3 years is a long time to lurk!! Welcome, and no pressure from us on when to to leave. But if you've got kids it's good to get them out if possible so they can have a normal childhood. But the whole situation is a mess and I feel bad for anyone who is fully awake and has family in. It sucks big time.
FayeDunaway
JoinedPosts by FayeDunaway
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66
New Here
by Grey Goose inhi one and all.. i've lurked for 3 years, about time i signed up.. i'm a still in ms due to family.. fully awake.. i look forward to getting to know all of you..
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How do you feel about the expression "The Truth"?
by stuckinarut2 init's amazing how the expression "the truth" has become such an ingrained term used by witnesses.. "we have 'the truth'".
"is he 'in the truth'?".
most here have found out so many facts about the organisation, and felt the effects of being "gut-punched" as we realised these facts.. so how do you feel about the expression "the truth" now?.
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FayeDunaway
I didn't realize how VERY culty it sounded until I left.
Now when I hear people say it I want to say 'So how long have you been in The Lies?'...which is much more accurate.
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"Fa La La"
by OnTheWayOut inout at the mall with mrs. otwo, she sees a shirt on the rack that was marked down from $25 to just $4.
she holds it up and says, "should i buy this as a workout shirt?".
i tell her "no, because as soon as you figure out what it means, you won't wear it anymore.
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FayeDunaway
That Dylan song story is ABSOLUTELY CLASSIC. I can hardly believe it! I'm trying to remember the lyrics and see it from that perspective :D.
Re: jingle bells. Does anyone remember the sesame street segment 'Elmo's world'? A particularly strict sister wouldn't let her children watch it. She shut sesame street off right before it started. Why? Because the Elmo's world song was set to the same tune as Jingle Bells. 'Elmo's world, Elmo's world, time to play today'.... I told her ' but jingle bells isn't even a Christmas song.' She responded 'but it's ASSOCIATED with Christmas. I've done the research...'
Omg. So glad to not be exposing my kids to that insanity anymore!
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Is the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses really an inferior form of Christianity?
by nicolaou inseems to be quite a few posters recently pulling down the beliefs of jw's as not biblical or truly christian.
maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, i really don't care.. in some important ways though mainstream christians often behave better than jehovah's witnesses; most don't practice shunning or impose lethal medical prohibitions on their members.
many are far more tolerant of the lgbt community and a few even make the awkward attempt to square the fact of evolution with their faith.. please note that i'm saying some, not all.. so i suppose it's fair to say that differing forms of christianity can be better or worse for individuals, families and the wider community.
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FayeDunaway
Thats interesting, crow! All I know is that I can navigate around the bible a lot better than most people in my church. They try. An interesting revelation has been how we examine big sections of scripture at a time. The skill of going from Ezra to Philemon not so important for that. Witnesses very rarely read whole sections at a time. Scriptures take on a whole new meaning when read in context (duh! Took me so long to find that out but it should have been so obvious).
LisaRose I'm sending you a PM but very good points. My church is a lot like the Congregationalists.
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Non JW friends don't understand
by kozmo init never ceases to amaze me that your personal friends have no clue what it is like to have been one.
i was speaking with a friend the other day about having been a jw.
she said, oh i have a dear friend of 30 years who is one and she is so nice!
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FayeDunaway
Lieu, that's hilarious! And thank you HB and bless you for helping your friend get out of it!!
Sometimes (not so often as I used to!) I will mention to someone that I was raised a Jehovah's Witness. They'll say 'oh, that's nice.' Oh my GOD does that drive me nuts. Even when you try to explain 'NO it was really NOT nice' it takes mental energy that people aren't willing to invest. That's why I love this place, you all KNOW.
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Is the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses really an inferior form of Christianity?
by nicolaou inseems to be quite a few posters recently pulling down the beliefs of jw's as not biblical or truly christian.
maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, i really don't care.. in some important ways though mainstream christians often behave better than jehovah's witnesses; most don't practice shunning or impose lethal medical prohibitions on their members.
many are far more tolerant of the lgbt community and a few even make the awkward attempt to square the fact of evolution with their faith.. please note that i'm saying some, not all.. so i suppose it's fair to say that differing forms of christianity can be better or worse for individuals, families and the wider community.
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FayeDunaway
Thank you Lisa!! I don't know how you know so much about 'normal' churches, I know you don't go to one! But your points are exactly right, about mine and many others.
Doctrine was important to me when I was leaving JW's, and I spent a lot of time and passionate energy researching and proving to myself and my family that the witness doctrine is screwed up. Their doctrine is NOT one of the few things they have going for them. If I was going to name a few things, I think it would be ability to find their way around a bible (a skill learned from their practice of matching up scriptures all over the bible that don't actually go together), and the fact that they are a cult helps people feel close to each other (even tho this is usually pretty superficial and if you start diverting from the group views, they start dropping from your life like flies.)
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"I thought About You" Email
by BeautifulMind inhey everyone!!
i hope everyone is doing good today.
i don't share or comment often, but i'm in the mood to do that today.
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FayeDunaway
Magnum, AMEN!! -
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JUST WOW!!
by brandnew ini just watched a show on tlc..where a man killed his mother, and father.
after the show was over, and everyone said their comments....one comment stuck in my head.
the comment that stuck in my head was" he not only lost his parents....he lost everyone associated with himself"... .. i thought to myself.......it happens in kingdom halls every day, and not for murder......but for something petty....like smoking a cigarette.. any views on this?.
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FayeDunaway
Same view as yours. It happens every day in witness world. Not just for petty things, but for living your life as you were born to live it...authentically. For living authentically, people lose everyone they've ever known. Whether they are gay, or a natural free spirit, or have integrity to their own selves and their own beliefs, and can't live the fake witness life. Every day it happens. -
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"Fa La La"
by OnTheWayOut inout at the mall with mrs. otwo, she sees a shirt on the rack that was marked down from $25 to just $4.
she holds it up and says, "should i buy this as a workout shirt?".
i tell her "no, because as soon as you figure out what it means, you won't wear it anymore.
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FayeDunaway
Your wife seems to live in her own universe. Even for a Jehovah's witness. You are a good man, otwo. -
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Reasons for NOT Returning
by Saved_JW ini left the watchtower in the winter of 2008. my first year out was by far the most difficult.
i had every intention of returning to the watchtower for the very purpose of being able to speak with my friends and family.
i had already concluded that the teachings were not the "truth" [after reading crisis of conscience] so coming back was more emotional then anything.
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FayeDunaway
Saved, your post reminds me of something I observed right away when I left the jw's and joined a new church. In the first sermon I heard, the pastor spoke of his own human weaknesses, how he felt when his daughter was born and he learned she had severe physical abnormalities. It was almost shocking to me. Not once in any talk did I ever hear a witness brother say anything of their own personal weaknesses or struggles or lapses in faith. Not once! Everyone has to pretend they are perfect all the time. It's difficult to find any genuine witnesses who aren't 'pretending.' Even among friends, you don't talk about these very real things. It's not part of their culture, which is built around 'appearances.'
It's still hard for me to admit my own failures to other people, but I'm learning, and its a much healthier practice than pretending I'm perfect.