At a weekday meeting the person doing the talk said something that didn''t sound right to me so God turned me to Google, came to this site and others, read anti jw books, and here I am, and I have recently been shunned by hypocrites who hang around ""worldly"" people.
What made you start questioning: people or doctrine?
by In 49 Replies latest watchtower bible
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VampireDCLXV
For me it was the people. How could a group who claims to be spirit directed be such a cold hearted, spiteful, gossip ridden bunch? Ones who are elderly or deemed 'spiritually weak' are frequently ignored and left in the cold. People who I thought were friends started ignoring me too even though I had a clean record and a reputation for consistent meeting attendance. I guess I wasn't good enough because I was hesitant about Piosneering or being a Miserable Serpent. I was being treated like a leper for chrissakes! A lot of the younger one were looking upon me with disgust. Maybe rumours were going around that I was a potential wife stealer or child molester. A thick, oppressive social atmosphere smothered love and joy in the congregation like a wet blanket. I saw this in several congergations, not just my own. Soooooo many divorces and broken families, everywhere! I had my suspicions about the elders too. As I started reading the horror stories here, it only proved more or less that I was right. Directed by holy spirit, my ass! After all that, the doctrines really didn't matter to me...
V665
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cheerios
it was the people for me too. i had some problems with my now ex ... but ofc i was blamed for all of them because i "didnt study with her more" or some ridiculous nonsense that she used to justify her bad behaviour. then ofc the gossip wheel started turning and i found that people that i was supposedly friends with cast me off without a second thought. i was raised JW (not born in but pretty close), and for these people to treat me this way was devastating. i didnt start questioning doctrine until later.
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Crisis of Conscience
People. It started at Bethel too, "God's House." Imagine that!
I see a lot of double standards, especially when it comes to the elders, or the popular "spiritual pillars."
I could care less about the doctrine, although I am now using it for some leverage with my wife. I believed what I believed basically because my parents and others around me did and said it was true. But I'm not at the stage in my life where I find it critical to know whether Jesus is real, whether God cares, whether there are really annointed people, whether the devil exists, whether two people sinned because they ate fruit, etc.
So yes, it was the people, the "loving people of God's organization." Aw, what the heck. Throw the holy spirit up in here too, because that got me thinking just as much!
CoC
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wobble
I was born in, and always was upset when someone who professed to be Christian didn't act like one, but I saw the fault as being with them, not the religion.
I always had a problem with the explanations of prophecy that ended up being some fart-arsed convention at Cedar Point Ohio, I found that as fanciful as the Mormon claims.
This was in my pre-teens.
For many a long year I stuck with it, believing like a fool ,that as Almighty God had his name on it, and despite its faults, that it was still God's Organization.
Then I worked out for myself that 1914 was hogwash, nothing in the Bible refers to it, and shortly after that, that the GB were claiming for themselves the position that only belongs to Jesus.
I concluded that they were blasphemous liars, and I was actually afraid to continue associated with them.
I have, since leaving in Spring 2008, come to the conclusion that the Bible is not the word of God, and I also see no evidence for the existence of a God.
Freedom !
I am happier than I have ever been !
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breathing
suicide of someone mentally ill being threatened with disfellowshipping,
it really opened my eyes, i thought "THIS ISNT RIGHT, THIS IS NOT HUMANE"
and i started to look around,
i saw that out there in that "world" they spoke about" there were people that were more christlike and loving and caring even when people made mistakes, they werent jumped on and hounded,
yes theres good and bad in and out of that religion, but that says it all
ITS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH ONE RELGION BEING FROM GOD
then i started to look into the doctrine and could see the holes that id never let myself see before, cos i was too scared to look,
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life is to short
It should have been the people but I always tried to overlook it. My husband told me to keep my blinders on and consider the source what ever that means. I was deeply hurt over and over by the extreme lack but I just kept going back for more.
It took the child rapists to finally wake me up then it all fell apart for me. All the pain and hurt from the lack of love and seeing all the love the elders showed to the pedophiles even handing over babies to them while threating me with disfellowshiping if I told anyone.
I then found this place and freeminds and there is no way I could ever believe it again.
PS I can attest to the lack of love at Bethel also. I was there with my husband for two and half years and there as so much wrong stuff going on there from mates cheating on each other one of them being my overseer's overseer to stealing and lying. There were also some very great people that truly did want to do the right thing but it was hard to understand why all the bad was permitted in this was truly God's true religion.
LITS
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inbetween
doctrine, especially their denial of responsibility of 1975, their no no to certain pagan practices, while others are accepted, their weird blood doctrine (fractions, components, autologus blood etc)
when it comes to people, well some were real as-holes, but most are ok, even really likeable some of them...
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Awen
For me it was doctrine. The unscriptual ban on smoking, the unscriptual ban on men growing beards (something God made us able to do, which was seen as a crown of beauty in ancient times), the numerous failed prophecies and what the Bible said about false prophets. The outright lies the GB told us about their role in the Holocaust and how they "stood firm against Hitler" even at the cost of so many JW lives. The misapplication of scriptures concerning blood transfusions, and the list goes on and on. I questioned for years and prayed for years for God to reveal the truth about himself to me, which he did and subsequently I left.
Then it was the false friends who only hung out with me (when I was an unbaptized publisher) so they could count that time as field service. When I was baptized, suddenly they were all too busy and I was left to fend for myself. The lack of charity work, feeding the homeless, spending millions of dollars to refurbish the Stanley Hotel (featured in JW's: The Organization Behind The Name), using it for Gilead graduations and how extravagant it was, yet many other brothers in poorer countries were meeting in tents. I was so ashamed to identify myself as a JW.
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Sapphy
Doctrine. As a born-in I completely believed everything & thought everything I disagreed with e.g. subjection of women, Cedar Point, Ohio, death of Solomon's baby etc was my fault for not having a good enough understanding. Then over the years my "wait on Jehovah" mental folder just became too big, & it crushed my faith.
As soon as I started trusting my own judgement the doctrines became laughable.
Many believing lurkers will now be thinking of the scripture "Do not lean upon your own understanding", to which I'd just say that if you're going to submit your whole life to someone elses "understanding", you'd better make damn sure they're worthy of your trust.