People and not just one and not just one incident, years...I'm a slow learner. Eventually, I started seeing the lies and half-lies in their doctrine and policies. Got tired and embarrassed of being deceived, like a woman who keeps going back to an abusive man.
What made you start questioning: people or doctrine?
by In 49 Replies latest watchtower bible
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donny
Mine took root when I noticed that the wording in the word-for-word section of the Kingdom Interlinear seemed to agree more with "Christendoms" scholars than it did with the Witnesses doctrine. But I really grew suspisious when my questions were quickly shot down and the elders concern was more around "who was I talking to or what had I heard or read" rather than answering the questions.
That led to more investigation on my part and a slow drift away from the organization had begun. The lack of love and understanding really accelerated that process.
Donny
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serein
my son was studying was suposedly going to get baptised
then out of the blue they told him he couldnt. he asked why and they said cos u go collage and dont go on min enough.
my goodness he was the britest in the kingdom hall he was attending and im telling u that wsnt the only reason its cos he new his stuff and even thoe he was only young his questionings got to em he even used to question the co.he was to clever for em and he i think was just going with the flow as hed been brought up in it and his girlfreind at time was also
well he left stoped going altogther and cos hed moved back in with me as he had left home they left him alone as i ws at a diff hall.tell u what they dint bug him like they bugging me i wonder why,
no they dint want a thinker with a brain in there realm of brainwashed insercure dimwitted group of people hed make em think to much,
my son is now in a real good job and im so proud of him.
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Mad Sweeney
For me, it was doctrine about people.
Specifically, like all good Dubs I pushed doubts to the side for decades until the last straw broke the camel's back and I accepted that ONE wrong thing. Once you accept that the armor is cracked, you feel liberated to explore and search for other flaws. Once you're willing to look, the abundant flaws are everywhere.
That last straw was when I was "spoken to" by a couple elders in response to my openly criticising a boneheaded local decision made by the body. Before meeting with them I was led to believe my complaints were going to be addressed, but in a classic bait-and-switch, I was ambushed and "counseled" about my attitude toward the elders.
In this meeting I was told that the reason it was wrong for me to question the elders is because they are not only appointed by holy spirit but because they are under the direct control of Jesus Christ. Their decisions are HIS decisions and questioning them is questioning him.
I didn't just fall off the turnip truck; I know/knew the Bible as well or better than those guys even then and I also knew too many elders personally to ever possibly believe they were under any sort of divine guidance, especially in light of the bonehead decision I had specifically criticized.
The "we're always right because of who we are and who we work for" and not because of well, actually being right didn't pass the smell test. It was clearly BS.
That opened the door in my mind which allowed me to explore and search for more BS and of course it was easily found.
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Soldier77
I would say it was a bit of both that got me questioning things.
In the back of my head, the doctrine always seemed... whacky... I remember as a kid always questioning certain statements made at conventions or meetings that just sounded off. Then as I got older and got to be involved with the 'dark side' of being a witness, it showed me the legalistic, hypocritically, power-hungry, egotistical men that were running the show.
Then, late last year, a personal experience was like a slap in the face to me. Like jumping in an ice cold pond with no clothes on. The doctrine was not being lived up to by the elders, or most in the congregation, that made me analyze the doctrine more and learned just how FUBAR it is. So the doctrine was always in question, but the people sent me over the edge.
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Crisis of Conscience
BTTT
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Scarred for life
If I had to choose one, the people made me question and want to leave this cult. But the doctrine was wacko too and I knew it. By the time I was 14 there were things said in meetings and watchtowers that were just bonkers and it was starting to seem like a big bad joke. But the people were what really made me leave and run away to never return.
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White Dove
It was the people. The self-righteous, bigoted, gossipy, uncaring people.
I met so many of the same kinds in every congregation I ever attended.
Those kinds were the elders' wives and the elders, who all had delusions of grandeur, as well.
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VampireDCLXV
Hugs for White Dove. ((((((HUGS))))))
V665
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MrMonroe
1. First, the people. It increasingly bothered me that people were putting so many of the decisions in their life in the hands of "the brothers" and declaring that they would support the decisions of "the brothers" come what may. Over time it rankled me that I couldn't buy Lotto tickets, our kids couldn't celebrate birthdays ... they weren't even my decisions to make.It bothered me that so many in the congregation were nasty, small-minded, gossiping and overwhelmingly judgmental.
2. When I spent two or three days staying with relatives at Bethel, it horrified me how Bethelites seemed both lobotomised and smug; how their lives were dictated by endless arbitrary rules, many of them designed to humiliate Bethel members, and the appalling implication that THIS was how they imagined life would be like in the new system, run by small-minded, petty and egotistical men like THAT.
3. I became increasingly angered by the time wasted at conventions and assemblies I loathed because of the same dreary material trying to make me feel guilty for not doing enough, the same fake experiences and demos that didn't relate to real life at all and the whipped up "excitement" at anything some visitor from Bethel said about what "the brothers" were doing anywherein the world. I realised that few JWs actually enjoy conventions ... they go because they feel obliged to and know that if they miss it there'll be whispering about them.
4. The UN debacle piqued by curiousity about what else "the brothers" were up to they weren't telling us about, and it was after that that I began furtively reading bits of Crisis of Conscience on the internet. That allowed me to see at last how the GB were just men, and arrogant, manipulating and deceitful ones at that.
5. It was only after a good friend told us she was leaving the org (she told us she couldn't use the term "the truth" any more because she decided it wasn't ...) that it provided the realisation for my wife and I that we actually had the option of simply ceasing attendance. We wish, wish, wish we'd bloody well done it a long time ago. Thank God for Raymond Franz and the internet.
