DanielP:
The JWs have never disallowed this is all I'm saying. YOU define it as getting involved in politics, but the WTS has NEVER taken that step.
A local JW couple took the LEAD with a local group in my hometown that opposed a landfill being developed on the road they lived on. He was an engineer and was instrumental in getting the landfill voted down by local zoning. They were filmed speaking at local meetings several times, and it was broadcast on local tv.
This is NOT against any WTS policy or council.
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Seeker4
JoinedPosts by Seeker4
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Seeker4
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LETTER RECEIVED FROM AN OLD JW ACQUAINTANCE
by Terry inseveral weeks ago i attended a jehovah's witness funeral.
it was for my (former) best friend's mother.. i posted that account and of how surprised i was to meet old friends, "brothers" and "sisters" from my active jw days of old.. they treated me spontaneously with affection.. i got the following letter the other day from pamela.
she was the wife of another friend of mine.
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Seeker4
Terry, just read your response.
Excellent!
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Seeker4
Come on - Every citizen has a right to attend these meetings and voice their opinions about what is done with their tax money and there is NOTHING in JW teachings that disallows this.
Sorry - much ado about nothing.
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I Do Not Understand Why JWs Leave & Become Catholics!
by minimus inout of all religions, catholicism, to me, is wrong and clearly could never be the truth.
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Seeker4
It's interesting that Barbara Harrison Grazutti, Tom Cabeen and two of our serious JWD posters (names evade me at the moment, but they were on the ETWN (??) Catholic channel a few months ago) here left the JWs and eventually became Catholic. Barbara I think was intrigued by the beauty and ritual. She and I e-mailed a few times, having a few JW friends in common, just before she died.
As far as Catholics go, I do have to say that the writings of Thomas Merton, who became a Trappist monk, have been very important to me. I've been fascinated by the idea of monks, regardless of the religion. Sort of strange for a horndog like me!
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LETTER RECEIVED FROM AN OLD JW ACQUAINTANCE
by Terry inseveral weeks ago i attended a jehovah's witness funeral.
it was for my (former) best friend's mother.. i posted that account and of how surprised i was to meet old friends, "brothers" and "sisters" from my active jw days of old.. they treated me spontaneously with affection.. i got the following letter the other day from pamela.
she was the wife of another friend of mine.
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Seeker4
Thanks for posting Terry. It reflects what I think a lot of my JW ex-friends feel. They tend to see this world as an awful place from which they need saving - but have very adjusted expectations about when it's exactly going to happen.
The typical Witness doesn't expect much from the friends, and would be as surprised as anyone else if God actually DID do something!
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Old people and the internet
by Burger Time ini just read a post where a 52 year old woman posted a huge diatribe about a certain subject....not a big deal but it was used with multiple sized fonts and well just plainly over sized.
i have noticed this is a problem with most older ones who post on the internet?
whats up with that?
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Seeker4
Ha! You're confusing old age with something else.
I'm 56, and I see the same things in the hundreds of e-mails we get here at my newspaper each week, and it's got nothing to do with age.
Yeah, there are old people without computer skills. But there are a ton of younger people who do these really tacky e-mails with funny scripts and gee-gaws all over the place.
Also - 50s is not old. Your 50s are the new 30s, where the hell have you been!!
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Be honest. Would having more money make you happier?
by nicolaou init's not that simple of course but i would certainly appreciate the freedom and time that cash in the bank would give me.
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how about you?.
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Seeker4
I'm in my mid-50s, and one lesson I've learned is that the lack of money is the source of a LOT of stress in life. I HATE it when I don't have enough money. I've lived too many years where blowing the motor in a vehicle or another unexpected event could have put me on the streets.
Waking up in the middle of the night stressed out about how you're going to pay bills is HORRIBLE.
So yes, money can be a huge factor in a person's happiness. Not having to worry about paying bills, not having to drive a junk vehicle that is a constant source of frustration, not having to worry about heating your home because fuel oil is outrageously expensive, being able to do what you want when you want to, being able to help your kids or grandkids get a good education - those things are priceless.
At the same time, a LOT of money can be a huge factor in a person's unhappiness.
As jgnat wrote, there is a point of diminishing returns. There is a great book, Your Money or Your Life, that discusses this in detail. They have a graph that shows a real increase in happiness as income expands and debt diminishes. BUT, at a certain point, once needs and legitimate and important wants are met, there is a rapid leveling off, and after that happiness actually DECREASES, even though wealth might increase.
I've told all my kids that, if there was ONE THING that they could do that would make their lives much, much better and happier, it was to learn how to handle money and stay out of debt.
I'm not sure they listened all that well!
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Major Changes in Watchtower Land???
by dedalus inaccording to my wife, who is reading some other discussion board, the following changes are happening in the organization, or will happen, or have happened:.
1. no more book study meetings.
instead, the book study is added to the theocratic ministry school meeting.. 2. awake is published only once a month.. 3. two versions of the watchtower: one for the public, one for the witnesses themselves.. 4. shortened sunday meetings -- 1.5 hours instead of 2.0 hours.. 5. shortened hourly requirements for pioneers (this one may not be as new as the others?)..
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Seeker4
Hey Dedalus, great to have you drop in!
All the changes have been pretty well covered above. One cool thing was that the book study change was supposedly a big secret to be announced at the WTS a short while ago.
Except, of course, that a few elders leaked it on JWD, and a few others inadvertently verified it, so all the apostates got a chance to leak it to any JW they were still in touch with...
So...the big, secret announcement was not such a big secret after all.
I hope you are doing wonderfully!
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Public Talk & Bookstudy Changes - the real reason
by bud2114 ini havn't been able to keep up with all the discussion in this forum as to why the gb has suddenly decided to implement these changes and perhaps someone has mentioned this already, but to me the most obvious reason has nothing to do with control, or money.
it has everything to do with the serious shortage of qualified brothers who can (or who are willing to) be used.
i have been involved in the organzation for 40 yrs and i have never seen the level of apathy and disillusionment among those serving in some capacity in this organization.
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Seeker4
Save My soul and Claw,
At one time a few years ago we had a thread where different folks talked about what made them leave. I was astounded at how many left due to the generation change. I've long felt and written on this board and H2O that the mid-1990s was a big turning point for the JWs.
That 1914 Generation changed confirmed to me and a lot of others what we'd been thinking for some time - the WTS is NOT what we'd been old and led to believe. They were guessing, and not very well.
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As A Former JW, Do You Feel You Should "Apologize" For Past Actions?
by minimus indo you believe that you should now apologize for whatever actions you made when you were a witness?.
do you think that if you were an elder that you should contact those that might've felt oppressed by you and your "theocratic" actions?.
if you were a zealous preacher, do you now feel you should go back to your former bible students and tell them the error of your ways?.
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Seeker4
I'd definitely apologize to the few folks I was involved in disfellowshipping.
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