Were you ashamed of being a witness? (page 5)

Farkel

Eman,

: Admittedly it's not easy to ask a lady how rough her tongue is when you've only just met.

I usually attempt to find that out before I even bother to ask for a name. So many women, so little time!

Farkel

Its got to be one of the worse ways to grow up as a child. And I never believed in the borg even though I was born into it. That made the humilation unbearable. All of the above the others have mentioned. I used to just tell people my parents were retarded. I used to get beat up on the way home from elementary school b/c kids said I was a communist since I didn't salute the flag. Its like having your childhood stolen. Plus, I'm still embarassed to admit being raised as one b/c I was df'd 20 yrs ago and then disowned by my family. That's hard to explain.

curlers

lovsinner

Having been born into it, you were always expected to stand up as a JW. Even in the latest info, it tries to make the young ones feel guilty if they don't. I remember the fear of Saturday morning " Please, I hope I do not run into anyone from school!" ........It is fine if adults want to be in a self- glorifying religion that says, " Look at me, I am not you and I am above you" but to make their children have to live by the same docterine?? Children have a hard enough time being accepted without this BS. I can only say that, I was ashamed and I know there are so many still living this hell!! My heart goes out to them...

OUTLAW

Only in public.(LOL.) Dub kids do not have it easy.Growing up is hard enough.Never mind idiot zelot parents who never were dub kids,demanding you to participate in odd cult behaviour...OUTLAW

Cowboy

Oh yeah,ashamed,humiliated even.I was also the only JW in my whole school.Up to about the eigth grade,every day was sheer misery....I've had migraines from from age 5.However,in junior high I finally started participating in other activities,and learned to lead the double life,I guess.I actually enjoyed school after that.When I went to college,I quit identifying myself as a JW,even though I was still attending meetings for a year or so...

I swore way back then that I would never ever subject a child to that.

Cowboy

larc

Mulan, I graduated from the class of '58, and you are right, things were easier for the kids back then. I played baseball in high school and was a member of the HiY club. I skipped meetings on occasion to see the high school football team play a game. I even dated a few "wordly girls" with no complaint from my mother. The Witness kids had parties and danced both slow dance and rock and roll. We were encouraged to date several people, shop around, before deciding on a marriage partner. The changes since then are nothing short of tragic.

DanTheMan

Somtimes I was embarrassed, sometimes not. I agonized for YEARS whether or not I was really in the so-called "right" religion. It was a never-ending internal battle. The not eventually won.

When somebody at work would sneeze and I wouldn't say "Bless You" - yes, that was awkward, as was toasting and Birthdays. I agreed with the Christmas thing, I wasn't at all embarrassed about not celebrating Christmas. I don't know how I'm gonna deal with that now that I'm out. I still think the whole Christmas thing is pretty wacked.

I had a certain way of holding my wallet when I was getting stuff out of it so that my hand obscured the blood card. That whole issue always seemed like such nonsense to me. I stopped carrying my blood card about a year before I left.

More than anything else, the cornball magazines embarrassed me. This might explain the fact that in my entire 10 years as a Watchtowerist, I probably placed less than 30 sets of magazines. I generally hoped people weren't at home when I knocked - and most of the time, my hopes were realized. What a waste of time.

I was embarrassed to leave my apartment wearing a suit all the time. Americans just don't dress in suits any more. The Watchtower uniform is antiquated, but it is a definite part of the cloning, like Hitler's brownshirted followers.

c5

Yes, I was ashamed to be the only witness in school for years. I hated being the only one not saying the pledge of allegience. The other children would always tease. They always made fun that I could not participate in pep-rallies, birthdays, and holiday activities. I think most of my classmates got a sour attitude towards Jw's from seeing what we were forbidden to do.
Some of the experiences here reminded me of very same experiences I had too. Praying at Hardees or McDonalds was totally embarrasing! I would always try to have the excuse of going to the restroom once everyone got thier food and was ready to pray. The worst was saying prayer out loud in a small but packed cafe! Seems to me the other patrons felt that we were showing ourseles superior by praying before eating our donuts and cookies. I hated doing business territory and having to say my presentation before a lot of people at one time...especially when I could hear the negative comments of customers in the place of business. We tried street work in our small town. It was a failure! We kept running into the same people, very very embarrasing. The final straw was being made to stand on the entrance to the post office, holding up the WT and Awake. I think the brother in charge of that arrangement wanted to bring back what it was like to witness in old times. No one ever attempted street witnessing again.
When I moved to a bigger city and congo, witnessing in the college dorms was quite an experience. We would encounter party hardy kids who had smoked and drank wayyyyy too much. They would be loud and boistrous and try to do things to make fun of us when we called. They would ask stupid questions and laugh and would follow us and make trouble.

When we were witnessing in one small town, all the young teens came on alert to our precence and proceeded to follow us and harass us until we would leave. I always hoped that my classmates woud NEVER see me. Sure enough, when one did, it was broadcast through the entire class and I recieved teasing. I look back and am reminded of how important is was to be accepted by one's classmates and that contributed at least to me a major self-esteem problem since I was not accepted. Now as an adult, I know better, but as a child, it was a very horrifying ordeal to be subjected to. In my freshmen year of highschool, I had the record for being absent due to "sickness", I did just about everything and used every excuse to get out of going to school. No wonder I jumped on the homeschool bandwagon so quickly. It was relief from constantly sticking out like a sore thumb and frequent teasing and singling out.

I run into former classmates of mine from time to time and all of them so far are happy that I left the JW's. They have grown up as well and admit that a lot of the teasing was very immature. It still amazes me how important my peer's views were back then. They mean very little to me now. I wish I could have known back then what I know now as the old saying goes.

Cari

Were you ashamed of being a witness?

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