one of my old friends from work, who i used to have lots of spiritual conversations with, messaged me on facebook before and told me how he had a call from the jws this morning.
here is our conversation from facebook when he told me what happened:.
my friend: any way funny thing today, some jehovos came to me door and we were having a chat and i told them i didnt agree with their religion saying i was biased because i had a friend who used to be one and was kicked out for being gay and how could they preach like love etc and be so discriminative and then said they would know you mentioned your name and he did know you, and has even been on holiday with you in the past.
Nice one Tim - the truth hurts . Great reaction from your friend.
Terry - the idea that gay people must have been molested as children is very widespread in JW-land, I've heard it so much. It was also one of the first questions I was asked by an elder I "came out" to. When I said no, he was almost convincing me that I must have been molested.
so my parents cannot answer my question and are pretty much pushing me to go to the elders for an answer so i'd like to know what the best questions to ask an elder are.my first question is going to be the mediator one..and if he tells me it's the 144,000 or the anointed, i'll ask him to show me where it says that in the bible.what are some other tough questions for an elder to answer?assuming we can get past the mediator one of course.i'm going to hold off on asking about new light or 607... also, has anyone ever asked about how satan can cause wwi in july if he wasn't expelled from heaven until christ became king in october?i haven't gotten much of an answer to that either..
Kurtbethel I think the response to that would be that the Candace Conti case did not involve a religious leader sexually abusing children, but a rank and file member of the congregation (Tho obviously there are wider issues about how the situation was/is allowed to happen).
so my parents cannot answer my question and are pretty much pushing me to go to the elders for an answer so i'd like to know what the best questions to ask an elder are.my first question is going to be the mediator one..and if he tells me it's the 144,000 or the anointed, i'll ask him to show me where it says that in the bible.what are some other tough questions for an elder to answer?assuming we can get past the mediator one of course.i'm going to hold off on asking about new light or 607... also, has anyone ever asked about how satan can cause wwi in july if he wasn't expelled from heaven until christ became king in october?i haven't gotten much of an answer to that either..
"..... the Watchtower uses Jehovah because of its supposed familiarity ... since when is the Organization more concerned with what is popular over what is correct?" <-- I think they will just respond that Jehovah is consistent in latin countries as it's the latinised form of Yahweh just like Jesus is the latinised form of Yeshua and that in the western world we use the other latinised Biblical names. I would only bring this one up if you personally have a problem with that and feel it's a "deal breaker" as far as your faith is concerned. There are other threads that look into the question of whether Jehovah/Yahweh is actually God's name which might provide some stronger secular questionings on the use of Jehovah. Also JWFacts has some good topics on a number of subjects that might inspire some questions for you.
considering the recent major doctrinal changes in relation to the generation and to the faithful and discreet slave which other doctrines do you think they will have to change?.
generation changea time and too many of the anointed dying.
f&dsa anointed growing in number so necessary to blow that out of the water by completely centralising power in the gb.
I don't think the JWs are in any rush to change the blood doctrine at all. They're very proud of their hospital liaison committees and the fact that there are a growing number of hospitals and surgeons that don't use blood. I think rather than drop this doctrine the JWs feel vindicated. At most I could see them doing something about the individual blood fractions being a conscience matter as I know that has caused confusion.
Same with disfellowshipping - I can't see the shunning being stopped any time soon. If anything the WT articles seem to be getting more and more extreme on this. Just recently we had a talk that said something a long the lines of, "how can you claim to be loyal to God if you carry on talking to disfellowshipped people including family members not living in the same home?"
I too wonder whether the most likely changes will be around the old favourites: the 144000, the generation and maybe even 1914. Still, with regard to the latter, we are only 99 years on from then....we might still be just about within a generation by the skin of our teeth if Armageddon comes this year or next...
I have also been wondering about the demise of Babylon the Great/"false religion". Repeatedly in articles and talks they have made clear they feel that false religion will be destroyed suddenly and unexpectedly and that it won't simply fade away. The signs are that religion is fading as society is getting more secular. So as time goes on, and assuming sudden destruction/armageddon doesn't happen (don't want to be presumptious!) I wonder whether that idea will change.
so my parents cannot answer my question and are pretty much pushing me to go to the elders for an answer so i'd like to know what the best questions to ask an elder are.my first question is going to be the mediator one..and if he tells me it's the 144,000 or the anointed, i'll ask him to show me where it says that in the bible.what are some other tough questions for an elder to answer?assuming we can get past the mediator one of course.i'm going to hold off on asking about new light or 607... also, has anyone ever asked about how satan can cause wwi in july if he wasn't expelled from heaven until christ became king in october?i haven't gotten much of an answer to that either..
