Getting an ACTIVE Jehovah's Witness to RETIRE!

by Terry 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Terry

  
  
  Hello friend!
  

  
  
  You and I have something in common. Yes, we do!
  

  
  
  Would you like to know what it is? You and I are both faithful Jehovah's Witnesses. Right. We are part of the same team. There is only one technical difference hardly worth mentioning. I'm retired. That's right; I retired. I also don't have to call myself anything anymore.
  

  
  
  What? You didn't know you could retire? You thought being "faithful to the end" was the only option? Nah! That's silly.
  

  
  
  I took the retirement package called: Disfellowshipped.
  

  
  
  Huh? Did I just see you flinch? Relax.....let me explain......it's not the terrible situation you might imagine.
  

  
  
  You see, it goes like this. Jehovah is looking for lost sheep, right? Right.
  

  
  
  He sends JW's out to knock doors and chat with anybody who will listen. Even a casual friend or acquaintance might be a lost sheep.
  

  
  
  That's how I became a publisher. How about you? Right!
  

  
  
  Anyway, I digress...
  

  
  
  Once Jehovah finds you and spoon feeds you and you are baptised you go out and knock doors. Right, you become one of his faithful workers helping to free captives in Babylon the Great.
  

  
  
  But, it is a little known fact---one I'm about to reveal to you--which makes all the difference in the long run.
  

  
  
  A publisher who stays in the Kingdom Hall too long goes stale. Did you know that? I'm telling you the gospel truth here. Listen up and see if you don't agree.
  

  
  
  You can tell when you've been at the old JW game too long when you notice these symptoms of staleness.
  

  
  
  1.IT'S BORING!!! Every "new" book reads just exactly like the old ones. Adam and Eve in the first chapter and Armageddon in the last chapter. Five meetings a week make your butt go numb and your mind wanders. The voices of the brothers on the platform blur into a droning monotone. The songs are like bad Lawrence Welk recordings. You feel your mind melting into goo.
  

  
  
  2.PRESSURE TO DO MORE!! Everytime you turn around you are being urged to do more. More field service, more magazine placements, more bible studies.....which naturally means LESS TIME for your own free choices. (What choices??) Having "free time" is made to seem like an out and out sin or apostacy. Recreation is viewed the same as fornication!! Having fun is a symptom of satanic infiltration!!
  

  
  
  3.OBVIOUS ERRORS!! You start to see discrepencies in the doctrines. What use to be a marvellous expectation is shot down in a depressing "New Light" revelation that it was all just illusory. Things are said to be getting better and the end is nearer and the hope is brighter--but--you've heard it all before and it begins to look like some kind of---gulp! CON JOB!
  

  
  
  4.DEPRESSION!! All that enthusiasm for the absolute Truth has become a fog of constant depression that you just can't shake!! There never seems to be a way out. You feel like a rat in a maze or a hamster on a wheel cranking away at a furious pace going nowhere! You can't get out of your financial doldrums or plan for a future--it is out of your hands. Your entire life is out of your hands! You are a cog in a wheel and expendable. The best you can do is put a good face on it and pretend to be fulfilled. It means your life is becoming a lie. You feel suffocated and want to run out of the Kingdom Hall screaming. But, you can't!
  

  
  
  Does any of this fit you, my friend? Of course it does!! You've gone stale!!
  

  
  
  But, there is a way out. Yes, there is! You can retire!
  

  
  
  Remember? I told you it is called DISFELLOWSHIPPED. 3.You don't have to waste your precious time reading poorly written books and magazines with awful syntax and imaginary beliefs! Now you can read the Great Books that have sustained mankind for centuries. You can even read non-fiction for a change and learn about how the world really works. You can read about science and math and philosophy and especially the phoney history of religious groups that claim to be the only true sevants of God (but who are really just pawns in a corporate enrichment scheme). 4.You are now born again. No, not that way! In a very real way. You have escaped a mind-control cult. You have a foundation on which to build from the self-knowledge that making poor choices in life ruins your life. You will be able to see for the first time that life is about taking responsibility for yourself and not turning your destiny over to "others" who claim great powers. 5. Finally, you will discover that life is far more magnificent than you'd ever been led to believe. It isn't really all just a lousy plan to glorify an invisible power-broker in the sky! No way. Life is a vast array of choices for each person. There is no limit to what you can achieve if you believe in yourself. So, how about it.Ready for early retirement?
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  dgp

  Not being a JW, I wonder if everyone goes throught this stages. I hope they do.
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  Terry

  You never know--it could work!
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  Nephilim

  Being born a witness I went through different stages.

  I never got to the point where I fully listened to all the rules. I figured if I made it to 2 different meetings a week I was good. I'd come late, leave early. I'd watch R-rated movies, make out with girls, drink, go to clubs.

  In my best year I pioneered but dropped off watchtowers at laundry mats as much as possible.

