Xanthippe

Joined

• started 104 topics
• posted 4,713 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Xanthippe

• 
  23

  New Apostasy Trial on YouTube

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a guy by the name of son of thunder has just uploaded his apostasy trial.

  it is really impressive and this guy knows his stuff.

  he is very engaging and a pleasure to listen to.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  SBF it was in the pen in his top pocket, do keep up 😀
• 
  23

  New Apostasy Trial on YouTube

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a guy by the name of son of thunder has just uploaded his apostasy trial.

  it is really impressive and this guy knows his stuff.

  he is very engaging and a pleasure to listen to.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  Elder: 'we should take the positive side of (sexual abuse of children) rather than being negative about one or two points that make us think this is not Jehovah's organisation'.

  Elder: 'you haven't told us anything we don't already know about'

  Elder: (never mind that) 'who's using Jehovah's name?'
• 
  53

  Finally posting and I'm FRUSTRATED!!!

  by stephanie61092 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  okay, i'm about to engage in a major word vomit.

  just giving you fair warning as your time may be better spent somewhere else.. so, i'm sitting on my lunch break, bawling my eyes out, and writing on this forum to people i don't know yet probably have a great deal in common with but at the same time, used to scare the daylights out of me.

  for years, i would come across this forum and 'lurk' awhile if you will, or see things on youtube.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  Hi Stephanie. I'm so sorry you lost the child you were carrying and JWs said such heartless things about your pain. Please don't blow your brains out. You most certainly can have a normal life and going on what you say about your parents there is hope for a relationship with them too. They've got their heads screwed on. Just slow down and let yourself cope with the shock of finding out it's a cult before you decide what to do next. Good to have you here.
• 
  9

  Evolution is a Fact #18 - Fish Fingers

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it is an amazing intermediate form between fish and land animals complete with both lungs and gills as well as ribs, a jaw, a flat head and teeth.

  crucially it displayed the beginnings of leg bones that are common to all modern tetrapods.

  it had a humerus, radius, ulna and wrist bones but also retained the fin-ray bones of it's fish ancestors.. tiktaalik is just one of many fossils that display the journey of our ancestors from the sea to life on dry land.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  Thanks Cofty for the vid about Jenny Clack and the first tetrapods, the aquatic development of limbs. Absolutely fascinating. Her mind is very clear and she explains everything in a no nonsense way, without ego but with the pure joy of scientific discovery. The first women in her field to be accepted into the Royal Society! Well deserved.
• 
  19

  Where are they now?

  by Sabin in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  geoffrey jackson.

  terrence o'brien.

  vincent toole.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  What about the reply Jehovah`s Witness Organization gave to the ARC 70 or so recommendations they needed to conform to ? They challenged every one of them , how is that going ?

  
  The ARC is continuing for another two or three years investigating the policies of child safeguarding of religious and other organisations including schools. When the ARC has completed its investigations it will report its findings and recommendations to the government.
• 
  30

  Do you think JWN members would be surprised if they got to know you in real life?

  by nicolaou in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't think you'd recognise me much at all.

  i'm a royal mail postman, i love my job for the early starts and midday finish, the outdoors and the exercise.. i get on with people but i'm quite insular and don't enjoy crowds.

  i'm happiest when i've fired up the charcoal and i'm making souvlaki or adana kebabs for my family and a few close friends.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  Stan I would but Simon might object
• 
  37

  My experience with the people in my hall

  by Freeandclear in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i've been awake now for about 6 months i'd guess and a member here for a couple of weeks.

  it's been eye opening to read other peoples experiences on here and i appreciate all of you.

  i've noticed in many, seemingly most, of your comments that you were not treated well at your hall or you have had very negative experiences in the "org" so i thought i'd like to share mine.. in all my time as a jw i have to say for the most part i always loved the people.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  Lostandfound yes strange thing is I never liked this guy who my husband always referred to as the salt of the earth. My husband begged me to try and get on with him and I did try but I always wanted to say ' why, he doesn't even like you?' Sometimes I wish I was occasionally wrong about people!
• 
  30

  Do you think JWN members would be surprised if they got to know you in real life?

  by nicolaou in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't think you'd recognise me much at all.

  i'm a royal mail postman, i love my job for the early starts and midday finish, the outdoors and the exercise.. i get on with people but i'm quite insular and don't enjoy crowds.

