Posts by imallgrowedup

45

JW's Give Go Ahead for Birthdays???w/t 22/9/03

by Latte in

the pinata

an ancient tradition

by awake!

imallgrowedup

(A star shaped pinata is used to represent the star that guided the astrologers to Bethlehem.)

Editing note: Should say "Astronomers" - which doesn't have the negative connotation that "astronomers" has!

Just one more little "twisting" by the WT!

26

"God in the Whitehouse"

by Emma in

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this is an interesting article from information clearinghouse.. http://www.orion-online.net/vnews/display.v/art/2003/10/22/3f95c469462ed

imallgrowedup

Heathen,

Just so you know, I really enjoy a respectful and lively debate, and in no way am I trying to provoke you. I am just curious where you are coming from, okay?

I agree that the people in government have the right to believe what they want about religion but I think they go too far by imposing a belief that this is a christian nation and is being invisibly run by God thru the politicians .

If I am understanding you correctly, what you are trying to say is that you think this high ranking military official had no business sharing his beliefs with his audience, right? If yes, then in what way do you think he was "imposing" his beliefs on anyone? The way I see it, he was speaking to a church group that obviously felt the same way, so I don't see how he was imposing his beliefs on any of the people he was speaking to anymore than you and I "impose" our beliefs that JWdom is - shall we say - not nice, on people in this forum . By virtue of being in this forum, we are creating an audience for one another. And we choose to come together because we share a common belief about the WT. So we can safely assume that if you were to rant about how terrible you think the WT is (as the majority of us in here do), it would never occur to me that you were trying to "impose" this belief on me, because I wouldn't be in here if I didn't agree with you in the first place! In other words, no one can "impose" a belief on someone who already holds that same belief! I feel pretty confident that the people at these churches in which this guy spoke already believed that our nation is being "invisibly run by God", whether it is through the politicians or through divine intervention. I don't think anyone who was intended to hear that particular message felt imposed upon, rather; most likely it reinforced their own beliefs already in place before this guy began to speak.

What is your opinion on the following statements:

1. Since some people may personally disagree with the beliefs of others, and/or don't want to be "identified" with someone who makes claims which do not represent their personal beliefs, people should not be allowed to speak publicly about them - especially - if they are some type of a representative of our government.

2. There are some American citizens who should not be entitled to all the rights and protections of the US Constitution.

3. American citizens are required to practice the same religion and have the same political beliefs as whichever President is in office at any given time.

4. American citizens should be tolerant of other's beliefs, whether they are the same, or different from their own.

5. American citizens are denied the freedom to make up their own minds about statements made by others regarding political, religious or other individual beliefs.

6. People who oppose another's message enough to wish to restrict that individual's right to freedom of speech as afforded by the US Constitution, despite having the freedom of make up their own mind about the material presented, are actually demonstrating intolerance to views which are different from their own.

Now they are trying to implement a system of government in other countries thru force based on their beliefs

This is a misnomer. If we were in the habit of implementing a system of government based on our beliefs, neither Germany nor Japan, countries we occupied for 5 and 7 years respectively, would have the type of government they do today. People seem to forget that a truly violent dictator ran Iraq - and they also forget about how happy the Iraqi people were to be freed from the tyrrany. Do they like that we are there now? It appears as though most don't, but there are good reasons for still being there and I'm going to share one of them with you.

