Posts by Skeptic

105

Athiests and Christmas?

by clash_city_rockers in

i was just thinking.

since christmas is about the birth of christ, i know dec 25 was not his birthday, probly born around late sept or early oct. i guess he wanted to be born right before the baseball playoffs and world series, just kidding.

it was the early christian church that appointed dec 25th.

Skeptic

Aztec has made many good points here. Especially her views on the consumerist holiday and the Winter Solstice.

BTW, I love the humor in this thread!

Some of the Christians posting here have no problem taking a pagan holiday and making it a Christian one. But they have a problem with atheists taking a Christian holiday and making it a family holiday. That is not clear thinking.

It would seem rather silly for an atheist to be singing "Joy to the World" or "Hark the Angels Sing", wouldn't it?

I have done exaclty that as an atheist. Windrider wanted me to attend a church service with her on Xmas eve, and I gladly did. I got right into it, too. It was wonderful. Stirred up a lot of great emotions.

Just because someone attends the Memorial at the Kingdom Hall does not mean they share the JW's beliefs.

Christmas is a tradition in our country, and one I enjoy. To me it is a family time that has its origins back in pagan times. Some of the traditions are religious, some arent. Both are fine with me. Just because I follow some of those traditions does not mean that I have suddenly become a Christian. If it did, then it would mean almost all Christians are really pagans. And the JW numbers are about three times what the WTS presently claims.

Some day I would love to celebrate the Winter Solstice. I have no idea how it is done, but I would love to do it anyway.

If I visit a Muslim country, I would love to celebrate Ramadan. I actually considered that even when I was a JW.

As an atheist, I am free to pick and choose what traditions and customs I want to follow.

Richard

Edited by - Skeptic on 17 December 2002 14:28:35

6

Did you ever get caught.....

by freedom96 in

jw
friends

when you were a witness, did you ever get caught at a holiday party?.

when i was 17, my work had a christmas party.

there would be gifts, and a good time.

Skeptic

Apparently, tons of dubs go to their office parties. Maybe a lot of them are just tired of the whole WT-thought control and lists of do's and don'ts. More power to them!

I agree.

Some companies I worked at changed the name of their Xmas party to "Year End" party for the sake of their JW employees. I have no objection to it.

One company also had the best holiday policy I have ever seen. You could literally take your holidays at any time. I took off "Thanksgiving" between Christmas and New Year's. Yes, I actually had to list it as Thanksgiving on the timesheet. This policy is great for Muslim employees because their holidays are different than Christian holidays.

Some JW actions at this time of year are interesting. Gifts show up in November or January. Some people celebrate "Family Gift Days". Ugh, why pretend?

I suggest JWs have a Family Gift Day where family and friends can visit they exchange wrapped presents. Decorate the room a little. Put up some pretty lights. Since you need a place to store the presents, I suggest a big plant, like a tree. Pretty up the tree with lights to make it look appropiate for the party.

What would be a good day for Family Gift Day? Tough question to ask with people's busy schedules. But since almost everyone has December 25 off, why not have Family Gift Day then? Plus, many employers give turkeys at the year end. So Dec. 25 would be an excellent time to have a turkey dinner with all your guests.

Richard

14

"Does your wife feel she is a JW?"

by Scully in

jw
friends

i wrote on wednesday about how a couple of elders came calling that afternoon in this thread: .

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=42220&site=3&page=1.

well, my husband and i had a bit of a disagreeable discussion earlier today about the visit.

Skeptic

Scully,

I am so sorry you got stuck with this nonsense. It must be a control campaign.

Richard

15

I am Closing my Email Account

by Robdar in

jw
friends

i am closing my email account listed on this site.

somebody has been trying to send me viruses via the account addy but so far i have been savvy and they haven't been able to cause damage.

fortunately for me, i have 3 other email accounts.

Skeptic

I am sorry that is happening to you, Robyn. The frequency of your problem indicates that someone is doing it on purpose. Especially since no one else here is reporting a problem. And if I recall correctly, they started after you spoke up in my defense. Correct me if I am wrong on that one.

Richard

21

Visited by JWs today

by Soledad in

jw
friends

my mom had an accident about two weeks ago, fortunately she is ok. im living in my parents house now after my husband (yet again) threatened to "beat the crap out of me"---that story in another post some other time.

needless to say, ever since she got out of the hospital the phone rings about 50 times a day, mostly calls from the "hermanos.

" today a couple that i have known for about 15 years comes to visit, and their "discomfort" with my presence (i am da) is quite noticeable.

Skeptic

If you were in your mom's house, why wouldn't you respect her wishes?

Southland, though normally I would agree with you normally, I must disagree in this instance.

If I had a black friend staying at my home and some KKK members were visiting....and I told him to stay in another room while my friends visited because they don't like Darkies, I think my friend would be right for refusing.

Prejudice is prejudice, and it should be stomped out. The best thing is to be kind to bigots.

My non-JW family is sick of the JW's prejudice about ex-JWs ruining family events. They now see the wisdom in having the JW's suffer the consequences of their DFing policies. If the Dubs don't like being around an ex-Witness, the Dubs can stay home.

Being oneself around Witnesses is the best way to end the cruel DFing policies. Working with a DFed man is what brought me around to accepting DFed people when I was a loyal Witness. Kindness works in ways we often do not see. Soledad did the right thing.

