The impact and consequences of being born into the jehovahs witness cult. (page 4)

Finkelstein

There are numerous detrimental consequences that can come out of being in this lying, corrupt, fear mongering apocalyptic religoius cult.

This truthful and exacting description alone should give some probable hints to that effect..

There is a long slew of psychological ills that come infused into someone's psychological and sociological state of mind.

Here's an example .......

When I was growing up as a JWS I happened to live close by the PO's son who was about my age. I was of course suppose to associate with other JWS and not any non-JWS so that's what happened and my parents of course approved.

This kid was the most hated kid in the neighborhood understandingly so since he would beat up any non JWS kids, spit on them, set the school on fire, break windows.

He had a very destructive attitude to anything deem worldly or anything not connected to the JWS religion. This no doubt was instigated by the WTS's propagation of this old worldly system things was going to be destroyed soon and all non -JWS were going to be destroyed as well.

The family eventually moved out of the area mostly because his PO father got caught committing adultery, he was DFed . Due to this embarrassment and troubling situation the father moved the family back to where he grew up some 600 miles away.

I was kind of thankful and relieved the son had moved away as well.

iwantoutnow

Same here, I read a lot - fiction, science, everything ... looking back I think it was driven by a certain amount of escapism

Me too SIMON. Since I was completely discouraged to do well in school, even think of having a career, I found refuge in reading a lot, and playing games with my middle/high school friends (often without my mom knowing).

We played things like D&D (struggle to keep that a secret), and Traveler. Role Playing Games were big for me.

Thinking on my past, especially as a kid (father unbelieving so I had an out, but I sided with mom), and the different path I could have taking.

Extremely depressing.

peacefulpete

People are all different, the damage done by the experience of being raised a JW is also. I had 2 friends commit suicide when disfellowshipped others were able to shake it off and make a new life. Identifying exactly what makes a person do 'this or that' is futile. One thing is sure, the sense of isolation and low self worth engendered by the religion in the 1950-80's did nothing to help those guys.

I'm also sure of this, the key to surviving and being able to look back without painful regrets is the empowerment of knowing your own mind and having ambition to succeed despite the dark world view of the JW sect.

Simon

It's my guess that some people's emotions are still so raw because they have not properly faced their problems with professional help that they tend to be very reactive, lashing out at the people who are trying to help them.

Definitely true. We see people who are just angry and sometimes lashing out. There's someone currently committing arson against KH's in the US, you just know it's going to be some pissed off exJW who hasn't learnt to get over their anger and move on in a constructive way.

It's certainly not fair on you as the site owner to be personally attacked when you do provide a place for them to get sage advice and comfort.

That was just an example, but I see people making comparisons where "XYZ must have learnt this from the WTS" and it's crazy, they are talking about any form of authority or rules and those things just exist everywhere. I see it as a symptom that people are still allowing their WTS experience to shape, color and control their live.

Again I really appreciate you explaining your position because I was initially thinking your response was a bit harsh and abrasive.

No problem, I was talking pretty generally although I don't mind telling people hard truths. I think it's often more helpful in the long run for people to face up and acknowledge their own failings because those are the only things we have control over to change, if we're helpless because of what others did to us then it's going to be a pretty miserable existence.

I think one area where people get mixed up is that they blame the WTS for their childhood experience when a significant part of it was down to their parents choices. Yes, one of those choices was to follow certain ideas from the WTS but there's a huge spectrum of how people follow them. Some people had the misfortune to be born to really unbalanced parents but I think they would have had similar experiences in some other religion instead - it's more a reflection on their parents than the WTS per-se. Again, that's a harder realization to make - it's easier to blame the WTS than acknowledge our parents were stupid or just bad at being parents.

Finkelstein

To be honest there are notable variations to how the JWS religion effects people or children growing up in this religious organization.

There are those who actually proceeded to live a clean and wholesome lifestyle and you could say they were really good people in character and personality.

As the saying goes its unfair to paint an entire group of people with a single brush and call them all deranged and off kilter.

RayoFlight2014

Fink,

None of us can know what the psychologically of that PO's son was or is.

Unless we have the opportunity to scientifically analyze him, we just don't know whether he was a sociopath or what his mental state was, why he did what he did.

One could surmise that watchtower had a part in tempering his behaviour and stopping him from being a serial killer, but that is also drawing a long bow.

What I take from your example is this guy had some really disturbing mental issues that would have been present regardless of his jw cult exposure and that speculating watchtower somehow influenced him to act that way is just that...speculation.

Do you think my criticism of your testimony is too harsh?

I don't intend to come across that way but I think we all need to look a bit harder and get an understanding of what we can know and leave speculation aside.

I think that way we can heal a little sooner because we get an understanding of what is inherent in ourselves regardless of outside influence.

Hope that helps.

With care and regards,

RayoFlight2014.

RayoFlight2014

Exactly Fink, I see you have given your previous post a more balanced examination.

Cheers.

RayoFlight2014

Iwantoutnow,

Sorry to see you feel depressed about the poor choice you made, taking you down the jw cult road. You weren't to know.

None of us were.

What positives can you derive from the experience?

It might take a while to dig real deep and examine the content. Only you can know what your personal experience was.

Healing thoughts....

With care and regards,

RayoFlight2014.

Finkelstein

and that speculating watchtower somehow influenced him to act that way is just that...speculation.

Well I'm pretty sure that was really behind his motives because he was notably aggressive and disrespectful to anyone who was not a JWS.

We were friends for more that 8 years and his comments and behavior toward non JWs were a bit more than just being mere speculation.

Nevertheless like I mentioned before the JWS religion has various effects onto people and their psychology.

Showing loyalty to Jehovah comes in varying ways and approaches.

RayoFlight2014

Thanks again all for your valuable comments and being part of the discussion, after all it's a discussion forum...how neat.

I've got to be off to work for now so I'll continue to reply when I'm back home.

Love to all.

The impact and consequences of being born into the jehovahs witness cult.

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