First of all, why do you 'have' to study it with an elder? If you don't believe it, why do it?
Julia Orwell
JoinedPosts by Julia Orwell
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9
"Worship that God Approves" chapter 15
by A.proclaimer inthis is the title of the 15th chapter in the "what does the bible really teach book".
so i have to study this book and am doing it with an elder.
after taking long breaks inbetween the study, this is the chapter that is coming up.
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42
I'm curious, when you were asked to do a demo for a Service Meeting part, how did the request make you feel?
by Stand for Pure Worship indid you decline out of fear?
decline because you hated doing demos?
accept the request graciously?
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Julia Orwell
How I honestly felt? I felt great. I felt great that I could use my talents and be recognised for them. Because I wasn't born with a penis I couldn't share my ability to speak fearlessly in front of a crowd to benefit the congregation. I have always been able to speak fluently with no notes or practice too, something very valuable in the workplace. However since I had no penis, I could just sit there and watch doofus penis-wearers bore the crowd and mash the English language, frustrated because so many JW women could run rings around these people whose only qualification to give speeches was they had a dick.
I was a nobody in the congregation because I was a woman (single too, which is lower than married, until I was married) not pioneering and had no family in the cult. I got left out of a lot of social things because I was just one, with no family (so if one member of a JW family gets invited, the whole lot do too by association: I was overlooked for just about everything) So to get a little bit of recognition and be included in the congregation was great. Assembly interview, demos, whatever, I liked being up on the stage. I could be a little bit of myself. I could get a feeling that I wasn't a big nothing.
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Depression amongst JWs
by tornapart inhas anyone seen this post on facebook?
the comments below it are staggering!
so many suffering from depression... along with the few judgementalists.
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Julia Orwell
That's a great observation, Jake. As JWs we were told we could never trust our thoughts or feelings, that they were always sinful. When you are told that for years, you become divorced from them, and rather than dealing with your emotions and listening to your instincts, you become disconnected from them and issues get suppressed and ignored, and can surge to the surface as cog diss, depression, physical ailments and other things. If you are told your thoughts cannot be trusted, that what you think about or feel about things is wrong unless it's a certain way ("Are we not grateful for the Faithful and Discreet Slave? Do our hearts not swell with joy when we come to the Kingdom Hall? Are we not appreciative of all Jehovah has done for us" and so on, telling us all the time how we should feel) is bound to make you doubt who you are, lose confidence in who you are, and feel guilty over who you are.
And then of course, "do more, Can you organise your affairs to pioneer? Can you adjust your schedule to spend more time in the ministry? Do more!" tells you that you are never doing enough. Combine that with doubt of your own sentience, you are gonna end up depressed and miserable. I struggled with it for years, and was always saying to the elders, "Woe is me, I'm doing all I can, and yet they're asking for more! I feel so bad." And they'd say I was doing fine, but on an on and on at every assembly, WT and meeting, "Can YOU do more? Can YOU cut back on work? Can YOU save more lives? There is no reason for not being able to start Bible studies," they'd squeeze, and squeeze and squeeze, and tell you that you should be happy while they're doing it.
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I gave up my job to pioneer, did you? Matt 6.33 did Jehovah provide?
by KateWild ini was a chemical analyst.
i loved my job, and love chemistry.
i worked in a variety of fields such a pharmaceutical and industrial.
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Julia Orwell
Years ago i had a friend who regular aux pioneered. Later on he said he only remembers being constantly hungry. He couldn't afford to feed himself when pioneering. Another boy went pioneeri g even though his elder dad said he should get a job first to pay his bills. Well, he couldn't pay his bills, and the good news is the whole experience caused him to leave jws.
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JW Instagram Bragging
by kneehighmiah inbrowsing social media and all the pictures of jw friends out in the freezing cold this morning.
the captions read "service despite the snow.
" others take pictures of the temperature display on their car showing single digit temps.
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Julia Orwell
How many got eaten by the crocs? They don't include that. And they don't mention y they don't have meetings closer to these people's houses than 15 miles away across croc infested rivers in the first place!
