Posts by tyydyy

47

May I have your attention please?

by WildHorses in

jw
friends

i have a suggestion.

ok, we do not want to lose people like farkel, alan, mind..........hmmmmmmmmmm, this fluff mind is drawing a blank on names here.

hmmmm, oh yeah focus is one.

tyydyy

Let's keep in mind why these "intellectuals" are leaving.

THEY AREN'T GETTING THE KIND OF ATTENTION THEY WANT!

They know they wouldn't get fluff on their serious threads if they put them in the proper catagories but then they wouldn't get viewed by every single person here. By-Passing fluff threads is very easy. Just don't click on them. If it happens on a serious thread, just ignore it.
THEY JUST WANT MORE ATTENTION. I have watched these guys get so much appreciation and thanks that I wonder who could ask for more? But they aren't happy with someone telling them "I owe my life to you". No. They want EVERYONE to say "I owe my life to you". It ain't gonna happen. In fact, there will always be a few who say "I think you are an asshole". If they can't deal with it, then I say good riddance. I think the community feel here is more important than pandering to a few people who complain about the lack of intellectual posts. There is plenty of information out there for someone to make a decision to leave the Borg. What these people really need is a community to belong to after leaving all their family and friends behind.
My 2 cents.

TimB

25

Bad news, folks!

by TweetieBird in

jw
friends

my teenage son approached my husband and me yesterday to inform us that he wants to get baptized at the summer convention.

ugh!.

he hasn't shown an interest in witness things for several months until a cousin from up north came to visit and took him out in service all day.

tyydyy

Why not challenge him? Tell him it's ok to get babtized if he makes 200 posts on this board first (and this particular assembly is probably too soon). After hanging around that long he should have plenty of doubts to work with. If you just deny it outright they will eventually get him. They will teach him to lie to you. This way it looks like you are giving the ok but ...........

TimB

19

Ideas about how to find my brother.....?

by tyydyy in

jw
friends

when i was 17 my older brother went to bethel.

our whole family was so proud that we had someone in high places.

lol well it didn't last long.

tyydyy

Just an update to let those of you who have shown support what's goin' on. I have been downloading the marraige records in texas to try to find out his wife's name. That might help with the search. My internet connection is slow and the files are huge but I think I may get it tonight. In the meantime, I have done a search on the suggested people search sites and actually made a few phone calls. I talked to a couple of people who had the exact same name but weren't my brother. The search goes on.....................

Thanks again.
TimB

19

Ideas about how to find my brother.....?

by tyydyy in

jw
friends

when i was 17 my older brother went to bethel.

our whole family was so proud that we had someone in high places.

lol well it didn't last long.

tyydyy

Wow! There are so many suggestions here I don't know where to start. I really appreciate it.
I'm a little worried that he won't want to see me after all these years. He may be carrying around a lot of hate or pain. Those thoughts have caused me to hesitate in the past. The farther I get from the Borg the more I miss him though. Funny how that works.

I'll try all the free stuff first. And thank you all for your help and support.

TimB

19

Ideas about how to find my brother.....?

by tyydyy in

jw
friends

when i was 17 my older brother went to bethel.

our whole family was so proud that we had someone in high places.

lol well it didn't last long.

tyydyy

When I was 17 my older brother went to bethel. Our whole family was so proud that we had someone in high places. LOL Well it didn't last long. After only 6 months we got a phone call from Donnie saying that he had been disfellowshipped and they were sending him home on the next flight. It was very confusing for me because at that time I was a "very good little witness". I talked to him only once even though he was living next door for a couple of months after he got back. I remember feeling so torn. I wanted to do what was "right" but this was my brother. I still loved him. I remember crying a lot.
I had the one conversation with him (which I felt very guilty about) and asked him if he planned to come back into the "truth" (as if he chose to leave). He said that he wanted to come back but he felt like noone would ever respect him again. I told him he was wrong and that after he was reinstated in time he would have the respect he deserved. He tried going to the meetings and was regular for 6 months. The local "brothers" even sent a letter to society reccomending his reinstatement. They turned it down saying that it hadn't been enough time. Shortly after that he quit going to the meetings and was just struggling to get by. He had no education other than high school and no trade skills. One day his income tax refund check came in. He got all his taxes back that he paid. ($250.00) My dad made arrangements to meet him at the bank so my brother could just sign over the check to pay back the society for the plane ticket home. Imagine that. He works for free for 6 months and then when they kick him out and send him home, they expect him to pay for the plane ticket. Anyway, he showed up at the bank, my dad handed him the check and my brother turned to walk out of the bank. My dad told him that if he walked out the door he wouldn't have him as a son anymore. He walked out the door and we haven't seen him since.
A few yrs later we recieved a birth announcement for his first (maybe only...I don't know) son from his wife. She mentioned that he still loved his family and that he missed them but the religion wasn't for him. That was the last contact I've heard of from him and that was 17 yrs ago.

I have tried searching for him on the internet. (you wouldn't believe how many Donald Eugene Bridges there are out there. I have tried calling his "worldly" relatives. (they haven't heard from him either) I even paid $50 for a professional search and didn't get anywhere.
The last place I know that he lived was Torrance Cal. I heard a rumor that he had joined the Air Force and I confirmed that but he is not active anymore and they won't give me anymore info. I know his birthday (5/13/62 Dallas, Texas) but I don't know his Social Security Number. He was adopted and his birth father has the exact same name living here in Texas. I called him and he hasn't spoken to him for 25 yrs.

Any suggestions? I need to find him and make things right again.

