Posts by Odrade

45

what's in it for the women???

by chelsea in

jw
friends

i have often wondered what's in it for the women???

i just read the story of minimus and it is so clear that such power and privilege on offer to males in the borg would be enticing and probably addictive... but the women will never have such offers or opportunities.

they will always be required to be in subjection.

Odrade

For one, a built-in social network. For women who didn't have very nurturing mothers, they can find surrogate "mothers" in the congregation. For co-dependents, there is a never ending supply of people who need to be "helped." Ambitious women can control a tremendous amount of the tone of the congregation with social gatherings, and influencing their husbands. Praise and rewards for being "traditional," it's very easy to get kudos for being a stay-at-home mom when you're a witness. "Headship" means never having to be responsible for bad decisions, since the "head of the house" is the primary (some say ONLY) decision maker of consequence in the family.

Yes, women give up lots of power to be JWs, but if you can get past the mind-bending, thought-numbing cultishness of it all, there are definite bonuses. Just ask my mother.

I'm not saying any of those things would be motivators for healthy, happy women, but they are getting something out of it.

46

Would you EVENTUALLY be happy in a JW dominated new system?

by JH in

jw
friends

many here say that they wouldn't want to live in a world dominated by jw's.

i understand.. i know that i wasn't always happy under their rules and way of living.

i don't like going to meetings, especially 5 a week.

Odrade

IF JW paradise was exactly like the JWs say it's going to be, I suppose I would be happy because I'd get the mother of all brainwashes first. I ran across a great quote in a novel about a deity:

"Human beings do not like being pushed about by Gods. They may seem to, on the surface, but somewhere on the inside, underneath it all, they sense it and resent it. They know."

34

Discussion with Elder....a must read story

by drew sagan in

jw
friends

for those who don't know i've been 'inactive' for around one year.

i stopped attending meetings late last year.

all during this time i was working on my wife (known on this board as amber rose), helping her see the problems with the watchtower.

Odrade

Amber Rose, for the first 3 years we were out, we expected a J.C. "any day now." Both of us are from well-known families, mine is rather high-profile in WT, and routinely entertain their "best friends" - one of the GB members and his wife, and I was then quite well known to both of them, though considered quite weak before we left the organization. The J.C. never happened, I suspect because any encounters we had with the JWs (which were rare,) we were selective with our topics, and followed through until there was no defense left. At one point I told an elder's wife (in the elder's presence) that I would NEVER raise a child of mine as a JW, due to the ridiculous education policies, two-witness rule, social pressures, etc. We expected that surely THEN we would be J.C'd, since admitting that you would not want your child to be raised JW is tantamount to announcing you are no longer a believer. But nothing. We attended our last meeting in November of '02, and consider our fade successful. Hopefully this will be the case for the two of you also.

88

CIGAR AFICIONADOS?

by nvrgnbk in

jw
friends

what you smokin'?.

Odrade

Hmmm. let's see what's in my tiny humi right now: Cohiba pequeno, my fav short affordable smoke, Punch Gran Puro, Sancho Panza (yum,) Arturo Fuente Exquisitos, and a little cuban maduro sampler that my friendly neighborhood cigar guy said I'd probably like. Problem is, I can't indulge too much because the odor lingers on my hands for a couple of days. In view of my line of work, that's a huge no-no. :(

28

pancreatic cancer and prayer

by nowisee in

a friend of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer throughout her pancreas.

this is usually a deadly and rapidly lethal cancer.

at my bible study group prayer requests were taken and i placed her name in for prayer.

Odrade

I say the doctor was very very good, and the new procedure was effective, and if the prayers helped your friend's frame of mind, it was worth it, but God did not perform the surgery.

41

How do you think God feels about atheists? Angry? Amused?

by AlmostAtheist in

jw
friends

hey guys, .

have you ever considered what god thinks about atheists?

assume for a moment that he/she/it is there: what's the reaction to non-believers?

Odrade

HA! more like: Damn, all I've got is Vinny and Perry, and they both think I'm going to turn all those carnivores into herbivores so they can have a little petting zoo. Waste of my goddamn time.

450

Isn't God Awesome?

by Perry in

http://wonderofitall.com/

Odrade

Wow. Explains a lot. Vinny left the JWs, but he's still a bible literalist. Unbelievable. I'll bet if he told all those genius scientist deists that he so admires that he believes God had fisticuffs in heaven and threw a literal satan down here to provide literal tests to mankind until he decided enough was enough and literally changed carnivorous lions into herbivorous ones, they would likely respond something like this:

Bwahahhahhahahahahahaaaaaaa!!!!!

LMAOOOOOOOOO!!!

Wahhhhhaaaaaaaaaahahahaha!!!!

Look at the silly little bible literalist fundie!!!!

Bwahahaha!!!!!!

Bad news for the silly little fundie Vinny!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

34

I JUST GOT THIS EMAIL........

by Mary in

jw
friends

from a former co-worker of mine that says the following:.

"...[her daughter who is attending university of toronto] is working on a research paper for her religion course and she has chosen to do it on jehova (sp?

) witnesses.

Odrade

an easy place to start would be the videos SeattleNiceGuy did for youtube. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=hopefulatheist

He addresses some of the concerns without sounding vitriolic. She can get an idea of what in particular interests her about JWs, then pursue that as a particular focus.

34

I JUST GOT THIS EMAIL........

by Mary in

jw
friends

from a former co-worker of mine that says the following:.

"...[her daughter who is attending university of toronto] is working on a research paper for her religion course and she has chosen to do it on jehova (sp?

) witnesses.

Odrade

I'd say, keep it simple. She might be interested in the reexamine site, and freeminds, but other than that, it might be good to give her the link to religioustolerance.org. Though some of the articles there have now been rewritten to favor the Scientologists, I believe most of the JW stuff is still pretty neutral. It might also be interesting to point her toward the discussion pages on the Wikipedia articles.

Unless this is a thesis paper, it's probably just a minor research project and she doesn't need that much information. If she's open to advice, it might be good to suggest she pick a particular controversy and focus on that. News articles are good references in a college paper, Op-Ed pieces usually aren't good references, except where used to illustrate controversy.

22

Sweet strawberries?

by greendawn in

jw
friends

this may not be the case in the usa, australia etc but whenever i buy strawberries they are disappointing in that they are not sweet at all and only the addition of sugar makes them reasonably good.

only once i had strawberries that were sweet as they should be, i believe they were from scotland, otherwise they are just colour they look good to the eye but they are not tasty (aren't they like the watchtower society?

does anyone know of specific sweet varieties that can be grown at home?

Odrade

We always did strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and peaches. We had both cherry and apple trees in our yard, so none of those since we could just go in the backyard and eat them off the tree. :)