I left after 1976.
They were false prophets and liars. I didnt need the internet or a book to tell me that.
The world did not end in 1975. Armegeddon was not noticeable.
How did you long-timers do it before the internet / Ray Franz books / abundant information?
by irondork 58 Replies latest jw friends
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binadub
I was a convert with a little evangelical experience before the JWs. The ladies who studied with me were also converts, fairly new to the Watchtower. I think it is a world of difference for people who were not raised in the religion, who had already been raised with holidays, going to other churches, and having "worldly" friends. I also think the Watchtower religion was much more biblically based prior to the 1975 failed predictions. I was so thrilled to find out there was no such thing as hellfire for eternity--and I really studied it to understand it. And the "new earth" was something really new, but there it was in the Bible. And Jehovah's Name, etc., etc. And I loved the regular assemblies--so different from other religions. Knorr, Fred Franz, Covington and other notables were at the district assemblies in those days.
I got baptized inside of 3 months from when I began studying.But then I started to notice the differences between me and blindly-devoted JWs. They didn't prove the teachings, they just accepted them. I became inactive after about 6 years but kept waiting for new light on some doctrines that I had decided were not what the scriptures taught. I really did want it to be true, but as new books were published, there was more and more that I didn't agree with, including the expectations for 1975. So it was when a person close to me was to be disfellowshipped for having tried but failed to follow the organizations strict adherence that in the spring of 1975 I thought, "It's time for me to admit it--I just do not believe it." Yet, I still believed a lot of the doctrinal things I had learned and was not sorry for the experience. For that reason I wasn't drawn to other churches, especially any who taught "hellfire."
For 10 years, I thought I was the only exJW on Earth who believed one could leave the Watchtower and be a Christian. I used to pray about it--alone. I began taking the emblems (alone) because I concluded all Christians should. It was watching TV one night that I was flipping through TV channels and happened upon the John Ankerberg show when he was interviewing a panel of former JW Bethelites. And they advertised Ray Franz's book. I was exuberant with surprise! I ordered the book and contacted the author, which led to association with numerous people associated with the Franz's and those who came out at that time. Before the Internet, BRCI (BRCI.org) was the main international fellowship of former Jehovah's Witnesses. They did a tremendous support work for exJWs before the Internet came to the fore.
~Binadub (aka Ros)
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Twitch
I left in my late teens but had questions and doubts long before that. I saw the good that existed in people and actions outside the jw sphere and the hypocrisy that existed within. Many things about beliefs/doctrine didn't make sense to me. It all seemed so limiting, routine and well, boring and I yearned for a piece of the world and to make some noise. Typical teenager I suppose.
I moved out at age 18 in 1986 and began missing more meetings. I worked full time and partied with my worldly high school buddies, dated, learned to play bass, and all sorts of stuff I always wanted to do. I was still rather secretive about it all, old habits die hard. But someone saw me smoking / associating with rabid mutant zombies and ratted me out to the pharisees. So there was a serious meeting about my "wrongdoing", to which my reply was not to reply and not to return to the hall. Some announcement was made from the podium about my status and eh, whatever. Posers, lol
I was the first to leave the core jw family unit and there really weren't any relatives of any influence to me, one side consisting of some hardcore dubs and the other a different religious organization. I didn't talk about my doubts or questions with any of my jw friends, they seemed with the program and I just couldn't relate to them. But I liked people outside the dub realm who were inclined to discuss life, death and the universe, taking opportunity to engage and learn, relate and understand as best I could. I wanted to know what made people tick. I wanted to know how i ticked. I enjoyed conversations with some buddhist buddies. I discussed Nietzche, Jung and Marx with my university friends. I talked much with a hindu co-worker who later founded a small self-realization "centre". I bought ganja from a born again christian who "subjected the earth". Interesting conversation there. I talked to people and sampled diversity, all the while formulating my own life cocktail. Many of the fears and hangups slowly dissipated and I grew a spine and personality eventually, lol. It was a bit lonely at times but I put one foot in front of the other and kept moving. It certainly wasn't the fast track, given all the info and discussion you can get now at the touch of a keyboard. It was.
It wasn't until my thirties that I took a look back and seached out other xjws online. I found an meetup group, met a couple other xjws and found this place. It's been nice to connect with those that understand what it was like coming from that world.
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JeffT
I fought my way uphill through the snow (both ways) to get to the public library.
I started my exit in the mid eighties, the Seattle library had CoC and a bunch of books written by various Christian writers. I spent hours in there collecting information. When we really got ready to leave, my wife and I joined a support group of exwitnesses that met once a month in a church. It was all a very good experience.
Farkel, good to see you back.
