YEah... I guess she meant to say we were not expected to roll out the red carpet. Just a chat. I guess you could say you would like for a good friend to pay you a visit when you are sick and that is the way they see it. Either way we are not falling for it.
StarTrekAngel
JoinedPosts by StarTrekAngel
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32
Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me
by StarTrekAngel inso i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.
i have been absent for almost 2 months.
my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.
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32
Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me
by StarTrekAngel inso i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.
i have been absent for almost 2 months.
my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.
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StarTrekAngel
LOL. true that tepidpoultry.
I forgot to mention. I told my wife that I was surprised that the visit would him and his wife rather than two elders. She says she recalls a time (probably before I was a JW) when they would encourage couples where the man was an elder to sort of foster the company of other couples as a way to bring the spiritually weak up to speed. She feels that is the reason but I do not recall in my 17 years being a JW of ever hearing of such arrangement...
anybody?
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32
Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me
by StarTrekAngel inso i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.
i have been absent for almost 2 months.
my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.
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StarTrekAngel
Lol Steve. No, I know exactly what they are coming for.
I discussed it with my wife during our lunch hour. Let me just say I was even more shocked at what my wife said. LOL
I mean in a good way. I guess I was not expecting her to react so favorably to something that has been a point of contention for quite a while.
In a nutshell we agreed we don't want to bring this up. That we welcome them in our home anytime but that currently we are not in a mental state to talk about the responsibilities of being a JW. I have quite a bit of pressure at work to perform (which is indeed true, my job is taking off for the better and I need to put a whole lot of attention to it) with quite a few people turning to me and trying to impose their views on how to manage our growth as a company. That if and when I go to the meeting I go seeking a spiritual refuge (my wife's word :D ) and that I've been missing meetings because we've been feeling under pressure there as well. From all the talks and publications which remind me of my shortcomings as a JW. While they are always welcome in my home and we appreciate their concerns as a true friend would concern, that we are afraid that if the conversation gets too deep into this matter I may loose my cool and say something that may be misinterpreted and we appreciate them too much as friends to risk that.
If they ask why? the answer would a polite is-non-of-your-business. In fact, my wife said it would be easier to tell them to fuck off but they would probably not take that the right way.
I was always madly in love with that woman but now more than ever. While this does not iron out all of our differences on the matter, it sure puts us a hell of a lot closer. The only doubt I have is that the elders may start questioning relatives. The best target they have is my mother in law, she lived with us recently. But my wife assures me she won't say anything. I guess we'll see.
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Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me
by StarTrekAngel inso i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.
i have been absent for almost 2 months.
my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.
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StarTrekAngel
Precisely as you stated it. I was just wondering if anyone had any similar experiences.
They will definitely get as much respect as they give me.
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11
HULU's - The Path
by babygirl30 inthis show is a.m.a.z.i.n.g!!!!.
...anyone that has been in a strict religion.
...anyone that has been in a high control cult or movement/organization.
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StarTrekAngel
Seen it... awaiting the next season. I can even see how the cult in the show is headed to be run in autopilot.
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32
Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me
by StarTrekAngel inso i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.
i have been absent for almost 2 months.
my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.
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StarTrekAngel
Thanks everyone for the input. It is truly appreciated. I am not going to say we are the best of friends but we do know each other well enough to swing by each others home with little to no announcement. I was more shocked by the fact that the woman had the initiative (Although I am not so naive to think this is her idea) to come and approach us. I thought it was strange that during the last 3 years no one has bothered (to the point that my wife thinks I am paranoid and reinforces her idea that elders never harass anyone) and that now a couple would insist on coming by to what is clearly a "shepherding"...ahem! more like a concerned friend coming to see how you are doing. For I care they may come and say "we haven't seen you in the meetings, are you ok... yeah we are ok... all right then, goodnight". But I want to be prepared. I find it hard to believe that someone who just wants to know how you are would insist on getting a date and time for the visit.
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32
Finally, after almost 3 years, they want to visit with me
by StarTrekAngel inso i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.
i have been absent for almost 2 months.
my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.
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StarTrekAngel
So I ended up going to the meeting yesterday. I have been absent for almost 2 months. My wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance. She would have gladly gone but in between relatives visiting, out of town trips, etc. Some Sundays she made the attempt to go but ended up waking up late. She has come to hate showing up to the meeting late because she feels they make her parade all the way to the front row. (No surprise to me there). Now with the new year there is a new schedule for the Sunday meeting. It now starts at noon, so many less chances of missing it. I decided to go with her because I had the bad feeling that having missed so many, someone was going to approach her. Despite the better advice from the organization, our elders have a really bad habit of approaching women when they are on their own to question them.
Nothing less than what I expected, as soon as the meeting was over, we tried to make a dash for the exit. We were already in the parking lot, half way to our car. I was thinking we had made it out but no. Surprisingly, a sister cries out for my wife.
Sister D....! Hi!
Oh!, I thought, I guess she just wants to say hi. After the regular chit chat, I was surprised to hear she was delivering the invitation to my wife. Not me. She told my wife in a very social tone that her and her (elder) husband would like to come by our house later for a visit. She did make eye contact with me but she never addressed me directly. She clarified we did not have to prepare a meal or anything. It was just going to be social.
When we got home, we got ready to go out grocery shopping and I told her we needed to discuss about that visit. She was open to the discussion (which also surprised me) but that she did not think they were going to come that same day. I said I wasn't so sure but that either way we had to discuss it in case they did. We both agreed to avoid the visit until we had a chance to talk. Not much later that day I get a call from them. I showed my phone to her while it was still ringing and she was like "Don't answer it!". So I did not. Later a get a text message from him asking me if we would be home later that day. I replied that I could not receive him that day and he replied right back..."What about Friday?"
