this is bigger than christmas and birthdays wrap into one.
thanks to the australian royal commission our youngest son has woke up.
we received a e-mail from him tonight where he apologized to us for shunning us all these years, how bad he felt for doing this.
I'm sure there are many many more who's eyes were opened by what was revealed during the ARC hearings. May this bring your family closer together and make up for all the time that was lost. Keep a close eye on your son though because typically there's a mourning period for those who loose a known way of life even if it was their choice to do so.
(You and your son may be interested to see this news article I saw this headline yesterday.)
today, july 1, i wrote what has become my annual contact with my parents.
it is their 51st wedding anniversary.
i e-mail them from across the world where i now live to let them know that i haven't forgotten them, i still love them, and that i'm doing okay.
Them: 'Thank you. Glad you are okay. Praying for your return to Jehovah- who forgives in a large way... Love you'
You: Love you too and I'm confident that Jehovah will forgive those who judge others and who punish them in his name.
i hope this finds all of you well.
i'm also hoping some of you might be able to help me with a particular type of de-witnessing strategy that i'm trying to develop more in my own discussions with active family members.
it seems to me that analogy and metaphor plays a prominent role in the society's teaching (critical thought killing) techniques.
JW's say: The Bible forbids eating blood and taking blood into the body via a blood transfusion is the same as eating blood.
If this is so, why is it that a person who is starving to death, would still be starving even if he was given a blood transfusion?
how often have we heard some sort of sensationalist urban legend as jws?.
here is an example i was told as a kid:.
the experience of a sister who knocked on a door and was greeted by a big fierce looking man- intimidating and mean.
I remember a heartwarming assembly experience as a kid where some JW's were smuggling a carload of watchtower literature over a border into a communist country where the preaching work was "under ban". Apparently they were stopped by the authorities who were searching through all the cars that came over the border. When the trunk of their car was opened, the border guard looked in and saw nothing even though the trunk was full of colorful Watchtower publications. He closed the lid of the trunk and sent them on their way.
The claim was that Jehovah's holy spirit caused the guars eyes to be "unseeing" so that his message could be brought into this communist country. There was a resounding round of applause from the audience.
Now we realize that the "Truths" contained in those books has long since been considered to be incorrect and was later discontinued and has been replaced many times over with literature containing "new light".
It seems that the owner of the car placed himself in great jeopardy just to bring books full of misinformation across the border (if it even happened at all)
now that we have stepped away from the jw faith, how do you feel about the bible itself?.
what about those awkward sections of scripture?
how did you rationalise or justify those sections?.
What about the time when God allowed Satan to cause Job's house to fall in and kill all (10 ?) of his children but then made everything OK by giving him 10 more.
Apparently in his infinite wisdom his solution was for the already aged Mrs. to be pregnant 10 more times so that she'd be too exhausted and or busy to mourn over the loss of her previous family.
videos from the summer jw conventions ("be courageous) show the "urgency" about the end racheted up several notches.
paranoia rules supreme!.
curiously, though, very few, if any, statements in the convention program about 1914 and the overlapping generations.
As someone who grew up in "the truth" I remember back in the 1960's and 70's hearing about certain beliefs that early JW's had and I remember how everyone use to chuckle over how cute and quaint the old understandings were.
I remember how was easy it was to dismiss how important those beliefs were to the JW who went ahead of us and who held them as the gospel truth and were ready to die (and did die) defending them. I suspect that when it comes to the year 1914, many young or new ones today couldn't care less about what that date meant to us. I also know that many of those who relied on the significance of those dates and what they meant in terms of them growing old before the end came, are gone now or are close to being gone.
It's human nature to be predominantly concerned about ones own lifetime and saving ones own skin. No one ever predicts the end will come after they've gone, they want to believe it will happen during their lifetime. Each Generation of the Watchtower Leaders made sure to predict that the end would come during their lifetime so they not only wouldn't have to worry about growing old and dying themselves, it ensured that they could string their followers along and keep that the donations they were living on, kept rolling in.
Now because of the accountability of the Internet, they are keeping things more generic and providing a "feel good" religion that tickles the ears of their followers without being too specific about anything lest they get called on the carpet in a few years when once again, nothing happens.
"Do you think Tony Tight Pants hated Tom Jones in the 70s?"
Back in the 70's Tony Morris was involved in the Vietnam war and was likely too busy participating in a war to be concerned with such trivial matters such as tight pants.
Today, in gods name he is busy condemning people who wear tight pants even though he himself was involed in a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
abby has been in my congregation for about 2 years i think.
when she first came i thought she was very beautiful and i still do.
shes actually one of the most prettiest darkskins you will ever see.
To be honest your text messages sounded a bit lame but that’s to be expected you’re only 15. She’s 19 and at this stage she’s likely more than 4 years ahead of you in terms maturity. That’s just how it is right now.
At least you didn’t pass her a note during the Sunday meeting that says.
“I think you’re cute... do you like me?”
YES __NO__
Thats what I did but I was only in the 6th grade at the time. She was in 6th grade too and looked like a young Elizabeth Taylor and I was utterly smitten with her. She squealed in horror out loud when she read the note and threw it on the floor. My non witness father happened to come to the meeting that day and saw the whole scene. He picked up the note and read it and promptly marched me into the back room. (Very embarrassing to say the least).
Never mind Kenny your day will come like it did for me and you’ll look back on this little life experience and you’ll laugh and you’ll be glad that nothing ever came of it because you’ll have had lots of crushes like this one and you’ll finally be with the girl of your dreams.
i think gb loesch has made some pretty bold statements that could be put in quotes with his picture attached could be a real killer!.
believe and obey only the faithful slave, don't believe any negative comment about us in the press believe only us.. google: child molestation watchtower bible and tract society, klick on wikki.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jehovah%27s_witnesses%27_handling_of_child_sex_abuse.
" IF WE'RE NOT UNDER THE LAW COVENANT ANYMORE....WHY THE BAN ON BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS? "
i posted here weekly until a year ago when my mum died of a mild form of lukemia which is easy to treat with 2 blood tranfusions a month.
you can live to 100 with treatment, but no my mum chose to die a faithful witness after 2 years of chemo and hell for her family and doctors.
her chemo doctor cried when she only had weeks left to live knowing that she could be saved with one bag of blood!
I'm sorry for your loss 007....such a waste ! My own father (67) and my wife's father (48)could have been saved with a blood transfusion but they died in literal agony in a modern hospitals that were equipped with all the means that modern medicine had available to save them. These two events forever changed the trajectory of our family but casually, without an apology to anyone, a short time later the good folks at Watchtower OK'd the use of blood fragments which would have saved them.
I am mostly sympathetic toward JW's and their blindness but when it comes to the blood issue, it's difficult not to be bitter. I understand your feelings of grief and frustration on this matter.
