Posts by Outsider Friend

46

What is God doing?

by Kagloo in

this is a genuine question... i mean no disrespect to anyone...especially to my heavenly father....but i have this gnawing question in my head that just wont go away...... okay... with that out of the way.... let's take the holly and jessica story that hit the headlines in the uk recently...two innocent kids, murdered and left to decompose in a filthy mud trench....;or worse than that, the story about the two people in the usa who have been busted for running an internet child porn site that features pix of children...babies as young as five months... five months!!!!!!

!.....being sexually abused..... if i start to think about what these poor kids went through it drives me mad!

and then if i start to think about what some kids are still going through even as i write..... welli can hardly bear it!.

Outsider Friend

I definitely think it is not only okay to be angry with God but also important to be honest with Him about. He is not just some being that we cannot know and are forced to fear; He is our Abba, Father.

What God is NOT is someone to be filthily disrespected, (no matter how burned you have been in the past), like in the closet statement above. Especially when Kagloo is trying to ask a genuine question.

I really wish I knew the answers to why awful things happen in this world or why horrific things happen to great people or innocent children. It would be so much easier if God had not allowed Evil to enter into our world.

Naked - I appreciate your insights; you seem to be right on.

13

Abuse in other religions?

by wednesday in

i have been a jw all my life and i'm in mid to late 40's.

i've seen much abuse.currently i am inactive/attend occ meeting.. my husband who is also a jw and attends some meetings but has been inactive in service for some time due to depression.not at all responsive to me talking to him about this site.he defends jw to the end.my question has to do with other religions than jw.

my husband says that issues like child molestation/ abuse and rape have not generally been dealt well with by anybody until lately.i am from texas and here the baptist and church of christ are major religions.

Outsider Friend

When people "break the rules" or are living in sin, there must be some accountability - to a certain extent. However, excommunicating or disfellowshiping that person is not the answer. Nor is it my job as a member of my church to run around with a checklist of every sin So and So is committing. But churches who have the mindset that "Oh, I better let her do whatever she wants so as not to turn her away..." are very sad as well. It is a hard line to draw.

The molestation instances within the JW churches are bad, but like your husband (and the other responders so far) has said, it is true that this and every other sin happens in other churches (religions). If the fact that "Other churches are doing it" is his excuse of why JW is good, that does not even make sense. Anyway, the evidence of the molesters is very low of my list of why I think the JW is a "religion" to stay far, far away from. Keep waiting; don't give up on him (and yourself!)

27

nervous and confused

by dazedgrl in

hi, i have been reading post for over a month before getting up the nerve to register.

its been really interesting listening to all of your perspectives.

i was raised a jw.

Outsider Friend

Hello all, and hello Dazed Grl. My name is Outsider Friend because I am not a JW (nor have I ever been), but a girl I love dearly has grown up in a JW family. She is trying to get out and has greatly struggled for years over many issues, but I think the main issue at this point is what it would mean with her whole family and most of the friends she has ever known.

I am a person who does not think that Jehovah's Witnesses are "freaks" or anything like that. (I can't say the same for their actual religion, though).What I have seen on this site is so encouraging to me because I feel like I am indeed involved in what you all are involved in because I feel so much of what my friend goes through. I am so grateful that I have not grown up within the JW society, though if I had, I can only hope that I would have been strong enough to question for myself and hopefully leave! That is the part that I can only think what it must be, for I cannot relate personally.

What I have seen on this site is mostly wonderful people who are craving conversation with people who they have a major connection to. The other part of what I have seen is a group of people who are so fed up with what they have experienced or seen within the JW religion that they think that all religion is awful - so now they have no religion at all. This to me seems almost worse than still being a JW, but then again I can only say that as an outsider looking in. ; I love and worship the true Lord and Jesus Christ; He is my Savior! Ironically, we call God Jehovah too. I know that I worship the same God as JW's do, but the difference is ALL that they are missing out on.

I really hope that no one is offended that I wrote (or by what I wrote) - I more just wanted to lend my support to the members of this site and to say Hats Off to Dazed Grl (the friend whom I love) for her journey. My prayer of the week for you is that you will find God's peace in your quest and above all, that you will accept His gift for your life. The peace you are searching for and the confidence you are praying for that you are making the correct decision? It will come WHEN YOU MAKE THE DECISION. Until then, you are fair game to Deception.

Does that make sense?

love you,

Outsider FRIEND