Greetings from a recovering mormon (page 2)

undercover

Welcome to the board.

ex-JWs and ex-MOs are kindred spirits.

The beliefs of the LDS church and the JWs/Watchtower Society may differ in a lot of ways, but the main things they have in common are the control, fear and guilt that they use to try to keep members in line.

It's funny to see JWs make fun of Mormon beliefs and then see a Mormon make fun of JW beliefs. I've known some Mormons and we used to try to outdo each other with who had the more fantasical doctrines. I always thought they were wacky, but they thought we were a cult. Looking at it now, they're both cults.

Back when I was a JW, there was one thing that I thought the Mormons did that JWs could learn from. That was the programs and activities for the youth of the congregations. The Mormons seemed to make sure that their youth had support from the church and activities planned so that families could share fun times together. The JWs have never done that. For JWs, its all about going to the meetings and going door to door. Anything outside of that and they were on their own.

Looking back retrospectively though, I have to say that not having those programs is making it easier for JW youth and young adults to get away from the religion. If they were more indoctrinated through youth programs and closer ties to the congregation, one might not ever sense that something was amiss.

ninja

hi former mormon.....I'm an up to date moron.....welcome....ninja.......p.s our God was harder to please than your God.......he he

drew sagan

Back when I was a JW, there was one thing that I thought the Mormons did that JWs could learn from. That was the programs and activities for the youth of the congregations. The Mormons seemed to make sure that their youth had support from the church and activities planned so that families could share fun times together. The JWs have never done that. For JWs, its all about going to the meetings and going door to door. Anything outside of that and they were on their own.

I believe this reveals how the Mormon leadership is much better prepared to grow their religion out over the long term. They invest in their youth because they are the future of the group.

On the other hand JWs are to focused on the idea that their youth will never even grow up before "gods kingdom" arrives.

katiekitten

Welcome Former Mormon. It really helped me to see that other religions had as strong a faith in their brand as I had in mine, it was the start of me seeing my former faith wasnt THE ONE, but just one of many.

p.s our God was harder to please than your God

LMAO!!!

MikeA

Greetings and welcome! I am a newbie here, too.

I have a significant mormon contingent in my family, as well. Don't ask me how it happened, but my grandfather and everyone up his side of the family was/is mormon and my grandmother (and all her side of the family) was/is JW........ They met, got married and that was that. I guess cults meet cults at times and find some serious common ground. I know they loved each other very, very much to their dying days. He was fairly high up the food chain in the mormon world, from my understanding. My grandmother had seen (and remembered) so many changes in the JW world that she never got very crazy about anything the society put out until it stood the test of serious time...... which counts out almost ANY of the serious stuff as we see it.

Anyway, one thing I can tell you is a huge difference, if my family is any indication. Where the JW's will flush family members down the toilet at the drop of a hat when that member is seen as an apostate, I cannot say the same for the mormon in my family. One person in my family, in particular, would have been tossed aside rapidly by the JW (if she had been JW), but is still loved and wanted on the mormon side, despite her avowed disassociation from that group. Nobody, but nobody in her family has tossed her aside. She does, however, get really angry about what happened (and continues to happen) to me. In fact, all the mormon in my family are really upset with how I have been treated by the JW side. Religion notwithstanding, all of the members of my "mormon" family say time and again..... FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!

Now maybe mine is a fluke, but I don't see any indication of that to tell you the truth.

outofthebox

Welcome to the Real World Former Mormon?

Isn't it something that the Internet is more real that our lifes as JWs or mormons? You made excelent points regarding that cults thrive on disinformation

-ootb

Nosferatu

Welcome to the forum!

Just to let you know, my mother is a JW and her brother is a Mormon. They always fail to wake each other up when they argue about why their religion is the true religion.

steve2

Do recovering mormons fall off the wagon the way recovering alcoholics do? And if they do, do they typically binge on the book of Mormon for several hours until their support workers rescue them from the dreaded book and give them a medical detox? Just wondering ...

drew sagan

my mother is a JW and her brother is a Mormon.

Now there is the plot to a new hit sitcom if i've ever heard one. I can see it now...

"He's a Mormon, she's a Jehovah's Witness. Now this 'brother and sister' team have to work together in raising their long lost nephew. Can they make it happen? Find out on a brand new episode of 'Knocked Around' "

TD

Greetings FM and welcome,

JW's don't have an equivalent of the Fast and Testimony meeting. The closest the JW's come to this type of extempor are the question and answer study sessions of the Watchtower (A church periodical vaguely similar to Ensign) The study conductor (A lay minister roughly correspondent to Bishop) poses scripted questions to the audience and they are expected to express the expected answers from the study material in their own words.

I believe both the LDS and JW approach have a similar intended effect.

Greetings from a recovering mormon

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