Posts by King Solomon

9

My Family Study

by BU2B in

jw
friends

as i have posted before i am working to help get my wife out of the jws so we can leave together.

i have been trying to think of ways to open her mind and get her to think critically and use her mind.

i dont want to bring lots of facts and reasoning to her attention if her mind is not yet ready for it.

She's probably focusing on the functional benefits afforded by staying in: the vast network of "friends" (so-called), the sense of belonging to a group (remember driving by a KH in a different city, and feeling validated and the sense of warmth/comfort gained by thinking you have built-in friends wherever you go, even if you don't ever meet them?), having a greater sense of purpose beyond work/eating (that JWs feel that all Worldlies MUST experience?), etc. Let's not forget the constant threat of shunning by family members for those who DO leave.

I suspect many JWs are hopelessly trapped, but are unable to escape, so take comfort in the company of languishing in an unstated shared misery: hence the joylessness....

Self-actualization is not so easy: if it WERE, groups like the JW would not exist....

Good luck, and realize that you cannot save the World, sometimes not even your own family... That's one of the corrupt misbeliefs installed by JW thinking: the message of "you're engaging in life-saving work!" It's an appeal to the individual's ego that's just as fake as anything else.

62

Beards are evil, but do you know why?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

as a witness, i knew several men who attempted to grow beards.

when they did, and attended meetings, it did not take long to be talked to by elders and told, "as spiritual men, they should not display an outward form of rebellion.

" why was this a form of rebellion?

King Solomon

Q: Beards are evil, but do you know why?

A: Control

Yup. At least in the military, members with a skin condition (pseudofolliculitis barbae) can get a medical waiver so not shaving doesn't harm their military career: their chain of command knows why they don't shave, and since they write the performance reports, there's no adverse effect.

Not so with JWs, since you can't exactly wear a sign over your beard that says, "I can't shave because I have a legitimate, diagnosed medical condition". You'd have to do that to avoid discrimination from other R&F members who may not know you, and you'd still no doubt be denied "privileges", since it wouldn't look good to visiting Worldlies to see a brother wearing a beard (or wearing a sign over his beard, LOL!).

So JWs enjoy military-style control over their personal grooming, without any of the common-sense protections (like med waivers) afforded in the military.

Not so shocking really: if JWs feel they can tell you not to insert blood in your own body to save your life, then demanding you cut off a little facial hair doesn't seem so controlling, right?

9

My Family Study

by BU2B in

jw
friends

as i have posted before i am working to help get my wife out of the jws so we can leave together.

i have been trying to think of ways to open her mind and get her to think critically and use her mind.

i dont want to bring lots of facts and reasoning to her attention if her mind is not yet ready for it.

King Solomon

Everything they show as being signs of propaganda identically match methods used by the WTS.

That's a way to disarm the threat of the information being shown to members elsewhere. Instead of JWs asking, "why didn't the Society tell me this?" they disarm it by presenting in a manner in which THEY can spin it for their own purposes (i.e. to use it as a warning against "bad associations" etc).

It's dastardly, as the Society realizes that some information is best hid in plain sight.

8

Jackson Family Imploding

by skeeter1 in

jw
friends

grandma jacksons is mia in arizona, but la police are not allowed to see her.

reported she had a mini-stroke last week.. family members are trying to get temporary custody of michael's children.

could be money involved, as only mj's kids and the guardian of mj's kids get money.

King Solomon

If Katherine really had only a mini-stroke, then she isn't in danger of losing custody.

More risk of losing her sanity, I'd say. Isn't she in her 80's? Imagine the responsibility of raising a few pre-teens at that point in your life.... WOW.

if the grandma needing a vacation, fine,,but why not even a phone call from grandma,,she should be able to handle that,,,,, quite questionable

Word I hear on the news was that her missing person report was filed by the family member who's trying to take control of the trust fund from her; other family members knew where she was, but it's odd that Paris didn't know...

They said Grandpa had taken away Paris' iPad before, when she over-tweeted private matters. But apparently she needed it for school, so they gave it back to her: then this happened, and Paris tweeted again about Grandma missing.... Imagine that: retribution of an early teen girl who's acting out, and testing the limits of the authority figures in her life. Whoda thunk THAT would happen? :)

18

MOTD from <diety of choice>

by EntirelyPossible in

we have so many hearing the voice of jesus on the forum i thought i would start a thread for everyone to be able to share what they head from jesus or any other diety they hear from.

i'll kick it off.

i heard several messages to share today already.... "man the weapons console, mr. chekov".

King Solomon

I heard a pleasant female voice telling me, "All of our representatives are busy serving other customers. Your estimated wait time is: 5 minutes." I don't know which deity it was: it didn't say....

Weird thing is, I heard this while I was making a call to my bank! I guess you never really know when you're going to be visited by a Holy Spirit. I think the message is metaphor: clearly it's not LITERAL.

What is the time conversion used in Gospel Time? If it's "a day = 1,000 years", what does 5 minutes work out to be?

