Things That Irritated You When You Were A JW (page 6)

IHaveADream

Sorry about double posting. Would not format correctly.

I remember those experiences about bad things happening, and the implied thought was that they must have secretly done something wrong and so Jehovah's protection left them. Never gave it much thought until it happened to me. I was left alive after my attack, but I wished I was dead after I was unofficially marked as bad association in the eyes of everyone in the cong. They even watched me carefully to see if I got pregnant from it, as that would have been proof in their eyes that I wasn't really raped. people even came up to my mother and expressed their sympathy to her, but would give me the cold shoulder, like I was some harlot. Effing bastards.

What I hated the most: the total lack of love and compassion. The hypocrisy. The exacting standards that seemed to be put in place to make you fail. The denying of higher education. The perfect willingness to throw people to the wolves without a second thought.

blondie

** w05 11/15 p. 8 Self-Sacrifice Brings Jehovah’s Blessing ***

AMAN travels by bicycle in the deep forest of Cameroon. For hours, he cycles along flooded roads and through mud, facing danger in order to strengthen others. To teach an isolated group, some in Zimbabwe walk nine miles [15 km] through flooding rivers, balancing their clothes and shoes on their head to keep them dry. Elsewhere, a woman gets up at four o’clock in the morning to visit and teach a nurse who can spare an hour only early in the day.

*** w99 7/1 p. 11 par. 15 Parents, What Does Your Example Teach? ***

A Bible student in Panama was threatened by her husband with expulsion from their house if she did not stop serving Jehovah. Still, with her four little children, she regularly walked 10 miles [16 km] and then rode a bus for another 20 miles [30 km] to get to the nearest Kingdom Hall.

*** w98 3/1 p. 19 par. 18 Appreciating Christian Gatherings ***

In less affluent parts of the earth, many of our brothers and sisters set a fine example of appreciation for Christian gatherings. In Mozambique it took a district overseer, Orlando, and his wife, Amélia, 45 hours to walk some 55 miles [90 km] over a high mountain to serve an assembly. Then they had to make the same trip back to serve the next assembly.

*** w62 6/1 p. 341 par. 20 Why Should Christians Accept and Discharge Responsibility? ***

What will this brother say about the African witnesses in Nyasaland who, in order to attend the congregational meetings, have to ‘walk seven to fifteen miles in the rain and swim a river or two infested with crocodiles’? The flimsy argument, ‘I am tired,’ will not help him. The Master Worker does not want lazy people in his army. He will vomit him out of his mouth as an unworthy soldier and worker.—Rev. 3:16.

The Missus

I wish there was some way to verify those watchtower/yearbook stories to see if they really happened. They all sound like something a grandparent would say that we'd know was about 5% truth and 95% fabrication . . . "I had to walk 10 miles to school uphill both ways in snow up to my armpits" . . . yada yada yada

crazycate

The opening talk at the convention that told us what we were GOING to hear. The final talk that told us what we HAD heard. And the concluding prayer that summed it all up again in case God hadn't been paying attention.

Cate

minimus

Blondie, I hated those guilt articles too where people would swim thru croc infested waters back and forth every week just to not miss out on the spiritual diarrhea. (sp).

LongHairGal

All these posts are good and I have seen most of what is described.

Those anecdotal stories of people in the third world who hack their way through a jungle or cross crocodile infested waters are very annoying to me because a very important fact is left out: that these people have something that people in the west do NOT have. They have TIME on their hands to do these things. They don't have to be at a 9 to 5 job or paying mortgages, car insurance, etc. In most cases they live off the land. So, of course, they could take two days to get to an assembly. Please!

What sometimes got to me was when somebody was always quoting scripture and knew chapter and verse and book by heart. I always felt this was bragging like as though they had to show everybody they had the whole bible memorized.

I also hated the TM school. I felt it inflicted the sisters on each other in a way that the brothers aren't inflicted on each other. The person who dreamed this up must feel all warm and fuzzy seeing all the sisters together like some quilting bee. I know some people think it is educational but I felt it was stressful and I dropped out years ago.

I also saw cliques and even though most people were pleasant there were a few hypocrites I didn't like. But, what got me most of all was how everybody who practiced hypocrisy, shunning, gossiping, not showing christian love, etc., etc. still expected the phony brotherhood to kick in when THEY needed it.

LHG

Open mind

As a man, making sure not to sit directly next to another female who is not your spouse or fiance. Even if her hubby is right on the other side of her. God knows we might start fornicating on the spot!

om

144001

1. Attending meetings

2. Field service

3. brothers and sisters

4. Elders

levids

-Not just the head nodders, the people that would go "mm-hmm" to typical Borg comments, i.e."Didn't todays WT study show us the importance of doing whatever the Faithful and Discreet Slave instructs us to do?"

-The way "helps us to appreciate" was used as a verbal crutch, such as in this typical assembly experience; "What really helps me to appreciate the ministry is how helping others to appreciate the spiritual food we get from the Faithful and Discreet Slave helps them to appreciate the Bible more which helps them to appreciate Jehovah's goodness."

-The Holy Roller families. Every congregation had one, the family that had been in The Truth since Pastor Russell was alive. All the young men went to Bethel, all the young women were pioneers, all the husbands and wives were elders and elderettes, they had all mastered the Witness sneer, and for some reason I couldn't figure out the married ones had like 11 children apiece, which was interesting considering that such theocratic families don't go to college.

-Something that bothered me more during my last year or two in the WT was the way that the real "spiritual" ones in my congregation could quote Society publications better than the Bible when they were asked their opinion on some topic; i.e. "Well, according to the December 8, 1993 Awake! page 11 The Simpsons is an inappropriate program to watch."

-"It might stumble somebody" issues, as if the brother with pseudofolliculitis barbae "wearing a beard" would actually drive someone out of "da troof".

Things That Irritated You When You Were A JW