It is obvious at this point that the visit has a dual purpose. I got to say this couple if one of the nicest JW couples you will ever meet. I would hate to have to avoid them. I also feel that since is a couple and not a company of elders, the weight of the visit may not be the same as a shepherding call. I do have it clear that anything I say will be used against me and that regardless of her presence, she would be a witness against me in a JC if she has to.
My wife and I still have to take the time to discuss this but I was wondering if anyone has any previous experience with this kind of approach. I have read many here, but I don't know that I've read one where a couple (husband and wife) would push themselves onto visiting someone. Any experiences out there?
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My Thoughts on the Subject of Faith
by Saethydd ini've had several discussion about the basis for faith in an all powerful creator for the universe, and it seems as if the conversation often comes back to, "well, either way, you have to have faith either in a creator or in the process of evolution because you can't observe that either.
" setting aside the issue of creation and evolution (where i currently sit at undecided), i was also troubled by the tendency to treat faith as a static or absolute concept when in reality it is far more complex.. to begin with, faith isn't just about belief, it combines the concepts of belief and trust.
for the purposes of this discussion, i will be focusing primarily on the second attribute.
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StarTrekAngel
Faith requires works as a foundation to stand ground. Don't get me wrong. I am not necessarily talking about work of the like of preaching or feeding the poor. We are usually told the Jews for example, were of little faith because despite all the things they had seen, the could not quit complaining when they felt trapped in between the Egyptian army and the red sea. If you ask most modern christians what they would have done in such situation they would tell you that unlike the jews, they would have trusted in God absolutely.
This is based in a misunderstanding of what faith is. The faith the Jews had was being solidified as their relationship with God went on. They accepted their God could bring about the plagues but may be, just may be, saving them from the Egyptian army in a situation where they did not have weapons themselves was too much for this new God they had just discovered. Every other work that this God did for them increased their understanding of how powerful and capable this God was. Some, like Moises, were a little more impressionable than the others and were able to "trust" sooner. There are plenty of examples in the bible of people who were commanded to carry out a task that seemed impossible. Where the odds were against them. Unlike the religions of today, God did not demand that the blindly trusted. They asked for proof that God would bless their mission and only then they had "faith".
Just as when you go to a bank to ask for a loan, the bank bases their decision on your credit history, faith is a credit report for God, not humans. Some humans would need more or less information in order to submit to the said deity, but none the less, the faith that religion promotes today is blind faith. It demands everything from you but shows nothing from their claimed authority.
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201
I am glad to have found the true religion
by A Believer init really is great.
i remember browsing this forum the day after i had joined it, and their was a knock on the door.
i thought it was one of my package from ups but instead it was two sisters.
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StarTrekAngel
Many in this forum have read the whole bible many times over. What a shame that as a JW you are setting such petty goals.
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201
I am glad to have found the true religion
by A Believer init really is great.
i remember browsing this forum the day after i had joined it, and their was a knock on the door.
i thought it was one of my package from ups but instead it was two sisters.
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StarTrekAngel
They sure do... now explain this to me and please stay on subject. Don't do the WT thing of deviating the answer until it fits a totally different question... ok? Jesus never did that. Imitate your master please.
Lets say you are out preaching and you knock on the door of a catholic or some other mainstream religion. You bring up the subject about death. The householder has happened to loose a loved one recently and tells you how he or she is trying to cope by remembering that we do not know God's higher plan for us. That he or she does not know why God has chosen to take this relative that he or she loved very much but that he or she is willing to accept God's will.
Now remind me if I am wrong but I remember from the many years of being a witness that the standar answer prepared for us is to tell the householder that such is not the case. May be most witnesses are not as direct but they would basically reply that we should not think that God has taken them at will. In fact, some tracts and definitely books used in bible studies actually explain that such explanation (as provided by other faiths) paints a cruel God who seem eager to take people, including kids, at random. Now while many here would agree such picture is accurate, lets not get hanged on that.
Now lets pretend for a minute this householder has heard your standard answer but now he or she proceeds to tell you that she has another relative who was a witness. This other person fell ill and had to be hospitalized. While there, doctors told this relative that unless she got a liver transplant she/he would die. This person, being the loyal witness that he or she was, strongly denied getting the transplant because at the time it was seen as canibalism (this would have happened decades ago). The family, in distress, attempts to change her mind but she/he told her relatives that God had directed the slave and the slave has pointed out that such procedure would not be acceptable in God's eyes. This relative later died as expected. Now this householder is getting to the point. He or she tells you that just about a month after her or his relative was buried, he or she found out from the rest of her JW family that new light now out, informed them of a new understanding. Now God has clarified that transplants are a matter of personal choice. Under the understanding that apparently God allowed this mistaken view drag for so long and cost so many lives, how do you explain to the house holder that her view of God is cruel while yours is not?
This is where new light looses compatibility with a God of love. If we put aside the other actions by Jehovah that make many categorize it as a cruel murderous God, even if you believe in a God of nothing but love, you can not reconcíliate this fact with such idea. Either God is not all loving and derives pleaseure from seeing people suffer under spiritual confusion or he has nothing to do with any of this and this are doctrines of men which we should not follow.
You can not summarize the vast implications of dominating large masses of people under mistaken ideas by using five simple words like "imperfect human being make mistakes"