As we know, the American military was in Afghanistan in the 80's to help them fight the occupation of the Soviet Union. When the Soviets gave up the idea of creating a new communist nation, the US said "Hooray! Now we can get outta here!" and despite the fact that the Afghani government was in a shambles, we left them to fend for themselves - just as it appears most opposers to our occupation of Iraq would have us do now. But nature loves a vacuum, and history shows us that the "strongest" always fills the gap. The strongest doesn't have to be the majority, just the one with the most ammo and/or power to maintain their stay at the top. (Look at Saddam Hussein! Only 5% of the Iraqi people were Baath party members!) So guess who filled the vacuum in Afghanistan? The Taliban - which did nothing to improve their nation's infrastructure after the war, encouraged and harbored terrorists, and decried that women should be worth no more than dog droppings stuck to a sandal. In fact, when we were trying to line up a coalition with the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan, they told us they would only do it on the condition that we stay and help to keep the peace and rebuild the infrastructure after the war. They also told us that they held us - the USA - responsible for the Taliban coming into power - because if we had stayed after the Soviets left, they never would have made it to the top of the heap. They were not happy with us because they felt that their lives could have been very different if we would just have stayed. And they would have been. Japan and Germany are just two examples of the importance of stability following a war - today, both of them are major world powers! They could have suffered the same fate as Afghanistan after the Soviet occupation if we hadn't stayed. The same goes for Iraq. The evil dictator is gone - but do these people who lived under the oppression of Saddam Hussein deserve to succumb to yet another dictator - which could be much worse? We are not trying to implement western beliefs in Iraq, we are just trying to lend stability to the nation until an election can be held, a new government formed, and things are running smoothly. They are not making it any easier on themselves, or shortening the amount of time it will take by constantly shooting at our troops. We won't leave until stability is established. If they'd stop shooting themselves in the foot, the process could be sped up!

The moslem population in the middle east has been told that the western ways are evil for centuries , I don't see how the US can change their point of view by force .

I don't think we are capable of changing their minds, by force or otherwise, and as stated above, that isn't why we are still there.

I do hope to hear back from you, Heathen!

imallgrowedup

16

You might be a jW if...

by Valis in

*lol* i found these on some jw's website...*lol* he had the font and background color white so you couldn't really see them...*lol* straight from the horse's mouth no less..

you might be a jw if.... if you feel that death is more important than birth

if you have constant pain in your right shoulder and can't unclasp your right hand; you probably have bookbagitis, a disease unique to jw's

imallgrowedup

... if, during the 70's, you always had a year's worth of food stuffed in every nook and cranny...!

28

I found God Today (not fluff)

by Mindchild in

jw
friends

perhaps the oddest thing i've looked forward to doing for years is finding and activating my god spot in my brain.

my wish finally came true today.

if anyone reading this isn't aware of what a "god spot" is i would say in a nutshell that it is neurological response to magnetically stimulating the brain where many people feel "god like" experiences and describe either unusual illusions or intense religious feelings.

imallgrowedup

Loris -

is there a foci related to its action in a sentient human?s brain?....nonmaterial energy....non-materialistic concepts....quantum physics as non-relevant to understanding non-material ideas....yadda yadda yadda!

I admire your intellect, but is there an english version (preferably about two sentences long) that would sum this up? I sense there is a good point in there somewhere!

Thanks -

9

Halloween and the JW's

by freedom96 in

jw
friends

i remember how halloween was such a big deal for all the witnesses.

i mean, certainly you couldn't stay home, could you?

you couldn't hand out candy, and if you were home, you might get "tricked.

imallgrowedup

The other thing about Halloween I see with Witnesses, is they won't celebrate it because it was originally pagan based. It doesn't matter if it has completely changed today, the fact that it's origins are of paganism make it "off-limits". But yet I see another double-standard here: Witnesses believe Pyramidology and astrology are also pagan in origin, and yet the WTBTS was founded on these principles! Doctrine change or no, according to the logic they place on Halloween, shouldn't "dubyadom" also be "off limits"?

Kind of funny about hiding out in the basement! A total role-reversal! Just like people used to do when dubs showed up at the door step! It's just Proof Positive that God has a sense of humor!

17

Add a caption

by IronGland in

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imallgrowedup

You mean this isn't 10 inches?!

28

I found God Today (not fluff)

by Mindchild in

jw
friends

perhaps the oddest thing i've looked forward to doing for years is finding and activating my god spot in my brain.

my wish finally came true today.

if anyone reading this isn't aware of what a "god spot" is i would say in a nutshell that it is neurological response to magnetically stimulating the brain where many people feel "god like" experiences and describe either unusual illusions or intense religious feelings.

imallgrowedup

All I got instead was bouncing colored lights and ringing ears, plus pinpricking or goosebump feelings.

