Posts by Syme

71

Call For Children To Get Baptised From CO

by freemindfade in

so i've been pretty good at not going to meetings lately.

yesterday i went for the co's last talks.

older co. his last talk was absolutely shocking.

Syme

Absolutely shocking.

I guess that the fact that I'm 8 months clean of hearing such BS, made me to be easily shocked on hearing this cultish stuff again, like I wasn't hearing it for 30 years.

24

"Imitate Jehovah" CA Actually Didn't Have That Theme At All

by JW_Rogue in

just got back from "imitate jehovah" ca and noticed that the theme was never really used at all.

all the talks were about family, preaching and getting along with others in the hall.

they didn't once go over an account of how jehovah acted in the past and how we should imitate that action.

Syme

What the assembly program should be like, if jw's were serious about about doing what the theme says.

"Imitate Jehovah" - How? (literally)

-Kill 70,000 people in random because a friend of yours ordered a wrong census

-Kill all the innocent firstborns of a whole nation, because their leader messed with you

-Stone (or burn) anyone who breaks a little bit of your Law.

-Kill all homosexuals.

-Wipe off the face of the earth seven (7) nations, including women, children and poor cattle, because they dare to live for centuries in the land you want to conquer

-Slaughter some dozens of children using wild BEARS, because they said "go on, bald" to a *bald* friend of yours

-Demand the ritual slaughter of countless animals as a sacrifice, from every family in a whole nation, every day, for a period of a thousand years (imagine the number).

The list could go on, but then it would have to be a 30-day assembly.

30

How to survive an assembly

by BlackWolf in

jw
friends

hey i was just wondering if you guys had any ideas on how to keep my brain occupied while i'm at an assembly tommorow.

maybe besides tallying the number of times they say jehovah and jesus or counting how many people are wearing red.

i want to keep myself from going insane or having some kind of panic attack lol.

2) If you do go, stay outside the main hall, at least half of the time. Many do it. Some are tired, sleepy, others have a headache, small children, some clean the toilets or the outside area. If you can do (or pretend) any of these, you can stay out as long as you like.

P.S. The first assembly I missed, I had an awful (and long) pain in the stomach, and so I couldn't go. It was not a pretense, it was actually because of the assembly (having "woken up"). The problem was so severe (and continuing), that I had to take strong antibiotics. The thing is, we should watch over our health foremost, instead of pleasing others.

65

Introducing...ME

by Heartsafire in

jw
friends

long time lurker here.

i'm a fifth gen born-in baptized jw.

to say i've been struggling with doubts is an understatement.

Syme

Welcome Heartsafire, and good luck with your struggle. One thing for sure is that you won't "suffocate" in here ;)

21

You have to admit, the carrot is pretty alluring.

by John Aquila in

there were several families that were visiting my mom today and i was sitting in and just listening to all of them talk..

they started talking about the recent shooting at the university.

and its so easy for them because all they have to say is;.

Syme

How ironical that the Creator promises to cure things that He (in His wisdom) created, like paraplegia or Down syndrome.

How ironical that the solution for starving children in Africa and elsewhere, is to wipe them out altogether in Armageddon.

Just these 2 above thoughts should have been enough to make someone wake up, but, alas, they're rarely enough.

37

On the realization you will not "live forever"

by problemaddict 2 in

something struck me last week.

i have been dealing with what i can only describe as a fear of death.

i'm not old and not in bad health.

Syme

It is expected that, when you've been raised as a jw with the fallacious notion that you're "designed" to live forever, once you've realized that this simply isn't true, what comes after is a bit weird: You learn that you have only one life in a much older age than it is normal to do so.

This brings problems. In one of the last jw funerals that I attended, I was astounded by the excessive grief that everyone had, despite the fact that the late jw was far over 90 years old, and had died of natural causes, without any pain. Then it stroke me that that was because jws never reconcile with the idea of death. They are all sure they will live forever, they are SURE that death isn't natural, and when death comes, even in a 100-year-old, it always comes to them as a complete surprise, like they can't believe it.

A person really starts to live, as a grown-up, from the moment they realize there's no second life. An ordinary person realizes that at his adolescence, give or take. Most devout jws never realize that, which means that they essentially remain children until very, very late.

9

Crazy Study Stories

by dubstepped in

i never really had any studies to speak of, but my parents did have many over the years, and every single one of them was batsh!t crazy in some way.

there was one lady we kids affectionately termed "dirty robin" (her name was robin) and yes, she was very dirty.

her kids were filthy and rarely wore clothes.

Syme

The worst cases I remember from Bible studies (mine or others), are those when the subject was completely dumb, or knocking on heaven's door (i.e. extremely old age). Now that I look at it from a distance, I feel such sorrow and frustration that were harassing and exploiting those people, adding to their burdens instead of lifting them, in such an unethical manner, if not to say "immoral".

9

Old is Becoming New Again?

by Tazemanian-devil in

is it just me, or does it seem like jw.org is returning to some very old methods from rutherford's era?.

- their carts / booths is very reminiscent of the sandwich board system, including the fact that they no longer personally engage.

- showing videos via the tablet / smartphone is almost exactly like the phonograph method they used.

Syme

Ray Franz in COC reminds us that the directors of WTS always looked up on past WT literature and WT methods as if they were Scriptures. If something was being said or done in the past, that was a reason for it to be brought again on to surface. So maybe they used those old methods as a "scriptural" precedent to justify using them again. Of course, that's the pretext; the real reasons are always economic. But the pretext is important; even in GB sessions, they have to use pretext, orwellian speaking, for fear of one to another, if not for anything else.

71

Any thoughts on the real reasons for droppng the 'school"

by sparrowdown in

jw
friends

my thoughts are.

1. they want to avoid being made to comply with any laws that come with anything classed as a "school" especially a school with children enrolled.. 2. the mid-week meeting has been dying in the ass for years and needs a revival.

i predict happy -clappy-sing-a-longs to be included in the program.. anyone else have any thoughts ??

Syme

I see it as part of a general dumbing-down scheme. Drop the quality so much, that only non-thinking puppets in a vegetable state, completely stripped off of all their mental capabilities, remain there. It reminds me of the scene in Matrix, with the vast 'crops' of human 'batteries'.

Keep them in a vegetable state, extract their money. Simple as that.

For how long? Maybe for longer than we'd wish. Religions and cults are stronger than a rational man would wish, anyway. Maybe we should focus on enjoying our (not eternal) lives instead of waiting for something that will probably not come during our lifetimes (i.e. the "End" of the WTS)

29

Impression of Leaked Letter Regarding Annual Meeting

by freemindfade in

the letter that watchtower free put up was very interesting.

here is my impression.. the watchtower is becoming more and more geared towards idiots.

the midweek meeting has a stupid name, and the parts sound equally dumb.

Syme

I don't think they're really fighting for recruits now. They are fighting for self-preservation. They may not be able to get any more intelligent recruits (if there ever were any), but they might be able to dumb-down the existing members even further, rendering them incapable of waking up and possibly leaving. That is the "philosophy" (forgive the abuse of this fine word) of their new dimwit teaching sessions, I believe.