Was Your Experience As A Jehovah's Witness Good In Any Way?

by minimus 24 Replies latest jw friends

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  BluesBrother

  Like others, I can say that the J W experience taught me to speak up, to be able to converse and deal with people of all ages and types. I learned to read well for my age when I was young and became a decent platform speaker.. I did meet and work with some really good people, along with a few not so good.

  Was it the only reason that I turned out honest? No . I am sure that I gravitated toward that way of thinking anyway.

  On the down side, my teenage years were blighted by guilt over imaginary sins, I was able to witness to people but I could not "chat" a girl to save my life. I was a social misfit among my peers. I have made major life decisions based on WT counsel, that turned out totally wrong for me. I live with the consequences. I learned the real truth too late to save three-quarters of my life.

  So, NO I do not recommend it !
• 

  minimus

  The Witness religion is extremely unchristian and I consider the religion as a cult. I think that most religions are wrong in many different ways. I know of some "good" people who were raised as Muslims, Orthodox Jews and Mormons. I do think that a person can be positively affected by their religious upbringing, even if that religion is mostly wrong in doctrine and in their Phrasaical interpertations.
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  minimus

  For the record, I'm certainly not recommending the Witness religion. My 2 grandkids are raised without any religion and as long as their parents teach them proper values, I'm hopeful they'll turn out alright.
• 

  dog is god

  The whole experience fell quite short of good. Of course I was always considered to have fallen short as well. I'm not going to give them any better than they gave me. It was very crazy making.
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  OnTheWayOut

  I happened to be raised as a Witness. If my mother raised me as a Baptist, I probably would say that my upbringing (religious) made me the (better) person that I am today.

  Many people, particularly Africans and Native Americans, used fairytales of various kinds that included thinking and/or talking animals to teach morality to young people. Storytelling is known for that. They used coyotes and lions, your family used spirits and a virgin pregnant woman.

  I am not here to knock belief, so don't flame me people. I am just saying that giving credit to a specific religion and acting like it had to be "THAT" and no other to give you your goodness or morality is really selling yourself short. Even Christianity in general being given all the credit is going too far. There are tons and tons of moral Indians, Pakistanis, Asians, middle-easterners, etc. etc. etc. that were never Christians.

  My youngest half-brother is a nuclear physicist and very much an environmentalist. He was raised by totally non-religious people who didn't instill those specific values into him. They did instill a desire to learn and think for himself. He is what he is, not from a religious or atheist or something else background. He is what he is because that's who he wanted to be.