Posts by asleif_dufansdottir

30

Why Do People WANT To Become One of Jehovah's Witnesses?

by minimus in

jw
friends

why do you think people choose to join this religion??

?

asleif_dufansdottir

Because JWs say they can give them answers. Simple answers.

In one of my classes this week we've been reading Frances Fitzgerald's _Cities on a Hill_, which deals with different communities in the US in the early eighties. One of those communities is Jerry Falwell's church. What she said about their attitude toward education struck me as very familiar.

(p. 158-emphasis mine)

For Thomas Road people, education - in the broad sense of the word - is not a moral and intellectual quest that involves struggle and uncertainty. It is simply the process of learning, or teaching, the right answers. The idea that an individual should collect evidence and decide for himself is anathema. Once Falwell told his congregation that to read anything but the Bible and certain prescribed works of interpretation was at best a waste of time. he said that he himself read all the national magazines, just to keep up with what others were saying, but that there was no reason for others to do so...But what bothers the most pious members of his congregation is not just that the schools teach the wrong answers; it is that the schools do not protect children from information that might call their beliefs into question. When I asked Jackie Gould whether she would consider sending her children to something other than a Bible college, she said, "No, because our eternal destiny is all-important, so you can't take a chance. College so often throws kids into confusion." The purpose of education, then, is progress in one direction, to the exclusion of all others.

10

Strange Animal Behavior

by wasasister in

jw
friends

i had a wierd day today, lots of computer problems and file conversion issues.

but to make matters worse...

the rear of our building is all windows facing out on a wooded greenbelt area.

asleif_dufansdottir

The whole time we lived in Omaha (7 years) we had either one very long-lived Cardinal, or a succession of equally annoying ones, who would attack his (it was a male) reflection in our garage window. We'd hear

"Chip!"

*bonk*

"Chip!"

*bonk*

over and over. One of my husband's profs told us that birds, especially Cardinals, are prone to attacking their reflections in an effort to drive what they think is another bird out of their territory. She knew of Cardinals that attacked their reflections in the rear view mirrors of cars, etc (she did either her MS or her PhD on Cardinal behavior, so she'd know).

I wonder if those stickers that are supposed to keep birds from flying into windows would work. Don't get your hopes up...their powers of reasoning ("Oh, that's a window, it must be a reflection, not a rival bird!") are not strong. It's instinctual behavior.

38

Went To The Quick Build

by Undecided in

jw
friends

i just returned from the building site of the new kh.

i had never seen a quick build.

it kind of made me sad, i saw so many old friends that i used to know.

asleif_dufansdottir

The local congregation does own their building

If the society decides to close the hall down and disperse the congregation, who gets the $$?

I can see the society wanting the local cong's name on the property to protect the society in the case of lawsuits, but if the building is ever sold, who gets the money?

18

Woman performs own Caesarean to save baby

by wednesday in

this came in on a list i am on.

i found it so incredible, i wanted to share with u guys.

woman performs own caesarean to save baby.

asleif_dufansdottir

I find it amazing but not to the point I doubt its credibility. It may be a hoax but I don't disbelieve it on it's face. Caesarians had been performed for a very long time before we got modern medicine. Since ancient times at least. It's incredibly dangerous of course, but desperate situations call for desperate measures. People who live in situations like the one described are not used to having access to medical assistance we take for granted. She's probably in the minority because she lived but I don't find it unbelievable.

I found a website on the history of c-sections.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/cesarean_1.html

16

Top Ten: Stuff Bad Witnesses Do at Assemblies

by metatron in

jw
friends

1. get thrown out after tossing strings of beads to sisters getting baptized and yelling "show us your boobs".. .

2. do business witnessing at every adult bookstore while wearing a prominent name badge ( "t. jaracz"), after buying.

bondage magazines and inviting the bored girl behind the cash register to the sunday talk.. .

asleif_dufansdottir

Skive the afternoon session to go and 'fornicate' with your husband. (Lincoln, NE 1987) (Lincoln, NE 1988) (Lincoln, NE 1989)...

91

Back from the Memorial......Special Announcement at the end....

