Charles Gillette--
I take a 'wait and see' attitude. Why be wrong?
I'm really not in any hurry to find out, actually :)
TerryWalstrom
JoinedPosts by TerryWalstrom
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A QUICK STORY for you
by TerryWalstrom ingallery memoriesit was 1982.. california summer.. the entrance of creative galleries.. the limousine arrived and she emerged.. there is a word i’ve been saving for the sort of story i’m about to tell you.
she debouched from the limo.
(she deserves a special word.).
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TerryWalstrom
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The Freedom to not kiss God's Ass
by TerryWalstrom ini was a small child when my grandmother explained god to me.. as humans, we owed god.
bigtime!.
he had given us everything.we could thank god by putting our hands together and saying a "prayer.".
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The Freedom to not kiss God's Ass
by TerryWalstrom ini was a small child when my grandmother explained god to me.. as humans, we owed god.
bigtime!.
he had given us everything.we could thank god by putting our hands together and saying a "prayer.".
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TerryWalstrom
We each speculate and build from scratch our own private version of "How it all works."
When we do it as a group we end up with one of the 41,000 Christian denominations.
That's a lot of differences.
My Aunt used to say, "There's only one God, Terry."Was I supposed to argue?
So what?
What possible difference does it make? We have the same world in the same situation and nothing we situate inside our head is going to alter the reality of--well, reality.We don't change anything by thinking or believing something. We simply adjust how we feel about it.
BELIEF is a thermostat for our emotions. -
5
The Freedom to not kiss God's Ass
by TerryWalstrom ini was a small child when my grandmother explained god to me.. as humans, we owed god.
bigtime!.
he had given us everything.we could thank god by putting our hands together and saying a "prayer.".
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TerryWalstrom
I was a small child when my Grandmother explained God to me.
As humans, we owed God. Bigtime!
He had given us EVERYTHING.
We could thank God by putting our hands together and saying a "Prayer."Somehow, He could hear what we were saying!
I asked how that was possible and my Grandmother explained.
"Children have a guardian angel who listens and take our prayers to God."
On the wall in our house was this rather ubiquitous illustration of an angel watching
over two small children as they cross over a bridge.
Additionally, there were spontaneous prayers (ad lib) as well as memorized prayers (Our Father) and pious recitation prayers (23rd Psalm) which would convince God that we were truly conscious of His magnificence.
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I definitely had a lot of questions for my Grandmother!
She had been reared in a Convent by nuns and constantly disciplined by recitation of hundreds of prayers.I found that interesting, to say the least!
"What did you do wrong?""I was late to Mass . . . or I didn't clean my room. . . or I fell asleep in Catechism class."
For those horrendous crimes against the Almighty, the punishment was--oddly enough--reciting Hail Mary or Our Father prayers over and over and over and over.
She could not actually explain the logic of all this to me and I could see she was troubled by my questions.
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Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen.
___________Nobody in my family attended any church. . . ever when I was growing up.
I made the mistake of going only once. I hated it. (Vacation Bible School.)My Grandmother would watch Catholic programs and read her Bible (with Jesus' words in red) and my mother would read aloud from the Book of Revelation (the horror. . .the horror!) and my Grandfather was trying to find the "True" religion for himself but never succeeded. (He read books--dozens of them--about religion, meditation, Yoga, sects, denominations, etc.)
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As a boy growing up, I talked to God all the time when I was alone. I didn't ask for anything for myself. I'd ask on behalf of my aging Great Grandmother when she was feeling poorly.
"God, please help my Groogie (childhood name for my great granny) stop hurting. She's having trouble sleeping. . . "
These were feckless one-sided conversations, of course, but they made me feel like I was doing something positive on behalf of others. Well, I wasn't. I just felt like I was.
Then, I met the kid who would become my best friend and he was a Jehovah's Witness. He was relentless about evangelizing me.
Long story short: it worked.
Now, instead of praying to 'god' I prayed to JEHOVAH god.
But, I never ever prayed to Jesus. Not even once.I'm 69 years old and I still have never once offered a prayer to Jesus Christ.
