Xanthippe

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Posts by Xanthippe

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  36

  I've graduated at last

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after a bit of a kerfuffle over a procedural matter, my university has awarded me a degree.

  (the procedural problem was caused by my independent selection of what i wanted to study).

  award : bachelor of arts.

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  Xanthippe

  Many congratulations FTS, you deserve it!
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  15

  Talked to a JW in the park

  by Xanthippe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so in my lunch break at work today i walked in the park, just chilling out when a woman approached and offered me a leaflet.

  didn't have to read it i knew straight away who she was.. me: my family are involved with jws.

  the new world was supposed to come in the mid-seventies but it didn't.

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  Xanthippe

  Thanks for all your thoughts and encouragement guys. Maybe I'll have the courage to approach the cart people in my own town now. They look so bored, checking their texts and drinking takeaway coffee, they might appreciate a chat. 😜
• 
  15

  Talked to a JW in the park

  by Xanthippe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so in my lunch break at work today i walked in the park, just chilling out when a woman approached and offered me a leaflet.

  didn't have to read it i knew straight away who she was.. me: my family are involved with jws.

  the new world was supposed to come in the mid-seventies but it didn't.

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  Xanthippe

  I tried to to use the things you guys have suggested here, not directly talking about doctrine but using my family's experience. Appealing to emotions seems to work better people say and it did stop her running to the hills immediately screaming apostate.

  It did get to me when she talked about her daughter giving up her career for her faith, another young life down the drain. I hope something I said made an impression on her.

  I haven't been brave enough to talk to the cart people yet like some of you, I did too much talking about religion on the street in my twenties but seeing as she walked up to me I thought I'd have a go.

  Freddo, thank you.
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  15

  Talked to a JW in the park

  by Xanthippe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so in my lunch break at work today i walked in the park, just chilling out when a woman approached and offered me a leaflet.

  didn't have to read it i knew straight away who she was.. me: my family are involved with jws.

  the new world was supposed to come in the mid-seventies but it didn't.

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  Xanthippe

  So in my lunch break at work today I walked in the park, just chilling out when a woman approached and offered me a leaflet. Didn't have to read it I knew straight away who she was.

  Me: My family are involved with JWs. The new world was supposed to come in the mid-seventies but it didn't. My mum said people give up Christmas and birthdays but it's worth it because they get to live in a paradise earth forever. I can see that, but what if it doesn't come and you've given up all those things and more your whole life?

  JW: Oh it will come because God cannot lie. It says that in the Bible.

  Me: Now if you were born in India where I just visited in February you wouldn't believe in the Bible, you would have been raised a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh. Their Gods don't say these same things, it just depends where in the world you're born as to what you believe.

  JW: Oh we're all over the world in every country (missing the point entirely)

  Me: well my mother waited her whole life for the fulfilment of your Bible teachings and she's dead now. She thought I wouldn't go to school and I turned sixty last Saturday.

  JW: I'm sorry, but your mum will be resurrected.

  Me: It's not just that she died disappointed, she lived unhappily too. She and my dad were very unhappy together but the elder she went to for help told her she couldn't leave him because she couldn't get a divorce on grounds of incompatibility. If she did she would have to spend her whole life alone. So she was miserable in her marriage and that affects your children too you know. So we were all unhappy.

  (She started edging away at this but I wasn't finished)

  If I had raised my daughter in the region she wouldn't have been encouraged to go to university, it's frowned on isn't it?

  JW: Well yes my daughter has given up her career for her faith.

  Me: What about when she gets older and wants to buy a house or travel the world and later when she doesn't have a pension?

  JW: Oh I don't look that far ahead.

  Me: Well I think you should. My mother waited all her life for a promise that was never fulfilled. She's dead and gone, the children who were never supposed to go to school in this old world are sixty plus. I have a great-nephew who is two, he'll be denied all these things I just listed and he'll wait for this paradise too, what about him?

  By this time she was looking really flushed and stressed and said 'well if you don't believe in it' and was edging away. So I said it was nice to see her and let her go. I hope something I said got through. It struck me that talking about my personal experience helped without overtly attacking the religion.
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  11

  North American History - Red George MacDonnell

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  greetings to the colonies .

  i have come across this individual in the course of some local history research - back in the late 18th c his aunt and her husband owned the estate where i now live and his parents settled nearby.

  he gets credit for a victory at ogdensberg in the war of 1812.. is 'red george macdonnell known to the average american/canadian or is he an obscure figure?

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  Xanthippe

  A classic example of what I mean is lead 'spindle whorls'. These turn up all the time around here. They were attached to the end of stick and used by young women 'spinsters' to make woolen yarn medieval times before the invention of the spinning wheel.

