by zeena1998 12 Replies latest jw experiences
Mornin' all!
K...I've got a nosy question here. For those of you out there who were never JW's, what brings you here? Were you ever tempted to join the "brotherhood"? And for those of you who were part of the borg (LOL...I just love that analogy!!! Just wayyyyy too perfect!), what was it that made you take another look and decide to leave?
I hope these questions aren't out of line.
Andie
I started to look into the history of the Organization after I had a particually bad thursday night meeting, where nothing went well at all. I remember thinking, maybe the apostates are right !!!
After quite some time of studying , I decided It can't be God's Borg.
I'll bite...
I'm a 'never was', and my reasons for being here are spelled out on this page: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/7/44589/1.ashx
Welcome, by the way!
Sara Annie, when I clicked on your link, nothing came up.
rocketman of the I always love a good story class
Sara Annie,
I clicked on the link but got one of those maddening "page can't be displayed" thingys. Is there another way your story can be read?
Hamas, thanks for sharing that. I'm sorry that you had a bad Thursday meeting but glad that you were able to be free.
Andie
Rocketman--I edited it to include a different link--if you refresh, it should be there now.
I'm a "never-has-been" also, Thank God! Unfortunately for me, my husband is a Witness and, quite frankly, the organization is ruining my marriage. I get so much support on this board. You can't really discuss these issues with most people because the average person doesn't know anything about JW's, what they believe, the cult mentality, etc.
They are not out of line Andie. I left the borg after wasting the first 23 years of my life. I couldn't take a religion controlling every facet of my life. I hated the cliques in the congregations and pompass elders getting into my business. I hated that my father would get jobs to make just enough money so he could also aux. pioneer on a regular basis. I hated field sevice and I hated wasting a whole 2 hours on saturday for our family study. This forum has really provided me an outlet that I have needed for years and also the real good association which is ex-Jdubs...
Thanks Sara...got the link. You are an write amazingly well. Your story is one that is highly interesting. Thanks for posting that!
I guess that my story should be shared too, although it's nothing as interesting as most of yours. :)
Ever since I was a little girl, I have been searching for my "truth". I remember being in church (born and raised Catholic) one day and after the mass, was standing outside with my Grandmother and a bunch of her friends. Being the little girl that I was (maybe 8 or so), they paid little attention to me as they talked about the other people around them. So and so was definately going to hell because of such and such, and OMG...did you here about this other person??? On and on it went and I remember being struck by the hypocrisy of it all. Are we not going to church to learn how to better love our brothers and sisters? And are we not taught NOT to judge? That that job belongs to the Big Guy upstairs?? Who are we to pass judgement like that? So that was the begining of the search for me.
Over the years, I have read about many different types of religions and have taken the best from them and molded my life accordingly (sometimes I refer to this as hedging my bets...hey you never know! LOL). I've had JW's come to my door in the past and have even let them in to discuss their views. Had some pretty interesting conversations too! Then I met my friend, C, where we both worked. She would come over and would talk to me about her views and I would talk to her about mine. There were many many points that we agreed on. We would have long talks too about the whole disfellowship issue as well. THAT was my sticking point...for the life of me, I could not understand how a good and loving God could condone making one of your family as dead if you did not believe as they did. Totally incomprehensible to me.
Then I moved away...to a different country and felt the loss of her friendship deeply. At about the same time as this, she was going thru some mighty nasty times with her husband and the bottom line was that she was to have no more contact with me whatsoever. We talked about this on the phone and out of respect for her marriage, agreed to this. The conversation ended with the caveat that should I ever turn to the truth, then we can be friends again. Our friendship meant so much to me that I started looking into it, even going to a meeting or two. But after those meetings where I was looking around and wondering how in the world could role playing make me closer to God, I decided that the WTS was not for me. That's when the searching for the history of the JW's came to be.
So that, dear people, is my story in a nutshell.
I'm really enjoying reading all of yours! Thanks!
Andie
I came here because of a close friendship with a life-long JW. I figured if I knew more I could be more respectful of his beliefs. Oh, dear. Wrong strategy. I stay because I think I may better understand why he is how he is. Because I need to be able to accept that.
