conditions needed for a person to leave a high control group: [source].
1. courage.
a person must be very brave to leave a high control group.
Agreed on all counts! I would add to that a catalyst, a motivator or a wake up call, if you will. Something has to happen I think, to wake a person up to what's really going on in their lives and to make them stop for a moment and say, "Hey! That's not right!"
They have to see that there's something wrong before they can start the journey toward making things right.
Great post!
CyrusThePersian
it always made me think when i corinthians 11 was read at the memorial, when jesus said "as often as you keep doing this..." i would think"hmmm, once a year isn't really very often, the other churches are a lot more often than us.".
great to see that they fixed that to "keep doing this.
" wouldn't want any doubts, now, would we?.
In the Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament the word translated as "As often as" is οσακις (ho-sak-is). It is coupled with εαν (e-ahn) which means "if ever." ("as often as if ever you do this...") So the implication I think that Paul is making is that Christians should never stop doing the Eucharist and not making any sort of statement as to how often it should be done whether weekly, daily or yearly.
CyrusThePersian
hi all- haven't posted much lately but i wanted to check in and give an update on my fade.
all of the advice i've received here has been spot on so far!
phase i is complete- i'm completely inactive, no service or meetings in a few months.
I personally look at myself as an "accidental fader." When I moved to a new town I simply never went to the Kingdom Hall here. Not on purpose, I just didn't want to go. So no one, either here in my new town, or in the city I came from, is any the wiser as to my "spiritual status." I think that if you move, you could do the same.
Just simply never go to the Hall in your new town. If you could convince your husband not to go either it will be that much easier. The local witnesses will not even know who you are. If your husband starts going to the new Hall, you may find yourself right back in the same boat with having elders "dropping by" to see why you aren't at the meetings.
CyrusThePersian
revelation was wirtten to those seven 1st century churhces not thechurhc of doolaly in florida etc.
those 1st cnetruy beleivers were fully expectant of the returning king in power and he did.
he didnot lei or mislead them.
For many of us it is a painful process setting yourself free from every kind of preconceived idea
Yes it is a painful process, setting yourself free from every preconceived idea, but are you sure you've done this?
EVERY kind of preconceived idea?
CyrusThePersian
hi guys & gals!.
a friend, and current witness, says the jehovah's witnesses have the truth because they're the only religion that state that satan is in control of the world and not god/jesus as some christian religions state.. how can i counter this argument?.
warm regards and love,.
You can counter this argument with two words: Prove it.
First of all, provide evidence that Satan even exists. Then show their evidence that Satan is in charge of the world. (To me it looks like the planet is being run for the most part by incompetent thugs, the rest by mere incompetents.) Then show that this wacko religion is the only one preaching that Satan is in charge.
CyrusThePersian
there's quite a lot on tv just now about jesus.
i'm not sure anymore....was he the son of god, or just generally a good person?.
i'm not atheist or agnostic but i just want something real and true..
"There's quite a lot on TV just now about Jesus. I'm not sure anymore....Was he the son of God, or just generally a good person?"
...or did he even exist?
Many years ago I wrestled with the same conundrums you are facing today. Is God real or true? To answer that question, you must look at the cold facts. You must shun "Divine Revelation", ignore wishful thinking, and avoid the opinions of those around you and concentrate on the evidence.
What I personally found was that God supposedly gave us five senses with which to perceive the world. Yet with none of these senses can we perceive God. We cannot taste to see that he is good. We cannot see him or feel him or smell him because he is incorporeal. We cannot hear him because he does not speak. We pray to him but he doesn't answer. He does nothing to alleviate human suffering.
To paraphrase Carl Sagan, whats the difference between an invisible, incorporeal God who does nothing and says nothing--and no God at all?
What's "real and true" is out there, but you have to find it.
CyrusThePersian
it seemed to me for a male jw to begin the steps of dating and eventually getting married you at least had to be an m.s.
to get anywhere with a sister at least a decent sister.
i'm wondering if others felt this way?
"It seemed to me for a male JW to begin the steps of dating and eventually getting married you at least had to be an M.S. to get anywhere with a sister at least a DECENT sister."
Maybe you should have set your sights on an indecent sister. They're more fun.
Where I grew up the situation was just the opposite of JustVisiting and Julia Orwell's. The young bro's outnumbered the sisters by a factor of at least three to one. The young women in the cong. wouldn't even talk to a guy unless he was on the fast track to being an elder. That made dating a real pain for the young bro's. We would often go out of town en masse to try to find young hotties to flirt with. Can you imagine some small town cong. being suddenly flooded by five or six young theocratic studs on some Sunday? It happened a lot back then, I know, because I was one of them!
i know this is one huge rant, but i want to put my own questions and doubts in writing.. i am a fading jw who has become agnostic... i still believe in "god" and "jesus," but i simply cannot explain to people why i believe in them.
i just do.. about the existence of god: it is an infinite regress.
"all things were created by someone"... well... who created god?
"Suppose a species turns into another one. Why did chimpanzees, gorillas, and other large apes "remain" in their past form, and then the intermediaries to humans died off?
If the large apes had the same circumstances as the ones that branched off and became humans, why didn't THEY die off?
I am missing something here?"
Yes, you are. You're making the incorrect assumption that evolution is a steady, progressive process, which is not necessarily the case. Evolution is driven by two factors: Mutation and natural selection. Mutations happen all the time. The simple fact that no two animals-including humans- are alike, bears this out. Natural selection simply favors a creature whose mutations make it better able to cope with its environment, survive, and then pass on its mutated genes to the next generation. So evolution affects different species in different ways. Some species evolve rapidly-like Homo Sapiens Sapiens, and some evolve or change hardly at all- like sharks.
All species of modern apes, which includes humans, have undergone evolutionary change and many "intermediate" species of all great apes have died off. (I put "intermediate" in quotation marks because all species living today and in the past are in fact intermediate. Biological evolution does not have a finish line.) It is interesting that of all the hominids only humans remain today, (even though there is a movement afoot to declare chimpanzees and bonobos as hominids). However this is easily explained, given human nature. These other hominids, like Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, simply couldn't compete. They were probably assimilated or simply wiped out by the superior Homo Sapiens.
CyrusThePersian
any one out there doing field service?
i have not gone out on that day in years.
and have no intention of ever doing that again.
Since all my friends will be spending Christmas with their families, I will be left to my own devices. I haven't really decided what I'll do. I'll probably do what I always do, smoke my bi-annual cigar, prop my feet up next to the fireplace and marathon my favorite Christmas movies.
CyrusThePersian
i have some guests coming over to spend xmas with me for a couple of days.
they are my friends family and i have a larger place than them and am playing host.. dilemma.
they are christians and i have some postcards in my bathroom that are slightly naughty.
While on the one hand it is your home and you have the right to have anything you want on your bathroom walls (within the law of course), there is, on the other hand, the need to be sensitive to the feelings of your guests. In my personal opinion, I think your cards, at least the ones you describe, may be a little too racy for an eight year old. I think it would be wise and prudent to temporarily remove them.
CyrusThePersian
