by free2beme 30 Replies latest jw friends
Village Girl:
Free to Be Me: Nailed it with the title of this thread "I was a Jehovah's Witness in a different religion" There wasn't really a need for another comment after the title. Everyone gets it.
Take notice AAWA! That's a theme worth developing. Right here on good ol' JWD
Imagine what the Bible students thought when God's Kingdom did not start ruling in 1914 and they were all not more or less raptured to be one of the 144.000? They ( our fearless leaders) were in a bind and symbolic and or atypical or spiritual probably just did not cut it, so they went with invisible. I bet if we had been there we would have been shaken and many did leave. Note they regrouped and when I was a child God's Kingdom ruling invisible in the heavens was standard teaching. So if all else fails, it is invisible.
wow 1970. A lifetime ago.
Loving this discussion. Big thumbs up to everyone.
I remember 1975 and my mother stressing about the end, as elders said "The end is this weekend, or next month." Etc. It was always about the end to me, growing up. I had great friends, people I thought I could spend millions of years with and was scared of the end and wanted to help my friends make it. When I sit and talk to my mom, I hear the words "END" and such. But I hear more about. "Do not do this, and do not talk to this person and those people are not strong enough." I felt a sadness, as it means those left in I grew up with. Have a very depressing life and I wonder if they too feel the religion has gotten very much different with all the changes in beliefs, attitude and messages.
The GB are in the same spot as 1914 and they are regrouping and getting rid of those who cause problems ( remember what they used to teach) and those are not company men. They have a while to go for us all to die off , that would take another 20+ yrs.
" A lot of people that became JW's after they were adults don't appreciate the deep disappointment of those who were raised to believe that they and their parents and grandparents weren't going to die. At the deepest part of our brain is a paradigm of profound sadness that is worse than a hell where you could be tortured in the presence of other people who had the satisfaction of knowing they chose their path. Dante couldn't have thought up anything like it" scotoma
Holy cow scotoma ..... ....you nailed it absolutely, as a born in..
The profound sadness, it never goes away.
I was told i wasnt going to be here, every day of my childhood, and yet here i am at 40, still here.
Even worse, I hated being a JW, but, that didn't stop me from believing it. I didn't feel happy being a JW, but I saw no way out, as the world was about to end.
Our lives & potential were just thrown away for nothing, and no responsibility has ever been acknowledged. I know I'm luckier than most in that I married a "worldly" man so I'm financially ok (unlike a lot of my peers).
But, I feel like my life was trashed. How anyone my age is in the religion is beyond me. And, if you are, how are you not angry?
Excellent thread and comments!
For those of us that were raised in - during the 60's and 70's - our "religion" has transformed itself during our adulthood. Though most of the core beliefs have stayed the same, the way the religion operates is very different. Our age group can remember studing publications that were indepth analysis of prophesy - remember the Paradise book - Babylon book - Nations Shall Know book .... We really "studied" these books and slogged through miles of scripture.
The GB has kept the tight control on the personal lives of its members - except now it is demanding that all within the congregations police the actions, speech and "attitudes" of each other. Phrases like "it's a gray area", "it's a personal matter", or "its up to your conscience" aren't mentioned anymore. Elders and publishers alike used to use these phrases quite often. Not any more!
The WT society now produces mini-books for study - that focus on rules for daily living. It's really "dumb-downed" the "spiritual food" and treats all members as if they are children. The society - while still a bible study aid publishing house - now prides itself as.......... a construction company.
Just now saw this thread. Like you Pickler I also feel scotoma hit the hail right on the head. I to even though I will soon be 59 years old still have these deep feelings of saddness and unhappy feelings of my childhood. For me the isolation from all my parents relatives I never knew the isolation of not having any real childhood friends because they were worldly and isolation of having to go out in field service at an age of 6 years old and sell maz. at the door by myself the isolation of being the only JW kid in school and facing harsh treatment that my parents never had to go through. When it came to persecution I know for a fact it was the children of our generation who took it on the chin while the WT talk the talk but then did not walk the walk. Yes I was a JW in a different religion but one that was just as bad as the one today. It is still and will always remain a cult until it dies. Totally ADD
Born-in here, just now saw this thread as well. Scotoma and others are spot on with their feelings. I at 33 am a bit younger, but still relate. 1914 and the Generation where also cornerstones for my 1980's generation, as was study of older publications at the time. Scotoma really touched me with their last paragraph about the profound sadness we feel. This may be especially so for me having lost my JW parents early, I was an orphan before 30, and had to face the stark reality that my whole JW family was dead even though I was promised I would never grow old and die in this "System of Things." Here I am almost 34, married for 10 years, and have a son, mortgage, and lucky for me - a career, instead of washing windows or working in the food service industry. The changes I've seen in the last 15 years (since I graduated High School, which wasn't suppose to happen!) are incredible, and I too feel that I can barely recognize this farce of a religion. My parents surely wouldn't, and would have probably left as they weren't entirely stupid. (just gulliable in the pre-internet information age).
This thread is so sad, yet incredibly true.
- Wing Commander
For me the biggest irony..... They got together in groups to discuss the bible and its meaning, hence the name. Today if you do that as a JW you will be asked to stop. Then MADE to stop. They don't even allow group studies of the Watchtower etc outside the hall...
Why lol ? Seriously why?
can you imagine universities banning private study or discussion, or the government....
Only in North Korea and Watchtower Corp, is such activity banned. Shame there isn't a god to judge them.
