What Got You Out of the Borg?

by L_A_Big_Dawg 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  franklin J

  ...it all started in 1975; I was a full time pioneer, had been for 2 years.

  My older sister was a full time pioneer also. Her husband had been a Bethelite. They went to serve where the need was great in Maryland. He became a PO. He also started his own business which became relatively successful financially.

  She discovered that he was having an affair for several years with her best friend. When she "scripturally" divorced him due to adultry; she was riduculed and pressured to take him back by the local elders; judicial committee meetings; etc.. He was not disfellowshipped ( well, all the other elders were employed by him). She divorced him and took their children and came back to New York where my parents took them in and supported them. My Dad was also an elder.

  Mr. Big Shot PO Elder from Maryland was taken to "Ceasars Court" and forced to pay child support; which, I might add he never payed voluntarily. He had to forced to support his own children. He ignored his children in NY and remarried and had 3 more. Nice Jehovah Witness morality. I am proud to say that my mother and father had scrupulous morals before they became Jehovahs Witnesses. To my parents way of thinking (and to most normal people); to ignore ones own children is disgraceful . They thought he was disgusting (elder or not) and in fact he was and still is.

  Seeing all this first hand started the gears moving in my head; I was 19. I pioneered for 2 more years and then entered college. I was shown my own troubles from the local elders for doing THAT. I left permanently when I was 26 and finished with college. Never looked back.
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  TallTexan

  Ditto what Random Task said. I knew years ago that the supposed 'loving' organization was anything but that. In my 35 years associated with the truth I've seen lies, harmful gossip, abuse of authority, use of public humiliation to enforce compliance, hypocrisy, double standards, changes of doctrine - the EXACT thing that was always condemned by the WT as being 'false religion'. Made me think - hmmm, if this is how false religion is defined, then maybe the WTS isn't what it's cracked up to be. And this was years before I ever laid eyes on 'apostate' literature or websites. I've seen a lack of love so apparent on the part of many that there is simply NO WAY this is God's organization here on earth. While there are many sincere, decent Witnesses (I know, Danny, you take exception to this), they typically aren't the ones in 'power'. The judicial process is a joke - you get ten times more justice in a worldly court then you ever will in a judicial meeting conducted by uneducated, empowered, self-important men who oftentimes can't even explain the most basic doctrines of the WT in a coherent sense.

  I found the responses to this post interesting because 'doctrinal' issues seem to be in the minority. Most of the responders seem to have identified the same behavior I did, left, and then became aware of the bogus doctrines being taught by the WT. I guess for those 'spies' watching and reading - Hey, Guys, PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH before you df anyone for anything. Idiots!
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  FiveShadows

  What really got me out?
  

  When I came to the realization that 1 thess 4:17 was being ignored by the society, I started slipping away. But what offically caused me to have a nervious break down and panic attack was when I read Crisis of Conscience. I was taking a bath and reading the book when it just...clicked. I had a major anxiety attack and panic attack followed.

  Like most people I had the similar feelings and thoughts: What do I do now? What can I do? What if i'm wrong? What if I make this decision and regret it? What if I die? I felt very lost and confused and betrayed.

  ~FiveShadows
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  Fe2O3Girl

  1. Getting married to the first person who showed an interest so that I could have sex, and subsequently being miserable.

  2. Finding that worldly people were very kind, caring people.

  3. Being disfellowshipped, because it stopped me from hanging on to the organisation. If I had not been DF'd, I may well have still been there, and the WT would have got contributions from me for the last ten years.

  4. Realising that Jerusalem did fall in 586BC, not 607BC, hence no 1914, released any final lingering suspicion that JWs might have the truth. Thank you H2O.

  Before I got married, I was pretty well programmed. I really thought that I was the only JW teen who was horny as hell, and had secrets.
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  allpoweredup

  Stuff like this:

  WHY BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS ARE BIBLICALLY SUPPORTED: Acts 15:20 says abstain from blood but 1 Samuel 14:32-5 says Saul's army ate unBLED meat to not starve and no verses show God not forgiving them. Christ says God also forgave David's eating temple holy bread and that God wants Mercy Not Sacrifice. (Mt 12) The May 22, 1994 Awake tells of 26 Jehovah's Witness kids who died without transfusions, and by common sense in massive bleeding as in car wrecks blood expanders won't save lives http://www.ajwrb.org. About 3 Jehovah's Witnesses die daily earthwide from the unscriptural policy! (Blood On The Altar by David Reed) Yet most normal identical twins transfuse whole blood to each other through a shared placenta and childrens' whole blood is sometimes found in mothers years after birth-- the approved arrangement by God using nature. The book of Acts is about not using blood but in the sense of not using it anymore than strangled meat for temple sacrifices, not in regard to transfusions. Please share copies of this with others to help save more lives.

