Rivergang

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Posts by Rivergang

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  8

  My experience as a JW for 37 years. I dogded the bullet that many of you experienced .

  by smiddy3 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi friend`s ,i just had to share my experience ,and surely there must be others on this board who had similar experiences that i had.. i was a jw for 37 years ,been out for about 20 years or so .however we as a family never had the problems that so many of you seem to have had .. none of our, my wife and i , immediate families have ever been jw`s.. i converted when i was about 20 years old in about 1960 and as i say remained in converted my wife and brought up two sons in the "truth" for about 37 years .. my 1st and 2nd congregations i attended in melbourne aust.

  were very conservative and not very wholesome looking back.. however moving interstate to s.e.queensland in redcliffe was a whole new experience.. it was far more liberal and relaxed.. i befriend a couple of elders and ms `s who enjoyed an ale or two which was right up my alley.. and we went on camping expeditions on both fraser and moreton islands ,both just off the coast of brisbane.. i was a ms for many years there never pioneered or served where the need was great and always had steady employment in the world which probably kept my head above the clouds so to speak.. none of my family ,wife two boys and their wives are jw`s ,we have all left many years ago.. anybody else had negative effects of being a witness for many years ?.

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  Rivergang

  Lucky you!
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  6

  Hour requirements

  by dothemath in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i recall having to go in the ministry, not just saturday but strongly encouraged to go out sunday after the meeting.

  then they had the lame idea to organize evening witnessing, or maybe before the midweek book study.

  it could be minus 40 and there would still be a group organized.

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  Rivergang

  Bad experiences re. “Evening witnessing”.

  Many persons were too afraid to open their doors of an evening, and even the ones that did were most unhappy to see us there. (A number were actually terrified out of their wits).

  The only place I saw “evening witnessing” used successfully was in the single accommodation of a construction camp. Even there, we were careful to time matters to just after shift change time.
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  39

  Is Russia Bluffing?

  by Fisherman in

  1. social
  2. current

  “supplies of offensive weapons to the kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe,” state duma chairman vyacheslav volodin said.

  “if washington and nato supply weapons that would be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”.

  what is russia implying?

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  Rivergang

  The four typical responses to a threat are fight, flight, submit or posture. In any conflict, there is always a fair bit of that last one in evidence! (Whether it be an altercation between two rival states, or a pair of bulls facing off in a paddock, the general idea is much the same).

  In many ways nuclear weaponry is like the poison gas of an earlier generation of warfare. That is, almost as great a hazard to the side which fires it off as it would be to its intended target. This still would not necessarily prevent somebody from being tempted to use it, though - and that “somebody” could well be Vladimir Putin!
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  3

  Former Jehovah's Witness in Osaka shares regret over abusing son in name of religion

  by Tahoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230119/p2a/00m/0na/033000c .

  osaka -- a former jehovah's witness, who spoke about her regrets over abusing her son in the name of religion, is among many people coming out about their experiences linked to children being raised as "second-generation followers" in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister shinzo abe.. the woman in her 50s, who goes by the pseudonym ryoko, lives in the western japan city of osaka.

  even after 30 years, she still remembers her son crying and the pain she felt on her palm as she spanked her child over her lap as punishment for not sitting still at a religious meeting.. although she contemplated whether she should really spank her son, aged 2 at the time, she followed the teaching that "it's for the sake of the child to hit them.

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  Rivergang

  Will it ever penetrate through the concrete?

  Sitting still through two hours of a mind-boringly numb “meeting” is a challenge even for an adult, let alone a small child. Other religious groups at least have the sense to provide a more suitable “Sunday School” environment for children. Not this bloody lot, though!
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  76

  Front row seats watching the collapse of watchtower

  by Indoubtbigtime in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i’m a pimo ministerial servant and i won’t fade because i want to keep my front row seats watching what happens next few years.. my predictions are that this current governing body will slowly die off and the current younger helpers will be the next gb.

  they will eventually have new light that they were wrong about 1914 and the overlapping generations.. the new light will be something on the lines of the last days are now because of king of north king of south pushing each other etc etc.

  they will do their very best to burry old literature and try to change the past trying to make it sound like they were right all along just as they have done for 150 years now.

