At first I had a lot of emotional confusion, and know I'm not complete free of this emotions. I have one intelectual point left in my head. Left me ask some direct and honest question: Are you as a group better that the JW's ? Are you showing godly devotion acts ? Do you think that you have a better relation with God ? or to the ones that don't beleives in God, Do you have better qualities with your husband or wifes and sons ? Don't give more information about the JW, I think that I have enought, tell me about yourselfs as individuals. Are you happiers ? Do you think that you know God better ? Don't you fell alone ? What do other people that are not JW say about you, do they see that you are a better person ? Because if you are better persons, the people around you would tell you.
How many left over the UN issue?
by seedy3 24 Replies latest jw friends
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gsx1138
Well I can say that because of the programming by the WTS I was deeply depressed for 5 years (on the verge of suicide). It has been 12 years now and I can honestly say that I am more happy now than ever. It took awhile to get over all of the teachings but I am by far a better person now. I don't lie to myself that I'm happy while living in fear of the elders and what others in the KH think. The hardest part is trying to put the feeling of being free into words. I choose who I am and how I act others do not do that for me.
Not being a JW allows you to concentrate on your happiness and the happiness of those around you. Be with your family, be with yourself, and most of all be happy.Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
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seedy3
Ginosko wrote
Are you as a group better that the JW's ? Are you showing godly devotion acts ? Do you think that you have a better relation with God ? or to the ones that don't beleives in God, Do you have better qualities with your husband or wifes and sons ? Don't give more information about the JW, I think that I have enought, tell me about yourselfs as individuals. Are you happiers ? Do you think that you know God better ? Don't you fell alone ? What do other people that are not JW say about you, do they see that you are a better person ?
Am I better then a JW? if that is what I understand to be your first Q. Hmmmm better in some aspects yes I personally do, I have no one crontroling my life (well except for my wife but that's their job LOL), I mean I am not told Do not read this and that, do not question this and that, stay inline or else ect. so yeah I feel I am better. Not to say there are not some good JW's out there becasue there are.
Relationship with god? I have no belief in God, many that are former JW's still beleive in God many do not. So I have no relationship with any god.
Hmmm better family life? Yes very, my JW wife was a drunk, But that was not the JW's fault. But I would have had to stay with her and that was not going to happen, she prefered the booze to family life.
Am I happy? Very happy. (I live on a tropical island why shouldn't I be happy?)
Alone?? Nope not at all, I have a great many friends and aquantences a family and such. I recieve a lot of respect from them and return it too.
How my friends see me now? Aside from the above, they see me as a walking encyclopedia and respect me very much. (they like my cooking too he he he).
Seedy
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rekless
As a slave of the lies and secretcy for 35 years I guess I would still be there if they had just been up front with every thing I found out on my own.
I hate to be sh-t on, but I really hate to have it rubbed in.
I lost a son to leukemia in 1988, then a wife in 2000, because she was brain washed about the blood issue.
I think two deaths are enought because of blind faith.
Yes; to answer your question I feel as if a great load has been lifted from my shoulders. I have a new life and I am enjoying every day.
I just survived a heart attack and I am looking forward to another 57 years of self indulgence and living.
Advance heart & vascular Specialists
Ram K. Singh, MD., F.A.C.C.
4432 S. Eastern Ave.
Las Vegas, NV. 89119
" This man saved my life, after my heart attack."Hell is truth seen too late. H.G.Adams
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COMF
Hello, Ginosko. Welcome to our forum.
Are you as a group better that the JW's?
The answer depends on what you mean by "better". In many ways, we are no different than JWs. In some ways we are in better shape. It would be best not to think of us as a group, though, because we are individuals and we don't have a group philosophy or goal.
Are you showing godly devotion acts?
I am meticulously honest. I take good care of myself and don't drink, smoke, or get high. I'm kind and understanding in dealing with other people. When a genuine mistake I made is pointed out to me, I acknowledge it. I encourage others and offer suggestions and observations when I think these will help them with some problem they are struggling with. I also give of my energy, time and resources in helping others. And, since I can feel the next question inherent in this one: part of the time I spend in helping others is spent helping them, to the extent I am able, to make sense of spiritual things.
Do you think that you have a better relation with God?
I would say that my relationship with God is much better now, because it is based on a far more accurate understanding of how things are.
Do you have better qualities with your husband or wifes and sons?
