by XJW4EVR 15 Replies latest jw friends
You had been raised by the same family, but in a different religion, or non-religious home? I am not addressing birthdays or holidays. I am thinking about everyday life.
The reason I ask, is that so much of our parents problems may have been caused, or enhanced by "Da Troof." I often wonder if my parents would have been better parents (I believe they were good parents) had they not had the demands of the religion.
What say you?
I think society (not the one in BRKLN) and cultural beliefs tend to teach children things that are not necesarily in their best interest. When you couple that with a high control organization, that denies you the resources like higher learning that can teach you how to really think and benefit yourself. You have someone that is ill equipt to successfully master his or her own life.
My life would have been better. I would have been more social and joined sports teams at school. I would know my relatives from both sides of my parents families better. My children and grandchildren would have had a relationship with my parents and I wouldn't have to argue with my wife(s) so much about how they neglect us. Definately better.
Definitely.
So, in short, I would likely have been better educated, struggling a lot less financially and able to stand up straight and breathe completely.
I think life would have been more peaceful, balanced, and liberating. Being raised in "Da Troof" was a living hell.
yes. My parents could have just thought about the best way to keep me in line instead of just using the "rod" all of the time.
I dunno, that religion is such a huge part of my parents lives that it's impossible to know what they would be like without it.
They would be completely different people. So if I had completely different parents, then I have no idea how I my life would have been.
There's a pretty good chance it would have been better, but then I would also be a completely different person. I may not have been driven to research religion, and therefore still believe in god. If I didn't do research on rational thought, then I would be significantly less intelligent. (Unless of course my parents would gave paid for me to go to college.)
Overall, I think I'm glad I was raised a witness because of the experience I gained from escaping it... but I really wish I had a REAL childhood. That's something I can never get back.
Ask me again in 20 years.
Lore
Any problems my dad and stepmother caused me were mainly due to the religion, and how strict the teachings were. It was their life, so it's hard to think of JWs and them as seperate things. I have no idea what they would have been like without religion, I never got to see that side to them. All I know is most of the things that they made rules about was because 'the Bible says so', not 'we say so.'
I'm with LtCmdr Lore on this one.
Growing up wasn't horrible- I know it could have been better- but how much would that have changed me as a person?
You had been raised by the same family, but in a different religion, or non-religious home? I am not addressing birthdays or holidays. I am thinking about everyday life.
The reason I ask, is that so much of our parents problems may have been caused, or enhanced by "Da Troof." I often wonder if my parents would have been better parents (I believe they were good parents) had they not had the demands of the religion.
What say you?
I think thr troof complicated things for me. My mother was a dub my father never went to meetings, I think he tollerated them to get my mother and my brother and I out of the house. I never got the feeling that my parents were very nurturing or that they were looking out for my welfare or best interest. They never helped me with my home work or even saw that I did my homework and since the witnoids were very down on education I never did homework and stumbled through school with Dee's and Eees. When I left the troof and took college courses on my own I got A's and B's in Math and anatomy and physiology. So I strongly feel the witnoids destroyed my primary education.
If I didnt have the negative witness effect, how good my life would have been would depend on what filled the vacum of the witnesses. My parents absolved their responsibility of providing guidance and direction in my life to the witnoids. I dont think they were very responsible or loving people. I told my father that on his death bed. He shed a tear. It was a litle late
