What was YOUR wake-up call before you left the JW´s organization? (page 5)

Hillary

False prophecies + false teachings + new light = time to cut and run.

I think I figured that one one when I was about 12.

brainmelt

Realising that I couldn't find any mention of a paradise earth anywhere in the Bible got alarm bells ringing.

Realising that the WT explanation of evolution/dinosaurs/animals being vegetarian was all nonsense.

Realising that I was approaching 30 and there was still no sign of Armaggedon.

Realising that trying to raise children in the 'truth' was completely unnatural - no celebrations, no friends, having to drag them to meetings when they should have been in bed, having to drag them around the doors when they should have been playing, the sadness on my sons face when he wasn't allowed to join in the nativity play at preschool. So many things.

The blood doctrine.

What finally woke me up was the whole 607/1914 thing. When that fell apart, everything fell apart.

SAHS

Being made to be scared about sinning against the holy spirit since I was just a little kid by my elder father. I thought to myself, Well, if I’ve already sinned against it and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it, then I might as well check out those “apostates” and see what all the fuss is about. So, I got an account with this site almost a decade ago, and started perusing the factual information regarding the history of the organization and its bizarre teachings.

Actually, I never really did agree with their blood transfusion policy – even as a little kid, whenever I saw anything on TV about that, I would always root for the “worldly” doctors and governmental authorities. I always thought it was ridiculous forbidding people to accept whole blood products in an emergency, even for their small children and babies, who would never get the chance to decide for themselves if they died as a result.

And, of course, all those dos and don’ts, which didn’t even make any sense. (Especially beards, birthdays, married sexual techniques, not having any hypnotherapy, not eating lunch outside the convention grounds, etc. Ridiculous!) Not so much any rule in particular, but just the sheer number of them. Everyone has to just swallow all those petty rules and just say, “Sir, yes sir! May I have another?” . . . . Otherwise, you know what – spiritual/social stoning to death.

UBM101

My hubby did a study with a relative and the relative showed him about many TTAT (blood issue, UN etc). He stopped going to meetings ever since, but the relative somehow got sucked into the religion instead. Now hubby still resisting but I think it is going to be soon. All his immediate family are JW, I understand why he is fighting it.

joe134cd

Chid sex abuse and trying to sweep it under the table. Was just one.

Julia Orwell

It is hard to pick just one thing, isn't it? Years of doubts pile up, and waking up can take years and can't be attributed to just one thing. Some things make us stir in our sleep, others drift into semi-consciousness, yet we curl up under the covers again and then something else stirs us...then we go through it again, and eventually wake up and stretch our muscles, and have a coffee.

outsmartthesystem

I was at a thursday night meeting. The speaker asked a question. The sister that answered was the presiding overseer's wife. Her answer was something to the effect of....."if the governing body tells us something.....it doesn't matter what it is......we just accept it and do it. We don't ask questions.......we just need to obey. That's Jehovah's arrangement." The speaker smiled and said something like "perfect". I looked around me and 50 heads were nodding in unison.

That's when I realized I was surrounded by robots that would all drink poison kool aid so long as the GB told them to. I literally broke out into a cold sweat.

Vidiot

I had two that I can think of offhand.

1. When I read about how evolution actually worked and realized it was a way more plausible explanation for all the weird shit in nature, and then immediately realizing that for ideological reasons, the WTS could never reverse their position on it.

2. After reading about Bob Altemeyer's research on authoritarian personalities, and discovering that I was able to accurately predict individual JWs' behavior based on Altemeyer's research.

There are probably a couple more...

problemaddict

Joe....welcome man. I wish you good luck with your wife. I am working on mine, and I think good things are happening.

I think for me nothing hit me quite like blood. It just made too much sense that it should at LEAST be a conscience matter. That led me to enforcement of belief through disfellowshipping......despite the fact that whatever was taught could later change.

Once I was that far down, the dissonance in my mind was loud and aggrivating. I take no joy in lying to myself. I think most people attribute it to arrogance or me thinking I am so smart. I try to tell them its not that I am that smart, its just that I won't follow "dumb".

DATA-DOG

A little of everything. Mostly that hypocrisy, and NOTHING happening with the passing of time. The fact that the GB feel authorized to DF all who disagree with their ideas was a wake-up call too. Talk about wanting converts so that they can boast in YOUR flesh! They need us, we don't need them.

What was YOUR wake-up call before you left the JW´s organization?

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