by KingAgag 22 Replies latest jw experiences
Hi everyone,
When I was having doubts about being a Jehovah's Witness, I was terrified to talk about them to anyone. I knew that having a different opinion than the Watchtower was 'wrong'.
I wrote about my experience here - http://www.jehovahswitnessblog.com/real-life-experiences/fear-discussing-doubts/
Please share your experiences too!
I have one friend to talk to without fear of repercussions but that friend is in a very different place in life. Leaving for my friend is more of a rebellion and it has become a time to do all the things we were never allowed to do. We r on entirely different life paths but I can speak freely about all my doubts. I have no one else except my therapist who is WONDERFUL. It is a very isolating feeling to have so much to say and no one who can listen without tattling. I so want my parents to understand but they can't. My new friends can't understand the dynamics of the JW family and the conditional love. I can say things but they don't understand the fear associated with having an opinion. The fear of shunning is a concept that others cannot understand especially when it involves parents and children. They don't think it actually happens and try to downplay the possibility that one can lose their family forever over having differing religious perspectives.
Before leaving I had expressed doubts to my ex, all he said was "It scares me to hear you talk like that". Finding someone on the outside who understands what it REALLY was like as a JW is difficult. If you can find a friend who will listen and who wants to understand what makes you tick the following is something I found to help me.
Something that worked for me was to print out some of the experiences that ex-JW's posted on the forum and the outcome they suffered. I also shared articles posted regarding doctrinal changes and flip-flops over the years. Printed out pics of WT. articles showing the horror of Armageddon for all who didn't live up to the standards of being a JW. I have shared these with my best friend and she told me that she knew the religion was weird but she had no idea how evil it was.
She now hates the cult as much as I do and plans to give any JW's that come to her door an earful!-Leslie-
My new friends can't understand the dynamics of the JW family and the conditional love. I can say things but they don't understand the fear associated with having an opinion. The fear of shunning is a concept that others cannot understand especially when it involves parents and children. They don't think it actually happens and try to downplay the possibility that one can lose their family forever over having differing religious perspectives.
Joyfulfader- yes! Exactly the same replies I get from my new friends. I had to show them WT magazines (study editions) to prove that I wasn't making things up, and one of them wanted to cry. I even got offered a place to stay in case I get kicked out.
I used the WT magazines that refer to us [people who no longer agree with the religion] as "mentally diseased", the one where there's a picture of parents crying because their son is leaving "the truth", the one describing the cruel shunning of a boy? who was DF'd for 10 years, the ones talking bad about higher education, and the Selma one.
I think I did a fairly good job of vaccinating them from the cancer.
Printed out pics of WT. articles showing the horror of Armageddon for all who didn't live up to the standards of being a JW.
Leslie- I also showed them pics of Armageddon and told them about the JW belief that only they will survive. The new deceptive FAQs on jw.org also helped prove my point. Most of my friends are Catholics and they weren't too fond of the Revelation—It's Grand Climax! book.
Meh.
My JW parents smacked me around if I protested in ANY way. My fear of speaking out didn't even go as far as the congregation; I couldn't even speak out at home.
I'm currently reading a novel set in Stalin's Russia. The terrible fear that people lived under was shocking, but what's more shocking to me is that it reminds me of being a JW. Afraid to speak out against the 'society', afraid to trust close 'friends', afraid of our own thoughts. Shocking.
Loz x
My parents didn't need to smack me around .... they had a god that that was going to kill everyone that didn't do the prescribed grovelling. Like Caleb, I was threatened with not wanting to displease Jehovah. The consequences were unspoken, but we all knew what they were.
When I did work out the troof, I made them discuss the problem doctrines. Rather than hit them with my doubts, I hit them up to back up their beliefs then pointed out any double standards they were using. That way, they were the ones who had to deal with fear, not me, and they didn't have any excuses not to discuss them as they had bashed members of other churches for using the same types of excuses as thought stoppers.
They'll never leave the bOrg. Dad would sell his soul to Satan before he would admit to committing seventy years of his life to a worthless group of doomsday nutters.
Blackship, my parents are the same especially dad. I had conversations with them about my doubts. I soon came to the conclusion that every trying and reasoning is just a dead end street.
A friend of mine - an ms- knows that I am hanging around on an apostate site, and that I have doubts. I often feel like yelling at meetings when I hear something ridiculous thing. I wonder how they cannot see the illogical teachings and explanations. I hate when there is a scripture that clearly contradicts to an other, yet they are forcing a completely foolish explanation.
I am also laughing in my mind because they worry about things that I dont have to. It is good to be free inside. It would be better to be free phisically.
Okay, I'm going to be a total She-Devil here...
Will-Be-Apostate, I hope this youtuve video posts... It's for you... Don't worry, there are no 'demunzzzz' attached...
Phew!
It worked!
Better watch it while the link is still good - the youtube links have been acting funny lately.
Zid - the board's She-Devil
