What Actually Made You Leave The Organization? (page 8)

unshackled

Nickolas, as far as I know, the Org does not disassociate. That is the action a member takes to end their ties to the Org. Disfellowshipping is the action the Org takes to exclude a member.

moshe

It was time (1988) - I went 10 years longer than I should have. If only we had the Internet back then.

Thank you, unshackled. That is my understanding, too. I was just puzzling over what was written in the previous post. I've never read before in here a former Jehovah's Witness say he or she was disassociated without notice.

ThomasCovenant

Never truly believed it but went along with it for 30 years because it's what we did and knew. They certainly weren't all bad and many good times were had.

What actually made me leave?

Waiting in the hospital at 2am to hear from the medical staff whether my wife was alive or not, following her emergency operation, blood related.

Preparing myself for the worst, I wondered what the hell I was going to tell my children, trying to explain to them that yes, their mother had died over peer pressure to conform to a ludicrous belief system that neither of us believed in, but just went along with.

I'm glad to say she lived, but I was never the same again. I thought before, that the good outweighed the bad, but now I believe differently.

Nickolas

Preparing myself for the worst, I wondered what the hell I was going to tell my children, trying to explain to them that yes, their mother had died over peer pressure to conform to a ludicrous belief system that neither of us believed in, but just went along with.

I'm incredulous. What I'm reading is you and your wife didn't believe in it yet your wife put her life in danger because of peer pressure and you went along with it. I am probably missing something, TC. I am assuming the hospital asked about using blood and the two of you said "No". Did everything just happen so fast that you found yourselves in a situation without having had the time to think about how stupid you were both being? I'm not trying to be critical, because I think your story is a good example of cognitive dissonance and mind control at work. There must be many Jehovah's Witnesses among the 7 million who know in their hearts that the Watchtower is crap but who just don't want to think about it, or are forced to think about it only when the really ugly stuff gets personal.

unshackled

Nickolas: I've never read before in here a former Jehovah's Witness say he or she was disassociated without notice.

Never read that before either. Shechaiya would have to clarify...but I'm guessing a mixup in terms.

Nickolas

Yeah. Probably a mixup of terms, unshackled. It was not too long ago ... a few months ... maybe even in here ... someone said that he had been excommunicated from the Society and I thought that was kind of strange, too. I have only heard the past participle disfellowshipped used in that context otherwise.

ThomasCovenant

Nickolas,

We had both been ''brought up in the truth''. A lot of both families were in too. (Thankfully that has now changed, now it is a minority still in) I hadn't believed it for years and my wife wasn't interested enough to think about it. But we felt we were just stuck in it. It was our ''way of life''.

We, like almost all Witnesses I suppose, knew of the blood doctrine but just hoped it would never happen to us.

Come the time of the scheduled operation my wife expressed her wishes to the hospital along the lines of 'I'd rather not have blood, but if I really have to, I will. Please try your best not to administer it'.

The operation went ok and all was well, and we both thought there was no need to worry, (it's probably called putting your head in the sand) until the following night when unexpected major bleeding occured. I was telephoned to rush to the hospital and was just in time to see her being wheeled down to the operating theatre. She was semi conscious by now, but said to me that she didn't want to die and had signed to accept blood.

I could tell that the hospital staff were worried that I was going to try to persuade her otherwise, but I told them 'I'm not a Witness'. I could sense their relief that a maniac wasn't in front of them.

For the next few hours, waiting, I didn't know whether she would make it or not, her haemoglobin levels were already very low before the operation.

When she came round, she expressed that she realized she would rather live for her family now, than for a bloke in the sky who may or may not be there.

No blood was adminstered as the hospital did their best to respect her 'religion'.

Interestingly, on a later checkup, one of the nurses did try to reassure her along the lines of , 'don't worry you're not the only Witness who has done this'. Not in those words exactly but we got the picture.

You asked, ''Did everything just happen so fast that you found yourselves in a situation without having had the time to think about how stupid you were both being?''

Yes, we were both absolutely stupid effin idiots for letting it get that far. It happened 30 years too fast.

I too find it fascinating and incredible that I stayed in for so long.

ThomasCovenant

Nickolas,

You also said,

''There must be many Jehovah's Witnesses among the 7 million who know in their hearts that the Watchtower is crap but who just don't want to think about it, or are forced to think about it only when the really ugly stuff gets personal.''

As awful as it may seem, the life threatening situation with the blood is what forced me to face up to reality. Be a man, if you will.

For that, at least, I am grateful.

Nickolas

Glad for you you made it out, TC. The Watchtower is a whitewashed grave soaked with the blood of innocents.

What Actually Made You Leave The Organization?

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