Can you list the positive points of being a JW as against the negative points of being a JW in your experience ?

by smiddy3 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  smiddy3

  I was a twenty y/old when I converted to the JW religion and was a problem drinker and I was a chain smoker .When I was baptized at a Circuit Assembly a year later , my conversion and change in lifestyle was given as an example of the effectiveness of incidental witnessing to the audience.

  So I can point to the 2 positives becoming a JW .

  1.I gave up smoking

  2.I gave up drinking for a while ,but because I still had association with my wife`s and my family who were not JW`s ,I learnt to control my social drinking when I started again.

  And I have been a responsible drinker ever since ,even though I left the religion 29 years ago.

  The negative points of being a JW in my 32 years of being one ? are far too great to list here .

  Love to hear your thoughts.
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  punkofnice

  Smiddy. It wasn't all bad if I'm totally honest. Mostly bad, but not totally.

  Full disclosure, as a reluctant atheist, I go to the odd Evensong and service locally. It is something I enjoy. When a scripture is called out, I can locate it quite easily. There was a sort of scripture finding competition at a local church a few years back. Not for money, just a fun thing. I won hands down. I attribute that to the Jobots.

  Also, I felt there were some good bits of advice in the 'family book(tm)'. Not the 'do more(tm)' nonsense.

  I believe I'm fairly healthy for a 64 year old due to not smoking. I am guilty of enjoying a drop of sauce though.

  Over all, the Jobots are a dangerous, predatory cult. But every cloud has a silver lining.
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  Vidiot

  Even a busted clock is right twice a day.
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  Smiles

  However positive any personal benefits may be, JW ideology brings guilt by association.

  The average naïve pro-Nazi individual in 20th century Europe probably enjoyed certain personal perks & benefits, and may have even transformed into a more disciplined person as a result of the ideology; yet any such personal betterment is blemished by crimes of the broader organisation and its leadership.

  Realising how vulnerable we were to high-control group propaganda is a profound lesson, and it can empower us to protect ourselves & others against future exploitations.
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  a watcher

  The most positive points are having personal relationships with the Creator of the universe and His son. The worst negative point is having to deal with His earthly org who half the time don't know what they're doing.
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  Foolednomore

  How to deal with stupidity and disappointment.
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  NonCoinCollector

  I can't think of a single positive experience that is unique to the JW faith.
  
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  TonusOH

  I have to agree with NonCoinCollector. There are good things I could point to from my time as a JW, but I could have gotten those from other religious (or possibly even secular) groups. And perhaps it would not have come with the baggage that I am left with.

  Maybe the one thing that I could list as a benefit on some level, is that their teaching that death is the end of existence is much better than the notion of eternal suffering in the afterlife. I occasionally feel a bit sad at the idea of missing out, but that is far better than the terror many people feel over thoughts of hell. Even people who stop believing in god find that their subconscious fear of eternal torment does not go away when they consciously decide there is no afterlife.
  
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  LongHairGal

  SMIDDY3:

  I also quit smoking to become a Witness. That’s a plus I suppose. Other good things? Let me think…I dressed more ‘modestly’ and got rid of some bad habits. But I would have accomplished that in any other Christian fundamentalist religion. My laments were how I was viewed because I worked. But, So what? I never listened to these people anyway and worked until retirement.

  Just to keep a proper perspective I remember what a wise acquaintance told me when I began my ‘Fade’:.. I was told to ‘view my time in the JW religion like I was in a bad marriage’. I also read a post once where somebody said:..’you can never know what your life would have been if you followed another path! ..You can’t know what could have happened to you’..Maybe I should thank God, I wasn’t the ambitious type.

  A WATCHER:

  You can call the religion his earthly organization if you want. But, the religion gave themselves that designation!
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  Foolednomore

  Longhairgal- When I was in Depression was my most challenging demon to deal with. With the encouragement to do more for the Organization instead of getting professional help with Depression, there was alot of self medication with drink and prescription drugs to deal with depression. After, I faded and got professional help my self medicating stopped and so did the drinking. Watchtower has no clue on how to deal with depression and should not be giving advice.