As A Kid I Was Told Armageddon Was Near, So I Wouldn’t Need A Job. Now I’m A BDSM Model.

[Arauna]

20 hours ago, xero said:

to me the chronic fascination humans have with body parts is odd. I don't obsess over a drumstick or a bowl of oatmeal.

You are not noticing what is going on in the real world out there. Human trafficking brings in 38 billion dollars per year...... child trafficking the most disgusting part of it. In schools all children are being sexualized with the new transgender doctrines and taught critical race theory.....in every class.... so yes - incase you have not noticed the entire world is going back to the time of Canaan - Sodom and Gomorra.... where anything unmoral is ok to indulge in - turning people into mere animals.

As I said before - satan wants every person on earth morally compromised so that they lose their opportunity to be redeemed.

[TrueTomHarley]

25 minutes ago, Arauna said:

You put yourself in a box...... a box I frankly would not like to be in.

“We must not put people in boxes,” one sister said at the Zoom meeting. I heartily signaled my agreement to all the Zoom-boxed participants.

[TrueTomHarley]

21 minutes ago, Arauna said:

so yes - incase you have not noticed

No no—he is a friend, you with the failing eyesight. I kind of like the guy. I think all that he is saying is that he himself withstands it in his own personal life, not that he doubts its existence.             

[JW Insider]

On 2/5/2021 at 4:55 PM, Isabella said:

In Paradise, we’d build log cabins, make friends with wild animals and spend our time picking fruit with other Jehovah’s Witnesses. This was all lovingly illustrated for us in the Jehovah’s Witness literature. . . . “I was expecting the world to end in five years maximum,” she says.

Many ex-JWs and opposers obsess over the fact that the Watchtower promoted these same expectations for the mid-1970's with a focus on the year 1975. My 3 children were all born in the period from the mid-to-late 80's, and I saw this same view beginning in my own children, matching that of the 11-year old "version" of the girl above.

To those of us who had been Witnesses during the 1975 period, most of us probably thought it refreshing that there was no longer a specific set of years being pointed to any more, and we seemed "safe" from date-setting. But even young children picked up on the idea that all this "suffering" for the sake of the kingdom was only for a few short years, and there would never be a need to learn how to make a living in this system of things. It really did change their outlook on school and career and marriage and providing for one's family. "Jehovah will provide" became a catchphrase of sisters who assumed that brothers with good jobs would be coming into the truth in time to make good marriage mates if somehow the system lasted long enough for them to need a husband with "means." I dreaded that this kind of attitude would influence my own daughter.

My own experiences with respect to 1975 might be considered sad to outsiders, but I don't look back at them with any remorse. I was baptized in 1967, and was still 15, almost 16, when I quit school in 1973 to begin f-t pioneering. I took to heart the Watchtower's counsel and advice that the system had only a few months after this 1975 period, not years. The commendations for selling houses and pioneering affected my family too. My father didn't believe in the 1975 hype, and even got in trouble (from the D.O.) after a circuit assembly talk, by adding that Jesus' words (about no one knowing the day or the hour) showed how we should also be balanced. That was rather unforgettable, but my father still sold our house and moved us into a rented house in 1974, so that my mother could begin f-t pioneering, too.

On 2/5/2021 at 4:55 PM, Isabella said:

from having to become a window cleaner.

My brother started an office-cleaning business in 1974 as many other pioneers had done. Only, he didn't pioneer himself but kept expanding the business with more accounts and ended up providing jobs for about 20 pioneers. He finally sold the business for about $20,000 to a full-time pioneer (in '77).  I'm sure that the number of new businesses across the country called "Pioneer Cleaning Services" shot up considerably in this period. A lot of people probably don't know that "Rug Doctor" was started this way, and my brother was good friends with the Witness founder. Their web site only says that it was started more than 43 years ago (implying before 1977) but it was actually started in 1974/5.

In 1977, my Bethel roommate, my brother, and the daughter of one of the Rug Doctor partners were the only people I knew (at the time) who had been invited to Bethel without any full-time pioneering experience.

They had all involved themselves either in learning computer science or electronics (programmable microprocessor controllers) in my brother's case. So after Bethel, I got a bachelor's degree in computer science. The congregation and the elders were very prejudiced against it, but as long as I kept full-time pioneering during college I got away with it.

Times are a bit different again, and college is definitely no guarantee of a better job. It often brings unnecessary debt and stress. But I never discouraged college for my three children and, as things turned out, I'm currently glad I didn't. But there is still a lot of prejudice against pioneering in most congregations I know.