Why?
_______From the time I was a child, I never thought of Jesus as the same as God. I thought of Jesus as the Son of God and that seemed awfully different.
My Grandmother had apparently slept through the Catechism lesson on Jesus. . . or something. I had reverence for Him--but--I didn't love him.I learned to love Jehovah God--but the old boy let me down when I was serving time in prison and He strung me out and abandoned me.
So, I stopped "feeling" love--but I continued praying until the day I was disfellowshipped.
After that I still prayed--but. . . felt more and more distance and isolation.
Finally, one night before I fell asleep, as I was lying in bed. . . I tried to start my perfunctory prayer and I stopped cold."Heavenly Father Jehovah, I approach your throne of undeserved kindness to ask---"
I just stopped and listened to the silence of my empty bedroom, the sound of cicadas in the trees outside and the whoosh of traffic on the freeway or the rumble of freight trains a quarter mile away.
I had an Epiphany.All this time I thought I was talking to God, Jehovah. I wasn't and I hadn't been talking TO anybody but myself. I was talking to myself!
I said it out loud: "I'm talking to myself."
I kept repeating that and it felt absolutely true.
I realized gradually that I now had the freedom to not kiss God's ass any longer.
I don't pretend I'm "doing" something for others by praying.
What is prayer?Prayer is pretending to do something when, in fact, you're not doing a damned thing but talk to yourself."
Naturally, your mileage may vary.
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Is Knowing/Using The Name Of God Important?
by Vanderhoven7 ini say no.. although the tetragrammaton appears close to 7000 times in the hebrew scriptures, the personal name of god does not.
seems to me that god made sure that both that his personal name does not appear therein and that no one would ever actually know it or learn even how to pronounce it.
he also made sure that his name (baring 3 hallelujahs in revelation) did not appear in the new testament.
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TerryWalstrom
If there were only ONE living God there would not be need of a name because a name distinguishes and differentiates one from another of a kind.
The Old Testament is a strange and mythical world. It is an admixture of history and mystery and accretions of legend, myth, and perhaps absorption of Homer's epic tales of Odysseus.
A Greek god was arbitrary, capricious, and whimsical. To obtain the favor of such a personality a great sacrifice was in order.
The idea of "giving" to God is perhaps the most peculiar of all human ideas. God needs nothing and can make no use of something burned on an altar. The fable spinners, however, like to assure us God's nostrils can be pleased by the aroma of burnt oxen. The Physics of molecules and the distance from Earth to Heaven was much more (ignorant) simple in the old days.
To invoke the deity by Name was a tetchy business. If you bandy the name about without sufficient respect you are in for it.This doesn't seem to bother the fetishistic JW's who now are so bold as to abbreviate the Living Eternal God with but 1 letter of the alphabet.
The tetragrammaton was 4 letters and the Dubs claim that is short shrift.
Go figure.
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A Forensic Investigation disproving Watchtower’s self-made MYTH
by TerryWalstrom ina forensic investigation disproving watchtower’s self-made myth(chosen by jehovah as the only true religion on earth).
[ it all began when joseph rutherford removed four members of the watch tower society board of directors under a legal technicality that equally applied to himself, and then authorized the writing and publication of the book "the finished mystery" contrary to pastor russell's will, the society's official charter, and without approval of the board, and then falsely advertising the book to the public as the "posthumous work of pastor russell".
] pastor-russell dot com.
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TerryWalstrom
THEGIRLHASNONAMEa day ago
HI Terry, I was reading your article above and I am very interested in your sources concerning the death of Charles Taze Russell. You state he died on Halloween on a train in Pampas Texas after inspecting why his gold mine had not been producing any gold. Also the statement that Russell was plagued by hemorrhoids and was taking pain killers was mentioned. Would it be possible for you to provide the source material for these statements so that I can look them up? Thank You!
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I think there were 3 or 4 sources I directly remember using and a third which was told me by Farkle a couple of years ago.
