a couple friends pointed me to some info on the sabbath and i just plain like it, being the workaholic i am it's a lifesaver for me and gives me the motivation to be more balanced about my business and work schedule.
so from there i looked into the adventists and found a hall near my place and went last week.
i honestly enjoyed myself and the meeting time is not disruptive and the people were great and pretty laid back.
SDA is the watchtower's sweet (vegetarian) Aunt Mary who lives to be a hundred because of her healthy lifestyle and encouraged you to get an education.
If you are religious and sabbath appeals to you that much and using the name Jehovah in prayer makes you feel warm and fuzzy, go for it.
i am writing this in the hopes that it may help someone in a debate.
i personally have not had a chance to discuss it with anyone but that is true for most other topics.
i think is a good one to analyze.
True, Star Trek angel, I've yet to see a 'paradise' picture that looks like the Badlands (amazingly beautiful, actually) or the Southwest. They're all New England or Switzerland. Which is fine, but variety is the spice of life.
Real nature, now, is way more beautiful than those treacly 'paradise' illustrations,
hi i've been a jw my whole life and i'm 17 now.
i've never had a mine of my own and recently i started thinking more open minded and i know the being a jw isn't for me.
i feel like i've been in a bubble my whole life.
Welcome A17!! That's awesome you have family to talk to. You are in a better situation than many here!! Always nice to hear of another young one with a free mind.
Yeah just keep telling people you aren't ready to be baptized. They will really start to freak about it as you approach 18, but don't let it get to you. In your mind, in the silence that follows, say 'and I never will get baptized a JW cuz I'm not somebody's robot!'
so i ran into this brother whom ive known for a while and the conversation led into me being invited to come back to the kingdom hall.
we talked for about an hour during which time i explained to him 607 being the wrong date and a lot of other stuff including the child abuse cases in australia.
but what i wanted to relate was the last few minutes of our conversation.
I stick to my earlier comment that there is no bliss in staying in that religion, but I will add, UNLESS you are the type of person that likes to consider yourself 'right' and you have all the answers and everyone is unholier than you and you love to criticize people and society. Those types of people do live in a sort of bliss in that org. They would be a lot happier if they grew out of that but most will never know. As for the rest of them who don't have those types of personalities, I do agree that FEAR is the reason most of them aren't willing to allow themselves to question and research. The religion has too much control over their lives, it usually holds family members as collateral, it says it is the only hope, without it there is nothing, and people are so dependent on this idea of having something, that they can't live with the idea of nothing and are told that there is nowhere else to go.
it takes some sort of impetus that is worth facing the fear. Either loss of a family member because of the religion, or bad treatment by someone or an abnormal amount of standards and belief in freedom, integrity and truth for people to be willing to face that fear and go through the difficult process of leaving.
i went to the convention this past weekend in cleveland with my wife and son.
most of the session was the status quo, but here are some of observations that i believe are worth noting: .
1. i did not see a lot of jw.org advertisements and the website was not mentioned a whole lot during the session.
at the regional convention (national!!
) for scotland, mark sanderson elicited 13 rounds of applause during his closing talk, (for the least little things!
) plus a final one for his closing prayer!
i can't help thinking that there is something essentially wrong with gj's new description of the role of the gibbering biddies as guardians of the doctrines..
guardians immediately take on a role of authority, (dont ever forget who is in charge!
) guardians outside of the legal sense of adoptive parent has another resonance, it sounds like the inhuman bullies in some dystopian novel about oppressive religious politics.
so i ran into this brother whom ive known for a while and the conversation led into me being invited to come back to the kingdom hall.
we talked for about an hour during which time i explained to him 607 being the wrong date and a lot of other stuff including the child abuse cases in australia.
but what i wanted to relate was the last few minutes of our conversation.
today as i had the old timey music playing and the song love potion no.
9 came on, i remembered being reproved by a brother at a get together when i sang along to that same song.
oh that song is spiritistic, blah blah.
today as i had the old timey music playing and the song love potion no.
9 came on, i remembered being reproved by a brother at a get together when i sang along to that same song.
oh that song is spiritistic, blah blah.
The Monster Mash
Stairway to Heaven
Highway to Hell
Earth Angel
Happy Birthday
Silent Night
Devil with a Blue Dress
