Growing up a Jehovah's Witness

by jwfacts 27 Replies latest jw experiences

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  jwfacts

  Growing up a JW makes a person unique, long after you leave. Even though I strongly disagree with much of what I was taught, I still am tainted by my upbringing in that I think a thought and then correct myself with what I now should think (or visa versa, think something and then remember what I once would have thought).

  Even now that I am far removed from Watchtower thinking, I still feel somewhat of an alien from those around me. Though I am loved at work, I feel they laugh at me more than they laugh with me.

  For some time now, I have been meaning to chronograph the concepts that a Witness child is indocrinated with to show just how damaging an upbringing it is. Here it finally is.

  Growing up a JW
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  jwfacts

  I forgot to add, please feel free to make any comments, suggestions or corrections.
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  IP_SEC

  Growing up a JW makes a person unique

  Not really.

  Thinking that is probably why you feel this way.

  I still am tainted by my upbringing
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  jwfacts

  Growing up a JW makes a person unique

  Not really.

  mmm, you are probably going a bit deeper than what I was planning as an introduction to the included link.

  I agree that the Watchtower structure is quite standard for any cult, and many groups can be found similar to JW's. But the teaching a JW child receives that they will never grow old or die is fairly unique, and taints the way the view and plan for the future. That said, there are other religions that believe the rapture will come shortly, and so their members may have a similarly unrealistic view of the future.
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  ThomasCovenant

  I think it sums up my growing up as a witness from the age of 11 very, very well.

  Thank you for your time and effort.

  Thomas Covenant
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  mouthy

  Oh my poor kids..... I did that to them.... You did very well ....of course Armegeddon was really here in 18?? something wasnt it??? You were not even a twinkle in your Dads eye, neither I would venture to say was your Dad in your Grand-fathers eye either

  ...............OOPS!!!!
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  recovering

  I too was raised a jehovah's witness , I still feel alianated from the rest of humanity to a degree. This alianation really hits home when you remember that once you leave you are alianated from your family and former friends. My association with the witnesses has scarred me for life.
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  tenyearsafter

  Nice job on this...I was raised as a JW from age 9. The scenarios you list are right on the mark. I was in my early 20's when 1975 came and went, so I was in the heat of the anti-college frenzy prior to that. It definitely impacted my viewpoint of things, but fortunately I was a rebel and went to school and eventually got a degree. I was always viewed as "spiritually weak" for not pioneering and going to Bethel.

  To this day, I still process things like you mentioned in the post. I still have to conciously re-think things that immediately trigger my JW ingrained thinking patterns. I liken it to speaking a foreign language, but you are still mentally translating in English what you are hearing. I doubt any of us raised as JW's will ever be able to completely break this thinking pattern...
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  troubled mind

  Wonderful job on that JWfacts . I was also was raised as one of JW's and can fully grasped what you are saying about filtering constantly my thinking

  One thing I might suggest you add is how the generation view has changed , When I was little all the magazines had the little quote inside the cover about 1914 ,and I was proficient at teaching people that those alive in 1914 would see the end of this system of things . Not what the teach today .

  I am saving your work to pass on to my kids one day so they can really see the difference in how I was raised compared to them .
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  beksbks

  Wow JWFacts! I was born in 1960 to parents would had been JW's since their own childhood. My mother was in the audience in St. Louis when the youth were brought down to the front and told not to marry or have children. I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes after reading your timeline. Your initial post is spot on. It's like thinking in a foreign language sometimes, and having to consciously translate.

  The fact that we were told that anyone who was not a JW was somehow evil is one of the most harmful and alienating aspects. You might add something about reading. I was a big reader as a child and was told many times if I was going to read at all, I should be reading the literature. That was from my grandmother. Fortunately my parents, particularly my father, were readers themselves.