I WAS THINKING WHICH CAN BE DANGEROUS...........

by juni 26 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  juni

  I was first contacted by the JWs in 1968 when I was pg w/our first son. I bought the little blue book "The Truth That Leads to Everlasting Life" for 25 cents. Found it interesting, but put it away because I was busy after our son's birth and I didn't think my husband would want to get into religious material as we had left the Methodist church because they were always crying for $.

  Jump ahead to 1970. Husband was home which was unusual because he normally worked Saturdays. Ding, dong. Jehovah's Witnesses calling w/the Awake! magazine which I had taken on other occassions to appease them. Little did I know that this would start a constant visit. Often times I would not answer the door when they came.

  THEN (not yelling; just emphasizing), my husband says, "Why don't you have them come in so we can see what they're about and I want to ask some Bible questions?"So I did reservedly.

  Okay, I'm sure you're thinking get to the point which I will now......

  It was a very hot summer day. We had the a/c on so it was cool in the house. They were there with us for 5 hours and then we said our good byes. But here's the real kicker....

  Waiting all of this time FIVE HRS. IN THE HOT CAR was a sweet, old, silver haired sister. When we saw her, both my husband and I were APPALLED!!! They had never mentioned that someone was waiting in the car. Never asked if she could come in which of course we would've invited her in for cool drinks which they were enjoying. We felt sick that she was left there unattended. When we started coming to the Hall I approached Sister Anna and apologized up and down. Of course, she was gracious. And then my husband and I proceeded to "chew" out our study conductors for such unfeeling behavior.

  I think of this now which I have since leaving the organization and makes me wonder about myself. WHY DIDN'T THE RED FLAG GO UP ABOUT THE RELIGION WHEN ONE OF THEIR OWN WAS LEFT ALONE LIKE THIS IN THE HEAT W/NO WATER, ETC.???? After I saw that I should've ended my study right then and there.

  Any one else have regrets about not paying attention to any "red flags"?

  Juni
• 

  Vernon Williams

  There were so many "reg flags" that it looked like a parade of emergancy vehicles with every light, bell, and siren turned on.....

  Stupidity on my part?

  Damn straight.

  What held me to the Witnessess was doctrine.....forty years with these chuckle heads and not one Christian along the way capable of discussing the Good News in a calm, consistant manner....funny, huh?

  V
• 

  Paralipomenon

  In my teens I was working a territory in bitterly cold temperatures. The driver insisted on locking the car doors since his vehicle was new. It was annoying since he was long winded and my friend and I were more focused on discovering who was home or not as opposed to who was interested. The he gets in on a call and three of us are stuck around this car trying desperately to keep warm. After about 20 minutes two of them decide to walk to the nearest bus stop and go home. I wait.
  
  They were in the call for almost 45 minutes. When they get back they were pissed with those that left and the elder intended to discipline them. There was never an apology.
• 

  juni

  Hi Vernon and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

  Yes. You are so right. This was the first red flag and plenty more to follow. I sometimes wonder how much different I would be as a person and my children if I hadn't made the choice to stay.

  21 years - not all bad as there were some good friends, but my kids gave up so much and we had so little free time to be together as a family doing fun things.

  Juni

  Thanks Para.....I'm doing a slow burn right now. I remember that happening also. Damn if I was going to wait outside the car in the cold (this is Wisconsin winters). I went up to the door and asked for the keys. They weren't happy, but I could give a rip. Everyone else was just going to wait; no way was I going to be so submissive. Dang!
• 

  DannyHaszard

  I was born in 3rd gen 1957 should have bugged out after 1975 failure didn't leave until 33 years old in 1992 what a wasted life.I was there for the whole 1975 thingy and now confront newbie JW converts who call me a liar on it.
• 

  restrangled

  Dear Juni,

  Your story was heartbreaking. I remember as a young girl going door to door with the "Truth Book."

  There were, and probably still are so many people in the organization with no concern for others. They would yap at a door as long as the "house holder" would talk. No matter that kids were wailing, telephones ringing, air conditioning running, etc., etc.

  I never had much stamina, especially with the sun beating down. I can remember standing at doors while someone else was doing the talking. I would start to feel sick to my stomach, then turn white, and start sweating and weaving. More than once people at the door would say, get that girl home, or invite us in out of sympathy.

