Among the Most Destructive of JW Core Ideas!

by AK - Jeff 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Farkel

  I honestly don't know what I would be like today had I not been a JW. I don't think any ex-JW knows for sure, or at least not those who were born in and raised in the religion like myself.

  I am the sum total of all my experiences and those experiences including a lot of suffering being a JW. Am I now a better person because of it? I don't know. Am I now a worse person because of it. I don't know that, either.

  For these reasons I do not speculate and for me at least, think its a waste of time to do so.

  Farkel
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  cantleave

  Satanus - Breathe, Breathe in the air, Don't be afraid to care!
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  Satanus

  Darn site. I never know when it will accept my post, or not. It seems to be in a receptive mood, now.

  S
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  flipper

  AK JEFF- Good thread indeed. The points you make are right on. We were all told that our current life is not the " real life " and to wait for the paradise to come to REALLY start living. Yeah, right. Last time I pinched myself- it hurts, felt pretty REAL to me ! So as we learn after exiting the witnesses - this IS THE REAL LIFE - and we need to live it to it's fullest each day - cause the paradise ain't coming baby ! Like my wife said " the closest thing to paradise is getting out of that F-ing JW cult ! " She's got THAT right !

  It's one reason I try to point newbie EX-JW's to living in the here and now - it's all we've got and if we wait too long to live fulfilling lives - we will be laying on our deathbeds at 80 or 90 thinking with regret " Damn ! Why didn' t I do more in life while I had it ? " Many of us here won't have those regrets now- we have gained our freedom ! And that's as it should be. Life- the way it was meant to be lived in freedom of choice
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  Farkel

  flipper,

  :Like my wife said " the closest thing to paradise is getting out of that F-ing JW cult ! " She's got THAT right !

  Now, THAT is a good one!

  :we will be laying on our deathbeds at 80 or 90 thinking with regret " Damn ! Why didn' t I do more in life while I had it ? "

  The WT World is about always "doing more, more, MORE" which means working harder for the interests of the WT Printing Corporation.

  I've never heard of anyone who, on their deathbed wished they would have worked harder in life.

  Farkel
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  AK - Jeff

  I've never heard of anyone who, on their deathbed wished they would have worked harder in life.

  Good point. And partly the main point in some ways. Many of us put off the 'race' of life [thanx Satanus for the PF cut] during the prime years of life. And while life may have been pretty good as a Jw, it lacked substance and real history. Some who would have been inclined to, without Jw mindset, will never be able to recall to their grandchildren the time we 'hiked in the Alps', or 'spend four years in the army', or my personal lamentable non-memory 'the years I spend flying airplanes'.

  Sure, we have memories. SOme of them are good memories of being Jw. But they are not memories of the things we would have done if we were not held captive by the concept that we were going to have 'real life' a bit later.

  Of course the best advice is to get on with it, since that is all we have to do. And we should.

  Of course Life should not be viewed in such negative perspective constantly. That is counterproductive. But hopefully that understanding is motivating us to live now.

  Peace/Namaste

  Jeff
• 

  quietlyleaving

  imo one of the most destructive core JW ideas is the indiscriminate use of "wait on Jehovah".

  JWs are actively discouraged from using their gift of anxieity to explore and discover different ways of dealing with problems. The frame of mind that accompanies waiting on Jehovah is marvellously calming but also numbing and dumbing
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  BluesBrother

  This reminds me of why I love this board... Nowhere else could I find people who so completely understand how and why we feel as we do.

  Jeff. You original post could be a mirror of my life experience. I was not abused, I was not beaten and I have not (yet) been shunned. What I have lost is all the things that I would otherwise have done. When you believe that the world is about to end it would be foolish to build a career or develop skills that would soon be redundant . 'Why spend all the money travelling now, when you can do it eternally in the New World?'...The consequence is that you spend your time on "spiritual goals".. I did achieve those, I was an older man at relatively young age, I did all that congregations required and had the "privileges" offered - As Ian Dury used to sing, "What a Waste"...but I can only blame myself .

  Psychologists do indeed warn against the idea of putting off happiness until tomorrow, when something is going to happen. I suppose we cannot be the only ones.

  Of course, if your faith remains intact, you still die happy in "expectation of the promise", I have know a few like that who did not get want they expected in this lifespan, but confidently expected it in the resurrection. I guess they would say that their life has been worthwhile and used in the best way?

  So many posters have referred to "The Matrix" film.....I really must look out for it, having never watched it.

  This is rather introspective on a damp Sunday morning but although life has not been bad...I know that it could have been better, and now at a "mature" time of life I just wish that I had wised up earlier, I wish that the events that led to my exit had happened in my youth...But wishes will not change anything.

  I am resolved to make the most of the time remaining...
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  nelly136

  my nan spent over 60 years waiting for her new life. it didnt come she died in her 90's still waiting, her daughter in her 60's is still waiting. my nans friends waited for their 'real lives' theyre all long dead or on the verge.

  if you add their collective ages together thats centuries of waiting for a real life.
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  Gordy

  It can be difficult to think what our lives might have been if not JWs.

  I became a JW in 1971 aged 20, left when I DA'd in 2001 , 30 years later.

  For most of that time my life was "controlled" in the sense I knew what I was doing practically every day, meetings, service, study.
  Then I suddenly found myself at the age of 50 , in the "world"

  Yes I had a job, but that in a sense was routine that I could cope with.

  It was the "outside" I had difficulty with dealing with those "evil worldly" people.

  I have some family members who followed me out, so have not been completely alone.

  But there is still that bit of me that has trouble "socialising" with people. I have no problems going out , say for a drink or whatever.
  But I still have trouble holding conversations with people.

  Yet I have given talks at churches and seminars on the JWs, a 45 minute interview for local radio, a brief TV appearance with maybe couple more in pipeline to give my testimony on.

  Yet somehow I still feel apart from the "world"

  Anyone know what I'm trying to say.