Page 2 of 2 [ 29 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

TwilightPrincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,697
Location: Hell

09 Sep 2024, 3:23 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
With love being the operative sin.

Right ... :roll:

Yeah, I used to feel guilty for not being able to go along with their bigotry. :lol:

I just could never understand why it mattered, especially when stuff that actually harms people is happening in the world and in their own organization.



IsabellaLinton
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2017
Gender: Female
Posts: 72,421
Location: Chez Quis

09 Sep 2024, 3:24 pm

What would they say if I pointed that out?


_________________
I never give you my number, I only give you my situation.
Beatles


TwilightPrincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,697
Location: Hell

09 Sep 2024, 3:25 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
What would they say if I pointed that out?

They’d most likely read you specific Bible scriptures.



Carbonhalo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Age: 63
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,454
Location: Musoria

09 Sep 2024, 3:56 pm

I would have asked BO to remain outside the gate while I allowed you to chew my ear off on the porch.
Home delivered entertainment.
I've always found it amusing when humans claim to know the will of God.

(I allowed autocorrect to capitalise that G on a whim)



TwilightPrincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,697
Location: Hell

09 Sep 2024, 4:03 pm

I never chewed anyone's ear off. I was more about uncomfortable stammering and getting the f**k out as soon as possible. My incompetence and awkwardness were extremely thorough. :lol:



Carbonhalo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Age: 63
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,454
Location: Musoria

09 Sep 2024, 4:06 pm

Like I would have let you leave before pissing off the moron at the gate.



TwilightPrincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,697
Location: Hell

09 Sep 2024, 4:15 pm

Something tells me that B.O. wouldn't have waited outside the gate if a male householder told him to unless there was a gun involved. There's a lot of weirdos out there, even weirder than B.O., and bad things have happened to female JWs on account of it.



Carbonhalo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Age: 63
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,454
Location: Musoria

09 Sep 2024, 4:19 pm

You may have heard a "Bzzzzt" noise, and he would have been a puddle at the gate. You would probably have run screaming at this point, but I'd be smiling anyway.

Perhaps I should explain.
When a scammer cold calls me I take great delight in wasting their time.
JWs are probably the root cause of this. I always resented the use of live bait.



Texasmoneyman300
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 25 Feb 2021
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,528
Location: Texas

09 Sep 2024, 6:15 pm

TwilightPrincess wrote:
In case you might be wondering what preaching is like, especially for people on the spectrum with social anxiety, I thought I might provide a true account (or possibly accounts) from my own personal experience. It could be something to read in a waiting room before getting called back for a routine colonoscopy. That sort of thing.

The names may have been changed.

Rewind 20ish years.

I am unfortunate enough to be out preaching door-to-door with Sister Judgy. I call her that because in-between doors she likes to make negative remarks about most of the people we meet - like about the family with *gasp* two mommies, the man who owns an expensive car (shocking, I know), or even a fellow JW sister who no longer goes to church. According to Sister Judgy, the woman isn't really struggling with depression. (She is.) The real problem is that she "doesn't truly appreciate Kingdom Truths."

It could be worse. I could find myself in the ministry with that stalker Brother Onan (B.O.) yet again. When he's out, he ALWAYS puts me in his car group and makes me go to the doors with him even if it means spending an entire morning working a walking territory…just the two of us. If you can’t get someone to court your sorry ass, you can always use your authority to make it happen. (“Brothers” are in charge of deciding which people will work together. A penis is necessary for something as complex as that. When a penis is unavailable, we make do somehow, perhaps with the help of God's penis. :chin: ) I wish there was another single woman in our church. Or maybe not. B.O. should probably stay single.

ANYWAY, on this occasion, Sister Judgy and I are walking to a door. It's my turn to talk. Although I do this every single week, I'm so anxious I'm having trouble catching my breath. Sister Judgy is chewing gum with her mouth open reminding me vaguely of a cow or a camel. I can’t decide which. Smack, smack, smack. Now I'm anxious AND irritated. Focus. What's my presentation about again? Oh yeah! Something about peace. I could go for some peace right about now.

We’re at the door. I knock very lightly, praying silently: "Jehovah God please let no one answer the door this time. I won't doubt your existence ever again, and I'll try so much harder. Thanks for...puppies. They are SO cute..." Maybe a healthy dose of flattery will put God in a prayer-answering sort of mood.

Sister Judgy interrupts my fervent prayer with: "They probably didn't hear that!" and proceeds to give the door a vigorous rap with her knuckles. I decide then and there that I like that sound even less than the smacking of chewing gum.

I continue my prayer until the door slowly opens.

God Damnit.

Like any self-respecting cult member, I hasten to put on the obligatory fake smile. I'm one of "God's Happy People" after all.

