Don't make the same mistake I did

by Terry 35 Replies latest jw experiences

  • Terry
    Terry

    The innocent fact stares us in the face: in the Kingdom Hall you are less safe than anywhere else because your family, your mind and your future are slowly sucked out until nothing remains but the impulse to do as you're told.

    That's IF you pay attention.

    If you are a reluctant attendee you more easily notice what is happening.

    The restive nature of the demolition alerts you to wariness.

    This may be the only window of opportunity you get!

    Pressure from wife, kids, "friends" and elders hit you from all sides when you show signs of escape.

    Tragically, there really is no argument to be made back at them.

    Everything is an argument already. A child can't win an argument with parents. The power and authority is too imbalanced.

    The same is true in this religion. IF YOU SHOW UP you are already lost.

    Moral of the story? DON'T!

    When I stopped going I was halfway rescued.

    Where I went awry was not knowing the stakes of escape for my wife.

    All of my children, by the way, turned out fine. They are happy and totally religion-free!

    It was my born-in wife who didn't make the escape.

    She tried to self-medicate the pain and loss with alcohol and there was NOBODY to help her; escpecially her JW family and "friends."

  • Lozhasleft
    Lozhasleft

    Sending you hugs Terry. Be proud of the loving father you were and are.

    Loz x

  • Mickey mouse
    Mickey mouse

    Thanks for sharing that Terry, it's not easy to hold your hands up and recognise an error.

    I think we all have to do what we feel is best at the time.

    Personally I didn't have the strength to make a stand at the time I discovered the truth about the 'the truth'. I couldn't be strong for everyone. But I did reach my husband and I am in the process of reaching out to family.

  • Heartofaboy
    Heartofaboy

    Dear Terry your story is very moving.

    Thank goodness you are here with us, I always value your comments on this forum for the profound perspective they contain.

    Don't be too hard on yourself Terry, the Watchtower religion had an insidious hold on us & it's only now we are free from it's hold that we could be too hard on ourselves for being taken in.

    Hoaby

  • Terry
    Terry

    A great many years have passed. I was DF'd 33 years ago and the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses has darkened so much it is unrecognizable to me now.

    I would go so far as to say it is not the SAME religion that disfellowshipped me!

    Sure, on the surface, the trappings are much alike. But, the solidarity of fascism has hardened the hearts of Governing Body autocrats into cold steel.

    The goings on at Kingdom Halls is cheerless monotony and negative in the extreme.

    Teaching hate now is reprehensible. The target once was other religions and especially Catholicism. Now it is chiefly former members who are demonized as the "other". A target of vile rhetoric is painted on the very ones who embraced the lies and woke up.

    Being exposed for their malfeasance and ineptitude is to be avoided at all costs.

    They bare their fangs and sharpend their claws on our furniture.

    It is even more vital to get your family out as soon as humanly possible today than it ever was 33 years back!

    How?

    Whatever means necessary.

  • moshe
    moshe

    Thank you Terry. Leaders don't always immediately succeed- I spent many years wondering "what-if", in trying to figure out what I could have done differently when I quit the KH. Maybe, my life happened just as it was supposed to happen.

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