we have been going through our literature and throwing away a lot of it which feels great.
my hubby came cross the program from my baptism in 1986. the divine peace dc held in the astrodome in houston, tx.
he always wrote the attendance and the amount baptized so on that day there were 30,894 in attendance nd 531 baptized!
I was 10 when I got baptized (one year before you AuntFancy! And also at the Astrodome.
I thought many times on suing to be 'unbaptized' because for a religion that believes in adult baptism I was no where near the age of consent. Do ya think I have a case??
i sat in the community garden tonight and talked with one of my neighbors, an old lady in an electric wheelchair.
she was telling me she won't be able to garden next year, it's getting to hard for her since her stroke.
so we talked about her stroke.
@Oubliette
That's one of the probelms with a religion with continually changing doctorines - things make sense only from the point of view of where they are currently standing at the time of occurence. If one is in need and finds a gold chain, then it is a blessing from Jehovah. If one is content, and finds a gold chain, then the thing to do is to find the rightful owner. But there is a switch mechanism that bounces between the two completely dependant on how one feels it could be interpreted.
It is again duplicated with the fellow pioneer who suggested it be sold to her husband. Same thing. Had she (hypothetical presumption here) not possibly be in financial crisis herself or having some issue with something she couldn't afford, she would have suggested @Rebel8 try to find the rightful owner. Otherwise, dollar signs popped in her eyes and encouragement went in the opposite direction.
There is no consistancy regarding human existence when it comes to the overtly religious. No one consistantly thinks "let's find the rightful owner" 100% of the time unless they free themselves from the ever-roving want of proof of blessings and maledictions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmnturdltwo&feature=g-vrec.
Anybody else want to eat an entire bag of Doritos with a Snickers bar and watch "Reefer Madness"?
i sat in the community garden tonight and talked with one of my neighbors, an old lady in an electric wheelchair.
she was telling me she won't be able to garden next year, it's getting to hard for her since her stroke.
so we talked about her stroke.
[quote]I do have to say that Sir Cliff is minted and a xtian too.....but I'll let him off![/quote]
There is not a single part of this sentence I understood, but for some reason when I read it I laughed so hard.
But I'm weird like that.
to those who don't believe in this shyt:you'd better not post here .
ok...so you ever used it?what experiences do you have?were you able to summon a demon?what did he tell you?what did you see?i'm really curious and i wanna try it!.
@Jeffro
People being 'all good' or 'all bad' probably wasn't the best way to put that, but for those that section life off into "good" and "bad" categories it was an easy reference to make. As I commented earlier, I honestly believe the energy of the room and the people in it is a more accurate driving force in this (what I consider) fun.
And you are correct. No one person is actually all good as 'good' is subjective, like "evil" or "immoral". What is a good person in one group can be bad for another. Hell, even Superman is all good, but bad for criminals. It's a generalized term used to describe a perspective based off where a person is standing, not a meaningful description of events, people, or 'spirits' as they are. I get that.
In each of us there is a 'good' and 'bad' scale, individualized and completely unique to our own being. And even with that, we all have to admit that we don't live up to our own version of "good" all the time... whatever that "good" may be... lol.
Being immoral, insane, retaliatory, etc. are all reasons why a person would be considered "bad", adjectives to the motivation. BUT you are completely right, they way I presented it made it seem like an askew oversimplification of something that doesn't actually exist. For ones who believe in angels and demons I thought it was a digestible construct for the point I was trying to make. Sorry for that. But you are correct in calling me out on the oversimplification. Apologies,
i sat in the community garden tonight and talked with one of my neighbors, an old lady in an electric wheelchair.
she was telling me she won't be able to garden next year, it's getting to hard for her since her stroke.
so we talked about her stroke.
You know how you have to wait for people at baggage claim when picking them up from the airport? And sometimes you forget and get wrapped up in reading a magazine or book... and suddenly the person is standing right in front of you, surprising the sh*t out of you?
There are many ways to react to this. The less respectful way is "Oh thank Jesus you made it." Statistically speaking, their arrival is a now brainer... both in air travel safety and flight times, airport layouts (if your friend is prone to getting lost), and functioning elevators, escalators, and automatic sliding doors... using math their arrival is a pretty high probability. So why give Jesus the credit for something when the odds are already in your favor? It perpetuates a belief in "truth" when there is no actual truth involved... just an obvious series of events.
