by minimus 21 Replies latest jw friends
So called 'Demonic''Horror' movies & music! Did not want to bring Satan into my home/head....
Now I am watching as many so called 'Demonic''Horror' movies I can get my hands on.
Also buying a home, having kids, investing money for the future etc... In other words, just what zeroday* wrote: A LIFE!
3Mozzies
"Bad association"
Also like Mozzies - not buying a house, or pursuing a career
Everything I avoided was being done by quite a few in the congregation.
Stupid me.
JDW
Joining my workmates for Friday night drinks
Signing birthday cards for workmates
Playing "Blasphemous Rumours" by Depeche Mode, "One of Us" by Joan Osborne and anything by Melissa Etheridge
Keeping the difference when a shop assistant accidentally undercharged me
Singing the National Anthem
I agree with the sentiments about dealing with reality, not pretending.
As JWs, we stored up a lot of obvious BS in the backs of our brains and decided not to deal with them.
No minimus, we couldn't watch "I Dream of Jeannie", The Munsters or The Addams Family... even The Twilight Zone was strongly discouraged. I'm surprised I got away with "Lost in Space".
What a**holes......
Christmas music, various secular publications (Readers Digest among them), certain songs and TV shows, and the like. Yes I now avoid some of those secular publications, but because they have gone downhill (the drug companies seem to have bought out a lot of them), but I will listen to whatever music I feel like. Including enjoying Christmas music.
I also used to avoid church-themed items and apostate material. These days, I find that I can accept church themed works for artistic merit alone, even if I don't believe in it. As for apostate material, I now avoid Kingdumb Hells and field circus instead.
Drinking... no, wait. I did drink... quite a bit actually
R-rated movies... uh, wait again. I did watch R-rated movies. Just had to be sneaky about it.
Debasing music. Well, at least my definition of debasing. I owned lots of music that was not appropriate by JW standards. Again, you had to be sneaky. I did purge my collection one time, but then later replaced the lost vinyl with new CDs.
Pre-marital sex. Well, there was this one time... and oh yeah, that other time... uh, nevermind
Smoking. Yea... I avoided smoking. Never had the desire. Was it because I was a JW or just personal choice? um, pot doesn't count, right?
Holidays. There we go. I avoided celebrating holidays.
And that's very telling. Because being a good JW is all about outward appearances. You can sneak around and do all those things you're not supposed to but as long as you appeared as an upstanding JW on the surface, then you were a good JW. Just don't get caught on those other things...
I always reasoned that God would forgive me for the little things, such as swearing, or going to R-rated movies. The only things I avoided were the more serious things, things we were supposed to confess to elders.
Women...God help me I would have been a male whore otherwise.
