Euphemism

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Posts by Euphemism

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  9

  Will WT "Euphrates" dry up more in 2007? (New IRS rules)

  by Open mind in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  first off, there's a new poster who hasn't gotten much of a welcome.

  mr. born again.

  he's done three posts.

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  Euphemism

  JWs skew towards the lower end of the income spectrum, which means that most probably don't itemize.

  OTOH, a lot of JWs--at least those who contribute more than $5 or $20--already donate by check anyway. In Europe, I've even head of them setting up regular direct debits. In the US, I understand that there's a phone number you can call to do a direct debit, but I don't know if you can set up regular debits or not.

  So I don't see this making much of a difference. Again, your $5/$20 donors are probably not itemizing anyway.
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  30

  An introduction

  by Toshiro Mifune in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  where to begin?

  i hope this will serve as my introduction to this group.

  (hope im in the right section.

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  Euphemism

  Welcome to the board! Love the way you write.

  I think Madam Quixote's analogy to malaria is spot-on. You don't ever completely get over the brain-screwing, but that doesn't mean you can't have a good life anyway. It helps that your family isn't in, at least.
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  40

  Would you rat out an Elder

  by pratt1 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this weekend i accompanied a few friends to a strip club in manhattan.

  my wife doesn't like it too much, but since i promised her that a lap dance is asfar as i will go with a stripper, she tolorates it.. imagine my surprise when i noticed that an elder from my old congo was there along with several of his co-workers.. he tried to ignore me but before we left i stopped by his table and said hello.. he actually had the nerve to ask me if it was okay for us to speak.

  i said since we were both in a strip club, it didn't matter.. my question - should i mention this to dubs i still maintain relationships with, who incidently worship the ground this elder walks on?.

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  Euphemism

  I'm with Toshiro. I don't care how much of an asshole the elder is, he's not nearly as bad as the WTS and their judicial system. No way in hell I would turn anyone in to them.
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  4

  Disneyland now offers its $3000.00 wedding pkg. to gays...

  by Gregor in

  1. social
  2. current

  which is fine by me.

  i couldn't help but chuckle when i heard they call it the "fairy tale wedding"

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  Euphemism

  I really can't understand... who would want to get married at Disneyland?
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  9

  ? for dubs re age of human race

  by Mile 0 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  although it is generally known that skeletal remains and fossils give us a much older date for the existance of humans, do jws still take the bible's cronology as literal fact?

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  mile 0.

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  Euphemism

  Yeah, that really troubled me as a Witness. I generally argued that any hominid fossils must either be misidentified--i.e. they were actually non-human apes--or else misdated--i.e. they were actually less than 6,000 years old. The only way I maintained those positions was by avoiding digging into the specifics of those fossils.

  What I found even harder to deal with was the evidence of civilization shortly after the flood. The Egyptian regnal chronology goes back to ~3000 BC; I remember reading in Awake (of all places) about an Indian civilization with similar dating.

  However, I didn't seriously question the creation or flood doctrines until after I questioned the Watchtower. I know people for whom the process worked in reverse, however.
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  28

  Comments You Will Not Hear at the 4-8-07 WT Study (Obedient Children)

  by blondie in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  wt child abuse www.silentlambs.org.

  "children, be obedient to your parents".

  they soon understand that they are there to listen and to learn.prov.

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  Euphemism

  daniel-p wrote:I guess I don't understand why people think spanking amounts to abuse.

  Well, 'abuse' is a subjective term. Up until a few decades ago, almost every parent used corporal punishment at least sometimes. Can we say that they were all 'abusive'? Maybe. A lot of social mores have changed in the last 50 years; a person who held views that were perfectly mainstream--or even 'liberal' and 'enlightened'--at that time might be considered racist, sexist, homophobic, an abusive parent, etc by contemporary standards.

  As recently as a 100-150 years ago, it was standard practice in schools to spank children who got a bad grade. In an 18th-century British novel (I believe it was Tom Jones), one of the characters is a kindly vicar who opposes corporal punishment. He says that he never beats his children, "except as their schoolteacher"; corporal punishment was considered a necessary component of schooling. Nowadays, that would be considered not only abusive, but also bad for the educational process.

  I think that the word 'abuse'--and the existence of child safety agencies who remove children from abusive homes--gets people arguing about definitions, as if the question were all or nothing. At one end of the spectrum, there's perfect parenting--the parent who never loses their temper, who can always find ways to redirect their child's attention away from boredom or misbehavior--i.e. a fairy tale. At the other end, there's people like the Slacks.

  Somewhere in the middle, there are the things that every parent does when they're tired and stressed-out, and wishes that they'd handled better.

