Borges

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Posts by Borges

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  95

  Please Share one of your Favourite Quotations

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  have you ever come across words that resonate with you?

  it doesn't have to be a great gem of wisdom, just something that is meaningful to you.. please share, and if you want to, tell us why it's meaningful to you.. here is something that made me nod when i first read it.... .

  "fortunate are those who have learned to see, in the wild things of nature, something to be loved, something to be wondered at, something to be reverenced, for they have found the key to a never-failing source of recreation and refreshment".

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  Borges

  "I don't believe in God, but I miss him." - Julian Barnes
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  67

  3 more branches closed?

  by Viva la Vida in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems the finland branch has taken over the work from estonia, latvia and lithuania (see http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/offices/finland/).

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  Borges

  1986 I worked for one year on the construction of the Luxemburg branch. Never been there since then. A month ago I decided to pass by, just to refresh some old memories. It's a shame. The building is empty. Small "For sale" sign at one window. And the front facade (which we constructed in an exhausting three week day and night work with special material and lots of marble, ) even starts to crumble.

  In other words - the building looks like the religion which once owned it.
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  111

  Who is your favorite "Apostate"? Who helped you see the truth about "The Truth"?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i would have to say that ray franz was the biggest influence for me.. when i first got on this board, a poster by the name of james, a former bethelite and organization heavy, helped me understand a lot of the inner workings in the upper echelons of the society.. .

  and of course, farkel's common sense approach was (usually) helpful..

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  Borges

  I have no favorite apostate, only some, who were a great help for me.

  When I started to research about JW on the Internet I stumbled over Alan Feuerbachers articles about the flood. That was really an eyeopener for me, because when this story isn't true, all the other stuff can't be true either, because Jesus as much as other bible writers refer to the flood as fact.

  Later I found jwfacts and I read the whole site without a pause. After that, there were no doubts left.

  CoC came later, was a good read, but not to confirm my new found understanding that I was raised in a cult lived in a cult for almost 40 years.

  Looking at this timeline of my awakening I owe Alan Feubacher and Paul Grundy the most.
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  37

  When "The Persecution" Comes - What a Let Down that turned out to be!

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  when i was young there was endless speculation about "the persecution".

  i have very clear memories as a child sitting in the old kingdom hall in coatbridge hearing it talked about from the platform.

  it was a frequent topic at home.. sometimes there was lurid detail about what sort of torture "they" might use against us to make us betray others.

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  Borges

  As a German I grew up with all the stories about the concentration camps and what the JW suffered there. Some of the survivers were friends of my parents. My grandma took me to visit the concentration camp in Dachau (near Munich) for the first time when I was six or seven years old. The pictures in the exhibition room of all the dead and tortured bodies never went out of my mind. Everytime when they talked about persecution and the great tribulation I thought of the concentration camps. I was always horrified.

  I also remember that it was said not to talk about what you fear most, because the demons could hear this und use it against you.

  Sickening!
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  15

  Anyone here from or who served in a "third world country"?

  by A question in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious.

  say as little or as much as you like.

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  Borges

  problemadict - I've replied

  Same to you a question
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  15

  Anyone here from or who served in a "third world country"?

  by A question in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious.

  say as little or as much as you like.

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  Borges

  I did. Three years in Ecuador.
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  141

  Constructive feedback for AAWA leadership (IMHO)

  by besty in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  1 - reconsider your existence - there might be a reason why the most effective resources to date have been solo efforts.

  2 - recognize that even well-intentioned organizations will firstly seek self-preservation.

  3 - be aware that egos and emotional stupidity have torn apart much grander edifices than aawa.

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  Borges

  IMHO - you can declare yourself as ANTI-Watchtower and it would be good to have an Association who is willing to expose all the harmfull policies of this cult and stands for it also with his name. But such an association CAN NOT be supportive to EX-Jw's or those who are willing to leave or to fade at the same time.

  Thats why I'm now, after beeing very enthusiastic at the beginning when AAWA was announced and filling the questionaire to become a volunteer almost immediately, not convinced anymore, that AAWA is a good idea. That has nothing to do with the facebook debacle. AAWAs objective is to join forces and so they have gatherd a lot a of very well known EX-Jws. But all these characters - jwfacts, LAdy Lee, Barabra Anderson, Jo Buel Jensen, RayPublisher, Juan Viejo, Danmera, Cedars etc. had a different approach to the subject. They covered a wide range of different needs that ex-jws or those in who are doubting or want to leave or fade have.

