by headisspinning 44 Replies latest watchtower bible
Do we just start swearin' and smokin' and drinkin' and carryin' on at this point? I don't want to celebrate Christmas. I don't want to be 'bad'. I don't even know what 'bad' is. I am so confused and angry now.
Everything in moderation, or leave it out if you can't practice moderation.
Headisspinning - Although I don't have children, I am having the same exact thoughts as you. What do I do? Do I go out and enjoy life, have sex with women, celebrate Christmas and birthdays like everyone else? I don't want to though. I would feel dirty, unclean, ashamed. It's all been so deeply ingrained in me - the guilt, the fear. Like you, my head is spinning, and I feel like the world is spiraling out of control.
Cofty, thank you for the link to your Jan 5, 2010 thread. This is really a wealth of info that you have put together.
This is an appropriate time to also thank Marvin Shilmer and others () for their contributions in refuting this weird JW blood doctrine.
If the 7 million + JWs were allowed to read this info I would imagine that a high percentage would wake up. It is a no brainer!
I want more definite answers. I want to know the Truth. I want to know what to believe. I still want to be 'hardcore' about SOMETHING. About ANYTHING.
Do we just start swearin' and smokin' and drinkin' and carryin' on at this point? I don't want to celebrate Christmas. I don't want to be 'bad'. I don't even know what 'bad' is. I am so confused and angry now.
Headisspinning - Although I don't have children, I am having the same exact thoughts as you. What do I do? Do I go out and enjoy life, have sex with women, celebrate Christmas and birthdays like everyone else? I don't want to though. I would feel dirty, unclean, ashamed. It's all been so deeply ingrained in me - the guilt, the fear. Like you, my head is spinning, and I feel like the world is spiraling out of control.
Headisspinning and doubtful: I felt the same way as you both do, as I know many others on this site did. Don't expect to find the answers immediately.
I spoke to a counsellor about this shortly after I left the religion. I told her that all my life I had known this "truth" - that there was going to be a paradise, I was going to live forever, my perception that I had a relationship with God - and suddenly that had been ripped away from me. I didn't know what to believe, I didn't know who I was - I'd lost my husband, my family, my friends... I was having a major identity crisis.
She likened my situation to an anchor, stuck solid for a lifetime, until something comes along to knock it out of the mud. Now, she said, you are like an anchor swinging about, looking for a new place to land. She told me that the key to who I am lies in my past. "Think back to what you know about yourself," she said, "think about the secret dreams and aspirations you have had, think about the things you are passionate about that have NOTHING to do with this religion. Those things will start you on your way. But do not expect to find your identity overnight. You need to accept that this is going to take time."
So that's what I did.. I thought about the things I had secretly aspired to - university, a successful career, helping people, being part of the community... and that week I joined a charity organisation and started to spend time as a volunteer... I picked up a position that will lead me right into a great career path, and a couple of weeks ago I was accepted into university.
It's a nice, fluffy, fanciful notion that we are going to live forever in a paradise. Lovely but not reality. Reality is right here, and there are some great things to experience. Things that you might never have experienced had you kept your blinkers on and not questioned this "truth". Give it some time, you'll find your way, and you'll never look back!
On the other hand maybe the Bible did come from God, the JW leadership knuckleheads just don't know how to interpret it! Don't blame God (IMO).
JWGoneBad... I am sorry if you feel that I am blaming God. I am not. But then, I do not believe the Bible came from an all-knowing, all-loving higher power.
But let's pretend for a moment that the Bible did come from God. Do you believe he would create such an ambiguous, inaccurate scripture?
First of all, let's look at the word "abstain". It means "To restrain oneself from doing or enjoying something".
So how do you abstain from a noun? Abstain is to not take action. Blood is not an action. The scripture needs to be written to include whatever action is to be refrained from. But it is missing. Therefore, you must conclude that the scritpure is incomplete and inaccurate and must be ignored/thrown out.
If you give a starving man a blood transfusion, will he survive? Likewise, if a man is bleeding to death, will giving him food save his life?
What one does is read the Bible for themselves (minus everyone else's interpretations) and then try to imitate Jesus Christ in all that you do.
I am just scared of the backlash.
Where is your husband in all this? If you don't work this out together there will be backlash. The congregation cannot do anything to you that they haven't already done. You're DF'd and they've shunned you. You don't owe them a single thing ever again. Your husband, on the other hand, still believes? He needs to read all the stuff you do.
LOTS of people here left the organization without their spouses and the way I read it, it is a living nightmare.
Bring him on board. He's more than welcome here at JWN.
To HotChocolate... that was really helpful how you explained things. I am going to give it some serious thought.
To Mad Sweeney... my husband is reading everything I'm reading. I guess you would call him a 'lurker'. He is pretty much where I am in all of this... rethinking everything. He said he is just very confused and doesn't know what he thinks or believes right now. His biggest worry is our children. As I mentioned before the older two boys are both in their teens and once they are baptized we don't know what they will decide to do. They both live with our ex spouses so it's a difficult situation.
What the WTS willfully fails to acknowledge is that the Bible uses blood as JUST a metaphor for life as explained here;
To convince others to die for a metaphor is criminal in the extreme. As famously once said
" I WOULD NOT DIE FOR MY RELIGION. MY RELIGION MAY BE WRONG"
The JW religion IS CLEARLY and ABSOLUTELY WRONG,WRONG, WRONG.
I see that this thread has moved on from the original question.....but if I may I will return to the thought of "abstaining" .
I would like to ask a defending J W "Do you abstain from addictive drugs?" The answer, I am sure would be "Yes".
"Supposing then a serious medical condition developed and you were told that the only treatment was a prescription drug that contained these substances, in controlled amounts - are you obliged to refuse it?"
The correct answer, supported by the Awake 2001 11/8 p30 is that a Witness is free to take it or not, based on their own conscience..
My point is that the word "abstain" has an implied meaning based on the hearers assumption of the expected use of the substance. There are few things in life that we may never do in any possible circumstance , but many things that we would normally abstain from. In conversation or text we do not spell out (like a legal document) every possible definition to avoid ambiguity....
We just leave it to our hearer's common sense !
