i think i mentioned this some time ago but never had time to do anything about it.
i'm thinking of offering merchandise on the site for a bit of fun and also to help with the site expenses (although i don't expect it to generate a huge amount).
i think catchy logo's and phrases are the best.
Here are some:
"Jehovah, please protect me from your followers"
"have you every sat in a Kingdom Hall and wondered..."
"I'll give you something to knock on!!!"
"Advertise this!"
"Get the scary Jehovah's Witness away from me!"
"You want me to do WHAT with my time!?!"
.
what is your favorite western movie?
mine are, tombstone, val kilmer was great in it, lonesome dove, and the wild bunch.
I tend to classify westerns based on style and context. Once Upon a Time in the West is the best Western you'll probably ever see. I love that the fact that it's melodramatic and yet doesn't come off as being sappy. A film that stays with you primarily because of the images it puts on the screen: three gunslingers at station, a train in the middle of the desert, two people in gun fight. Its interesting that little of this film is dialogue, because youre always caught up in the anticipation that something great will happen. Not an anti-western but transcends the typical western in way that makes it totally unique just like McCabe & Ms. Miller. This is the 2001 of westerns.
something that has been alarming to my jw family is the amount of teens ("young ones") that have bailed out of the organisation, never to return.. they use the excuse, as would most jw's that "satan is getting them - he knows young ones are vulnerable.".
if you want my opinion, young people are getting far more educated - they are becoming far more broad minded than they were say 10 or 20 years ago.
because of the slow yet sturdy slackening of the "no college" rule, many more young jw's are attending university or college than ever before, and with further education comes more knowledge, more interaction with reasonable and intelligent conversations with educated people and most importantly -use of the internet ("satans latest tool, as put by a jw i talked to recently).
I've often wondered myself why certain "progressive" religions have outreach programs with youth groups, men's groups, women's groups, groups for the elderly, and so on and so forth and yet JW's don't. I have a couple of theories:
1.) JW's have a one size fits all approach toward every meeting, so having a "youth group" would be viewed as disturbing the cohesive atmosphere of the congregation despite that fact that the organization is notorious for cliques and closed circles.
2.) I also think the society secretely mistrusts young people. I can tell you right now, the teenagers who were viewed as "spritually strong" in my congregation and who later went on to become ministerial servants and pioneers rarely hung out with people their own age. I know I didn't and I became a ministerial servant before anyone else in my age bracket.
What do you expect from an organization that's run by the geriatric's club, one that tells teenagers to...well...not behave like teenagers, to not enjoy your youth except if it involves a public ministery. Wow....that's my idea of a good time...
the lower requirements of the wt has been brought up from time to time.
i thought i would summarize the ones i know of.
1. conventions used to be one week and go from early morning til late at night.
Is the organization getting soft? Sorry, but Jack had it dead on... at one time they were Wacko Psychotic bastards, now they're just Deceptive Psychotic Bastards...
how many of us xdubs are glb or t?
(gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender).
this weekend i'll be celebrating with friends and "family" over burgers and beer!
I just wanted to post some comments. We had our Gay pride in March and for a conservative city like Phoenix I do think this is an important event. We have a Gay mayor in Tempe, a gay state representative and a gay person in the state congress (all of them republican). A lot of people think its kind of unecessary to have an event celebrating gay pride, just like it would be unecessary having an event celebrating heterosexuality. The gay pride parade isn't necessarily an event celebrating homosexuality as it is an event demonstrating what gays have accomplished, particularly in a society where many of us feel invisible. How would you feel if you lived in a society where you felt uncomfortable holding hands in public with your boyfriend or girlfriend, where the very acknowledgement of who you're married to or dating could lead to you being fired? How would you like them apples? A lot of people here have NO idea what gay ex-JW's have had to go through. It is a living hell being made to feel alone, neglected, dejected, particularly from your own family. A lot of you might not realize this but gay people and ex-JW's have a lot in common. This years "gay pride" theme is "For one day, feel like the majority", how often did you feel like the majority in the Borg? How much more so now? If anything, the society wouldn't care two whits if all ex-JW's disappeared from the panet, and believe me, a lot of people feel the same way about gay people. This is the one day of the year where I can feel absolutely comfortable visually acknolwedging my love for people of the same sex, where I can walk down central Phoenix without any fear of personal violence. In the years to come, the parade will progressively lose meaning as long as society as a whole continues to accept gay people as a very real, visible part of our society. But until then, "We're here, we're queer, get use to it! We're here, we left the Borg, get use to it!"
my name is walt collins, i'm a 23 guy in melbourne, australia, migrated from the uk 4 years ago.. i've been going through some pain lately, my mother (still in the .
uk) and i have really had a rough period and she's decided to put .
her religion before me and after many heated conversations, we are now no longer in contact.. .
Hi Walter,
The actions of your mother speak volumes at the lengths that many Jehovah's Witnesses will go to force their opinions on someone. The very fact that she wrote a letter to your boyfriend's mother is bizzare to say the least. I am a 23 gay ex-Jehovah's Witness who found it absolutely difficult to remain a part of an organization that makes gay people feel alone and neglected. It's one thing to disagree with homosexuality, then again, it's another to make you feel like the Devil's spawn, and that's the problem with the organization. Even the ex-JW's who replied to your post who disagree with homosexuality, gave you support, with is more than JW's can ever offer. I just find it amazing that she is willing to neglect you simply because you like guys. Still, I wouldn't launch a major smear campaign against them. Besides, they're already doing a splendid job humiliating themselves already, I just wouldn't invest all the time and energy. At this point she has two options: 1.) she can accept you and love you for the person that you are or, 2.) she can refuse to do anything with you. That means that for every happy moment, every success, and every significant event of you life, she will refuse to be there. Personally, I feel sorry for your mother. Very few people have been able to achieve what you have at your age, so if she choses to ignore you for being a gay boy, then that's her loss.
i feel like some fluff tonight.. so, c'mon, tell us all about your.........mobile phone!.
what make is it?.
contract or pay-as-you go?.
I can make mine vibrate....;)
i recall as a child going with several brothers to the local prison so the brothers, normally elders could go in and preach to the prisoners.. we as children would stay in the car for what seemed like hours while the brothers carried out whatever preaching work they deemed fit.
this also included return visits.. does this still go on today?
do the brothers still visit inmates at prisons?.
My grandma use to preach to someone in prison before she died a few years ago. They still preach to people in prison.
has anyone had an experience similar to the following?
or had a social life(total oxymoron, i know) like mine in the borg?
last evening we had to take our clothes to the laudrymat(sp?
Reminds me of what Woody Allen said: "I would never want to belong to a club that would want to have someone like me for a member..."
i heard of a funeral held for a sister last week in a kh.. her non-jw daughter-in-law write a poem for her, and wanted to read it at the service in the kingdom hall.
the d-i-l had studied many years ago but was never baptized.
however, because she was wearing slacks, she was refused to read it from the platform and had to read it from her seat in the audience.. how low can you go?
Unfortunately,
Memorial talks are really run by the same beauracratic standards as everything else in the congregation. At least they could be honest and tell they're followers that their lives mean very little, it's all for show.... Memorial talks are just a formality, and everyone knows it. They're no different than df hearings, district conventions, the written review, or a special talk about the dangers of masturbation. Sick? yes, it is. That's why we left. There's not a single person reading this who doesn't realize that a person's apparel is not as important as the individual wearing them. As hard as it is for a bunch of sick men to believe otherwise....