  But now they are gathered under the banner of an ANTI-Watchtower Association and the variety has gone. You can't access them without wondering if you have to be anti-watchtower to do so. Thats very sad and harmfull to the matter, which is on hand helping people and on the other exposing the wt.
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  56

  The Truth Changes: Watchtower of July 15, 2013

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

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  [endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* style definitions */ table.msonormaltable {mso-style-name:"table normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:6.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; text-align:justify; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"times new roman","serif"; mso-fareast-language:en-us;} </style> <![endif].

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  Borges

  Eden one - I know this is off topic, but your avatar is the best one I've ever seen. Especially when you read that crap the wt wrote in the latest watchtower. I'm wondering how people can eat that sh..t. (and I feel exactly how your avatar looks like)
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  23

  An apostate goes public

  by Borges in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i mentioned in a thread some weeks ago ( http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/244078/1/first-public-talk-as-an-apostate ), that i was invited to give a talk at a symposium about cults.

  this will take place at the first weekend in may.. i'm going to talk about the difficulties you have to face when leaving the jw.

  yesterday i've got an another invitation to speak to a senior year class in a middle school.

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  Borges

  moshe - "Talking about my old JW life got in the way of having a regular life and being thought of as a normal person."

  Well, I didn't want to talk about my life every time. But there are some lessons we've learned which can be taught to other people, specially young ones.

  Gojira_101 - Since this will be an offical lesson in a public school, there will be no one filming it. But I will relate what I've experienced with the students.

  prologos - So, you threw rocks on russian tanks!! Thats awesome! Are you from the czech republic? If you refer to the events in the so called "Prager Frühling" that would be kind of ironic, because my hard-core jw father always mentioned these events to illustrate how quick the great tribulation will start. He always said. "As the russian tanks came overnight into Prag, so will the UN overnight make the decission to destroy Babylon the Great."

  I'm now 46 and still not healed from this implantation of something horrible is just about to start in the next moment.

  Thanks for all you kind words and advises!!

  steve2 - There will be no active wittness in the audience, but there are jw-kids at that school. I'm pretty sure the congragation in that town is already aware that an apostate is going to speak at "their" school. Maybe some overzealous parents will complain to the school directory about that.

  jgnat - I'm thinking exactly about that. Maybe I'm going to use an example like this: " If you know that a fellow student has a lot of money and you want to have some of it, you can take it from him by force. But thats not a good idea because it will have bad consequences for you. But if you could get the student to give you that money voluntarily and make him feeling that he is doing exactly the right thing at once, than it'll work fine for you"

  So I plan to work with questions, with pictures and I will try to focus on the subjects that are of interest even for those, who don't give much about religion at all.

  I'll see how it works.

  Thank to all of you for that nice and helpfull input!
• 
  23

  An apostate goes public

  by Borges in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i mentioned in a thread some weeks ago ( http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/244078/1/first-public-talk-as-an-apostate ), that i was invited to give a talk at a symposium about cults.

  this will take place at the first weekend in may.. i'm going to talk about the difficulties you have to face when leaving the jw.

  yesterday i've got an another invitation to speak to a senior year class in a middle school.

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  Borges

  Thank you very much for posting!

  prologos - I think I heard about that teacher before. Good apostate song

  Giordano - The teacher who invited me wanted to give me about five hours. I said that is way to much. Impossible to keep the focus of the young people on one subject such a long time. Thats why we agreed to have three hours, but if there are no more questions, the teacher can go on with his lesson.

  The students will make a list of questions in advance. Some of them I will answer in my talk, some will be left for the discussion additional to the questions they come up with spontaneously. I've planed to work with a power-point presentation which will make it easier to follow.I hope I succeed in presenting the stuff in a way that will raise more questions in the young peoples mind

  I know it's a challenge to grab the attention of the students. Especially because the german students in general are not very interessted in religious subjects. Thats why I don't talk just about the jw, but mind control and techniques of manipulation. Will cost me a lot of preparation, but I still have four weeks to get it done.

  I will let you know how it went.

  Again, many thanks to all of you!