  FATHER?S DAY (THIRD SUNDAY EACH JUNE): In 1909 L Dodd promoted Father?s Day to show love for living and deceased fathers including her own. President endorsed it in 1916, and in 1972 President Nixon made it permanent. Unknown to Dodd the Romans had honored fathers but only deceased fathers each February. The Bible itself praises the Father of all life and Christ?s prayer in Matthew 6 begins with ?Our Father who is in heaven.? In fact Colossians says ?Do not let anyone judge you... with regard to a religious festival? besides which the modern Father?s Day in the and some other nations is not for religious purposes but kindness.

  FLAGS: No scriptures call flags or banners idols and in fact Numbers 2:2 says the Israelites had tribal banners. Exodus says an altar was named God?s ?banner.? Song of Solomon 2:4 mentions ?the banner of love,? and 6:3 says a lovely woman is ?majestic as troops with banners.? Isaiah 11:10-12 says Jesse?s Root will be ?a banner for the nations,? referring to the messiah or Christ. Psalm 20:5 says ?lift banners in God?s name,? Jeremiah 51:12, 27 say lift a banner against . Allegiance means ?loyalty to,? not worship of a nation. God permits nations to exist and punish wrongdoers including false Christians. (Ro 13:1-7). Although God sometimes crushes cruel nations (Da ), Revelation 22:2 clarifies that God will also ?heal? the nations.
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  Lehaa

  What I got out of the Borg.

  A lot of guilt, never felt i could measure up to htere made up standards.

  A lot of loneliness, never was the good Christian i was supposed to be. Too much of a free thinker. (rebelious attitude is what they called it)

  Sad Marriage, and now a broken heart. Family and friends pretty much Zero. Four family members talk to me, My Dad (disfellowshipped, lives overseas ), my mum (no longer an active witness, lives in another state), my sister (still a witness and very understanding, lives in another state) and My ex-husband ( we have kids together) and I have one really good friend. Guy I love now married with two kids.( had to break up with him 10 years ago because of the Borg)
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  FiveShadows

  Numbers 2:2 says the Israelites had tribal banners.

  I was NOT aware of that one.

  ~FiveShadows
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  Carmel

  Well, among a thousand other things, not being able to ask reasonable questions and getting a reasonable answer. Being lied to about the benefits of baptism. Horrendous mistreatment of women and kids. Holier than thou, heirarchy. An organizational leadership rife with hypocracy..

  carmel just warming up
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  Junction-Guy

  Even though I had doubts about it growing up, I had no way to disprove it at the time. After I was grown and moved to Ky, one of my jw cousins down there said that I needed to have a bible study, imagine that! I had been raised in that crap since birth and he felt i needed a bible study, what more could I possibly learn except the same old "excrement" well anyway we started getting into arguments at the studies and I basically told him that the bible was all man needed and not the wt's or awake. He quoted the particular publication which stated the dangers of bible reading alone, from then and there on I knew it was a fraud religion, but it wasnt until after 1994 when I realized that "this generation" was mostly dead that I knew without even one ounce of doubt that this was just a false cult.

  Dave
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  Odrade

  My first real motivating doubts... finding out how much a "fraction" all the "acceptable" components of blood comprise out of total non-water volume. Seeing rampant disregard for the intelligence of women in the Organization, being the target of a so-called encouragement campaign that was anything but...

  What got me out? Reading Crisis of Conscience and seeing events in there that I recognized and had personal attachment to, I had enough basis to realize what I was reading was true. Though we hadn't attended a meeting in seven months by the time I read it, I had felt guilty up until then and would tell myself I had every intention of "straightening myself out" and going back. Once I read that book, the guilt and attachments to the Organization vanished. Of course I'm still dealing with the familial aftermath, but I'm never going back. (Thank you Ray.)

  O