Did a 'major-event' cause you to join/leave JW?s?

by cyberguy 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  cyberguy

  It seems to me, many people become JW?s after a major event in their lives. Perhaps it is the death of a loved-one, such as a father, mother, child, wife, or husband. On the other hand, it?s also my observation that a "major-event" often causes an active JW to rethink what they are doing with their life, whether they are really in the "truth," as JW?s call it.

  The reason I?m asking this is because of several, recent, threads suggest other reasons why JW?s leave. This is not to say there are not other underlying reasons people join/leave, but it?s my theory that JW?s join/ leave, primarily after a "major-event," a "trigger" that causes them to rethink what they are doing with their lives.

  I welcome your own expressions/experiences, please express yourselves.

  Thanks,

  Cyberguy
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  Maverick

  I was married to a "truthbaby" and after 15 years of marriage she walked away from it all. She left me, my 13 year old daughter, all her friends and her whole side of the family for this guy. I was an MS at the time and she was DF'd. Three months after doing this the FBI came and hauled her soul mate off to jail, where he sits today over five years later! She came back and asked me to take her back, I told her to take a hike! She went back to the Hall and one year to the day they reinstated her. Then I started to be treated like crap! All the while I had one good friend who I could talk to and who was like a brother to me. Turns out he was back stabbing me and saying all manner of gossip about me to everyone. So with my ex putting her spin on what a rat bastard I was to all the friends she knew and my buddy telling everyone in my Hall what a dirt bag I was, now everything that happen was totally my fault and I was the bad guy and my ex was justified in doing what she did! A year of that crap and I started to see how phoney the whole lot was. Total betrayal has a way of helping you "see"! Maverick
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  czarofmischief

  My first menage-a-trois...

  Although I suppose that doesn't really qualify as a major event, except for me...

  nah, it was my own fault, really, and I'm glad I did it. I just wish I could have enjoyed it more without all that guilt. Ah well...

  CZAR
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  Loris

  A serious auto crash that I nearly died from caused me to search for God. The friendly elderly couple at my door helped to seal my fate.

  Finding out that the child abuse/molestation problem was so widespread caused a crack in my WT armor. The UN issue was the straw that broke the camel's back. That was just more hypocracy than I could tolerate.

  major events both ways.

  Loris
• 

  greatteacher

  The entire religion was a big joke to me and my friends at the KH. We took it seriously when we were young kids, but by the time we were in our teens, we knew it was total crap. For example, when we studied the Revelation Book at the book study, me and one particular friend had an incredibly diffiCULT time holding in our laughter, literally paragraph by paragraph (especially the pictures). We'd visit other Kingdom Halls and use the purple songbook and the green NWT just to get a response from other people. The only problem was that our parents took the whole thing very seriously, so we were (and still are) like Satan's sons to them. The only time the pressure let up a little bit for me was when a close relative was unjustly removed from as an elder. The thing that bugged me the most about the congregations (i went to three different ones) was the problem of gossiping. It seemed like everyone knew all about me, even people I never talked to in my life. Another memory difficult to rationalize were the rides to the kingdom hall. As a child, my parents would pick up these two enormous old sisters and I was squashed between the two in the back seat.
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  elamona

  When I found out, over the internet, how the WTBTS was harboring and hiding child molesters that did it for me. I also found out about their UN membership the same week. This was the icing on the cake. DA'ed myself and told them I never want to associate with an org that lies and protects child molesters. Told them to NEVER contact me again or come to my house. I have never looked back.
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  Phantom Stranger

  Lost my virginity. Wasn't tossed out, kept it a secret, but keeping it a secret made me examine why and what I really thought about it and about the environment I was operating in. Lasted about 6 months tops.

  If I hadn't been working in a field in which I had achieved technical proficiency and created positive results, I probably wouldn't have had the emotional strength/self-regard to walk.
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  Oracroth

  I found out cabbage makes my feet stink. When I sat in the kingdom hall people couldn't help but cover their noses and move away from me. I thought it was my overpowering aura, apparently it was an aura of a different nature. The Circuit overseer immediately had me removed and I was never allowed back in.

  Well, that was one possible scenario, but what really happened is I just decided that life didn't matter, and since life didn't matter living forever doesn't either, and since living forever doesn't, then what really does matter? I was evicted after constantly having sex with people, I know elders don't like to hear this, but I couldn't help myself. I got reproved twice and then disfellowshipped. I was planning to get reinstated at the time, but I question the validity of everything now, bible, social, moral, everything. So here I am, talking to everybody here and wondering why everyone really puts so much effort into hatred of witnesses when every organization on the face of this planet has the exact same problems. If you are part of an organization, you are molded to their liking, you are sculpted to be an atomiton. In fact the bible says you have to be molded like clay in order to serve god. If you can't be molded, if seeds can't be sown on you, then you aren't god material. I am my own person, in life and in death, not by choice but by force, does that mean I can't and never will be god material? Government, Religeon, science, they are all the same in the end.
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  greatteacher

  Oracroth, I have some book suggestions for you: THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA by Nietzsche. I think you're ready for it. Nietzsche also wrote THE ANTI-CHRIST and BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL. You will enjoy and learn from his writings. I agree with you about organizations, especially christian ones (that includes the "non-denominational" ones). It makes me laugh when people leave the Watchtower and join up with another restrictive christian group. What they don't realize is that it is inherent in christianity to be repressive, violent, elitist, and irrational. Jesus stated and implied all of that shit. I find the JW'S to be one of the worst of these groups, but they all share the blame. I only hope that we are truely living in the "Twilight of the Idols!"
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  Phantom Stranger

  "I think you're ready for it."

  I hope you didn't mean that in as condescending a way as it sounded to me, gt.

  Maybe's he's read it already.

  I am not a christian, but I haven't identified any tendency in christianity to be more violent, repressive, or irrational than any other hierarchical group imposing a dogmatic belief - judaism, islam, the republican party :)

  Sometimes people's leaving the JWs and joining another religion makes me laugh, too... but mostly it makes me sad that people feel a need to latch on to something external because they feel so little of the divinity within themselves.

  Seems like a righteous, uncompassionate post in many ways - perhaps you are really into Nietzsche. Perhaps I could recommend some Ken Wilber - Sex, Ecology, Spirituality? I think you're ready for it...:)