Posts by problemaddict

23

An apostate goes public

by Borges in

jw
friends

i mentioned in a thread some weeks ago ( http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/244078/1/first-public-talk-as-an-apostate ), that i was invited to give a talk at a symposium about cults.

this will take place at the first weekend in may.. i'm going to talk about the difficulties you have to face when leaving the jw.

yesterday i've got an another invitation to speak to a senior year class in a middle school.

Do you really think Jesus is in this room? No----I KNOW Jesus is in this room"

by Terry in

jw
friends

cormac mccarthy wrote no country for old men, the road, the border trilogy (all the pretty horses...etc.).

and he wrote this play: sunset ltd.. .

it is a 2 man play.. the 2 men are samuel l. jackson and tommy lee jones.

weres the money??

by Crazyguy in

every one or most here seem to think the wt is in it for the money, if so any one have any ideas about were the moneys going and what its paying for??

?.

problemaddict

Not everyone. But money is always a motivating factor in people. As is power, and how other people view you.

The money is in several accounts (including one large Citibank account that is one of citibanks finest according to my asset manager friend with the bank), and is used for all kinds of stuff.

I don't personally think that the GB is living high on the hog so to speak. But brothers such as JR Brown and some of the more prominent DO's and CO's do get left property and given money many times from those they meet in the circuit. Sometimes they do very well, most do not.

Thy aren't building mansions or driving Mercedes. They of course never have to do a real days work in their lives, and are damn near treated as royalty. The society is always afraid they won't have anough money, so they hoard it. Why? I have no idea.

But no I don't think "they" are in it for the money. I think they are basically true believers, that don't mind being taken care of along the way.

31

IT IS NOT A CULT!!

by Butterflyleia85 in

jw
friends

it is not a cult!!!

if you weren't mesmerized by the internet since ya know it never lies!

read the bible how do they go against it.

problemaddict

I personally feel the term cult just doesn't do any good. It comes off as offensive, and even though there are cult like characteristics, I think high control group would be more fitting. Of course the more I am away......

I just think the discourse should be brought up a tad by the civilized ones in the room. Us. Meaning why not reach out to others in type of photo negative field ministry via the internet. I want to sit with that thought for a while. What would the go to presentation be?

9

July 15 WT- When a Parable is a Prophecy Then a Parable All At Once

by Comatose in

notice the explanation from the box on page 24. the parable they say is a prophecy is here confirmed to just be a parable regarding the evil slave.

how can a prophetic parable to be taken literally revert to a parable on an inconvenient part?

it's the same parable!!!!.

problemaddict

I don't know if its parable vs prophecy here. They are saying that the faithful slave COULD BE the evil slave based on that statement"if ever". In other words, there are not two slaves, one evil and one faithful. There is one slave but you don't have to worry about them because they are nourishing you and giving you meat in due season and all that jazz.

This if I am not mistaken is still a departure from the evil slave being a separate group of apostate organizers or whatever they taught before.

15

I just noticed a major omission in the list of DF'ing offenses

by JeffT in

i noticed this on slimboy's list of things that can get you df'd, and i checked it against the "flock" book.. .

there is no mention of blood transfusions!

i know they are downplaying this, but have they stopped df'ing people for it altogether?

problemaddict

You can't make this stuff up.

I have recently been having a conversation with a brother about the blood thing. He is a family friend and an elder (former CO). He told me there was a case where someone took blood, and they were not disfellowshipped. His point was to try to say it isn't "enforced". I asked him if the person was repentant or not. of course he was "weak" at the time he made his decision and so he was "delt with mercifully" (seriously this sounds like game of thrones).

I asked what would have happened if he didn't feel he did anything wrong acording to scripture and his conscience.

(crickets)

34

Immoral sleeping arrangement?

by hoser in

jw
friends

i'm reading through the watchtower rule book right now and i came to the chapter clarification and guidelines on handling certain matters.

there is a part about scriptural divorce and even if adultery is not proved if your ex stayed all night or is involved in an immoral sleeping arrangement you can get scriptural grounds to remarry.. .

they make a rule, then they have to make a rule for the rule, make another rule for the rule for the rule.

problemaddict

"even if adultery is not proved if your ex stayed all night or is involved in an immoral sleeping arrangement you can get scriptural grounds to remarry."

The other question is: what happened to the Watchtower's beloved "two witness" rule in this instance? The WT will let a pedophile off the hook based on the fact that two people were not watching the child being raped. But in this case, even when both adults involved in the "immoral sleeping arrangement" deny any wrongdoing, the WT will allow an assumption of guilt to hold sway.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADCMS,

Hey well done. I had never put these two together before, and it is pretty damning. Enough to I believe be able to make a point to someone I am having a conversation with currently. Thanks!

45

The CO 'encourages' Julia to meet with THREE elders- the latest episode in the best-selling drama, The Fade of Julia Orwell.

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

it was yesterday morning and hubby and i were having a huge sleep in.

it was just after ten, and with me being a bit flu-ey i was quite capable of staying in bed longer.

hubby was feeling it too, and we were pleasantly drifting in and out to the sounds of birds.. then suddenly, cloomp, cloomp, cloomp up the front stairs, then "rap-rap-rap" on the front screen door, that rapid-fire, strong knock of the practiced door-knocker.

problemaddict

Hey Julia. The reality it this young CO probably does really care about people, and in particular you. he probably knows you were not trated well and is idealistic about helping. He just SINCERLY believes the way to do that is through meetings and talking and annointing the sinner with oil or some crap.

Take his kindness for what it was, and expression of kindness. Then make your decisions as you know you should. No reason to be stressed, you are in control. Your husband loves you and is with you. You got this!

12

Christopher Hitchens has a message for Jehovah's Witnesses

by Finkelstein in

well perhaps not directly to jws but the speech within this video could very well... one thing about hitchens he had the veracity to cut open religious theocracy with .

a sharp knife and expose it like no one else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj2lehsa1dk.

problemaddict

I believe in God, and I agree with him.

82

Will AAWA Become another cult?

by His Excellency in

please sorry for english, i have only been learning for 18 months.

everyone please think about it, and beware of any initiative designed to solve "a community problem".

becasue russel also started his own cult on a similar premise like this , claiming to have all the answers to issues whose solutions seems obscured to the majority in his days, and here we are today, constantly bashing our fingers on the keyboard in a bid to finding comfort from the mess he had put all of us into.

problemaddict

I honestly thought the thread was a jok until about the end of page one.

Ummmm, there is no ideology of AAWA. Its like being concerned that the Red Cross or Crossfit will become acult simply because they are groups with a specific purpose. Every group maintains its own community identity. But buddy, that community identity is far cry from cultism, until it ACTS like a cult.

John or anyone else just naming the thing and moving on, is hardly an exibition of cultism. Rather this "warning" is a narrow sighted vision of what it takes to organize any fringe group of people with common cause. The EXJW community is fractioned, and this may be a foundational point.

There is nothing to jon that requires your allegience. So maybe its true and your english is not very good. You don't seem to understand the english word "cult".