  Spinsters! Of course, it seems so obvious now. I didn't know this, thanks cofty.

  I live in Ashby de la Zouch where the castle was briefly the prison of Mary Queen Of Scots and later held out under siege during the Civil War until it was eventually destroyed by the parliamentarians.

  The settlement by the ash trees, Ashby, has been here since the eleventh century, the Norman name was added later. An ash tree seeded itself in my garden about twenty years ago and I had to have it pollarded two years ago because they grow very fast and it was huge. They don't come into leaf until nearly June so I was terrified I had killed it but my beautiful ash tree has survived.
  
  
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  49

  Favourite Quirky / Low Budget / Non-Mainstream Movies

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  so the recent topic about film franchises got me thinking.

  sure, we all love the big budget, mainstream releases that are so successful they spawn never-ending (it sometimes seems) sequels.

  we could watch marvel and star-wars movies for the rest of our lives (and we might just ...).. but y'know what i love?

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  Xanthippe

  Lol xan, abyss is the exact opposite of a low budget quirky film 😂😂 In fact, the special effects with the creatures making the face out if water and exploring were cutting edge :)

  The Abyss $43-45 million in 1989.

  Titanic $200 million in 1997.

  Both Cameron films, big difference in budget.

  I think it was quirky, really unusual sci fi and it's a favourite film of mine so two out of three isn't bad. I've no idea what would be considered low budget for a movie.
  
  
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  49

  Favourite Quirky / Low Budget / Non-Mainstream Movies

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  so the recent topic about film franchises got me thinking.

  sure, we all love the big budget, mainstream releases that are so successful they spawn never-ending (it sometimes seems) sequels.

  we could watch marvel and star-wars movies for the rest of our lives (and we might just ...).. but y'know what i love?

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  Xanthippe

  The Abyss, an underwater movie about petroleum engineers working with a navy SEAL to locate a submarine sunk under mysterious circumstances. They discover alien life living in our oceans but not in the Doctor Who, humans with funny heads mode. Quite unexpected and fascinating.

  There's an amazing scene where the female lead has no alternative but to drown and then hope they can revive her, tense. Twists and turns, who's working for who, what's really going on, good stuff.
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  18

  Conditioned responses: Have you been conditioned to feel judged, or guilt etc that has spilled over into your exjw life?

  by Diogenesister in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this youtuber, an exjw and psychologist, may be familiar to some of the old guard.. i'm posting for newer members really.

  yet still, despite being out some time, it was a shock for me to realise that some of the crippling guilt i have felt over so much of my life, even long after being awake, was due to the dominant "conditioned response" i felt as a believer - guilt.. guilt that i could never do enough.

  guilt that i was responsible for the life of anyone i didn't preach to...anyone i may have stumbled, anything i did that wasn't caring for the needs of others.. even my job i choose to fit in with trying to expunge the guilt i felt at not meeting the needs of others.

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  Xanthippe

  but when a partner/employer/ whoever - in taking the place of God - doesn't respond to reason, the conditioned person quickly slides into the familiar feeling they know so well. That of being in the wrong and judged for their imperfection.

  Yes I do sometimes find myself thinking up reasons why I did something, getting quite a detailed explanation ready ...... just in case. I suppose I'm expecting someone to criticise me and they almost never do.

  It's a conditioned response after thirty years of getting constant criticism, you're right. It's stressful and makes me anxious. I'm aware of having more anxiety than I should but not always sure why. Thanks for throwing some light on that Diogenesister.
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  14

  Would you?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  would you join a religion which punishes you if you later on change your mind and choose to leave it?.

  would you join a religion which claims to be the only one guided by god and yet has always got their prophetic utterances entirely wrong?.

  would you join a religion which changes its beliefs every few years?.

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  Xanthippe

  No of course I wouldn't! The big question is, would I be allowed to leave such a religion after I found out it had lied to me and become disgustingly corrupt? Yes, but I would have to leave 11 members of my family behind and never see my nephews grow up, get married and have babies of their own.
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  32

  Scary Effectiveness of Assembly Videos

  by Captain Schmideo2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well, i got to see the final day of this years regional convention.and i saw something that disturbs me.. the final, "summing up review" video.

  it disturbs me because it was so well done.

  (i wish i could remember the title of the song), to the strains of a solo vocalist singing in a fine "irish tenor", we see the actors from the previous videos of the last few days all assembling together in a clearing.

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  Xanthippe

  So is the regional convention like the old circuit assembly or is it like the old summer convention because it seems a bit early, they were usually in July? This is the last thing at the end of the convention is it?