I agree with you Mankeli, and I wish more of JWN were honest with themselves. Although there are some things wrong with the organization, overall it's a spiritual paradise. I wish more of JWN would come back into God's Rest. I was talking with a sister yesterday, and she made the comment that we're only stressed and upset when we question the Faithful & Discreet Slave, and that if only we listened to their council and acted upon it without a divided heart, we'd maintain the joy that only Jehovah's Witnesses have today.
Are you sure leaving the JW religion has made your life better?. Lurkers think twice
by mankkeli 260 Replies latest jw experiences
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NewChapter
Yes, and stress only happens in an abusive relationship when the wife disobeys, questions, or tries to leave. Best not to rock the boat. Stop bringing such stress on yourself George. Posting here will eat you up. Go serve wholeheartedly. You'll feel better.
NC
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zengalileo
A lot of you are acting like you have no idea what she is talking about. C'mon, like you've never told yourself that you wished you had just stayed in? I've been there lots of times. I even tried to go back once for almost a year.
This post I think has a lot of merit. What she is talking about is values. If you value a happy together family, or at least one that looks happy in pictures even if some members are dead inside, then staying a JW is the best way to go.
If you have no interest in knowledge and truth and no desire to actually serve the true God, then stay a JW.
If you can sit through the meetings without sticking a double barrel shot gun in your mouth, then stay a JW. (I couldn't.)
If you want to get up every week end and stand on street corners saying, "Get your Watchtower! Watchtower here! Come one come all! (Sung in the voice of Peter Griffin selling back scratchers on Family Guy.)
If you want to go through life not celebrating holidays and birthdays etc. Then stay in. If the Memorial is the slamminest rock party you need, then stay in.
If stuffing those feeling down inside you and suppressing your rage at all the lies and hypocrisy from your leaders, a bunch of yahoos in Patterson, then stay in.
Unfortunately the poster of this thread is forgetting that some people want truth, actual truth, whether they find it in atheism or whatever. It is a depp seated human need to seek the truth and knowledge..
Also the poster forgets that we did not create the situation where family members must choose between their religion and each other. Mother must choose a publishing company over her own son. And daughter must choose a magazine over her father. Children must choose the word of s bunch of dudes in NY they never met over their own life on the issue of blood transfusions. People die siding with the Governing Body, who I remind you is just a bunch of dudes with dicks like everyone else. Not even particularly large didcks either. Just ordinary dicks. henschel and Jarasc had particularly small dicks in fact. It was like, embarrasing to be in the stall next to them. You just couldn't look away.
anyway. So yes I agree, there were moments when my heart was so broken and I deeply regretted all the sadness I caused by leaving. I lost EVERYBODY I ever loved. It still hurts. But I was in prison, and I just couldn't breathe in that cult. sometimes there are higher things to live for that a picture perfect family of fresh faces and short hair. Sometimes the family pictures don't reveal what is going on behind the eyes of the indi9viduals.
To me it is like Sophie's choice. The german guard said, "I am going to kill one of your children. Which one will it be? yuou son or your daughter?" She chose (spoiler alert!) OK, I won't say which one she chose. see the movie. But was it her fault that one of her children died? Or did the german officer create the situation where she had to choose one or the other.
Normal religions, non harmful one don't destroy families and individuals. Normal religions aloow FREEDOM OF RELIGION. That is really the right that JWs ware taking away from one another. The right to have a personal religious experience apart from the Watchtower publishing company.
If you stay you let Bib Brother win. remember in 1984, what Big Brother was willing to do in terms of torture to the main character? They were going to have his face eaten off by rats, his worse fear. He cghose to go back to be a faithful follower of Big Brothger. But he was ultimately a coward on e might say. He gave in and let them win for utilitarian reasons. So the poster of this thread is RECOMMENDING A UTILITARIAN APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM OF BEING A JW WHEN YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN IT. And there is nothing techniacally wrong with that. We all use utilitarian reasoning to a certain extent. We all passively obey laws, not because we actually believe in them but because we don't want to get arrested or get a ticket. we all submit to the government because they can kill us if they want to. We are all under a certain level of coercion. some people are willing to scarifice their pretend happy family and family portraits for individual freedom. And that is a painsful choice. Maybe a lot of ex JWs are so mad because they are not the ones that invented the "Sopie's Choice" they are faced with. The Watchtower created that problem. But those who leave are tortured by the WT long after they leave.
The poster of this thread probably feels a lot of pain and regret. Maybe she will remember why she left one day. But for now she is choosing to let Big Brother win.
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mankkeli
NRFG - You get the point, of what value is being stressed and being upset day after day when we have just a short time to live on earth?
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leavingwt
[This thread is a sad reminder of how dangerous this particular cult really is. I feel so lucky to have ever escaped.]
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mrsjones5
I was more stressed inside than outside. I'm glad I left. No regrets.
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mankkeli
leavingwt - What is the value of that feeling you are presently having?, of what merit is it?
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Jewel
"...of what value is being stressed and being upset day after day when have just a short time to live on earth?"
EXACTLY!
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00DAD
mankkeli: OODAD- How has leaving strenghtened your relationship with your children?
Frankly, it has strained it very much. I have hardly talked to my oldest son (20 yrs. old) in 2 years and the relationship with my younger (17) is difficult.
And, while it was my choice to leave, it was and remains their choice to act as they do. I reach out to them constantly in every way I can imagine, always trying to show them the unconditional love that none of us really enjoyed when I was in and we were PRETENDING to be a happy family, picture perfect.
But let's be honest here, they are under tremendous social pressure from the congregation because of the Society's medieval shunning policy. They are placed in a terrible Loyalty Bind by an organization that claims to have authority that it does not in fact possess legitimately.
As has been well established, the WTBTS's claim of being God's Organization is patently false. Therefore, their claims of authority are bogus. And yet because rank & file JWs believe it they act accordingly and so lives are devastated. Let's place the blame squarely where it belongs, shall we: on the shoulders of the hypocrites and liars the lead the WTBTS, not on those of us that are trying to have the courage to live a life of conscience and freedom, Christian or otherwise.
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mankkeli
mrsjones5 - Are you free of life problems now that you are out?