Has being a JW made you a better person? (page 2)

parakeet

ifcviking wrote: "Has being a JW made you a better person?"

The only thing of value I've taken away from my JW years is an infallible sense of when I'm being played. This doesn't make me a better person, just a slightly wiser person.

onacruse

No.

It screwed up the life that I was born to live.

minimus

I was raised a Witness. My mom did a good job teaching me morality and building a good base. She would attribute that to my JW upbringing.

troubled mind

Since I was raised as a Jw I often wondered what kind of person I might have been w/o the religious influence . Who knows .

I reflect on the example of my brothers life. My oldest brother left the witness life at eighteen and never looked back .He went on to live his life as he wanted ,went to college ,married and raised a wonderful daughter who started college this month .W/o religious influence he raised a child with good morals ,self respect and respect of others . He and his wife allowed their daughter to choose whatever belief system she wanted . As a child she went to several churches with her school friends and at eighteen she decided to become a Catholic.

Something that helped me fade was reading a book about "Your Authentic Self" which made me realize just how fake I had become as a witness. I had learned to allow others to be my conscience and had stopped listening to my own inner voice .I had lost what I really felt was important in life and substituted the goals of a publishing company .That just can not be healthy in an emotional ,mental way .

My two oldest children are still witnesses. Neither are very active though .Right after I quit attending meetings I told my oldest I was sorry I had raised them in this religion . He responded that he didn't think it was a bad way to grow up it kept him out of drugs and he felt he was moral because of his upbringing.

So I suppose it all has to do with perspective and individual experience.

greendawn

No in my case it didn't make me any better or worse as a character but it caused me a lot of inner strain and emotional blockages. An environment that lacks love at the end of the day is worthless.

aoxo

growing up a jw make me nieve, scared, paraniod, emotionaly drained and weak in a world of possibilities. i can't stop thinking about where i could be today if i was taught how to grow up in the world and to be all that i could and wanted to be. i would have been a lot better off than i am now.

Gopher

Even when I was a loyal JW, I knew there was a certain ratio of kind and unkind people, much like what you'd find outside the organization.

I came to the conclusion (even then) that the "nice" JW's were that way because they would be that way anyhow, and not because the religion had taught them love.

IOW, they were good people IN SPITE of the religion.

FlipThis

I was raised a Witness. My mom did a good job teaching me morality and building a good base. She would attribute that to my JW upbringing.

They all do min. As my wife says: "If you need a religion to teach your kids right from wrong; you've got problems" (sounds better when she says it)

changeling

I was born "in". It made me a "broken person".

changeling

ex-nj-jw

I grew up very angry and self destructive. A lot of things I did, I only did to prove I wasn't a JW.

So no, it didn't make me a better person. Getting out made me a better woman!

nj

Has being a JW made you a better person?

Share this