When you tell someone that you're an ex-Jehovah's Witness...

by MsMcDucket 44 Replies latest jw friends

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  CountryGuy

  I guess it depends on who I'm talking to.

  If it's someone I've just met, or someone I have limited contact with, I have to say it's a bit embarrasing. I usually say that I was raised in a very fundamentalist religion.

  If it's a friend, then I have no problem with it. I usually not only name the JWs when I talk about growing up.... I usually give them a reason NEVER to listen to them again.

  When I first moved to TX, it was like I had a clean slate. At that point in my life, I would have rather told people I was gay than a former JW.

  CountryGuy
• 

  MsMcDucket

  I'm ambivalent. I really don't know how I feel. There are times that I'm proud (for some strange reason). I'm like you, Bull, there are times that I find myself defending the religion. Once this lady said that Jehovah's Witnesses shouldn't be able to draw Social Security because they didn't salute the flag; and I said to her "Why not?". "They pay taxes."
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  mrsjones5

  I'm not embarassed about it, it was something that was not under my control. But I am proud to be out of it and to correctly inform laypeople about jws and the watchtower.

  Josie
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  mouthy

  I make a point of telling anyone who will listen!!!! So many folks think I am a smart cookieCos they think I have a sense of humor- So after they size me up- & begin to think I am "NORMAL" I then lower the boom! & tell them " well I was a JW for 25 years. I am just so happy to be free from bondage that I can laugh...See I then let them see I "aint" normal.....I have spoken in every denomination,churches ,schools, from Niagaria Falls to Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph ---I think the more folks you tell about the wrong teaching of the WT the more folks wont be dupped into it...Why be ashamed ???? We are all mislead in some manner or other.... It is only when we see the light -we can say OOPS!!!! .
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  fullofdoubtnow

  I haven't done that yet, except to my cousins who I have just been visiting. I don't know how I'll feel about it when I run into people locally who've never known me as anything else.

  I don't think it's anything to be ashamed or embarassed about really though, it was just a part of my prevoius life, and now I'm moving on
• 

  minimus

  Proud. I actually enjoy explaining in excrutiating detail WHY JWS don;t believe in birthdays (head of John the Baptist chopped off), the views of having oral sex with your own spouse, etc. I give a clear and thorough witness.
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  diamondblue1974

  I dont mind telling people either...If religion ever crops up in a conversation I am quite prepared to say that I was a JW and if anyone wants any information as to why you should never be one then I am the one to speak to.

  DB74
• 

  anewme

  I was at a family get together yesterday. Lots of people there. All family of my new husband's.
  The only people who knew my past were my husband and his mom.
  The host and hostess were "born againers". My husband's sister is a atheist and she brought her athesist husband and his atheist sister. My guess is alot of the born againer's adult kids were atheist too from the conversations that occured.
  
  The host said a blessing over the meal. I bowed my head respectfully and so did my agnostic husband I assume. Cant imagine that sissy-in-law did. She is really a sneering disrespectful immature wanna be.
  (Could she mention her PhD more? She must have slipped it into conversations like 5 times!)
  It was funny, when someone mentioned "Didnt you get a $50,000.00 scholarship for claiming to be part Hawaiian?" she went ballistic!!! "No!" she rep(lied), "I won that scholarship for scholastic merit!"
  Bull-oney!
  
  Anyway, after the PhDs (Piled High and Deep) left the table to go play computer games together, the host and hostess and I sat and talked. We talked about life and its rewards and they started to quote scripture.
  I agreed they were reaping what they sowed a bit. The happy domesticity of their lives was certainly a reward for their attention to family life. Luke 6:38 was mentioned about how generosity was rewarded. They got out their Bible and yet could not find it. I was able to take their modern Bible and find where Jesus talked about the effect of being generous on people's hearts.
  They then told me how they were born again and my mother in law for some reason piped in "She's born again arent you dear?" Everyone looked at me.
  
  "I am not!" "Yes you are!" "I am not!"
  I felt calm as I wondered what to say next.
  "I am not, but someday I would like to be! Tell me about your experience. How did it happen for you?"
  
  After I heard their story I assured my hosts it was all of tremendous interest to me. Thankfully my husband and mother in law did not reveal my little secret. It truly is mine to reveal or not.
  This story is to relate how I wish to keep my past a secret to reveal only when I feel I need to or want to. I feel it is a valuable past. I learned alot about the Bible. I believe if I apply it, my life will be more successful.
  
  Anewme
• 

  GetBusyLiving

  I dont mind mentioning it at all either. I mean it's not like I chose to be raised in a religious cult. I also make damn well sure that they know how far from the Bible the dubs are and how much control they have on its members. The only downside I've noticed is that some people strangely enough, even after I've explained that I'm an ex witness still think of me as "a jehovah witness". They always leave with a good anti - witness though.

  GBL
• 

  bigwilly

  
  It's kinda fun to throw out there when you look like a do now. Most people find it hard to believe a big, bald, pierced (especially the septum ring) and tattooed phreak was ever a good liitle church going boy . I enjoy the shock value immensly. I think gowing up not fitting in, and being seperate from the rest fo the world has made it hard for me to be "normal". So I find that I am more comfortable being "different" in a physical way now. So technically it's the Jw's fault I turned out to be such a freak

  Big Willy

  PS - I don't normally wear a cowboy hat, it's a ber label idea for some homebrew (long story)