  To leave someone in a hot car for 5 hours???? That's against the law for animals much less human beings.

  How very selfish of those people.

  r.
• 

  GermanXJW

  They could report the time.
• 

  juni

  I know Danny. It sucks big time. But what can you do now, but go on with your life and as you've done - expose the lies. I applaud your hard, ceaseless work on exposing them.

  I, for the sake of my own sanity (not kidding), have to move on. I help a friend who is fading in ways that I am able, but that's all I can mentally handle.

  Thank you for your reply Danny. I hope you are feeling good today and enjoying life.

  Juni ~~

  Hi R!

  Just wanted to clarify one thing. Sister Anna wasn't in the car w/ windows closed as she would've died. But she did have the door open. Still - it pissed me off so badly that anyone could be so thoughtless. Where was the honor due an elderly person? any human being for that matter.

  Thanks for sharing. I hope you're feeling well today. We have possible storms so my arthitis is complaining. More accurate than any weather forecaster. LOL I still laugh my ass off when I think of your "lawn mower starting" thread. That was sooooo funny!

  Hugs, Juni
• 

  Mary

  Two events stick out in my mind:

  1. When I was 12 years old, someone of the 'annointed' in my Hall died and we had the funeral. Rather than read the scriptures that say 'the soul that is sinning, it itself will die' and 'as for the dead, they know nothing at all', they read different scriptures. I remember the brother reading 1 Corinithians 15 that said:"...So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. It is written: "The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
     I was shocked when I heard this and I remember thinking 'Woa! I thought we were just asleep in the ground when we died!" When I was bored at the meetings (which was quite often), I'd start looking up the word "spirit" in the index and finding various passages that certainly made it sound as though something continued on after we died. While this was not the normal activity for a 12 year old, I inherited my father's love of religious history and the end result was (gasp!): an 'Independent thinker'. I told no one at the time what I thought, as I was terrified that maybe I was being 'seduced by Satan' and I fought off these new ideas although it never really went away.
  2. The other event was when I was 14 and studying to get baptized. The sister that was studying with me asked me if I had any questions regarding doctrine. The idea that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 bothered me, as I could see no scriptures to back up such a claim. Every scripture indicated that His return would be visible and that 'every eye would see him'. So I was dumb enough to actually tell her my thoughts. She immediately replied in Dub fashion, quoting from the literature that I was well familiar with. She asked me "If Jesus appeared over Canada, how would they see him in Europe?" To me, this was a ridiculous statement and I said "...Well, the same sun that we can see outside today can be seen by people in South America and they're thousands of miles away. Couldn't Jehovah make Jesus visible to everyone on earth?"
     Of course, that was the wrong thing to say, (presumably because it made more sense than the WT doctrine) and her mannerism completely changed. Instead of being the nice, loving sister I had grown close to, she scowled at me and suggested that perhaps I needed a threatening visit "shepperding call" to scare the shit out of me "readjust your thinking". I knew what that meant and it had the desired effect: It scared the shit out of me. She then said that maybe I shouldn't be getting baptized if this was the way I was thinking (god, why didn't I listen to her?) and that Jehovah didn't want us to have independent thinking---we were to follow what the Faithful and Discreet Slave said.
     
     While I towed the line and said no more about it, it irritated me A LOT that I wasn't allowed to ask questions. Yet, I was born and raised into this shit the Truth and even though the warning bells had already started, I continued to ignore them for many years afterwards. Talk about dumb!
• 

  juni

  Of course she could report her time spent - 5 f'in hours in a hot car. That's not the point. I'm sorry I came down on ya, but you do get the point don't you???? How hot does it get in Germany and how is the humidity?

  In Wisconsin at least back in the 1970's the summers were awful and humid. There was no excuse for what they did.

  Same ones who took my husband and I out for long days of field service and hand out apples to munch on instead of stopping for lunch cause they said, " It readies you for Armageddon." I am not exaggerating one bit. Red flags???? As Vernon said, it was a damn parade. Why the hell did we fall for it? Cause we thought this was what Jehovah wanted.

  Juni