by geodude 42 Replies latest jw experiences
Than, there are also other things that I have gained by leaving the JWs.
Name one POSITIVE thing you took from your experience as a Witness - getting on with different people, I suppose.
My congregation was made up of people with different ethnic, cultural and economic backgrounds.
Name one POSITIVE thing you took from your experience as a Witness - I met my husband at the building of a kingdom hall, although we came very close to not even meeting each other. I had finished my job and was leaving the state the next morning, and the country shortly after that. The only reason I hadn't left yet was that someone had misplaced some of my equipment. My future husband was talking to the brother who knew where everything was at. All I said was hi, to him, and left. He actually chased me down to get my number, and the rest is history. Little did I know at the time my future husband was also a PIMO. That was almost 27 years ago.
STEPHANE LALIBERT:
As you and others have said: experience in the JWs helped to improve public speaking skills if somebody was lacking in this.
More importantly what I learned on leaving the JWs is very important:..the value of family. I came to appreciate these are the ONLY people in the world who care about you...The JW religion tried to isolate me from mine and thought they’d get me to substitute a pack of backstabbing strangers as my family’..The joke was on me.
I had a lightbulb moment many years ago during one Thanksgiving season when I was all alone looking at four walls. The Witnesses were nowhere to be found and meanwhile I was depriving myself of a decent meal and fellowship with my own flesh and blood family!
When I ‘faded’ I rectified this error and reconnected with my REAL family before it was too late!
This thread reminds me of going to weddings and asking my husband later what he liked best about the event and he'd respond "leaving".......
Indubitably the best part of being incarcerated in the cult was the sublime relief of finally completely LEAVING!!!!!
Punkofnice,
That is good you just wanted to serve. I do think my parents saw a lot of abuse and special treatment of people by the elders. My mother was in opposition and it ended with an elder asking her to step into a small room in the kingdom hall where she claimed she got yelled at for the entire service. My father for some odd reason did not go look for her (well he was odd). But after that incident my mother no longer wanted to attend. I do remember my father expressed he was not allowed to think for himself. They thought this movement was based on a truth foundation but they were wrong. Both were woefully ignorant of the whole creation story of Russellism etc. My father knew more though. My parents visited the US in the 90s or so and there my mother saw something new to her that my father knew about; existing Bible student groups preaching on campus. In my mother's mind, it was very important "the truth" was not divided
Thoroughly inoculated against any other form of religious expression...
...and as such, feel zero urge to burden myself that way.
yes - all that reading. I was 3 grades ahead of other kids in school with my reading.
That and I hate anything organized. I don't want to participate in organized sports - golf leagues or curling leagues etc because I don't want anyone telling me what i can do with my time.
Thoroughly inoculated against any other form of religious expression...
...and as such, feel zero urge to burden myself that way.
Oh yeah. This goes for almost any groupthink situation. About 27 years ago, a guy at work invited me to a "sales meeting." My boss and a couple of other company owners (in an environmental remediation company- I'm a geologist) were doing this thing...so we had lunch together, along with a couple of other strangers. They were all dressed in sports jackets and ties, and carried identical Daytimers. Well, the "sales meeting" was a pitch for- you guessed it- Amway. I watched a half hour presentation, and at the first opportunity, "faded." The initial gut reaction is what I trust. If everyone is smiling and nodding to nonsense, then I'm outta there. I tried a Tony Robbins seminar (not one where he attended) and pretty much had the same response. I WAS however, able to take a few things away from that experience I found useful. Yeah, not much of a group thinker.
I was 3 grades ahead of other kids in school with my reading.
That could only be true for children in grades 3 or 4 and below as the WT and all JW publications (in the last few decades) are written at a 6th or 7th grade level.
