he said that the biggest challenge that faces the jw's in north america is getting along with the brothers and sisters and aint that the truth?
i can't stand half of them.....partially cause i'm a bastard too but i mean there are some genuine assholes out there.
you know when the co talks about it something's gotta be goin down anyways talk to y'all later i'm off to have some beer.
What an idiot! It was my general experience that whenever JWs wanted to gather together for a picnic, skating party, or some such recreational activity where we got to let our hair down and relax with our fellow JWs once in a while, the CO was always leading the charge to put and end to these social outlets.
Jeesh! What morons.
Tammy
thanks for the idea dan :p. gia with angelina jolie.
an amazingly well acted movie.
loved it, everyone else seemed to hate it though..
Tron
Time After Time
Necropolis Awakened
The Three Amigos
White Chicks
Hanover Street
The Alamo
Open Range
bladerunner - lots of rain...big coca-cola ad on the side of a building...more rain...punk rocker chick...what is this movie about again?.
finding neverland - blech.
you're sooo pretty johnny.. pulp fiction - hit men discussing what mcdonalds quarter pounders are called in france.
They Might Be Giants
Being There
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Moulin Rouge (remake)
Knights Tale
Pulp Fiction
it seemed to me that there were a number of con artist types of personalities i came across during my years there.
i am not referring to people who were actually doing anything illegal.
what i am referring to are people who were very adept at getting things out of other people.
I remember visiting my aunt one summer when I was about 15 years old.
There was a new single brother, Hans Van Oltna, in their congregation. We were invited by Brother Van Oltna to his house for dinner, where he fixed us and another family some steaks. He made a big deal about how he couldn't finish his meat since he was "mostly" vegetarian. He regaled my aunt and uncle with bullshit stories about him escaping from East Berlin through a tunnel under the Berlin wall. The tunnel collapsed right behind him, and his mother perished in the cave-in. Then he told us how he was bitten by a king cobra in Africa while laying irrigation pipe. He showed us scars on his hand where the snake had supposedly bitten him. The story just didn't sound right to me; didn't ring true. When I questioned it, my aunt and uncle told me to hush up, as I was just a kid, and not as sophisticated or as experienced as Brother Van Oltna about such things (such things that normal people call facts, that is).
A few years later I asked my aunt whatever became of Brother Van Oltna. "Well!" she said in an outraged tone, "He was an impostor. He wasn't even German." I found out he took several people in the congregation for a lot of money, including a single sister with children that he married, fleeced out of her savings, and then absconded with the funds. Then my aunt said she didn't want to talk about it any more, and changed the subject. He was like Ferdinand Demarra Jr. or Frank Abignale, from the movies "The Great Impostor" with Tony Curtis or "Catch Me If You Can" with Leonardo de Caprico.
If you are still out there Mr. Van Oltna, I have to congratulate you on fooling everybody except a 15 year old who nobody listened to anyway. You deserved everything you got from people that ignorant and gullible. I don't feel the least bit sorry for those dumb fools.
Hope you are doing well.
Tammy
i do have some thoughts on this subject, there are some interesting scriptures that come to mind on this subject but i want to get other peoples opinions.
do you think that god of the bible is sexist?
what do you think it means to be sexist?
All I have to go on about this subject is an ancient book written by men, so I think I will reserve judgment until such time as God and I can have a serious conversation about this.
Tammy
what is the saddest song that brings tears to your eyes just about every time you hear it?
mine is harry chapin's cats in the cradle
You Are My Sunshine
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
My mother used to sing these to me as a child and I have never forgotten her. Hopefully she hasn't forgotten me. I miss her so much!
Tammy
so elders are supposed to simultaneously be:.
amateur psychologists.
amateur family counselors.
don't forget amateur detectives...
... parked down the block ...
... watching your house ...
... waiting for you to make a wrong move...
... on stake-out, all night ...
... alone in the dark in their cold car ...
... with only each other for warmth and human companionship ...
... with the windows all steamed up...
Tammy
this has been discussed on several threads but i need concrete ideas.
i want to start putting together a generic tract to give to ones i've know who are df'd, faded, da'd or weak.
i want the tract to be loving, gentle and kind but honest.. my ideas so far (all of these or others' ideas can't fit into one simple tract, but can be the basis for a series of tracts that can be on topics that we know may interest a particular dub).. -dogmatism vs. reasonableness .
For what it's worth, perhaps some of the ideas on this thread would also help:
i know a lot of young people leave the 'truth'.
but i would never have thought that so many of us with 20, 30, 40 years in would be leaving.
what do you think accounts for that?
The farther and farther we got from 1975, the more and more I began to realize the big A wasn't coming. Their mishandling of 1975 by blaming the rank and file, disfellowshipping Ray Franz, hidden pictures in Watchtower articles, the increasing totalitarian feel to the organization, the dumbing down rules implemented under the banner of "simplification", and how my little voice kept humming the theme to "Weird Science" every time I picked up the Creation book lead me to believe this wasn't the true religion back in July 1986. I stayed in another 7.5 years until 1994 because I wasn't ready to let go of my whole family. I was born and raised a JW. It was the only life I had been prepared for. Eventually, at the age of 35, I summoned the courage to make needed changes in my life, since it wasn't getting any shorter.
Tammy
,,,,while they were witnesses?
Yes.
4 JW molesters. 1 molester who was not. (I worked with him and after he left he was convicted and sent to prison.)
At least 6 victims. Some I knew better than others.
That is just the number of victims I know of, but I wasn't always privy to all of the details. It also doesn't include those who denied being victims because of being ashamed to admit it. I think there were probably more victims based on behaviors commonly associated with victims that several more exhibited and also from indications of "grooming" that occurred between the molesters and their victims.
Then I know of a case of what a psychiatrist called "borderline sexual abuse." So I don't know whether to include that or not, since the behavior was repeated, but not overtly sexual, between an adult woman and several young boys.
Tammy
