought up. And the people who put those policies into play should be ashamed of themselves.

As for him, he's not a devout JW. He's not even baptized. His mother got into it when he was just young enough to still be going to church with her. He has other siblings, but only he and his sister were young enough to go. So he's been exposed to it half his life or so, and he accepts a lot of it as true. He doesn't accept all of it as true, and he tells me that the elders are semi-annoyed with him anyway because he asks questions constantly. (Which probably wouldn't be good if he was baptized; he can get away with it now. :P) But his mom is pretty slack because he and his sister have both dated non-JWs, and most of their friends are non-JWs, too. (I think a lot of that may have to do with the fact that there are very few JWs under the age of 40 in this area. Most of the kids he knew who were brought up with it have left.) I know about the time we started hanging out, he was really getting into it, but then I kind of threw a wrench in his plans. I know one of the reasons he's starting to question so much is because he almost wants to leave because then we could be together, and I hate that. I'd rather have it be from legitimate doubts that it's right. He tried for ages to get me interested, but when I even looked at the basic doctrines, I had a lot of WTF moments. The worst part for him was that he would try to show me via the Bible why they were right, and I would just jump back and be able to contest it. It probably threw him for a loop that one of those "worldly" types who "don't follow the Bible" knew way more about the good book than he did. And I'm a lady! Oh no, alert the elders. A girl who successfully argues Bible with a man. :P

So he's not a devout JW. Not baptized. Not fully convinced of any of their stuff. He just says they're "the best alternative." I've been working at making him realize that's not true at all. I have found that talking to him via the Bible is way more effective than talking to him about the organization. And then I guess he doesn't read the magazines because I keep up with the controversial stuff with you fine people here, and I find stuff that I think should jar him. The recent one about people only receiving blessings from the 144,000 made him do this face: O_O If only the elders that he's asking questions to knew it was a mere woman putting all these ideas into his mind...

32

"You should never look for/expect happiness in this world"

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

my jw boyfriend says this all the time whenever i'm venting about life and some of its disappointments, career aspirations and how hard they are to make happen sometimes, problems with friends/family, or just random stuff that gets to me.

i'm not a negative person or anything; i only get moody occasionally.

i am a woman; it's kind of required.

ilikecheese

Quadrophrenia is about right. :P He's a kooky one.

That article explains it some. I just hope the part of him that realizes the nonsense wins over the part that's just devoid of thought and is mostly drooling. I feel like it will happen. Maybe it's just being idealistic! But one can hope.

32

"You should never look for/expect happiness in this world"

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

my jw boyfriend says this all the time whenever i'm venting about life and some of its disappointments, career aspirations and how hard they are to make happen sometimes, problems with friends/family, or just random stuff that gets to me.

i'm not a negative person or anything; i only get moody occasionally.

i am a woman; it's kind of required.

ilikecheese

Haha thanks for the reply.

Honestly, I think part of him realizes it's nonsense, but part of him wants to believe it. He's one of those one parent got into it when he was a child, his other parent didn't, and he's never gotten baptized because he's not SURE. So when he says these things, it's half trying to make me feel better, a quarter believing it, and a quarter WANTING to believe it. The way he says it makes it seem like he thinks he should be saying it, but the other part of him is saying, "What am I going on about?"

32

"You should never look for/expect happiness in this world"

by ilikecheese in

jw
friends

my jw boyfriend says this all the time whenever i'm venting about life and some of its disappointments, career aspirations and how hard they are to make happen sometimes, problems with friends/family, or just random stuff that gets to me.

i'm not a negative person or anything; i only get moody occasionally.

i am a woman; it's kind of required.

ilikecheese

My JW boyfriend says this ALL THE TIME whenever I'm venting about life and some of its disappointments, career aspirations and how hard they are to make happen sometimes, problems with friends/family, or just random stuff that gets to me. I'm not a negative person or anything; I only get moody occasionally. I am a woman; it's kind of required. Like most young college grads, I do get upset at the difficulty in getting a real career going with this economy, but meh. If I'm at least working in my field and can pay the bills, it's all gravy. But we can't help getting a bit frustrated with life from time to time.

But it seems like every time I do, he HAS to say, "You won't find happiness in this world, and you shouldn't look for it." I'm a Christian myself, but I think that's hogwash and preachy-ness to an unnecessary degree. Every time he says it, I want to hit him in the brain to see if it changes anything. I guess I must be forgetting the verses in Matthew where Jesus talks about how we should just be miserable and only think about the afterlife 24/7. The idea that we can't do anything good in the world, that it's not necessary, and it's not something to aspire to makes me want to vomit. AND being in successful in this world can lead to the betterment of lives. It's not like everyone with lofty aspirations has those aspirations solely for self gain. People want to make a difference, want to change the world for the better, and what in the crap is wrong with that? And the more income you have, the more you can help! That's always been my main goal for success. To help other people.

Anyone else hear this statement enough that they'd prefer listening to David Hasselhoff CDs all the live long day? Usually he's a mostly sane and wonderful person to be with. When he starts on the JW speak, I usually try to zone out and just nod at what I think are the appropriate moments.

