What Might've Kept You Still In The Organization? (page 2)

FlyingHighNow

Out of the org.....I hope life is much happier for you now.

Heather

blondie

A lobotomy sounds about right to me, Scully.

Blondie (who left while she had a few brain cells intact)

Outoftheorg-----Thanks for sharing that painful experience....Yes, a combination of things can make us think about what we're doing in our lives.When things get overwhelming, it can either produce a meltdown or prompt one to make a decision.

gumby

Well....nobody can say minimus's threads don't make you think.

I have sat here for 10 minutes trying to remember the one thing that set me off. The best I can remember is after I was disfellowshipped for smoking, I went to the christian bookstore to look up information in Commentaries, encyclopedia's, and dictionaries to find the true biblical meaning of disfellowshipping. I think it was then I decided to find COC to see if I could find something there about it and see what it was about.....I was DF'ed anyway I figured. Well they didn't have it and had to order it.

I think it was the "cult" section I stumbled onto while I was in there, and began looking at some of the books......many by david reed. This got me intrested, until COC arrived. I spent alot of time in the book store after that.

I guess you could say it was COC that did it for me.Had I not read the book...I don't know where I would be in my life

Gumby

NaruNaruChan

If they'd thrown their support behind same sex marriage.

That would've kept me, probably. In all honesty, it was how they disfellowshipped me that set me off... but it was also how preachy they started getting after my baptism.

Euphemism

I think that I might have stayed if they allowed open discussion of alternate viewpoints. But that's kind of like saying that I would keep a tiger in my house if it would turn into a domestic cat.

OTOH, I was in constant mental tension while I was a Witness, not just because Watchtower teachings didn't make sense to me, but also because of the fundamental logical issues with Christianity. So I figure that eventually, I would have had to face these issues, and probably would have left anyway.

But that might have been years down the road.

Gadget

I would've stayed in for my exfiance. Its was the lack of love and the double standards from the elders that finally made me stop trying to get reinstated. The other things I've learnt have just compounded that.

hornetsnest

LOL, outoftheorg!!

Yup! Fond memories all! Probably the biggest thing for me was their plain, old common, ordinary lunacy. LIke:

1. The appalling treatment of the teenagers in the congregation. Those poor kids couldn't even hold hands without all the old biddys cackling up a storm.

2. Their ban against "independent thinking". I figure that the most critical time to think independently is when someone demands that you don't. I'll give up my ability to think, right about the same time that the collective GB proves to me that they are all man enough to roll a doughnut down the Grapevine (A very high pass on I-5 in Southern California) and have 10 orgasms with it before it reaches the bottom, and not before.

3. Their hauling me in front of a judicial committee on a charge of demonism because I used the phrase, "Let me play the Devil's advocate for a moment".

4. My brother's (an elder) refusal to give me an opportunity to explain a matter that he had jumped to the wrong conclusion about. So I hauled HIS worthless ass in front of a committee and explained it to the whole bunch.

5. The inability of any congregation committee (with precious few exceptions - individuals all) to reflect ANY of the fruitages of the spirit.

6. Their endlessly assuming that they know more about what I am thinking than I do. Like I phrased it in writing to them once, "Why you continually attempt to read other's minds is beyond me, as I have never in my life met a group of men so utterly devoid of the ability to do so. You are rarely even in the right ballpark, let alone on base!"

Etc., etc. I could fill a book with this stuff. I'd better stop, as I don't want to stumble any of you sweet, innocent, folks.

LoneWolf

Fe2O3Girl

I'd love to be able to list all the wrong things that I could no longer withhold my righteous indignation about, but it wasn't like that at all for me.

I wasn't abused, physically or sexually. I didn't know of anyone who was abused. I didn't experience snobbery, cliques or unkindness. I did not have any doctrinal doubts or disagreements. And yet, all my life I was covering up my private life. I was never a good JW girl full time.

I got married when I was 19, not so young for a JW, to a man I had had a crush on since I was 14. By the time we married we were already bickering constantly. Things just got worse from then on. After nearly 4 years of put-downs, insults and arguments which escalated to full blown fist fights, I was just completely sick and tired of the whole life. "How to make your Family Life Happy" at the group study was probably the final straw, sitting there every week pretending how perfect we were. Then there was going to the Memorial with a black eye, which apparently nobody noticed.

One Thursday evening, I cried off going to the meeting with a headache. I packed what I could carry, called a taxi and left. I never went back. I was df'd in absentia, I would not meet the elders.

Having been so lovingly ejected from the structure that had defined my life since birth, I had the freedom to learn. I still didn't have any smart answers about why it wasn't the "Truth", I just didn't want to go back. In 1999 I found the H2O website and saw the 586/607 discussions. Taking out that false pillar of doctrine allowed the rest of the house of cards to collapse.

So, to answer the question - had I married a nice man and had a happy life, I would probably still be in, but I would still be a fake, pretending to be well-behaved at meetings, and telling dirty jokes at work.

LittleToe

Scully:You beat me to it. That was my immediate reaction to the thread title, too!

What Might've Kept You Still In The Organization?

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