I stammer: "H-hello, how are you? It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Geez, that was a stupid thing to say since it looks like it might rain at any moment.

Strangely, the person at the door smiles and says: "Yes, it's very nice."

Huh, maybe God had this person answer the door for a reason.

I proceed with the Watchtower’s scripted presentation for the month: "My name is Twilight and this is my friend (as if :roll: ) Judgy. We've been talking with your neighbors about peace. With all the stuff that's going on in the world today, many people wonder if we will ever have peace. What do you think?"

The householder blinks.

I've since come to the conclusion that not everyone is ready for impromptu discussions about world peace at 9:00 in the morning.

After a brief pause, he says: "I don't know."

This is going SO much better than usual. The door hasn't been slammed in my face yet, no one has yelled, dogs haven't been released, and books haven't been hurled in my general direction. Woot! I'm still on the verge of panic, but this is a vast improvement over the last time I found myself unfortunate enough to be preaching to someone on their doorstep. The householder is even fully-clothed!

"Notice what it says here in the Bible about peace at Psalms 37:10 and 11." s**t. I forgot to bookmark the scripture. Normally, I can find Psalms 37 in 5 seconds flat but not when my hands are shaking on account of being panicky. After 20 agonizing seconds of fumbling, I happen upon the scripture. I read the following aloud from the JW translation of the Bible: "[J]ust a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; and you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace."

"That sounds very nice, doesn't it?" I ask.

"It certainly does," the man responds with a smile.

"Our current issue of the Watchtower talks more about peace and the hope that we have of God fulfilling his promises in the near future. You can have your own copy free of charge along with the Awake," I manage to say with much less incoherent stammering than usual.

He answers politely, "No. No, thank you. We're atheists."

Crestfallen but relieved that my turn is over, I respond: "Okay, have a nice day."

On the way back to the car, Sister Judgy scolds me for not trying to overcome the "conversation stopper." Without openly disagreeing with her, I ponder: "How would I ‘reason’ with an atheist?” Being entirely self-taught from 6th grade on up as a homeschooler and having never been allowed to study stuff that conflicts with JW beliefs, I know little about evolution, science in general, or philosophy. Somehow, I don't think that talking about pretty flowers, Bible scriptures, or something about a watchmaker would cut it.

"You should've said..."

I tune her out and start thinking about what I'm going to do when I get home in the afternoon. I can't wait to change into PJs, eat something comforting, and play another run-through of one of my favorite video games - Majora's Mask. Just three more hours to go...

Smack, smack, smack.

“A cow,” I conclude. “Definitely a cow.”

Your thread brings me back many memories of life as a child pastor when I was a kid.I am still a reverend in the church of Christ to this day.I got into preaching as a 3rd grader because we had this thing at my local church of Christ where we trained young boys and men to be preachers..It was a thing at my church where elementary school kids prepared sermons and preached them at local area churches in places like small towns and other churches in towns and the church itself.We also had a convention we went to every year in a big metro at a major airport although we drove to the airport even though it was many hours away.We would preach there and I preached in front of around 2,000 to 5,000 people at one time once.



TwilightPrincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,697
Location: Hell

09 Sep 2024, 6:36 pm

Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
Your thread brings me back many memories of life as a child pastor when I was a kid.I am still a reverend in the church of Christ to this day.I got into preaching as a 3rd grader because we had this thing at my local church of Christ where we trained young boys and men to be preachers..It was a thing at my church where elementary school kids prepared sermons and preached them at local area churches in places like small towns and other churches in towns and the church itself.We also had a convention we went to every year in a big metro at a major airport although we drove to the airport even though it was many hours away.We would preach there and I preached in front of around 2,000 to 5,000 people at one time once.
JWs do conventions, too. Every year, they have a 3 day convention although it was 4 days when I was a kid. They rent out large stadiums for it. Apart from that, they have a 2 day assembly and a 1 day assembly every year, too. Those often take place at smaller venues that are owned by the Watchtower. All of it was lousy when I was a kid. Having to sit through that s**t was a lot. Kids were routinely taken out and spanked because parents were too stupid to realize that having toddlers/preschoolers sit all day during lectures designed for adults is unrealistic/not part of normal child development. Going by their expectations, they seem to view kids as short adults.



