I wonder how many here, when put to the test "proved" their loyalty to the organization.
Did You Prove "Faithful" and Not Take a Transfusion or Something Forbidden?
by minimus 14 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
mouthy
Raising my hand I had TWO major operations with NO BLOOD Dr Palmer in Montreal said he would never forget me. I gave him a real "going over" about the sin of transfusion....They were for Ulcers.... I convinced one of the Interns I had the truth( while I was in Hospital) but I met him years later he was out....
I told you I was a dyed in the wool wolf didnt I??????but I did have sheeps clothing on.....I am excused now Romans 8:1 ( ducking))) -
ChakkaConned
I refused to attend my brother- in-laws funeral because a priest conducted the service. I also did not go to my brothers wedding because it was in a church.
Tell me I didn't come off as some kind of heartless freak to family and old friends!
What a dumbass I was
-
Xena
My ex-husband was severely burned over 1/3 of his body. He refused to have grafting done due to the blood issue. He suffered tremendously for this. They had to scrub the burned flesh daily to keep it clean, they they covered it in pig skin to encourage the growth and keep the area clean...they wanted to use cadaver skin..can you say ICK? Took him quite a bit longer to recover..he was in intensive care for a month before being moved to the regular ward.
-
minimus
I can think of a number of little things that "proved" my loyalty. Wouldn't say, "Bless you" for a silly sneeze. I certainly would've never stood up for the National anthem. Being raised a Witness, I would not participate in ANY worldly observance. Even if something wasn't even really considered wrong, I would distance myself from any association with what might stumble a person.(I guess everyone Witness was supposed to do these things, yet I knew many that did not).
-
logansrun
Well, I completely shunned my best friend (twice!) when he was disfellowshipped. I also refused to go to college (at the behest of the elders and DO) even though my liberal JW mother wanted me to go.
Yes, I was a "good little JW." Now an evil, infidel apostate!
Bradley
-
Sunspot
Right at the onset when I was "studying" the "Trooth" book, my birthday, my sister's and my mother's birthdays all fell within a three-week period. Mine was first, and I was thrown a BIG surprise party. My next "study" was about the celebrations that were "disapproved by God", and as shocked as I was to learn that....I accepted it was obedient-real fast!. My Father wanted me to help HIM plan a party for my sister and my mother two weeks later, and I refused, giving him my "reasons. Can you imagine how LAME it sounded right AFTER my big party?
Another cool move to "please Jehovah".....came a year later, even though my mother KNEW my "beliefs", she came over with a fully decorated birthday cake for one of my kids and set it down. One of the kids said "Mommy, that says happy birthday on it", and I went over and calmly swiped the lettering off the cake and threw it away, and said "no it doesn't". My mother was furious. (Wonder why?) BUT....I had PLEASED Jehovah!
I had a serious medical condition that four doctors had refused to treat because of the blood issue, and finally found a doctor in Watertown NY who'd operate without using blood. I almost died (he told me later, I just thought I was really tired after the surgery), but I came through it nicely. (Jehovah' blessing)
My oldest son was baptized at 14 (I had totally forgotten that when I replied to a post here a few days ago and said only one of my kids was baptized) and had dropped away by 17. By age 23, in 1981, he was married and had his own home, a good job, a new baby boy.....and we still saw each other regularly. Then the WTS decided that if you want to be pleasing to Jehovah, you tell disfellowshipped relatives not living in your home, to go pound sand, they were not worth of your association. I called him to tell him why I was cutting off our relationship unless he decided to come back to the "trooth", and I'm still getting choked up as I write this. It cut him to shreds, and messed him up for YEARS, so I hear.
When I DAed myself in '99,I wrote him a long letter of my deepest apologies, and how I didn't "do it" to be mean-spirited, but honestly thought I was doing the right thing.....and he still has not spoken to me. Twenty-two years. Two grandchildren I've never seen, and the oldest grandchild not since 1981 when he was six months old. His reply to my letter was to my second son.....no thanks, I don't want you in my life, it's too late now.
My parents and my sister ended up silently disowning me when I became a JW, and verbally let me know I was dead to them two years later. But, hey! None of THIS matters, as long as you're pleasing Jehovah, right?
I was viewed as "weak" for many years, due to many missed meetings because of poor health, maybe every 4th or 5th meeting...not like someone inactive. Just before I left the Org for good, I was out of the wheelchair, but on crutches and in constant pain, and yet expected to keep that insane JW schedule, and I just couldn't DO it any more. I wasn't "pleasing Jehovah" any longer.
ALL those years of following the "rules", putting my LIFE on hold waiting for the New Order to GET here, rejecting nice "worldly" people who now hate me, the JWs now hate me, my father hates me, my mother died hating me, and my sister sneers at the mention of my name, so I'm told.
I was the "model" JW in my heart, but the body couldn't keep up the pace THEY set. The ONLY "no-no" that I was "unfaithful" in not doing was going to an R-rated movie in around 1979, a horror film about a ghost ship, and my heart was pounding the whole time that I'd be SEEN! Hubby kept telling me that whoever "saw" you there, would be there for the same reason....<grin> He was right.
Yup, I was TRULY......Old Faithful.
Hugs,
Annie
-
minimus
WOW ANNIE!!!! I hope eventually, your family might come around. You were "faithful", that's for sure.
-
nowisee
in the last stages of my marriage and my association with the wts i was working in a corporation. i worked very closely with three other women and we became very good friends. for the first year or two that i worked with them they would give me christmas gifts which i tried to refuse and of course did not return.
i believe it was the second or third year that i worked with them -- it came time for the office christmas party and i told them i could not/would not go. they pleaded and pleaded but i was adamant. imagine my surprise when the whole office said they had decided not to have a christmas party -- it was now just a winter party and i had to attend. seriously, no decorations, no presents, just signs everywhere wishing everyone a happy winter.
-
minimus
nowisee, They did EXACTLY the same at my daughter's work place.