Posts by Xanthippe

33

RIP dad, who introduced me to this fairytail of everlastin life and paradise :(

by Frezia in

jw
friends

less than 5 hours ago my great dad fell asleep the last time :( still in a bit of a shock and sad that i will not see him again...i promised myself that once he is here no more, i will somehow make my move out of this organisation who kept us all captive believing in a fantasy of an everlasting life :( i am in a tricky situation, since raised as jw, still in, married to an active jw, and pretty sure that all in my social and family circle will turn their backs on me if i finally say goodbye to a fairytail ;(.

Xanthippe

My condolences for the loss of your father Frezia. It's hard for you having all your family and friends in. I wish you strength through the traumatic time of the funeral and the lead up to it. 🌹

15

Adult survivor of sexual abuse as a child

by life is to short in

i showed the video from the midweek meeting of september 12th to my counselor to get her take on it.

she said that it clearly was a propaganda video and was appalled that it was shown to an audience that had small children in it.

she said that they could have been way more generic in their way of portraying the women as having been abused.. the subject of sexual abuse and the way the video zeroed in on it would have small children asking questions that really did not need to be addressed.

Xanthippe

Thanks I'll have a look.

Yes that is maddening. It's always our fault isn't it? You should have said to the CO, I'm just a volunteer. It's all your fault. Like when I got sick pioneering, I should have stopped, nobody was making me pioneer! Yeah right!

15

Adult survivor of sexual abuse as a child

by life is to short in

i showed the video from the midweek meeting of september 12th to my counselor to get her take on it.

she said that it clearly was a propaganda video and was appalled that it was shown to an audience that had small children in it.

she said that they could have been way more generic in their way of portraying the women as having been abused.. the subject of sexual abuse and the way the video zeroed in on it would have small children asking questions that really did not need to be addressed.

Xanthippe

LITS I don't know about this video. Has it been mentioned on here and I've missed it? It's interesting that an outsider only had to watch it to realise it's propaganda to make people think they are helping sexual abuse victims when they're clearly not.

I'm glad you've found a good counsellor.

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

Xanthippe

Maybe it's just me I dunno but instead of all this fighting couldn't this have been a great thread with people discussing what they think reality is and then offering what gives life purpose for them personally?

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

Xanthippe

Or

3. 'God' created the universe but has no interest or intention to intervene in human affairs. Deism.

Being a sci-fi fan I can just about imagine an alien, sounds less religious than a being, capable of creating a universe. Just about. Apart from the old who made him, where does he come from argument I have another question. How could such an alien exist with such mind blowing intelligence without having ever developed empathy, compassion, ethics?

To just create sentient life and then ignore it, leaving it to wonder about its origins and cause appalling suffering trying to guess where we came from and what it's all about. Yes I can just about imagine that might be possible with a cold, perhaps what we would call 'left brain' mentality. Still it's hard to conceive of, such genius without any morality at all.

27

DEATH: How have you prepared? Funeral, cremation, donate body to Science?

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

well, hell!.

i had dizzy spells and near-fainting and nausea for a few days, so why wouldn't i start thinking about death, ya know?.

am i just very lax in my responsibilities in having no plans at all?isn't that irresponsible?

Xanthippe

I've made a will. My daughter knows I don't care what she does with my remains, whatever's best for her. My husband's grave is a 'double' so they can chuck me in there.

At my cousin's funeral in June I thought how brilliant she wrote the whole thing herself because she had cancer so knew she was going. She had complete control, said exactly what she wanted to say, got her boss to say a few words (he didn't want to but she insisted). Nagged us all to contribute to Marie Curie and Macmillan nurses.

It made me smile that she was a quiet person but that day was really hers, she had total control. So I'll probably write mine telling them all to have a few drinks on me, eat up and have a dance. I'll probably say get your money out and book that trip you've been putting off before it's too late. Carpe diem an' all that

36

Easier to be a JW now?

by Xanthippe in

reading konceptual's account of talking to cart 'witnesses' and it reminded me that when we left in '89 we thought the religion would do one of two things.

get more hardline, consequently lose members and eventually come to an end in some way.

or ease up on the members, fewer rules, less fs time, less meetings, just to keep them in.. all the recent apostate stuff, treatment of dfed kids and the hardline attitude to people who leave or try to fade has confused me, made me think they are harder on the r+f., but i don't think this is true.

Xanthippe

Actually 5 meetings on 2 days, 3 on a weeknight (congregation bible study, school, service meeting) 2 on weekend (public talk, WT study)

Blondie I understand from reading on this forum the midweek meeting is still two hours long even though it includes the book study? They've cut out a talk in the School and cut the service meeting down I believe.

The public talk and WT study are less than two hours I think. Someone on here said the talk is only half an hour now not an hour?

So that's two outings to JW meetings a week instead of three. They have always said five meetings a week even though it was three times that we all met. They are very pedantic people.

Thanks for telling me it's only a few specially selected people who do the cart work, Blondie, I didn't know that.

Regular Pioneers are supposed to get 840 hours a year, 70 per month.
Auxiliary pioneer requirement is 50 per month, except for 4 times a year when you can get 30.

Thanks sir82.

Thanks guys. Don't think there's a consensus but all very interesting thoughts on whether it's easier or harder to be a JW now.

9

Formatting issues

by bikerchic in

how do i turn off the formatting when i use the quote button?.

when i want to start a new paragraph and can't get out of the quote section?.

that made it worse, help!

Xanthippe

Nevuela I always have to highlight the quote then tap (click) the quote button, then after a second, tap it again.

9

Formatting issues

by bikerchic in

how do i turn off the formatting when i use the quote button?.

when i want to start a new paragraph and can't get out of the quote section?.

that made it worse, help!

Xanthippe

Bikerchic I'm on iPad and have the same problem. I get around it by copy/pasting my quote first then writing my comment beneath it before going back and formatting the quotation using the quote button. Hope that makes sense.

If I copy multiple quotes and have comments in between I do it all first then go back and format each quote one at a time. If there's an easier way I'm all ears!

36

Easier to be a JW now?

by Xanthippe in

reading konceptual's account of talking to cart 'witnesses' and it reminded me that when we left in '89 we thought the religion would do one of two things.

get more hardline, consequently lose members and eventually come to an end in some way.

or ease up on the members, fewer rules, less fs time, less meetings, just to keep them in.. all the recent apostate stuff, treatment of dfed kids and the hardline attitude to people who leave or try to fade has confused me, made me think they are harder on the r+f., but i don't think this is true.

Xanthippe

And all that time my cognitive dissonance was destroying me. I was miserable, and even having doctrinal arguments in my head LITERALLY like two people talking the subject out. Not healthy. When i left and declared it all bullshit i felt a lot better.

PA that sounds really stressful, I'm glad you made it out. I don't want people to misunderstand I'm not saying back in the day we had it much harder. Please don't think that. I'm saying the GB are making it easier for the R+F deliberately, to keep members.

Partly I'm thinking my eleven family members still in, one just a baby, may not make it out as it's getting easier to treat it like a church. One meeting a week perhaps and very little else. Without the cognitive dissonance you describe PA life is easier for those that don't think.

It must be surely, because some of my relatives are still in after sixty odd years, been though '75 and swallowed the overlapping generations shit whole. They know how to live with it all, they've found a way to cope with the CD.