the district conventions i went to always had signs in the restrooms asking people to only take one paper towel.
i've heard other people mention this too.
is this typical at conventions?
I personally have never seen the 'one-paper-towel' rule enforced at any of the conventions when I was a J.W. (thank god)
I do remember. vaguely, one solitary year that the mirrors were covered. I didn't know it was only the women's restrooms. Somebody must have objected, or maybe the brown paper cost too much, or something, because they were never covered again. And we went to the conventions at the same site for years and years and years.
re: serena williams' comments about jws not voting......of course the non-jw members wanted to know why.. the first giggle i got from all the non-jws posting who wanted to know why she could dress so skimpily, pursue her tennis career and wrap herself in the american flag while still proclaiming to be a jw.
i'd go so far as to say all of the non-jw posters were questioning this.. the second giggle was the expected knee-jerk defensive reaction from the jws on the board......i.e., "here we go judging people from appearance again," and "how come nobody's judging this celebrity/that celebrity?".
then, the expected "how come everybody hates jws" comment from another one.
http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=138756&KW=witnesses&PN=3
Her post is, I think, near the bottom on page 5. She's the one hefting the 2 blue drinks.
Maybe her outfit isn't THAT 'clubbish', but still.....
.....when I clicked on her profile, I thought I had the wrong person.....
re: serena williams' comments about jws not voting......of course the non-jw members wanted to know why.. the first giggle i got from all the non-jws posting who wanted to know why she could dress so skimpily, pursue her tennis career and wrap herself in the american flag while still proclaiming to be a jw.
i'd go so far as to say all of the non-jw posters were questioning this.. the second giggle was the expected knee-jerk defensive reaction from the jws on the board......i.e., "here we go judging people from appearance again," and "how come nobody's judging this celebrity/that celebrity?".
then, the expected "how come everybody hates jws" comment from another one.
RE: Serena Williams' comments about JWs not voting......of course the non-JW members wanted to know why.
The first giggle I got from all the NON-JWs posting who wanted to know why she could dress so skimpily, pursue her tennis career and wrap herself in the American flag while still proclaiming to be a JW. I'd go so far as to say ALL of the non-JW posters were questioning this.
The second giggle was the expected knee-jerk defensive reaction from the JWs on the board......i.e., "here we go judging people from appearance again," and "how come nobody's judging this celebrity/that celebrity?"
Then, the expected "how come everybody hates JWs" comment from another one. It's so funny how, when I'm on other discussion boards, any JW thread takes the same direction, every single time. Surprisingly, this one did not degenerate into personal insults and e-stalking, though.....
But, no, the biggest giggle I got was when I clicked on one of the JW "sister's" avatar.....there she is, dressed in a club outfit and OBVIOUSLY in a nightclub setting, brandishing two HUGE, blue, mixed drinks at the camera!
drew sagan posted this fine thread http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/160876/1.ashx in which a few people remarked that hardly anyone under the age of 40 even knows about the 1975 failed prediction.. i was born in 1970 and i do remember the 1975 fiasco.
for what it's worth, here are my memories and how it was explained to me.. late in 1968 my parents decided to have me because, like many other jws, they thought that i would never have to deal with the world or go to school.
they carefully planned to have me during the year of 1970 because they didn't want to go through armagedon with an infant, so they figured if i was 5 years old, i would be old enough to run, feed myself, and at least know enough to take shelter from the elements or hide.
I was born in 1970 and when 1975 came, my parents did not put me in school. I was the only one of their children who did not get enrolled in school when I turned 5. I honestly cannot think of any other reason why they did what they did. It was only a couple of years ago that I stopped and realized what year I would have started school. My JW parents are born-in, die-hard, staunch and very hardcore with it.
i have a feeling i am going to have to explain to my jw folks why i have decided to allow my children to participate in holidays at school.
theyll probably be wondering too why i will get together with our non jw family for the holidays.. .
we know jws avoid holidays because of their pagan origins.
Bridesmaids---
In ancient times the bride had her attendants dressed like her at her wedding, to confuse the vengeful, evil spirits and keep them from smiting her with bad luck.
while being new in the truth my wife dicussed the rape issue with her pioneer {my mums annionted} teacher.
her response was to say if your raped you need to pray to jehovah for help and just yell for him to stop so it's not considered fornication.
i was shocked at this so i found her an awake article about a sister who was assulted by a tradesmen in her home.
