Poor Excuse for an Apostate

Mum

When I tell anyone I am considered an apostate, they usually think I'm joking and fall over laughing. After thinking about it, I can understand why. My lifestyle would prompt a farmyard chicken to take up another interest. Here's why I appear so non-apostate:

I usually eat simple food: little meat (soyburgers, soy dogs, soy sausages, beans, lentils, split peas, fresh veggies)

I wear simple clothing; i.e., I have an assortment of tops, slacks and jackets I can mix and match.

I walk to work. A car is optional for me. Sometimes I have a car and sometimes I don't. Currently, I own the most expensive car I ever had. I bought it from a co-worker for $5,000, and my payments are less than $100/month. I usually get a car at a state surplus auction and pay cash.

I have a simple, modest home, about 860 square feet. I took out a lot of furniture and like the "wide open spaces" left behind. One room is empty. I do have 2 bathrooms so I can have a housemate if I need to supplement my income. In the meantime, the spare room and bath are available to apostates who would like to vacation in Nevada.

I drink very moderately. On special occasions, I might have a couple of drinks.

I don't smoke tobacco products or anything else. However, if I had been at that Toronto apostafest, I would have taken a few puffs of those grape cigars with no impact to my conscience.

I am not sexually active. At my age, along with other factors, this is not likely to change.

On the other side of the apostate question, I do have the following apostate activities and/or characteristics:

Gambling (not to the point where I can't pay my bills, just a few dollars here and there unless I have a windfall, then a percentage of that)

Thinking for myself to the point of disagreeing with much Watchtower policy and doctrine because it hurts people.

Giving love and support to people who disagree with Watchtower policy and doctrine (or those who do agree for that matter, but that's not the apostate part)

Choosing my own friends.

Believing that my brain is probably as large as most men's.

Overindulgence in sweets at times (though no more than when I was a JW in good standing).

How about you? Are you living the debauched, decadent lifestyle that would befit an apostate?

Regards,

SandraC, a poor excuse for sure

dawg

Nah, I'm a pretty good example of apostate all the way around....

megsmomma

I think I am right between Sandra and Dawg

drew sagan

Like many that leave the WTS and get on with their lives, you don't fit the Watchtowers 'apostate profile'.

Just the other day my wife commented about an Elder who couldn't understand why she seemed happy, even though I wasn't going to meetings at the time.

They just can't handle it.

Paralipomenon

I'm pretty boring as far as apostates go.

I look after my family
Spend time with my children
I don't smoke
I have a few drinks but never to get drunk
I pepper spray elderly witnesses
and try to help out other where I can.

Pretty boring. :(

Finally-Free

I usually eat simple food: little meat (soyburgers, soy dogs, soy sausages, beans, lentils, split peas, fresh veggies)

Ok, now that is just WRONG!

As far as being an apostate goes, I'm as wicked as they come.

I don't shave on weekends.
I work for a political party. I even vote.
I'm not sexually active, but I have a pet bird, and I give him tummy rubs every day.
I'm an occasional smoker.
I have 7 computers.
I take courses.
I pay no attention to movie ratings. I watch what I want to watch.
I think for myself.

W

Gopher

Mum, who's laughing at your self-assessment that you're apostate? Other apostates, or worldly people? Surely not J-dubs !!

Dangit, you can call yourself "apostate" if you want to. If you think for yourself, it's good enough.

I think part of it depends on the age at you exit J-dubland. At a younger age, you're more likely to experiment with a lot of alternative activities and habits. Whereas for those of us who got out when older, likely there's not a major shakeup in lifestyle -- just in our attitude.

maxwell

Maybe I have the wrong image of an apostate. When I hear the word apostate, specifically with regard to a former Jehovah's Witness, I simply think of someone who is actively opposing Watchtower society organization in some way. I never knew debauchery was a part of the profile. In fact, I would think that some apostates who have simply converted to another Christian religion highly disapprove of my relatively mild but sinful (according to the bible) lifestyle.

I'm certainly not actively opposing the Watchtower society in any way. But I think on a worldwide scale, I'm relatively mild in any debauchery as well.

I probably eat more meat than you, but recently I have tried eating less meat. I do soyburgers sometimes and I added meatless grounds to my sphaghetti this week.

My life is much simpler now than it was when I was a JW. I sold my car soon after I left the JW. I didn't need it any more. I still have my suits, but I can count on one hand the number of times I have worn one since leaving. We are supposedly "business casual" at work, so I can be rather plain.

I go out a little more now. But it is mostly to jazz clubs. I may yet venture to some more risque places with perhaps more raw music, but I doubt that I'll ever enjoy anything else more than some straight ahead stuff. I will never smoke. I'll have three or four drinks over the course of an evening. But I have never been drunk and I don't anticipate that I ever will be. It's not an experience that I long to have or see the need to have.

I have no interest in gambling either beyond giving a few dollars to a charity raffle once or twice a year.

If there is any area where there is a chance to be very debaucherous, it would be sex. But even there, I don't think I'd be really obvious about it in public. Not that I'd hide my activity. But I'm not an exhibitionist.

Although I am not actively opposed to the Watchtower society, I have no problem telling people some of their more quirky beliefs. But then I have no problem telling people in general what I think about god and the bible. I have never referred to myself as an apostate and I suppose there is good reason. Maybe I'm just a heathen sinner.

Gopher

Hey maxwell,

You're technically correct in the definition of an apostate -- an active opposer.

However the WTS, paranoid and delusional as they are, implies that any ex-member can be consider an opposer, using the "he that isn't for us is against us" mentality.

The way I view the word "apostate" is as a badge of honor (even though I technically don't seek out active JW's to persuade them to change). I'm actually honored that an organization so arrogant, hypocritical, slimy and narcissistic as the WTS would label me 'apostate'. I want them to dislike me.

When I have meetups with other ex-JW's, we jokingly call ourselves apostate. And I've never been with a more fun group than "apostates".

primitivegenius

yeah i love it........ lol they want to label us as APOSTATES but in reality we simply dont belive their lies anymore. to be an apostate would seem to imply that we had at one time something good and true but rejected it in favor of something that was not good nor true....... fact is the watchtower never was good and only uses enough tidbits of truth to keep the mindless hooked.

by their definition i am an apostate....... because i left that cult and will never return.

in real life however i still belive in god and truely appreciate the fact that he caused me to be liberated.

i am a thousand times better off now than when i was in the cult.

i watch whatever movies i want, drink occasionally but not to excess, dont do drugs or smoke, happily married and i dont cheat on my wife, still working on language but im better at it than when i was a dub.

of course they wont belive any of this

Poor Excuse for an Apostate

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