Have you ever considered that if you had bouncing colored lights and ringing ears, that you didn't find the "godspot" at all? Quite respectfully, I don't know of anyone who has had a "god experience" with colored lights or ringing ears - or pinpricking or goosebumps, for that matter. For what it is worth, perhaps you are working on the wrong organ. Have you tried finding him in your heart?

26

"God in the Whitehouse"

by Emma in

.

this is an interesting article from information clearinghouse.. http://www.orion-online.net/vnews/display.v/art/2003/10/22/3f95c469462ed

imallgrowedup

I've heard it said that the two topics polite people don't discuss in public are politics and religion. Being in the JW forum, in a thread regarding our President, I guess this post makes me officially "impolite"! (Sure hope I don't kick myself in the morning!)

I've been watching this "Church and State" debate with great interest, for a while now. I find myself understanding why there are people who may be offended by our President's declaration(s) of faith. I also understand why there are people who feel uncomfortable with the idea of mixing religion and politics. But what I don't understand is people who don't think the President should be allowed to profess his faith and/or beliefs publicly.

I don't know what was taught in everyone else's civics classes, but in mine, I was taught that the original intention in our Constitution for the "Separation of Church and State" was not to keep God out of politics. It was because the British settlers, while still living in England, were required BY LAW to practice the same religion as the king, which at that time, was The Church of England, or the "Anglican Church" (if my memory serves me correctly). It is not that these people did not believe in the Christian God, or that they wanted his name stricken from every publicly-owned place, every public document, or every shopping mall at Christmas time. All they wanted was to guarantee religious tolerance for whatever view one held, and not be punished by the State for not believing whatever the King believed in! In order to make it a little clearer, they gave us the Bill of Rights, which guaranteed Freedom of Religion - not freedom to choose a Christian religion - but freedom to choose any religion! They then went on to guarantee Freedom of Speech, the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, the Freedom to Speak Out Against the Government, and the Right to Vote!

What an awesome nation we live in! We have freedoms that peoples of other nations would give their eye teeth for! But the minute we want to pick and choose which American citizen is entitled to the guarantees and protections of any of our nation's founding provisions, and which aren't, we jeopardize ALL of our freedoms. Whether we like what the President has to say or not, he is allowed to publicly profess his faith - whether it is right-wing, left-wing or chicken-wing. And he can do it as often as he wishes - just as we can all come in here and talk about our own faith, or former faith, or lack thereof. The answer is not to ban what is perceived today as mixing "Church and State", but to exercise our Right to Vote if we don't like it. We aren't JW's anymore - we can DO that!

Panda: We were writing pretty much the same thing at the same time! Well said, my friend! We definately need to protect our Constitution!

11

A Question for those with Asperger's kids

by neverthere in

here is my delema.

i know that many had said that they were dealing with this issue in another thread.

what i would like to know, and certianly pm me if you don't wish to post, is if anyone is using meds for this problem.

imallgrowedup

Neverthere -

My son will be 7 in a few days and has Asperger's. He is on 10 mg Ritalin 2x/day. We have seen a tremendous improvement.

I have a cousin who is very heavily involved in all aspects of autism - she is the Director of a private company that provides in-class aides to the public school system for children on the autistic spectrum in the SF Bay Area. Her son is highly functioning autistic, and she has dedicated her life to the treatment, causes, laws governing treatment, and advocacy for autistic spectrum disorders. When I told her that Ian, (my son) was on Ritalin, she sent me the e-mail quoted below. I have NOT had a chance to check this information out, but I am posting it so you can check it out yourself. Let me know what you think. Feel free to pm me if you would like.

Regards,

D

"I want to respond again to your question about meds and let you know you should call the autism research institute by bernard rimland m.d., they are in san diego, you can probably find them online. They do whats called the "dan" protocal that trains doctors all over the country in the ONLY effective meds for children with autism and aspergers.
Their data shows that ritalin in studies made childrens symptoms worse. Just an fyi, they aer the leaders and far more skilled then pediatricians and they have data behind their work specific to this population.
They show what meds are effective and their studies and data on those meds are used to train other physicians."

