Posts by problemaddict

64

Speculation: Female Ministerial Servants coming soon

by Londo111 in

ive no source for this, just personal speculation.. * there is a good case to be made that there were female deacons (ministerial servants) in the bible.. * there is a lack of qualified brothers for basic assignments such as microphones, accounts, literature.

in some cases, elders have had to do double duty because of a lack of ministerial servants or qualified brothers.. * women outnumber men in the organization.. * there is supposedly a surprising change coming "down the pipe".. perhaps the only difference between male and female ministerial servants is that women will still not be allowed to teach..

problemaddict

Nope.......females will not be allowed to be MS's which are "appointed men" but their definition.

BUT!

Why not pull some other phrase out of your bum and give it meaning? We will call them Rahabs or something silly like that.

14

Sam Harris on Christian Morality

by cofty in

the following video sums up why i not only reject theism but oppose it.... if you worship a god who hears your prayers please invest 6 minutes to listen and ask yourself how you would respond.

then ask yourself whether your answer requires the same special pleading and double-think we used to indulge in to defend our jw beliefs.....

problemaddict

Even as a JW it made me mad t hear about people praying to be able to attend convention and then poof......they get the day off, or some mess like that. Even then my thoguht was.....hey dude 10's of thousands of people died today due to very little if any fault of their own....but Jehovah gave you Friday off so you could fry in the heat and remember about 2% of what you heard?

While I have a hard time going the full athiest......its where I tend to lean more and more.

25

BEING SHUNNED

by JOHNROSS93 in

after almost 40 years of being shunned by close family members, it never gets easier.

my own mother is under the spell of the "organization" and won't even write to me.

for a long time i sent her things - cards, news articles of interest, jokes, etc - i finally gave up.

problemaddict

Johnross,

A friend of mine who is not even disfellowshipped but walked away because he was honest with himself about his sexual orientation, has a mother who I personally knew and in no way seemed to be a dingbat.....send him the occasional condolances or funeral card.

Yes his mother sends him a mourning card from time to time. Just a friendly reminder he will die and she is prepared for it.

How loving!

If he receives anything now, he just writes return to sender on it and throws it back in the mailbox.

31

Blood Transfusions - What are the risks?

by Lee Elder in

this is a new article that we've just published:.

http://ajwrb.org/blood-transfusions-what-are-the-risks.

lee elder.

problemaddict

Daniel.....maybe tell the elders, that you had a friend in the states call the HLC, and they told him what JW gone Bad just related!!

You are ina latin country right? Well I served in a Latin country for some time, and if its one thing I know, its that they worship the US branch even more than people here do. If you tell them this, maybe it will buy you some time.

As far as JW gone bads statement, I should note I have a good friend who is a CO, that told me very directly, "we don't even disfellowship for that anymore".

It would be nice if they told the rest of the flock. I can't tell if they are lying through semantics, or have actually changed the policy but not told anyone.

35

If you don't like being a Jehovah's Witness then leave....

by Quirky1 in

jw
friends

if you don't like being a jehovah's witness or going to the kingdom hall or the society then leave.... it's as simple as that... .

i left several years ago and have not been hounded, bothered or sought out by anyone.

i still see them from time to time, and yes, they do pour out the love bomb when you run into them, but eh, you know what?

problemaddict

Honestly, I don't see alot of people here whining and complaining. What I see is VENTING.

If you can't speak to others that are "trapped" or the very small sub group of people within a sub group of people that understand your particular challenges.......who can you talk to?

Quirky I don't know you, and while your statement is ultimately true, it reads like the statement of a person who didn't have to give up much to not be a JW anymore.

I left...no longer attend. It wasn't easy but I knew the decision was ultimately mine. Still I took my time, and had I not done that, my wife would not be as close to leaving as she is.

So its simple....and complicated. Know what I mean?