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

the special announcement read at the end was an invite for any interested ones (tm) to ask if they wanted a bible study.....and that a special meeting will be held next sunday in all the congregations worldwide, and an invite was given for all to attend.

i loved going and was good to see all the brothers and sisters again, the po who gave the talk made a bee line for me straight after the closing prayer, straight off the platform (i had to stand as there were no seats) and asked to speak to me, and directed me to the back of the hall, i thought here we go......jc convening shortly......but no he said the wt society in london had contacted him as i'd wrote them asking for the magazines, and he would be happy to drop by and had done, but never found me at home.

so we arranged a date for him to call next week.. the hall was packed, and from my standing point i had plenty of opportunity to have a scan about, despite being horrified that their were brothers there who were betting looking than even me ( in my newly bought outfit!

asleif_dufansdottir

This is not confined to the witnesses either, most church-goers are of a similar mental make-up.

Excellent point, Englishman.

It just doesn't annoy us so much when those C of E blokes do it as when a JW does it

91

Back from the Memorial......Special Announcement at the end....

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

the special announcement read at the end was an invite for any interested ones (tm) to ask if they wanted a bible study.....and that a special meeting will be held next sunday in all the congregations worldwide, and an invite was given for all to attend.

i loved going and was good to see all the brothers and sisters again, the po who gave the talk made a bee line for me straight after the closing prayer, straight off the platform (i had to stand as there were no seats) and asked to speak to me, and directed me to the back of the hall, i thought here we go......jc convening shortly......but no he said the wt society in london had contacted him as i'd wrote them asking for the magazines, and he would be happy to drop by and had done, but never found me at home.

so we arranged a date for him to call next week.. the hall was packed, and from my standing point i had plenty of opportunity to have a scan about, despite being horrified that their were brothers there who were betting looking than even me ( in my newly bought outfit!

asleif_dufansdottir

He "feels" that JW's have the truth. Well, so did all of us. We eventually allowed reason to penetrate our breastplate of stupidity; Scooby seems exceptionally committed to not allowing that to happen.

I think what's really interesting is why it irritates so many of us (me, too) that he does this. Why does this type of thing irritate us so much more than the occasional 'true believer' troll who doesn't stick around?

In reality, I think "belief" is much less rational. In some ways I think we consciously choose who we will believe (like when we began studying with the JWs and at one point decided they had given us sufficient proof and we would believe them). In some ways it's unconscious.

I have a brother-in-law who was raised in a relatively isolated rural Mennonite (ish) community. He rarely socializes with people outside of his church, and, outside of my husband and I, who keep a low profile about such things with the family, has probably never had a conversation with a non-Christian (and hardly ever even with a Democrat). He has never lived anywhere where a very conservative type of Christianity and the 'truth' of the Bible were questioned. He has never met a Jew, a Buddhist or a Hindu. He cannot conceive, literally, that anyone would believe those religions because "everybody knows" that Christianity is the right religion. He assumes that if you are a Hindu who was raised in India it still took a willful act of disbelief in the face of overwhelming truth to reject Christianity...that it is obvious to everyone in the world that Christianity is right (and so, by the way, is the "American way" and being Republican). He treats 'tales' about people with other religions and viewpoints as mildly entertaining, or alarming, or exotic, fiction. He has not had the personal experience to believe any other way.

Scoob was raised a JW (I think?). It is perfectly understandable that, "deep down", if he had to assume a "default" true religion, it is JWs. It's automatic. Most of us, even when we've changed our religious beliefs, have moments where our minds travel down familiar ruts for a moment before we realize, "Hey, wait a minute, I don't think that way anymore." Many here have consciously changed their belief, but it's as much an act of will as anything else, and apparently Scoob has not been given sufficient reason, in his opinion, to do so.

But his resistance to reason is only remarkable in that he associates here;

Not necessarily...at least the part about it being remarkable...He "believes" the JWs yet gets to 'walk on the wild side' by having gay sex and posting on an apostate board - the two worst things a JW male could conceive of. He gets to have the 'comfort' of his beliefs in the WT and the 'excitement' of doing 'forbidden' things. He's 'one up' on both JWs and apostates - he can think of himself as an 'insider' in both worlds. Scoob, you are of course free to think I'm full of it and tell me so...I just thought the possibility was there.

91

Back from the Memorial......Special Announcement at the end....

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

the special announcement read at the end was an invite for any interested ones (tm) to ask if they wanted a bible study.....and that a special meeting will be held next sunday in all the congregations worldwide, and an invite was given for all to attend.

i loved going and was good to see all the brothers and sisters again, the po who gave the talk made a bee line for me straight after the closing prayer, straight off the platform (i had to stand as there were no seats) and asked to speak to me, and directed me to the back of the hall, i thought here we go......jc convening shortly......but no he said the wt society in london had contacted him as i'd wrote them asking for the magazines, and he would be happy to drop by and had done, but never found me at home.

so we arranged a date for him to call next week.. the hall was packed, and from my standing point i had plenty of opportunity to have a scan about, despite being horrified that their were brothers there who were betting looking than even me ( in my newly bought outfit!

asleif_dufansdottir

Well Mr Nosey!!!