My kids all had music, orchestra, and choir in high school, and kept their skills up for another few years in college. They would draw the line at national anthems, too, but rarely bowed out of any other songs or performances. So much music is permeated with religious or political foundations anyway that it would be impossible to completely separate from it without getting out of orchestra or choir altogether. I think that most Witnesses compromise and hardly realize it when they participate in American high school music classes especially.

[xero]

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

You are not noticing what is going on in the real world out there. Human trafficking brings in 38 billion dollars per year...... child trafficking the most disgusting part of it. In schools all children are being sexualized with the new transgender doctrines and taught critical race theory.....in every class.... so yes - incase you have not noticed the entire world is going back to the time of Canaan - Sodom and Gomorra.... where anything unmoral is ok to indulge in - turning people into mere animals.

As I said before - satan wants every person on earth morally compromised so that they lose their opportunity to be redeemed.

Oh, I've noticed it. I have to take training every year in identifying potential human trafficking. (Just one of the many I have to get refreshers on every year)

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

10 hours ago, Arauna said:

child trafficking the most disgusting part of it.

 

10 hours ago, Arauna said:

so yes - incase you have not noticed the entire world is going back to the time of Canaan - Sodom and Gomorra.... where anything unmoral is ok to indulge in - turning people into mere animals.

And you are pretending it doesn't happen in the Watchtower / JW Org Congregations.

But it has been happening in the JW religion for over 50 years. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

9 hours ago, JW Insider said:

I was baptized in 1967, and was still 15, almost 16, when I quit school in 1973 to begin f-t pioneering. I took to heart the Watchtower's counsel and advice that the system had only a few months after this 1975 period, not years.

And they did so again to say 'before the end of the century. Before the year 2000. 

9 hours ago, JW Insider said:

but my father still sold our house and moved us into a rented house in 1974, so that my mother could begin f-t pioneering, too.

This is nice to read as it proves that these things did happen. Thank you.  You were there and you give proof. 

9 hours ago, JW Insider said:

But I never discouraged college for my three children and, as things turned out, I'm currently glad I didn't

 

9 hours ago, JW Insider said:

My kids all had music, orchestra, and choir in high school, and kept their skills up for another few years in college.

I'm seeing this pattern of JWs, either not believing the GB / Watchtower, or not obeying the GB / Watchtower. 

Physically in, spiritually out.  I would imagine your children would ask many questions about the 1970's, and about your allowing them / encouraging them to go to college.  

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

9 hours ago, xero said:

Oh, I've noticed it. I have to take training every year in identifying potential human trafficking. (Just one of the many I have to get refreshers on every year)

I hope you have training about identifying child sexual abuse in the congregation too. 

[xero]

I'm not aware of anything like this in any congregation I've been part of. If I even suspected something like this I know our local boe has a different attitude. One bro said only half joking. "I'd invite someone like that to go on a hunting trip w/me. 'accidents' CAN happen while you're out hunting."

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

8 hours ago, xero said:

I'm not aware of anything like this in any congregation I've been part of. If I even suspected something like this I know our local boe has a different attitude. One bro said only half joking. "I'd invite someone like that to go on a hunting trip w/me. 'accidents' CAN happen while you're out hunting."

But you don't have training then ? 

[JW Insider]

2 hours ago, 4Jah2me said:

And they did so again to say 'before the end of the century. Before the year 2000.

Yes. But they stopped pointing to the end of the century back in the late 1980's as far as I remember. So in the 1990's one could only get this by implication, not from anything directly. So you didn't have a bunch of people actually getting closer to 1998, then 1999, who would start to say it must be by the year 2000 or 2001.

And it wasn't the GB trying to get attention by continuing to "cry wolf" as you said above. That would be a sure way to get people to stop paying attention, just like it works out in the story of the boy who cried wolf. It more likely shows that the GB were so sure it was true that they were willing to risk revealing how sure they were, and therefore risk not being paid attention to. I think they would only do that if they thought it was important.

On the other hand, I wish they didn't think that telling us how close we are to the end was so important. The point should always be how close we might be to the end so that we are prepared --not by thinking about signs and chronology-- but so that we are prepared by thinking about what sort of persons we ought to be. Development of true Christian character (i.e., love for God and neighbor) has always been much more important than trying to find visible signs upon which to hang our faith in the promises.

[Anna]

Hmmm ....If I was married to someone like her husband I think I may have wanted someone to hurt me....

 

19 hours ago, xero said:

This stuff happens all the time I'm sure w/brothers

Not just brothers