So through the internet it's possible to see what people are doing from childhood without actually interacting. I really imagined the majority people I knew who were born into the religon about the same time I was would have left when they matured and hopefully developed some logic???. So do they really believe everything they were taught as children or are they just stuck and don't know how to leave? There is one difference that I was physically abused all in the name of "Jehovah" and my most of my "friends" weren't hit. maybe that helped brain wash them since they may have felt more kindness from their families - even though being raised like that is not kind in any way.
Can't believe people who were JWs with me as children are still in the religon.
by myusername 6 Replies latest jw experiences
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Scarred for life
Yeah, I agree with you. Being raised as a JW is not kind in any way.
I don't even know if anybody I knew as a child are still JWs. I do know some of my cousins still are.
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Shanagirl
I've heard of some who left and lived with their boyfriend, then came back and got engaged to jw. I think these kids come back just to please the parents.
Shana
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WTWizard
The religion is designed to leave people helpless in the world. You see children banned from playing with other children who are not witlesses (bad associations). Then they are prepared to flunk classes--those late night Thursday evening boasting sessions and Family Waste the Evening Night are no mere coincidence. Study time (for classes) is taken away for field circus. They are not allowed to spend time with sports. Everything they study results in censorship--you are not going into this career because you are supposed to pious-sneer. They neither go to college nor become apprentices in trades. They are not allowed to start their own businesses, except in the cleaning business.
The result is that most witlesses born in the cancer are trapped. If they defect, they are not going to have family supporting them. No college, no help in finding a job, no nothing. They miss out on friendship with the outside world, and now they are threatened with being cut off from those inside the cancer. They are also taught that Satan controls the Internet, and that Satan will get them if they read anything that doesn't praise the religion. They are programmed to believe that they will die if they don't do all they can to support the religion, and if they don't do enough they are "bad associations".
To me, it is easier to leave a religion if you were not born in it. If you are a recruit, you still remember how it was before becoming a witless. Children younger than about 7 at the time their parents joined the cancer are not able to remember what life was like before they became witlesses, except that they might vaguely remember it as better. The younger the child is when the parents go witless, the more likely they are to have little or no memory of what it was like before. And, the less they remember pre-witless, the less likely they are to be able to leave the cancer.
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myusername
WTWizard-yes the late meetings were difficult. My parents used to stay an hour after chatting with just a couple of people. I wouldn't even get up for school the next day. I used to think I was very dumb because I went to a special JW school for high school, which grants diplomas but isn't "real." You just show up a few hours a month. When I started city college I ended up getting high grades and transferred to state and ended up with high grades there too. All the while missing a high school education. (Don't think I have a career though. If you aren't allowed to find out what you like as a youth, I feel it's very difficult to find yourself later.) In a way, children raised as JWs will always have special 'handicaps' in the larger world, but sometimes the things you think will be stunted are not. (btw-I was in the JW world from birth.)
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myusername
P.S. I was embarrassed to write this in my post but since this is anonymous, I will say I never learned how to be comfortable making friends. When you're raised in a cult your friends are chosen for you. Anyway, when I was young I thought I would be killed for not believing but I felt I would rather be killed that be in this false utopia. The meetings and what they preach used to be so extraordinarily offensive to me.
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exjehovah
I can only think of two or three; everyone else never got baptised, got disfellowshipped, or just "quietly left" whether they were baptized or not. I just think it is hard to keep people following a religion with so many holes in it, especially if people get educated and are around various people that are not JWs.