i was reading an article where it said that weeding rings and the brides vail come from pagan origins,... who have any more?,please post.
oh theres another one I remember, when you kiss the bride, its so the kiss means a little bit of your spirit enters your partner(must be in the saliva and you live on in them for all time - must be magic spit!
I thought that only worked on kids grazed knees, magic spit!
i was reading an article where it said that weeding rings and the brides vail come from pagan origins,... who have any more?,please post.
I read somewhere the veil wards off evil spirits and the bride has to be on the grooms left so his sword arm is left free to fight off anyone who also wants his bride - that would make the weddings interesting in the hall!
Also the cake is a symbol of fertility and good fortune and you have to cut it together or you remain childless!
it's a well known phenomenon i've observed from jwn, my own cos. a new co we had once who was fresh from being a normal elder and after a couple of visits he said, "well i've finally become a true co...i now have food intolerances.".
i mean, only once did my husband and i ever have a co around for dinner and they couldn't eat this, he couldn't eat that, she couldn't eat this...it was so hard to cook something with none of the zillions of things they were 'allergic' to.. and then after all that the wife couldn't come anyway because she had a naturopath appointment or something.. why do all co's seem to have weird dietary problems?.
.
slimboyfat - which circuit were you in because we had ray midgeley too as co in Durham number 1 circuit, he was always quite poorly.
do you remember anything from your baptism talk or the brother who gave it?.
I cant remember the talk or the brother but I was 16 when I got baptized which would make it 1986 and at City Hall Hartlepool.
My now father in law was one of the baptizers but he did't baptize me!
Looking back I got baptized because loads of my friends were doing it , not the best of reasons, my nan( who was not a witness) tried to talk me out of it much to my mums disgust so I just told my nan it was my decision and I was happy to keep the peace really between them.
On another thought, hubby I think got baptized at Scarborough and I remember I wasn't allowed to watch as his Mum wasn't happy that he liked me!
the jw's must not trust their members or at least don't have too much faith in them when it comes to being alone around member of the opposite sex.
i can remember one time in particular from when i was a teenager that still makes me laugh today.. when i was younger i used to go out in service on a regular basis during the week when i had summer break.
one time when i met for service there were only two other people that showed up.
Gone Awol - You are very naughty! You with your twinkly eyes!!
You can lead me astray for another 22years! Ha Ha
the jw's must not trust their members or at least don't have too much faith in them when it comes to being alone around member of the opposite sex.
i can remember one time in particular from when i was a teenager that still makes me laugh today.. when i was younger i used to go out in service on a regular basis during the week when i had summer break.
one time when i met for service there were only two other people that showed up.
When my husband asked me out he was only 16 and I was 19 and looking back I could understand the concern that was shown being so young but it makes me laugh the way we were treated.
I actually got on well with his Mum up until that point but then I got,"he's to young for you", "why would you think a 16 year old would want to be in a serious relationship", "your a pioneer , you could have anyone".
We had he was going to lead me astray etc etc.
If the young ones were going out altogether, only 1 of us could go, we could only say hello at meetings and then had to talk to other people, we werent allowed to go on field service together and if we were out, then could only spend a few moments with each other talking.
When they finally saw we were serious, we were never allowed anywhere without a chaperon, which used to be an elderly brother my husband picked up for the meeting, or my younger sister who used to hate having to be with us all the time and I mean all the time!
Even at meeting we werent allowed to sit together and had to have someone sit inbetween us, what they thought we were going to do, I don't know! Laughable now.not so funny then!
[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng /> </o:officedocumentsettings> </xml><!
[endif][if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:trackmoves> <w:trackformatting /> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:drawinggridverticalspacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables /> <w:dontvertalignintxbx /> </w:compatibility> </w:worddocument> </xml><!
[endif][if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:latentstyles> </xml><!
I can relate to all your stories of not fitting in, I hated going to school and being made to feel like an oddball.
I used to get the usual name calling and to be fair you got used to that, it was being made to stand out as different that really got to me.
In the hall at the time, there was only 4 witnesses kids and our parents decided that we should all stand out the same so people could see that witnesses had the same standards so at school when we had assemblies we all had to stand outside the hall while all the kids from the whole school walked past us, staring at us, then they use to close the glass hall doors so we could be seen by everyone and when they had finished we were made to wait until all the kids had trooped back past us before we could leave and join our classes.
I also wasn't allowed to do r.e so when that lesson came the teacher use to ask me to leave the room with my chair and sit in the corridor until the lesson was over.
I wasn't allowed friends over that I made at school as they were worldly so no after school activitites for me.
My children have been bought up so different, even when we were still witnesses, my experience taught me, never to let that happen to my kids!
i'm in a pissy mood and would love to hear your stories.
personally, i'm thinking of getting a tatoo on my rear end saying wbt$ kiss this!.
Birthdays are a biggie in our house and Xmas ( my house is lite up inside and out!)
For the past 3 years the jws have worked our road xmas week, i'm sure they do it just to see if i've added any more lights ( if I could get gone awol on the roof I just might!)to add more lights.
I'm also going to give blood and donor all my organs to be used when I die.
oh and I found some bound volumes in the loft so we had a bonfire, it felt very liberating!
it's clear that virtually everyone on here is infuriated by wt teachings/doctrines/practices, but i would really like to know what is of most concern to people who frequent this forum.. here is my top 5, number 1 being the most significant/infuriating:.
the disfellowshipping practice - expanded to include family members (but not parents) who are old enough to leave home.
wrecks families and creates abject fear once people find out the truth about the organization.the blood issue - another unmerciful teaching, but one that costs lives.unquestioned authority of governing body - a handful of men make life-altering decisions as representatives of a larger group of people who they never see or speak to, and yet they demand unquestioning obedience on pain of being disfellowshipped.failed prophecy - the fulfilment of huge swathes of bible prophecy, including revelation, has been attributed to the events of the early 20th century, and the actions of a small group of men.two-tier christianity - faithful and discreet slave are anointed who go to heaven to whom ransom provisions apply directly, whereas remainder, or "great crowd" stay on earth and form a sub-class, only access benefits of ransom through fds.i realise that many of these issues are inter-related, but that's roughly how i would put them.
Theres so many ,where do you start?
For me shunning is a disgusting practice and blood transfusion, don,t get me started there, without one my eldest daughter would be dead right now and I still can't forgive myself for questioning myself whether it was right for her to have one. No religion should make you make that decision, they have no right.
My daughter is one of the the most beautiful things I have and now we are all free from that religion.
i met a couple i used to know many years ago (probably 20) in a local "big box" store.
i knew they looked familiar and since they were dressed up and it was saturday "mid day" i put two and two and two and came up with 666... they were jw's.
i didn't say anything to them just minded my business picking up supplies when the woman came over to me and started asking me if she new me from work or some company.
Darth Fader - The same has happened to me, i'm not disfellowshipped or disassoicated but many times i've been in the supermarket and seen people from my old cong who have stared at me and turned their trollies round and nearly sprinted for the next aisle, some would give Usain Bolt a run for his money! Its hilarious to watch. I like to think I have an anti-witness force field around me to protect me from the dribble they spout!
I used to take it personally and get upset as I haven't done anything wrong but in reality I wouldn't have chosen any of these people to be my friends, they were just there in the cong and you made the best of it. I have proper friends now who like me for me so I'm quite glad they don't feel the need to converse or try to pull be back to the dark side! he! he!
