by Nosferatu 19 Replies latest jw friends
Not proud that I was duped for a few years. Only thankful that I had the opportunity to escape and seized it. Don't see where pride has anything to do with it except when I talked to my brothers at my father's funeral. I expressed the idea that I "proudly" wore the "worldly" badge that they wanted to pin on me.
carm
Nope, not in any way. I'd just as soon any new acquaintances of mine did not know that I was a JW. I don't know that I'd use the word shame, more like embarrassment. Now, if the audience were JWs, then I would be proud of being an "ex."
Some of the aspects of non-ex-JWs knowing I was a dub are their surprise that anyone could be so duped, that it makes me feel stupid, that they don't understand the background of it all (and I certainly don't want to explain it).
Another comparison that comes to mind is that of admitting that I was mentally ill for a while. No offense to anyone here please--it's just seems to be comparable in my situation. Plus, I became one as a full adult, which deprives me of any excuse for being so duped for so long.
Pat
I am proud to be me. If I call myself an ex-JW, than it seems like there is still a link to the borg. I don't want to be labeled that.
Would you call yourself an ex- child? It was a learning experience that 's all.
Puternut
I am just as proud to have escaped as I am thankful that it was all a lie. I grew up fearing a future where the police would beat, starve, and torture me, prior to the most horrible cataclysm imaginable (remember the gaping crack in the ground in the old Paradise book), and then, if I survived the first two, followed by an endless life of servitude to the God who caused it all to happen.
I absolutely believed it! I knew that I had bad thoughts, thought I was the only one, and that I might not live past in the year 1975! As a 5 year old I knew that I would be 17 when the entire earth would be destroyed, and I would die because I snuck a piece of candy, or because I was daydreaming in the meetings, or because I had touched the bread one Memorial and had my hand slapped for it.
I am so grateful and proud that I escaped that horrific lie because it took an incredible amount of thought, determination, and most of all courage. It is not easy to go against years of fearful images and programming.
You bet I'm proud!
Tammy
Like Swan I'm proud I am no longer a ding-dong-dud! I was what I was. And I am what I am. And unlike my life as a dog dud, I am OK with this reality. I do anti-Witness all the time and try hard to be a general nuisance with the local duds...especally the sisters who were sweet on me and then married LOSERS! I honk at them as I drive to the airport in my Jag! Maverick
Ashamed of being a sucker..definitely...I mean its almost as lame as telling everyone you believed for 35 yrs in the tooth fairy !!
After telling the elders at my JDC to shove it ! I became very anti JW , then openly anti Christianity ,,,that was ten years ago and even now I still froth at the mouth if someone asks me if I'm still a JW ! I don't go around JW bashing though and as part of my recovery which I am only now confronting and dealing with I am almost too ashamed to tell people what a sucker I was..so I generally avoid all topics religion related. Thanks to Simon for this forum ,so that at least here my healing can begin.
So in answer I guess I prefer to say that "I am proud to be free" and have no-one laugh at me behind my back anymore
Nadsam
I'm proud to be an XJW... but ashamed of having ever been a JW.
It has nothing to do with being pround. I am happy that I am an ex witness, however, I wish I never had been one to start with.
Ya sure, you betcha!
No, but it's better than the alternative (given that I was raised in it)!!!
