Seeker4

Joined

• started 188 topics
• posted 3,219 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Seeker4

• 
  16

  Dalai Lama's 18 Rules for Living

  by AK - Jeff in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  dalai lamas 18 rules for livingat the start of the new millennium the dalai lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living.

  since word travels slowly in the digital age these have only just reached me.

  here they are.. take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  Hoax!

  Come on - the Dalai Lama sending out chain e-mails?? LOL - loser on line!

  S4
• 
  14

  Are all congregations equal?

  by kzjw in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've not posted much, but as i've lurked here trying to find the answers about the wt lies, it only re-enforced my disdain for it's cult like properties.

  i've read the horror stories of some who've been trapped in the "jw-multi gen" families trying to extricate themselves from the borg, and truly have empathy for "these ones".. i have also attended a couple of months worth of sun meetings with my wife (i listen to the talk, then walk during the wts) and as you've seen from previous posts, if the speaker lies, i will point it out to him after the meeting.

  but yesterday in a conversation with my wife i shared with her what i read on jwd, compared to how her congregation operates.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  I'm not so sure about the ethnic make-up, but I think the personality of the alpha elders will have a lot to do with the congregation.
  
  For instance, the story about the woman who was told by her Bible study conductor to cut up that flag and burn it. As an elder, I wouldn't have put up with that nonsense for a second. I'd have told that sister to back off, that she was totally out of line, and told the student that it was worshiping a flag that JWs didn't do - not owning a flag of such personal significance for her!
  
  My ex-wife's dad, a JW elder, was once in the service. We kept his service, in uniform photo, on the wall. Some people didn't like that - but that was all simply opinion, and I made that clear and did what I felt was right.
  
  So, if you've got a bunch of strongly opinionated elders who like to stick their noses in everyone's business and take a hardline on issues, the congregation will likely reflect that. Be assured, there are tons of congregations with lots of big problems, and a handful with things running smoothly.
  
  S4
• 
  47

  Children Who Leave Always Come Back to the Society

  by ataloa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i heard this in a car group one day.

  a young single mother said she always heard that growing up.

  when she left she was adamant she would never be back, and now here she was.. is this true for the most part?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  The Pew survey Blondie linked to is the best "official" info we have - which shows that JWs actually have the WORST retention rate, not the best, the OPPOSITE of this JW myth that all young people who leave eventually return.
  
  Unofficially, I've heard COs refer several times to the thought that ONLY 1 IN 8 of those raised JW stays a Witness. That was very close to the percentage I got when I unofficially surveyed several congregations, and I would bet it's pretty accurate. That translates to only 12.5% of those raised JW actually stay. The rest leave.
  
  Of course, some of those that leave as teens do come back - but again, I think the percentage is small. In fact, of the dozen or more families in the congregation where I raised my kids, I can think of only one family where all the kids remained JW. By far the majority of kids left, and most of those were smart enough to have never gotten baptized. Only one of my three kids got baptized and remains a Witness. MAYBE another 12% or so came back and are nominal JWs now - which would still still leave 75% out.
  
  S4
• 
  50

  How Did You Deal With Weirdo Witnesses?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know that some believe all jws are "weird".

  but i'm not talking about that.. there are some real weird witnesses!

  you know, the ones everyone had in their hall that everyone talked about or laughed at.. we had one 25 year old man who was pioneering and he used to go out to literally every neighborhood in the city.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  There was a sister in a NH congregation who pretended for years to have a serious disease - may have been MS. She was young and quite attractive, and carried on this facade for many years. It seems even her husband didn't know.
  
  She'd walk around with a cane, have times it went into remission, travel to Europe for special treatments, have the friends cart her around and help take care of her.
  
  It was very strange, and obviously a serious mental issue. How did the bros handle it when it finally all collapsed? DFed her, of course.
  
  S4
• 
  51

  Elder in my old hall is DFed – wow!

  by Alexia in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i ran into an old friend spontaneously over the weekend.

  (one of the few jws i actually considered a friend back in the day).

  we were briefly catching up and she mentioned an elder in my old hall is now dfed.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  Good for him, and the usual shame on this typical, busy body BOE.
  
