Loris

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Posts by Loris

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  26

  So....what will you do with the 30 years left?

  by Dawn in

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  Loris

  Live in peace and harmony with the universe.

  Loris
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  62

  Have You Renounced Everything Jehovah's Witnesses Believe In?

  by minimus in

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  now that you don't practice the religion, is it safe to say that you reject everything that you were taught??

  ?

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  Loris

  My beliefs in the separateness of the Father and Son, soul sleep, no hell fire were mine before I joined the dubs. It was the fact that they seemed to be the only ones teaching those things that got me hooked.

  I, like Wednesday, would like to find a group that shares those beliefs without the high control issues. I have family that is Methodist. They frown on movies and dancing. More control.

  Loris
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  9

  Newsweek Cover: Who Killed Jesus?

  by willyloman in

  1. jw
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  msn has posted the cover of the latest issue of newsweek, with a cover story on mel gibson's new movie based on jesus' crucifixion.

  the provocative headline: who really killed jesus.. without getting into that debate, i'm going to go out on a limb and make a prediction:.

  i have not read the article, but think it is a pretty safe bet that with all the religious experts they will quote in this article, there will not be one single reference to the wts or jw's.. just a couple of years ago, the same magazine (or was it time?

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  Loris

  Willyloman, amazing insight.

  Newsweek had an article about Ray Franz leaving the GB in the mid 80's and in mid 2002 they had a couple of paragraphs about the WT at the end of an article about sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The WT is a curiosity to the media nothing more. It is seen as just another goofy religion.

  You're right, if they really were the great world recognized Bible experts that they proclaim they are, the media would be asking them the tough Bible questions.

  Thanks for the thread.

  Loris
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  12

  The true approved religion

  by Galimo in

  1. jw
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  one of the arguments i used to use while going from door to door was:.

  if we would now live in the time of ancient israel and if we would want to adore god in the correct way then we would have to be part of the choosen people of israel.

  adapt to its laws and customs, etc.

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  Loris

  Thomas Paine wrote in his book The Age of Reason, "any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system."

  I agree with that. How many stories in the OT revel in the murder of men, women and children in the name of God? The Israelites were to take the female children and focibly make wives of them, priestly sanctioned rape! The male children and infants of both sexes were murdered. What pray tell was their crime? Being born a Cainanite?

  Then you have the Christian story of God the Father putting his son to death, or employing people to do it. That cannot be told by a parent to a child without a sorry explanation of it ; and to tell him that it was done to make mankind happier and better, is making the story still worse; as if mankind could be improved by the example of murder.

  Look at the so-called childrens books printed by the WT. How shocking to a child are they?

  Loris
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  73

  Are You a BASTARD?.......

  by minimus in

  1. jw
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  gumby is and i'd like to know if you agree.

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  Loris

  No, my parents had been married for several years before I came along.

  Actually I am 51% Sweetheart and 49% Bitch and proud of it.

  Loris
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  54

  Another survey from Lee

  by Lady Lee in

  1. jw
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  reading simon's post about how things used to be i started thinking about how the internet has changed things.

  many believe the internet and the freedom of information it contains will be the undoing of the wts.. when i was a jw, there were a few dfings but maybe one a year or even less.

  people drifted away but we really didn't pay a lot of attention unless it was a close friend.. in here we see new people coming in all the time.

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  Loris

  • What year did you leave? 2002 37 years of blind obedience.
  • How old were you when you left? 55
  • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave? If I had not had access to the internet it is possible that I would have been upset over the Dateline expose but continue to go to meetings. I did continue to attend meetings for awhile but the more pressure from the elders to stuff it and say nothing to anyone the more I resisted. Sitting in the KH while a pompas a$$ gave a "special needs" talk about me was the end. I did not go back. I did not see a need to go where I was not wanted.
  • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision? I would NEVER read anything that put the WT in a negative light! How dare you even suggest such a thing!!
  • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing). The frosting on the cake was learning about the U.N. The scripture "Get out of her my people" was yelling in my ear. I wanted there to be no question in anyones mind of why I left. I sent a letter to HQ, the cong, and a few of my closest aquaintences. I told them I did not want to be known as a JW any more.
  • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind? I did still think it was the "truth" Funny how that works. The brain does not turn loose of what it perceives as a means of survival easily. I had to read 1984, True Believer, C of C, In Search of Christian Freedom, The Age of Reason, The Bible Unearthed, The History of God and a few others that I can not remember the titles of. Most of all I have finally read the Bible with a clear head and an open mind. I have no idea what I am or what is the "Truth" I am a diest I suppose. My belief system is still in flux.

  Loris
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  20

  Help w/Art Memorial Project

  by Valis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my good friend, colleague, fellow teacher and beer drinking buddy wayne myers died of cancer last week.

  he died of chemo poisoning before the cancer could kill him.

  he taught biology and was from kansas.

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  Loris

  How about a tractor shaped topiary. They do some really funky stuff with wire and vines. Sort of like Disneyland/Disney World.

  Loris
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  21

  What is the worst revenge you've taken on the WT, Elders, or JW's?

  by DevonMcBride in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  other than living a happy life, is there anything you've done to get back at them?

  i never was a jw but did do some creative things to cause a stir in one of the local halls.

  all of it was legal too.

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  Loris

  I helped a reporter for the St Petersburg Times with background and research materials when she was writing a piece on shunning. I didn't get featured in the article because I wasn't officially shunned yet only under intense investigation. I don't mind doing that sort of thing because it may stop just one person from getting involved with them. The active dubs don't read the negative things anyway. It takes more than that to rock their boat. My boat had to be hit by a torpedo before I would investigate the dark side.

  Loris
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  9

  dissin' my daughter too?

  by happy2b in

  1. jw
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  it's been a while since i've posted here.

  nice to be back!!

  i have a question....have any of you had this problem?........i ds'd myself about 6 years ago.

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  Loris

  When I was DF'd many moons ago my children were shunned and spoken to rudely at the KH. My oldest son was 13 at the time. He refused to return to the meetings after he was insulted in the restroom at the KH. He is 39 now and that is the one thing he will bring up to anyone when the subject of the dubs comes up. It really affected him in a big way.

  Loris
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  19

  JW's and JFK - It Makes A Certain Sense. Try it out...

  by ZeroKool29 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i think it's time for my kind of sunday talk.

  i began thinking about this tonight, i rented jfk.

  now, my girlfriend just finished reading this book written by a forensic pathologist.

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  Loris

  This is a quote from an article Why Bad Beliefs Don't Die

  Skeptical thinkers must realize that because of the survival value of beliefs, disconfirming evidence will rarely, if ever, be sufficient to change beliefs, even in "otherwise intelligent" people. In order to effectively change beliefs skeptics must attend to their survival value, not just their data-accuracy value.

  http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-11/beliefs.html

  It is something I have to review anytime I am investigating a new thought about religion etc. My beliefs are so ingrained that I have to remind myself that I can change them if I need to. It's as tho I have to give myself permission to change belief systems. Coming away from the WT has been the most confusing change of all.

  There are people that have deeply ingrained beliefs about JFK. Getting them to change that is just as hard.

  Loris