53

Well, the pdf of the March 2012 WT is hot off the press!

by serenitynow! in

and it does not disappoint.

the first century brothers are on the cover, going door to door with what look like leather messenger bags.. the first article is entitled, are all "christians" christian.

and you can tell by the picture that anyone with a beard or goatee is definitely not a real christian.. the next article, remain in my word has this quote that condemns catholics but seems eerily close to what jws believe:.

ilikecheese

I tried to see what the "..." was leaving out in the definition of disciple, where it says "The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology explains: 'Following Jesus as a disciple means the unconditional sacrifice of [one's] whole life... for the whole of his life.'" I wonder if it says anything about sacrificing your life to JESUS, which is why they left out the middle bit? I just googled for close to an hour and couldn't find anything. Darn good thing I have no life. If anyone who has any access to that dictionary cares to share, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I also think it's sort of funny that they talk about the thousands of different denominations of Christianity. Most of us really aren't that different... In my experience, I've noticed the main differences are on less significant doctrine or church hierarchy.

Oh, and also, "A true Christian, therefore, is one who follows the teachings and instructions of Jesus, the Founder of Christianity, totally and unconditionally" Then I guess Jesus was the only actual Christian, huh? Cos the rest of us are about as perfect as Donald Trump's views on hairstyling.

The Jehovah's Witnesses "regard the Bible as their only source of belief and rule of conduct." Really? And they say the Catholics don't get all of their ideas from the Bible. I want to see them point out Biblical proof that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, was actually created, that Jesus isn't the only way... there's also an organization, that people only receive blessings through the "annointed," that there are two different types of hopes, that Jesus was going to pick an organization in 1919, etc.

And how it says that Jesus was obviously using God's name. Then why was it nowhere in the New Testament? It was a tradition before Jesus just to use Lord and God, wasn't it? And praising themselves because they go "house to house" and no one else does. And that matters because...? There are millions upon millions of new converts to the rest of us "Christians who aren't really Christians" every year, despite our lack of door to door-ness. Sheesh. Thanks for recommending the reading.

3

Matthew 24:45-51

by ilikecheese in

i'm sure this has been brought up before, but how can anyone claim that this is establishing some sort of organization?

it's beyond out of context, if you just look at verse 45 or 45-47. it's clearly about the contrast between people who are always behaving themselves and people who will only behave themselves when they think jesus will return.

among all of the stuff that i've learned after the bf tried to get me interested in jw-ness, this is one of the dumbest bible quote mining or scripture twisting i've encountered.

ilikecheese

Yeah, it kind of baffles me that anyone wouldn't see parables for what they are. Most of what Jesus said was figurative, rather than literal, when he was explaining things. Just a bunch of stories for people to learn from. It's like nursery rhymes for adults.

3

The New Sherlock Holmes looks awesome

by sabastious in

jw
friends

i thoroughly enjoyed the first one and it appears, so far, that the next one will follow suit:.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sherlock_holmes_a_game_of_shadows/trailers/11150172.

-sab.

ilikecheese

I thought it was great! Who wouldn't love Downey in drag? That should happen in every movie. I thought the cinematography in the forest scene was crazy cool, too, for those who have seen it.

3

Matthew 24:45-51

by ilikecheese in

i'm sure this has been brought up before, but how can anyone claim that this is establishing some sort of organization?

it's beyond out of context, if you just look at verse 45 or 45-47. it's clearly about the contrast between people who are always behaving themselves and people who will only behave themselves when they think jesus will return.

among all of the stuff that i've learned after the bf tried to get me interested in jw-ness, this is one of the dumbest bible quote mining or scripture twisting i've encountered.

ilikecheese

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but how can anyone claim that this is establishing some sort of organization? It's beyond out of context, if you just look at verse 45 or 45-47. It's clearly about the contrast between people who are always behaving themselves and people who will only behave themselves when they think Jesus will return. Among all of the stuff that I've learned after the BF tried to get me interested in JW-ness, this is one of the dumbest Bible quote mining or scripture twisting I've encountered. I guess if you hear it enough, though, you just assume that's what it means. This must be one of the most firmly ingrained verses that people in the religion would have a hard time understanding outside of Watchtower teachings, as much as it's mentioned as the basis for the people needing an organization. I guess it probably wouldn't be a good verse to really delve into with the BF in that regard, huh?

32

60 yr. old needs chaperon????

by red21 in

so, a female relative of mine who is 60 but inactive in the truth had their mate dying in the hospital.

the older sister + husband and old brother (of dying man) (active witnesses) come to visit and stay at their home.

the old sister is staying at the hospital around the clock for the duration of the visit but tells her sister-in-law that she must have a chaperon at the house if she is going to be there with her husband and her dying husbands older brother?

ilikecheese

My JW boyfriend told me about a couple from his congregation. They were both divorced, in their 50s, and they never let themselves be alone together AT ALL when they were dating. Mostly because they knew they'd get in trouble if anyone found out about it. So any time they wanted to spend time at either one of their homes, they'd call someone/anyone to be there. If no one could, they just wouldn't hang out.

It's beyond bizarre. I've been a church goer my whole life, I told a couple of people at my church about how I went on a trip with just my BF (I doubt he told anyone at the Kingdom Hall =p), and all my church buddies said was, "None of that funny stuff!!!" or something to that effect. Even if we were banging each other like screen doors in the wind, none of them would really care. Yeah, no sex before marriage and all of that (which I do believe in), but who cares? It's no one's business. If everyone who had sex before marriage is going to hell, heaven is going to have about three people in it.

I'm pretty sure adults should be trusted to make their own decisions. Come on. What we do is nobody's business but ours, the other person or people who are involved, and God. Everyone else should just keep their pervy insinuations to themselves. When people spend so much time thinking about sex, I'm surprised they don't all want to have their genitals removed due to them being evil "stumblers."