How much persecution did you expect to come when you were a JW?

JH

Did you expect, that one day, you would be persecuted for being a JW?

How bad did you expect it to get? Do JW's today still expect some kind of persecution to come because of their beliefs and actions?

Yes, I expected to be persecuted. I was 5 years old when the Malawi incident was going on and of course we got graphic descriptions in our local congregation. I used to have nightmares about being tortured.

Of course, now I see that their "persecution" is mostly a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you go to such extremes to be different from other "religions" of course people will think you are odd. It's almost like they look for things prohibit, just because it is a custom. Their children are persecuted in school for being freaks. They call it persecution when they get sued over child abuse and wrongful disfelliwshipping.

They call it persecution when someone reveals them for what they truly are using their own quotes. Those old dudes in Crooklyn are deluded, and crap rolls downhill.

carla

What do you mean by 'persecution'? My jw thinks anytime I disagree with him it is jw persecution. I, and most people I know consider real religious persecution as getting your head chopped off, not being able to get a job due to your religion, not being able to have basic freedoms simply due to your religious preferences. One way to dispel the jw thinking of 'persecution' everytime you simply disagree is to ask them if they are persecuting you now because they disagree with you. Then offer to show them a picture of a person who really has been persecuted. Somehow they get the point when you offer to show someone swinging from a tree or a headless body.

Jgnat had a good link to a Christian persecution site, sorry don't have time to sort through my 'favorites'. Maybe she will remember.

daystar

I fully expected the possibility that some day my flesh might be flayed from my body or somesuch equally horrible torture.

I questioned whether I'd be able to retain my faith through something like that. The WBTS keeps it's members fairly weak-willed.

ButtLight

I questioned whether I'd be able to retain my faith through something like that.

Same here. I use to be so scared that someone would tell me to get on my hands and knees and worship them, or an idol, or they would kill my family! Its sad to grow up having to worry about that stuff!

luna2

I expected it but I didn't dwell on it. I used to get angry at a friend of mine who'd make a point of discussing, in graphic detail, all the horrors she could envision happening to us poor dubs. I figured I'd deal with whatever happened when it happened and not make myself ill with worrying about something I had no control over. I think she just liked creeping me out.

parakeet

The worst persecution for me was encountering large, angry dogs during FS. I was bitten as a young child and remained dog-phobic for a long while. Especially awful were homes with fencing around them and Beware of Dog signs on the fence door. I would stand there for minutes at a time trying to work up the courage to go to those doors, but in the end I passed them by. Even though I was only in my teens at the time, I remembering wondering whether it was fair that Jehovah would destroy someone who had not heard the message simply because they owned large dogs.

fullofdoubtnow

I was told to expect to be laughed at and probably sworn at on field service, so I was prepared for that. It wasn't as bad, in the end, as I thought it might be. There was a lot of apathy towards the message, but most people were generally polite.

Kudra

Oh my god, I was just remember ing the other day the horrible images of physical torture my mind, like any 12-year old's could conjure up. I would scare myself witless thinking about all the stuff the world would inflict upon me during the great tribulation.
Such horrible horrible things to have children thinking about :(
And I would ask my mom, who normally was a very good psychologically competent mother about those things and sho would tell me that my faith would have to be strong enough to take those things.
GOD she had to know she was spewing out b.s. but had to toe the party line with the JWs. Shameful.
-K

pratt1

I always thought that I would be tortured and probably die.

It's one of the reasons I started going to the gym at an early age.

I wanted to be physically strong enough to withstand the torture and "take a firm stand for Jehovah."