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etna
I left because of the disfellowishing bullshit. I was right into it, but when they disfellowshiped my daughter and told her she will have to move out of my home, I lost it. That was 6years ago. Talesin we do lose alot, but there is freedom. I do miss my brother, he hasn't spoken to me since, and my daughter got reinstated, but she is fine with me.
Etna
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cedars
I found Farkel's comment interesting, and I will explain why.
Although the internet played a crucial role in getting me out QUICKLY (once I'd made my mind up), the doubts were already well-and-truly formed in my mind due to the Society's own ludicrous doctrines. My wife recently showed me a handwritten list that I gave her a couple of years ago of reasons why I no longer believed it was "the Truth". These were all things I had figured out without having visited a single "apostate" website, or reading Crisis of Conscience. I didn't know about Mexico/Malawi or the UN scandal. Hell, I still thought the ban on blood transfusions was a reasonable doctrine! The only website I had visited at the time was Wikipedia, which you can hardly class as "apostate" (although I'm sure the Society would like to).
Still, I was able to produce a 9-point list of grievances against various Governing Body teachings/practices that I firmly objected to, and which collectively had forced me to the conclusion that this wasn't "the Truth". In May 2011 I finally summoned the determination to act on these grievances. I declared myself inactive, read Crisis of Conscience, and exposed myself to all the JW-related information that the internet could throw at me. The rest, as they say, is history! But the actual decision to distance myself mentally and emotionally from the Society was taken without the benefit of the internet.
As I said recently to my heavily-indoctrinated father (much to his dismay) you don't NEED to read any apostate websites, because all the evidence that this isn't God's chosen organization is right there in the publications themselves. You only need the intelligence (and crucially) objectivity to see it.
Cedars
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Chariklo
That's really interesting, Cedars.
But you are still able to talk to your father? I mean, he still talks to you? In a way, it's still quite early on. Have they got round to DF'ing you?
One of the things I like about this board is the complete mix of people, long-time JW's who've openly left, others who are fully awake but for personal reasons are still in, undercover, people who got coverted/brainwashed, people like me who escaped by the narrowest of margins but who got thoroughly soaked up with it all (they kept telling me I was a real sister, was as fully a JW as I could be without yet being baptised) and others who are just looking at it but thinking, or going out with or married to a JW.
It's this massive mixture of experience and outlook that makes this forum such a wonderful place.
Oh! I forgot the trolls!
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Phizzy
I was a born-in, even as a pre-teen I could not swallow the crap about fart-arse conventions at Cedar Point Ohio, and "Resolutions" written by Blow-hard Ratherfraud and "announced" there, as being fulfillment of something written in the Bible.
In the end though, the final nail in the coffin was realising that 1914 was simply not in the Bible, and no Elder being prepared to come and defend the doctrine to me.
This was before I looked on the Internet, when I eventually did so, about a year after asking for an Elder to help me, and nothing happening, I was pleased to see I was far from alone, in no time, just a few hours reading, my whole world-view changed, and I knew for sure that the WT was false.
I am glad that for seekers after truth the Internet is there for them, it saves so much time, enough of our lives have been stolen by the WT and its lies, we do not want to waste any more in proving that they are wrong, if there is a God, thank god for the Internet.
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MidwichCuckoo
Morning Phizzy
In the end though, the final nail in the coffin was realising that 1914 was simply not in the Bible, and no Elder being prepared to come and defend the doctrine to me.
Blimey, the amount of times I've asked to have that explained to me. JWs actually believe they KNOW the maths but have forgotten it, lol. ''I'll get back to you'' (they never do). You would think that as it was/is a MAJOR doctrine they'd know it inside out.
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cedars
Chariklo
But you are still able to talk to your father? I mean, he still talks to you? In a way, it's still quite early on. Have they got round to DF'ing you?
I'm sorry to say that Dad and I haven't spoken since our little altercation over two weeks ago. I guess things are still pretty raw. I told him how deep my feelings were against the Society, and he really didn't like hearing it. He had been in denial up to that point, and had fooled himself into thinking that I "respect" the organization. I told him that nothing could be further from the truth, and that I actually HATE the Society for many of its doctrines, even though I love and respect many of Jehovah's Witnesses individually. I guess it's early days yet, but I'm hopeful that things will get back to a degree of normality soon.
I doubt I'll be disfellowshipped (as things stand), because my current body of elders are entirely clueless as to the extent of my opposition. If I am disfellowshipped (or forced into disassociating) it will come about through the London branch contacting my local branch office and "informing" my local elders (which would be a very desperate measure!), or it will be through my own volition. Either way, I've decided there really isn't any rush, because I can do pretty much everything I want to do against the Society without getting myself kicked out of the organization.
Cedars