Was your decision to leave the jw's based upon worldly friends/influences?

by chicken 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  jwfacts

  Hi Chicken. It took me a long time to leave, and a lot of research to convince myself it was not true. However, when the time was right, the circle of worldly friends I had were an immense help emotionally. It is very traumatic, and though my friends could not understand how or why I was so affected, they stood by me and kept me sane.

  I have found that people are very similiar despite religion. There are great people both as JWs and Non JWs. The difference with JWs is that the friendship with other JWs is strongly conditional on whether you remain a JW or not - you know that the second you stop advocating the Watchtower Society you will loose every JW friend.

  The reasons I left are at www.jwfacts.com
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  VoidEater

  The worldly kids I knew were more honest than the JW friends I had. The JW friends did all the things the worldy kids did, but mostly had to lie about it and pretend it wasn't happening. The JW kids I knew were into scary stuff, heroin, weird sexual stuff at way too early an age. The JW adults I knew best were either really caring folks or evil through and through.

  The JW people I found myself with as I grew up and that were my own age were much more judgmental than the worldly people, and in many cases were less kind than the worldy people. My best friend in high school left when he turned 18, and he's turned out to be one of the most unconditionally loving people I know. Another good friend in high school stayed in and became one of the most judgmental, cruel people I know.

  The hypocrisy and lies just got to be too much for me.
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  isnrblog

  I was a JW for 50 years. I left because of all the inconsistancies, flip flops and contradcitions in the lit.

  The Society would change something and the sheeple would blindly follow. The final thing for me was the editing of the literature in an effort to hide changes from new Witnesses.

  For example I have an extensive library that I got from my Witness grandmother and have all the lit from the Mid thirties on and a lot from earlier times. I have the Beth Sarim 1925 stuff in print in authentic literature, Rutherfords Drunken ravings. I can't believe they do not mention that any more.

  Also, I have the original Truth biik I got in 1968. It has been changed in several places where it originally pointed to 1975. Also, I have a 1989 Watchtower that says the preaching work would end in "this century". The CD of the same WT says it would end "in our day"

  Way toooo much to mention here, I am not influenced by "worldly friends" now or then. The Watchtower hangs themselves.

  www.isnrblog.com
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  Carmel

  At age 12 I was baptized and on that day realized all the promises that were made to me were BS. Their dodging questions from a child claiming I couldn't understand as a) I was too young and b) I wasn't baptized was a ruze to avoid being unable to explain fundamental contradictions to me. I wanted a different perspective on lots of issues but was not allowed to seek information outside the JW literature. I knew at that tender age what propaganda meant and that I was being given a dose of it. So my decision to get out was made that very day but it too a couple years to physically escape. carmel btw, welcome to the board
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  oompa

  not at all...I just finally did enough research to learn we have "our own" bible......and have changed the hell out of it........oompa

  if we would change the frikking bible....what else would we do?
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  The Oracle

  minimus, isnrblog, and jw facts echo my sentiments...

  check out the links that isnrblog and jwfacts provided - they are very good.

  Unlike those folks - I am still "in", actually serving as an elder...maybe I'm even one of the elders in your boyfriends congregation....

  There are several us "freedom fighters" working on the inside to help awaken some of the members of this cult. We view the membership of the JW movement as people in grave danger who are in need of help.

  I hope you can learn as much as possible about the JW teachings and why they are a dangerous and damaging group. Your friend deserves to be freed. Do a good deed that you will be proud of for the rest of your life...help him to see the real truth!

  Peace to you!

  The Oracle
• 

  Merry Magdalene

  Welcome, chicken!

  No worldly friends. Maybe some influences from the multitude of books I read. But mostly the things I was taught from infancy in the JW world just didn't add up right.

  ~Merry
• 

  WTWizard

  The biggest factor was their own littera-trash. Back in 1995, they had a Puketower (April 1, 1995) that told people that personal rejection from the opposite sex was Satan's fault. It was blatantly false, since Satan cannot do stuff like that for a person's whole life without having Jehovah being able to totally undo it, but Jehovah could easily pull this crap on a person for his whole life without anything to ruin it. And, it was followed by my being rejected by all the sisters at the next Great and Grand Boasting Sessions, followed by being told officially by the hounders to just meet other men. That was more than enough for me to go apostate--at first, by wasting their time hunting me down and arguing which congregation was going to hound me.

  Had they not pulled that crap, I might have been willing to look the other way and put up with some of the other problems like the pointless wastes of time in field circus. But, that was their fatal mistake, and there is no way they are ever going to get me back without a lot of physically forcing me to do the work. No worldly influences influenced my decision to pull out of that crap.

  So much for worldly associations spoiling useful habits. Incidentally, it was the lead hounder and his successor that were responsible for the bulk of the rejection and subsequent arrangement that I was only to meet other men from then on. They, plus that damn Puketower study, did more damage to my staying in than Crisis of Conscience, all the apostate Web sites on the whole net, and worldly influences put together.
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  R.Crusoe

  An inner heartfelt feeling that it was wrong, dishonest and subliminally deceptive.

  Any logic I employed was consistently derailed by:

  An overpowering literature and constant nagging at me that it was my job to do as they say and God was on their side!

  Others did and still behave in that way in my family who never have been JWs - which is mainly how I ended with them in the first place!

  So funny if it weren't so sad.
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  babygirl75

  Welcome Chicken...

  I left for personal reasons. I was stuck in a bad marriage with a JW. I stayed for family but when it got unbearable I began seeing a "worldly" man and left my JW husband. That man is now my husband, we have been together for 6yrs now. While dating him, I saw how different his family & friends were and much more relazed and not always on edge to follow rules and make sure you're living life with guidelines. I didn't see how much of it was not the truth until after I had left. I've learned more now about the religion than was I was in. I sad is that!!

  babygirl...