I remember an old Awake! article (possibly from the 1980s) where a woman actually wrote in to protest the "scream or be disfellowshipped" thing that had been mentioned in a previous article......I think it was the "comments from readers". She specifically stated that she was unable to scream because the perpetrator had his hand over her mouth throughout the entire ordeal. I forgot what the reply was....I wish I could find it.
i've not posted much, but as i've lurked here trying to find the answers about the wt lies, it only re-enforced my disdain for it's cult like properties.
i've read the horror stories of some who've been trapped in the "jw-multi gen" families trying to extricate themselves from the borg, and truly have empathy for "these ones".. i have also attended a couple of months worth of sun meetings with my wife (i listen to the talk, then walk during the wts) and as you've seen from previous posts, if the speaker lies, i will point it out to him after the meeting.
but yesterday in a conversation with my wife i shared with her what i read on jwd, compared to how her congregation operates.
The cong I grew up in (rural South, U.S.A.) was predominately African-American with only a handful of whites (who always sat together at the Hall, and no they weren't related). Just about everybody was older, as in almost elderly. Very anti-social. Hardly ANY 'get-togethers'---they were quite rare. You met at the meetings, out in field service, at funerals, or maybe dropping by when somebody was ill. That was basically it. Or at a (extremely rare) JW wedding.
Wait, there was a white sister who'd hold tea-party-like social gatherings, and only invite the white JWs and white Bible Studies. I believe she was 'counseled' about it at some time or other.
Things apparently were a little less staid in the 70s, when there were a lot more young people in the cong. Our particular cong seemed to have something against food--I remember we all met once for a softball game at a local school......out in the full blazing sun of summer, not much shade AT ALL--the school was more or less in a bare field. Of course the school was locked, so none of us non-players could enjoy any A/C. There were no coolers, no food, no drinks, no ice, no water, not even any chairs brought as I recall.
On the rare occasion we went to another cong member's house--not a 'get together' but just a personal visit--no food was ever offered.
I think it speaks volumes when I still hear cong members (including my mom) speak of social events that happened in the 70's, as if they happened only a little time ago. The same ones, over and over.
My dad still goes hunting and fishing with different men in the cong, or someone will help him build a shed, or do some sort of household construction/repair.
You never saw anybody in our cong going out to dinner with each other--not even at the conventions--or sisters going out shopping, or anything of the sort. No Tupperware parties or cookouts. It was--and apparently still is-- rare for anybody to socialize outside of meetings.
Razor,
What is that pantsuit you mentioned? Are they skirtlike shorts but not skorts?
Salwar kameez (I think also spelled 'shalwar qamiz')......it's a tunic (kameez) with baggy pants (salwar). Indian and Paksitani ladies wear them. The tunic can be all sorts of cuts and styles but the basic outfit is the same....a tunic that usually reaches to at least mid-thigh, pants and a neck scarf. The pants are very voluminous at the top (like MC hammer pants)...sometimes they fit baggy all over, other styles are tight on the leg and scrunchy like leggings, some of the more "Western" -inspired types have flared bell-bottoms.
But they're definitely pants. And wearing the tunic without pants is like the equivalent of going out wearing just a tank top and underwear--it's just not done, ever. So I seriously doubt if the sister is posing in the pic in just the tunic. Some of the kameez are very long--like, well below the knees--which the girl in the purple appears to be wearing. I'm looking closely at the pic and it sure looks like it is one of these pantsuits. I mean, some of them are styled just like dresses a JW sister would wear, just with matching pants. I saw an Indian lady wearing a gorgeous set at the last DC I attended..... ETA: Looking at the pic, now I wonder if that table is strategically obscuring her legs for a reason.....
Okay, I'm pretty much positive that the sister in the purple (in the grand piano photo) is wearing a salwar kameez. Which is....well, has, um, PANTS!!!
#1....What's the difference between that outfit and a nice dressy pantsuit? There are a lot of Western-style feminine pantsuits that don't look much different.
#2....Do they forbid sisters to wear salwar kameez to meetings/conventions/Bethel? If they do, I do NOT agree with them being considered 'inappropriate' attire. They're beautiful outfits---I own several--and I'm thinking about wearing one the next time I go to a convention.
many of us i'm sure experienced embarrassing or comical moments as a witness.
some things we'd rather just forget , i'm sure, but some things helped us think on our feet, quickly in helping others .
here are a few of mine.
We were sitting behind a sister with--sorry but it has to be said--very, very greasy, stringy, overprocessed hair. Suddenly some sort of large bug crawled up out of her scalp and was just there crawling around on her head. No one moved, until one sister finally took pity and caught it with a paper napkin. I might reiterate that this bug was NOT on the surface of her hair---it was deep inside somewhere on her scalp
