i have to laugh at this email exchange had with an ms i used to know.
a little background first so you will understand why i was amd at him.
about 25 years or so ago we dated fro about 2 weeks.
The "sadly amusing" bit is not going to earn him any points if a mature elder were to see the e-mail; those words would (well, should) earn him a reprimand, as it reeks of getting some kind of sadistic joy out of a "lost sheeps" state...
On the other hand, your window-washer crack won't earn you any points, either.... :)
wheeeeeee!!!!
another month, another ypa article that i get to make fun of.
here's part 1 if you missed it, and if you enjoy this then there's even more mockery just a click over here.
"Expect the unexpected"? REALLY, WT?! Is that the best you've got to offer in the way of wisdom to young people?
They might as well told them to "know the unknowable", or "read the illegible", or do anything else that's equally impossible to do....
Maybe they MEANT to say "expect unanticipated challenges" (i.e. remain flexible to deal with life's unknowns that will arise)? Is THAT what they meant to say?
Obviously, semantics isn't the Writing Department's strong-suit, and perhaps THAT'S not so unexpected: perhaps the writers never expected they'd have any need for studying logic and rhetoric by going to college, since they didn't take their own advice, and probably fully-expected that Armageddon was just around the corner back in 1975)?
It's probably not going to be seen by many recipients, ending up in their spam filters.
Agreed on the importance of spell checking....
It's hard to take rogue programmers/hackers as a serious threat, when they don't even show the attention to detail over little things like spellung, and Randomly capitalizing words in The middle of sentences for no good reason....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w69-u0of6xs.
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cedars.
As far as giving Jehovah a good reason to remember to resurrect someone in the New System, I found the following on WT.org:
cl chap. 24 pp. 240-249
Chapter 24
Nothing Can “Separate Us From God’s Love”
The Bible repeatedly connects the resurrection hope with Jehovah ’s memory. The faithful man Job said to Jehovah : “O . . . that you would set a time limit for me and remember me!” (Job 14:13) Jesus referred to the resurrection of “all those in the memorial tombs.” This was appropriate because Jehovah perfectly remembers the dead whom he intends to resurrect.—John 5:28, 29.
AND THIS
7 In modern times Jehovah ’s Witnesses have also persevered in the Christian work, even though they have experienced vicious persecution. Has their endurance been in vain? Certainly not, for Jesus assured us: “He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved,” whether that proves to be the end of the old system or the end of one’s present life. In the resurrection , Jehovah will remember and reward all his faithful servants who have died.—Matthew 24:13; Hebrews 6:10.
Pretty slimy, since neither of those scriptures are specific to the resurrection hope, i.e. more evidence of JWs inserting only loosely-connected passages to support a tenuous stance.
Of course, leaving one's Earthly assets to an apostate/DF/DA beneficiary rather than the WTBTS is likely something that would be frowned upon by Jehovah, and possibly result in his "forgetting" about someone (oops, another continuity slip: how can an omniscient being "forget"?).
But point is, would someone who lived their entire life in hopes of gaining eternal life in the New System (petting lions, etc) suddenly turn over a new leaf near death, and not use it as an opportunity to grease YHWH's palm to gain admission, running up the score just to make sure you're not forgotten?
Highly unlikely....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w69-u0of6xs.
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cedars.
Maybe someone can confirm, but I vaguely remember hearing how WTBTS has a team that handles nothing but estate issues of donated property after an old JW dies, and leaves it to them in their will? i.e. they handle probate matters, real estate sales, etc. Anyone know for sure how that is handled?
Talk about the final insult: members give their entire lives to a lie, and feel compelled to leave their earthly possessions to the society, as well, perhaps with the idea of giving Jehovah "a reason (read: $$$) to remember them" as being worthy of resurrection in the New System? Is that what that phrase means? Now THAT'S sick....
PS anyone (Blondie, maybe?) know what scripture the Society is referring to when they talk about "a reason to remember you" during resurrection?
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Hmmm, I wonder if Tony's wealthy father would cut him out of the will, simply becuase he doesn't approve of Tony's religious beliefs? I wonder if he'd leave his $$$ to Tony, if he understood it ALL would be going to WTBTS if Tony doesn't have children, or if the kids are DF/DA/apostates?
