Am I angry? Hell, yes! (page 2)

Justice-One

WARNING!!!
Ring bell. Wait. Advance with your Hands Up.
Stay on path, avoid mines. We lost three
customers last week. We can't afford to lose YOU.

That is unless you are a Jehovah's Witness. - If so,

Please feel free to stray from path.

A Paduan

I say the bitterness is directly proportional to the amount of emotional committment we made to their teachings

I would say it has something to do with stolen life - being the victim of an organised effort to care f##&ing less about you and use you for a means to an end.

Rabbit

I'm angry...and bitter. But, I feel m-u-c-h b-e-t-t-e-r- now...

Sure I'm angry over being shunned by 2 of my adult children. It's been a long bumpy road, but, one of my kids has stopped the shunning for now anyway. But, a new rag or new 'hate & fear apostates' talk will send her running back -- scared. So, far she always gets over it and we can have a good relationship.

I am bitter over the useless, preventable death of my JW Mom. She needed a blood transfusion that she could not have. Gawd said so...

I'm better now, because, I've gone on with my life. All my dub kids, ex-wife (dub) and family have seen that. I'm not DF/DA, just 'inactive' and they suspect apostate, so I'm 'marked' as bad association. I also remarried to a wonderful lady that was 'never-a-dub' and she's helped me heal. The other thing is being able to discuss all this with other ex-JW's...no one else can understand the depth of what happened to us when we were in that cult.

Everyone will just have to take the time they need to heal. A lot of us still have on-going issues like family that will slow down that process, but, we are on the right path and we will be OK.

Rabbit

done4good

If I'm angry, I wouldn't say it's because of my situation. I came out OK when I left, and am more happier now than I've ever been. But, I have seen/can see to many lives wrecked over the WTS dogma. This is very, very sad, and is making me more and more want to become an "active" apostate.

j

purplesofa

I have thought about this since you posted.

I think for me, it was not as much as the bible teachings that got me about the WT teachings.

It was/is the constant speculation and twisted advice they give that they will tell you is bible based and is not.

Sports for instance, a friend of mine let one of his sons play organized sports. His son was very good. The family still went to meetings. The father though, was never allowed to have any priveledges in the congregatoin. His son was class president at his college. Very, very well liked, made good grades, went on to get a degree in something. Why must this person not be considered an upstanding christian? There is nothing in the bible that says this.

Girl Scouts......I let my daughter be in Girl Scouts..........and on a swim team........feeling guilty and like it was wrong the entire time.........

My oldest son was being thought about for his pitching abilities when he was younger........I steered him and four sons away from sports. My daughter was the youngest and by the 5th kid I learned they needed to be able to do something.

Marry only in the Lord.......does not mean to only marry someone that is a Jehovahs Witness........so look at all the women that have never married.

Some of us could not pioneer or be elders or have more priveledges, but we went to the meetings and listened to this stuff and followed the counsel.

This is what I am angry about. The life choices we made all along.

purps

earthtone

I think mostly I was confused when I decided to quit. I wanted to believe, but I felt like things did not add up. At my congergations, most were good people trying to put God first. We had a few elders who were harsh but I think in their own warped mind they thought they are up holding God's standards. I'm more mad about now because I see how bad some people have been treated by their families and how thousand of people end up uneducated for no reason.

My only regret or feeling of bitterness is not staying close to my sisters (from fathers first marriage) and their mother. When she died of Cancer I did not know until it was too late to say goodbye because my mom and the teachings of JW's had drilled into me that they were bad association. Those are things you can't ever get back or makeup for.

I can't hold the bitterness to me though or they (JW's) win. They say you can't be happy out of the organization but I intend to prove them once again to be incorrect.

LongHairGal

Fatfreak:

I am angry too. But I am one who was never entirely committed to the religion or ideology. I couldn't see why we had to constantly drill all this stuff into our heads. I could see considering a scripture daily but I never accepted the constant studying. It didn't seem natural, so I never did it. I probably could count on my hands the amount of times over the years I really prepared for the Sunday WT study. I felt it was enough that I straightened out my life and "believed" the hope for the future, etc., etc. Everything else was just tedium. Now, I realize why they did this. It was just cult brainwashing and it had to be constantly kept up or else the "sheep" would forget and get on with real life. Can't let that happen! They always had to keep you worrying that you could never do enough. I had visions of Jesus's agony in the garden where he was sweating blood and I thought: "that's what they want us to do." Yes, have anxiety heaped on us over their endless crap and always be in fear. Talk about a heavy yoke. Sorry, but I'll have none of it anymore.

Even though I was a marginal witness, I am most angry about the waste of time that can never be gotten back and also because of the trouble they caused people who were stupid enough to not to get an education or a good job.

dvw:

I totally agree with all your post but especially the part about the sisters. There are very attractive women who are alone who shouldn't be.

acadian

Nope, I don't see the benifit in being angry. I took the ~~10%~~ 1% that was good and tossed the rest in the garbage, and continued on the path of life.

mama1119

I only get angry every once in a while nowdays. I used to be all the time. I think it had to do with the committee meetings, shunning, the beeter than thou I am perfect attitiudes, and then of course finding out it was all for nothing!

Fatfreek

Acadian -- Nope, I don't see the benifit in being angry. I took the ~~10%~~ 1% that was good and tossed the rest in the garbage, and continued on the path of life.

You, and all who have expressed the "no benefit" position in being angry are absolutely correct. Anger only hurts the one who possesses it. Taken too far it can even injure others.

Perhaps anger was a bad choice of words on my part. I'm not sure I know correct one. I know that I don't feel hurt. I know I have as much passion for truth now as I ever did, perhaps more so now since we have the internet and it possible to source so many facts, and corroborate them more easily.

I know now that my trust of the org then was entirely misplaced. Recall I got out before they implemented that (1985) as requirement number 2 in the two questions prior to baptism.

You, Acadian, were able to do what I wasn't able to do -- that is, toss 99% of their teachings in the garbage. For you, the 1% was able to sustain you -- for awhile.

For me it was the very 1% that hovered on my back burner of doubts. The more of these that accumulated there came a point of saturation, enough to cause me to start checking things out.

Fats

Am I angry? Hell, yes!

Share this