Bad influence of JW's

Pardus

When I think about growing up as a Witness, the worst thing my mind was subjected to was thinking about, and actually believing that, everyone, even "good," moral people, would die at Armageddon except "faithful" JWs. The more I thought about this, the more I came to believe that I don't want to serve a God that would kill billions of people simply because they were not JWs. If that did happen, I would not be happy in Paradise, laughing and enjoying myself, knowing that Jehovah and his armies had slaughtered so many people for that ridiculous reason. I hate so say it, but the Jehovah depicted in WT publications seems almost like Hitler at times. (Assuming you believe everything written, as I once did.) I am glad that I am thinking more logically now and not going to as many meetings. (When I do go it's basicly to please my mom and see friends.)

rhett

Yeah, that's one of the big things that made me really start questioning the JW's back when I still believed them. That and the asshole elders in my old congregation (screw you Ken Goans and Jeff Bivens). If you do any studies of cults you'll often find that they represent god as being very small and petty. Seeing as how JW's really aren't that different than many other cults its not suprising to see they share the same limited view of god.

Francois

I'll see your Ken Goans and Jeff Bivens, and raise you a C.B. Mitchell (asshole that he is).

It was the sex stuff that filled my life with problems. Wanting to be a good dub and being one is easy as long as you're in the cool, cool, cool, of the evening. But when it's dark and you're in the arms of your girlfriend and the hormones are flashing through your systems at near the speed of light, Jehovah doesn't seem so close, nor your dedication to purity so easy.

So then you try to get as near as possible and sometimes you go an inch or two (pardon) too far. Then the guilt overtakes you for a whole six days until next weekend when you've established a precedent. And on and on and on.

Pisses me off just to think about it. I remember when I actually did my first carnal deed like it was yesterday. I thought to myself, "OK, Jehovah. I did it. If you're gonna kill me later, you might as well kill me now. Go for it, 'cause if you don't kill me now, I'm likely gonna do it again. If you didn't want us doing it, why did you make it come on so strong? Bad design and it's your fault, kinda like the avacado pit; bad design.

Jehovah. What a savage ass.

Francois

Hyghlandyr

Francois, holy cow! And I thought I had guilt complexes when I was a witless.

Rhett, god being small and petty? You mean like christianity makes him out to be?

QUEENIE

HI -- I am bad association--be labeled that all my life by so many elders to numerous to mention that is why my alter-ego now is [email protected] (I am so bad I am goooood folks) AND when anything went wrong as a kid It was cuz my mom and me was demonized..LOL

Pardus

I think anyone, especially if they were never baptized or particularly involved, as long as they grew up going to meetings they feel the guilt every day of their lives from constantly hearing about sex, masturbation, "impure" thoughts, "worldly" association, wondering if they would survive Armageddon, etc. And once you leave, you wonder if it was all true or not. If you had not grown up hearing everything over and over again it would be much easier to dismiss many of the teachings as nonsense. And yes, rhett, God is depicted as very petty and judgmental, particularly by JW's but also by many other religions. I do believe now that banning things like birthdays and most holidays was just another way to be different and "no part of the world." You could say "many holidays are of pagan origin," which is true, but except for maybe Halloween and a few others, the spirit and purpose of holidays is to get together with friends, exchange gifts, and have a good time. Like the blood issue, they selectively use certain scriptures and texts to ban entire activities.

picosito

JW's are told that birthday celebrations are bad because look at what happened fatally at those two parties mentioned in the Bible.

Maybe the Israelites did celebrate birthdays and never had any bad parties that made "the news", so to speak, just as it's mostly the Bad Stuff that makes the news in modern times.

iggy_the_fish

I think anyone, especially if they were never baptized or particularly involved, as long as they grew up going to meetings they feel the guilt every day of their lives from constantly hearing about sex, masturbation, "impure" thoughts, "worldly" association, wondering if they would survive Armageddon, etc. And once you leave, you wonder if it was all true or not.

Amen to that, bruvver. This just about describes by situation perfectly, thanks for putting it so succinctly. The "fringe" attendance thing, the partial exposure to the dub theology and the "not really joining and not really leaving" has its own particular set of mental problems, I think. For example, I have no first hand experience of the bad behaviour of individual witlesses, I only ever saw the nice face they put on for the potential converts. When I reason to myself that the dubs are just the same as everyone else, the brainwashed part of my brain says "how can you say this, they were all sooooooo nice to you. Perhaps they're right after all, and all the stuff you've heard is apostate lies blah blah broken record click whirr I am a robot I am a robot...."

Thank goodness the logic of their theology is a load of b*ll*x, otherwise I fear would be a lost cause.

Ig

"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth. No truth-handler, you. Bah! I deride your truth-handling abilities!"
Side Show Bob

Gopher

Pardus,

Good points! How unloving and arrogant of the JW hierarchy to teach that the world is filled with BAD, EVIL people on the edge of eternal destruction. By doing this, they built up an artificial wall separating their people off from normality. Teaching their members to look down on others, sounds like the Pharisees to me! This attitude fostered a general arrogance on the part of the JW's, poking fun at others while ignoring their own faults.

Then their man-made teachings about medical usage of blood, holiday celebrations, etc. was another way to build an artificial wall between their followers and "the world". Such things needlessly built up animosity towards JW's, and average JW's have to put up with such hostility and try to explain unreasonable stands their organization takes.

And then creating rules, such as "thou shalt not masturbate" (almost universally ignored because it is a "secret sin"), inflicts unnecessary guilt on their members who believe they have a Bible-trained conscience when in fact they have a Society Headquarters-trained conscience. The Society does all their thinking for them. A long list of rules is stated or implied in the publications, again in the spirit of the Pharisees.

No wonder those who manage to break free feel such a relief.

-J.R., member, UADNA-MN
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Minnesota division)

This post was not evaluated by any mental health professionals.
Any opinions expressed are those of a fuzzy, cuddly rodent.

Bad influence of JW's

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