hello folks,.
the watchtower has promised a special group of people that they will have sex, marriage and children in the new earth.
no resurrected person will have these privileges because you have to live through armageddon to get the privilege to procreate.
We believe if you have the right Jesus Christ, you are right for all eternity. But if you have the wrong Jesus Christ then you are wrong for all eternity.Cheryl,
I am quoting this from your introduction page on your site....sorry, but I can't agree with a statement condemning people for all eternity.... been there, done that and I know personally what damage can be done to someone when they feel far removed from God (read my bio).
what are your thoughts on this?
would you date someone significantly older than yourself?
have you done so in the past?
Does everyone have to want kids? Seriously, I love kids and I adore my nieces and nephews but they are enough for me. I try to imagine a happy life being married with kids but it just doesn't appeal to me.
It really makes me angry when people try to make others feel guilty or sub-human when they state they dont want to have kids....
I have a 17 year old son, I love him so much I'm already starting to get separation anxiety when he talks about leaving home for college. But honestly, most days my husband and I look at each other and say "we should have got puppies". I was raised by a bi-polar, self-centered mom (no dad) that never showed me any affection. I don't know if it's necessary to have grown up with a good parenting example to be a good parent. I don't know why I struggle so with being a parent, maybe some people just aren't meant to have kids. Also being in the cult and never really getting a chance to be a normal young person and live a little before settling down has had an affect too.
As far as age goes, all people are different, all mature at different ages. I don't think you can generalize about age anymore than you can generalize about race. I'm in a bi-racial marrage and before we got married many told us a bi-racial marriage wouldn't work...30 years later...I'm glad we didn't listen to their narrowminded opinions!
i had not seen any the lord of the rings movies until a few weeks ago.
i wasnt interested.
an older gentleman whom i work with told me it was the best movie of all time, basically the three movies being one.
CityFan I certainly don't claim to know what was in Tolkein's heart and mind when he wrote the books, all I can tell you is how the movies made me feel personally...and I'm old enough to know most of the times my "feelings" are way off and just reflecting some inner struggle. I did find what other's thought on this subject interesting, just saying I'm not the only one that got that "feeling".:
I agree with "fortyhomey", I'd like to see all religion wiped out. Nothing has divided man, and brought more hardship of every kind than religion.
As far as the JW religion, I personally don't see them as a harmless group, mostly nice people that are overzealous, blah, blah, blah. A person's physical, mental, emotional and especially spiritual wellbeing are at risk in this destructive cult...don't kid yourselves, it's not harmless!!!
Also, great post Purple!!
i had not seen any the lord of the rings movies until a few weeks ago.
i wasnt interested.
an older gentleman whom i work with told me it was the best movie of all time, basically the three movies being one.
Hey firstinline, I read the books in high school, and looked forward to the movies. I loved the first one, the second one, but when I watched the third one something hit me. I thought it had a racist feeling to it, all the "good" people were depicted as white, the elves, galadriel, long blond hair, whiter than white....the bad people where dark skinned, swarthy, the orks (sp), etc.
I came home and looked the topic up on the web, I guess I'm not the only one that got that feeling.
we all know the story of adam and eve - god forbids fruit, man and women eat fruit.. what is the real moral of this story?
tradition teaches that man is sinful by nature and must be punished.. i was thinking the moral could also be this "that which is forbidden, is made desirable.".
i don't know if that is sin, when you tell someone they can't have something, it almost naturally makes us at least curious as to why that is.
One thing I learned when I took an ancient history class in college was that the Adam and Eve "story" isn't original to the bible...it's an old Persian myth, and predates the Bible. Adam, Eve, snake, fruit all of it!!! Then we studied Sumarian culture and read the epic of Gilgamish...the flood story word for word...also predates the Bible...
These are ancient myths and not original to God's only inspiried book.
has anyone here tried the atkins diet or something like it?
i was looking at some info that a co-worker sent me about being overweight.
i desperately need to lose a lot of weight, but i'm starving all the time and have packed on the 30 lbs.
Mary, I feel for you, when I turned 40 I gained tons of weight, and thought I was eating healthy because I ate low fat, lots of bagels, bananas, etc. Well I was starving all the time. I finally read a book called the Glucose Revolution that explained the glycemic index. I have diabetes in my family and am very sensitive to high carb, sugary foods. It changed my life. I lost weight and was not hungry at all. I now eat mostly seafood, chicken, some lean steak, tons of veggies, and complex carbs.
Also, I do lots of weight lifting, it builds muscle which helps keep the pounds off. If I do too much cardio and exercise with my heart rate too high, I just burn all the glucose in my body and crave carbs for the rest of the day...took me a long time to learn these tips but it has really helped.
i'm having alot of anxiety over what to say when local sisters call on me.
when you all were just getting out, how did you handle the unexpected visits?
kibi
I've been out for four years, and fortunately they don't call at our home very often anymore. But when I run into them and they come up and ask how I'm doing, I find it really irritates them when I gush on and on about how great we are all doing.
Remember, they think once you leave your life will go downhill fast. When they see how much better we look physically (both my husband and I lost a lot of weight), how happy I am going to college, all the new things I'm learning about, all the recent trips we have taken, they get anxious to end the conversation fast...I love it!!!
When doing the slow fade away, I found it best to stay away from doctrinal topics, let them know you are very happy and that they don't need to be "concerned" about you. Hang in there, it takes time for the anxious feels to go away, don't let them intimidate you.
it has been difficult getting my old database to accept new info and then there was no way to edit the old thread so this is it on a new thread.
this is a follow up from the older: .
yrs bethel
I have to confess that when I first left I had the misconception that most ex-jw were misfits and lowlives...fornicators/smokers/drug users trying to justify leaving god's organization...I was totally indoctrinated folks, it took a huge tragedy for me to leave.
When I found this site, and realized Mulan and her husband lived closeby and that he had been an elder for over 25 years, I wanted to talk to him. Talking to a local former elder that could verify that most elders are on huge power trips, and that they make it hard to go to another hall by sending letters warning of your "bad attitude" was very helpful to me at the time. Also speaking to someone that left for purely doctrinal reasons really opened my eyes. Bigred gave me a stack of books to read that started me on the journey of realizing I didn't leave the "truth".
I don't put him on a pedestal because he was a former elder, but because of where I was mentally at the time, his being an elder made it easier for me to reach out to him. He and Mulan were very instrumental in my getting to the place I am today, at peace with leaving my lifelong belief system.
did you for a time think it was still the only true religion and that you were just condemned as long as you were out.
i read a comment by ghosthunter today that kind of echoed my feelings.
i know if i had never read the things i had read here, i'd still have left, for i did that before reading and learning, but i would have been out without the freedom from guilt and damnation.....
When I first left I was leaving as a personal protest to Jehovah for how his organization is allowed to operate. I just felt that dying at Armageddon was what I wanted to do to show my utter disgust at how my family was treated after our pioneer daughter's suicide death...i guess my own spiritual suicide?
A few months later I started researching ex-jw websites. I think it was Shawn's website and an article about how JWs teach that Jesus is only the mediator for the anointed that hit me between the eyes. Then Rays' two book, and many other books, including those describing religious cults. I'm at peace with leaving now.
