it just breaks my heart when i read some of the posts on this websites and hear all of the horror stories about people and families suffering because of what the church or religion did to them.
not just jw's or mormons, but catholics, born-agains are also included in this group.
i bet you could find just as many disgruntle ex-catholics and ex-born-agains out in the world who have been severly hurt by their church.
It would be nice to have a relationship with God or Christ, but when it's all one direction and there is no replay from them it becomes kind of a product of my imagination or mental brainwashing. Time will tell, or maybe not tell if there is any truth to the philosophy of religious men. Religion has caused so much harm to minkind it's kind of hard to get involved in it.
Ken P.
did mary the mother of jesus remain a virgin all her life?
the catholic/orthodox believe that she never had sex with her husband and poor joseph had to spend the rest of his life in an unconsummated marriage unable to sleep with his wife.
i find this unlikely that such a demand was imposed on him and there is the well known mention of jesus's brothers.
Maybe someone jacked off in the tub she was bathing in and that's how she became pregnant and was a virgin.
Ken P.
link to article
kiev (reuters) - a man shouting that god would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on monday.
"the man shouted 'god will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.. "a lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.".
Poor guy, he should have know nobody can prove God exist.
Ken P.
do you remember years ago this was mentioned among the brothers in conversations about elders?
yet i cannot ever recall being directed to a scripture which proved all elders were appointed by holy spirit.
it seems that everyone just accepted that they were, including myself , and yet how is this possible considering how many i've seen were corrupt when appointed.. any others think about this when in the org
I was appointed an elder and the only spirit I felt came from a bottle.
Ken P.
when someone asks about the jws, i usually find myself talking about disfellowshipping, the blood issue, the child-molestation problem.
but looking back i think, although those are the easily explained and perhaps somewhat sensational bad things about being a jw, they're not the only things that have left their marks.
in fact, only the disfellowshipping issue has personally affected me (although i'm not officially df'd, but of course you don't have to be to lose your friends/family).
My biggest problem now is thinking too much about life and it's reason for being. How did it all begin, why? How does the universe work, not that it will effect me and my life since I'm stuck on my little part of it. I need to only think about my life now and how I can work it out to enjoy what's left of it. I'm having a hard time doing this.
Ken P.
although we are in 2006, often i think we are in 1996. i'm 10 years off.
my mom showed me something that she bought, and she wrote the date on the box.
i looked at it and it was written january 1995. i told my mom, it's only 1 year old.
When someone mentions the 80's I'm thinking just a few years ago. Years fly by like months now. Can't believe I've been retired 8 years already.
Ken P.
i am going away for awhile to try to heal my heart.
since my dfing i have tried so hard to make sense of what has happened to me.
to see it from the society's view and from freedom's view.
May your life be filled with contentment and happiness. I hope it goes well for you in the future.
Ken P.
three tonnes... that is three times the size of the device used in the 1995 bombing in oklahoma city.
just imagine how many people would have been killed if the authorities did not catch these terror suspects!
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldnews&storyid=2006-06-03t152340z_01_n02209271_rtrukoc_0_us-crime-arrests.xml&src=rss&rpc=22.
If you're arn't doing anything illegal why should you care if you get checked on? I don't care if they listen in on my telephone or whatever if it helps to catch criminals.
Ken P.
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gee, i had my first one at 45 years old.... it's so easy to spend with a credit card, especially when so many things are missing.. how did you cope with your first credit card?
did you start spending too much?
Don't remember my first one, but my last one is $7,000 now. Had to use it for tires for my cars, dentist bills, doctor visits, computers etc. Stupid I know but I didn't have any cash money. I pay more than the minium payment but it will be 5 years before I get it paid off, if I live that long. The interest is ridiculous.
Ken P.
it's been pretty well established that all religions use fear as a motivator, to some degree.
the jw's have honed this practice to a near art form.
what were you most afraid of when you were a jw?
Don't remember being scared about anything. I felt pressure from the cult to always do more until I finally just quit, wanted to just enjoy life for awhile. This was in 1974 and I felt that one year of a free life before 1975 would be worth leaving it all behind.
Ken P.