Uh, Mrs. Nosey.

Why does everybody think I'm a guy?? Does the term 'dottir' not appear in my name? Is there not a female symbol on my info? If I have my period, do I not bleed? just joking folks I do it to other people too...

Bottom line.... Yes I think you are stuffed here, and me too. Bet I burn quicker too, or disappear down that earthquake crack quicker. You know the JW take on it as well as I do. Don't try to be clever!

I wasn't trying to be clever...I had honestly thought I read an exchange between you and somebody earlier in the thread, where you said something like, 'to each his own' or something like it...to the effect that JWs weren't right for everybody and that was ok, but I must have totally made it up because I sure can't find it now. As that is not 'the JW take,' I was wondering how you simultaneously thought that and thought the JWs were right. Which was the cause of my confusion...guess it was all due to me misremembering something. I guess I shouldn't try to multi-task and post!

.....You evil apostate.

By their definition, I sure am. And proud of it.

91

Back from the Memorial......Special Announcement at the end....

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

the special announcement read at the end was an invite for any interested ones (tm) to ask if they wanted a bible study.....and that a special meeting will be held next sunday in all the congregations worldwide, and an invite was given for all to attend.

i loved going and was good to see all the brothers and sisters again, the po who gave the talk made a bee line for me straight after the closing prayer, straight off the platform (i had to stand as there were no seats) and asked to speak to me, and directed me to the back of the hall, i thought here we go......jc convening shortly......but no he said the wt society in london had contacted him as i'd wrote them asking for the magazines, and he would be happy to drop by and had done, but never found me at home.

so we arranged a date for him to call next week.. the hall was packed, and from my standing point i had plenty of opportunity to have a scan about, despite being horrified that their were brothers there who were betting looking than even me ( in my newly bought outfit!

asleif_dufansdottir

The first time I slept with a bloke I stayed away from the meetings, I didn't want to bring disrespect on Jehovahs name.

If I understand you correctly, you still think the JWs are 'the truth' and it is your fault that you are unable to meet their standards.

I am sincerely curious, then (I'm incurably nosey), what you think about the rest of us? Oh, I'm sure you would say you won't be judgemental, but that's not exactly what I mean...

If you really believe 'to each his own' (ie-those of us who are wayyy not JW anymore and even actively working to expose their faults are not 'sinning against Jehovah') then how do you reconcile that with the JW belief that we are all under Satan's dominion and tagged for demolition? I guess I see believing the JW as something that's 'all or nothing' including believing that people who don't believe the JWs are wrong and that those of us who speak out against the WT are evil apostates.

I'm not attacking you I just don't get to talk to people in your situation very often and I'd love to hear your answer. I suppose it sounds like a loaded question but again I'm just nosey.

32

First Post

by Purza in

jw
friends

i am currently supposed to be working on my homework for a college course i am taking, but i seemed to be hooked on lurking.

i have been lurking for about a week now.

i made an appt.

asleif_dufansdottir

I live in fear that I will run in to one of my old "friends" and they will "catch" me.

I guess I do have to comment on this...Your family already knows and at least dad isn't speaking to you...so what could 'they' do to you if 'they' catch you? It's not like you have been successful at 'fading out' and keeping your family ties like many here.

So people who have no control over you anymore will find out (as if they didn't already know) that they have no control over you. So what? Do you care that the Baptist preacher in the church down the road 'knows' that you're not a Baptist and don't attend his church? Are you scared of running into him or his church members? Why should the congregation or the elders have any influence on your life if you don't want them to?

What can they actually do to you anymore? You're 'out' with the love of your life, right? The worst that could happen (from what you've said) is that you have a relatively uncomfortable encounter with a JW or some elders in which you say, "Your opinion and your religion don't matter to me anymore."

In reality, I realize it's a bigger mental block than a simple so what, what I am trying to say is, try looking at it from that perspective...it takes a lot of conscious effort and some time (usually) to 'step outside your way of thinking,' so to speak, and see how much your fears, attitudes and reactions have been shaped by the WT to suit their ends...to make you intimidated by them. Just say "No!" (the one time I agree that philosophy works!)