the past week has been hell for me.
my mother started feeling ill and we went to seek medical assistance.
we live in the mountains and the nearest large hospital is about 150 kms away.
I hope she records the conversation with those elders for public consumption.
"We would like to inform you sister _____ that we must disassociate you because you engaged in an act that is contrary to our interpretation of a scripture and has prolonged your life."
There would be a delicious public outrage!
in march of 2014, i was a very active jw, a ministerial servant, gave a public talk, was an attendant for the memorial, and one of 4 cleaning captains for an international convention of 40,000+ attendees.
so what woke me up?
an innocent comment from a co-worker about the candice conti court case rang a bell that could not be unrung.
Perhaps one of the first little things that opened up my eyes ever so slightly was when a sister made a beautiful collection of bible poetry. When she asked the elder dubbarubs if she could publish it, they counseled her that such outside publicizing would be taking away from the organization that Christ was using. She relented to their counsel. This is a woman who is battling sever manic depression and also cancer. They denied her the basic right to share publicly her love of the bible and her unique expressions of love and fondness for god and the bible. Would that have happened in the first century? No way.
the target is converts.. why does it seem such an outrageous aim for a congregation to recruit new converts?.
in my old congregation, the enthusiasm was there but the knocking on doors produced zero " baptisms" in my final years.. a) why so little interests?.
b) was it the internet ?.
so, i have recently been delving in buddhism and i must say it all makes sense!
like, the philosophies and ideas are what i've always believed but could never put a name to.
for example, they don't believe in god, they teach acceptance of all faiths, that peace can be achieved - not by changing other people - but by changing yourself, that everyone has goodness in themselves, that happiness can be gained internally (not externally as a gift from god), and that life is temporary so we should enjoy it!
I've seen a lot living for over a decade in a Buddhist country. There are some appealing aspects to it, but I have the same problem with it as I have with the JW religion - there is no verifiable proof that any of it is true. Also, here Buddhism equals big business. Any kind of religious service costs boat loads of money to have performed. It costs a small fortune to have priests pray over the deceased and perform the funeral rituals. Shrines require money to gain a wish or make a prayer for good health etc. If there is a true religion, money shouldn't be the force holding it together.
Of course, Buddhism in Japan is somewhat different from its Chinese cousin, or the Indian version. Like Christianity it has numerous sects and varieties.
hi all, nothing to report just now.
wanted to add name to list of those awakening.
been lurking for nearly a year.
for jw's the issue has never been who the faithful and wise servant (f&ds) was.
that is just misdirection and sleight of hand.
it is plain from the context that this was obviously a rhetorical question meant for self introspection.
what were *your favorite *books in the organization?.
out of all of those books, i liked "mankind's search for god.
" however, it appears to me that this book is incredibly obscure and no one recalls studying it during the old book study format.
Commentary of James.
It blew my mind when I found out that it was mainly researched and written by Ed Dunlap.
i've finally got round to joining the site (after over 2 years lurking!
i was born into jws, pioneered for 10 years (met my husband at pioneer school).
had health issues that saw me catapulted away from 'the centre of the cong' and wow what a different place that was!
do you ever wonder why out of all the witnesses, you are the one that woke up?
i wonder many times why me.
i know many men and women that are much, much better persons than me; either they are much smarter, more humble, kinder, more successful, or just better persons all around.
Circumstances also play a large role in not only awakening, but taking it a step further and separating oneself from the high control group. Living in a foreign country gave me the chance to look at things from an outside perspective. Having some free time (not much to do socially out here) gave me a chance to do research.
Knowing that the majority of my family would still have a relationship with me even if I left gave me the courage to pursue my questions and doubts and act on them.
Many are so busy on the organizational hampster wheel that they don't have time to reflect on what they truly feel. Others are impossibly entangled socially with their family and their employment all being in the witness social structure.
lol!
the subbing wt conductor just stumbled over the title of the wt study and said "let your name be spanktified.
let your name be spp... stank... sanctified".. all right, so everyone gets tongue tied at some point, if we don't use the words we read as part of our daily vocabulary.
LOL
Lots of Japanese people can't pronounce "spirit" so they end up saying "spit".
"Please pour your holy spit upon us so that we are guided by your spit in our daily life".
I'd start giggling during the prayer until my wife jabbed me in the side.
