What made you look behind the jw curtain?

by Touchofgrey 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Touchofgrey

  I was listening to a lunchtime call in radio show about jws and the personal experiences of being disfellowshiped, and a former elder called in saying he was disfellowshiped for asking about jws and their involvement in the UN in the 1990s ,and he just said look it up.

  Thinking that it was a made up lie ,so I looked it up and it was true even a letter confirming it from the UN itself and that led me here and to jwfacts and further research into the history and teachings of jw and walked out the door about 5 years ago.
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  DesirousOfChange

  I really believed it all -- hook, line, & sinker, as they say. . . . Holy Spirit direction and all that. . . . until I experienced things that made no sense. An elder who had been carrying on an affair for 8 years, including the time when he was appointed "by HS". When a situation involving a prominent elder accused of embezzlement when before 2 COs, the DO, and the Service Dept and all accepted his deny deny deny strategy. (But I KNEW the facts.) Once again, the H.S. must have been asleep at the Chariot's wheel. An elder assigned the keynote talk at the convention, who had been having an affair with a gal from work and was planning to divorce his wife AFTER the convention because he believed the H.S. had obviously determined he was the BEST person to deliver the information at the convention.

  Either the H.S. is easily fooled or. . . . . it's all bullshit. You can guess which option won that debate.
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  TonusOH

  I left the organization for good when I realized I did not believe in god. I considered myself still a believing JW until that moment. But I had been fading for a very long time before that moment.

  I think I just lost confidence over time, though I did not want to believe that. But there were the occasional articles or statements that I still remember, because they left an impression. Like the time they compared Jehovah's ability to see the future to the muscles of a strong man. They wanted to explain how god didn't know that Adam and Eve would rebel, even though he could foretell the future. So they explained that this ability was like the muscles of a strong man. The man did not always use those muscles, but he was still powerful even if he was not using them.

  The analogy is so weird that I remember it even now. It stood out as being strange and also wrong.

  Then there was one of the many times that they were emphasizing obedience to the organization, and the example they used was of a couple who disagreed with the GB on a particular interpretation of doctrine. They wrote to the society and were told that, while the issue might be reconsidered in the future, the present understanding was the one to be followed. Well, they talked to others about their view and were eventually disfellowshipped for apostasy. Later, the organization adopted the same interpretation of the doctrine that this couple originally had.

  The article specifically mentioned that the couple was not reinstated. Their crime was not that they were right or wrong. It was that they had disobeyed the GB and 'opposed' it. Thus, being right or wrong was less important than being obedient. That stuck with me. To this day, I don't understand how they get away with making this claim.
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  Biahi

  I am a born in, and had this religion shoved down my throat every damn day. Because it was drummed into me from infancy, I believed it was the “truth”. However, at the same time, the very fiber of my being told me something was off. I also decided, at age 4, that this religion was forced on me, but some day, (it seemed so far away) I would grow up and make my own choices. I planned to leave on my 18th birthday, but unfortunately, I met a guy who was just coming in. I really had the hots for him, and we got married. The marriage didn’t work out. This made a dent in my plans, but, after the divorce, I started to work a full time job to support myself, and, as soon as I was able to pay rent without help, about 25 years old, I got an apartment far away from the town where I was a JW. Just moved out, didn’t say a word to anyone, and never stepped foot into a KH again.

  it was after I left, (and I felt a huge weight off of me), I looked at “apostate” literature. And I was pretty surprised that it wasn’t true after all, just a man made cult. So, my feelings as a young kid were correct, after all. I’ve been out 40 years now, have a Catholic husband of 35 years, and will never go back to this 👿 evil religion. Glad to be on these forums, for me it is validation that my feelings were right, after all.
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  Beth Sarim

  I dont know what really made me look behind the "curtain" .

  Generation change in mid 1990s..

  WT affiliation with NGO UN between 1992 & 2001.

  ""The dangers of the internet" pounded into your heads all the time. I figured """ what the hell,, here goes "". Viola,,,, doubts , suspicions were set ablaze.
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  notsurewheretogo

  607 BCE is not the destruction of Jerusalem. Once I researched it and fully debunked the nonsense the WT believes the whole house of cards falls down.

  607 not true...1914 not true...1919 not true...FDS appointed is now just their own interpretation and therefore no "god" is directing the GB and everything they say is not directed or inspired...something they now admit.

  607 being wrong was the key for me.
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  a watcher

  Covid vaccine coercion.
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  silentbuddha

  I kept wondering why the all powerful god liked and dealt with only one group of people. The bible seemed weird to me when i really focused on the fact that it all took place in a very small area when there were obviously people all over the planet that he chose to ignore.

  God supposedly created Europeans, Africans, Asians, Tribal people yet for some reason he only seemed concerned with such a minute portion of people for so long. Seemed rather foolish. That plagued me. The final straw was when I was at an elders school and a grown man broke down during the part about pornography and admitted to everyone there that he watched porn for like a few days. The shit just seemed like a giant clown show.
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  LongHairGal

  It was after they came out with the 1995 changed teaching on Generation that I knew something was wrong with the Witness religion and I had to get out.

  Before that time there were a whole lot of things that got me wondering what kind of mistake I made getting involved with this religion! ..There was the lack of love unless you were part of an extended family or clique; the intrusiveness; the gossip that was fierce, etc. ..In my case I was ‘disapproved’ of because I worked full time and had to look out for myself - because nobody else was.. I did NOT follow in the footsteps of other single women there whose time was taken up with the ministry and doing favors for all the ‘Users’!👎

  Anyway, I started searching on the internet while at the same time reconnecting with estranged relatives, etc. I was positively shocked at the mountain of unflattering information about the religion and many personal testimonials. It was certainly not my imagination about many things. At this point I was on the fringes of the congregation.. Even though there were a handful of people in the JWs that I liked I planned my ‘Fade’.. I could not be part of this charade anymore.
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  road to nowhere

  Education demonization, 1995, politics in congregation, DF lack of consistency

  Sickness caused missing meetings so the Kingdomministry wasn't sent out. The only place to find one was apostate sights.