My JW friend just read Crisis of Conscience!! (page 2)

Balsam

WELCOME MARION, WE'RE HERE FOR YOU

Balsam

Awesome news, I read that same book as well as In Search of Christian Freedom (I reccomend that one too) in just under 3 wks very recently. I couldnt put them down either. I am 100% convinced now that this "religion" is a false one, before that I was maybe 90-95%. Tell your friend to sign into this forum as soon as she is ready as I am curious to hear her thoughts too.

delilah

That's incredible.............I wish I could give the CoC book to my parents and have it turn out this well.....it just won't happen. Not yet anyways. My mom isn't ready to accept anything BUT the "truth".....sad eh?

I wish Marion the very best, and look forward to welcoming her here on this forum.

Hellrider

WoW, 59 years old, that is amazing. But it will probably be very hard for her, after so many years in the "truth". She will probably be feeling that she has been living a lie, wasting so many years, almost an entire lifetime, and perhaps be bitter for many years ahead. Actually, I don`t think I even would help a witness at that age see the real truth about "the truth". Maybe it would be just best for them to stay in the run the whole distance thru, and die in the belief that it was the truth, and that they will be ressurected in paradise. I know it sounds harsh, but that`s how I feel. Sometimes it`s better to live a lie, I guess...(don`t get mad at me for saying that...)

LovesDubs

Hugs to you and your friend! Boy havent we all been where she is! Its at the same time terrifying, exciting, enlightening, sad, empowering...its emotionally draining for sure. Losing family is never ever good. We all love our families. And we have to think about our integrity to ourselves. Whether or not we are genuinely trying to be Christians...whether in good conscience we could continue to pretend to be in "the truth" when we know its all lies. I couldnt live with spending the rest of my life living a LIE knowing the reality. The Watchtower empire was founded on, and feeds off of...lies.

When I first read Crisis, I also couldnt put it down. I would SCREAM in my room with anger at how I had been duped! My JW husband would blanche as I followed him around read passages from it! But he chose to cover his ears and eyes and go "LA LA LA I CANT HEEEARRRRR YOOOOUUU!" but over time, he has stopped going to meetings, stopped going in service, stopped virtually everything except declaring that he still IS a JW on holidays to preserve his relationship with his JW friends and family members. He will be a borderline, Holidays Only JW the rest of his life. And I know he is miserable walking that line. He belongs in neither camp.

Be true to yourself. They can keep other JWs from talking to you but they cant take away your soul, your life, your integrity. And now you have the opportunity to go out and make friends with all those "horrible" worldly people! :) You know....like US :)

Come join us...type until your fingers hurt babe...let us help you. Remember there are MILLIONS of Exjws out here. :) :Loves

Genesis

Welcome Marion !!! You have been humble enough to verify your doubts and take the path of recovery :)

Wish you the best,

Joff

LovesDubs

P.S. I have friends who were THIRD GENERATION JWS...their parents were of the original group of Bible Students in New York with the colporteurs and sandwich boards and whatnot. Everybody they had ever known in their 70+ years on the planet were JWs and they raised their kids as JWs. But when they came out...they came out loaded for bear and are the most joyous, loving, embracing couple you ever could meet....on fire for their love of Christ and waging war against the Watchtower. I dont call myself a Christian..I believe in God wholeheartedly tho.

No matter how long you have been in...there is LIFE out here waiting for you! My mother in law was in 27 years...and the pressure is finally off her shoulders!

Loves

XBEHERE

You have been humble enough to verify your doubts

That is a VERY good way to put it Genesis. It took me 4 yrs to swallow my pride and read CoC to verify mine.

whyizit

Welcome, Marion!

A bit of advice that I read in a book called "Bad News Religion" by Greg Albrecht:

Don't let bad experiences sour you on God. Don't let human beings who have given God a bad name (and that would be all of us at one time or another) cause you to decide that everything in God's name is corrupt and perverted. Don't give up on God because someone did a less than adequate job of representing Him.

* By the way, this is a terrific book that was written by a former Armstrong Cult member. It discusses the trappings of legalism and Scripturally proves how Jesus was anti-religion - pro-relationship. Very enlightening. Does not attack any particular group or religious denomination.

garybuss

When I realized I had been manipulated and lied to, and the group I had been raised in was a book printing business doing business as a high control religious group, I realized I couldn't trust any of my assumptions. It was a massive job for me to locate and list all my assumptions. Interestingly . . . friends, relatives, and acquaintances were more than a little uncomfortable seeing me challenge my core beliefs.

I gravitated to other skeptics and freethinkers in order to have an environment I could question assumptions like theism and the reliability of sacred religious texts I had never questioned before. As it turned out I wasn't right about one single thing. I was running my life on tradition, superstition, rituals, and dead men's delusions.

The hardest thing was realizing that not one single thing my parents ever told me was right.

My JW friend just read Crisis of Conscience!!

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