Morpheus I expect he/she was going to tell us that it was painted by Hitler, ergo religious people can do terrible things. Big surprise!
Xanthippe
JoinedPosts by Xanthippe
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70
How Far Apart Were Your Legs?
by Joe Grundy inseveral threads on here about the excellent bbc r4 programme this week ('the report') focussing on rape and abuse in barry, south wales, jws.
fat pervert mark sewell later got 14 years and i hope he is enjoying every minute of it.. the courageous ladies who spoke on the programme were articulate, reasonable and made a tremendous impression.. the quote in the thread title made an impression on me, and i hope, on all listeners.. forget religious, theological, 'biblical' issues and cut to the basics.
a rape victim was asked to demonstrate - to demonstrate, ffs - to three unqualified (middle-aged at least, presumably) men just how far her legs were apart when she was raped.. i have rarely heard anything so outrageous, and i used to investigate rape and abuse in my profession.
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Xanthippe
I remember as a 10 year old standing before 3 crusty men--mom not allowed to be in the room. I described in detail about being digitally penetrated and I was asked, "Are you sure he was not just showing you affection?" Really??? Really???? I shut down. Stopped talking.
OMG I am so sorry you were subjected to this disgusting treatment FreeGirl2006. I am appalled and saddened for the little girl you were. How are these men allowed to interview a minor without an adult being there? Even the police can't do that? This has to be stopped! So sorry for your pain.
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70
How Far Apart Were Your Legs?
by Joe Grundy inseveral threads on here about the excellent bbc r4 programme this week ('the report') focussing on rape and abuse in barry, south wales, jws.
fat pervert mark sewell later got 14 years and i hope he is enjoying every minute of it.. the courageous ladies who spoke on the programme were articulate, reasonable and made a tremendous impression.. the quote in the thread title made an impression on me, and i hope, on all listeners.. forget religious, theological, 'biblical' issues and cut to the basics.
a rape victim was asked to demonstrate - to demonstrate, ffs - to three unqualified (middle-aged at least, presumably) men just how far her legs were apart when she was raped.. i have rarely heard anything so outrageous, and i used to investigate rape and abuse in my profession.
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Xanthippe
This religion takes misogyny and abuse of women to a whole new level. Not only do they blame the victim they demand to hear all the details for their perverted pleasure. Ridiculous religious rules infringing on people's sex lives have resulted in these monsters and their disgusting kangaroo courts. -
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Futility of being right
by JWdaughter inso, on another thread, about pluto, grreat teacher said something that speaks to my feelings about religon.
"i've kinda been sad since pluto has been demoted to dwarf planet.. you talk about 9 planets and all the little kids at school will correct you real quick and tell you that now there are only 8 planets in the solar system!".
nothing in the universe has changed but the opinion of men.
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Xanthippe
I believe this fixation is more likely wed to highly competitive cultures than traditionally-oriented cooperative societies. In the latter, issues of right or wrong don't equivalently inform one's sense of self or identity. The ego may be shaped by other influences such as being honored, respected or altruistic.
Thank you for the link to the article in Psychology Today Oubliette, I really enjoyed reading it. Yes the sad thing is because of our need to get good grades to have a decent career and standard of living we learn to regurgitate what we learn at school and college to give the 'right' answers.
This atrophies our ability to think for ourselves and ruins our relationships because of our huge need to always be right. I found the description above of traditional societies based on cooperation rather than competition very thought provoking, especially the thought that ego can be shaped by honour, respect and altruism rather than ideas of right and wrong.
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Do not Disassociate, Anull your baptism
by jwfacts ini am now a jedi, so trust me on this.. .
why dis-associate, you are just playing by the wts rules?
how can you dis-associate anyway, you never thought you were baptised as a watchtower society member, you thought your dedication was to god, so why formally disassociate from something you did not formally join?
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Xanthippe
Other questions I answered plain wrong because I didn't know the answer and wasn't thinking with a "spiritual" mindset.