TimB

24

my cousin's brother sends a card...grrrrr

by Mulan in

jw
friends

my cousin, sharon, who died in september.......was disfellowshipped three years ago.

her brother is still a witness, and wrote a thank you card to an elder in the congregation here.

this elder and his wife came to visit sharon a few days before she died, and before she started to lose her ability to make sense when she talked.

tyydyy

Mulan,
It's difficult for me to comment on this because it is so painful. I see some of the same reasoning in some of my own relatives. I can see my own sister acting the same way if I were on my deathbed. That is a painful thought. It is heartrending to think that a brother did not only sit by his sister on here deathbed but that he would condemn her at the same time. I could never abandon my sister even if she didn't want me around. I would be just outside the door.

I sometimes forget just how unloving the organization and it's followers can be.

Please accept my sympathy for the pain you must be feeling.

TimB

PS. That reminds me. I need to find my brother that got DF'd 20 yrs ago. Thank you

20

Concept of There Being A God

by Undecided in

jw
friends

is it possible for the human mind to really understand what god is?.

think about all those trillions of centries that god was alone, with no need for a language, as there were no objects to name, no one to converse with, nothing to do.

there were no subjects to hate and kill, no one to love and bless, no satan opposer to battle, sort of like being dead.

tyydyy

Gumby,
Good point. Those of us who were raised in the "truth" have a hard time changing our concept of God. You say there is a God because this didn't happen for no reason but is it not possible that there is more than one "god"? Is it possible that this world was created by many creatures that got things started or are using this as a long term experiement? What proof do we have of a singular god? None. The only evidence of any kind of god is the fact that we exist. As far as the paranormal or supernatural phenomenon......I won't deny what someone else says they experienced but at the very least the vast array of experiences tell us that there would be more than one "god". If you gathered all the anecdotal evidence of supernatural experiences you would find some good, some bad, some peaceful, some horrifying, some physical, some visual, some audible, some prophetic, some telling history, some good advice, some very bad advice...etc...etc...etc. Do you see a pattern here? Does it seem that any one personality has control of the situation. If you believe in the god of the Bible then you have to believe that he just changes his personality whenever he gets a whim.
So far noone has shown me reason to believe that "God", as we have known him, exists or cares about what is going on. The firm believers say that you cannot truly get evidence of god until you truly believe in god. I believe that is a load of defacation.

Why are we here? There could be millions of reasons why. If we consider that we may not be signifigant to whoever or whatever started this universe then we could come up with literally countless scenarios. Try it. It can make your mind explode!

TimB

27

Fear and pain and death...

by Cowboy in

jw
friends

do you fear death?if so,do you fear it because of the pain that is likely to go along with it?or because of what will become of your soul(your self)after death?.

curiosly,i find that i no longer fear death.not that i want to die-i don't.but i wonder if this how i should feel.. i don't like pain,but i have a fairly high threshold of pain,i think.i'm sure there is much greater pain than what i have experienced,but though i avoid it when at all possible(including spankings...sorry chat babes),i'm not afraid that i can't deal with it if i have to.. likewise death,i just have no great fear of it anymore.i don't think that it's due to my beliefs about what will happen after i die...i don't have any.sure,i was raised a j.w.,instilled from birth with the idea that if i didn't survive armageddon,that i'd be resurrected thereafter.but i don't buy that anymore...neccesarily.nor do i believe in the heaven or hell concept...neccesarily.i do believe that if i'm the best kind of person i can be,then it will have to be good enough for whatever,if anything,lies beyond the life i'm living now.. in talking to others,though,i find very few(if any)people who don't have a pretty high degree of fear about death.it has me wondering,and i'd appreciate your comments.. cowboy.

we ride and never worry about the fall.

tyydyy

Very good question Cowboy,

My answer to that would be:

I don't fear death but I do fear the pain that it would cause to those I love and those who love me. I feel that I have something to contribute to society (nothing grandeous) and I feel an obligation to do my part.

Great question though. I do not believe in heaven or hell by the way. Just death.

TimB

62

How Long A JW ( Baptised )?

by hillary_step in

jw
friends

i frequently read on this board that somebody has 'been a jw for over 25 years' and then learn that they are in fact 25 years and three days old.. i am very easily confused, in fact i actually got inside a car of similar color to my own recently and spent at least five minutes with a furrowed brow trying to force my car key into its ignition, fortunately, i realised my error before i was arrested.

so, just to humor me, can you all post how long you were/are baptised jw's?.

thank you -- hs.

tyydyy

Born a third generation JW in 1964

First talk 1969

Baptized in 1977

Married in 1986

MS in 1997

Left in 1999

The last time I talked to the elders they told me I was still an MS. (I don't really believe them)

Never DF'd or DA'd

TimB

30

AlanF et al, a little help please! Pronto Please!

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

i finally got that shepherding call.

1.5 years after not attending meetings, lol.. i'm sorry guys, but i was just disgustingly forthright.

i basically said that 1.5 years ago, i researched and came to the conclusion that the societies blood ban was wrong.

tyydyy

Hey Six,

I feel for you man....They've come to my house twice and the urge to tell them exactly how you feel is overpowering. As time goes by, I worry less and less. Although, you know your family better than anyone else and how they would react to your disfellowshipping. I really don't think they have grounds to disfellowship you unless you are "preaching" your beliefs to the JWs. I made it a point to tell them that even though I have these serious "doubts" I refused to discuss them with any other JW. So far it has seemed to satisfy them. I hope someone can give you some actual advice. I just wanted to give a little support.

TimB