Richard

16

News Reports that sound dirty, but aren't

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

sub-heading from msnbc story on n. korean ship carrying missles:.

growing tension with pyongyang .

lead story on motley fool newsletter:.

Skeptic

Ontario license plates have "Ontario" at the top and "Yours to Discover" on the Bottom. A customized license plate has the plate number as the person's last name, Dick. The plate reads:

Ontario

Dick

Yours to Discover

2

How to Kill the Messenger Service Pop Ups

by Yizuman in

jw
friends

many of you have something like this popping up on the screen even when you don't have your browser on at all.... .

i found a site that tells you how to kill it...here's the link..... for windows xp users, when you find "messenger" under "services" as instructed, the individual failed to mention that you need to "double click it" to bring up the box.

after that, follow the rest of the instructions.. hope this helps everyone who may have this problem.

Skeptic

Thanks, Yiz

Richard

23

Watching the World......Six got shocked

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

we have so much negative to say about the wt, that sometimes we forget to look for negative things to say about the world.

well sometimes it just reaches out and slaps you.. today a man made an offhand comment to me that has me fantisizing about murder.. i've been working on the exterior of a house for the past couple of days, and the woman next door, who comes out to her car every now and then for a ciggy, is, well, slammin.

front to back.

Skeptic

Skeptic, you have friends?

LOL! Yeah, one or two even after this week.

Richard

30

Tell about the good JWs

by Skeptic in

jw
friends

most of the jws i met were sincere people.

not perfect, i have my horror stories too, but most were decent people.

i am not discounting the horrible things i hear on this forum.

Skeptic

Yeah, there all great as long as you are active and strong meeting attendance.

BeelzeDub

, normally yes. But at the time that elder helped us with treats, I was rarely attending meetings due to working 2-3 jobs to feed my family. Even then, we were destitute.

Would they do the same for a complete stranger (worldly)?

Sometimes, yes. I remember Witnesses who found a man in field service who had no food. They brought him groceries every week or two until one day they saw a sign on his door saying, "No Jehovah's Witnesses". They were puzzled as to why this man rejected them when they had been so kind.

Suffice to say that you, Skeptic, are a very grateful person and that is a very beautiful thing.

Thank you, Dia. I have been through good times and through pure hell. I am grateful for the good things people have done at both times.

In the last 5 years that I was an active JW, I can count on one ~~hand~~ finger the number of times any of them showed any kindness toward me or my family. That's pretty pathetic, IMO.

I am so sorry, Scully. I found the Witnesses in Ottawa to be pretty decent on the whole.

To all who say they never noticed anything like that think, when you were a witness did tyou ignore the suffering of people ? if you didnt, then you did see nice jws caring for others!

josephus, I am glad the Witnesses help you out. I remember sleeping at the Kingdom Hall once, but I can't remember why. It was some weird scheduling thingie related to my marriage and living arrangements.

I am suspicious of those who find not one good thing that a JW did (No offense, Scully, I know you have integrity.). After all, if JWs did NOTHING good, why did we decide to join? And why would we stay as long as we did?

As SPAZnik says:

Humans r humans. There's good bad an ugly in alluv'em.

pettygrudger, I am glad that that family made you feel so welcome.

Although I think experiences with JWs and their helpfulness with friends was greater years ago than it is today, I totally agree that there are many fine ones.

Room 215, that may be true. My ex was raised as a Dub, and she says the same thing. Mind you, that might be true of humanity as a whole. I worked with a sister at my last employer and though I strongly disagree with how she treated her daughter, and her scorn for Windrider and me living common law, she was a very kind lady. Even when she found I was an ex-Witness, she treated me kindly.

Richard

30

Tell about the good JWs

by Skeptic in

jw
friends

most of the jws i met were sincere people.

not perfect, i have my horror stories too, but most were decent people.

i am not discounting the horrible things i hear on this forum.

Skeptic

Most of the JWs I met were sincere people. Not perfect, I have my horror stories too, but most were decent people.

I am not discounting the horrible things I hear on this forum. But surely some here have had the same situation I was in. Most of the Witnesses I knew were sincere.

Just as SixOfNine pointed out that the world can have bad people, let's point out some of the good people in the JW world.

I remember an elder who gave us treats, and personal care items when we were destitute. Sometimes those treats were the only food we had, not to mention the money those personal items saved. This brother sold such items for a living, and he would take old stock and give it to people in the congregation.

I remember a sister on welfare who lent us money for groceries when we were destitute.

I remember another elder who helped me fix my car many times, and helped me out in general. Most elders I knew were sincere good men. Not all elders are evil twits.

My fleshly sister who cleaned an elderly sister's home every week. Her husband, an elder, repaired other people's cars.

The Awake! had an article on how Witnesses fixed a poor sister's home while she was away...a lot of work. If memory serves me right, one of the posters here either was one of the Witnesses who helped, or personally knows the group who did.

And don't give me the "who cares, the JW religion is harmful" crap. I know the religion is harmful. Most of us here get that. But sometimes while telling about the bad elders we forget about the good ones. Or while telling about the hypocrites and pedophiles, we forget about the good sincere JWs.

So, tell us about some of the good JWs.

Richard

Edited by - Skeptic on 13 December 2002 17:1:21