by VampireDCLXV 50 Replies latest jw experiences
Vampire again welcome to the board,
The rumor mill had it that i left because i wanted to do" wrong", but that's what they say about everyone who sees the WTS for what it is.
There was one elders wife in the congregation, that constantly told things on people that weren't true and for some reason she never got called to the back to be counseled.
When you're in a cult that encourages spying on one another, rumors , gossip and lies run rampant, those KH's are a snake pits full of vipers.
the best one was jws being led to believe i was a suicidal junkie in order to cover a jw relatives arse as far as contact was concerned, (special needs ya know)
A heartless poster on this very forum suggested that I was not a real gladiator, just a deluded nutter.
My sister and I managed to turn the tables on one family that was the local gossip mongerers.
The daughter was my brother's age and didn't want to have the congregation graduation party with him because he wasn't "spiritual enough". But that wasn't all; she constantly went around talking about how she didn't like him, he was ugly (he's not), etc. She ran him down a lot and did it in front of my sister and I. My sister and I agreed that no one gets to pick on our brother but US!
So when people our age would tell us about what this b!tch was saying, we responded with, "Yeah, she had a crush on him and was hitting on him. When he told her "No way", she decided to get back at him." Of course, it was believable and spread around and she stopped slamming him when people started telling her to stop picking on him just because he wasn't attracted to her.
The best part was that my brother had no idea that we did that. When we told him a few years ago, he got the biggest smirk on his face! Hee hee!
To RosePetal, I completely understand where you're coming from and I feel sad about your pain.
To Q. HaHaHa Witnesses aren't in your opinion any more gossipy than most people???????????? After 54yrs born in and moving around different congregations over the years in my [experience] [ NOT OPINION] the gossip was ripe. I have seen upteen peoples lives ruined including my own over spiteful gossip and lies.
I agree that the organizational structure is designed to make people rat out their "brothers" and "sisters". No doubt about that at all, it's disgusting, and therein lies the obscenity of the high-control nature of the religion.
But individual JW friends, sitting around a cup of tea or a beer, are not more gossipy than "worldly" people. People like to talk about other people everywhere on earth. I've made my peace with that, finally!
There was always some "story" going around about so and so did such and such. One that got back to me was about a house my wife and I rented, lived there several month then moved to an apt. At Christmas, whoever moved in behind us, decorated. Story zipped around the kh that me and the wife decorated for the holiday. Never got called on it because the wife was not baptized, I suppose. There were other "lies" told to my MIL by a jw who was supposed to be Kathy's best friend( that's how we met, Kathy's mother dispised jw's ).
Anyway, kh's can and often are a "hot bed of gossip, lies and tall stories". Welcome to the board Vampire.....
Because I'm not a"born in", the gossip comparison of regular people with jw's is spectacular! Seems the 'Join Up' gives you automatic claim to know everything about everybody else's business! You know it's true. If some secret stuff was told in a little congregation anywhere, within a day, chances are the network would spread it throughout the jw world! Talk about entitlement! Sheeeesh ruuunnnnn!
clarity
To Q. I am glad you found your peace but as regard to ratting out your fellow brothers and sisters might imply that they have done something which might merit disciplinary action from the JW's point of view, however the point I was really trying to make it is the unproven slander and particularly the untrue slander that has destroyed lives. [ The creating of something that is'nt there] or putting two together and making six, through whatever motive they have for doing so.
I am not suggesting for one ,moment that this is unique to JW's or to any other religious faith or society in general and neither am I talking about just the general imperfection of individuals and a slip of the tongue I am talking about a people who believe that they are in the most moral and respectable and righteous organisation in the whole world who are the perpetrators 'James 3 v 6 -7 The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is self set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds , reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. ' NIV.
I don't think James is suggesting that we make excuses for our behaviour just due to imperfection, but carries on in verse 9&10 ' With the tongue we praise our Lord and father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in Gods likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. The point made is this 'MY BROTHERS THIS SHOULD NOT BE' NIV.
RosePetal
Again RosePetal you make some great points! JW's do purport themselves to be the most kindly, caring, moral and respectable of all religions but their actions tell a different story. What utter hypocrisy. Truly the pot calling the kettle black. They are no better than anyone else. As is stated in Matt 7:20 "by their fruits you will recognize those men." What a nasty bumpercrop of emotional poison it all is. I saw their fruits for what they were and I could bear it no more.
I also agree with Quillsky, jamiebowers and others that, yes, I did dodge a bullet. What sticks in my craw, though, wasn't that they thought I was at a bar, it was that they thought I was LYING about it. (I corrected my first post above to reflect that. Sorry all.) My sisters warned me that her whole family is hyper-sensitive like that. My sisters were formerly best friends with the girl's older sister, who I used to know as well. What's worse is that her grandma manipulated her and fed on her fears. To what end I can only speculate.
V665
What bothered me was, when I left the Borg, I sat down individually with each of my siblings and told them why I was leaving and what I was doing. They knew the whole story. As soon as I was DF'd, I was shocked about the gossip going around about me because it was my sister and my mother who were spreading all of the lies! And they knew the truth because I told them the truth myself! It just really hurt me. I went to visit a JW cousin not long after being DF'd and she told me what my sister had told her and asked me if it was true. I told her that it was not and told her the real story. My cousin said that she just knew my sister was lying but she wanted to hear it from me.
It really upset me that my cousin, to whom I hadn't told the whole story, was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, when my sister, to whom I had told everything, was intentionally and knowingly spreading lies.
Because of things like that, even if my family of origin saw the light and left the Borg tomorrow, I still wouldn't have anything to do with them because they've been so cruel and hurtful. Plus, I can't trust them, can I?
