by Realist 22 Replies latest jw friends
i have to say i admire everyone who was strong enough to leave the WT organization.
alone these horrible stories about armageddon must scare the hell out of everyone who was brought up with it or who was in the org for several years. hell even to me they sound really frightning and i don't believe in this nonsense.
secondly you loose most of all of your friends!
so how in the world did you get the strength to leave the org???
Didn't really take much strength as far as I'm concerned. I was happy to be out. Happy to find out it wasn't the truth. I hated it. Many others here have had a very difficult time however, especially those who are estranged from their family because of their decision.
I was fortunate. Most of my family was never in or had left before me. The few that are still in are so in denial that they hate and fear me like I am their worst enemy..... My wife and children and their spouses all left together. We can get along nicely without the ones that are still in............ I think now the important part is to be there for the rest as they come stumbling out. They are just blinded like I was. They will probably need lots of help.
Survival.
it really wasn't hard to make the decision to leave; after seeing date-line and how Erica and others were treated, anger set in. then we got a hold of Ray's books and more disgust set in. How in the world could i sit through another meeting and listen to hypocrites. I didn't. we didn't, my hubby my support and I wrote letters and sent them off.
We had no other family in so thats a blessing. As far as friends go, no one called in the 2 months we didn't attend. I feel a friend would be a friend no matter what. no regrets here !!
For me, I had no real close friends in the Borg, except for one....for 26 years. When I discovered the truth behind the Borg (combined with a zealous elder who would not let me fade and who felt compelled to harass me to do the will of the Borg...wrong move), I had to make a decision for the emotional and physical health of myself, as well as that of my elderly mother (who lives with me). This had to be placed above the friendship....a friendship which proved to be a very conditional friendship since she, and her non-believing husband, are now shunning me.
I have no love for the false prophet Watchtower...which is putting it mildly...because of the evil that is behind it!
Praise be to Jesus that I finally saw the light....
Foxy
I like that song and sing it softly at the KH from time to time:
I Saw The Light
I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin
I wouldn't let my dear savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
Chorus:
Just like a blind man I wandered a long,
Worries and fears I claimed for my own.
Then like the blind man that God gave back my sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
Chorus:
I was a fool to wander and stray,
Straight is the gate and narrow the way
Now I have traded the wrong for the right
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
Chorus:
I saw the light, I saw the light
No more in darkness no more in night
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
Leaving nearly killed me. There were times I wanted so much to die. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been easier.
"Sometimes the subconscious mind manifests a wisdom several steps or even years ahead of the conscious mind, and has its own way of leading us toward our destiny" - Nathaniel Branden
The "troof" becomes the central part of your life to where it becomes very difficult, almost impossible, for JW to imagine their life apart from the org. Also, the endless shaming of those who doubt or question, those things kept me in long after I knew that not all was right with WT. But in the back of my mind, I knew it was crazy, even before I got baptized. I look back and think, "what the hell was I thinking?" But I wasn't thinking, it was an emotional decision. The courage to leave came very gradually.
3 months ago I read a book on cults called Captive Hearts, Captive Minds. One of the things it had to say about "walk-aways" is that many persons who do walk away from cults do it, not because they've come to disagree with any particular doctrine, but because they realize that for the sake of their own mind and any hope of future sanity, they have to leave. That was the case with me.
"It is characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top. " - Robert Lindner
"We don't go beyond the things written" - Ted Jaracz
Edited by - dantheman on 1 October 2002 23:19:24
I had few friends and not enough energy to stay in. I don't think it took courage or strength to leave. So many things had built up. I was ready to go. And when I walked away, I felt relief more than anything. I was the same person, but free.
Edited by - windchaser on 1 October 2002 23:45:30