Well, I don't have a wife. I have two grown sons, and, yes, we do get along better now than we did when I was a JW. We have an annual reunion where one son and I fly up to visit the other son half a continent away, and we all bond all over again. But my girlfriend, and other people I have come to know in recent years, all speak highly of me. I assume that's because of qualities they see in me that they respect and appreciate.
Are you happiers?
Absolutely, without question, happier than I have ever been in my life.
Do you think that you know God better?
Let me put it this way. I do not know any truths about God now that I didn't know then; but I have gotten rid of some misconceptions and untruths that prevented me from seeing things clearly about God.
Don't you fell alone?
Not at all. Above anything else, I have myself; when everyone else is gone, I am still here, and I am my best friend. I love myself. Beyond that, I have made some good friends from people I work with, and from meeting the friends of my girlfriend and people I know. Today (Sunday) I spent the entire day out on a lake in a pontoon boat owned by a couple I met recently at a party my girlfriend hosted. We swam, boated around the lake, ate fruit and chicken at a picnic table on an island, and they drank beer, but not to excess. I drank water (I don't drink beer). We had a fine time, and are looking forward soon to going camping together. People are just people. Some of them are evil, and some of them are dangerous, but this is just as true of Jehovah's Witnesses as it is of anyone else. You just have to learn to recognize a con when it's being perpetrated, and dodge it. In my experience, the majority of people in the world are basically good people, worthy of having as friends.
What do other people that are not JW say about you, do they see that you are a better person?
Well, my mom and my brothers and sister sure do like me better now. Nobody else who knows me now knew me when I was a witness. But I will tell you truthfully, I have changed for the better. Part of it is just plain old maturity... getting older and having lived and observed more of life than when I was young and a Jehovah's Witness. But a lot of it is the particular lessons I have learned since leaving the organization, lessons related to my leaving.
Yes, I am a better person now. I was good then, and well-intentioned, but I was misguided and immature, as all JWs are immature, having no experience of life in the real world, and having a mind filled with fairy-tale ideas known only to their fellow cult members. It takes time to adjust to real life, and it isn't without its pain and stress (boy, don't I know it). But it is worthwhile. There is true peace in living in reality rather than living in a shallow pretense.
I hope you will join us here in reality. It isn't all pretty, and it isn't all good, but it's real. It's as real as it gets.
COMF
Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of spring
Your winter-garment of repentance fling:
The bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the bird is on the wing. -
ozziepost
G'day Ginosko,
Greetings from the Great South Land! Welcome aboard! Glad to see you made it. Let's hear more from you, okay?
Cheers,
Ozzie"If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."
- Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress -
Shimmer
Seedy,
I am one who left because of the UN shenanigans. Although I will have to admit that I never was a very devout witness. But I always walked around with huge guilt over never feeling like I was doing enough as a witness. Or I was doing the "wrong" things. I accidentally stumbled across the UN story when I was looking up information on witnesses being banned in certain towns. I was FLOORED, I could not believe what I was reading. That opened up a whole new can of worms for me and I started reading anything I could get my hands on and the guilt just went away and I've never felt freer. When I mentioned the UN thing to my mom, of course to her it was a non-issue. Oh, well, to each his own.
Shimmer
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messenger
Well there you now have it,
officially 3 people have left over the UN fiasco.
It's hard to beat a cult....
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Simon
I think it is another item that adds to the body of evidence against it being 'the truth'.
When, as a JW, you finally decide to type 'jehovahs witness' into a search engine and read what come up it's one more thing that will play a part in making someone reconsider along with 1914, 607, blood, 1975, malawi, nazism and a whole host of failed prophecies and doctrinal flip-flops.
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termite 35
4 actually.And all the other lurkers and the ball keeps rolling...do you realise the numbers of people who will hear of this locally if each of us told just 10 or 20 people?I have given out a lot of info to a lot of people, as I am sure others have;each time I recieve an invite to re-associate I make sure it's kept in their minds,so they can't score the moral high ground...ON A LARGE SCALE, THEY'LL BE ABLE TO CONTROL INFORMATION-BUT NOT ON A LOCAL LEVEL WHERE IT'S MOST EFFECTIVE.
And as for all the questions...you can't look at life through the perspective of an org. that is dishonest-these are the BIG questions, life, the universe and everything...do you really think anyone here or on this planet has those answers?!You have to sit on this planet feeling comfortable in your own skin; noone else can do that for you;you have to do the work.Cults are a lazy way to live your life.