by Younglove1999 38 Replies latest jw experiences
He is always angry around that time of year because there are so many evil bastards celebrating Christmas.
My dad and mom said " ha, look at all these stupid people who put out lights on their houses they are making it real easy for Jehovah to know who to destroy."
My response "what if it's the other way around and Jehovah destroys the people who don't recognize Jesus's birthday"
Jehovah is always looking for a reason to utterly destroy people and feed his birds. lol
It's going to depend on who gets a bee in their bonnet, and what your mum does. If she decides not to make a big deal of things it will be okay. You've got to be kind, gentle, respectful etc, while getting her to respect your new choices.
You can be d/f for celebrating Xmas.
In regards to how long this can apply for, it is difficult as the rule is that you can be d/f for as long as you are considered a brother by the community. What does that mean? Apparently it depends on how vindictive the elders in your congregation are. Some people get away with it, others have been d/f 10 years after they stopped going to meetings. It is terrible having that threat hanging over your head for years to come.
If we're not actually claiming to be JW's, can we still get df'd?Hell, yeah. The point is: if you're baptized, you can be df'd. What exactly can you get df'd for? Here's a sample list:
They don't really like it when you just fade away, although this varies from congregation to congregation. A fader can still talk to family members who are in and possibly influence them to see the truth about 'the Truth' and that's not a good thing in their eyes.
So if you plan on celebrating any of the above and expect your mom to find out, you should also expect to get the axe at some point down the road.
Why not get a table top tree, the small one with the lights already on it? Does your mom come to your house to babysit?
I agree with others, this year she won't remember any of it. Take lots of pictures so that when she's older she will be able to look back at her 1st christmas. I do christmas not for the religious meaning but because I wanted my kids to have a normal life to enjoy the holidays and for me to be able to have a little of the joy also that I missed being raised a JW. Never did my kids hear, "you don't have to wait for holidays, you can get gifts all year long", which by the way never happend!
Do what is best for your family. My first christmas after leaving I went all out! Big tree, gifts for my son and hubby (boy friend at that time). My mom knew about it, she wasn't speaking to me but she was definately spying on me. She sent the elders around and I told them to get lost, if they ever came around again I was get'n a restraining order! I have no patience with the whole "Elder Authority" crap!
I have no idea if they ever announced my name at any meeting and I really don't give a damn.
nj
The actual truth is that you can get disfellowshipped for doing something that the Watchtower Society currently bans (which is subject to rapid change next year once the Kool-Aid Puketower comes out) or criticizing the Governing Body or the organization. They don't give a crap if you haven't gone to a meeting in 100 years. If you got baptized, you are subject to being ratted out or being caught directly by Brother Hounder.
In fact, there is a chance that you will get disfellowshipped behind your back if Brother Hounder sees the Christmas tree. Worse, there is a chance that he will let it go several times, only to come down hard on you one year when you don't expect it. Sometimes this happens when the hounder-hounder goes through these cases; other times it's the hounder that suddenly wants more power or a new hounder joins the body of hounders.
If you want to stall, you might start out slowly. Go easy on the decorations (this is a good time, however, to start accumulating them). A small celebration this year will lessen the chances of Brother Hounder finding out. Then, next year you want to pull out all the stops and go for a big celebration. Just hope the hounder-hounder has more to worry about with more people walking away and sufficient legal issues--if there is just one pedophile incident there, that should allow you the chance to blow in Christmas decorations since protecting pedophiles seems more important to them than busting you for a holiday.
The posters are right, they can and will Df you for anything they want, they can make something up, based on bible "principals", gag. Having been in your shoes, I can tell you, the best thing I ever did was move away. Free to live my life, with no nosey witnesses sticking their two cents in. It may sound extreme, but it sure beats living in a fish bowl!
thanks for all the suggestions.
I think we're going to keep it low-key and take pictures for the baby's sake so she has photo memories of her 1st X-mas.
Since my mom comes to baby-sit, I'm not going to decorate the house. However, I'll go all out at my desk at work. LOL
We did recently move to a new town, and even though we left no forwarding information and requested to the phone company not to list our info, I'm sure somehow they'll find us.
The other day our old bookstudy overseer called me on my cell phone to tell me he heard we moved to XYZ town. I simply replied that we did. He then asked me if we wanted our records moved to the congrgation in this town and I told him no we did not and left it at that. But like I said, I'm sure we'll be found.
I think right now I'm not "ready" to DA ourselves or get DF'd because I don't know how my parents would react. If we just keep it low-key and allow my parents to see that we've merely faded for a while, I'm sure when the time comes for any drama from the part of the Org., they may soften a bit and if we do get DF'd or we need to DA ourselves in the future, it may not be as traumatic. Meh, who knows. They (the org.) doesn't make anythign easy- next week, they may start saying that "inactive" ones are to also be viewed as Df'd, so whatever-kwim?
*sigh*
thanks for all the suggestions.
I think we're going to keep it low-key and take pictures for the baby's sake so she has photo memories of her 1st X-mas.
Since my mom comes to baby-sit, I'm not going to decorate the house. However, I'll go all out at my desk at work. LOL
We did recently move to a new town, and even though we left no forwarding information and requested to the phone company not to list our info, I'm sure somehow they'll find us.
The other day our old bookstudy overseer called me on my cell phone to tell me he heard we moved to XYZ town. I simply replied that we did. He then asked me if we wanted our records moved to the congrgation in this town and I told him no we did not and left it at that. But like I said, I'm sure we'll be found.
I think right now I'm not "ready" to DA ourselves or get DF'd because I don't know how my parents would react. If we just keep it low-key and allow my parents to see that we've merely faded for a while, I'm sure when the time comes for any drama from the part of the Org., they may soften a bit and if we do get DF'd or we need to DA ourselves in the future, it may not be as traumatic. Meh, who knows. They (the org.) doesn't make anythign easy- next week, they may start saying that "inactive" ones are to also be viewed as Df'd, so whatever-kwim?
*sigh*