Pronomono's post made me smile because I got a question wrong in the baptism questions. Guess which one? I answered that people were disfellowshipped as a punishment for wrongdoing because that's what I though the paragraph was saying.
The elder said no, no, no, they are disfellowshipped as an act of love to bring them back to the congregation. He asked if I understood. I said I'm sorry but I don't understand it, it still seemed to me people were being punished. Follow what your brain tells you is the obvious truth, I do now.
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What are you up to this summer?
by Xanthippe ini really enjoy hearing about other people's lives.
feeling a little lonely this evening so please tell me if you have plans for the summer months.
i may go to some outdoor theatre with my daughter who's home from uni; with a picnic and a bottle of wine.
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Xanthippe
Best of luck with moving house OrphanCrow, hope it's not a rainy day. Way to go tiling floors, I haven't tried that. Sawing up tree branches and painting walls and ceilings yes but not tiling. Hope that floor behaves itself! -
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What are you up to this summer?
by Xanthippe ini really enjoy hearing about other people's lives.
feeling a little lonely this evening so please tell me if you have plans for the summer months.
i may go to some outdoor theatre with my daughter who's home from uni; with a picnic and a bottle of wine.
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Xanthippe
Stirred, I wish you lots of luck finding work and rebuilding your lives. Thanks for the reminder that we should enjoy the journey, sometimes I forget. -
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Happy Birthday,Dogpatch
by Bangalore inhappy birthday,dogpatch aka randy.hope you will have a great day.. bangalore.
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Xanthippe
Happy Birthday Randy. Your newsletter in the nineties was a life line to my husband and myself when we had nothing else. You're a star🎂 ⭐️ -
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Facing up to the reality of the world
by purrpurr insince becoming atheist i have been paying more attention to world events and issues.
this is giving me some worry's when i see what's going on.
as a jw i could just dismiss stuff saying "armageddon is coming, jehovah will look after us" etc etc now of course i can't do that.
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Xanthippe
Hi purrpurr, I know exactly what you mean and I have found as the years go by I become even more aware of the global problems. As a JW I lived in this haze of the 'world out there' is in a mess but big J will make all our problems go away soon.
Now I sometimes cry for the terrible things that happen to people in different parts of the world. I feel increasingly a part of a global community, a member of humanity and what hurts other people affects me.
As you say as an atheist I know nobody is coming to help us but it gives me heart that so many wonderful people are doing so much through charities to help others, usually complete strangers and often on the other side of the world. Small amounts of money go a very long way in developing countries and it isn't the amount you give it is the regularity of it that matters. Charities rely on monthly donations so they know they have x amount of money coming in to fund their projects. It really helps me cope to know I am doing something positive to help other people who weren't born into a rich western country as I was. It also gives me hope for humanity that there are so many caring people out there, some volunteering their time for free, others giving cash. People are good and that gives me some peace when I see the news.
We need to stop feeling helpless and allowing politicians to tell us they can run the world and we need only vote them in. I email politicians about my concerns and I have been to talk to local ones face to face.
We are powerful simply because there are seven billion of us. Don't give up on your power to influence or help. There are many unscrupulous people who love to make us feel we are powerless but this is nonsense. Governments and big corporations are very much aware of the power we have and spend a great deal of money trying to manipulate us for their own ends. Use your power and you will fell less afraid and more in control in this frightening world.
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47
What are you up to this summer?
by Xanthippe ini really enjoy hearing about other people's lives.
feeling a little lonely this evening so please tell me if you have plans for the summer months.
i may go to some outdoor theatre with my daughter who's home from uni; with a picnic and a bottle of wine.
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Xanthippe
Heaven sorry you're going through that I know how horrible it is.
Sowhatnow, phew busy, busy! At least you're having some fun in between work. Had to apply for my own job again this year. Local authority job, we keep having our budget cut and they keep cutting staff. Applied for my own job twice in three years and managed to hang on to it.
Very stressful and it will probably happen again in three years.Thats why I'm trying to talk about happy stuff to keep myself sane. Not sure it's working lol!