Posts by never a jw

10

In Judas' Defense

by opusdei1972 in

i have read in jw.org that the governing body affirms that judas has been eternally condemned:.

did judas iscariot commit an unforgivable sin?.

his greed moved him to steal money that had been donated for a sacred use.

If we use the Bible as our guideline to determine someone's guilt and eternal damnation, or innocence and eternal salvation, we will find both, damnation and salvation for Judas. In fact, if we try hard enough using some JW ingenious reading and interpretation techniques we may even "find out" that Judas was Jesus lover and did what he did because he was jealous of Peter.

Wow! I had to edit and add to my comment after I clicked the link above (sir82)

Possibly Bart Erhman had the same thing in mind (Judas and Jesus as lovers). Look how closely Judas' lips are to Jesus' lips in the cover of his book.

In a more serious note: "Judas did not show true repentance" Really? the poor man took his life right after the "sale". Besides, it was God who crafted the whole story. God is the one who needs to show repentance for his filicide.

56

What made you turn atheist or agnostic?

by LevelThePlayingField in

if you were a jw and are now an atheist or agnostic, what was the tipping point that made you turn to it?.

the reason i ask is i have noticed that many who leave the jw's seem to turn to atheism, versus still having some form of a faith.

have many of you given up on god first or have you had atheistic views first and then found atheism to be true.

never a jw

never been a JW. I must have turned atheist in my early teens, during junior high. I never liked the mean God of Catholics (I remember some sort of capital sins that guaranteed your trip straight to hell and, one of those sins, I believed, was missing mass) and felt that science had better answers than religion.

25

Thanks GOD JW's don't have Beauty Pageants

by James Mixon in

i can see it now, we are the most beautiful and smartest people in the world.. steve harvey will never be the host of another beauty pageant.

lol.

i was thinking, don't you think it's time for our society to move on from beauty pageants?.

never a jw

Beauty pageants are an opportunity for some women to show the only thing they have, physical beauty... or is it that they also have brains, but never developed their intelligence because they focused all their energy and time in looks... I always wonder how many dumb blondes are born that way, and how many are created by our society (parents especially)

57

Is zeal beginning to vanish?

by Caupon in

jw
friends

it has to be starting to fade somehow.

the very last time i went out in field service, hardly any were out.

maybe just about nine people were out and man if you could just see their faces.

never a jw

My take on Hispanic JW's doing serve-us (thank you Billy for expanding my WT vocabulary) in my area:

It's a social outing. They speak to other JW's doing serve-us 98 % of the times and the other 2% they preach to a passerby or householder.
They appear to be competing for the prize for the slowest walk ever. How do they do it? At their pace, I would fall sleep by the time I had walked a block.

It's painful to watch, especially knowing that my daughter does the same thing in some other part of the town. Approving that baptism was the biggest mistake of my life

25

JW's have he lowest tolerance for LGBT

by EdenOne in

according to a pew research survey ... and it has evolved little since 2007.. eden.

never a jw

Oubliette,

very well said!

Even the JW's know that, in order to survive, they have to adapt to the changing values of society. The problem is that their position in many important issues (LGBT, women, blood, shunning, 1914, overlapping stupidity) has been, and continues to be, very entrenched. I think the only way out of the present problem is for the JW's to do as the Catholics did recently with the change of pope; they need to change their popes too. But I don't see it in the near future. And that's a good thing, because it can only spell DECLINE of a religion where the bad significantly offsets the good.

25

Brave New W0rld of Education - The Regressive Left

by cofty in

i found this to be a thought-provoking film on the trend in higher education.. oubliette drew my attention to a brilliant article recently called "the coddling of the american mind".

please have a look at the film, click the link and check out the links in the article.

i would love to hear your thoughts.. ...

never a jw

It's always the other guy who is hypersensitive. Ooops ...It's always the other gal who is hypersensitive...better

24

Following Christ "from a distance."

by New day in

luke 22:54.

"then they arrested him and led him off, and they brought him into the house of the high priest; but peter was following at a distance.

" i am still raging because this verse was used at a recent circuit overseer's visit.

never a jw

another piece of evidence the watchtower is hurting, Company men are becoming few and far between

21

Is going into a church really THAT bad?

by Zana in

family background: my wife ("liberal" jw), me (ubm), two children aged 5 and 2.

(want more details?

-> http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/279456/raising-kids-jw-mother-agnostic-father).

never a jw

About a year ago I attended mass after decades of absence.

Bad things first:

too many rites (I find them personally annoying)
a lot of church singing
the acoustic is bad, especially in cathedrals,
you have a big cross of a huge crucified (oops, I meant impaled) Jesus. I just never liked the graphic representation and the emotional manipulation intended. Jesus knew the whole thing was a silly scapegoating act. What's few hours of pain for a guy who is billions of years old and is more famous than the Beetles. I thing women with many children have suffered more during their deliveries.

Good things

No apocalyptic BS
No insulting other religions
Young ladies dress more provocative than JW women in kingdom halls... yes I know, how shallow of me
You don't have to pretend brotherly love by hugging everyone at the beginning and the end of the mass
the homily is about how to live better moral lives, not about preaching because the end is tomorrow, or soon after.

60

Literature being discontinued, including Isaiah's Prophecy and Reasoning book

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

congregations get an annual letter that tells what can be ordered for literature (it's mainly a list of audio cds/dvds for the deaf), but this time it included publications that will be discontinued, and this included the isaiah's prophecy book and the reasoning book, and i think i saw the draw close to jehovah book.

i meant to take a picture of the letter but forgot.

the branch is only going to give what they have on stock, when that stock depletes that's it, you won't be able to order those publications anymore.. this is in canada so i don't know if this is worldwide..

never a jw

Saltheart...change to reporting?

did I miss something important?

125

Watchtower purchases CoC copyright for undisclosed amount!

by the girl next door in

now what is your stance?

never a jw

Fine with me. The WT pays for the copyrights. They can do whatever they want, and I will support the protection of that right. It's a non-issue for me. Nothing has been muddied. It's the law and one cannot only obey or abide by the laws when it is convenient to one's personal interest. What I do not support is their tax exempt status. It appears that they don't deserve it. In fact, I would those law to be changed to be a lot more stringent to exclude, abusive cults and financial fraud, which I believe the WT is guilty of.