Posts by Xanthippe

36

Do you celebrate Christmas?

by LovingLifeNow in

jw
friends

do you celebrate and how long have you been out?

.

3 years for me and yes i do..

Like Biahi I feel my childhood was stolen by that cult. I love the smell of a conifer in my house covered with petty lights. My daughter and I love a roast dinner and having the couple of relatives not trapped in the cult around for a meal with plenty of wine.

We give one another gifts but try to avoid the price of them escalating each year. I hate the commercialisation of Christmas, the huge expensive presents we're expected to give, we resist it, I hate being a victim of advertising.

As with anything else do it your way. I'm not celebrating the birth of Christ I'm joining in with my culture and having fun.

20

How did the bible fables get started?

by Tameria2001 in

today while out running errands, i was flipping through the radio trying to find something to listen to.

i ended up on some christian type of station, and the guy was talking about the ark, and the flood during noah's time.

personally i no longer believe this fable, because the facts just don't line up.

Xanthippe

There are many flood legends. Have a look at the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I suppose there have always been floods and people living in Bronze Age settlements knew only their area, not having jet planes or ICT so it must have seemed like the whole world had flooded.

In their minds the gods were in charge of weather so it was easy to believe God or gods were angry with them when bad weather killed family or tribal members.

6

If you could point out the sins of the leaders of the WTS/JWS according to Scripture what would they be ?

by Finkelstein in

i think the most poignant sin would be teaching of false doctrines such as setting a time on jesus's positioning in heaven.

from that single doctrine alone many doctrines or teachings stem and branch off such as the end times, great tribulation and armageddon all to occur concurrently one after the other.

which brings up the question did god actually chose these men in 1919 ?

Xanthippe

Deut 18: 20-22

They're false prophets, their prophecies have failed, again and again. They therefore don't speak for God, we shouldn't listen to them. Their answer to the challenge? Overlapping generations - seriously!

20

Disassociation experiences please

by UnshackleTheChains in

hi everyone.. i would love to collate the experiences of those who decided to disassociate.

the reason i am asking this question is that i have been in turmoil for a very long time as to whether i remain a fader or whether to bring closure on my membership with the watchtower organisation.. it is for this reason i would like to read about some of the experiences of those on this forum who went down the route of disassociation.

if could answer the following.

Xanthippe

How long did it take you to decide to disassociate?

A few months after realising it was a corrupt organisation.

How has this impacted on you?

It was a clean break, very hard but looking back I think we couldn't have gone on much longer.

Has your mental health in any way been affected since you disassociated? Eg if being shunned by family.

My husband and I were okay for two years then had a mental health blip. Then we recovered and got on with getting more education and pulling ourselves out of the poverty trap of pioneering

Do any of your current JW relatives associate with you? And if so to what degree?

No, we see them at funerals. I have a great-nephew I've never met.

Do you feel your life is better now that you are completely free of the watchtower?

Oh goodness, yes, I would have died in that cult. We got degrees, decent jobs, travelled, had a baby, bought a little house. I'm so glad we got out when we were quite young. I was thirty and my husband was thirty-four. Our little girl had a great childhood, birthday parties, Christmas, friends, sleepovers. I hated school, being made to stand out, she loved it. We both relived our childhood in a way through her happiness and it helped us catch up on what we missed out on.

Do you ever get panic attacks about Armageddon or that you left "the truth"?

No, never. Not for a moment.

7

New Zealand: Radio Live-Graeme Hill Show: Former elder Shayne Mechen interviewed

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jpt4gkhn-g.

Xanthippe

Yeah '81 was after Ray Franz wasn't it, they clamped down on talking to anyone who'd left.

18

Sentinel Island: Rewards for Those Who Expand Their Ministry, Blessings Await You!!!!!

by moomanchu in

jw
friends

"can you serve where the need for kingdom publishers is greater?".

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/22/asia/north-sentinel-island-worlds-isolated-tribes-intl/index.html.

the message of jehovah’s kingdom by christ has already gained grand triumphs throughout the earth because he backs up and blesses the preaching of this “good news” by his witnesses in all the inhabited earth.

Xanthippe

So many cults ....... so much suffering

3

Nobody cares and that’s the problem

by Crazyguy in

when i was a young teenager one of my friends stabbed another in the arm with a hunting knife.

i was a witness to the event and we were all appalled by it.

but being kids after a few months when the victim wasn’t around we would try to get this guy to come out and play with us .

Xanthippe

It's true, we don't like change and we're afraid of losing friends in case we can't make new ones. That's a real fear for people leaving he JWs. That's why the cult uses fear of shunning to keep people from leaving, they know what they're doing.

23

Why does WT rarely reference creationist scientist?

by Sanchy in

jw
friends

in watching the latest video in the series "was it designed?

" at tv-dot-jw-dot-org, i got to wondering why is it that watchtower hardly references scientist that are creationist.

i know its only a minority from that group, but there are enough out there for them to reference from.

Xanthippe

JWs don't trust scientists at all.

What's the objection to the term creationist scientist? There are scientists who don't believe in evolution and believe in creation. Don't understand the objection to the term. If they have a science doctorate and work in science they are a scientist. Why is it an oxymoron? I believe in evolution by the way, just baffled by the objection the the term.

14

How do you determine whether any religion is good or bad since...

by TerryWalstrom in

so, yesterday whilst playing chess i had a discussion ranging widely topically in which my chess opponent asked me, "how do you determine whether any religion is good or bad since there is so much basic disagreement on interpretations of text?

"i replied this way:"does this particular god need to be treated like an adult, or as a spoiled child with a churlish temper?

that's a good place to start.

Xanthippe

How do you determine whether any religion is good or bad?

It seems obvious to me that any system of belief that is supposed to come from a divine being would make its followers really, really happy and would cause them to treat others well. It's not rocket science is it but why are religious people often judgemental and unhappy?

11

#100 Women

by Lost in the fog in

in the uk the bbc has been celebrating the role of women who have made a difference to the world.

they have focused on 100 women in particular who have taken a lead in various professional jobs.

isn't it sad that we'll never see a jehovah’s witness woman appearing on such a list because of the misogynistic attitude within their organisation.

Xanthippe

We could talk about what these hundred women have achieved, or we could just talk about Chelsea Clinton........ Why am I not surprised