i ask because i'm working in a 28 day residential addiction treatment center and one of my co-workers is studying with the jw's.
he does not know i'm an xjw.
i suspect that at some point they're going to tell him he can't go to aa meetings anymore.
Actually, @stillin, the "secret" has been out for a while now:
'Osbourne recalled seeing Bowie at AA meetings and at random locations. "I briefly met him once when I was going to Hugo's [in Los Angeles] with my wife for breakfast. I'd just been to Barney's Beanery," he says. "I heard someone say, 'Hello, Ozzy.' And it's bloody Bowie shouting across the road to me." He laughs.'
-Rolling Stone interview, January 2016 issue.
i have been clear now for 22 years but i am still obsessed.
after going on and on about my experiences to friends and family i have finally realised that no one is interested.. they have won.
no one cares about my ptsd or my suicide attempts or my alcohosm.. i have no one to talk to about this but i really need to get the infection out of my system because it is killing me..
@kramer Thanks for sharing. Four years sober this August for myself :).
@Warren Wilson Trust me, if I wasn't clear from substance/alcohol abuse when I woke up, it might have been a very different story. Clarity will give you the first tool you need to address your PTSD.
Best wishes.
i was musing over this scripture at proverbs 3:27.
"do not hold back good from those to whom it is due , if it is in the power of your hand to do so".
this passage has often been used to show that if we have the means, or opportunity to do good, or to assist others in need, we should act.
Posts like this are what make this forum an absolute gold mine (for me, anyway). There is nothing more thought-provoking than humanizing divine behavior and really asking, "is this genuinely acceptable, even in relatable terms on a human scale?" Too often do we have atrocious doctrine chalked up to "righteous indignation". You've revealed yet another facet of modern man's reasoning, rationale and morality being of far greater sophistication than the deity worshipped by the masses, @stuckinarut2.
It pains me to see millions upon millions of capable human beings resorting to these thought-terminating cliches of "well, no one understand's God's thinking. It's higher than man's." It's the same encumbered pattern of thinking that finds more awe in a burning bush than the elegance of Einstein, Sagan, Darwin or Krauss. These people have forsaken their incredibly complex minds to hide behind human dogma, masquerading as divine. It's tragic.
watchtower article often introduce a point that has no merit with words such a "undeniably.".
for instance the watchtower 2014 august 15 page 10 says:.
"jehovah undeniably blesses the preaching work of christian women and supports them in times of trial.
@punkofnice and @Fred Franzstone
EXHIBIT A:
Pot, meet kettle. Sourced from the March 8, 1974 Awake! magazine, page 10.
Weasel words can include "clearly", "obviously", "apparently" and "evidently". So @punkofnice, you're definitely onto something. You obviously paid attention in the Theocratic Ministry School.
i have been clear now for 22 years but i am still obsessed.
after going on and on about my experiences to friends and family i have finally realised that no one is interested.. they have won.
no one cares about my ptsd or my suicide attempts or my alcohosm.. i have no one to talk to about this but i really need to get the infection out of my system because it is killing me..
Step one: get your addiction to alcohol treated, @Warren Wilson. There is no way you could even attempt to address the negative thinking patterns and PTSD while your brain is in an altered state. And I know what you're thinking: "there were times when I did sober up, and even then, I still couldn't cope with the depression and bitterness I feel toward what Watchtower did to me." Please bear in mind that alcoholism truly does change your brain. If you've done brief stints of detox and been able to blow clean on a breathalyzer, your brain wouldn't have actually been clear. That takes months, even a year, before at a cellular level you're completely clear brain-wise. There are neurological changes at different levels - particularly the amygdala - which really need to be retrained and reprogrammed (hope that doesn't sound like cult speak for "brainwashing"!).
There's so much that goes into this, and white knuckling it for 28 days is far from clean and sober. You need to commit to this and get some local support. AA might be the best place to start. Look up local meeting places and times and rock up. It doesn't even matter if you're drunk upon arrival. The folks there GET it, and they're not there to judge. If you can muster up the courage, you can even take the podium and speak your mind of why you're in this state. It can be emotional, but simultaneously liberating to bear your broken soul and know you're being heard.
Get yourself a sponsor while you're there - it's all free. You need all the understanding and care that you can get when embarking on this path, @Warren Wilson. Deep down, I believe you're still salvageable and can turn this thing around. But it has to start with a physically healthy mind. Only then will the emotional resolutions follow.
watchtower article often introduce a point that has no merit with words such a "undeniably.".
for instance the watchtower 2014 august 15 page 10 says:.
"jehovah undeniably blesses the preaching work of christian women and supports them in times of trial.
Words like "clearly", "evidently" and phrases like "without a doubt" would be intercepted and branded as LEADING in a court of law. In print, I'd refer to these terms as propagandistic words.
how in the hell would it ever work?
everyone is youthful, everyone is perfect, everyone's personality is loving and kind.
how would you choose somebody?
I find flaws attractive. Perfection gets dull fast. The paradisaical populous in the New World will feel like a sea of boring. Show me scars. Show me greys. Show me your soul. I want something that's going to take a lifetime to ponder over and figure out - not a cookie-cutter Truman-esque personality which I can find in everybody else.
hi to everyone!i was summoned to the judicial committee and went.
it was a respectful conversation from one side to the other.
in the end i handed the dissociation letter in hand and a binding to each of the elders, with an article i wrote on the subject, "are jehovah's witnesses a destructive sect?
1 cor 13:5:"keep testing whether you are in the faith; keep proving what you yourselves are.
or do you not recognize that jesus christ is in union with you?
by ‘testing whether we are in the faith.’ to do that, we do well to ask ourselves: ‘do i really believe that i am part of the only organization that jehovah has approved to accomplish his will?
This is unbelievable. The very definition of "testing" is to undergo an investigation of the subject at hand in order to establish its quality and reliability. Synonyms for "testing" are words like "scrutinizing" and "assessing" - NOT "believing" as Watchtower has so insidiously switched over to in their reinforced rhetorical questions.
"Belive" is, if anything, the antithesis of the word "test":
Once again, there's what the scripture ACTUALLY says, versus what Watchtower tells its members it says. Shameful, and a total indicator of how conditioned JW readers are, because I'm willing to bet left nut that no one in the audience saw this jarring contradiction.
@NCC-1701: "It takes Different Strokes to rule the world" . In Tony Morris' case, one can only wish for Various Aneurysms.
