i've been a jedi now for almost one whole night and nobody ('cept scully.
have a little compassion people and help me out here!!!!.
that is all.. dana.
I've been a Jedi now for almost one whole night and nobody ('cept Scully) even noticed! *sniff* Would someone please help me with this gd light sabre??!!! I've already decapitated the family dog and accidentally split my bed right down the middle! I've got blisters on my fingers (and my tongue...don't ask!) I'm feelin' testy and completely out of sorts
Have a little compassion people and help me out here!!!!
Thank you. That is all.
Dana
a couple of very basic questions for you good folks.. 1)imagine that you are joe public who has never had any real contact with jehovah's witnesses.
none of your family are, or your friends.
you occasionally say "not interested" to them on saturday mornings.
In the majority of conversations I've had with "worldly" (snicker) friends, by far the thing that astonishes them most is the shunning policy. It's so foreign to most people's concept of love, especially christian love, that it seems to blow their minds, especially when told of how family members will turn their backs.
Interestingly, my friends have predictably been shocked and horrified at the pedophile/blood issues, but the shunning seems to have a more immediate effect on them. Not sure why.
Did I help? What do I win??
Dana
i keep getting this message now even though my post is only minutes old.
am i being sabotaged?
is it worth going through this time after time just to participate in this site?
Picosito,
Simon disabled the editing feature for awhile coz some of us wouldn't play nice. Don't know when he'll turn it back on but man, I hope it's soon!
Dana
should we love god and have faith in him because we are afraid of being annihilated if we don't?.
should we love god so we can be paid for it by getting a "mansion in the sky" or everlasting life or some other reward payment?
Why love God?
Why indeed. For me, it's very simple, really. God is supposedly our 'parent'. Well, I'm a parent, created in god's image, right? There is absolutely no way that I, as a parent, could stand idly by and watch my children suffer the horrors of things like starvation, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, disease, and accidents, to name a few. And not just watch for a little while, but for thousands upon thousands of years! Sorry, but that ain't love. That's evil. And all this evil to teach us a lesson? Well, it's been proven that humans learn best with positive reinforcement, not punishment or negative reinforcement. Wouldn't the maker of us all know this already??!
It's a moot point for me anyway; I've seen no conclusive evidence that god exists or, if it does, that it gives a rat's ass about humanity.
Dana
are we copping out if we blame the watchtower for almost everything that went wrong in our watchtower life?.
most of us knew the rules.
most of us had the opportunity to read and study their publications and the bible.
Heaven,
I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but again I agree with you!
I also agree with Pope. I too was raised a JW and didn't have any choice in the matter until I was well into adulthood. In fact, it wasn't until I started dealing with issues stemming from childhood abuse that I even started to realize some of the things that were wrong in the borg. I just never questioned anything; I hadn't been taught how to.
I hope I haven't given anyone the impression that I think the WTS is not responsible for the wrongs they've committed!!! That is certainly not the case (Hey, if I said: "Never may that be so!" wouldn't I sound like a line from the Watchtower?? ) I digress. The brainwashing, the lovebombing, the emotional and spiritual blackmail that goes on is dirty pool and horribly manipulative and abusive. Their sins have massed clear up to the heavens (Arrrghh! someone stop me!)
However, at some point, a person *can* take responsibility and move forward. It's not fair, they were wrong, they abused me, they hurt me...all of those claims are valid but at what point does clinging to them become a self-defeating behavior? Everyone moves thru this process at their own pace and I don't think anyone has the right to judge where a person is in their personal journey or how slowly/quickly they are moving thru their stuff. Unfortunately, there are many still in who will never take the first few steps along this path and I find that very sad.
JT, I think I understand the points you made in your post and I think it is often the tendency in society at large, and in the JWs particularly, to blame the victim. That wasn't the impression I had gotten from IW's post, perhaps I missed something? I thought she was speaking more about her own struggle to accept the responsibility for decisions she had made and move on.
Personally, I don't feel *responsible* for my decision to get baptized at age 13 or 14, whenever it was, as I wasn't old enough or wise enough to understand what that entailed. As has been brought out already in this thread, the majority of newly baptized ones most likely don't really have a clue either. They aren't told "you can enter, but you can never leave" which is wildly dishonest on the part of the society. But dishonesty and deceitfulness from that source are really no surprise to me NOW. 10 years ago I wouldn't have seen it.
Dana(just glad she's out class)
my wife and i have seperated,and i had to talk to the elders yesterday one of the things they asked did i withhold sex from my wife?
odd question ?
or is it just me?
Lady Lee,
Holy smokes but you're right!! Geez, I didn't even think about that. Huh, I don't think like a dub anymore!!! And that's a good thing, a wonderful thing, even but it didn't occur to me that she would be greatly pressured to be silent and accept whatever 'counsel' she was given. God, this makes me sick!
Dana
my wife and i have seperated,and i had to talk to the elders yesterday one of the things they asked did i withhold sex from my wife?
odd question ?
or is it just me?
((((LadyLee)))),
My heart goes out to you!! How awful to have endured that! And you are so right about the mindset of an abuse survivor, thinking that one must give in, no matter how immoral the demands, or be forced to do so.
And just when I thought my disgust for the WTS could get no deeper...
Dana
my wife and i have seperated,and i had to talk to the elders yesterday one of the things they asked did i withhold sex from my wife?
odd question ?
or is it just me?
Scully,
Thanks for your response, I do appreciate it and, of course, from when I was in, I remember that particular scripture very well!!! However, and forgive me if I'm being dense here, but this is just unbelievable!...so IF a man FORCES his wife, with violence, to perform the 'marital due'(geez I hate that term!), perhaps even beating her in the process, the elders do not consider this rape??!! If the woman reports his abuse to the police and he's arrested, what then? How do the elders deal with such a case? They would allow him to remain in good standing??(another hated term!)
Dana(who's blood is coming to a slow boil)
so many say they are leaving.
so many keep coming back.
we all have something in common.
Beans,
Here's another one:
Beans, beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat, the more you ....
ahh, never mind, i'm sure you've all heard it before!
Seriously, nice poem Beans
Dana
my wife and i have seperated,and i had to talk to the elders yesterday one of the things they asked did i withhold sex from my wife?
odd question ?
or is it just me?
Termite,
there's NO SUCH THING as rape within a marriageIs this really the case?? I've been out for awhile, do they really not recognize this type of violent power play inside a marriage??? I would appreciate it you or anyone else knows if this is a policy of the WTS and where the information can be verified. This blows my mind!
Thanks,
Dana
