interesting story i have a friend who is df but his wife still faithfully goes to meetings.
there's a single brother in the cong that is always flirting with his wife.
well at a recent meeting my df friend decided to show up to check this brother out.
There must be at least a dozen other people Br. Awkward could ask for lotion.
A simple "I'm flattered by your kindness, but I *am* married, and my husband would not appreciate all this attention from you" should suffice. If he tries further she could say "I am praying that my husband will be moved to be Reinstated™ some day, and I wouldn't want him to have a misunderstanding of your friendship that would Stumble™ him and keep him from returning."
why were we ever a jw?
were we mad?
we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.
There is a reason for why the WTS tells JWs to seek out people in a transitional or difficult point in their lives. It's because these individuals are in a psychologically vulnerable phase, and are more apt to be drawn in to the net of groups like JWs, Scientologists, Moonies, etc.
For my family, it was moving across the country and having no friends or family members in our new community. The JWs came round (just as they had in Calgary) but instead of shooing them away like they had in the past, they talked to my folks about how there was so much pollution in the city, and that pollution was something quite shocking to my parents. Next thing you know, there's a Home Bible Study™ at our house every week from The Truth™ book. The lack of close relationships in our new community, meant that the JWs soon became a source of social interaction, and there was nobody nearby with a vested interest in trying to snatch us out of the frying pan.
I wouldn't say my parents were idiots, but I would say that their vulnerabilities were exploited.
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
Cassaruby: I learned from studying Campbell that the path of Atheism and agnosticism means figuring life out on your own.
Frankly "figuring life out on your own" is a damn sight better than being spoon-fed The Milk of The Word™ as the WT promotes.
But, truly, that is NOT what happens when you become an atheist. I've learned a great deal from others. I went back to school and learned the skill of critical thinking, which is basically how to sort through the reams of BS that other people are trying to sell you. It's embarrassing to look back at the black-and-white, super simplistic, child-like way I viewed the world as a young adult, and it bothers me that there are people who feel as though I've betrayed *them* for wanting more than that, when in actuality, they betrayed themselves and me by wanting to stay in that restrictive mindset, and not having anyone buck the system.
"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .
.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .
from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.
The way I look at it, as an atheist, there isn't any particularly compelling evidence for the existence of a god or gods.
Several hundreds of years ago, the Greeks believed in their pantheon of gods, and the Romans and Norse had their own pantheons of gods. These were their religious beliefs. As time moved forward, those beliefs were debunked and the religions were relegated to the realm of mythology.
Do you believe that Zeus is real? or Thor? or Lord Brahma? or Vishnu? If you don't, then you are atheist with regard to those old gods.
You simply believe in one more god than I do.
so i had my first appointment with a counsellor, of course i explained about being a born in jw, mentally leaving, the penalty of doing so and therefore the mental strain of pretending to be someone i'm not.
her response was that she couldn't help me with that because leaving a cult was a "lifestyle choice".
i tried to say to her that its a cult not a religion and how it brain washed me but no.
purrpurr
Is it possible that you could access interim care if your employer has what is known as EAP (Employee Assistance Program)?
My employers have had this benefit available - and you can access the counsellors in-person, online, by phone, and by email. I was entitled to 5 of each type of visit per "issue", per year.
i browse this site on mobile and noticed that the thread post view is now stuck at 10. previously, i could set it at 20 and it stays that way, but now if i set it at 20, it goes back to 10 again the moment i click on another topic.
i hope that you can look into this as it is extremely irritating for me to keep having to change it.
i want to view as many posts as possible in one page!
bsmart wrote:
Still doing this, how do I clear the cache in Edge?
Stop using Edge. hehehe
i've been noticing lots of these pins on lapels.
i could almost understand the jwdotorg pin because the new mantra is to go to the website.
but why on earth are they sporting a building?
Richard Oliver writes:
a character who is 5-10 years old who is male and has brown hair and brown eyes is really hard to claim it is unique.
Well, you have Dora the Explorer © targeting young kids with "her" brand. IMO Caleb and Sophia are the WT surrogate for characters like this - marketing is targeted to *children*. This is the age (5 - 14 years) where brand indoctrination is the most effective, because children are drawn to make believe characters, including Dora, Caleb and Sophia, Tony the Tiger, Lucky the Leprechaun, Ronald McDonald et al, etc.
i've been noticing lots of these pins on lapels.
i could almost understand the jwdotorg pin because the new mantra is to go to the website.
but why on earth are they sporting a building?
Personally, I think it's hilarious and a bit desperate.
It reminds me of those Shaklee or Amway "Ask me how!" bumper stickers back in the 80s.
It would be even more funny if it was an exJW / Apostate™ marketing those idiotic pins to JWs. I know someone who makes pewter pins and jewelry and he says it's easy money if you target the correct market.
nathan, outlaw.....all of you hilarious people...this means you!
i believe in humor as an effective way to bring attention to an important topic.
humor has made many people aware of the true nuttiness of the jw cult in the past (sign language masturbation video—went viral).. amazon allows humorous reviews and even showcases them.
My personal favorite is in the new Learn from the Great Teacher book, where it tells children that touching their private parts or (heaven forfend!) each other's private parts "makes Satan the Devil and the demons happy".
It's not just about "you don't want to make Jehovah and Jesus sad, do you?", it's become "you don't want to do something that makes SATAN happy, do you?"
Poor JW kids getting their minds f*cked on a regular basis - I have those books - the pink one, the red one, the yellow one and the paperback one - and I never let my kids near them.
nathan, outlaw.....all of you hilarious people...this means you!
i believe in humor as an effective way to bring attention to an important topic.
humor has made many people aware of the true nuttiness of the jw cult in the past (sign language masturbation video—went viral).. amazon allows humorous reviews and even showcases them.
"menstruation . . . is a thrilling moment."
Yup, in the good old Bible-timey times, the time when a girl first had menstruation meant that her father could trade her to some rich old geezer to secure property and security for himself, whether she liked the arrangement or not.
