Band on the run said "How I interact with other people is a more telling test of my Christianity"
Exactly and not the hours of door to door work that are required to be reported each month
by Band on the Run 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Cait
Interesting story. Do the bigwigs still use bodyguards? I keep hearing an old JW myth about the invisible angels that suddenly show up when you need them...if you are out in field service doing what you are supposed to be doing. Many a JW has been saved by these suddenly visible angel bodyguards. Was your father a Watchtower angel?
BAND ON THE RUN- WElcome to the board friend ! ( Great Avatar name by the way - I'm a huge Paul McCartney fan who wrote that song ! ) . Anyway- Like yourself I was raised in the cult from birth and I saw the injustices you spoke about constantly over the 44 years it took me to finally exit the cult. You expressed the issues very well in your thread . I'm sorry you've been through so much - but welcome to freedom of thinking on this board ! Look forward to hearing more from you. Sounds like you've educated yourself well. And that's a good thing
Band on the Run / Janice... welcome!
I am glad you were able to awaken to the falacies of the Watchtower. It is difficult to do this when your entire family is in and has had such a history with them. Good for you!
As a teenager, so much didn't sit right with me. Subjugation of women, blood policy, intrepretation of scripture, lack of scriptural backing for their doctrines, and observing my parent's relationship deteriorating all led me to my conclusions that this group wasn't for me. It is only recently that I have actually learned the full extent and degree of the Watchtower's lies and deceptions.
As Outlaw has stated many times before .... the Watchtower creates graveyards of destroyed families.
What a sick and sad legacy. Shame on them!
Cattails,
I neglected to spell check! Somehow the world will go on despite my error. Ignoring trolls is a good policy. Your name is appropriate for a catty person. Again, I throw caution to the wind. My mistakes were not egregious because the context supplied correction. The larger question for me is what my post triggered within you to elicit such nastiness. The problem is not with my not spell checking. Whenever I act in a vindictive manner, I know to question my motives more than the motives of the person annoying me.
If you wish to discuss the content of my post, I'd welcome it. Alas, my computer is not accepting the spell check download.
On another note my rage strikes me as untoward b/c it has been decades. I am very integrated into a worldly life. When I admit that I was once a Witness and even knocked on doors, asking "Do you believe in eternal life?" at age eleven, people double over with laughter. My sister is seven years younger and was not exposed to the WTBTS as much as I was. I embrace life fully and have worldly success. Internally, it is still a battle. Often I go about my day and find myself doing something wicked, such as attending legal seminars, voting, campaigning, being a woman as opposed to a little subservient girl, reading books, attending church actively, reading the Bible on my own and I am stunned. All this was forbidden to me. I no longer cower and check the space between doors and the hinge, the closets or space in the shower for demons. The wonder of it all is amazing. I am so grateful to God. Yet the negative messages still whirl around in my brain.
I'd be interested in the experiences of others. Clearly, being raised a JW during your developmental years must make it harder.
I'd be interested in the experiences of others. Clearly, being raised a JW during your developmental years must make it harder.
I didn't look for deemunz but I did fear things being evil or forbidden. Including my own thoughts. Feared Armageddon coming any day now, fearing losing my worldly dad and family. Wondering if I wasn't good enough. Hating dressing up to the meetings, hating the boring meetings, hating Thursdays, but believing it is the truth so feeling bad for hating it. Feeling like I should try harder. Feeling embarassed at school by having to opt out of parties and assemblies, having to "make a stand" in not saying the pledge of allegience, having to JUST BE DIFFERENT. Feeling sad at having birthdays, Christmas, Halloween, in other words FUN being taken away (my mom converted when I was in second grade). Feeling bad about feeling inferior, feeling guilty about having sexual feelings, feeling humiliated by "sisters" spreading rumors about me, feeling confused about a former best friend being disfellowshipped and shunned, and learning that false rumors were told about her as well. Wanting to have my own mind so I can think on my own, noticing that things claimed to be true weren't really true. Fighting about doubts and wanting to maintain faith, never having enough conviction to take the plunge of baptism, at the same time as making fun of the elders and GB with my friends. Wanting to go to college but told that it would be a huge mistake......That's just for starters.