by JH 17 Replies latest jw friends
In my case, I was very generous with those in need in the congregation, because I had a good job, but when I lost that good job, no one gave me a helping hand. They just didn't care about my financial well being.
Also the years went by and it was as if we were getting further and further away from what they previously prophetized.
I didn't agree with their teaching that being gay was a learned behavior. And I could not reconcile a loving god with one that would create a group of people to be gay and then deny them the ability to love. Furthermore when I was told it was due to imperfection I didn't understand why provisions couldn't be made for this system of things. If you were born with an extra finger would you be told to cut it off just because it wasn't god's plan or would you use it until the new system when your perfect body would see it removed.
After that it was all academic and the internet.
I would have to say this site. Reading some of the threads on here made me realize alot of things.
Reading Crisis of Conscience. I don't believe a JW can read this book and still believe that the Watchtower is God's channel.
For myself, I was born in... I guess what awoke me was music... I mean my parents were strict about music, and I had always been the questioning type... My dad would say, your not allowed to listen to that... I'd say, WHY?... Dad would come up with some trumped up charge, and I would point out that he was wrong and never even listened to the lyrics... it was all so transparent from my point of view.. ( and that was several years before I ever tried cannabis)It didn't matter what I aquired a taste for in music... It even went so far as to when I took a liking to The Beatles, they got rid of their Beatles album (they only owned,"The Beatles Greatest Love Songs, or something like that)... I love Music
These days waking up is more of a process,i lie there thinking "where am i,why cant i move?".Then i get a dig in the ribs and my wife demands her morning cuppa.Suddenly....wide awake.
Some years ago,shortly after out third child was born[he came late because of 1975] my wfe and i were enjoying a romantic moment atop a mountain in Wales.She said she had something important to tell me......i waited for the sweetnothings......"come on,hit me baby". What she then said awoke me from my watchtower slumber and changed our lives for ever.
She said "I no longer want to be a Jehovahs witness,and i am not going to the Kingdom Hall again"
Well she certainly got my attention and that started the process wherby i began to question the Watchtower.My wife was a good witness,a wonderful wife and mother,and if Jehovah was "soon" going to destroy her simply because she no longer believed the watchtower then i had better be very sure that what i believed was correct.
Yes it was painful and we went through very difficult times but it was worth it. Here we are all these years later still having romantic moments on top of mountains[okay i made that bit up] free from slavery to men,and secure in our faith in God.
Have a great day,must go,someone want another cup of tea.
Eddie
Eddie, brilliant story mate! My wife kind of said this to me but over months not moments.
Pete
1975's coming and then going REALLY helped me to make my decision. Even then, it took till' 1979 to make the break. I was then married to a JW and had all JW friends. I will never forget the night I decided to leave, to never come back. I was sitting there, and a wave came over me form my subconscious, I suppose. I got up and walked to the bathroom where I splashed some cold water on my face. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and said the following; "This isn't who I am. I am not a JW". I walked back to my then wife, told her to find a way home, and I walked out, never to enter another Kingdom Hall. The only other time I have felt such a surge of exhilaration was when I drove a car all by myself for the first time. Both times (leaving the WBTS and driving),I realized I could go anywhere and do anything I wanted. I will never forget that sense of freedom of those two spectacular events of my life. I have never regretted my decision to leave the watchtower Society in the twenty-five years or so since I left.
PS, I wish I had an interesting story to recall like Eddie! Really loved reading your story Eddie. Happy endings make for pleasent to read stories. Thanks for sharing.
I could not understand why the anointed were being marginalised and the GB was deciding everything without ever consulting them, it became obvious to me that the GB were power grabbing wolves and I lost all trust in them.
Their claim that jehovah was working only through them because it just was convenient to have a central body in New York seemed to be absurd. God simply doesn't work that way He is not geographically confined and He shares gifts to all those anointed with His Spirit.
"I didn't agree with their teaching that being gay was a learned behavior."
Yea, I just love how people like to take the easy option "out" of this issue. "Oh, he/she must have experimented and that's what made them Gay!".
Of course as long as its a decision, well then, that clealry shows its up to the person just who they are going to be attracked to! Yea, people just wake up on Tuesday morning and say to themselves, "Oh gee, I think I'll just be gay from now on." Right, its a choice. Look, I'm straight, but anyone with half a brain stem (and i qualify) should realize all on their own, that they are attracked automatically to someone else, or not. What's so difficult to understand about this basic process? No one says to him or herself, "Oh, I think I"m gonna be attracked to oh say, THAT person." It either happens or it doesn't. It should be rather obvious at this point in time that all people aren't born the same. You are who you are, and ya better like it what you were given. I'd like to believe that if someone realized they were Gay, that God would change them straight, if they asked Him for that. Like would He give them an extra leg, if they were born without one? Prolly not. Well, I guess anything is possible with God, as I do believe in Him. I dunno though. That's a tough one for me. But at least I got enough brain cells left to realize this is not a choice. I mean damn, come on now.