  What's weird is when I really started to make "progress" and attempted to become an MS that's when I really started to do research and things started to bother me. I studied with an Elder one on one who gave me so many funny (ridiculous) stories that I plan on posting them through out the year on this board. It was really studying hard and that made me think about what I had been learning all my life.

  Them saying "beware of what information lies out there" made me think, "what kind of knowledge is bad knowledge? we have a book that says knowledge leads to everlasting life, wait a minute?"

  Instead of fading I just happened to move away and then stopped going. I read as much knowledge as I could (I'm not just talking about "apostate" info) I mean non-fiction like Terry said. I decided to go back to college. I did this because I went from a feeling like I was smarter than most of the worlds population to feeling like I was completely ignorant. College reversed that although I still feel ignorant but this is good... I'm thirsty for the right kind of knowledge.

  With all the knowledge coming in I am still a student to the world is so many different ways.

  Leaving, was like hitting the reset button on life.

  The society does not give you an honorable way out of their deceptions. I still want to retire, oh believe me. However, I have a chip on my shoulder and there are so many good people being lied to that need to the brightest light possible - REAL KNOWLEDGE. My heart goes out to the disfellowshipped person who is struggling to get back in because they want to make God happy. If only they knew.

  I am still trying to find my honorable way out (especially with the witch hunt that has ensued since my departure). There isn't a day that I am not wishing that the organization collapses within itself. The most honorable thing for me would be to be apart of that.

  I began writing several different books and maybe one day I'll complete them when I'm capable enough.
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  Terry

  Leaving, was like hitting the reset button on life.

  The society does not give you an honorable way out of their deceptions. I still want to retire, oh believe me. However, I have a chip on my shoulder and there are so many good people being lied to that need to the brightest light possible - REAL KNOWLEDGE. My heart goes out to the disfellowshipped person who is struggling to get back in because they want to make God happy. If only they knew.

  I am still trying to find my honorable way out (especially with the witch hunt that has ensued since my departure). There isn't a day that I am not wishing that the organization collapses within itself. The most honorable thing for me would be to be apart of that.

  An HONEST organization has a policy for feedback.

  An HONEST organization allows a Loyal Opposition to voice its concerns.

  Why?

  A wrong course can be corrected from within.

  But, this particular organization is based on a False Premise which automatically disallows correction (even though it keeps changing policy).

  The False premise of the Watchtower Society is that all of its teachings, policies, doctrine and theology are Biblical.

  That False premise is based on yet another False premise that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired word of God Almighty.

  That False premise is based on the belief that the original autograph manuscripts (which do NOT exist anywhere) were somehow preserved for our edification and enlightenment. No such thing happened. The originals disappeared and the fragments of third and fourth generation copies don't really appear for several hundred years.
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  WTWizard

  I simply stopped showing up. Gradually, as I was in between two different congregations, I started pulling more and more no shows. As my "transferral" to the other congregation went like a bad install of a new version of a computer program (I never transferred my official status), they had a miserable time deciding how to find out whether I was at the other side, trying to predict where I would show up, or whose job it was to make sure I was going to get hounded. And, gradually the number of no shows increased.

  Then, one day I simply stopped showing up for boasting sessions or field circus. I have no plans to ever return, since I have no paycheck to pick up.
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  Terry

  Then, one day I simply stopped showing up for boasting sessions or field circus. I have no plans to ever return, since I have no paycheck to pick up.

  Reminds me of a lithograph I saw once hanging on a wall. It had a figure seen from behind going down an amorphous rainbow hued roadway. The caption read: ONE DAY, FED UP WITH HELL, HE SIMPLY UP AND LEFT......

  Funny how it reminds me that my very best JW friend who brought me in to the organization from the beginning made absolutely no effort whatsoever to get me to "come to my senses" out of concern.

  He just shrugged it off that I'd die at Armageddon.

  Interesting, no?
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  not sure yet

  Yes Terry, but if your friend would tried to make you come to your senses, you would have thought he hounded you or not?
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  willyloman

  It's really a great concept, Terry. Thanks for sharing.

  Some months ago I ran into an old dub "friend" unexpectedly as I was browsing a warehouse discount store. We chatted by the books aisle for a few minutes. She finally decided to lead up to the "what happened" question, but first she said, "You were in the Truth for a long time, right?"

  I told her I was a witness for nearly 30 years, that I had served long and faithfully, and that I was now retired. She wasn't expecting that and didn't know what to say. So she gave me a hug and promised to give us a call sometime and that maybe we could all have come over for dinner. Of course, she never called.

  I'm sure she knew what I meant.
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  Terry

  Isn't it__________ironic_________the thing Jehovah's Witnesses fear the most is really the thing that will give them a

  new start on happiness for the rest of their lives!?

  DISFELLOWSHIPPED=FREEDOM!