I had a visit from an elder last month. He asked me if I loved Jehovah and i guess I replied with a question, which I was genuinely interested in the answer to. I don't know if it's a question that would interest you too, but it was along these lines:
I had seen some graphic news footage of the Israeli bombing of Gaza, which included the corpses of young children together with footage of the Israelis celebrating because they felt they were doing God's will. The film disgusted me. This reminded me of what the ancient Israelites had to do to the nations they invaded - kill children, as well as adults and animals in order to "purify the land". I asked how I could love a God that demanded this. how does he love a God that demanded this genocide? I was expecting him to say how bad those nations were (they usually trot out the child sacrifice etc but this didn't apply to all of the nations as far as I'm aware so that just leaves pagan worship and immorality - something which happens in most present day nations). but he didn't really have an answer.
I also told him that my reaction to news reports of killings under Shia law. For example last year there was a report of a woman who was stoned to death by her family because she had allegedly committed adultery. Another woman was stoned to death after being raped (presumably because she did not cry out). Again, the report disgusted me (as I'm sure it did most people in the western world and probably most JWs too if they were honest). To me the death penalty seems disproportionate and extreme (this is close to home for me, as a gay witness I would undoubtedly have been stoned to death if I had lived in ancient Israel). But really none of this should disgust any Jehovah's Witnesses because that is exactly what Jehovah commanded. So JWs should endorse this. I said I found it hard to love a God who would demand this punishment. I asked him to suggest how I could get my head around this.
His answer? I need to read the bible, pray more and meditate. (later in the same visit he said I had no excuse because apparently I have a lot of Bible knowledge)
I don't know whether that helps. If you do ask your elder a question along these lines I would be genuinely interested in knowing what he says (as long as it's not pray, read the bible and meditate!).
first up, happy new year .
hi everyone, ok i guess this is controversial, but im doing it as therapy for me - so im not bitter about the way i was raised.
plus i want to see if i can be the op of an "epic thread"!!.
This is a tough one because there were many good experiences growing up. Usually social stuff like everyone else - I could never claim that there was never any laughter. Also I remember when I was five and my parents got divorced, we were homeless for well over a year (I think it might even have been two years) and various families willingly let us live with them for varying time periods. I also feel the bible-based upbringing made me a better person than I would otherwise have been - I have always had a bit of a "good-time rebel" streak and I do think the way I was raised made me more considerate and sensitive to other people's feelings. I enjoyed being a MS because I really felt I was helping people at the time and it made me feel better about myself for the first time in my life.
But aside from the individual experiences, I can't say that I was happy overall. Despite the social scene, being a JW is/was a lonely experience. I always felt like a fraud - I didn't connect with the "spiritual superstars" and felt guilty for not being that way inclined myself. I hated assemblies and large congregation "get togethers" (you know the ones that involved hiring the local village hall and everybody doing country dancing lol - I wanted to go clubbing hehe).
In summary I guess I feel pretty neutral with nothing to be particularly bitter about. I still believe that most JWs I knew/know have good intentions. And I'm in a good place now and maybe I wouldn't have reached this point if I hadn't spent most of my life feeling guilty and brainwashed hehe.
I had an elder come visit me last month to "encourage" me to get out on FS again, answer up and generally pull my weight (To be fair is was quite a pleasant visit and I didn't feel too bullied afterwards). I was quite honest with him and made, what I thought, were a few good points that he couldn't really answer. At the end of the visit he summed up by saying that I didn't really have any excuse (presumably no excuse at Armageddon) because I have so much knowledge. I felt he totally missed the point too....(like you say, Witness 007, it does feel like anything anyone says that's mentally challenging goes straight into the trash).
there seems to be a double standard among ex-jw's who believe and practice christianity.. i have lost 3 subscribers from my youtube channel all because of speaking my mind, it was not invasive or rude, but my last two videos appeared to have offended them.. so what happened?
as an atheist i raised some issues regarding the mind set of christianity that it borrows from jw's, in other words i was showing christian ex-jw's that they are behaving just like jw's.
the double standard is simple to grasp:.
I'm now very upset that my Youtube channel has no subscribers whatsoever! I have been shunned by EVERYONE! Goodbye cruel world!
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looking back now it is almost as if i became an atheist but still believed in my religion.
Thanks for your story Jonno, I enjoyed reading it.
i wanted to share some news from a family friend (he is my wt mole - still an elder, hates the shenanigans, but is still hanging on for all the reasons often discussed on this site) i know the various rumors have been discussed on here, and unfortunately the rumor about the conventions being eliminated weren't true!
(what a burden on the jw community - financial hardship for a good portion of them, guilting people into actually quitting their job to attend, physically exhausting for many, etc...etc......).
anyway, he told me that the district convention is being moved to 11 weekends at the jw-owned circuit assembly hall, and they are no longer planning on renting stadiums/large facilities in our area (northern ohio/southern michigan).
Hayes Bridge has been used for District Conventions since 2010. They do it over a couple of weekends - used to be three weekends but they cancelled one and assigned several congregations back to Twickenham because the poor neighbours were getting p'd off at the constant traffic and a few inconsiderate parkers in that little country road.