22

Does your child have any wierd obsessions?

by Eyebrow2 in

i have a daughter that is almost 4 years old.

she is obessed with graveyards and death; not in a scarey way...just seems fascinated by it all.. everytime we pass a grave yard in the car she has to point it out, talk about the bones that are in it, etc.

she brings up the fact that everyone will die and be no more when they are old and their days run out...she told me i was old and had only three days to live the other day...eeek...if i make it to monday then i will be reassured that she is not psychic, hahah.

imallgrowedup

Mulan -

It's so nice to talk to someone whose child is so similar to my own! Ian also loves drama - he was such a ham at his kindergarten Christmas show. The kids were singing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music (don't ask me how that relates to Christmas!), and although the other kids were just singing (as rehearsed), Ian decided to do a little improv while they sang by acting out the words of the song! He was a biting dog and a stinging bee, and a person feeling sad - and he did them all right on cue! The whole audience just cracked up at him! He had no idea that everyone thought he was so funny - he was in his own world! But I had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard, as did half the audience! He truly stole the show! After that I considered putting him in some drama programs, but because he doesn't like being told how something should be (like you need to be standing over there and say this particular thing at this particular time), I didn't want to put him in a potentially adversarial position. How did you get your son involved, and keep him happy with being "directed"?

The comment you made about keeping Dan stimulated gave me a great sense of hope. My husband and I both have very silly personalities, and we have always joked around with Ian. As most Asperger's children are supposed to have difficulty understanding jokes, Ian not only understands them, he has a terrific sense of humor and loves to try to make us laugh! Additionally, I am very affectionate by nature, and have always hugged and squeezed him and kissed him and tickled him and given him raspberries on his belly, (probably to a fault!) and I have noticed that he is not sensitive to touch like other Asperger children can be. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but all these things are essentially "occupational therapy," and both of our children received it naturally and consistently beginning at a very early age - so I think it just goes to show how important early intervention can be - especially if a child is born into a family with different dynamics. Now I am wondering how he would be doing socially if I had exposed him to other children more often (in a setting smaller than day care) - and closely monitored their play - would it have made a difference? Hmmmmm.... well, I am not going to play "woulda coulda shoulda" with myself - but I do find it interesting how family dynamics have positively affected our boys!

I am also encouraged hearing how Dan met someone and ended up getting married! As Ian is an only child, I have worried that he would end up alone once my husband and I passed away. It's nice to have that hope that this may not be the case after all! I'm glad Dan found someone, and that she apparently understands him well because of her own lifelong struggles. Do they both display a degree of rigidity, and if so, have you been able to observe how they work that out with one another? I don't mean to be nosy here - it's just that I have a hard time picturing Ian marrying someone like him because I see how his rigidity affects his relationships with friends he plays with on a daily basis, and wonder how it would work if he married someone with Asperger's and was with that person all the time.... no need to answer the question, I guess I was just wondering aloud (or as I typed?!)

Speaking of rigidity, I kind of had to laugh (in an understanding kind of way) when you said that Dan couldn't figure out why no one obeyed the rules but him. Ian is the same way - with written and unwritten rules! For example, he gets very frustrated when someone doesn't do something like say "thank you" at the appropriate time - and he is sure to remind them of it, too! It is hard to teach him that the rules do apply to everyone, but when other people commit a faux pas, it is not only impolite to correct them, but not our place, either. So far he hasn't grasped that, but we keep trying.

I do worry about the bullying and teasing that comes with being different. I'm so sorry to hear that Dan was subjected to it. Right now, the elementary school Ian attends has a strict, written "No Bullying" policy, which holds children who witness it and don't report it just as responsible as the child engaging in it. Additionally, they spend a lot of time teaching the children about how to treat other people, so I am hopeful that this will help him - at least at the elmentary level. So far the neighborhood kids that he has grown up with don't seem to notice his odd behavior, or if they do, it just seems to be okay with them. I hope that lasts as well.

I really enjoy meeting up with other parent's with Aspergers/autism/PDD. I helps to keep the sanity! Thanks for chatting with me!

D