Calling people you have not seen for awhile and seeing how they are;
one of my biggest beefs. No one calls out of concern. If they do, it's just to check up on you and tell you to turn in your time.
Posts by Odrade
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13What does it really mean to "have love among yourselves"?
by micheal inif you ask any active witness most will say they are the only true religion because they have love among themselves.
but not going to war and killing another jw or going anywhere in the world and getting a free meal is fine but it does not constitute a true love among themselves.. forgotten is all the backstabbing, all the varying statuses within themselves and the never ending criticism that they have within themsleves.
never mind if a person becomes publicly reprooved, not disfellowship, but reproved they are still basically shunned and looked down upon.
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Odrade
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31
Abuse was the only reason I left. Posted on the net in 1996.
by cat1759 injehovah's witness elders .
abused my 4 year old
when my son matt was three years old, he was molested by his 26 year old aunt (my sister in law).
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Odrade
What was their justification for making your son face his abuser? Did they ever offer any excuse? Un-frickin-believable. That's really sick. At least the courts did what the elders would not. Good for you for leaving. Good for you for telling whoever would listen.
Odrade
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14
How do you find whose territory you're in?
by asleif_dufansdottir inhey, folks,.
we're moving next week, and i've been thinking about sending a pro-active do not call letter to the approprate congregation, just so i don't have to mess with them calling.
is there an easy way to find out which congregation's territory my new place is in?
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Odrade
Do the dubs in the territory where you are moving already know you? If they don't then just act as though you don't know them too. Put a sign on your door that says NO JEHOVAHS WITNESSES. If they do knock, point to the sign and shut the door. Probably more effective, they'll just call you a "goat" and leave you alone. If you contact the congregation, some busybody will probably come around anyways just to see if they could convince you to return. If they do already know you, just find the address for the nearest kingdom hall, send a letter to the mailing address attn: territory servant. cc it to the body of elders and your attorney. They should get it recorded in the appropriate territory map, just so all the pioneer cargroups can drive by and stare and point at the "apostate" house. You'll be notorious
My $.02.
Odrade
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16
How "Intelligent" Witnesses Think - and Endure
by metatron inhow can anyone with more than a handful of neurons maintain confidence in the watchtower organization?.
as dumbing down of the organization deepens, together with stubborn rejection of compassion and good sense, the .
pressure on capable, half-way sane witnesses is intensifying.
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Odrade
waiting, are you going to tell us the poster so we can read his threads? Now I'm curious.
Metatron, this is a great subject, a question I ask myself all the time. Neither my husband nor I are dummies. Yet I bought into everything, and was an exemplary witness. Pater always had questions. He might be just a little bit smarter than me- Either that, or his family is just slightly more balanced and he was a bit less brainwashed than I. I remember though, all the time I used to say "I know this is the truth, but even if it weren't really the truth, we live so much better lives because of it anyways. Who would want to leave?" Naturally, at the time, I thought "worldly" people were incapable of being happy, fulfilled, moral, ethical... and anyone who left and was shunned certainly deserved it for "bringing reproach on Jehovah's name." No regard at all for the lives ruined and families destroyed because, after all, they brought it on themselves. Sheesh, how dumb was I? or should I say--how indoctrinated?
Look what it has cost me: education, comfort, friends, and that damn paranoia I carry around all the time. It's justified too. My parents still to this day snoop our house to find evidence of "spiritual shipwreck." (Hey! there's a couple of phrases for the list!) And yes, we're changing the locks. No need to derail our "fade."
Odrade
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95
Witness sayings
by Teela inas i was growing up in the troof.
there were sayings used over and over again to control my behaviour.
the biblical on bad associations spoil useful habits and another on just because everyone else does it doesnt mean you have to do it to, would you jump off a cliff just because other people do what were the sayings that bugged you?
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Odrade
"There are bad associations even in the congregation/Bethel."
"Food at the proper time"
New light
Present truth
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3
Article on Cults/Religion speaks of JWs
by Gerard in.
http://www.quietpoly.com/juryfury/debates/religionandstate/religionsandcults.html
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Odrade
Interesting article. Especially this:
"As a writer in the American journal Free Inquiry puts it: 'Either the Jehovah's Witness sect tends to attract an excess of pre-psychotic individuals who may then break down, or else being a Jehovah's Witness is itself a stress that may precipitate psychosis.
