by greenie 26 Replies latest jw friends
I know this topic has been covered, so feel free to ignore me or point me to another post for your response, but I'm just curious: what made you first think the JWs didn't have it all? What it a slow process or like a lightening strike?
For me, a non-JW, it was like a lightening strike when I started reading about the blood issue.
Hey Blondie! I'm being succinct!!
four me it was a gradual decline, for years I watched as elders pushed people around ed and harassed them. I have seen elders spy on people and I have seen them ask publishers to keep a watch on persons to see if they do something wrong. Now that is just purely wrong.
another things I watched over the years was let see what families are weak in the congregation. And a week or two prior to the CO,s visit the elders would make there phony shepherding call. That was so transparent.
I have seen people climb to the top with bribery, invitations to their homes for the best of the best of food and entertainment. I have seen brothers swindle other brothers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I have seen witnesses with enough hypocrisy that the church look like saints in comparison to the WTS.
Orangefatcat
I just came to this thread to say hello to orangefatcat.
That is all.
for me, it was a slow process. i had doubts all thru the years. interestingly, my doubts were never about the doctrine (i was a born in and had never read any other bible). however, what i did doubt was 1) that God was going to kill billions of people bcs they didn't want to read the WT and awake that was peddled to them on saturday mornings and 2)that the JWs were THE only true religion. the utter lack of love and spirituality among the members became painfully more and more obvious as time went on. i shelved my doubts for many years and tried to pray harder, read more, knock on more doors, etc.
finally, about 2 months ago, when i was really fighting hard to supress my doubts, a friend of mine (JW) and i were talking at her house. she openly confessed that she didn't think the JWs had the truth. i was dumbfounded that she'd say it out loud, but also relieved someone else felt like me! we stayed up all night talking. i came home from her house that weekend and immediately started looking at all the sites that the WT warns us not to. that was the best weekend of my life! haven't been to a meeting or service since, and will never go back.
I was such a drone, I just went along with the masses...
Until they started with the, "Jesus is not our mediator", referring to the r/f.
That blew me away...
Cas
For me it wasn't a question of whether or not they were wrong. From a young child I knew they were wrong because, as a young child, I was an atheist.
The only reason I stayed in was because of the threats of retribution from the organization.
I left the organization when I knew I was financially independent and did not need to rely upon anyone in my family to survive.
Accident born out of impatience....... and older publications provided by our wonderful PDF brigade!
I was being lazy one August day in 2007 and typed in 'Jehovahs Witness' into google instead of taking the time to type out www.watchtower.org or to scroll down my favorites tab.......
A friend and I wanted to read something on the Org's site and I was feeling a bit impatient, over clicking my mouse (wow I haven't used a mouse in sometime now!) anywho my mouse slipped and clicked onto the link below the Org's site (JWD)......since I had "over-clicked" I found myself in a thread and face to face with some commentary by Terry......just a glance before I hit the back button quickly and on to the Org's site.
That nano-second I found interesting and later while alone recovered it via history log..........I registered the next day and started posting not because I didn't believe but like many reformist liberals I was feeling a whole lot of frustration over the growing pressures of "Ted's Return to Hardliner-isms"
This was the week the Sept 07 KM was leaked early in German basically saying not to read anything that wasn't under the supervision/oversight of the Org, which so harks back to 1983's independent thinking commentary that turned me into a reformist......... soon after I was gobbling up any older publication PDF that was offered......... by the time I finished the Rutherford era and first publication of Knorr/Franz........the myth of appointment and enthronement was kaput, totally. ....... all in all it was less than 6 months from my accidental entrance onto JWD.
I started to think a lot after my children were born and also, for the first time in many years, I got some time to. Seeing them grow and learn, so open and good, I just could no more accept the WT concept of sin. More important, I could no more accept the plans the God of JW was supposed to have for most children now living on earth or what he was said to have done in the past.
Just go and watch small children running and smiling in the school yard or kindergarten playground. Look carefully, take your time. Then imagine someone would come and have them drowned one by one in a nearby pond. That is what the God of JW has done. As an act of God, Noah's flood that we were taught to believe in, is so out of all proportions.
I need to note that already before that, I knew for sure that from the scientific point of view the flood could not have happened in the way described e.g. in the WTBTS book Is the Bible Really Word of God? However, that knowledge alone had not been enough for me... the emotional intelligence, when given the chance, was the key. I would expect it to be in many cases more effective in making a JW think than just knowledge they have been programmed to disregard.
I think what really started my doubting to escalate was when my daughter had a few problems as a teenager and the elders were extremely hard on her,asking all kinds of VERY personal questions, one claiming that when you were talking to him it was like talking to Jehovah. That really did it. Then sometime before that though I'd set at the meetings and wonder what I was there for and if I'd still be setting there when I was old and grey thinking that IT was almost here. And then when my grandchildren came along and my kids no longer went to meetings, I just could'nt see why a loving God would destroy innocent little children just because the parents did'nt go to the KH. I could go on and on but I'm sure it's all been said before.
