Why Did You Stay In The JW Religion As Long As You Did?
by minimus 39 Replies latest jw friends
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Introvert 2
^^ Looks like the couple I studied with, love bombing central = racking pioneer hours with me. Good people but a little slow and so very brainwashed. The 'truth' is their life.
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new boy
Two words
just stupid
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blondie
I like that one, new boy.
Just stupid
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StephaneLaliberte
I was on this site for about 8 years before I called it quit. The main reason I was staying a JW was the thought the JWs were the closest to displaying the fruits of the true religion. At the time, I believed these fruits to be: The belief of a paradise earth, using God’s name, preaching work and low tolerance for perpetual sinners.
What made me change my mind was the realization that a just God would judge the actions rather than the belief. The belief is meant to help you do good actions by which you are judged. However, JWs focus so much on the teachings (Personal study, meetings, preaching and congregation responsibilities) that in the end, they lose focus on the actions themselves. This explains their lack (or absence) of charity, their endless procedural and organizational rules, and their tendency to leave so little to personal conscience. While they certainly give great consideration talking about how someone can be better, the rewards are based on meeting attendance, field service reports and responsibilities held. The end result is that the organization is prioritized at every turn causing absurdities such as the practice of shunning; unnatural loathing towards all non-jws and elders who do not report positively identified pedophiles.
In the end, a Christian is to be measure by the love he shows in his everyday life, not just what he preaches about.
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Dagney
I didn't think I was strong enough to live well without my family and friends, therefore I wasn't strong enough.
If I had left when some of my friends did I know now I would have been fine. If I had only trusted in myself more. Outside the religion others said I could do it. I did not believe them.
Just stupid.
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minimus
When I left I did it gradually. I was an elder. I told the elders and CO I didn’t want to be an elder any longer. They felt I might just be burned out. It took me less than a year to get out. I gradually started missing meetings and I worked more. I knew the Truth wasn’t the truth. I was sick of making judicial judgments against people in despair. Once I committed to getting out of the Organization, it wasn’t that hard to slip through the cracks.
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Nathan Natas
I stayed in because I was a child and depended on the wiz-dumb of my single mother to tell me how the world worked. I was baptized at 14.
I was compliant and obedient and massively naive. To this day I am almost shamefully gullible because I mistakenly assume that people usually tell the truth.
As my rational mind began to develop I began to detect the unmistakable aroma of bullshit... I had heard about the "gay boys" at Bethel from Howard Zenke (now dead), a member of the WTB&TS Service Department and the Overseer of the Sunnyside congregation in Queens, NY, and I knew about the gay hot tub scandal in the early 1970s that resulted in the dismissal of A LOT of "Bethelites," but it was when I learned of a pedophile in my congregation who was protected by the elder's committee that my "cosmic egg" shattered and I realized that righteousness in the WTB&TS was only another product of slogan engineering. This was in the late-mid-1970s, LONG before the pedophilia scandal broke nationwide.
I was in my mid-twenties when I walked away. I have not been disfellowshipped because I moved far away and few knew where I was, plus the elders who did know me were dying off. Maybe they'll disfellowship me when they are resurrected.
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Nathan Natas
rickroll said, "...a There were few books from former members like Baker Schcnell 30 years a Tower slave."
I think you mean "30 Years a Watchtower Slave: The Confessions of a Converted Jehovah's Witness" by William J. Schnell.
GOOD NEWS! You can read it for (sort of) FREE here:
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SouthCentral
Great question! I KNEW it was the “Troouf” but I knew something was not right. Small things that would happen would give me small signs.
First, the generation change in 1995 completely blew up my world! I still continued going though!!
When my son turned five years old, he wanted a birthday party. I wrote to the boys in Brooklyn regarding how the angels celebrated it when Jesus was born… their only response was that a true Christian would not celebrate a birthday. Read flag!!
I moved from South los Angeles to a Very diverse community. I had never felt such an unloving environment in my life!!! Almost hostile!
This was another major red flag, because the trademark of a witness is love!
I continued going sporadically just to maintain social contact with my friends of 30+years. I could always use my job as an excuse for missing meetings, since I drove 160 miles round-trip. Eventually, the watchtower came out saying;”If the organization would tell us to do something that didn’t make sense to humans… we should do it!”
That was the last meeting I attended.
I think the YouTube community is very encouraging witnesses who want to leave but aren’t sure where to go.
Unfortunately, Many will continue to be associated with the organization just for the social aspects. I am not sure that anyone with 30 years or more in the organization still believe that they will see paradise. Several Close friends have privately told me their parents experienced a harsh reality check when they discovered that they were going to die in this system!!