Is it all downhill after leaving JW's? (page 6)

jwfacts

Certainly a JW has no concept of spirituality. By putting a male led organisation between the Great Crowd and Jesus it is impossible to truly know what spirituality is. Jesus said the head of man is the ... Christ. For some reason the head of a JW is the F&D slave. The mediator between God and man is ... Christ, for some reason for the average jDub it is humans, the anointed.

I really think that whilst someone is a JW there is not real spirituality. They may have started with it but it gets sidelined. Now when I listen to a JW talking i am surprised how much is about the WTS, the Org, the brothers. It is rarely about a relationship with Jesus.

Even the word Jehovah prevents a JW having a true relationship with God. Jesus said his followers would become close enough to call him Abba Father, never did Jesus say Jehovah God, so much more formal. Like living in a naughty boys home referring to the big scary principle, not in a loving family.

sass_my_frass

Are you kidding? Life has never been better!

Okay you won't like my current position on God, which is nothing like what we think the bible says... but besides that you'd be surprised how great life is when you're not told what to believe. As you've not been a witness, you wouldn't have experienced that total restriction of intellectual freedom. This is a great place to purge that kind of thing, which is why there's a lot of anger here (a lot of very freshly-hurt people show up here briefly to lick their wounds before moving on with their lives). But there are also people who just like to laugh about it, the crazy daily stuff that goes on in the congregations, it's refreshing after all those years of holding it in.

Celebrate the differences in people while you still can, you won't like them when you're a witness!

Downhill..... that's funny and sad at the same time! Sad for you, I mean.

Steve Lowry

"I was hoping to find that people really didn't need the JW's "spiritual food" to remain true to God. However, what I've observed in my short time here has sadly shown me that they might be right."

Think of the Kingdom Hall as a kind of prison for a moment, and the all JW's inside as its inmates. All eat at the same time, all go to sleep at the same time, and all wake at the same. All eat at the same place. All must obey the strict orders of the prison authorities, as the inmates have lost their ability to make almost all personal decisions. Now, one day an inmate is paroled and must go out and discover (or rediscover) the world he will live in. Whatever decisions he will make or whatever he will do in his life from that point on is a plus, as long as he doesn't go back inside.

Some former JW's become atheists, some become avid Christians, and some agnostics. But they are all on the outside learning and making their own decisions about the paths that they will take, and not being told what to believe. To say that if a JW leaves the Watchtower Society he will not "remain true to God" is a misnomer. This statement presumes that being a JW and swallowing the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s "spiritual food", actually is the correct diet to be true to God. I don’t accept your premise.

If people leave the WBTS and become atheists, then in my opinion, that is probably what the believed to be true all along. It’s just that they weren’t free to be able to discover how they really felt about it. Better to be free and "wrong" than to be imprisoned and "right". True freedom and inner peace, come from knowing who you are. And sometimes people have to leave a totalitarian group like the WTBS to discover who they really are and who they want to become.

Steve

lynnmelo

As you've not been a witness, you wouldn't have experienced that total restriction of intellectual freedom.

I definitely know what you mean, though. That's one of the parts that's so difficult to accept about the Witnesses: the ostensible lack of any type of creative thinking. In my first Watchtower study meeting, I became so frustrated at what I considered the elementary level of the questioning. Many of the questions require only an answer directly taken from the paragraph that has just been read, and many of the people who respond use the exact wording in the paragraph to answer the question! That still makes me want to roll my eyes. Once in a while, someone will expand on an answer, giving some details that they've researched or sharing a personal story in relation to the topic; I enjoy those answers.

I guess I should have framed my initial post differently. I should have indicated that it seems to me that many people who formerly believed in the bible and God no longer seem to believe in either once they leave the Jehovah's Witnesses. As many here have indicated, that is their choice, but on my end, I'd never want to have that happen to me, which is why I posted my concern.

I have a feeling that what I'll end up doing is continuing to attend the Sunday meetings and the book study meetings and possibly hand out some brochures informally. I don't see myself actually joining the Witnesses because of the concerns I have.

