lol @ kiwis coldn't swim.
as far as what it's like, it is 100% like being a quaker, but no rummspringa. emotionally you are locked away in a quaker village even though you are physically right out in plain sight.
Why did you become a Jehovah's Witness ?
by Gnosis 70 Replies latest jw experiences
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Kool Jo
I had no choice...my parents were extreme JW's....I wish they'd come to their senses though....
It was like a bad dream.....not much time to do homework, watch cartoons, do much fun stuff...why bother enjoy your childhood when the big "A" could be here any second now!?!?!?!
Personally, seeing your classmates/teachers can make you a target for ridicule when you went back to school the following days...
Looking forward to hearing other experiences!
Peace
Kool Jo
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Chariklo
Utter folly.
Curiosity.
Conviction that I could prove them wrong.Plus a misguided "polite" willingness to discuss. Oh! and at one point they arrived in pouring rain and I unwisely invited them in for shelter.
Take your pick. The same story told a thousand times by so many people here...
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exwhyzee
Was raised as a JW after my Mother started studying when I was about 2. Grew up with the warm fuzzy understanding that armageddon was about to happen any day and my non JW Father was soon to be destroyed for not getting baptized and I would be too if I became old enough to understand but didn't get baptized. You can imagine the head games it played on me and my siblings to be among people who were gleefully anticipating the day when God was going to kill everyone including our Dad. His children and wife were basically hijacked away from him, we never go too close because they even went so far as to say that some associates of JW's like he was, could turn on us during the tribulation. Although he was a much better man than MOST of the JW's I knew, we wondered if he would someday turn us in to the authorities (whoever that might be). He studied but just couldn't bring himself to the point of being able to go from door to door. He was much to modest and humble to ever go to someone's home and advise them about something as abstract as God let alone tell them that God was about to destroy non JW's. Everthing he knew about Blood Transfusions was what he learned during his study with the JW's. He died a horrible death in front of his whole family because he signed the NO BLOOD paperwork before having an operation and wasn't coherant enough to resend them when it became evident that he was bleeding to death. We were assured that we would see him again in the new system because he "took his stand for Jehovah" yet they wouldn't let us have his memorial service at the Hall because he was unbaptized. New System yes...Kingdom Hall NO. About a year later they started allowing the use of "blood fractions" which would have made him realize these people don't know what they're talking about and have no business advising anyone about medical procedures.
Growing up as a JW was a safeguard because I basically didn't get to do anything other than go to school, watch TV and go to the meetings. My Dad was a champion swimmer and diver and I showed promise in that area during P.E. in High School and was asked to be on the swimming team but of course that was tantemount to falling out of the truth in those days. So I stayed home and waited for the next day to arrive or armageddon to show up, whichever came first. Was told I'd never graduate but I did. Was told I didn't need college education so I went on to spend a year in Bethel and now here I am with grown children asking myself.," Hey....wasn't I supposed to be perfect by now?...Didn't the mouthpieces of Jehovah say I'd never grow old in this system ?? "
We left the religion after a perfect storm of events involving doctrinal changes, personal realizations about the religion, an emotional crisis from having lived under the constant dread of armageddon since childhood and the shunning of our Son by close friends and family while he was undergoing Cancer treatment shortly after being DF'd unfairly. Memeorial 2008 was the last time I was in a KH. Heard about the ransom of Jesus and Jehovah's loving kindness while the whole crowd of people who knew him from birth walked past our deathly ill Son as if he didn't exist. That was the last straw....will never set foot in one of those places again. Thanks to JW's I don't want anything to do with God, religion or religious people ever again.
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TimeBandit
I had no choice...
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Sheep2slaughter
Born in...No choice.
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umadevi
They were caring and seemed genuine. I didn't stop to think. I believed that they had the 'truth'. Only after I was baptised I felt the constant pressure they put on me 'to do more'. The elders even suggested that I give up my full time job. That's when I realised that I have to take control of my life. I left because I learnt the truth about the 'truth' thanks to JWN.
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3rdgen
Put me down for 3rd generation born in on both parents sides. Fear of God and fear of breaking my parents hearts and wanting to do everything my older JW cousin did brought me to baptism. Having my own children and fearing God would destroy them if I didn't stay "faithful" kept me in. Brainwashing kept me from reading or even thinking anything contrary to Watchtower beliefs and kept me in control.
Injustice, hypocracy, and cruelty on the part of many in positions of oversight caused me to question and examine whether or not Holy Spirit was responsible for their appointments and their attitudes. Anger made me brave enough to go to the internet. Google brought me to this site about 9 months ago. Within a few weeks I realized the truth about the truth.
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3rdgen
I failed to say what it was like to be raised a JW. I realize the answer depends on who one's parents are, how they were raised, what kind of personality they have and most of all how strictly they followed the rules and advice of the Watchtower and its leaders.
In my case, my father was raised by a harsh alcoholic father and a JW mother. He in turn took his mothers religion and and his fathers habits and beat the snot out of me from infancy. My mother was less harsh but fully dedicated to the religion. She took every oppertunity to drag me out in the witness work with almost no breaks. This was in the 1950's when corporal punishment was strongly encouraged by the society. My dad was a dictator in our house and verbally abused my mother. My mother in turn didn't love him and never missed an oppertunity to publically and privately show him. Nothing was ever good enough for her and she was NEVER happy. She only showed approval of me if I said or did or looked EXACTLY as she wished. She regularly told me as a young child that if we would have been living in Isrealite times I would have been stoned. I did my level best to be a good little witness girl because it was crystal clear their love depended on it.
School... awful!!! I attended 13 schools in various towns because my dad would get a wild hair that they needed a kh. Lucky me, I got to be the new JW kid over and over. I was the ONLY JW in most of the schools and with no brothers and sisters I was truely on my own. My father died when i was in HS. Left alone with my mother I accepted the marriage proposal I got at 16 and married at 17just to get out of the CONTROL.
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Lozhasleft
I believed they had the 'truth' and wanted to worship god with sincerity. I thought they offered a safe warm loving and moral community for my children to grow up in. I should have been locked up lol.
Loz x