I appreciate all the response so much! I am visiting the links and looking into the passage in 1 Thessalonians. And thanks for the welcome. I'm learning a lot of JW terminology here... I had no idea what FADS was, but I know now.
New and Curious
by ttw1981 14 Replies latest jw friends
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Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit
I'd spent my whole life in it since age 4. I grew up hearing that JWs are better than everyone else, they don't hurt others, that our friends at the KH look out for one another and are real friends, but I kept seeing that the opposite was true. In contrast, the JWs believe and teach that everyone outside is bad, is out to rape us and turn us away from Jehovah and into blood-letting Satan worshippers.
My whole life I asked, 'Why did this elder yell at me at the meeting, why did that elder accuse me of this or that, why was my teen-age brother disassociated because he was a passenger with an elder's son who got a DUI but that boy wasn't excommunicated', and the answer always was how we have to forgive the imperfections of others. You get really hurt by 'perfect' grownups for most of your formative life, and you start to wonder if people aren't all just imperfect people, maybe there are some people out to use us and persuade others their way in AND out of the JWs, and then you learn that our job in life is to learn and act on what's right and moral and just without judging others.
When I figured this out in my mid-30's I was able to step back and see what else the WTS lied about, and even after a couple of years I still shake my head when I read the double-speak and side-stepping of doctrine and behavior by elders and governing body alike. I also realized that while I was a JW for 33 years, I never really had true friends, everything was conditional on how I (and others behaved). Imagine having a friend look down her nose at you because you fight to get to the meeting after work but you arrive late--which is taboo, or if you don't want to go in field service on a particular day, your friends give you a disapproving 'Hmm' and a smirk. Then when your own parents question you at length because you haven't mentioned the meetings in a while, they assume you haven't been going, turns out, mine had been checking on us from out of state. Then when you tell them you just have no intention of going anymore, that your heart has been broken by the lie you've lived, and your mother tells you 'You're no longer my daughter', your father says, 'Jule, we just can't speak to you anymore'. . .and you realize right then, what a dangerous and evil cult you were in.
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VoidEater
What made you decide to leave?
They claim to be the one true religion, and I didn't believe them any more. Inept interpretation of the Bible, hyocritical elders, false prophecies, secret association with the UN whom they have criticised for decades, shunning. A philosophy that keeps you apart from the world instead of encouraging you to make it a better place.
There would be more, but I think that's probably enough...!
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serendipity
HI TTW & Welcome!
What made me leave? Here's a recent post on a thread asking the same question. Lots of replies:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/153472/2806508/post.ashx#2806508 -
PrimateDave
What made me leave? Basically, I didn't believe in the Bible or its God anymore. Going through the motions on the "Theocratic" treadmill just wasn't worth it because life is too short. Besides, there is no real community among the Witnesses. The only common interest of the people going to "Kingdom Halls" is the propaganda of a publishing company.
Dave