Posts by Ranchette

47

What is faith REALLY?

by Silverleaf in

jw
friends

i've been interested in the discussion on the 'for those of us who believe in god' thread and aguest wrote this:.

"we have been misled into understand what 'faith' really is.".

if we have all been misled, then can someone explain what exactly faith really is?

Silverleaf,
My oppinion on #1:There is nothing wrong with wanting proof of something before were completly convinced to believe in something. But being skeptical allows you to take middle ground till all the facts are in.
Theres also nothing wrong with having personal "faith" in something even though its not based on fact or logic.Faith can help a person to cope and be a more positive person,However I believe that it is wrong to expect others to share your faith or push it on them.Believe what you want,share if you like and leave it at that.Does this make sense?

#2 Since we really have no proof that God exists,don't you think belief in him is faith and if he does exist and you do believe you'll be covered either way?
Ranchette

47

What is faith REALLY?

by Silverleaf in

jw
friends

i've been interested in the discussion on the 'for those of us who believe in god' thread and aguest wrote this:.

"we have been misled into understand what 'faith' really is.".

if we have all been misled, then can someone explain what exactly faith really is?

Ranchette

Silverleaf,
Funny you should ask this question now.I just got the October 1,2001 issue of the watchtower in the mail and the cover article is "You can Have True Faith".
Let's see what they say about faith.Will it be what your looking for?
Lets see,Under the sub-heading intitled True Faith it says:
"To many "faith simply means having a religious belief or following a form of worship.As used in the Bible however"faith" basically means total trust-complete, unshakable confidence in God and his promises.It is a quality that marks a diciple of Jesus."

My definition of the word faith is that it is a very strong belief in something with nothing but a feeling to back it up.Faith is belief without proof.
Ranchette

42

Dear Fellow Witnesses

by Carlo in

jw
friends

dear fellow witnesses of the true god jehovah,.

with all the anti-watchtower information that has been spreading all over the world via the internet, it becomes all the.

more important to stay close to jehovah and his organization.

Ranchette

okay,jokes on me!Someone had to fall for it.:-)
I always think of lurkers so maybe this little exersise helped someone to think.I sure learned alot that way.
Now, are there any other jokers out there I need to be aware of?
Na, don't tell me this is much more fun.
Ranchette

18

Memorial ultimatum

by Ranchette in

jw
friends

i recieved this email and thought i'd share:.

xxxxxxxx.

i heard a piece of gossip the other day from a friend in california that i thought was outrageous and right on par for the borg.... it seems a 20-something sister in a southern calafornia congregation has dedided she is one of the annointed much to the chagrin of her elder body.they have tried everything to disuade her from this path.in a last ditch effort to come up with arguments against her, the elders'wives were sic'd on her and they came up with a piece of information that they felt would be useful...it seems this sister is also pregnant with her first child and is very much looking forward to breast-feeding.so the brothers told her that if she wants to partake at the next memorial she can't breastfeed---because the wine would transfer to the milk and the baby is not annointed!this sister is heart-broken,she feels she must choose between her motherly obligation and her spiritual one!.the advice i passed on to her via my grape-vine was to think long and hard what decision she might make if for some reason her baby needed a life-saving blood transfusion...if the borg won't let her take a sip of wine it will surely not let her save her childs life with a transfusion!.

Ranchette

This is an email from someone that I don't know well.I can't say the sourse is reliable. I'm not even going to venture a guess as to it's truthfullness or not.
It was put here purely for your entertainment pleasure. :-)
Ranchette

42

Dear Fellow Witnesses

by Carlo in

jw
friends

dear fellow witnesses of the true god jehovah,.

with all the anti-watchtower information that has been spreading all over the world via the internet, it becomes all the.

more important to stay close to jehovah and his organization.

Ranchette

Max
Did you mean perfectly nausiating advise?:-)Ha ha
He did a wonderful job at waving huge red flags to warn every one what a nutty cult this is!
People like this make me crazy because my mother is exactly like this.
It's so hard to believe people really think like this.
It's sick to me.I mean that literally.

I don't know the technical lingo but there's a name for people who don't see that something that the rest of society sees as wrong or a crime that way.They justify and think their behavior is normal.
Is it sociapath?

Anyway this kind of thinking can be very dangerous,it can justify ANYTHING.Murder,pediphila,theft,false prophets, lies ,and on and on I could go.I see that it's just this kind of mentality that's responsible for so many of the problems in this group.
I'll calm down now.
Ranchette

Bugs eye, I'm breathing much better now that I got that out of my system.Thank you!I'll just have a drink now.

42

Dear Fellow Witnesses

by Carlo in

jw
friends

dear fellow witnesses of the true god jehovah,.

with all the anti-watchtower information that has been spreading all over the world via the internet, it becomes all the.

more important to stay close to jehovah and his organization.

