what is the wackiest...strangest....most unusual jw teaching or practice?
Insisting members are no part of the world. Ridiculous, we have to live on this planet. Sure be an individual and join in whatever you like and don't necessarily be a sheeple but forbidding people from being a part of the culture they're growing up in is damaging to their mental health.
Children want to join in, to be accepted, to make friends, that's normal. Preventing them doing this, I believe, is actual cruelty.
alert this is a rant.
recently i lost someone very special to me to death.
she was so many things to me, my cousin, best friend, and next door neighbor thru our teens.
i realised something today.... we all happily accepted something really ridiculous.....something that if worded how i will word it now, we would have rejected as ridiculous, but after a moments thought, would have to concede.. we once followed the governing body because we believed they had supernatural powers.
how ridiculous you may say, no we didn't!
of or relating to things that cannot be explained according to natural laws.
Mad Irishman if you look on JW.ORG under the heading 'How does the Governing Body function today?' It says the following:-
'It is responsive to the direction of God’s spirit. The Governing Body looks to the Universal Sovereign, Jehovah, and to the Head of the congregation, Jesus, for guidance.'
I actually found this by putting the phrase spirit directed into the search box on that site. Why? Because that's what the JWs have always said. That the Watchtower is not inspired but it is spirit directed. Meaning what? Directed by a supernatural force as Snare said.
every five years or so i have this vivid and recurring dream, tho you'll probably surmise it's more of a nightmare.
i learn somehow that i am scheduled for this theocratic ministry school speaking assignment, the instruction talk (do they still have those 15 minute drone-athons?).
i become racked with tension knowing that i haven't even prepared for an assignment that is only 30 minutes away.
Yeah I still occasionally dream about the cult - been out 27 years. But your dream is a variation of a common recurring dream that many people have of standing on a stage about to sing, speak or act in a play and not having the first clue of the necessary words.
This dream is always accompanied by the feeling that everyone else knows what they are supposed to be doing except for you.
From what I gather from talking to people this is a human condition dream. Sometimes we feel lost, don't know what the hell we are supposed to be doing with our lives. Everyone else seems to have goals and know what they want but today, this week, perhaps this year, we feel lost.
i realised something today.... we all happily accepted something really ridiculous.....something that if worded how i will word it now, we would have rejected as ridiculous, but after a moments thought, would have to concede.. we once followed the governing body because we believed they had supernatural powers.
how ridiculous you may say, no we didn't!
of or relating to things that cannot be explained according to natural laws.
Yes Snare, goog point, well made. Years ago I did desperately want to ask someone of the anointed how they received the information that was put in the Watchtower. This was when the FDS included all the anointed before the nulite.
But it was not the done thing to question someone of the anointed. I wish I'd asked anyway, might have left sooner.
i was raised in the truth my whole life, my immediate family are jws and my moms mom is a witness as well as my fathers mom.
other than that the rest of my family are non jws.
i was raised very balanced, my parents never forced the truth on me or my siblings like most of my friends parents did getting baptized at ridiculous ages!
Welcome Ghiagirl. I'm glad you are free of that cult and wake up happy every morning, feeling no guilt. Congratulations on the baby! So sorry your family are shunning you, mine did the same so I know it's hard. Just think your child will grow up mentally healthy and happy and be able to go to university like my daughter.
My daughter had Christmas and birthdays and it was such fun for me too to learn how to celebrate plus she had lots of friends. You can give all this to your child, just remember that when you feel lonely.
it has been some time since i last posted or even visited the site, and i wondered why that was.
life continued to be difficult without a network of friends to look forward to seeing.
the novelty of being disfellowshipped wore off, and the mundane advanced as it did every day.
Losingit, congratulations on getting your teaching degree. Wow with two children and pregnant and facing a divorce too! You have done so well. Women are amazing! Best of luck with your divorce. It's so unfair you have to cope with the JW issues on top of everything else but we are supporting you 100% here.
my oldest brother got baptized at 12 and realized he was 100% gay at 12 1/2.
sucky timing huh?
he fought the fine fight of the abstinent until his mid-twenties and then decided he couldn't live like that anymore.
5. JW man walked up to me in the street, stood in front of me and stared at me for two minutes without speaking, then walked away.
5. JW woman walks up to my JW brother at my mother's funeral when we are discussing my dad's care and talks to my brother for five minutes, completely ignoring me. I've known her for forty years.
Just wanted to wear blue jeans all day and drink merlot
you know, the more we think about it, jehovah's witnesses are just like "big fish in small goldfish bowls".. yes, they may appear important, or "big" but this is only within a very small sphere of influence - yes only within a small and limited world.. to those outside of that small insular world, they are "no-bodies", unimportant, or at least insignificant in the real scheme of life.. so, the next time something from the witness world seems to be a big issue in our lives, step back and look at things from "outside of the goldfish bowl" .
