Thanks for your article, Paul. This is always a topic that amazes non-JWs when I tell them. It's the same with women being forbidden to wear trousers or pants suits to meetings. It good to take the lids off these silly rules for the public to see.
Julia Orwell
JoinedPosts by Julia Orwell
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105
New Article on BEARDS and Attire of Jehovah's Witnesses
by jwfacts ini have had requests to add an article about beards and jehovah's witnesses.
it is interesting that there is virtually no statement that says a witness cannot have a beard, yet universally they do not have beards.
i have scoured quotes from all the threads on jwn, all references to beard on the cd watchtower library, and copies of elders letters that i have.
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Home schooled witness kids
by stillin insorry if i'm stepping on any toes here, but i haven't seen anything positive about home-schooling...at all.
the notion is that parents are taking advantage of the formative years to inculcate more worthwhile values while protecting their kids from worldly influences.
they end up with lazy, socially inept, illiterate duds who haven't a clue.
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Julia Orwell
You can't blame the schools or the teachers for kids turning out crappy. It's the parents who fail 90% of the time, and the other 10% it's the kid who gets caught up with the products of the bad parenting. Most kids are pretty decent, but their parents either are incompetent, unfit parents, disfunctional, or simply absent. No amount of good schooling can make up for that.
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Gosh, what do you do with people like this?
by Julia Orwell inok i'm chatting on facebook with a guy who's studying with jws, who isn't yet an unbaptised publisher because he can't kick the cancer sticks.
now i don't believe in the bible anymore, but i say i do to get a bit of common ground with this guy.
it's a common attitude among jws.
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Julia Orwell
Wow Redeemer, you put it all so concisely. I've never heard the process of becoming a jw so accurately and insightfully put; indeed I never realized consciously that that's what happens until reading what you wrote. Of course I knew it subconsciously, but you've really articulated it. Thanks.
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Home schooled witness kids
by stillin insorry if i'm stepping on any toes here, but i haven't seen anything positive about home-schooling...at all.
the notion is that parents are taking advantage of the formative years to inculcate more worthwhile values while protecting their kids from worldly influences.
they end up with lazy, socially inept, illiterate duds who haven't a clue.
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Julia Orwell
" Part of the benefit of a public school education is the EXPOSURE to a variety of opinions and areas of expertise of the teachers, "
Which is exactly what home schoolers want to avoid.
As an education professional myself, and I had the same view as an active JW, whatever your view of the 'world', the sooner your kids learn to deal with it at their own age-appropriate level, the better. Kids who go to school learn to deal with different personalities and beliefs of the others around them. They learn to navigate around difficult personalities and negotiate with their peers. They also learn to get up at a certain time each day, stick to a routine, and benefit from the content the teachers have acquired over years to decades.
Now I feel homeschooling is ok for some kids, such as those with special needs or kids in remote areas eg cattle stations. But the majority of kids are homeschooled for religious reasons. The homeschoolers in our district rarely show for the year 12 state test (if they even go to year 12) and almost never go to university or TAFE.
The JW kids who've been homeschooled, often get to 15 or 17, exit points for education here, and BAM! They're out in the 'world' working with all these people they have no experience in dealing with. It's very hard on them.
And SFPW, I don't know when your last contact with formal education was. I can tell you, that most kids are good. Most kids aren't the unruly teenagers you see in the news drinking and smoking. People generally don't see the majority of teenagers because they're at school or home with their parents. 85% of kids are good.
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Gosh, what do you do with people like this?
by Julia Orwell inok i'm chatting on facebook with a guy who's studying with jws, who isn't yet an unbaptised publisher because he can't kick the cancer sticks.
now i don't believe in the bible anymore, but i say i do to get a bit of common ground with this guy.
it's a common attitude among jws.
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Julia Orwell
I realised it too late unfortunately, Outlaw.
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Tech49 visits Bethel: Part 1-Patterson
by Tech49 ini thought that it was a good time to post my experience about visiting new york last spring.
enough time has passed that no one can put my experiences together with any kind of timeline..... so our family discussed the trip to the holy land (ny bethel), as none of us had ever been.
anyone who is anyone knows that you aren't really a good jw christian until you visit bethel!
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Julia Orwell
Freaky-deaky. Would love to see photos.
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How would you respond to never a JW making those statements?
by Iamallcool in1) i thought jehovahs witnesses are very good people.
2) are they good people?.
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Julia Orwell
What Adam said. They're mostly decent people who've been deceived. We were all like that once.
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17
If I was out I'd...
by OneDayillBeFree inwhat kinds of things would you like to do if you were out of the organization?
and if you're already out and free, what kinds of things did you do that you really wanted to do but couldn't because it was against jw beleiefs?.
recently, i overheard some of the younger crowd of jw's after a meeting talking about how they wished they could have this or do that, get tattoos, play the newest video games (you know, the ones with all the violence and realistic 'kickass' graphics and such), grow out their beards for 'no shave november" wear miniskirts and dye their hair crazy colours... etc.
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Julia Orwell
Oh yes and my husband grew a beard and started playing kick ass video games when he left.
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17
If I was out I'd...
by OneDayillBeFree inwhat kinds of things would you like to do if you were out of the organization?
and if you're already out and free, what kinds of things did you do that you really wanted to do but couldn't because it was against jw beleiefs?.
recently, i overheard some of the younger crowd of jw's after a meeting talking about how they wished they could have this or do that, get tattoos, play the newest video games (you know, the ones with all the violence and realistic 'kickass' graphics and such), grow out their beards for 'no shave november" wear miniskirts and dye their hair crazy colours... etc.
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Julia Orwell
Watch Lord of the Rings, have birthdays with family, spend time doing art and watching Futurama instead of stupid meetings, sleep in on Saturday mornings- nothing that marks me as a wicked, depraved worldly person.
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Is JWN an unforgiving place
by usualusername inover many years i have looked at jwn.
in fact barely a day goes by without my fix.. .
it is a site of contradictions.. .
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Julia Orwell
I find some people here are still stuck in the JW "always have to be right and have all the answers" mentality. That's what can make it a bit hostile at times.