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Blogs -
Spirituality Beyond Gilead
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Written by Jeffrey Byrge
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Sunday, 15 November 2009 17:51 |
 That old saying your parents told you when they were too tired to explain anymore. Sort of sticks with you.
Did you know that curiosity doesn't kill you at all? (by the way, what does kill you is listening to bad or false advice and information) It is the impetus for future learning. Perhaps you recall seeing a toddler, learning, and always asking "why?" The reasons that adults tire to answer this question is that there is a limit to the answers that can be given where agenda's are at stake, esp if they are not your own. That is where the answer "Because I said so" originally comes from. When education lacks, authority will usually answer a persons curiosity, with the aim of squelching it.
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Life Stories -
Leaders
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Written by Greg and Penny Peterson
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Friday, 01 May 2009 17:13 |
The Story of Greg and Penny Peterson
Greg Speaks Out - My family was baptized in July 22, 1962 in Northridge, Calif. By 1966 my two sisters were regular pioneers as well as my father. My mother was never a regular pioneer nor do I remember her vacationing pioneering in her 36 years as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
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Blogs -
A Gay Exit From The Truth
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Written by Scott Terry
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Friday, 23 October 2009 08:54 |
 When my sister returned to The Truth many years ago, my favorite grandma was ticked. She’s now dead, but when alive, Grams would have considered herself to be a front-row Baptist. When my sister went back to our childhood religion -- the Witnesses -- Grams said, “I don’t know why she wants to get mixed up with that cult!”
A few weeks ago, I found myself thinking about my grandmother’s comment while sitting in the audience at the annual conference of A Common Bond. That’s the group devoted to homosexual ex-Witnesses, and the lead speaker was J. Todd Ormsbee, a sociology professor from San Jose State. Don’t ask me what the J. stands for, because I forgot to ask him. He’s a brainiac from Brigham Young University, via the state of Utah, and he says lots of brilliant things you’ve never thought of and uses words like counter-hegemony. Yeah I know, I had to look that up myself.
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Blogs -
Nils Jansma
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Written by Nils Jansma
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Saturday, 10 October 2009 11:19 |
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Why does God require "faith?" Why doesn't he just stop all the apparent game playing and talk to all of us directly, as the Bible says he did to Adam? This has been a puzzle to me for as long as I can remember. What is the big deal with faith? From a practical point of view, faith in something is not always good because senseless, ungodly fanaticism can also be the result, as demonstrated by the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. So faith by itself is not virtuous.
Therefore, it seems that you also need to have faith in the right thing. Finding the right thing requires research and experience. In this essay, we are going to see if there is Biblical evidence that God's requirement for faith is the "right thing." We will be looking to see if the faith-requirement associated with belief has a constructive purpose, or whether it is evidence that God is just having fun with us, as if we were engaged in some sort of cat-and-mouse play.
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Life Stories -
Rank & File
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Written by besty
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Saturday, 26 September 2009 23:28 |
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 Hi, my name is Paul Morrison and I’m an ex-Jehovah’s Witness. By the end of this sorry tale I hope to be an ex-ex-Jehovah’s Witness. But not yet. I’m 40 years old later this year and happily married for 11 years now to Samantha. We have two boys – aged 4 and 2. We’re from the UK but currently find ourselves at the edge of the world and all of Western civilization about 50 yards from the Pacific Ocean in Hermosa Beach, LA. My story begins in Glasgow, Scotland - naturally my parents figured in this so let’s start with them.
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Support -
Restoring Family
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Written by Anonymous
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Monday, 16 March 2009 08:47 |
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Foreword: The following account is provided in the interest of those who face the dilemma of wanting to leave the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses known as the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. I was involved with the organization for nearly 27 years from December 1968 through July 1995. I was active for a total of 25 years. I served in various congregational positions including Elder. In my active evangelizing for the Watch Tower Society I helped a total of 15 people become Jehovah’s Witnesses including my four children. |
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Life Stories -
Bethelites
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Written by Tom Cabeen
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Thursday, 05 November 2009 09:45 |
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I applied for service at the world headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses (known to Witnesses as "Bethel") in Brooklyn, New York. I was invited to serve there as a volunteer starting November 14, 1968. At Bethel, I worked hard at whatever work I was assigned to do. I was also very dedicated to learning as much as possible about the Watchtower teachings. I was warned to stay away from "bad associates," so I chose as my companions mature Witnesses, many of whom worked in Writing, Service and other departments where the most respected, loyal and mature Witnesses were assigned. I am outgoing and make friends easily, so I became close with many of them. My willingness to work hard and a natural aptitude for the work assigned to me resulted in my being given increasing responsibilities, generally much more than was usual for someone my age....
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Blogs -
Sherry Jansma
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Written by Sherry Jansma
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Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:38 |
 The first time my husband Nils and I attended a Bible study at a local church, we didn’t want anyone to know that we were Jehovah’s Witnesses. So we wore blue jeans, used aliases, and prominently displayed our King James Bibles. But in spite of all these covert actions, we apparently gave ourselves away within the first ten minutes of the study. As someone later told us, “We knew you must be Witnesses. You kept using the name Jehovah.” Well, why wouldn’t we? From the year 1931 when Joseph Rutherford plucked the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” out of the Old Testament (Isaiah 43:12 NWT), the Watchtower Society has written, spoken, revered, sung, and called upon the name Jehovah so many times that, to Jehovah’s Witnesses, it has become synonymous with eternal salvation and divine protection. On the other hand, the majority of Christians place the same significance upon the name of Jesus. They quote John 5:23 where it says, “. . . in order that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. He that does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”
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Psychology -
Cults
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Written by Randall Watters
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Sunday, 25 January 2009 00:34 |
"Why can't you just walk away from that religion and never go back? They don't have any hold on you!"
Have you ever said that to a person struggling with leaving a cult or manipulative church? If so, you were no doubt unawares of the degree of emotional and psychological control that cults have over their members. Why is it so hard for them to leave, even when they know that something is seriously wrong with the religion? And, once they leave, why is it so hard to be "normal" and go to church like anyone else?
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