Ironic too, as if the shoe was on the other foot, Tony would cut his DF/DA/Apostate non-JW kids out of HIS will in a heart-beat, and leave it to WTBTS....
for me it has been a journey through these books: "crisis of conscience", "in search of christian freedom", "combatting cult mind control", "releasing the bonds", "i'm perfect you're doomed", "confessions of a teenage jesus jerk", "evolution for dummies", "the god delusion", "god is not great", and "the end of faith", along with various books about zen philosophy.. these movies have also been important: "religulous" and "worlds apart".. some books i am interested in reading next are "the spanking room", "growing up in mama's club", and "1984".
who has read these?
do you recommend them?.
Maybe this thread should also serve as possible movies/books to bring into the JW home by faders to try and break a few cracks in the WTBTS attempts at mind-control of their relatives? And if nothing else, maybe this thread will end up as a convenient banned book/movie list, forbidden for active JWs to read/view. :)
Oh, another interesting flick about a dystopian future where the individual is suppressed by the group is George Lucas' THX-1138.
Atheist Ricky Gervais movie, "The Invention of Lying", is a dark comedy based on the premise of the origins of religion, although addressed in a subtle way.
And for you foreign film fans, I HIGHLY recommend "Wings of Desire" by Wim Winders, the story of an angel who gives up his wings to cross-over to the world of humans to know love (it's set in Berlin, before the Wall came down: talk about a fitting metaphor for captivity!). Any ex-JW should appreciate the theme (I saw the film, and only later it dawned on me WHY the story was so compelling to me). I actually snuck that one into a group of fairly-liberal JWs, without any need for revealing the hidden message.
this month marks 1 year since i have seen or spoken with family.
it's not the first time i've been through this.
disfellowshipped, reinstated, disassociated.
irondork says:
Animals do better when they focus on survival rather than get hung up on meaningless words.
Yup, true...
The real challenge though, is to break the cycle you were raised in, since you haven't seen or learned the dynamics of familial love as modelled by first-hand experience. That makes it HARDER to pursue, but NOT impossible. The gaultlet has been laid at your feet, to accept or step over, by focusing on what you never got (or THOUGHT you had, only to see it was illusion).
One of the toughest things for me was just to simply accept the limitations of my parents and siblings, and realize they are human, and have their flaws. They got me to where I was able to continue without them, and now it's up to me to decide what I'm going to be/do.
It's easy to not want to do it, as it's always easy to blame others, but ultimately it's up to each of us to figure out what we're going to do with OUR lives. The beautiful thing is, YOU have the capability to do WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT, to create your own loving World filled with a loving reality, since you're already paying the price (they've chosen to shun you; not vice-versa). You have the freedom to do it, and I'm betting you are doing that, and will continue doing it....
first, we define: sin eater.
the term sin-eater refers to a person who, through ritual means, would take on the sins of a household.. exposition:.
what the religion of jehovah's witness has become has created a repository of psychological damage for its adherents.. a sickness of soul in the rank and file afflicts families with dysfunction and discord.
Yup, there's oh-so-many ways to express this classic tactic: killing the messenger, the magician's secret of misdirection (the diversion of attention elsewhere), creating straw-men, etc.
the end of the world (aka "this system of things") has been predicted to happen "soon" many times.
in my own lifetime, and not being a jw, i have been warned that the world would end like six times already.
harold camping predicted one end of the world twice only last year.
Pontoon said:
"It means no contributions to worthwhile causes, no volunteering for causes or fire depts...ect..no politics.......all without a twinge of conscience for being a community deadbeat because they are already doing a "life saving work."
I suspect that twinge of a guilty conscience from understanding they are freeloaders explains the motivations behind publications like, “Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News”. If they can point to the court cases they're fought to protect the organization's freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, they feel that counts as civic duty.
Of course, the exquisite irony is they actually don't care about any INDIVIDUAL'S freedom of speech or religion: in fact, they believe in the OPPOSITE, such that individuals who dare speak any message counter to theirs is shunned as an apostate, persona non grata. So they believe in the rights of the WTBTS to engage in free speech, just not anyone else....
the end of the world (aka "this system of things") has been predicted to happen "soon" many times.
in my own lifetime, and not being a jw, i have been warned that the world would end like six times already.
harold camping predicted one end of the world twice only last year.
Most people would feel uncomfortable considering (yet alone hoping for, or even preaching about (!)) unspoken horrors being experienced by others; ironically some feel not the slightest twinge of guilt when they harbor the same wishes in the name of God.
The first goal of convincing people to engage in horrific acts is to dehumanize the victims: it happened with the Holocaust, and with all other genocidal campaigns.
God is dehumanizing to members of all out-groups (i.e. gentiles/heathens), in the most allegorical and the most-literal sense.
