Goodness, no. Not embarrassed...proud to be among the chosen few God had chosen to live on Earth for all eternity. I bought into the whole mess, completely...100%..,pioneered...the whole route. Now, as I mentioned in my earlier post this morning, the bubble is burst. I no longer have ALL the answers, and upon leaving the org, I have had to become humble, realizing, I am NOT among a chosen few. NOW, I am embarrassed!
Were you ashamed of being a witness?
by sleepy 47 Replies latest jw friends
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garybuss
I did not like being forced at be an agent for the Watch Tower Corporation and I hid that fact that I was a Jehovah's Witness every chance I got. At school, at the door Saturday mornings, and with neighborhood friends.
I did try to believe and I did try to want to want to be a Jehovah's Witness but I just did not like it and I was not at all proud to be one and I did try to hide it.
Gone since 1974 and glad . . . and I AM proud to be a EX-JW.
gbThe Way I See it http://www.freeminds.org/buss/buss.htm
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SpiceItUp
I was soooo ashamed and embarrassed!!!
The worst was when I did run into a classmate on Saturday morning. Fortunately for me they weren't the kind that got off on striaght ridicule or I would have een in serious trouble.
In fact up til about a year ago I still had a major problem telling anyone new about it. Now I say not that I'm proud but that I am indeed a survivor. And that is what I am proud of.
Spice
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SpiceItUp
((((((to all that know this feeling as a child)))))))))
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starfish422
What I hated was being at McDonald's or someplace like that and having to say a prayer before eating, right in the middle of the freakin' restaurant.
And, yes, I nearly died when I ran into school associates out in service. Especially if it was my call. :(
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Hmmm
Not only was I embarrassed to be a Witness, I am STILL embarrassed about it!
I was born into it, and I've been out for a while now, but I still don't want any of my coworkers to know that I USED to be a Witness.
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joannadandy
My shame came later. All through school I bought into being proud to be different, and making a stand, and I did...a lot.
Even my first few years of college, I was doing papers on religion, taking religion classes, and being totally open about my faith and answering any and all questions as best I could...that's when it started to degenerate. I couldn't answer all their questions, some things did strike me as odd, or stupid. I knew NOTHING about the orgins of my faith because no one ever talked about it because it wasn't important--yeah right! Over the last few years I just kept my mouth shut. And when people would ask, "well what religion are you"...I would smile and try to blow it off as a joke by saying "well it's one of those whacky ones that everyone hates". And within a few guesses of "mormon, harry krishna, Jehovahs Witness" they got it...
It's hard, I still get uppitty when someone outright attacks Witnesses as a people, rather than an organization. My grievances have always been with the organization, and not the individuals.
However the tide has shifted, now when people tell me "Aren't you a Jehovahs Witness?" I am pretty quick to say "Not anymore" or tell them "I was raised as one yes, but I don't practice anymore"
It is kind of a shame based thing. I think for a lot of zealous christians, people can easily feel ashamed because it's not the norm at the moment to have a strong faith. I don't knock people who do, I find them hard to relate to now, but I admire what they do, because I did it for a long time, and it's hard work.
Edited by - joannadandy on 17 June 2002 9:38:11
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NeonMadman
Generally, no, I wasn't ashamed or embarrassed to be a JW.
There was this one time though...
One of my early jobs was as a Fuller Brush Man. On one occasion, over my protests, the field service car group was taken to an area that was part of my sales territory. Sure enough, I got stuck working some of my brush customers' homes. I remember this one lady saw me at the door and said, "hey, come on in!" thinking she was going to get the latest bargains in household goods. I stammered something about "calling today as one of Jehovah's Witnesses." Her face went cold, and she said, "No, I'm not interested in that!" and indicated the location of the door. I was mortified, and to make matters worse, I lost a good customer, because there was no WAY I was going back to her house after that!
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Lady Lee
oh boy what a question
I struggled with this a lot. I think that depending on how my self esteem was it varied. If I was really low I needed to feel special and well being a borg gave me special status (now that I think of it I must have been really low)
Other times it was an embarrassment. I didn't want anyone to know. I remember going to those doors with scholl kids at the house - absolutely prayed that no one would answer the door and mortified if they did.
As an adult I rarely went into the "world" My life was "in" and therefore didn't have to deal with worldy people often enough for it to come up but when it did I always prefered to evade letting people know - cognitive dissonance at its finest.
After I left I didn't want anyone to know I had been a JW - lots of shame from being DFed and still thinking I would be slaughtered at the end.
Now sometimes i feel embarrassed to tell people I was ever connected to it but that is really rare now - just glad I am free.
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teenyuck
I became embarrassed as a teen. I did not like going door to door and facing someone I could meet at school. On top of that, no birthdays, no sleep overs....nothing normal kids do.
I am still embarrassed. I will discredit the dubs at every opportunity. I have had many conversations over the years with many people on religion. They all have misinformation on JWs. I point out the real "truth" and explain that I was raised as one, however, I got out in college. They look at me funny and try to understand the current me with the me I was as a dub.