What woke you up?

by MrRoboto 41 Replies latest jw experiences

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  problemaddict 2

  I love these type of threads.

  I was serving in a foreign country as a young "need-greater" (which means my wife and I funded ourselves....quit our jobs.....big level of commitment). I had 19 bible studies and my wife 20. Sheesh.

  I was learning a language, so i honestly got kind of bored and just wanted to communicate in english. I somehow stumbled upon a web site called "scriptural truths" which was ran apparently by some JW's. Also a forum called "touchstone". This was ran by an elder out of the UK. I loved that there were apologists defending the tenants of my faith, so i joined up. I was an active online JW apologist in the golden years of this (about 10 years ago or so). I met a LOT of brothers who were very intelligent, and put together decent defenses. (many of them are now out).

  But in engaging with some apostates online, there was one in particular that while he could be a bit of an ass, I knew was telling the truth about his experience, and he ended up just kind of being for lack of a better term....NICE to me. It made me take into consideration some specific questions. The one that stuck?

  BLOOD.

  It seemed grey. Our policy made no sense. If it WAS grey, then it should be a conscience matter......but it wasn't. So was their bloodguilt to go around?

  I didn't care about the UN, old predictions, or what I regarded as conspiracy theories. Blood to me became the single most indefensible doctrine there was. When we returned from foreign service, we were rock stars. I was an idealist, and thought I could change things. I got frustrated because you know how that went. I made the classic mistakes by sharing my frustration, which led to inquiry, loss of friendships, my wife thinking I'm insane (she is out now as well), and more.

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  I am a firm believer that the best you can do to get through that wall in a JW's mind is to just loosen one brick. You have to do so gently. Once that brick is out, its up to them to poke around, look through to the other side, and see if there is anything that resonates with them. My wife got out. She didn't care about blood even though that is what I pushed on. For her it was shunning. My buddy got out. I pushed blood......for him it all started with 607.

  Everyone has their brick.
  
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  truth_b_known

  I've struggled with putting my finger on what woke me because my situation was kind of backwards.

  I was a born in who later in life decided that I didn't want anything to do with Witnesses based on their treatment of my family. It was a few years after that when I no longer believed in the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses.

  I learned from my father, who professes to be of the annointed, that there are circuit and district overseers who make it their life's mission to disfellowship those who profess to be of the annointed. He was one that was targetted, but we moved to another state before it happened.

  About a year later I learned from my father that when he moved the family out of state our future presiding overseer went around the congregation telling families not to associate with us when we moved in. I was in that congregation from age 13 to 35. Sure we had friends in the congregation, but there were some things that struck me odd that all made sense when my father told me that. My best friend married my sister. When he proposed to my sister his parents flipped out! As for me, I could never find any local single sisters that would entertain the idea of dating me. All my girlfriends lived over 100 miles away. It all made sense when my father confided in me.

  Science was a big help. I knew that the Biblical flood of Noah's Day was physically impossible. Why the dinosaurs were not on the Ark was always a good questions. My parents taught me that dinosaurs were created to make the Earth ready for everything else.

  I finally decided to chase my dream and become a police officer. When in the police academy we covered deadly force the instructor covered Romans 13:1-7 which he said clergy call the "Police Officer Verse." When I read it with that in mind I had to ask myself how could anyone say it was wrong for a Christian to be a police officer if they are God's ministers and God gives them a sword to carry out his will?

  In the end, it was this website that finally opened my eyes to what a crazy cult I spent most of my life in.