Bonsai

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Posts by Bonsai

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  21

  Global attack On Religion

  by Bonsai in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  witnesses on facebook are salivating over this atlanta-journal constitution newspaper article.. http://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-atlanta-journal-constitution/20151015/281479275254108/textview.

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  Bonsai

  Witnesses on Facebook are salivating over this Atlanta-Journal Constitution newspaper article.

  http://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-atlanta-journal-constitution/20151015/281479275254108/TextView
  
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  6

  Are you a 老外 (laowei = foreigner) - where to go for a pub-crawl in Shanghai

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was less experienced in chinese ways, i used to think that chinese people couldn't drink (low tolerance to alcohol).

  not so, last trip i tagged along on a night out, a friend put on for his staff.

  after a long dinner of many dishes, cooked specially by a 5 star hotel chef hired for the occasion, lubricated with many bottles of wine, we finished up at a nightclub on the edge of a lake, where they continued drinking shot after shot of tequila.

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  Bonsai

  LOL at 老外. "Old outsider". You gotta love the Chinese way of viewing foreigners. In Japan, they call us, "外国人 (gaikokujin) people from outside the country". They also call us ”外人(gaijin) outsiders". Leave it to the Chinese to add 老。
  

  I'd love to visit Shanghai someday. Thanks for the travel tips.
  
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  10

  Neglect of Adolescents by the WTBTS - Excellent Article

  by Tornintwo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have been thinking a lot about the lack of support, judgement and criticism of teenagers in the organisation.

  i am dealing with the fallout of these policies with my two adolescents...i found this excellent article this morning which is worth a read for anyone interested in this topic - see the links below but first i also wanted to add my own bugbear, forgive the rant: .

  a key factor which isn't mentioned in the article is the 'bad association' rule and it's extended application.

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  Bonsai

  Great post and article! Exactly why I don't want my kids touching this nutty religion with a ten-foot pole! No support. Loads of judgement and isolation. I remember my COBE in my last hall tried to whip up all kinds of extra curricular activities for the young ones. We supported it wholly. Then a study article came out which said we needed to taper off activities that were taking time away from field service. Needless to say, the picnics, softball games and riverside barbeques came to an abrupt halt.
  
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  44

  If there is anything to bible prophecy, keep an eye out on Israel

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what will be the end game whether in a few years, our lifetime, or hundreds + years from now.

  bible prophecy did say israel / jews would be scattered then eventually brought back.

  russell was declaring that and it was believed before being changed shortly before it happened.

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  Bonsai

  Also, ISIS is an enemy, not only to Israel, but to all modern peaceful society. No country would sit by passively and allow ISIS or its affiliates to overwhelm Israel. It would never happen!
  
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  44

  If there is anything to bible prophecy, keep an eye out on Israel

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what will be the end game whether in a few years, our lifetime, or hundreds + years from now.

  bible prophecy did say israel / jews would be scattered then eventually brought back.

  russell was declaring that and it was believed before being changed shortly before it happened.

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  Bonsai

  Why on earth would a god protect Israel over any other country? What has Israel done to help the planet that many other countries aren't also doing? Like any other country, Israel does what is best for Israel. They've committed genocide like most other countries have. They have no special moral superiority over other peaceful, law abiding countries.

  It makes me laugh how as a witness, the Jewish religion somehow played a central role in my belief system, even though Israel has absolutely no modern day connection to the bible, or salvation from god. They killed their own leader for Christ's sake (pun intended).

  If Japan were attacked and surrounded by the Koreas and China, and faced imminent destruction, would god step in and help out? Would there be some holy kamikaze to bail them out? I think not. What makes the Israelis so special?
  

  Don't misunderstand me, I would love to visit Israel and its rich culture and sights, as I would like to visit many other countries. I'd also support Israel from the desert rats trying to blow them up. I absolutely believe Israel has the right to exist and thrive in peace and should be helped by its allies to fend off aggression. But central to bible prophecy? Some people leave the "truth", but never stop being conspiracy theory loving witnesses.
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  112

  Did an EX-JW wake you up to TTATT or did you put the effort to wake up yourself?

  by John Aquila in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.

  how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.

  how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.

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  Bonsai

  Mine started one day in the Kingdomhall library room about 12 years ago. It didn't affect me until years later, but what happened on that day sowed seeds of doubt that would lay dormant for another decade.

  I was a young, impressionable pioneer who had a man crush on Rutherford, Russel and all the other spiritual giants that got the ball rolling over a century ago. I was oohing and ahhing over the collection of books we had in our library that went all the way back to the 1870's when the P.O came up to me and asked me why I spent so much time back here looking through "these old books". i told him that this collection was priceless antiquity that was helping me to learn about the roots of our wonderful organization. What he said next shocked me to my core. He said,
  

  "A lot of these books aren't worth the paper that they were printed on."

  I couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth. The P.O., a long-time missionary who had been in the truth for years and years! His father had come into the truth around the turn of the century. I couldn't believe it. It was borderline blasphemy to me. Disturbed and bothered by it, I safely tucked it away behind a wall of cognitive dissonance.

  It wasn't until years later that scandals, injustice and hypocrisy forced me to re-examine those words. Now, here I am!
  
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  20

  How many of us are 'perfectionists'?

  by FayeDunaway in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i made a medium level mistake at work today, and when i make mistakes it really shakes me up and takes me a long time to recover.

  it completely rattles me, makes me feel awful about myself.

  my mind keeps going back to the mistake reliving how i could have let it happen.

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  Bonsai

  Failure is the mother of success, or so they say. I'm an expert at failure. Still waiting for mother to arrive though.
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  7

  Two Detectives Observing A J.W. Meeting.

  by smiddy in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  woody harrelson and mathew mcconaughey { standing at the back of the k..h..during a meeting }.

  w.h.. "what do you know about these people " { who get their higher education reading and studying the watchtower and awake magazines} ?.

  "just observation and deduction , i see propensity for obesity , poverty, a yen for fairy tales , folks putting what few bucks they do have into contribution boxes .. i think it`s safe to say that nobody here is going to be splitting the atom.

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  Bonsai

  Wait, what? Are you kidding me? I've watched the first two season's of "True Detective" and I don't remember that scene. Is my leg being pulled here, or did that actually happen? What episode (I'm assuming first season as the second season has completely different actors led by Colin Farrell).
  
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  101

  My mom passed away yesterday....

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thank you all for your sincere encouragement during these last few weeks.

  finally, she is at peace.

  i was with her , holding her hand when she died.

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  Bonsai

  Sorry for your loss. I'm sure it gave her strength and comfort that you were with her until the end.
  
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  27

  This is for all JW's out there...

  by Divergent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  sorry to be so blunt, but you only have yourself to blame if you realize something is wrong but allow your cognitive dissonance to kick in.

  if you are confronted with facts which are reported by reliable sources which are hard to dispute and deny, and you choose to dismiss these as "apostate lies" rather than looking at these from an objective point of view, it's your fault and you deserve the consequences of willful ignorance!.

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  Bonsai

  It's a bit rough, but I understand the message that you are trying to convey. So many times I've wanted to tell friends and family who are trapped and unhappy to wake the **** up, take control of your life and do something about your unhappiness. They complain and complain about all aspects of the organization, the injustice in the congregation and yet do nothing about it.

  I have a friend still in, who only contacts me to complain, because he knows I'm the only one he can fully rant to. After his rant session he goes right back into full cult mode. What the heck! So frustrating.