Tater-T

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Posts by Tater-T

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  70

  You-are-too-dumb: Proper handling of nested magazines (BOE Letter)

  by pixel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  to all bodies of elders.

  re: proper handling of nested magazines.

  dear brothers:.

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  Tater-T

  Thank you for your continued support of the magazine-distribution arrangement.

  ...... eerrrrrrr preaching work.. ah hem...
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  34

  yet another newbie..

  by ragnarok75 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been lurking here for some time and now that i've registered here's a little bit about myself... i'm in northern europe (so english is not my own language,but i have indeed studied it for more than 18 months) and i was born into this hateful cult in the "momentuous" year of -75.good that my parents stayed alive till then!.

  as far back as i can remember i had doubts both about the doctrines and the whole existence of god.however,i instinctively knew that these doubts are not to be mentioned.so i learned to be a fake at an early age.though having read many other stories here i realise how easy i got it.i now understand that we lived in a rather liberal area and also my family was quite liberal eventhough my dad was an elder since mid -80 and mom was really "strong in the truth".i never brought up the religion at school or with friends and was never bullied or anything.it helped that i was good at sports,especially football (soccer for americans) and football is also the source of my biggest hurt in childhood.i know it may sound very trivial,but the fact that i wasn't allowed to join a football team felt just so unjust and painfull and it lasted all through my childhood.whenever we had a new gym teacher,the first thing he asked me was which team do i play for.i was too embarrased to tell the truth and i just gave the impression that i only wanted to play for fun and not join any team.oh,how badly i wanted to!.

  somehow i managed to silence all those doubts and got babtised as a young man.very soon after the babtism i knew that it didn't have the hoped for effect of making me more spiritual and meetings and field service still felt an absolute bore.now began the long years of just "going through the motions".all my family (parents,many brothers and sisters,uncles and aunts,nieces and nephews) and most of my friends were in.i never reached out and attended only one or two meetings a week and penned my hours.i kind of liked my congregation (also,the seats at our kh were really comfy,so i often slept through the meetings) and made some very good friends.friends that - as you all can guess- didn't turn out to be so good in the end,but with whom i nonetheless had some good times and felt a strong connection to.. for a long time nothing happened that would've disrupted my rather non-eventfull life as a lacklustre jdub with at least another foot in the "world".i'd done many things that would've gotten me d'fed,but i never had any intentions of going to the elders about it and i had no pangs of conscience about it either.it was just a matter of convenience..i liked my witness friends,wanted to hold on to them and not to lose my family.. however..there was this girl... a (worldly,of course) girl that i had absolutely fell for and had a brief romance with many years ago.now she was back in my life.i must omit the proceeding turns of events for the sake of anonymity,but the end result is that i'm a proud father of a lovely baby girl.well,not so much baby anymore as she starts school soon.i love her so much and it gives me great satisfaction that she is growing free from any influence of vicious cults or of any gods for that matter.we live now in different countries but i see her often and there's always skype.. her birth also acted as a catalyst for the change in relationship between me and the society.i decided that i wanted to share the joy of her birth and existence with my family,eventhough i also knew that that would mean i'd have to go the elders too.if i didn't,they would,and that would result in automatic disfellowshippping.. a jc was duly formed and i had decided that i'm not going to go there and tell them that i regret her,as having her is the best thing that's ever happeded to me.

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  Tater-T

  welcome.. makes you wanna scream... love the avatar

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTxlNtm6lyI

  I too.. had a daughter who changed my life, by not wanting to teach it to her.. it woke me up
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  14

  Comment on this MAP of America's most BIBLE-MINDED cities

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/cities.jpg.

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  Tater-T

  
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  30

  I found this paragraph in the Watchtower study to be so ridiculous and offensive......

  by Pyramid Scheme in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  usually i read through the study article for the week to see if there are good points of discussion with my family.. when i read this paragraph, i nearly fell off my chair.

  this is complete and utter garbage.

  i have had discussions with my wife and other family members who also agreed it was complete rubbish.

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  Tater-T

  @ cobaltcupcake... I was that TV show.. well the last half hour .. scary..

