Can you recall the event, the time when you boldly proclaim, I,am not taking this anymore.

by jam 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Glander

  Our body of elders had the regular meeting with the visiting CO. (His name was Barkley) We sat and listened to him tell us that in the coming Sunday's concluding comments from the platform he was going to make a point that anyone who was an 'irregular publisher' (meaning they either didn't report any field service or they came up short of the 10 hour per month "goal") could not honestly call themselves a "Jehovah's Witness".

  As I listened I thought of several people who I knew who would be setting in the audience, especially a couple of sisters who had unbelieving mates and the constant sacrifice they made just to be at the meetings. This would be a crushing thing to say to these loyal JW's.It crossed my mind that these people would not hesitate to refuse a blood transfusion, etc.

  I raised my hand and told him what I thought of his "you're not a JW" comment. He did not include this thought in his remarks that Sunday and I alerted a couple of elders in his next congregation and they also objected to his comments in advance.

  I then composed my letter of resignation as an elder, naming the Barkley incident and sent it to Brooklyn with a CC to the local body. That was it. My brain had kicked in and I began to see the whole crummy "sales organization" aspect and many other things. I was mentally out in a few months and forced their hand to DF me as an apostate in less than two years. Fuck the WT Society dead in their ass..
• 

  fresh prince of ohio

  In 2001 the straws nearly breaking my back were getting piled very high. The last one came during a Public Talk that was aimed at the youths ™ in attendance, and one particular point of counsel left me gobsmacked. The bro started going on about how much math is appropriate for Christian Youths ™ to take in school. I just sat there smh, and i knew on the drive home that i'd probably never attend another meeting. And I haven't.
• 

  bigmac

  1971. i was 23--had relocated to a new area with my pregnant jw wife. i really had had enough of it all by then.

  a film had been made locally--"that'll be the day"--with David Essex (buddy's music )

  in one scene--he threw his school briecase off a bridge into a river.

  wife & i were out on the ministry--we happened to walk across the very same bridge---you can guess the rest.

  my past life just floated away

  ive never regretted it for a moment---one of my better impulse decisions.
• 

  Pistoff

  Yes.

  I had been drawing away in the 90's after realizing my children could not go through the turbulence the teenage years sometimes bring, and still be treated like a member of the congregation; I mean not just that they could be df'd, but that they were made to feel not a part of.

  Add to that a corrupt CO, lying elders and by 2002 I was making maybe 40% of the meetings.

  When the Dateline program hit, my nephew called me in a panic, wondering what was going on. I remember telling him to relax, that it was probably rogue/bad elders responsible (his congregation was ground zero in one of the scandals).

  I told him I would try to find out what was going on.

  I read, and researched; I called Bill Bowen and Barb Anderson.

  After much research, I realized the WT leadership was completely responsible for a policy that did not protect children, and in fact protected pedophiles.

  I actually agreed with the crazy comment Bill Bowen made on national TV, that they had created a pedophile paradise by quashing reporting to police.

  So I stayed away even more.

  The straw was when the WT conductor stated from the platform that the recent news about the sexual abuse matter was actually from.........the Satan controlled media.

  I actually got up and walked out of that meeting, from the front row.

  I now attend the memorial only, the worst meeting of the year, just to reassure my elderly mother.
• 

  Magwitch

  4/12/06 - My 20th wedding anniversary. I was sitting in the back row at the Memorial listening to my husband give the talk. My marriage, my children, my whole life had taken a backseat to this religion. I knew that night I was done with the marriage and the religion. I have never looked back.