What has or would motivate you to attend an Ex-JW meet up... (page 4)

red21

Never been to a meet up but would if there were slutty sisters there, older preferrably, that were well endowed! We drink, we laugh, we grope! Sounds like a great time to me!

For me it would be like someone else already stated. Social interaction with people who understand where your life was, has been and what you may be going through in life now. Plus the possibility to meet new friends.

Distance isn't an issue.

Phizzy

I usually travel 50 miles or so, no problem. I go for the interaction, I always meet someone new who I get on with, plus get the odd pleasnt surprise.

The last one I attended their was a young guy who was a friend of my kids in his youth, it was great to see him there, and so "together".

I always look on it too as such a good anti-witness, here are so many worldly people, from all races etc and getting along so well.

They are good fun.

Iceltic, whereabouts in the UK are you ?

OnTheWayOut

I definitely needed a "support group" of sorts that understood what I was going through. The local meetup group was being run absentee, literally on the idea that the ex-JW's would show up and support each other without the presence of the person organizing. It wasn't really working, so I asked if I could run the group. We met at restaurants and typically stayed 3 hours and talked about our lives and how WT screwed things up or how we got out. If someone really needed to talk, we talked deeper. Another meetup group formed nearby and I was a member of that one too.

If it weren't for my JW wife, I would have gotten even more involved with meetup. Because of my situation, I eventually stopped organizing the group and someone else does it now. I don't attend as often as I did as an organizer, but I needed it more a few years ago. I still need the contact with people who understand, though.

I had heard that some meetups became Christian conversion meetups. We did have some attend who hoped our group would become that. They didn't last. The one group I organized, I didn't ban anything from the conversations but insisted that it not break down into arguments or camps of disagreement. Christians, atheists, others- we didn't belittle what anyone believes. For a few, over the top Christians, that wouldn't work and they just stopped attending.

I also love the 2 Tahoe Apostafests I have attended, organized by Flipper. I have wanted to attend other long-distance gatherings but it never really worked out. I hear there were some great gatherings of JWD (before JWN) groups several years ago. I was going to go to the famous Wisconsin one, but I think it broke down one year before I planned to go and disbanded.

panhandlegirl

Distance is what would keep me from attending a xjw get together. I feel no one but a xjw can understand what we have been through as jws.There could be some "pretenders to the misery" attending. Also, who would try to get you to join another religion; we've been there, done that!!

Magwitch

Wha Happened (??) It was love at first sight for you, your wife, Palmtree and Oompa!!

Flat_Accent

If someone wants to arrange a UK meetup I'd like to go. Preferably North West area. PM me if anything is organized.

Juan Viejo2

I've had mixed experiences attending a relatively nearby meetup group. I've also met a couple of people who were members of the group that my wife and I socialized with later on our own. They were close to our age and very friendly.

I found that there were three distinct types of attendees within the group I went to:

There are those who want someone to sit down with them and talk about surviving and adjusting after exiting the JWs.
There are others who want only to socialize and do not want to discuss anything to do with being a Witness.
There are some who have left and are looking for friends to date, roommates, or someone to support them financially.

In the groups that I attended there was a disportionate number of attendees who were LGBT. Not that I have any problems with LGBT individuals (I have family members who are so inclined), but they tended to become remote from the older straight members and avoided extended conversations away from their clique. Most of the time I found myself wandering around with a beer in my hand trying to join a conversation. I have not been to a local meetup lately, but it seems like the group has morphed into being more LGBT centric. In any case, there was never any real discussion of ex-JW issues or the latest events coming out of Patterson and Brooklyn.

I have attended a couple of other JW Meetup groups while I was traveling, but found them to tend to lean toward evangelical Christian proselytizing, with informal breakout discussions supporting the Trinity, the Rapture, and the inerrancy of the Bible. Opposing views were not welcome. There seemed to be a lot of time spent listening to testimonies by former JWs who had "been born again in Christ" thanks to sudden and miraculous reconversions to traditional Christianity. If I want to be preached to I can go to the local Baptist Church a few blocks from my house.

Unlike some other non-JW meetup groups that I've been to, I've also attended a Humanist meetup group in a nearby city. Those folks are fun. They show movies, plan events, set up volunteer groups for local political meetings and discuss how to combat right-wing religious groups trying to take over local city halls, schools and charitable groups. The objective with these folks is to find ways to get people to think for themselves and to respect everyone equally without regard to their religious (or lack thereof) beliefs. Very refreshing.

I do enjoy meeting up with ex-JWs, but for the most part I now prefer meeting them one on one (I'll buy lunch) and getting to know them on a more personal level.

JV

What has or would motivate you to attend an Ex-JW meet up...