16

My Satantic Smurf Scratch n' Sniff Stickers Story (True!)

by Phaedra in

jw
friends

back in the early 80s when i was around 9 or 10, my slightly-older best jw friend relished telling me all the latest scare stories she heard about the satanic smurfs popping off of wallpaper, cutting babies with sharp objects, and running through kingdom hall corridors swearing.

wide-eyed with no critical thinking skills at.

i listened and believed every single word.

problemaddict

Bob, I heard those as well....but not the fantasia one.

16

My Satantic Smurf Scratch n' Sniff Stickers Story (True!)

by Phaedra in

jw
friends

back in the early 80s when i was around 9 or 10, my slightly-older best jw friend relished telling me all the latest scare stories she heard about the satanic smurfs popping off of wallpaper, cutting babies with sharp objects, and running through kingdom hall corridors swearing.

wide-eyed with no critical thinking skills at.

i listened and believed every single word.

problemaddict

I love the smurf story. I never really believed these things. I had my mom watch a smurf episode so i could show her it was just aharless cartoon. well.....it was heavy on the Gargamel that day i guess so she considered it "obviously" demonized.....just like Scooby Doo.

But Scooby Doo was always a guy in a ghost suit at the end......ALWAYS.

Nope, didn't matter. It was that they were entertaining it.

My favorite one though ws the one that said there was blood in Nestle Quick. This one made its rounds in the black JW community like gangbusters.

100

What's the most dumbest/petty thing you've heard of someone being "stumbled" over?

by Reality79 in

- some loser once took offense that i hugged a sister goodbye at a leaving do and ran back to the elders like a little child telling on me.

i was 15, this sister was in her 40s at the time.. - this elder said someone told him they saw me with a copy of the sun newspaper.

yes, this paper is known for its 'page 3' topless girls but far from pornagraphic and i wasn't even thinking along those lines.. - one brother who had a good job was 'counselled' because he was actually able to buy himself nice things including a new car (shock, horror!!

problemaddict

These are great. Bye bye birdie, i wish i could have seen the looks on these guys when you said these things.

Calebs Airplane,

I hear first hand a story of a guy removed from being an MS in a London congregation because he bought a 2 seater sports car, and not his sedan anymore. The person that told me this was a friends wife, and I thought we would all get a nice laught out of it. I started with the whoel what kind of Pharisees yadda yadda yadda.....

Well......it became readily apparent that she 100% agreed with these guys when she said....."well......its obvious he didn't want to help anyone...."

I asked her for the scriptural principle he broke, and what no longer scripturally qualified him and needless to say we can't stand each other. He was a great friend too. Now I just can't be around the guy because I can't stand his self righteous wife. Pretty well known family in london I believe. Brother was disfellowshipped from Bethel.

Didn't change her stuffy attitude a bit.

25

"Are you a progressive thinker"

by Pistoff in

this was the theme of a talk at this week's 2nd weekly meeting with the co.. .

if you are a progressive thinker, so went the reasoning, you will accept all of the adjustments coming from the 'faithful and discreet slave'.. .

this so hurt my head when wife told me about it; really?.

problemaddict

Its just.....its brilliant.

Are you a progressive thinker? (clearly this is presented as a good thing)

(It is then defined) Then we will accept the changes in understanding and direction from the slave.

So they have essentially saud YOU stop holding onto YOUR old beliefs and become PROGRESSIVE by switching to the new ones handed to you.

Its hilarious!!!

35

Shunning Makes us Joyful - Another Blast on Jehovah's Trumpet

by cofty in

like all the best comedy this is hilarious and agonising in equal measure.. if you have not bookmarked the jehovah's trumpet blog do it now.. shunning makes us joyful .... "fiends, we are the happiest people on earth because of true worship, and this includes the practice of shunning our closest loved ones...".

problemaddict

"Many apostates have accused us of satire, but we would never be found guilty of this unclean practice."

If they keep it up they could be our Stephen Colbert.