Steve Lowry

"I should have indicated that it seems to me that many people who formerly believed in the bible and God no longer seem to believe in either once they leave the Jehovah's Witnesses. As many here have indicated, that is their choice, but on my end, I'd never want to have that happen to me, which is why I posted my concern.'

Never be afraid of where your mind can take you.

ozziepost

Lynn,

I've followed your posts (and the replies) with interest, particularly with your future plans:

I guess I should have framed my initial post differently. I should have indicated that it seems to me that many people who formerly believed in the bible and God no longer seem to believe in either once they leave the Jehovah's Witnesses. As many here have indicated, that is their choice, but on my end, I'd never want to have that happen to me, which is why I posted my concern.

As others have pointed out, posters here are not part of a homogeneous whole, but rather have come to accept and express many different beliefs and opinions; that's how it should be. To draw the conclusion that the board represents the downhill run for ex-dubs simply because many don't accept the WT beliefs about God is faulty in the extreme. You can't judge a whole by its individual parts. You are looking for christian believers and that's fine - many posters on JWD are former dubs who are now churchgoing christians, some even holding various responsibilities in church ministry. I must say though that you are setting limits to yourself using WT boundaries. How you view God is going to be limited whilst ever you condition God to an organisation and to the use of just one of the names by which he has been known.

I have a feeling that what I'll end up doing is continuing to attend the Sunday meetings and the book study meetings and possibly hand out some brochures informally. I don't see myself actually joining the Witnesses because of the concerns I have.

But why? Frankly that would show a particularly spineless quality of characyer; I'm sure that's not you. The reason you're posting is because you're searching but why on earth not have the courage of your convictions? BTW of all the meetings, the book study would be the worst to attend. it calls for active participation and in any case the source material, far from being the Bible, is an awful book that you must parrot from whenever you share. Simply awful.

johnny cip

lynn said:I have a feeling that what I'll end up doing is continuing to attend the Sunday meetings and the book study meetings and possibly hand out some brochures informally. ; I don't see myself actually joining the Witnesses because of the concerns I have. as i posted on your last thread. you would need to test every reference ie. new york times. national geographic, bible tranlations etc. that any wt mag quotes before you can TRUELY IN YOUR HEART. YOU CAN HAND OUT WT MAG'S AND CALL THE CONTENTS THE "TRUTH" think about it. do you want to hand out mag's you have not truely tested to be total truth? ecc12:12 also on to a bible topic. i will ask you to read john chapter 6 the whole thing very slowly.. then ask yourself why do the jw's reject eating the bread and wine . at the memorial. when jesus said ANY MAN MAY EAT THIS BREAD . AND IF YOU DON'T EAT . YOU HAVE NO LIFE IN YOU JN 6;49-70 then ask yourself if you want to follow jesus' words or a bunch of men in brooklyn. this is very important. if you want to be a christian. the wt memorial is a satanic ritual. john

jwfacts

a very interesting comment Steve, you probably become what you always really were.

Lynn, if you are a strong Christian, then that wont change whether you are a JW or not.

Gretchen956

I guess I resent the implication that if your spirituality takes a different form or path that its downhill, as if the witnesses is the ultimate thing and everything else is less. JWs are so absolute, they believe their way is the only way and if you buy into that it explains why you feel this way. I don't have a problem with witnesses believing in what they do, they have every right, as do any of the posters on this board be they christian, athiest, buddhist or pagan or anything in between. What you need to do is not close your mind to ideas. Test them out, reason them out. Look at it all. What rings true to you will call to you and thats your path. Whatever that path is and where ever it takes you, LIVE it. Not half-assed, but be true to yourself.

This lukewarm (to borrow from the witnesses) attitude you have of not really buying it 100% but following along because you like some of it isn't what they want, isn't what they teach, and will only get you so far. But, you should by all means do that. If you do follow that path you will find just how loving and true that organization is. The way they treat women who are hangers on and who have unbelieving mates is almost criminal. At the very least it's spiritual and emotional abuse. But you will have to find that out for yourself.

Blessings,

Sherry

Steve Lowry

"a very interesting comment Steve, you probably become what you always really were."

Well, its a work in progress of course. But at age 50, I have learned the value of the old saying, " To thyself be true!".

Is it all downhill after leaving JW's?

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