56

Add your favorite JW prayer cliche'

by King Solomon in

you know what i'm talking about: the trite, often-repeated phrases that convey the person offering the prayer has drawn a mental blank, and utters these words while their brain desperately searches for the next cliche', so they can conclude the ritual with the required tag, "in jesus' name we pray".... (is that like the postage stamp?).

ok, i'll kick this one off, and take the most obvious:.

"forgive us where we fall short....".

King Solomon

Wtwizard seds:

"Adding his butt-holy spirit. I hate it when anyone prays for Jehovah's butt-holy spirit or his filthy angels to be with me--"

Yup.

More narcissism: as if powerful supernatural beings are in a game of tug-of-war for the precious priceless soul of a boring housewife who enjoys a spot of tea, knitting, and collecting cliches... If her fellow humans she her approaching and start moving away when everyone sees her coming, why Exactly do we suspect the supernaturals are vying for her eternal soul? They'd be like, "no, after you, Lucifer. I insist: you take this one! It wouldn't be sporting for our team to hog them all!!" lol!

56

Add your favorite JW prayer cliche'

by King Solomon in

you know what i'm talking about: the trite, often-repeated phrases that convey the person offering the prayer has drawn a mental blank, and utters these words while their brain desperately searches for the next cliche', so they can conclude the ritual with the required tag, "in jesus' name we pray".... (is that like the postage stamp?).

ok, i'll kick this one off, and take the most obvious:.

"forgive us where we fall short....".

King Solomon

Jam said:

"The arrogant Prayer;

May we all be mindful of our conduct, we are on the

stage, we are theatrical spectacle onto the world and

to Angel and to men. 1 Cr 4;9"

The whole idea of talking to God is rather narcisstic: you cannot call the President or PM just to prattle on; why should the Powerful Almighty give a flyin' whit to listen to the same ol' boring spiel?

Flamegrilled said:

" Jake - that's funny I must've still been typing the same thought when you were posting yours."

Coincidence? Or had the Holy Spirit moved both of you to say it, since the vocal tics and informality really pisses it off and it wanted to emphatically make the point?

30

Crisis of Conscience, Apostacy and the Antichrist

by konceptual99 in

i've just finished reading coc and it's truely a thought provoking book that's given me much to think about.. one thing that has struck me is the way rf was disfellowshipped and how he tried to reason with the elders on the jc.

a key point of reasoning was that how the elders could define the disassocated one he ate with as "the antichrist" or one practicing the things described in 1 cor 9. apparently the elders either remain silent on the matter or said it was not for them to judge.. i thought the reasoning was really sound but i have been doing some checking on the definition of apostacy and the antichrist according to the society and it seems pretty clear to me that anyone guilt of apostacy becomes part of the antichrist.

characteristics of apostacy as defined in the it-1 book are described as follows:.

King Solomon

I dare say you're giving the organization too much credit, assuming there is a need to be consistent; local practices from congregation to congregation may differ. This is not the US Supreme Court we're talking about here, where prior precedent is considered.

RF was eliminated from the organization, by hook or by crook: it didn't matter what he said, he'd still be shown the exit....

56

Add your favorite JW prayer cliche'

by King Solomon in

you know what i'm talking about: the trite, often-repeated phrases that convey the person offering the prayer has drawn a mental blank, and utters these words while their brain desperately searches for the next cliche', so they can conclude the ritual with the required tag, "in jesus' name we pray".... (is that like the postage stamp?).

ok, i'll kick this one off, and take the most obvious:.

"forgive us where we fall short....".

King Solomon

Don't worry, folks: when this thread is exhausted, I'll be assembling all of these into the Holiest Prayer, EVER! I'm going to show Jesus a thing or two about How to Pray, JW-style!

Which reminds me... In the Lord's Prayer, he said this:

"Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven..."

I'm guessing Heaven is soooo perfect since God casts the troublemakers like Satan et al down to Earth, keeping the Pearly Gates of heaven free of graffiti.

Hint: if Jesus wants Earth to get better, he should tell his Father not to use it as a penal colony for fallen angels. He's got no one to blame but Himself....

30

Crisis of Conscience, Apostacy and the Antichrist

by konceptual99 in

i've just finished reading coc and it's truely a thought provoking book that's given me much to think about.. one thing that has struck me is the way rf was disfellowshipped and how he tried to reason with the elders on the jc.

a key point of reasoning was that how the elders could define the disassocated one he ate with as "the antichrist" or one practicing the things described in 1 cor 9. apparently the elders either remain silent on the matter or said it was not for them to judge.. i thought the reasoning was really sound but i have been doing some checking on the definition of apostacy and the antichrist according to the society and it seems pretty clear to me that anyone guilt of apostacy becomes part of the antichrist.

characteristics of apostacy as defined in the it-1 book are described as follows:.

King Solomon

Such ones willfully abandoning the Christian congregation thereby become part of the “antichrist.” (1Jo 2:18, 19)

But what if I don't wanna serve the antichrist? Can they force me to join another cult, a false belief system? Those JWs are not content to let me out of their grip, which is weird, cuz' I will not believe in whatever imaginary being they care to dream up!

It's funny how they think that since they can't shake their addiction to the mentally-stupifying beliefs in supernatural beings, then no one else can, either....