lydiacostume

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Posts by lydiacostume

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  17

  Are the Family of a Disfellowshipped Person Told in Advance?

  by Eustace in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in another thread a comment by mamochan13 related this experience:.

  of course, after i was df'd my perspective changed.

  one meeting a couple of months into it they announced that a young girl, about 17, had been df'd.

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  lydiacostume

  I think it just varies case by case. I was a minor when I was DF'ed so my parents knew what was going on. I think it probably depends on the families involved and the congregation in general. But I think since the decisions often come as a shock to the one being punished, it's no surprise that they wouldn't give the family a heads-up.
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  24

  Books for making a choice to believe in the Bible or not

  by Aunt Fancy in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i know some of you have referenced excellent books but i am not sure where to find them.

  i am looking for some very good books to give me the other side of not believing the bible.

  i am not sure where i stand at this point and would like to be informed.

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  lydiacostume

  I also recommend Elaine Pagels, and I have been reading some books by Bart Ehrman that have been very interesting and informative. These are just two authors that are scholars in their particular subjects, experts of ancient history that explain the origins of modern belief. If you want to know what the bible is really about and who actually wrote it you have to read some history, and thankfully there are people who spend their whole lives studying these things and share what they learn with us. I think it's very important to learn these things, to know the whys and whens and hows. The society quotes a lot of scriptures telling you to prove things to yourself and study up to make sure you've got things right, but if all you ever read is their publications you will never learn the whole truth. That was one thing that always bothered me. I know a lot of JWs that can quote a lot of scripture, but what they don't ever think about is how their translation of that scripture is not even accurate, it was just translated by some random men who had little to no training in biblical languages. Bart Ehrman has a couple of great books called Did Jesus Exist? and Misquoting Jesus where he mentions the problems of mistranslations. Larsinger I'm not sure how you know that the bible has been confirmed as "true" but if you do some historical reading you will quickly find that the bible is full of inaccuracies and contradictions, and there are many other "books" or "gospels" that are not included in the mainstream bible but that contain like stories and information.
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  94

  14 months after printing the "Steve and Selma" article, guess what the Society's latest Awake is about...

  by cedars in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you guessed it.... .

  http://www.jw.org/download/?fileformat=pdf&issue=201304&output=html&pub=g&langwritten=e&option=trgchlzrqvnyvrxf&txtcmslang=e.

  cedars.

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  lydiacostume

  This makes me so so sad. All the poor folks out there that are suffering because their abusive situation is not severe "enough". And the abusers are also suffering and not getting the help they need! There was a lot of abuse in my house, mostly verbal/emotional, but some physical too. It has damaged me, to be sure. I remember trying to have a conversation about it with my mother, who brought it up (to my great surprise) because my sister had decided to cut off all contact with my parents. My parents didn't understand this, but to me it was perfectly clear--my sister's life is better without them. They have never stopped being verbally abusive/hurtful to her, always criticizing and condescending, backing up every nice thing they say with a condemnation. When I told my mother that it has been very hard to get over all the abuse we suffered, my mother said that she and my father never felt like anything they did was "that bad". It was so hard for me to not vomit during that whole conversation. But now they are hurt that my sister has cut them out of her life. I told them that they are loyal to an organization which regularly shuns people; why should they be so shocked that someone wants to shun them? It just makes me even sadder that my family and loved ones cannot even see that they are blind. They don't have normal definitions of abuse. They have lost all reason, and will not accept help. My heart breaks over and over.