Thank You, Cicatrix...
Certainly was an equal "crime".
A "man's world" to me:-(
*summer*
What was the first mean/unjust thing you saw as a JW that affected you?
by Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit 37 Replies latest jw friends
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justhuman
my oh my...there are so many
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Gill
All your stories are very moving!
It is true that JWS are amongst the most unforgiving and vilest people who walk the planet.....but of course, not every single one of them.
I remember a relative dying who was in the care mainly of a Pioneer relative.
The pioneer sister insisted on going to the meetings, just round the corner from the dying relative and left her in the care of one of her sons. However, during that fateful two hours, the poor agonised dying woman needed to use the toilet and it was the pioneer sister who was 'on duty' in our family at that time to help her.
She refused to leave the meeting and gave instructions that the dying woman go to the toilet in her pants in her bed as she, sister almighty elderette, was 'putting Jehovah first!'
This was only ONE of her many abuses against this dying woman....but a sickening one at that!
Over nearly forty years, I ignored my father's constant emotional, verbal and sometimes physical abuse of his family, even though he was an elder and conspired with my mother to 'cover up' for him! We were told by the elders that we had to be submissive to him!
I ignored my elder uncle's alcoholism and unpleasant treatment of my poor aunty!
I ignored the nasty back bitting, criticism and cruelty that mainly came from the Elders and elderettes in the congregation.
One day, while sitting in a Sunday meeting with my little children I realised I didn't want them to grow up with such loathsome people!
That was the last time I and my children ever went to a meeting!
But I remember many disfellowshippings of women who had been foolish enough to voice an opinion!
I also remember many men getting away with adultery, spouse abuse, and just generally being bad men!
The Watch Tower Society is corrupt from the top to the bottom!
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R.Crusoe
It is amazing how it takes real effort to share your feelings with others after being JW. It is like you have been programmed to think your feelings are evil and all the rules are holy. It is good to see some who have chosen to follow their hearts even though their head told them God was not on their side. I think it is what Jesus would have done!
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sass_my_frass
Thanks Dag. ayk, I am leaving out lots of details for time sake. I don't usually like to bring up the 'bad times' but sometimes it is important to show the WTBS for who they are. The DF arrangement is a death sentence.
I agree in one way; it is brutal and inhumane, and absolutely about control. However I acknowledge that if it wasn't for disfellowshipping I'd still be in that lame little world. It took a BIG shock to get me out of it, and I suspect that this is true for most disfellowshippees. We take a lot of crap as JWs, but we were of the mindset to keep coming back for more. It took shock treatment to get me out of there. Disfellowshipping was the second-best thing to ever happen to me.
That said, my first confusing JW memory is from age 15 (I was a very young and immature 15, very devoted and naive). My 15-year-old best friend was disfellowshipped and thrown out of her parents home, and I went along with it, it actually drove me deeper into my smug self-righteousness and attachment to the organisation. I got used to it as more and more friends would get dfd, it became almost a rite of passage, and I was in the minority of people who'd made it through adolescence without any judicial action. It stayed with me though - it always seemed wrong that a teenager would have to fend for herself.
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Enjoying freedom
My daughter has physical and learning disabilities.
When she was a baby we had to keep her away from infection as something like a cold would result in heart failure and hospital admission.
So before the meeting I would stay in the car with my daughter and only go in when the song started, and then leave straight away. Theory was that it would drastically reduce the number of cretins breathing, coughing and sneezing all over her.
One Sunday afternoon an elders wife said to me that surely "it would be better that my daughter die now rather than later".
I was so shocked I didn't know what to say.
Now I would give her such a verbal dressing down that she would not know what had hit her.
But back then I was so shocked, stunned, upset, and I didn't know what to say.
I left the religion in October 2000.
Best thing I have ever done!
Enjoying freedom
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wha happened?
After a year of the troof I noticed the obvious favoritism in appointments.
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AllHailBorg
Definitely not the first unjust thing I saw, but the most clear in my memory is when my father, inactive, but not DFed or anything, died. The elders refused to let us have a memorial service for him at the KH because he was inactive and smoking at the time of his death. Being a mindless sheep at the time I accepted it. Then a short time later the travesty happened. There was a single sister in the hall who was very close with one of the elders. Her mother, who had never been a JW, died. They readily had a memorial service for her at the KH. Blatant nepotism and double standard.