Did You "Linger" On As Witness Hoping That All The Pieces Would Fit? (page 3)

minimus

Does anyone know about Cynthia Franz' views?

No, (on Franz wife - just don't know) but I can tell you this: In Oklahoma City, I think that Marion and myself (and maybe Marion's cousin Terrell) were the only ones disfellowshipped for apostacy. We probably were singled out because we pushed the issue as elders.

Yet there must have been more than 50 persons who left the congregations over the issue at that time. My ex-wife left, nothing happened. Parents and sisters family left - nothing happened. The Dunlaps and my in-laws both also had extended witness relations many of whom left, and nothing was done.

Hardly any of the others ever even faced a committee, and I don't know of any who did a DA letter, either. They just quit going.

I have always thought (and Marion and Ed did too) that the local BOEs just didn't want to provide reminders of how big the scandal was.

dandingus

My faith was waning for about a year before finally there was an event that drew the line in the sand and threw me past the point of no return. But I had my doubts, and it was all starting to unravel for about a year before that.

littlebird

Yes, Min, I lingered "waiting on Jehovah" . Truth is, he was giving me the answers all along, I was just too blind to see.

LongHairGal

Yes, I stayed far longer than I should have. The only thing that forced me to wake up was when I learned about the religion's scandals in 2000. I could not ignore this and I knew it was all bullshit and they were playing everybody.

This weekend I spoke to an old JW friend and this person is so 'in' it isn't even funny. They would never even consider that the religion could be wrong about anything. They haven't had the same life experience I had so they cannot possibly relate. I also suspect that our brains are wired differently.

wobble

I lingered for decades,despite having many doctrinal problems, I believed that having God's name on the religion meant that He would sort things out.

I also thought the GB were sincere, boy was I wrong on BOTH counts.

Love

Wobble

MochaLatte

I lingered on from 1995 or so for about 10 years. I like to think of that fan illustration the WT used to use about Adam and Eve when they said they began to die the day they at the fruit, but it took 100s of years for them to actually die. That's how my belief/faith went...got unplugged in NY but it took 10 years (and some "helpful" folks poking objects between the blades of the fan) to finally make me stop. My doubts started while I was at Bethel because of some things that occurred around me that were just not right. (Like let's say "hypothetically" that your Bethel elder husband commits adultery with some other Bethelite's wife, he somehow doesn't get DFd and you're left at Bethel to deal with the aftermath of that?) I felt it was wrong to doubt the process the way I did so I tried stiffling it until later several other things occurred around and to me that I could no longer ignore. I hadn't decided that the doctrine was wrong and I hadn't read anything against the organization, but I knew that there was something very wrong there and that I was not happy and just couldn't deal with it anymore. In the meantime I requested many shepherding visits but was only given the same generic advice, which wasn't very helpful. (During one of those shepherding visits a brother got up from his seat and got the bound volume to show me the article "You Are Precious in God's Eyes" before I had even finished explaining what was wrong.) Ultimately I was DFd for wrongdoing, but I was tired in every way of trying to hold on to a lifestyle I no longer cherished. I do wish I'd been strong enough to leave earlier so that I didn't waste more years inside, but I'm glad to be out now.