What's The First Step To Leaving The "Trut... (page 2)

onacruse

Another "what planet are you from?" answer, but anyway...

The first crack in the dam for me came when the Society outlawed nicotine based on their interpretation of pharmakeia. I was heavy into Greek at the time, and I knew that they were wrong. I was about 25 at the time, had never smoked and never had the desire. But it just kept eating at me...so one night I bought a pack of cigs to test my theory. I sat on the front porch, with my first cig in hand, and prayed to Jehovah that He would protect me from the demons that supposedly would gain control over me for indulging in that spiritistic practice.

Well, nothing of the sort happened. And from then on I questioned EVERYthing I read in the pubs.

Stayed in and out for another 20 years, though...sheesh.

Craig

PS: Not to say that smoking is a good thing

Windchaser

Like Francois, the seed was planted when I would read the arrogant modern-day fulfillments. I just couldn't buy it. I had this emptiness inside me that, to me, either meant my heart was bad or they really weren't who they claimed they were. It was easy for me to stop going out in service and then to stop attending meetings. When I got online, an exjw posted something that was so clear (why I didn't see it before, I don't know). He brought out the Scripture about how you can tell a true prophet because there is always fulfillment in the prophecy. Then, he mentioned several dates that the society had implied would be 'the end'. And, here we are in 2002.

Another thing that got to me, just before I left, was the article giving new light to the word 'generation'. There was this underlying feeling that they were copping out.

Edited by - windchaser on 19 October 2002 11:15:4

Shakita

This is for the one anointed, self-absorbed, haughty, ignorant, blankhole of an elder. If you are lurking here, which I find quite probable, seeing you preach one thing and do another, this story is for YOU!!!!!!

The first step for me was, the above forementioned elder came to our house for a congregational "visit." Because, of course, they were so concerned about our poor, and I mean literally poor, family. This elder proceeds to give us some very IMPORTANT counsel. Counsel, you see, is very important to those who need food. Well, this elder, who is supposedly of the annointed class of loonies, proceeds to ramble on about the importance of all the robots in the kingdom hall answering the repetative questions put to them in their rags of lies. Well, when he was done with quoting some scriptures from the Bible which deal with this very IMPORTANT topic, one which I know personally Jehovah God is sitting there on his throne right now wringing his hands and condemning his children to the lake of sulphur and fire because they are not answering at the kingdom hall!!!!!!!!! I had the audacity to question this very respectedelder! He pointed out a scripture in Psalms dealing with this very IMPORTANT topic. I proceeded to point out that since that scripture comes from the psalms(definition-a sacred song or hymn)that maybe, just maybe, the writer was pointing out the importance of SINGING, not ANSWERING QUESTIONS, at the kingdom hall. He just sat there. Didn't know what to say. Guess the almighty anointed pondscum wasn't use to being questioned. This incident happened many years back. And, I know for a fact, that this loving brother still remembers this questioning of his authority down to this day.

This wasn't my first step, but just another story of loving concern by our wonderful group of loonies there at the Hall from Hell.

Mrs. Shakita, have a nice day

shera

When I left ..I was confused about the religion and I always had doubts if it really was the truth.I always found some of the teaching didn't fit with scripture.I have been gone for 10 years now and really it is just been the past few months that I realize it can't be the truth.I didnot know of the false prophicies...I didn't know about doctrines changing and so called "new lights"I just happened to start studing when everything was truth forawhile and the new lights came about a few years later.When I heard about all these changes...I was like huh....so much stuff changed and the "truth" that I knew was different.In some ways,its like a different religion.

nilfun

Being raised in it,there had always been a sense that something wasn't right .

One day I got a phone call. I was told I would be publicly reproved if I reported a certain matter to the civil authorities.

Too late, it had already been reported. Never got reproved, did get marked.

After that I began searching for a painless way to escape .

nilfun, who has learned the meaning of the phrase "no pain, no gain".

reubenfine

What FIRST got me thinking it wasn't the troof was when I was railroaded by overzealous elders who did an unethical investigation on me after I was reported to THREE CIRCUIT overseers for not paying taxes. I didn't file for 8 years, but they couldn't show me ONE law I was violating even though I offered them $1000 to do so. Then they write this letter do the society to see how to deal with me, (how about with love and kindness??), even though it wasn't a JC and I included my own letter. 4 pages single-spaced and typed, (before I had a computer).