Overly religious people tend to be disrespectful to their surroundings for the exact same reasons, and for such there is a lack of proper acknowledgement and respect given to the events at play. And to stop to understand all the steps involved between point A and point B actually boggs them down - it's weighty information they can't seem to digest. They just want the quick, simple answer: Jesus was watching over you and (in my example) your travel.
There.
Done.
No thinking involved.
And it totally invalidates the thousands of desigers, engineers, factory workers, mechanics, pilots, etc. etc. etc. and you are right, it's completely egocentric.
And, as if you couldn't tell, it's one of my biggest pet peeves. LOL.
to those who don't believe in this shyt:you'd better not post here .
ok...so you ever used it?what experiences do you have?were you able to summon a demon?what did he tell you?what did you see?i'm really curious and i wanna try it!.
@WTW and Van7
I personally don't believe in angels or demons. But if you do, I understand. So consider this: You have to ask yourself what kind of spirit (or "entity") would be lounging about, stagnate, not doing anything until someone comes along with a Ouija board? I mean, a person can live in a house all their life and it's only with a board game that suddenly spirits from the other side make contact. Seems pointlessly boring from the spirit's perspective. Chances are (if you wanted to personify such energies) that they would be more along the lines of the 'mischief' or 'trickster' side of the spectrum as any spirit with any real purpose, job, or influence on our side of the world has actual things to do.
I don't (personally) categorize things into just two groups of good or bad, light or dark, angels or demons, etc. So I wouldn't put things as angels acting like demons or demons acting like angels. I think there is a gradient scale of energies just like there are gradient scales of human personalities and behavior. Some people are all good. Some people are all bad. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. The coexistant energies (however you want to label them) on 'the other side' are very much the same way.
Even moreso since as the absorbtion of such encounters, digestion, and retelling of the experience as a whole is as varied as the humans who initially observed them.
(That's just my personal philosophy, however.)
to those who don't believe in this shyt:you'd better not post here .
ok...so you ever used it?what experiences do you have?were you able to summon a demon?what did he tell you?what did you see?i'm really curious and i wanna try it!.
@cantleave
Let's... um... stay on topic.
(LOL)
so i tt mom and dad via skype last weekend (they live on the other part of the county) and the topic of abuse came up.
of course they went ahead and blasted catholics for their coverups.
i mentioned gonzalo campos, now mom and dad know this guy he went to their hall for several years in san diego.
(1) one doesn't bring up the faults of the organization. Bringing up the subject means negative is on your mind, and if negativity is on your mind then doubts, discontent, and apostacy are sure to follow.
(2) She called your elders?? Wow. Now, what would be funny is if the elders talk to you and they say they need to talk to your parents. LOL.
(3) Obviously you are still involved in the church. But, if you were were just being factual (not emotional) and think the argument of immediate default is to attack catholics while avoiding issues of one's own religion goes against Matthew 7:3-5 and Luke 6:42 ('remove the splinter from your own eye before removing the rafter from your brother's'), you should feel free to discuss such among Witness family members with some immunity, or privacy.
Or maybe Matthew 7 and Luke 6 doesn't apply to those outside the organization? You might be confused about that. Be sure to ask the elders for clarification on the issue. :-)
to those who don't believe in this shyt:you'd better not post here .
ok...so you ever used it?what experiences do you have?were you able to summon a demon?what did he tell you?what did you see?i'm really curious and i wanna try it!.
I used to play with it frequently back in the day. I think they are fantastic fun. I have noticed a trend in playing with them... it's more about the energy of the room than anything else. At no time did I ever think there were "demons" or anything like that, just fluid energy... and the better the mood everyone was in the better the experience. It also helps if you are comfortable with the person (people) you are playing with.
I haven't played with it in many MANY years, it would be interesting to see how it plays now that I'm older and dumber. LOL. But I would always start off by reciting Pink Floyd "Hello. Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?"
But again, in repeated playing, I never noticed any demonic presence or anything like that, simply a reflection of the people and energy of the room... which can be very sensitive, and in some ways that of a trickster (if you want to personify it).
Still... good times.