  And somewhere else in the middle, is spanking. You can argue that spanking is wrong, without saying that spankers are unfit parents, or denying that in most cases they mean the best for their children. The word 'abuse' muddies those waters.
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  28

  Comments You Will Not Hear at the 4-8-07 WT Study (Obedient Children)

  by blondie in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  wt child abuse www.silentlambs.org.

  "children, be obedient to your parents".

  they soon understand that they are there to listen and to learn.prov.

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  Euphemism

  Like a lot of the JW's more unsavory practices, they've gotten too smart to say much about spanking in print anymore. The result (at least as of the time I left in 2003) is a divergence between the more conservative and liberal Witnesses, and more conservative and liberal congregations and areas. There was a big difference when I moved from a New York congregation with fairly liberal Bethelites, born-ins, and a large Hispanic population, to a Russian-language congregation composed of hard-core Bethelite/pioneers and zealous new converts.

  Still, spanking is definitely kept alive by the oral tradition; I remember the elder who commented that "When new people come to the meetings, sometimes we need to teach them how to discipline their children; when I was a kid, I don't think there was ever a time when my bottom wasn't red." The old-time Witnesses know very well what the Watchtower is talking about when it says "more serious reproof."

  But I'd say that the pressure to use corporal punishment is a lot less than it was in the 70's or 80's. It's a lot more common than it used to be to see parents let their children romp around the second school, or draw in coloring-books. I think the acceptable age range for corporal punishment has also gotten narrower; you hear less of babies being spanked, or teenagers beaten.

  Obviously, though, there's still plenty of grist in the Witnesses' authoritarian mindset for abusive parents--from the verbal abusers all the way to people like the Slacks--to latch on to.
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  4

  I am wowed

  by roflcopter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my ex fiance who is a hard-core dub.

  who would never ever let me touch her in the "naughty spot" because she was so hardcore.

  she used and abused me and when she was done after 2 years and after listening to the slander the elders told her about me (about how i would just hump and dump her, im not spiritual, etc.

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  Euphemism

  Well of course she was unhappy with you 'humping and dumping' her, if she wouldn't even let you get her off in return!

  The whole world of young Witness sexuality is such a twisted universe, it's not even funny. And most Witness guys do not want to date a woman who already has a kid. I hope your ex sees the light and manages to get into a more stable and happy place.
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  33

  How Important is Sex in a Marriage/Relationship?

  by avidbiblereader in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i believe it is very important but i also heard it said.

  "sex only plays as much importance in marriage for how long it takes".. how important is it to you in your marriage/relationship?.

  is it only better when all things are going smooth, do you use sex to get what you want or use it as a tool for punishment?.

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  Euphemism

  I think that sexual compatibility is extremely important. Sex itself may or may not be important, i.e. if both partners are fairly low sex drives (due to age or whatever). But it's vital that both partners be at the same level on that.
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  147

  Merry Becomes A Muslim (a bit long)

  by Merry Magdalene in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  who is merry?

  i was born in 1965, the same year that malcolm x was assassinated.

  my father had committed suicide a few months into my mother's pregnancy so we lived with her parents until she married again when i was about 18 months old.

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  Euphemism

  Good discussion, Merry! Mind if I keep questioning a little?

  I did not know that much about Muslims at present or throughout history when I became a Muslim myself, and my decision (or awakening awareness) was not based on what others believe or do but on my own reading of the meaning of the Qur'an.

  I do think this is the root of the reaction you're getting. When you say that you have 'become a Muslim', you mean that you have begun practicing your personal understanding of the meaning of the Quran. When other people hear that you have 'become a Muslim', they assume that you have accepted some form of Islam as it is typically practiced. There's a pretty big difference there, IMHO. (Not saying you're wrong to call yourself a Muslim, of course; just that poeple are likely to misunderstand what you mean.)

  Although the Qur'an describes those who will go to hell so we can do our personal best to make sure we are not among them, judgment is for Allah alone and He reserves the right to pardon who He will. I do not know who is and who is not going to hell.

  I'm sorry, but I have to say that when I heard that, my mind immediately flashed back to the answer the Witnesses are supposed to give if they're asked in the ministry whether they believe that non-JWs will be saved. "Well, we never know about any individual; we leave the judging up to Jehovah." We all know that's a smoke-screen, though, and that they actually believe that the vast majority of--if not all--non-Witnesses will die at Armageddon.

  Obviously, you're not putting up a smoke-screen; you're a very sincere person, or else you wouldn't be talking to us like this. But I have to wonder, do you think that Allah is going to make an exception for most non-monotheists (polytheists and atheists)? (I realize that the People of the Book have a special status, but that still leaves nearly half the world's population.) If most of them are going to hell, is that a teaching that you can intellectually or emotionally accept? And if most are not, then what is the point of the statements in the Quran implying that they are?