by Phizzy 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
For myself, there is an embarrassingly long list of things that really should really have woken me up, fully. It was a long process for me, as a Mind Controlled Born In, things I simply did not agree with, or knew were downright wrong, that built and built, and, eventually I woke up, after 58 bloody years in !
But just mainly for fun, what SHOULD have woken you up ?
before becoming a witness, I was a pretty " walk the straight line" type of kid.
When my parents became witnesses the pressure to fit into their mold and hang out with all witness kids was quite
a pressure to deal with.
So as a jr. high student I aligned with the mentality of hanging out with so called spiritual friends VS people from the world, ( that I have known most of my life) that were deemed bad association.
Well, I quickly learned how much fun being a witness was,,,, smoking cigarettes, pot, drinking heavily, lying, going out with worldly girls. And then going to meetings, and fs acting like I was a young missionary,, It was a mind-blowing time of life for me. Looking back, I should have dropped those fake friends and ran away from this religion as fast as I could. But I was torn, being true to who I was at the time or having a lot of worldly fun in secret was a powerful drug for me. what an idiot I was.
The looks and comments which were given if ever something was said which didn't originate from Brooklyn!
Cult, cult, cult, cult, cult!
PHIZZY:
What should have woken me up were the first rude awakenings I got in the first congregation I was with.
These were:.(1) the hang-ups on over-modesty of dress; and (2) older retired people with cushy lives telling ME I should quit my full time decent job to do manual labor (housecleaning) and pioneer and also doing favors for people. I was baffled over this stupidity because I would be making much less money and would have even LESS time for anything else. I ignored this stupidity.
In time I ‘faded’ from the religion.
Who made Jehovah?
I would ask this when I was 4-5 years old.
1995 when the original 1914 generation that would not pass away got thrown out the window
Nepotism, favouritism, double standards,
How elders kids and family got away with stiff.
Many things.
At 10yrs old when 3 elders questioned me for hours about being molested by my jw grandfather. Every. single. detail. Like they were getting turned on or some shit. Nothing a 10 yr old should ever have gone through. The icing on the shit cake of a meeting is I got privately reproved for not screaming out. What in the world were they thinking?
At 17 when I got dfed for marring a non witness.
At 18 when I strangled an elder outside for spanking my son and they so much as didn't say a word to me. So you choke someone and no one says anything. But get fucking molested or marry an outsider than apparently your worthy of death spiritually and physically.
When my wife cheated on me with my best friend in the cong, three separate times and each time the elders didn't want to "stumble" her as she wasn't baptized yet, but the guy was baptized and they did nothing. You have got to be kidding me. So nothing was done to either one.
I could name more but I won't.
They all know how I feel about about it where I grew up, and it does give me immense satisfaction to know that if they ever saw me in person that they would most likely break their neck trying to run. Because they know I'd break it for them anyway. Glady! Anyday! And happily go to prison for life. It is literally for peoples safety I don't go back to where I grew up.
That sure took any pity I might be feeling towards their plight right out of the equation.
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Its so crazy that so many of us were so indoctrinated that certain things didn't wake us up sooner.
If there was a devil I'm sure his religion of choice would be the JWS.
1975
I came into the religion by first intensely studying the publications on my own, and only much later having a Bible study and going to meetings.
I should have woken up as soon as I realized that the religion I knew on paper didn't exist in real life. But... I kept hoping that things would change, or I would change, and I would see it. Sadly, I never did, but I also never left. I quickly joined a foreign language congregation and the really close-nit and boisterous nature of that particular culture became my vision of what the religion was, and while it STILL was not what I imagined it was going to be, it filled quite a big hole in my life.
I should have woken up when they told me not to masturbate, which should have been nobody's business.
I should have woken up as soon as I realized that evolution was true, which was before I was even baptized.
I should have woken up when an elder told me he didn't like my hair style, and that while there was nothing in the Bible against it, the opinions of the elders are important.
I should have woken up when it hit me that I knew no more about the Bible 2 years (or 5, or 10, or 15...) after starting than I did 1 year after starting going to meetings.
I should have woken up every time I got a scathing glance or a snide remark when I told others that I was going to college.
I REALLY should have woken up when I decided not to hang my diploma on the wall because I didn't want to make my friends feel bad.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY should have woken up every time I mentioned saving money or having a retirement account, only to have everyone around me act absolutely appalled that I wasn't doing the "spiritually mature" thing by deliberately living paycheck to paycheck and not having any plan for the future.
I can go on and on and on, of course, but I'll add one last example: I should have woken up when they told me to treat other human beings as if they don't exist, just because those human beings just-so-happen to disagree with the self-proclaimed "faithful and discreet slave".
