In my mid twenties, a girl I had gone to high school with contacted me and asked me if I would study with her because she wanted to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She was raised in a Presbyterian family and we had discussed religion just a handful of times in school. We were not particularly close. Acquaintances more than friendly.
At first I thought it was a joke. She was serious. Then I struggled with myself. I didn’t really want to hassle with a “ bible study” and I felt guilty because, after all, isn’t that the end all be all of existence as a JW?
I even tried to push her off onto other sisters. While I had pioneered in my teens, I was happy at this point in my life to put in my 2 or 3 hours a month, which was bullshit but it kept the secretary and my conductor off my ass. My Asshole(now ex-husband) was not an issue. He never went to meetings and lied on his service report as well.
Long story short, I ended up doing the study. After the 5th or 6th study, she asked me, “What if you discovered that everything you have been taught is a lie?” (I thought she was projecting her own experience)
I responded, “I don’t think that is possible, but if it did happen, I would be grateful for the life I have led because of my religion.”
Which is a complete lie because I despised so much about things I missed out on because of the religion. I thought my answer to her was a way to make her believe it was great and following through to baptism would be in the pursuit of a better and happier life.
Because of the questions raised in that study I couldn’t answer, my own research culminated in me starting my fade right before age 30.
My study went on to get baptized. I felt tremendous guilt for lying to her.
8 years after my fade I received a phone call out of the blue. It was her. She also left the JW religion and had no idea I had as well. She found out through the grapevine and contacted me.
We talk every week. I apologized to her. To my surprise she apologized to me. The Bible study was a ruse to get baptized and marry a JW boy of which I never had a clue.
He turned out to be a complete piece of shit so it’s another experience her and I bond over. Lmao!
We say stupid shit to people because we want our word to assert an agenda. Even if we don’t believe the words we say in retrospect.
The similar phrases from the opening post are probably just that. So don’t lose hope. People find the path out of WT even when they have recited the party lines for years.