I think high-control groups in general, attract a larger percentage of people prone to mental unbalance. When you start really paying attention to "How I got the Truth" stories, there are so many who came from a bad background. I used to think that one never heard stories where someone, with a good life already, accepted the truth because those stories were a little boring--not good PR. Now I'm starting to think that it's because there aren't really all that many out there. If a person already has a good stable family/life, and are sound psychologically, they aren't all that vulnerable to groups like JWs, moonies, scientology.
There was a thread this week on how many were born/raised as JWs. I would be curious to see how many converts came from an unsettled background, and whether you think that made you more susceptible to JWs.
Odrade
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29
A question for the ladies?????
by Maverick ini have noticed that when the ladies post pictures of "hunks" these guys have no body hair.
when i was a gymnast many of the guys would cut their hair real short and shave their chests and stomachs and oil them to get a better, more defined look.
i always thought chest hair was "manly" so i never did it.
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Odrade
I like a hairy guy, not a gorilla suit guy mind you. But nice hairy legs, hairy chest, hairy arms. Good full beard ability! BUT, not too crazy about the whole hairy butt thing.
Smooth, hairless guys kind of make me think of little boys. Plus they always seem to have the odd random long ooky hair growing out of a shoulder, or right in the middle of the chest or something. They really don't like it when you pull out that random hair.
AND, a hair guy who shaves it all off is REALLY ooky. Think whisker burn ALL OVER! AAAHHH!!! (runs screaming from room.)
Odrade
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107
What's The Most Ridiculous Thing Taught or Believed By Jehovah's Witnesses?
by minimus inwhat do you think??
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Odrade
Toasting is Pagan. (WT'68, 1/1 q from readers.)
Exposed knees could lead to fornication.
The bathroom lines are so long because there are MIRRORS in there.
PG rating means "pretty gross."
Smurfs!
ET!
If you just read the Bible and not the Society's literature, you will become an APOSTATE!!! oh, wait a minute...
Odrade
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24
"Library Card" Defense refuted
by hooberus inwatchtower 1976 10/15 632-6. .
the "mark" of the beast would identify the one having it as belonging to that "wild beast," giving it full support.
ellicott's bible commentary notes that the mark 'surely means the acquiescence to the principals of this tyrannical world-power.'.
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Odrade
seems to me there's a difference between acquiesce (as in the case of the political party card,) and support (as in the NGO application.)
My dictionary defines acquiescense to: submit or comply silently without protest, (or in legal terms): failure to take legal proceedings, thereby implying the abandonment of a right. (Random House Webster's College dic.)
I don't get "unquestioning support" out of "acquiescence":
Were they to identify themselves as giving unquestioning support to any politcal arrangement, they would be acting contrary to the Bible's teaching that all human governmental systems exist by God's toleration only until such time as he chooses to replace them by his kingdom in the hands of Jesus Christ.
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40
Class Distinction Within The JW Community?
by Latin assassin from Manhattan inhas anyone noticed that jws who appear to be higher up on the 'socio-economic' ladder get special treatment at the kh?
no matter how many khs i've visited, i've noticed that jws who are not well off socially/financially/physically are treated with less respect/dignity than those with a business of their own, or just a higher quality of life.
i've been to many 'gatherings' where jws filter themselves out according to race or socio-economic standing.
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Odrade
ROTFLMAO! What about piggybacking on another person's status? When I was a teenager, there was this one sister in our hall; she would come about 2x/month, and never was out in service. Yet she was a true believer. She was about 40, and would give these detailed JW party-line doctrinal answers everytime she was at the meeting. The hilarious thing was she would preface every comment, and every conversation with "My father, who was a presiding overseer, by the way, used to say..." GAG!
Then, we used to laugh at her like "as if THAT's proof of her spirituality"--what we'd say. Now, I still think it's pitiful, but for different reasons. She clearly felt so uncomfortable with her own lack of status, that she felt she had to remind everyone that she was an elder's daughter, so that it was her right to be acknowledged. Sad, but it still makes me laugh. I wonder how many dumb things like that I've been guilty of saying over the years to assure MY position? ("Well, MY dad...")
Odrade