I wrote the following piece after he told me about it in a phone call:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/243434/last-moments-pastor-russell-sleeper-car-pampas-texas?page=1
____________________First, there is the Audio recording of Fred Franz telling his life story:
https://archive.org/details/DecisionMyLifeStoryByFredFranzSecondly, there is:
http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/jehovahs-witness/T3BGTA0VV95NHCT2U
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3rd:
THE INTERNET'S BESTHISTORY of the JEHOVAH'S WITNESSESand the WATCHTOWER SOCIETY_____________________________
http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/russell2.htmlThanks for asking!
_____________Since: Jan 09
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#1 Apr 23, 2009In October 1916 Pastor Charles Taze Russell left New York on a journey from which he never returned alive. According to A. H. Macmillan one of the reasonsPastor Russell made his final journey out west was to inspect a rich gold mine. In a lecture titled: THE HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY FROM 1910 TO 1920,Macmillan says:
“Then he began going into details about how the work was to be carried on. How he was going away to California on a trip (from which he never returned alive). Some brothers developed the idea that they could dig up millions of dollars down in the southern part of Nevada at a place called Soda Lake. They had rich deposits of gold, mercury and quicksilver and they wantedBrother Russell to come out and look it over.”
What became of this mine with vast stores of gold from which Russell could finance his publishing empire? Or were these “brothers” actually con men who planned to fleece the Pastor in a bogus investment scheme?
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Somewhere on this mess of a page:
http://truth1.org/russell-3.htm -
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Calling All Who Were JWs Between 1967 and 1980
by -Crossroads- inhello jwn,.
to introduce myself, i am still in the jws but learned ttatt some months ago.
i now ask this question to get more info on a past teaching.. between 1967 and 1980 was when the 'current understanding' of the wts was that organ transplants were cannibalism, and thus abhorrent.
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TerryWalstrom
Just think of the question you're asking:
"Dear Watchtower,
Is it permissible for any Jehovah's Witness to practice cannibalism?"Could you imagine any answer which included:"So we see, practicing cannibalism, while wretchedly disgusting, is strictly a matter for each Christian's conscience to decide."
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A QUICK STORY for you
by TerryWalstrom ingallery memoriesit was 1982.. california summer.. the entrance of creative galleries.. the limousine arrived and she emerged.. there is a word i’ve been saving for the sort of story i’m about to tell you.
she debouched from the limo.
(she deserves a special word.).
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TerryWalstrom
LV101a day ago
Terry - did you ever meet or know of an actress named Louise Allbritton (Albritton)?
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No, I didn't. I would likely not have recognized her.
Some actors still look like their public persona except for natural aging and gaining weight. Others, who have resorted to Botox and facelifts, don't actually look human. They resemble masks of humans.
Probably the oldest actor I recognized was Paul Henreid, who was born in 1908. He is most famous for Casablanca and Now, Voyager.
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What Music have you Been Listening to this Last Year ? Post You tubes if you Like !
by flipper inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wktxjuyiat4.
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17
A QUICK STORY for you
by TerryWalstrom ingallery memoriesit was 1982.. california summer.. the entrance of creative galleries.. the limousine arrived and she emerged.. there is a word i’ve been saving for the sort of story i’m about to tell you.
she debouched from the limo.
(she deserves a special word.).
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TerryWalstrom
In the ten years I lived in California I constantly came across these former character actors, singers, celebrities, writers, directors in grocery stores. I could compile quite a list. These were very famous "in their day" but who didn't get hired any longer.
What is weird in such encounters is this. They are so familiar to me, I feel like I know them. The natural tendency is to speak to them.
Very often--more often than not--such a greeting startles them.
That only tells me they've grown accustomed to being ignored.
You see, in California, there is an unwritten rule. You don't intrude on celebrity. That behavior is for tourists and paparazzi. Live and let live.
So, it is like coming across a bald eagle or a platypus. Endangered species.
Working as I did in an Art gallery, I took advantage of a non-threatening opportunity to have casual a conversation now and then.
Some were crazy; others were skittish; still others were stupid.A cultural trove of sadness and desuetude is what I'd call it.
Having been famous is not unlike having survived a tragedy.
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