by tall penguin 40 Replies latest jw friends
It was also my first TEETHING object I literally cut my baby teeth chewing on the books binding I remember to this day the smell of the glue it smelled like peppermint,Danny Haszard Bangor Maine expert witness on the jehovah's Witness
f**king book materials probably had toxic lead in it too.
More on my JW dental work crooked cult crooked teeth
No! They are still not allowedt o be carefree children!
Armageddon is always coming, and their bad tempered, homicidal maniac god is always watching them with his gazillion henchmen!
The JW child is sad to see.
We were invited to my relatives, all JWs. My boys are 15 years old and my cousins son is 14, but he had to sit between his elder father and elder uncle rather than talk with my boys about 'boys' things. So my lads went to chat and play with the little children and they took care of them, fed them and made sure they didn't hurt themselves on some of the bizarre toys their childless uncle and aunt had provided.
This young boy, had to listen to 'Elder talk' while we non JWs went to chat about global warming, climate change, quantum physics and interesting and exciting dreamy stuff like the 'National Lottery'!
Finally, the JWs decided to play a word game and the boys were all included but separately. Our boys couldn't sit with their 'special' boy.
This same boy has not been allowed to go to the local comprehensive and instead has a one and a half hour bus ride to an upper class school that he claims to hate. He is kept separate from normal ordinary people like my lads, who, to be quite honest are good, hardworking salt of the earth young lads.
I know this JW lad is going to flip his lid with a vengeance one day. You can see that 'something is going on' in his mind and he drinks alcohol like a fish when his parents are not looking, whereas my supposedly 'bad influence' boys, have to be forced to have a beer and still won't drink it unless there's lots of lemonade in it!!
The Watchtower destroys the spirit of young people. It crushes their hopes and dreams with promises of death and destruction!
While my lads dream of college, university, homes and children of their own one day......this boy dreams of being a pioneer and learning to be a plumber so that he can work for free for the WTBTS.
Modern day slavery of the Mind is what JW children are subjected to!
I agree with you TallPenguin, it is one of the things when looking back, my daughter never had the childhood she should have. JW children are put way under too much pressure, it is just another thing that points to this org as not having any common sense and ruining lives.
abr
No, not kids, youths. As in, "rebellious youths."
Did you know that Youth is also an island whose historic use was as a penal colony, and hangout for pirates?
That's a good way to describe JW youth: imprisoned and surrounded by pirates.
~Sue
DannyH:
The "Paradis Book" should have been called the "HELL" book. I had nightmares as a child because of that horrid, dreadful, psychotic book and illustrations. The WTS seemed to dwell on DEATH and DESTRUCTION and PUNISHMENT. WTF? I look back and I think it is a MIRACLE that I have not taken leave of my senses but managed to recover.
I remember sitting through the announcements of disfellowshipping for "conduct unbecoming a Christian," and listening to lurid tales of fornication, adultery, murder, vengeance, blood feuds---- all from the BIBLE!! The adults seemed to thrive on that. WHAT were they thinking? And always the meetings, study, feild service. I would feel guilty and and on the edge of Gehenna for being at home on a Saturday and watching the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner hour!
Allowed to be normal? HELL NO!! JW kids are fortunate to survive puberty w/o commitment to an institution!
Zack-----
I don't like to talk amongst a lot of negativity.
But my experience was perfectly fine. I was never afraid of armagedon, or the bible stories book, or had nightmares about. There are a lot more scaring things than what a religion can do to you as a child.
My parents rocked, my mother got me a full tuition scholarship for college, I played sports growing up, and had a lot of fun. I had associates who weren't witnesses, but I never did anything that I thought would hurt Jehovah. Not till I was older anyway, but it had nothing to do with being a witness.
The only thing that scarred me from childhood was my brother molesting me. Which had nothing to do with being a witness. Frankly and I'm not a shallow or mean person, but all this... There are far worse things...my brother was always my best friend growing up, we only had eachother, and to be hurt like that.
There are better things, and more people to help than sitting around talking about not having a childhood cause of what you were taught as a kid, or that a religion robbed a childhood. Try being molested, that's when you can't have a childhood anymore, when you stop being, when you look at yourself and you don't exist anymore.
"There are better things, and more people to help than sitting around talking about not having a childhood cause of what you were taught as a kid, or that a religion robbed a childhood. Try being molested, that's when you can't have a childhood anymore, when you stop being, when you look at yourself and you don't exist anymore."