  @wha happened.. when I was DF'd .. they said you can't have any association with the congergation... and if you are found out to have worldy association you won't be reinstated.. the Isolation was unbearable.. one of the guy's I worked with came by and took me to a movie, I could tell he felt sick about my situation.. (FULL METAL JACKET)..
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  48

  Should i go?

  by MsGrowingGirl20 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so, a good friend of mine, a pentecostal christian, invited me to go to a retreat with her church.

  we're the same age-19 years.

  we were friends before i became a witness and she was always patient and caring with me especially throughout my arrogant spell as a witness.

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  Tater-T

  I the congregation I attended in Palm Springs, a family there was a JW Mom with a Pentecostal Dad.. their three daughters had to go to both,

  as he was head of house... they liked the KH better.. they said it was a freak Show at the church..

  but hey Check it out.. but I wouldn't want to go to something that you couldn't up and leave if you weren't comfortable.. or thats longer than a couple of hours for a first visit
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  13

  How will the NOOLITE on the Faithful and Discreet Slave affect the court case in Australia?

  by hamsterbait in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  last year, in the ongoing victoria, australia case, the watchtower lawyers stated in court that the "faithful and discreet slave" does not exist.

  it is merely a "theological arrangement".

  this was obviously an attempt to get those responsible at the top of the corporation "off the hook".. now the wtbts says explicitly that the fds are the same as the governing body of eight men in brooklyn.. does this mean that the australian courts can attempt to subpoena these eight men, as the charges are against (among others) the fds and the gb?.

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  Tater-T

  That's what I was saying when it first came out... but reality.. when you can talk out of both sides of your mouth, it won't matter..
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  20

  Just had a shep visit

  by Captain Obvious in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  they just left.

  we had a nice "encouraging" chat about my inactivity.

  they went through the usual guilt routine, that didnt seem to work so they turned to fear.

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  Tater-T

  nice .. never let'em see you sweat!! LOL

  I'll take my chances is what I always say to that one..
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  26

  Birthdays & Christmas

  by Rattigan350 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what is the deal with people criticizing jws because they don't celebrate birthdays or christmas?.

  it is as if when someone is born, from a baby, to a child, teen, adult; that one has a responsiblity to celebrate christmas (and i thought it was a free country); and others have a responsiblity to celebrate others' anniversary of one's birth.. i don't get the criticisms as if celebrating either is a great thing and the not celebrating is a bad thing.. data on star trek said that he does not understand why people celebrate their birthdays - a day one can not possibly remember.. what are you actually celebrating?

  the fact that you made it another year?

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  Tater-T

  what wrong with celebrating?? it's fun and as we all KNOW

  
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  4

  Gambling with chance

  by Borges in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  Tater-T

  it's not gambling.. it's russian roulette .. with an automatic...
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  23

  Just had an elder drop in for a visit

  by biometrics in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just had an elder drop in for a visit.

  asking why i hadn't been to the meetings for over two years.

  i told him there's a lot of things i don't agree with.. .

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  Tater-T

  Carl Sagan's Remarks About Jehovah's Witnesses False Prophecies

  Alan Feuerbacher

  A few years after the complete collapse of everything C. T. Russell had predicted, J. F. Rutherford began a process of replacing Russell's unfulfilled predictions with a series of invisible and spiritual events associated with the years 1914 and 1918. By the early 1930s the process was complete.

  An interesting comment on this transformation was made by Carl Sagan in his book Broca's Brain (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979, pp. 332-333):

  Doctrines that make no predictions are less compelling than those which make correct predictions; they are in turn more successful than doctrines that make false predictions.

  But not always. One prominent American religion confidently predicted that the world would end in 1914. Well, 1914 has come and gone, and -- while the events of that year were certainly of some importance -- the world does not, at least so far as I can see, seem to have ended. There are at least three responses that an organized religion can make in the face of such a failed and fundamental prophecy. They could have said, "Oh, did we say '1914'? So sorry, we meant '2014.' A slight error in calculation. Hope you weren't inconvenienced in any way." But they did not. They could have said, "Well, the world would have ended, except we prayed very hard and interceded with God so He spared the Earth." But they did not. Instead, they did something much more ingenious.

  They announced that the world had in fact ended in 1914, and if the rest of us hadn't noticed, that was our lookout. It is astonishing in the face of such transparent evasions that this religion has any adherents at all. But religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. The fact that religions can be so shamelessly dishonest, so contemptuous of the intelligence of their adherents, and still flourish does not speak very well for the tough-mindedness of the believers. But it does indicate, if a demonstration were needed, that near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry