* shortly after Adam takes a bite of the fruit...*
Eve: yeah right! you WISH!
Posts by Ravyn
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40
Elder Rumor How Widesprd: IraqWar=WWIII=Armageddon
by romansfourteen1to6 inan inactive friend just spoke to some elders who, not from the platform but one-on-one, said they believe the coming war with iraq will cause world war iii and armageddon.
has anyone else heard this?
it may be that some are using this as a tactic to scare inactives back into the watchtower society along with their needed donations, especially since the pedophile and wts-u.n. scandals.
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Ravyn
ok so why would a JW think a worldly religious/political war would have anything to do with Jehovah's war against world rulers? or is this some new light I have missed in the last 6 yrs?
Ravyn
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21
Will I always be a JW??????? :(
by Jesika ini was wondering, since i was raised a jw, will i ever get rid of the mindset of being a jw.
i have been out for 12yrs, but still find that certain things i say, or think, or react to remind me of being a jw.
like with the current things going on with iraq and the us.
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Ravyn
I have to say that I don't agree with that. The 'part' of JWs, if you will, that shaped me was not really a part of JWs, it was my own inherent spirituality. There is absolutely nothing the JWs gave me that could be considered good that I could not have gotten somewhere else.
If it were true that you never lose that influence, then how can anyone convert to any other religion? Including those who leave a religion to become JWs?
Jehovah's Witnesses is a religion. It is not a spirituality. It is only a way to express your spirituality, and if you grew out of it, or figured out it didn't fit, then you leave it.
JWs are not a part of me. And one of thereasons I was able to leave is because they never did feel like a part of me.
The fastest way to break a bad habit is to repalce it with another habit, hopefully a good one. But goodness gracious! I used to mess my pants when I was a baby---when I outgrew that I left it, it is not a part of me--LOL -it is merely a behavior I matured out of. That's all JWs are--a behavior you grew out of.
Ravyn
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7
Need Advice
by scumrat insince dis-associating myself in 1998. i have been trying to move on with my life.
it has been difficult because my family has nothing to do with me anymore since they dis-owned me.
over the years they have popped into my life whenever they felt like it, unannounced !!!
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Ravyn
I did not say NOT to put a stamp on it! LOL I said invest a stamp---you know.....invest what 40 cents(I dont even know what stamps are individually- I just buy books)?
How SHOULD I have said that?
Ravyn
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8
Is It Okay To Play Dirty?
by mackey inwhen it can free someone from the org?
the reason i ask is that i want to get my friend out without scaring her away.
after reading steven hassans books i thought about the following.. i could tell her about someone i knew who became a moonie and talk to her about their practices and how they control their members.
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Ravyn
ok--I will tell yu what----I will become a moonie and then you wont have to lie.
to me it is like telling a kid the shot wont hurt. or the medicine tastes good. I got no problem with lying if the end justifies the means and apparently 'jehovah' does not either...after all Abraham lied with Jehoavh's blessings about Sarah being his sister, Jacob didnt just lie--he went so far as to dress up like his brother to fool his dying father! (But I have heard that blamed on his mother since she lied about some knickknack she stole from her father's house before Jacob was even born...)
you do what you gotta do sometimes.............
Ravyn
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7
Need Advice
by scumrat insince dis-associating myself in 1998. i have been trying to move on with my life.
it has been difficult because my family has nothing to do with me anymore since they dis-owned me.
over the years they have popped into my life whenever they felt like it, unannounced !!!
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Ravyn
put his letter in a big envelope--unopened--and invest a stamp and send it back to him with the word REFUSED written on his envelope in red marker. Put his own address on the big envelope as both the 'send to' and 'from'--so it only goes to him no matter what. For the price of a stamp you can reinforce your boundaries and limits.
Ravyn
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19
Advanatage you had over Others
by JH inwhat advantage did you have over others in your congregation that helped you look spiritual?
health advantage?
social advantage?
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Ravyn
from birth to 23 I had the advantage of being the daughter of an annointed elder. then I was a pioneer. Then I owned my own home. and finally when I realized that the elders who felt they could direct my life were the same ones that I changed their diapers and taught to count to ten- I left. I went as far as i could go as a single sister and it was not satisfying.
Ravyn
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21
Will I always be a JW??????? :(
by Jesika ini was wondering, since i was raised a jw, will i ever get rid of the mindset of being a jw.
i have been out for 12yrs, but still find that certain things i say, or think, or react to remind me of being a jw.
like with the current things going on with iraq and the us.
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Ravyn
I was thinking more about this, and I realized that right now on the exitfundy elist I am on the big thread is about whether or not you are still afraid of a burning Hell(aka Great Tribulation, Armageddon, Everlasting'cutting off'). And that is another thing that let me 'intellectualize'--thanks 6of9-finding out that the JW doctrine is hardly different from other fundy traditions! Infact most of the whacked out christian cults out there all got roughly the same start with Miller in the 1850's or so! It is like finding out you have a whole bunch of cousins you never knew about! and it helps quell any left over residue in thought patterns...when you comfort someone who is still having nightmares about being tortured in Hell(or whose loving relatives have either shunned them or believe they will burn in Hell...)you realize that their Hell is the same as your somehow screwing up Paradise after a thousand yrs and losing it all anyway....their 'left behind' is your 'sign of the end'....and OMG! they even heard the same demonized smurf stories! But in their case they were told the smurf screamed at the tent revival or the altar call! (Kinda makes you wonder who started those stupid stories?) you should check this elist out sometime it is on Yahoo groups called ExitFundy--do a search, or if anyone is interested email me--I think I posted a link to it a couple of months ago.
Ravyn
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21
Will I always be a JW??????? :(
by Jesika ini was wondering, since i was raised a jw, will i ever get rid of the mindset of being a jw.
i have been out for 12yrs, but still find that certain things i say, or think, or react to remind me of being a jw.
like with the current things going on with iraq and the us.
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Ravyn
a couple of years ago I started thinking of myself not as an XJW, but as a former JW. To me the subtle difference has become a glaring obvious. To me an X-anything still connects to that thing I am an X of. But to say I am a former JW cuts th cord for me, because I am a former lot of things....and it just means that it is something that I finished in my life and moved on with. If I started to think of myself differently, then I started to behave differently.
But I have to say, it was not until I took a vacation from this particular forum last year and became a member of another elist called ExitFundyism when I started to realize that the world was a bigger place and JWs are not the only dangerous spins on xtianity and XJWs are not the only ones who have been devastated and hurt by their former religions. One of the first threads I got involved with on that elist was one that asked what things do you think you missed out on being raised in a fundy situation. I did not know what to expect out of the 400 or so members...but after I bit the bullet and wrote about the silly things I didn't know how to do on my own when I left JWs, 0I not only found others comiserating--but they actually experienced the exact same things! For instance, I did not know how to strike a match well into my early 20's...I didn't smoke, no birthday candles, no incense or candles(my dad thot they were too catholic...), electric stove, so until I had to learn fast or freeze to death in North Idaho I had never struck a match. I was ashamed of that. But atleast three other women said the exact same thing...and they were no where near being JWs....they were raised Pentecostal, Church of God, and Assembly of God!
While it may be true that the lingo is peculiar to JWs, the experience is not. And I have also found out that the differences in the lingo are not even all that great. And that elist has members from Europe, UK, Asia, Australia and USA plus! So it is also not just auniquely American experience either...
It has really broadened my perspective and lets me look at things with a more panaramic scope.
I actually go days, even weeks without thinking about being a former JW. And this time when I came back here to this forum, I am disconnected to alot of the stuff that used to tangle around my feet and drag me down.
No offense to this wonderful forum--for it provides an essential and life saving service. But for me, to finally lose that JW-ness, I had to leave all things JW for a while and find out that JWs are only one thing in this world that causes pain.
Ravyn
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79
everyone voice in
by peacefulpete inplease express in 0ne to three words why you are on this web site.
: angry,confused and desperate,lonely,seeking affirmation,saving souls,to expose evil,curious about apostates, like being naughty, etc.
please limit comment to 3 or less words.
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Ravyn
to never forget
Ravyn