Are any of you aposates?

KCM

Hi

I don't think I am an apostate, but do feel like one for being on these boards as we were always warned not to at the meetings etc.

I disagree with so many things they teach, the main thing is the blood issue....being a new auntie, I love my niece soooo much and if I were the only person that could save her, how on earth could I not? I'd be blood guilty for not saving her!!!!! That in my books, would be murder.

However, may be it's because i've only been away from the mtgs for a year, but I still think of it most days and although I feel I've made the right decision as nothing was making me happy in it, and obvioulsy my ex beating me and getting away with it.....I still feel a certain pull towards it and a kind of insane loyalty???

Anyone else feel like that? Or am I just a weirdo?

x

mrchuffster

Hey KCM, hello again, I just posted on your other thread.

No I'm not an apostate, I still go to the meetings for the sake of my wife and to help others I see struggling. I still believe in Jehovah God and Christ and what the bible says. But the organisation is in deep trouble. It's very apparent from the gross lack of love permeating the congregations. (Maybe it's the society that is apostate?)

You'll still feel a certain amount loyalty to the society after all the years of indoctrination you've had, but try and see beyond that.

All the best in your journey, I hope you find comfort and hope in you're new course.

Love, The Chuffster

SirNose586

You're not a weirdo by any stretch of the imagination.

Hi
I don't think I am an apostate, but do feel like one for being on these boards as we were always warned not to at the meetings etc.

By their definition, you are an apostate. They are apostates from real Christianity. The label goes both ways. But of course, the stigma they attach to it does not fit the denotation of "a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc."

I disagree with so many things they teach, the main thing is the blood issue....being a new auntie, I love my niece soooo much and if I were the only person that could save her, how on earth could I not? I'd be blood guilty for not saving her!!!!! That in my books, would be murder.
However, may be it's because i've only been away from the mtgs for a year, but I still think of it most days and although I feel I've made the right decision as nothing was making me happy in it, and obvioulsy my ex beating me and getting away with it.....I still feel a certain pull towards it and a kind of insane loyalty???

Well, obviously you cannot fit in at the meetings. You see, you think and reason as a normal person might. That saving a life is more important than preserving the "symbol" of life, and that any commands given in the Bible with respect to blood referred to dietary laws. Unfortunately, you're not going along with the continued sacrifice of human life to gain publicity for a publishing company, and so you must wear your big, crimson "A" and weep and gnash your teeth with the dogs outside.

The pull you feel comes from ingrained habits and familiarity, much the same way that some people will shop at a certain store because the people are friendly, even though they charge more than other stores. Or, perhaps the person who eats at a nationally recognized chain of fast food restaurants because he doesn't want to check out the local establishments. It's all familiarity and the need for comforting patterns. I don't know if what you feel can be truly classified as loyalty, because now you are questioning things, and the complete loyalty is gone.

I know your feelings quite well, because I am going through the same thing.

KCM

Yeh I guess so, I've been going since I can remember. I think only over a period of about 4 months did I go for myself and because I belived it and 'made the truth my own'. Out of 22 years, that's pretty poor.

When I think of assemblies and singing the baptism song, it always used to make me well up and feel so happy that we were all united. But now, I actually think, how many people were actually truly happy with their lives and were they just going through the motions like me???

I'd hate for anyone to go through what I did and I just hope they eventually see they can be happier if they break free.

x

KCM

These boards are fab. It's so good to know we're not on our own and have all been through the same feelings and most importantly......there is light at the end of the tunnel!

So true....having years and years of things being ingrained into your head proves a harder task to forget them and move on. However, I know I don't want the JW religion, so I just have to move on and forget about it!

With your support I know I can do it.

x

Gill

I'm an apostate to Watchtower Bull Shit! And proud of it too!!!

No one has to believe Watchtower Bull Shit! Only if they choose to!

Time to wake up and smell the 'real life'.....the only one you're going to get.

jambon1

APOSTATE - Its just a tag that JW`s have made up, which gives the red flag to the JW mind that they must at all costs avoid conversation with such a person. It is very, very effective in making JW`s stick their head in the sand and not listen to any legitimate criticism of the religion.

Its the same sort of tag as 'in good standing', 'weak', 'spiritually low', 'elder', 'pioneer', 'disfellowshipped'. These tags immediately flag up in the JW mind some sort of impression of the person. The tags make a person decide within an instant, how they shall treat a person.

I refuse to recognise any of their labels. I simply agreed with their religion at one stage in my life, but time passed and as my life circumstances changed, I disagreed with it. Simple really. Whatever that makes me, in their view, doesnt really interest me.

It is interesting, however, to see how I have been discussed and tagged in various circles, then treated differently by many of them because some have tagged me this way and others have tagged me that way.

Quite sad that they disregard a persons opinion based on a tag or label.

Very effective mind control though.

dedpoet

Hi KCM, and welcome to the forum

According to the watchtower definition of apostate you, and I, and many others on this board are apostates. However, like moat things, the society have twisted the meaning of the word to suit their purposes anyway. The dictionary definition of apostate is someone who has ababndoned a previously-held belief, usually religious though it can be something else, like political.

That makes over 60% of the congregation I used to belong to apoatate, as so many of them had come to the watchtower from other religions, a fact I have on occasion pointed out to them.

To be called an apostate is nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has the right to change their beliefs, or even abandon them. That the watchtower tries to apply the term apostate only to people who leave them is just another example of their mind control tactics. They try to make members fearful of apostates, and are very successful in doing so. Most jws I have known, including myself when I was a jw, are very wary, to say the least, of speaking to anyone who they consider to have what they would regard as apostate ideas.

When I quit the meetings just over 7 years ago, I would have disputed that I was an apostate, but nowadays being referred to in such a way doesn't bother me at all. I came to realise that such thoughts and feelings were throwbacks to my days of being under the watchtower mind control. I would think that, with the passage of time, you will feel the same way.

dedpoet

Sad emo

Welcome KCM (and chuffster!!)

I'm an 'apostate' from the RC church if that counts!! Your description of how you feel is similar to how I felt when I left there though.

We get it drummed into us that we can't survive outside a particular group - that's why the pull to go back is so strong, even though you know it would be harmful to go back, it's the fear of 'what if I have got it wrong?' and 'How am I going to survive without them?' I guess that's a bit like addiction to harmful substances/people too.

At these times, it's good to step back, take a breath and pull everything back into perspective - why you've left, are you really better off for leaving? Write down a list of the pros and cons for future reference if that would help.

Weird you certainly ain't! Keep fighting back against the fear and all the best for your journey

KW13

You are not an apostate for coming to these boards, you are an apostate because the Society brands you as such. The organization uses labels to scare other Jehovah's Witnesses away from people who sought after answers, found them and may want to share them with others (with the best intentions).

Remember the scripture that talks about Satan transforming himself into an angel of light? Maybe what could appear harmless isn't actually harmless, maybe the Society isn't directed by Jehovah afterall.

Its up to you, if you decide to look into the history of the Watchtower Society and more - i can assure you, that you won't be disappointed.

Are any of you aposates?

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