BU2B, sorry your mom is FOG-ging you. But at least you understand why she is doing this, ... not that it takes away the pain of losing out on unconditional love.
Honestly, if it's conditional, it ain't love!
i wish i knew what it was like to have an unconditionally loving mother.
i know she loves me and cares about me, but only within her narrow wt spectrum.
if i do not meet her narrow expectations, i am a failure to her.
BU2B, sorry your mom is FOG-ging you. But at least you understand why she is doing this, ... not that it takes away the pain of losing out on unconditional love.
Honestly, if it's conditional, it ain't love!
ok here's the situation i know of.. a women was in a situation where she was forced to reveal a hidden sin and was given a private reproof for it.
before this she had an other wise clean slate.
btw the reproof was for an unrelated matter and had nothing to do with apostasy.
did you really believe in things as ;- the earth is only 6000 years old- the 144.000- 1914, based upon the destructiono of jerusalem- harmagheddon or the end of the world coming soon???
?i married a jw when i was an interested person and studying with the jw's ( not the way they wanted) but i told my wife before marrying her that " most probably " i would never have been a jw.she accepted me as i was and married me.
after that i had interrupted the study for one year, i started all over again with an elder of my wife's cong.
The idea that the earth is only 6,000 years old is not a WTBTS doctrine or teaching.
I was, however, persuaded to entertain the other ideas you mentioned because I was persuaded to believe that JWs had "the Truth." And when I say, "entertain," I mean that I tentatively accepted that they MIGHT be true because I accepted that the religion was true.
I have since come to know that these are demonstrably false premises. No one individual or group can possess "the Truth" to the exclusion of others. Truth is not a tangible, concrete item which can only be in the physical possession of a single entity at a time. That is just ridiculous. Also, even if a group does have SOME ideas right, it does not follow that they have ALL ideas and teachings correct.
My reason for tentatively accepting the various JW doctrines was that, for a time, I really believed that Jehovah's Witnesses taught truth and were God's visible organization on Earth. Once I saw the WT leaders and the entire religion for the scam that it is, there was no longer any reason for me to believe tenuous doctrines that never had any independent basis in the first place.
In other words: I accepted JW beliefs because I was duped into believing JWs were special. It was NOT the case that I became a JW because I a priori believed their unique and often bizarre beliefs and unusual interpretations of scripture.
It all flows from buying into the idea that there is only "one true religion." There is not. That is a fallacy.
Let's review: It's a cult!
forgive me if this has been posted already but this was in my local paper today.. http://m.recordonline.com/article/20150307/news/150309486/0/wap&template=wapart.
if you have time to read, this is an interesting article talking about watchtowers property in ulster and orange county ny and how much the properties are worth.
it also goes on to show how the tax exempt stays is hurting the communities..
rebel8 said it best.
Living in that area must be like living in a dystopian nightmare.
The poor, hardworking average Joes pay for everything and the big, powerful entities take advantage of everyone and everything.
on the paragraph about meditation in today's study, i gave a comment about "meditating with a view towards mindfulness and awareness of the positive things in our lives.".
afterwards, about 8 people that i rarely talk to in the congregation came up and expressed how much they appreciated that point.. wanted to say, "thank the buddha.
" but didn't have the guts.
CT, they no doubt appreciated it because it was fresh and interesting, not the same ol' rehashed tripe.
they simply belong to a religion.
they cannot explain why they follow all the dictates of the organization.
they live in blind faith.
When I joined the religion back in the early '80s, it at least felt like we really were Bible students.
Of course, Crazy Freddy's ideas were whacked and false, but at least they were interesting and had the feel of scholarship, albeit a cheap imitation of the real thing. I actually enjoyed the rare but challenging discussion with someone when we would pull out the Bible and go over various scriptures and discuss and debate their meaning.
Now, all JWs are simply followers of whatever the WTBTS decides to print in their latest publications, in print or virtual.
Now JWs stand on the street by a literature cart and if someone is curious enough to approach them, they'll use their iPads to direct this bored or lost soul to a website. The Bible is little more than a prop.
i recently ran into a jw i knew from a few years back.you know how it goes, a few pleasantries that always seem much more awkward than they really should (not for me, mind you--for him).and then the question, "so what congregation are you attending?
are you able to make the meetings?
"i'm thinking: do you always start conversations this way?so anyways, knowing full well the jw-mindset, i decided to have a bit of fun.furrowing my brow, i said, "that's an odd question!
i'm sitting here now going insane with this program of fear, obligation and guilt!.
oh man....seriously mind numbing.. i can't bring myself to share too much of it all now.... but i just want to get out...... tell you all more soon about the manipulative trash..... .
anyone else go to this?
last sunday (23rd february 2015) we had our zone visit ( visit headquarters representative).
this time governing body member david splane and brother john ekrann came to sri lanka.
and they spent almost one week in sri lanka.. .
Next time you see one of the GB members ask they why don't they get a job like everyone else? The apostle Paul had one. Do they think they are better than he was? - Acts 18:3
Effin' hypocrites! Lazy bastards sponging off of their followers. Talk about fleecing the flock!
saomebody mentioned in a recent thread here i think that the more they read here the more they feel angry at the wt.
personally, as an ex-elder (only resigned a few months ago) i feel that it is more like suddenly being on the outside looking in at a whole group of people playing parts.
the zealous pioneers answering all the time.
Most people assume roles all the time, and it is not necessarily a conscious thing.
Read about Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment and you'll learn about one of the most powerful scientific studies done on the subject of individuals assuming the role they are assigned.