Texasmoneyman300
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 25 Feb 2021
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,528
Location: Texas

09 Sep 2024, 6:50 pm

TwilightPrincess wrote:
Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
Your thread brings me back many memories of life as a child pastor when I was a kid.I am still a reverend in the church of Christ to this day.I got into preaching as a 3rd grader because we had this thing at my local church of Christ where we trained young boys and men to be preachers..It was a thing at my church where elementary school kids prepared sermons and preached them at local area churches in places like small towns and other churches in towns and the church itself.We also had a convention we went to every year in a big metro at a major airport although we drove to the airport even though it was many hours away.We would preach there and I preached in front of around 2,000 to 5,000 people at one time once.
JWs do conventions, too. Every year, they have a 3 day convention although it was 4 days when I was a kid. They rent out large stadiums for it. Apart from that, they have a 2 day assembly and a 1 day assembly every year, too. Those often take place at smaller venues that are owned by the Watchtower. All of it was lousy when I was a kid. Having to sit through that s**t was a lot. Kids were routinely taken out and spanked because parents were too stupid to realize that having toddlers/preschoolers sit all day during lectures designed for adults is unrealistic/not part of normal child development. Going by their expectations, they seem to view kids as short adults.

Oh okay.Ya I gathered that yall did conventions from content I have viewed online.Ya the church of Christ has conventions all over the country not just the one I went to.Also some more conservative churches did not go to conventions as a church body because they believed parachurch organizations like the ones I was involved with was evil and too liberal.

also have these things called "gospel meetings" which is really the church of Christ term for revivals because the term revival is a cuss word and seen as sinful in the church of Christ.I have never been to one of those but I think those are mostly from the era where small town isolated people in the South had very little social life opportunities other than church and gospel meetings and door knockings.The church of Christ also has a history of door knocking but I refuse to go door knocking because its super dangerous in Texas where pretty much every homeowner has a gun and is not afraid to use it.So I dont want to get shot so I dont do door knockings.



TwilightPrincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,697
Location: Hell

09 Sep 2024, 7:06 pm

Perhaps the scariest episode of door-knocking I experienced happened when I was a kid visiting my aunt and cousins in Kentucky. My mom and aunt decided to take us kids - four of us - out preaching in Appalachia. My aunt drove up this long wooded lane out in the middle of nowhere. At the end of the lane, there's a shirtless guy sitting next to a campfire. There's no house. He was sleeping underneath a pickup truck cap. My aunt gets out of the car. My 10 year old male cousin gets out with her. In the car, we can hear the man speaking. He's going on about something batshit crazy - something prophetic about Jesus coming to him in his sleep and snakes being involved, too. He was behaving erratically, and it seemed like he was on something. There ended up being a gun, too. He apparently just used the gun for hunting, but the point is that you never know.

The problem with my aunt: when she gets a feeling about something, she tends to think that it's "God's direction" which has caused her to put her (and others') safety and wellbeing in jeopardy.



TwilightPrincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,697
Location: Hell

16 Sep 2024, 12:18 pm

I've been thinking about another experience that stayed with me involving my aunt. When I was 12, we went to a harvest festival. There was a Native American performer there who was playing music on an authentic instrument. I don't remember much about the performance, but we all really enjoyed it because he was super talented. Anyway, as he was finishing up, my aunt said: "I think I'm going to witness [i.e. preach] to him. You know what they say: when you get a strong feeling about it, that might be God directing you."

I had completely different feelings on the matter than my aunt did. Even though the majority of the Native American population identifies as Christian in the US, the idea of preaching to an indigenous individual had always made me uncomfortable/anxious because of the history with forced conversions/religious colonialism/colonialism, period. Also, people who convert are expected to conform. For instance, I grew up hearing family members and others bad-mouthing fellow JWs who chose to wear clothes related to their ethnic heritage. Even worse, dreamcatchers or anything else with a spiritual or metaphysical connection are explicitly forbidden. (JWs believe that such things could cause “demon trouble.” :lol: ) If you have a related, family heirloom, you’d be told to burn it no matter the sentimental value it might contain. Failing to do so could result in shunning. I found this stuff disturbing. Everything seemed to be centered around White, 1950s Americana, and people were sometimes led to believe that it was the only right way.

Anyway, my aunt preached to the performer, and he rejected the message in no uncertain terms. My aunt didn't comment on it in any way. They tend to only acknowledge stuff that seems to confirm their beliefs and reject that which doesn't. She won't talk about that experience, but she does talk about the times when someone at a door said that they were just praying for help or something along those lines. That actually happens sometimes. If you knock on enough doors, you are bound to come across someone in despair or who was even contemplating suicide. It even happened to me once or twice. It doesn't occur beyond what people would expect if they reflected seriously on it, but JWs don't reflect seriously on that stuff because it's much nicer believing that some coincidence proves their beliefs.

After I observed that situation involving my aunt, I was always a bit skeptical when folks would share experiences about the times when it supposedly worked out because I knew that they would never talk about the times when it didn't. I just couldn't see God's hand in...anything. However, I could see (and experienced) coincidences as well as a whole lot of unpleasantness.