Roll call - How many here fake being a "good Jehovah's Witness"....like me! (page 3)

freedomisntfree

I just went to a meeting this evening after not being to one since the assembly.I think it was written all over my face what a circus i thought it all was.I couldnt even keep a straight face when they sang that youths song about timothy the isrealite girl etc.The guy next to me was practicly dancing.I cant even convincingly fake it anymore so i might as well not try not to mention how painfull and boring it is to sit there.it gives me a brain numbing feeling

THE GLADIATOR

In line with the original question, this is what I wrote after I left the Watchtower publishing company.

Whether a member loses his or her friends as a result of resignation or disfellowshipping, the emotional cost can be high.

In my own case I was never disfellowshipped but slowly moved from the centre of the organization to the edge as I became more and more disillusioned. It took some years to fully come to terms with the fact that what I had accepted as truth for all my life was in fact flawed.

I tried to stay and do the minimum required of a member to still be called a brother. In the end I could no longer live a lie and at the age of thirty, finally left the Kingdom Hall for the last time. Not one person ever called to ask why. They had realized from remarks I had made, that I had, in the words of the song, “ come to doubt all that I once held as true. ”

Unlike so many others I was fortunate enough to have a wife who felt the same as me, and we left together and built a new life, with new friends and a different and happier outlook. I was never officially disfellowshipped or disassociated but my relatives, all of whom are Witnesses except one brother, continue to shun me.

yknot

............. guilty. It keeps everyone I am not in a position to lose content and happy. Since I have a UBM I have more latitude then others and am able to keep a level of balanced insanity as we slowly transition to socialization that is more 'wordly' then witness.

This all said...... I do my best encourage civil disobedience to the Org.

penny2

I was never officially disfellowshipped or disassociated but my relatives, all of whom are Witnesses except one brother, continue to shun me.

Gladiator, that's sad, I feel sad for you and all others who are in this boat. It's a horrible religion.

Scarred for life

It's a horrible cult.

stillajwexelder

me sir - I fake being a reasobaly good JW - do about 1 hour of field service a month - just so I appear to be regular

CrimsonBleu

Gladiator Said:

This is true but it doesn't happen now. The JWs have no power except the power we choose to give them. Their only weapon is silence but we still have a voice.

I am sooo glad you understand that! You said it perfect! The only power they have is the power people give them. It's all about frear....and every conceivable thing that fear propogates. There is nothing to fear. Detach from those you think you will be hurt by and move on.

Hey Gladiator, what is your book?

I am just starting to read CCMC by Steve hassan (thanks to bluecanary). I'd like to read your book too.

I know that is not esy for some, but one day you'll get to a place to test it out....walk away and be free.

THE GLADIATOR

Hi CrimsonBleu

Thanks for your comment. The book is called 'Opening the door to Jehovah's Witnesses.' Available on Amazon.co.uk & Lulu. If you would like a free download, just email me on [email protected]

PSacramento

I was up at a cottage with my folks last weekend, they were showing me how real JW's were and what a big happy family they are.

We were at the cottage of one of the older JW's in their congregation, a very nice retired couple, and the gentleman took me for a tour of the cottage, whiel outside he tells me how he wishes he coudl come here all the time and stay here, but he can't, cause...you know...

I said, because of your kids and grandkids that live in our town?

Well, there's that too, but mostly its because all she wants to do is that preaching crap so we have to go back after every weekend !

I almost crapped my pants when he said that !!

LMAO !!

Cicatrix

I don't have to. I decided to invoke the Watchtower's own rules against them, as I didn't want to spend the rest of my life feeling as if I had to look over my shoulder to see who might be trying to "out" me from a fade.I wrote a very short DA letter, saying that I no longer wished to be considered a Jehovah's Witness. That is the only statement I made, and I repeated that phrase the entire time the elders grilled me and tried to get me to admit to some violation of org rules that they could use to label me as an enemy of the organisation with (I think it holds more weight if they have something "juicy" and more substantial they can tell some of the rank and file than just "So-and-so is no longer considered a JW").I wanted to go on my own terms, and not be kicked out on theirs.

I didn't write the letter because I was obeying the WTS rules, I wrote the letter because I didn't want to spend a number of years having JWs showing up at my door, trying to use fear-based tactics to guilt me into going back to meetings (where I would then continue to be "counseled," and "reproved" on a regular basis, because they chose to believe untrue garbage they heard about me from my non-JW in-laws), or trying to find something to fomate trumped-up charges against me to punish me with. A certain elder was already doing the latter with little success, thanks to my NON-JW in-laws, who were lying to the elders and using them to enact a family vendetta that had nothing to do with righteousness and EVERYTHING to do with who got the family business and their father's inheritance(certain elders' views toward domestic abuse, and their ready willingness to believe those outright lies of my in-laws really helped me to see the organisation for what it is-authoritarian, and HUMAN MADE).

The org didn't win, because their label "apostate" has no emotional connotation for me. Anyone who leaves a group with a certain ideology and no longer shares and obeys the particular beliefs of that group can technically be considered an apostate by dictionary definition. The word doesn't mean "evil" to me. It only means I no longer share their ideology, and I don't.THEY may have a certain loaded-language connotation in mind, but that doesn't mean I have to accept their definition, and I don't.Better yet, it gives me the right to tell them to stay away. If they don't, then they are hypocrites.

LOL-the in-laws didn't win, either. I live hundreds of miles away now, but last I heard, their father appointed his new girlfriend executor of his estate and gave her a lifetime lease on his property. He also put a reverse-mortgage on the house. It will cost them more in legal fees to fight his girlfriend in court on this than the estate is worth.

Roll call - How many here fake being a "good Jehovah's Witness"....like me!

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