I often read posts where the writer bewails their witness upbringing, feeling that their whole lives have been ruined by the negative environment. Her Ladyship is very fond of saying: “If it hasn’t killed you then it’s doing you good”, and I think that she has a valid point. Let me illustrate:
Sometimes, I find myself responding to my sons in much the same way as my Father responded to me. Now, whilst this is partly quite natural, I am also very much aware that children of JW parents have much more of a parental imprinting than is considered to be healthy. So, what I sometimes ask myself is: “How much further in my emotional development am I now than I would have been if I had remained a JW?”
One way of measuring how much you have changed is by using a SIN-METER. I once went through a depressive darkness in my life and this helped me to understand myself better. It works like this: Take a few assorted deeds / misdeeds / sins / crimes such as these: Stealing. Blaspheming. White lies. Blatant lies. Murder. Emotional abuse of children. Physical abuse of children. Getting tipsy occasionally. Frequent drunkenness. Violence. Bragging. Sex between single people. Homosexuality. Adultery where there is betrayal. Adultery when the marriage is dead. Celebrating festivals. Playing sports. Wife dominance. Flirting. Overeating. Smoking. Laziness. Working overtime. Borrowing money. Arguing. Disrespecting authority figures. Bodybuilding, and many, many more.
The next step is to rate these items from 1 through to 10 and note down your findings. 1 would represent a completely harmless activity, 10 would represent the most heinous crime imaginable. Of course, you may get quite a few that you only rate as 1 or another number, maybe they will all rate as a 3 with a couple of 10’s, the choice is yours entirely.
Once you have done this, now run through the items again and re-mark, but this time you must put on your witness hat! That’s right, go back to your dub days when you were still convinced that it was the truth, and rate the items as you would have done then. (This might make you cringe!)
Now compare your 2 lists.
Surprising how much progress you’ve made, isn’t it?
Englishman.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be....