I hear you Jamie. Sounds like you've been through a lot in this life. With due respect, abuse of any sort can rob a child of their childhood. Sexual, physical, verbal AND spiritual. IMHO one sort of abuse does not rank higher on the suffering scale than others. It is all individual experience, affected by things like genetics, perceptions, support systems or lack thereof, length of abuse, who the abuse was perpetrated by, and on and on.
While I feel for your pain, please recognize that others are in pain as well. It's not about negativity. It's about healing.
tall penguin
I agree to some extent, but I frankly can't compare having to go to "church" when you were a kid and not being able to play with other kids not witnesses, or have relationships, or do certain things to getting raped.
I know that's my opinion. In the past 20 years in the US we have invented so many new psychological illnesses. I just think back to other times, when people didn't seem to have all these issues unless something really abusive happened to you.
When I grew up as a witness I was glad to not have to go thru a lot of stuff other kids did, being pushed into sports as salvation, or getting as good grades as possible to make it in life, or having relationships I was not at all prepared for emotionally.
Fortunately I was able to handle that when I was older and ready for it, what I couldn't handle was getting raped as a little boy. I'm not trying to make anyone feel as though they shouldn't be concerned about what happened to them. But some of the things people are placing on an "organization" really? Really? Why not blame the US government that allows freedom of religion, or that has not yet been able to bring the "database" to justice. I just find it highly ridiculous to blame one thing and say it's the reason I didn't have a childhood. Especially when it's something that in some degrees isn't physically binding (i.e. being forced to the ground and raped). As a teenages, or even young child, you really don't have to go to a meeting, you can actually go to a court and say you don't want it, and your parents can't kick you out till your 18. Under law can a parent physically force you to go anywhere that is not publicly required? School, is required by law no? So they can do that.
Witness kids have a limited childhood, it's not non-existent. You go on vacations, you associate with other witness children, you get presents from your parents, you go to school, you learn, you play games at home. I saw a lot of kids growing up who didn't even know their parents, I'd rather have my parents at least involving me somehow in a life they choose...
If someone really wants to look to blame someone, ask your own parents...why not direct hate at them, they would be most responsible for the child, their an adult, and if they're brainwashed, they should really educate themselves.
That's just the way I feel. And moving forward, honestly, I don't blame my religion that my brother molested me, or my parents, I blame him. I still love him, but I blame soley him. Moving forward, I don't really want to care about it, I don't want my life on backwards. Always thinking about what I could have been, or how life would have been different. And yet, I would have every right to think that, cause I never got to live a normal childhood because when someone rapes you they take all your innocence, what little control you ever had, and being happy seems like a dream you once had.
Most people I know these days, jw or not, didn't have a much of a childhood. It's not part of our culture anymore to let kids be kids. Abuse, in all of its forms, has become more common than not.
I feel your logic, jamie, in the following statement though is greatly flawed: "As a teenages, or even young child, you really don't have to go to a meeting, you can actually go to a court and say you don't want it, and your parents can't kick you out till your 18."
To suggest that the average child is even aware of such laws, or has the ability to pursue such a possibility is inane to say the least. To further suggest that a child who is indoctrinated as heavily as a jw is could make that leap, is even more inane.
It seems you may be seeing this issue through your own perceptions and through the eyes of your own experience. Horrific as your experience was, there are sides to this argument that you are missing out on.
What we can agree on is that getting stuck in what was lost is not conducive to enjoying life now. What's done is done. Yet, there is healing to be had. And some days are better than others. We're all in different parts of the process here. That is why this kind of discussion is so useful, to see a perspective that perhaps we hadn't previously entertained. Thank you for being part of it.
tall penguin
I didn't mean to suggest a child could do so, which is why I said teenagers or even an older child with some understanding (or is say above average intelligence).
There are cases of children younger than that legally divorcing from their own parents. I don't mean to suggest every child could do so. But I don't think it's "inane" to think so. Children as you said seem to be growing up quicker and quicker. And in todays info society kids are growing more than we did, cell phones, parties, more adult situations they face, and even more complex issues. I don't think it's unreasonable to say kids in fact have more voice over their lives now than they did before.
I appreciate your words, and everyones feelings. I just don't like to walk in and see ranting and accusations that I believe are blown way, way out of propertion. Though I'm DFd, you will not hear me utter intentioned crass words at those people. Most of them I knew were perfectly kind and far better at being kind and gentle human beings than a great many I've met on my time outside.
That's just one of my feelings, to not be so negative we start saying things that are meant to mock, or dismantle, or insult...
Thanks again.
