What Was "IT" That Finally Made You Leave The "Truth"?

by minimus 88 Replies latest jw friends

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  blondie

  That's true, minimus, we can't change others. But we can change ourselves.

  Blondie
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  anglise

  I found myself in a hospital talking to the mother of a newborn who was dying due to a CHD.

  There was nothing I could say to give any comfort that was worthwhile.

  I had been a JW for about 18 years and religious all my life but from then on as far as I was concerned there was no god.

  The rest of the problems that we were having with the org just added up to confirm our decision to fade as quickly and painlessly as possible.

  Anglise
• 

  minimus

  Elders can't change themselves so that they can become loving persons. Either they are or they aren't. The WBTS expounds on the false belief that the elders LOVE the flock. Some of them don't love themselves or their families. It's all a Watchtower illusion.
• 

  shotgun

  I think it was the SH you left off of the IT.
• 

  minimus

  Shitgun, that was very funny.
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  Sassy

  Lack of love seems to be a really common complaint. I am interested is this mainly on the part of the elders

  I agree with Blondie, PetesPal. It isn't that the members might follow suit, but for the most part it is the elders. It was for me any way. If they had been more loving, I would probably still be blind. I guess it is my good fortune that they were not, so I started opening up my eyes.

  Can we move this to Private so Phantom can speak freely??

  ~~Sassy~~
• 

  blondie

  I guess what really brought the "love" issue to a head was all the real caring I was shown by people at work, helping me move (when no one had time at the KH in spite of years of me helping others move), loaning me a car when mine was on the fritz (when no one would pick me up for the meetings after years of picking up others), coming over and cleaning my house, cooking me dinner when I had an operation (no one at the hall had time in spite of my doing it for many of them over the years)....

  It was eye-opening to see that "worldy" people did care and showed it and never once did they tell me they had the only true path to God and that if I weren't on it I would die.

  I hope you are just joking, minimus. If the elders and other JWs aren't loving people and aren't learning how to be at the KH, they aren't Christians, but then you can be a JW without being a Christian.

  Blondie
• 

  got my forty homey?

  What finally did it for me was my year at Bethel. I was so discouraged and disillusioned that I pioneered for about two more months and that was it. What added insult to injury was that the regular group of pioneers started treating my funny upon returning to pioneer work after Bethel. The only one that really listened to me was a older West Indian brother who I loved very much. He would have me over to his home for lunch after field service, he listened to my problems without being judgemental or calling me a apostate for my views on matters. I think he moved shortly thereafter back to the Islands where he had a home.

  After my short stint pioneering and then telling my Father I didn't want to do it anymore, he's choice for me was pioneer and stay home or stop pioneering and leave the house. I left the house quickly ran into the wrong crowd and became a crack addict. Two years later after much chasing around the elders finally caught up with me a DF'd me for a long list of things.

  To this day my Father regrets making the decision he did because maybe we would have all saved a lot of angst.
• 

  minimus

  My point is very simple. We are TOLD that we are a loving people. We are TOLD that love identifies us. We are TOLD that the elders love the flock. Anybody, including elders can be told to love but either a person cares and does givwe a damn or they don't. No kidding.
• 

  tink

  well, i initially left because i came to realize that i couldn't go on living as a witness any longer. i didn't even care if it was the truth or not, to be perfectly honest; i knew that i'd rather be destroyed at armageddon than to continue to be that miserable for one scrap of a second longer. it was weird because i finally was able to leave at eighteen when i moved out...first time moving out of my parents' house, first time having any real freedom, first time in my life not being a witness. it was a very scary time. what kept me from going back, besides the misery bit, was finding out the real truth about the truth. i think that's maybe backwards from the way most people leave....