  i'm happiest when i've fired up the charcoal and i'm making souvlaki or adana kebabs for my family and a few close friends.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  I love your description of your summerhouse Nic. Can you see the stars? Do you watch the sunsets on summer evenings? I've always liked the idea of a summerhouse, conservatory or something similar so you can stay in your garden as long as possible, see the sky darken and the stars come out but be sheltered from the cold as well. Love chicken souvlaki, I eat it in Greece but I'm rubbish at BBQing. Since I was a child I have wanted to stay outside until the last possible moment. In the summer I'm gardening every day I'm not at work, then it's cook dinner, eat it outside with a glass of Italian red. I like a good Italian in the garden.
• 
  37

  My experience with the people in my hall

  by Freeandclear in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i've been awake now for about 6 months i'd guess and a member here for a couple of weeks.

  it's been eye opening to read other peoples experiences on here and i appreciate all of you.

  i've noticed in many, seemingly most, of your comments that you were not treated well at your hall or you have had very negative experiences in the "org" so i thought i'd like to share mine.. in all my time as a jw i have to say for the most part i always loved the people.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  Welcome to the forum Freeandclear. I also knew some really kind people in the organisation. People who fed me when I was pioneering and one lovely family who put me up in their house for weeks when I left home while I was looking for a place to rent and a job. That sister was always the first one to visit someone who was ill too.

  I think you don't find out what it's really like until you get on the 'inside'. I read your bio thread and you were in and out for years I think. My husband only lasted four years after becoming an elder. He went along to elders meetings and expected them to be arranging shepherding calls and talking about ways to help the brothers. We were naive too! Instead they were fighting one another for power and gossiping about the congregation. If someone had mental health problems they were rubbish and were a waste of time, not worth a visit.

  We thought it was that particular congregation so we moved to another one. My husband continued as an elder while we waited for his letter of recommendation from the previous congregation. He had a book study group and gave public talks. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. Then the letter arrived. They didn't recommend him. They didn't say anything bad about him, there was nothing to say! They just said one or two brothers have said they don't find him as caring as he used to be. Pot, kettle, black! We did both get depressed before we left the old congregation and decided to care more for each other. But that was just nonsense saying that he didn't care.

  What did our lovely friendly congregation do? They took the group off my husband because he didn't get appointed and people started cutting us dead at the Kingdom Hall. We'd done nothing wrong and there we were, shunned before we even left! My husband contacted our old congregation for some feedback which you are allowed to do. It turns out a particular elder, his former pioneer partner had been the force behind the negativity, someone he considered his best friend! After that we soon found Crisis of Conscience and realised it wasn't a local problem at all.

  So you see you really have to be involved to find out about all the power struggles. On a day to day level you don't get to know this.
• 
  23

  Your Favorite Poetry

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thank you, dear friends, for expressing your thoughts today on the importance of the arts in your lives.

  many years ago, a number of threads were devoted to poetry, literature, even english grammar.

  rather than resurrect an old thread -- usually with zero results -- i would like to introduce a new post, asking you to add some of your favorite verse.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xanthippe

  Kubla Khan

  BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

  Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.
  

  In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

  A stately pleasure-dome decree:

  Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

  Through caverns measureless to man

  Down to a sunless sea.

  So twice five miles of fertile ground

  With walls and towers were girdled round;

  And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

  Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

  And here were forests ancient as the hills,

  Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

  
  

  But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

  Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

  A savage place! as holy and enchanted

  As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

  By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

  And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

  As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

  A mighty fountain momently was forced:

  Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

  Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

  Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

  And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

  It flung up momently the sacred river.

  Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

  Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

  Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

  And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

  And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

  Ancestral voices prophesying war!

  The shadow of the dome of pleasure

  Floated midway on the waves;

  Where was heard the mingled measure

  From the fountain and the caves.

  It was a miracle of rare device,

  A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

  
  

  A damsel with a dulcimer

  In a vision once I saw:

  It was an Abyssinian maid

  And on her dulcimer she played,

  Singing of Mount Abora.

  Could I revive within me

  Her symphony and song,

  To such a deep delight ’twould win me,

  That with music loud and long,

  I would build that dome in air,

  That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

  And all who heard should see them there,

  And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

  His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

  Weave a circle round him thrice,

  And close your eyes with holy dread

  For he on honey-dew hath fed,

  And drunk the milk of Paradise.

  
  

  BTW Coleridge had an opium addiction. Can you tell?