Ranchette

Oh my God!!!
Let's break this down.
1.Under no circumstances should you learn the real truth that has been deliberatly hidden from you all those years!
2.Truth is not the issue!
3.Dont read any thing that the GB doesn't give you permission to.OBEY!OBEY!
4.Doesnt matter that they are proven to be false prophets!
5.Doesn't matter that they have bribed Gov. officials!
6.So What that many brothers and sis.were killed,run out of their homes ,raped etc..for refusing to do something so simple and completly legal because the GB said no.
7.Ray Franze has not said he is sorry for telling the truth!
8.I can't go on ,I'm about to puke!!!

Next you'll be telling me "It doesn't matter,and So What that the GB had a policy in place that hurts childen by allowing pedipholes to run amuck under ther protection!
I think you get the picture .I'm disgusted!
Ranchette

4

Simplifying

by Norm in

jw
friends

we know that the above word has become one of the most used ones in the brooklyn vocabulary the last decade.

almost everything in the watchtower organization has been simplified.. here is a very good idea for further simplifying.

this one is for free for you boys in the service department.

Ranchette

That's a funny idea Norm.
I could have saved a trip to the dump myself a couple of months ago if that simplification had been in effect.Darn!
I cleaned out my coat closet and got rid of a very large box of magazines. That is after they sat out in a thunderstorm first.
They always preached simplification but kept heaping the burdons on us!
My life gets simpler every day!I feel free at last!
Ranchette

p.s. Hi Norm! It was a pleasure talking with you yesterday.

18

Memorial ultimatum

by Ranchette in

jw
friends

i recieved this email and thought i'd share:.

xxxxxxxx.

i heard a piece of gossip the other day from a friend in california that i thought was outrageous and right on par for the borg.... it seems a 20-something sister in a southern calafornia congregation has dedided she is one of the annointed much to the chagrin of her elder body.they have tried everything to disuade her from this path.in a last ditch effort to come up with arguments against her, the elders'wives were sic'd on her and they came up with a piece of information that they felt would be useful...it seems this sister is also pregnant with her first child and is very much looking forward to breast-feeding.so the brothers told her that if she wants to partake at the next memorial she can't breastfeed---because the wine would transfer to the milk and the baby is not annointed!this sister is heart-broken,she feels she must choose between her motherly obligation and her spiritual one!.the advice i passed on to her via my grape-vine was to think long and hard what decision she might make if for some reason her baby needed a life-saving blood transfusion...if the borg won't let her take a sip of wine it will surely not let her save her childs life with a transfusion!.

Ranchette

I recieved this email and thought I'd share:
XXXXXXXX
I heard a piece of gossip the other day from a friend in California that I thought was outrageous and right on par for the Borg...
It seems a 20-something sister in a southern Calafornia congregation has dedided she is one of the annointed much to the chagrin of her elder body.They have tried everything to disuade her from this path.In a last ditch effort to come up with arguments against her, the elders'wives were sic'd on her and they came up with a piece of information that they felt would be useful...it seems this sister is also pregnant with her first child and is very much looking forward to breast-feeding.So the brothers told her that if she wants to partake at the next Memorial she can't breastfeed---because the wine would transfer to the milk and the baby is not annointed!This sister is heart-broken,she feels she must choose between her motherly obligation and her spiritual one!.The advice I passed on to her via my grape-vine was to think long and hard what decision she might make if for some reason her baby needed a life-saving blood transfusion...If the Borg won't let her take a sip of wine it will surely not let her save her childs life with a transfusion!
What a sick joke! Those Bastards!The longer I'm out the more ridiculous it all seems.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXX

This was to funny I had to pass it along!
Ranchette

38

How would you react to a sheparding call?

by friendorfoe in

jw
friends

put aside for a moment your statis of the organization, it's saturday morning and your on the other side of the ole familar knock.

"hello i'm brotherdoesnthavealife i haven't seen you in a while" how would you react?.

it happened to me after about 6 years of being inactive and it was an elder and a c.o.

Ranchette

I worried so much about this for so long.I couldn't enjoy being home alone or working in my yard for fear they would come calling.
I finally got clear about what I believe regarding this.I don't believe in their judicial process.They have absolutly no authority over me or my life!!They know I was raised as a witness.
I know where the kingdom hall is.If they show up I'll tell them that if they see me at a meeting they can view that as a personal invitation to ask me to a meeting and if they don't take that hint I'll explain that I have nothing to discuss with them and they will need to communicate through my lawyer.I have business cards ready for such an occasion.
Ranchette

8

Jehovah

by TweetieBird in

jw
friends

when i was first having doubts about the organization, i stumbled across the following site.... .

http://www.eliyah.com/jhovah.htm.

it really opened my eyes, because i have a mother-in-law that tells me constantly that the witnesses are the only ones that bear god's name.

Ranchette

Tweety,
Your right.
Shortly before I stoped attending meetings an article showed up in one of the magazines where the society told us that that we don't really know how to pronounce God's name!! After all those years of craming this down peoples throats and looking down on religions and people that don't use the name Jehovah!!
This was just one more of many last straws for me!I don't use the name Jehovah on a regular basis any more because of this "NEW LIGHT!"
Ranchette