Posted by ExDub [ExDub] on November 22, 1999 at 13:36:39 {k/.KBikg62x23u1HzB2QYwT5J/kZ46}:
In Reply to: PlzScroll2FutureOfWTUnder posted by 4GBMem/Bethel on November 18, 1999 at 09:01:46:
Scally, I found this post of yours, scrolled down and was just too tired to search through it all. Couldn't find it easily, so didn't respond. Then H2O went down or something for a few days. Just got back on, found the post in question, then couldn't find this one! LOL
I'm not a defender of the WTS, as you are probably aware. (I also still have my own teeth!) But I've asked similar questions to yours.
I think that active JW's don't really *think* what they are saying when they read and talk about millions (billions) dying horrible deaths and they will be saved. It seems to me to be a very self-involved school of thought. So, if their thought pattern does not go beyond their very own circle, they don't worry.
I remember hearing that, and just not thinking about it. It becomes easier and easier when you are within the org not to question or fuss. If something was beyond my emotional comprehension, I just blocked it and thought about something else.
One area I began to finally question was why so much of the teaching was done about what we didn't believe rather than what we did.
I've never liked religion bashing. I don't like coming here and seeing even the WTS bashed. But I've been part of it, and I believe it is controlling and very hard on people.
I would never Catholic bash, Baptist bash, Buddhist Bash, OR WTS bash. Not just for the sake of bashing or to prove my own way right.
I find references here to the Catholic Church, and once in a while to other schools of thought. Anyone here who has not been a part of those religions really cannot judge at all. And even in Catholicism, if they were part of it, or learned what they know from pre-Vatican II, then they don't know what they are talking about regarding today's Catholic Church.
I'd even venture to say that many protestant churches have grown and changed enough in recent years that most Ex-JW's can't speak with any authority on them.
So, I've been able to sleep better, look myself in the mirror and smile and mean it, because I decided to simply drop the judgements.
Life is easier when I'm not trying to judge other ways of life! It's true.
So, when I do my dental hygiene, I only think about how my teeth look and feel.
then I go give my husband his second big kiss of the day.
ExDub