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Thinking of taking a break from this forum
by yadda yadda 2 instarting to feel my time is wasted on here lately and its time to move on.. some of the best, meaty stuff only gets a few hundreds views and as soon as the posts dry up a bit the thread is soon forgotten (usually in a few days) under the constantly falling snowflakes of new threads (many trival) continuously being created and popping up as 'active topics'.
the same core jw related subjects then keep reappearing over and over again as new threads without getting a thorough treatment at the time (eg, there must be at least one 'are jw's a cult' thread started each week on here; 'new light' topics get about 20 new threads started with the quality of analysis spread and diluted over all of them.).
anyone else tend to feel the same way at times?.
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Julia Orwell
Yeah of course, but that repetitive info is good because every week new people are joining and that stuff is new to them. Just do like I do: scan through and pick the topics of interest.
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How would you respond?
by MsGrowingGirl20 inok so this is a conversation that i am having with a friend that i really love.
i have some points that i want to say but tell me, how would you respond to this email?.
not gonna try to defend anyone i can really only speak for myself.
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Julia Orwell
In the first century CE, only one group of people followed the teachings of Jesus. It stands to reason that today there can only be one group of people worshipping in the way that Jehovah approves.
Interestingly, there were many different Christian groups in the first century. Paul even mentions them: "I to Paul and I to Apollos..." There were the Gnostics as well as the Pauline Christians.
And that bit about only one group today...it's typical JW hash. I've had the same email and now that person shuns me completely, even though I did nothing to refute it and just said, "I'm happy where I am..." It's a typical JW fallacy that there 'must be one Organisation today who have Jehovah's approval...'. But why? Why would any of them have Jehovah's approval? What about no organisation, but individuals from many organisations? But ultimately these questions will lead you nowhere with your friend. They will lead to you being shunned.
In short, I don't have the answer. Your friend fires all the JW guns, the 'one organisation', the 'Jehovah the name of God', the 'imperfect humans..." and so on and so forth. You can refute them point by point quite easily, but I don't think it will improve relations with your friend. If your friend is going to shun you, it is starting already.
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'Deal with it!' - WT, in so many words
by Gayle inhttp://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp20091101/spouse-special-needs/.
an article if a marriage partner has a chronic health issue.
no - did not mention something like - 'just read the bible & you'll feel better.
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Julia Orwell
Damn straight. It amazes me how many churches around here, from the Baptists and Uniting Church up the road to local Catholic parish, have all these services and charities to help their poor. The evangelicals have a food bank for anyone poor, irrespective of their religion. My JW friend was rendered disabled and homeless a couple of years ago, with two children in tow. Who helped her? Was it the elders she called? No, they told her it was her own fault. So who helped her? The Catholics, the Salvation Army and non-JW family and friends. The only JW who helped her was me, and I'm no longer one.
My friend is still disabled and has two children, but rents a house and is now a paid artist. She lives within sight of the Kingdom Hall. You can literally see it from her backyard. But who comes and does her cleaning, takes the kids to school, helps with large art projects,visits her, does her shopping? Not one JW. Some JWs have actually told her, "If you came to all the meetings people would help you." Hellooooo, she can't walk most days...yet no one offers to pick her up. She doesn't meet the conditions for receiving JW assistance.
So which religion helps its own more?
That Watchtower article is useless. There's not one mention of getting government or charity help.
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Christmas - love it or leave it?
by Xanthippe ini am just watching my neighbours across the road putting up christmas lights while their children run around bursting with excitement.
i am feeling all christmassy now.
can't wait for my daughter to come home from uni next weekend so we can go and buy a tree from the garden centre.
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Julia Orwell
Leave it. It's money I don't have to spend. I've lived my whole adult life without decorations and trees so I can live without it now. I'm happy to hang with with my family, exchange gifts and eat lots, but I'll leave all the commericalism to other people.
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Ladies, How Big Is Your Diamond Engagement Ring?
by minimus ini notice a trend that suggests that many ladies either have a one carat or bigger diamond ring or much smaller if any.. do you have a diamond ring and if you do, what size carat is it?
?.
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Julia Orwell
My combined carats on my engagement ring is way over one, but the diamonds came to me free via five generations of inheritance. So the ring was cheap as all we had to pay was for remodeling, but is worth a fortune.