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  Rivergang

  As for me, I was barely able to keep up when I was PIMI. I can't imagine being PIMO and having to schedule so much time around the meetings and field service, or trying to convince people to study with the JWs when I do not believe in it myself. It's a bridge too far for me.

  My thoughts exactly!
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  76

  Front row seats watching the collapse of watchtower

  by Indoubtbigtime in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i’m a pimo ministerial servant and i won’t fade because i want to keep my front row seats watching what happens next few years.. my predictions are that this current governing body will slowly die off and the current younger helpers will be the next gb.

  they will eventually have new light that they were wrong about 1914 and the overlapping generations.. the new light will be something on the lines of the last days are now because of king of north king of south pushing each other etc etc.

  they will do their very best to burry old literature and try to change the past trying to make it sound like they were right all along just as they have done for 150 years now.

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  Rivergang

  It is hard to imagine how anybody could remain "Physically In - Mentally Out" of a religion such as the JWs, which demands everything from its rank-and-file membership. No difficulty, of course, being a "PIMO" member of any of the so-called "Mainstream Churches". In fact, most of their membership probably fits into that category i.e., get married in the church, get buried by the church, and attend a few church services in between times - but that is all.

  Sustaining that same trick for any length of time with the JWs, though, would surely tear a person apart - mentally and emotionally? (I would have thought, anyway!)

  As to the complete demise of the JW religion (whether with a whimper or with a bang), sadly not very likely. The more unpleasant forms of life are the ones which always seem to survive - even such catastrophic events as a nuclear explosion. For example, after a series of nuclear tests which were carried out in the 1950s on the then British territory of Christmas Island, it was noted that all other forms of life had been obliterated, except for the cockroaches and the rats. I rather fear that the JW religion is yet another unpleasant form of life which will somehow hang on, despite all the evidence on hand indicating otherwise.

  PS: I hope I am wrong, but somehow don't think so!
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  27

  How did you find Jehovah's Witness meetings?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i personally have only attended a handful of meetings at kingdom halls.

  i did not enjoy any of them nor was i impressed by anything that was conveyed.

  perhaps others did not find them boring as i did.. nadia viotto has this to say about her experience.

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  Rivergang

  Before ever attending a meeting at the Kingdom Hall, I had been given the impression that it was going to be a mind-altering experience. The reality came over as something of a let down. Still, I figured that there must have been a point that I was somehow missing. (One of the reasons I stayed around for as long as I did).

  But no, they can have their bloody meetings - I’d rather visit the dentist!
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  14

  Andrew Tate on the news

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  i hadn’t heard of this guy, andrew tate, until a few days ago, when he was mentioned on novara media (which is practically the only news i watch).

  then i saw a clip with him where he explained why he moved to romania: he said he ‘likes romania because the police are corrupt and you can pay them off’.

  (practically a direct quote) i thought to myself at the time that sounded a bit complacent!

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  Rivergang

  Hopefully, this might cut the arrogant twerp’s ego down to size for him.
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  42

  Just courius, some questions about the past

  by Gorb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  curious.

  time goes by so fast.

  who remembers 1975, the ray franz incident, the generation change in 1995, the blood fractions, alternative service, participation in ochr, aid afrique, the historical research by james pellechia, jolene chu and johannes stephan wrobel?

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  Rivergang

  Ding,

  Raymond Franz said as much in Crisis of Conscience. In the preparation of the WTS’s 1971 work Aid to Bible Understanding, he was given full access to all the reference works which the Society has at its disposal. Many of these had been written by scholars of the various “churches of Christendom”, and in so many instances, it was exactly as you describe. That is, what the JWs called “new light”, Christendom had known all along.
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  42

  Just courius, some questions about the past

  by Gorb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  curious.

  time goes by so fast.

  who remembers 1975, the ray franz incident, the generation change in 1995, the blood fractions, alternative service, participation in ochr, aid afrique, the historical research by james pellechia, jolene chu and johannes stephan wrobel?

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  Rivergang

  Enoughisenough summed it up perfectly.

  Furthermore, it was very sneaky how they introduced the first change about “The Generation”. On the inside cover of Awake always used to be a statement about the “generation which remembered 1914”. At some point in the mid to late 1970s, that wording was altered to the effect of the “generation born during or before 1914”.