Happy about having been a JW?

by Brummie 39 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Brummie

  Are you happy to have been a JW? Is there a constructive side in it all for you? Or do you wish you had never seen their culty smiles?

  When I first left I just couldnt see any worth for the painful experience, now I dont regret having been a JW as it gives a great insight into a cultic worldview and a mindset that we may have never understood or been able to empathise with. I wouldnt want to live through the exiting years again (gawwwd no, wouldnt wish them on my worst enemy), yet I believe the years spent inside have had a productive outcome.

  Even now I am still learning that I have things in my lifestyle that are still attached to the WTower but they are harmless (I think) and can be stripped off in the way someone would pick a cobwed off their clothes!

  Thanks for responding

  Brummie
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  bittersweet

  I grew up in this cult. I really don't feel that it did anything constructive for me. I tried to rack my brain to think of any good that came from it,but I can't. Unfortunately, I can think of lots of negative side effects.

  If for some reason I think of any happy thoughts, I will get back to you!
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  teenyuck

  I am with bittersweet.

  I cannot think of positives. I drove by a KH yesterday evening and had the urge to walk in and start yelling. Thankfully, I had to be someplace or who knows? I would be locked up for disturbing the peace.

  Going to meetings, field service, being singled out as *different* in school....ummm, no, no positives.

  OTOH, I did learn that sales would not be a career for me. If a 5 year old cannot get 10 cents for the rags, how could I sell anything?

  Just go to Purelanguage.net when you feel nostalgic and read the drivel that they call fellowship.
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  cruzanheart

  I can think of many positive things about my life as a JW, mostly having to do with the people I came to know and love dearly. I appreciated being a JW when I lived overseas because by being associated with the local congregations I was able to really enjoy and learn about where I lived from a local viewpoint by going out in service and socializing. Perhaps I was exposed to a more benevolent form of JWism, but I remember it being different back then, more sincere and less cultish. I did learn the Bible backward and forward.

  Of course, the most positive thing is that I met my beloved Big Tex, my soulmate.

  And if I'd never been a JW, I couldn't be an XJW and I never would have met you lovely people.

  Nina
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  gitasatsangha

  I cannot say necessarilly that it was positive itself, but it helped me be who I am today, and I am pretty cool about who I am. Things happen for a reason. The Law of Karma is unavoidable, putting us through these experiences, not for any other reason but to learn from them. Otherwise whole years are wasted.
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  DJ

  Brummie, I often wonder what I would be like if I had never known the jw's. Their influence in my life has had a very negative affect on my thinking style. It's a battle every day. My first inclinations to everyday situations tend to be products of the way I was taught....ie: judgmental, suspicious, self-righteous, nervous, frightened, insecure, angry.....etc. BUT atleast now I can temper those tendencies with love and faith, etc. I am a product of my environment but I work on it constantly. I can be very tiresome, sometimes...lol. I am not happy one bit about my association with them but I cannot change it and had to accept that fact and move on anyway. In a strange way, it may have have a good role in my life because I am no longer a slave to men and never will be again. Those false teachings made me seek with all of my heart the true truth found in Christ. In that way, their scheme backfired and they lost. There may always be some residual damage in me but I try to keep my eyes focused on what's ahead and bury my past. Having been in that dark place has led me to the bright place where I dwell now. It might have been nice to have had a different path in life but who knows, it could have been worse. Contrary to what I think at times......there are always those who have had it worse than me. I try to remember that in order to keep perspective and it lightens my day. I am no longer heavily burdened by them and for that I am veryyyy grateful. The battle scars are starting to heal day by day. love, dj
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  JT

  Are you happy to have been a JW?

  Personally i don't see how anyone can be "Happy" about being taken advantage of, in life itself very few folks would consider themselves happy that someone took advantage of them-

  be it a car salemen, ones doctor, mate, family member, etc- wt took advantage of us and others by offering a product that was Defective- i have yet to meet any person who has made a major investment in anything who walked away "Happy" after finding out they got Bamboozled and Hoodwinked- so i will have to say a big NO!!!!!!!!!

  Is there a constructive side in it all for you?

  Since we were taken advantage of with a bogus product the only result that i constantly see demostrated here on this site and others by former jw is their caution at being taken in by another bogus product, regardless of what it is- the exp has helped many of us to have our "BullSh!T" alarm set to High

  we have learned the most valuable lesson i think a person can learn and that is:

  The Freedom to Think means:

  "I'd rather have Questions that I can't Answer ----Than Questions, I can't Ask.

  (or Answers that I can't Question)."
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  PurpleV

  I think you'll find that most people who were born 'n raised in the troof will tell you it was not a positive experience. My school years were just awful, I was such a pariah in school and because my mother wasn't theo enough and my father completely and utterly antisocial I wasn't popular at the KH either.

  I grew up to be an adult with virtually no social skills and a naivete that got me in lots of trouble. I turned down scholarships and started working at 17. I got a guilt-complex and self-esteem issues that sometimes plague me to this day, even with therapy. Part of my decision to remain childless was that even tho I had 'left,' for a long time I felt I'd left the troof and was going to be destroyed at the Big A any time now. Soon. Right around the corner.

  Naah, I can't think of a single positive thing. Nope, not one. Except maybe I know lots of Bible stuff, that comes in handy sometimes, and helps me answer the odd Jeopardy question now and then.
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  blacksheep

  Honestly, no. I'm usually a pretty philosophical person with few regrets on life choices, but since I was born into the religion and raised by a devout JW mother, I didn't have a choice. I feel like those meetings, assemblies, studies, etc., were just a huge, giant waste of time. I was denied any normal socialization. I knew I really didn't fit in with the JWs, I didn't fit in with the "world," I didn't fit in period.

  Now that I have children and that life is far behind me, I just cannot see how my mother (and unbelieving but JW supportive father) could knowingly subject me to such cultic teachings and deprive me of any real normal childhood.

  I see JWism as perhaps the biggest drain on time, energy, money, talent, etc., that can be fathomed. These people are not trying to improve ANYTHING--they're just giving a symbolical middle finger to the world, waiting for the vast majority of people to be blown to bits at Armageddon, and have nothing but an imaginary, fairy tale future to hold out as a carrot to keep people "active" in wasting there time.

  No, I'm very sad about having had any remote association with such a twisted organization.
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  nowisee

  i won't repeat what cruzanheart and dj said....just know that i echo many of their sentiments.

  one other positive thing that the wts did for me i believe.....

  i inherited the raging hormones of others in my family, a highly sexual little creature in my teens...yet i still had deep fear of God and my parents so in a sense i believe that the wts served as a restraint on me....

  i often think i would have ended up as a pregnant teenager...

  there was a point when i was l7 when i seriously considered getting on a bus and heading out to mustang ranch in, nv, you know, to be one of the girls.....

  well neither thing happened to me. would they have? i'll never know for sure but something held me back. certainly life now would be totally different and i can't believe in a positive way.

  nowisee