  I knew an elder, David Tennant, now deceased, who came into his house with his wife. There was an intruder there, and the guy grabbed Dave's wife. Dave came in, saw what was happening, a from what I understand, laid a serious beating on the guy. Dave was a mason, and I'm sure he was capable of it.
  
  I couldn't believe it that the elders actually met with him about it!
  
  My view is that you have to decide at some point that a life is in danger, and for me that point is when someone comes into my or someone's I'm responsible for space with a bad purpose. I will do what I have to to get you out of that space and to end the danger.
  
  S4
• 
  21

  June 3-08 #4 Talk - Evolution - A Scientific Dilemma

  by still_in74 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  okay, so i have this talk tonight and i forgot all about it.

  anyone on here have this talk and can post it here for me??????????.

  or if you feel inclined you can write it for me!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  Looking at that source material, and thinking I'd have to give a talk from that, made my stomach just churn - literally. A dishonest definition of organic evolution followed by a series of ancient - and very possibly questionable - "scientific quotes."
  
  I'd love to get up there for five minutes and tear that material to shreds!
  
  Where exactly did this source material come from?
  
  S4
• 
  43

  2012: The Year The Internet Ends

  by What-A-Coincidence in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality.

  06/01/2008 - every significant internet provider around the globe is currently in talks with access and content providers to transform the internet into a television-like medium: no more freedom, you pay for a small commercial package of sites you can visit and you'll have to pay for seperate subscriptions for every site that's not in the package.

  what can we do?internet providers have realized that the only way to not lose massive amounts of customers over this is to make sure there are no alternatives, that's why all major internet providers are currently making agreements and planning to switch simultaneously somewhere in the year 2012. this is currently all going on under very strict nda's (non-disclosure agreements) because the last thing they want is the masses speaking out against it.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  Is it a form of mental illness for people to fall for all of this nonsense without any evidence? Why is it that some people are so prone to this, like WAC?
  
  I have a friend who is very much like that. She'll find the oddest stuff and run with it - yet in many ways she highly intelligent.
  
  She once paid me a couple of thousand dollars to write an article on the origins of AIDS - expecting that I would find it was created by the government. Didn't happen due to the lack of facts supporting her premise.
  
  She's quite wealthy - but suspects the government of all sorts of atrocities. She will believe the most outrageous claims of quacks - but reject accepted research.
  
  She's also gay. She once directed me to a website that used the fact that female gorillas don't have a clitoris as "proof" that evolution didn't happen! I studied the site a bit, and realized the writer was a religious nut - and that he had a huge anti-homosexual agenda. When I pointed out that this guy wanted her dead, she backed off from that site!
  
  I think it's a mental issue.
  
  S4
• 
  46

  Knorr on 1914: "I don't know." - Mouthy Alert!

  by compound complex in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  dear mouthy and other denounced ones,.

  you may find this double standard $%^@#@*&!

  "in 1975, knorr made a remarkable and candid statement to the governing body, which confirmed his growing disillusionment until his death two years later: ["]'"there are some things i know --- i know that jehovah is god, that christ jesus is his son, that he gave his life as a ransom for us, that there is a resurrection.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  CoCo:
  
  I've been re-reading CoC over the last few days, and finding it ever more interesting.
  
  Thanks.
  
  S4
• 
  50

  How Did You Deal With Weirdo Witnesses?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know that some believe all jws are "weird".

  but i'm not talking about that.. there are some real weird witnesses!

  you know, the ones everyone had in their hall that everyone talked about or laughed at.. we had one 25 year old man who was pioneering and he used to go out to literally every neighborhood in the city.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  I usually ended up adopting them! Really. I always treated people pretty well no matter how odd, so I ended up attracting a lot of strange folks!
  
  Min, did you ever know Neal Dewey from Massachusetts?
  
  S4
• 
  12

  Where Are Those Purged in the Great Bethel Shakeup of 1981?

  by Seeker4 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  over the last couple of days i've been re-reading parts of crisis of conscience, and wondering where some of these folks are.

  i know that ray and cynthia franz are in georgia and having some health issues, and that ed dunlap passed away.

  randy is in ca and often here with us.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Seeker4

  Anyone know about the Latin crew that got DFed - they were working in the Spanish translation department and got treated VERY poorly.
  
  S4