I quoted the highest laws and courts in the land. I said I would have to lie to file. They came back and said they were familiar with my argument, but that it was UNREASONABLE without showing one law I was violating and that I would be basically a black sheep. Nice, now I heard they had a lawyer or two. Seems like if I was so stupid or unreasonable it would be easy to show me where. So now I have to LIE to be good standing is what they said in a roundabout way.

A couple of years later I got tired of fuming about it and wrote a letter demanding an apology for them slandering my good name and trying to mislead me. They wrote back and said they had no record of the letter. My parents said, "I doubt that they would ever apologize." I said what does that tell you then?

Then the Watchtower study about the generation thing and everyone answered like a bunch of 2nd grade robots. I decided not to live my life like a 2nd class citizen when I hadn't done anything wrong. Quit going and read CofC and I was history, thank God, after 35 torturous years. By the way, I now file taxes and lie my ass off so should be qualified to pass a mike.

Lyle

Nathan Natas

I have often said half-jokingly that BAPTISM was the first step to becoming an XJW.

At 14 I was baptized, and I was struck by what a completely un-remarkable experience it was. I concluded that either I wasn't good enough to receive God's blessing or that there was no spiritual experience associated with baptism.

About 5 years later when I was asked if I'd like to be appointed as a Ministerial Servant, I was first puzzled that I should be ASKED about this - didn't God's Holy Spirit know? - and then even more puzzled when that appointment was made - I was fairly certain that I had no releationship with Jehovah and was insignificant to Him - how could this POSSIBLY been approved? I wrote to the Society, and asked them to exlain to me just how the selection/approval process worked, and they never sent me a reply.

Having been personally convinced that there was nothing spiritual behind all this, I was operating on "auto-pilot" - this is what I was told to do, this is what I was trained since childhood to do - and it was only a matter of time until my growing experience as an adult displaced the naivete of childish "From Paradise Lost To Paradise Regained" expectations.

Then I began to see first hand the hypocisy and covering over of evil, and I was done.

Edited by - Nathan Natas on 19 October 2002 13:51:13

link

The simple answer to this question is DOUBT.

Crisis of Conscience lead me to believe that the Society knew that their 607 BCE chronology was wrong. I wrote to them asking two simple questions and requesting YES or NO answers.

Despite more than one attempt by me,they absolutely refused to give yes or no answers but went off into reims of explanation that left me with no answers. This meant that at a later date they could not be accused of lying to me. It was then that I realized that they knew that they were wrong and were purposely misleading everyone with their major doctrines.

Now I just feel sorry for them. They have backed themselves into a corner from which there is no honourable escape.

link

Buster

I was pretty typical. I grew up listening to those clowns and had to thru more than a few inquisitions. I credit my dad with ensuring that I got to college (he was not a dub). I think the end was when my best friend found it necessary to report a private conversation we had. Like most best friends in their late teeens, we talked about all kinds of stuff, all the time. Anyway, my best friend, Vinnie, can't get his arms around my opinions on evolution and the longevity of man's existance on earth- being that it was now based on evidence, fact, and my own actual opinion. He just had to see if the elders could help.

Curiously, at least two of the three elders (I forget who the third one was) had college degrees. To this day, I can't bellieve the 16th century mindset of those idiots. Nope, 'this is how we interpret the bible, so that is what God means, and to disagree with us is to disagree with God.' I was to adopt their beliefs and that was that.

That was the end for me.

Epilogue (and I was suppoesd tio sit and be judged by these clowns?):

Brother Elder Jim P.: Had several sons, beautiful and devoted wife, and a college degree, was eventually caught taking his secretary on a business trip and sharing a room

Brother Elder Carl D.: He was the biggest know-it-all I ever met. This married elder was hired to install a bathroom by a JW family. While he was at it, he and the wife/mother of the house fell in love and left their own families.

Buster

But you asked about what First started me out the door. I would have to say knowledge and confidence. there was no way I was going into my adulthood being directed by these clowns. They purposely left off their own reasoning abilities so they would have room for the hook, line, and sinker that they were being fed.

That was the beginning.

What's The First Step To Leaving The "Trut...

Share this