What First Stumbled You?

by glitter 38 Replies latest jw friends

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  glitter

  What was the very first thing that "stumbled" you?

  Mine was: I was about 5 or 6 years old and of course I used to find it really hard to find things in my Bible at meetings (couldn't find the books quick enough before they moved onto the next paragraph and used to get frustrated). I had the idea to make little tabs for the edges of the pages so I could tell where the books were - so I asked mum to help me neatly write out the book names on tiny slips of paper and tape them inside. I only taped in about 10 (Matthew to John, Psalms and Proverbs, and Revelation then started at the beginning) before the next meeting as writing tiny and neat when you're only little is hard work!

  At the bookstudy the conductor noticed and went absolutely bonkers that I'd done that to the Bible! I was heartbroken as I was trying to be better at the meetings and that's why I had the idea in the first place. Mum was fuming at him though, but what could she do as a fairly new JW and totally taken in by it all.

  When we got home I took my little plastic kiddy scissors and cut off all the tabs. I was so *embarrassed* to have got into trouble and I felt so *guilty* that I had upset Jehovah with my tiny pieces of paper, but I had the feeling inside that it was the *Elder's* fault that I was upset, and it was the first time I thought about the "mean people" in the Truth?.
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  Pleasuredome

  when i tripped over the KH doorstep.

  just joking.... it was when i first learned about the UN fiasco. thanks to the wastchtowernews.org. then the child abuse blew the whole thing apart.
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  Fleur

  when i was in my early twenties, had always believed everything till then (they got me in utero, what can I say?) and they told me that the lives of my miscarried babies held no weight with god, that since they never breathed outside the womb, they were basically out of luck as far as a future life of any kind.

  having lost two babies at about 10 weeks each, with hearts, brains, faces and hands and feet for gods sake, something in me snapped hearing that. it didn't follow when you consider their view that abortion is murder.

  i never felt the same about the elders, or the loving god they claimed to represent after that day. something snapped, and i was out within four years after that.

  out and never going back.

  fleur
• 

  L_A_Big_Dawg

  Double standards, double standards.

  One elder's wife and daught started to study nursing at a local community college. It was all over the Cong. Yet, he was not removed, nor did he step down. Yet my own father had said that if I went to college to study drama and history (I wanted to be a teacher), he would, a) have to step-down, or b) be removed.

  Double-standards, double-standards.

  LABD, of the I hate double-standards, class
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  Elsewhere

  At the bookstudy the conductor noticed and went absolutely bonkers that I'd done that to the Bible! I was heartbroken as I was trying to be better at the meetings and that's why I had the idea in the first place. Mum was fuming at him though, but what could she do as a fairly new JW and totally taken in by it all.

  Awwwww. That was mean of him!

  Want me to beat him up for you?
• 

  ApagaLaLuz

  when I too was 4 or 5, and reading the bible story book, I never could quite grasp the concept of perfection. For me it seemed that if Adam and Eve where CREATED perfect than how would they have had the ability to sin? Also, no one had sinned before them so how would they know what sin was and meant without having had a precidence set? Also I couldnt get past the fact that God would allow Billions of humans to die and suffer to prove a point to the devil.

  After that, there were too many things that stumbled me to mention. I just remember that always being in my head from a young age.
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  Confucious

  When my best friend committed suicide and I cried at the hospital.
  
  And the P.O. chastised me for crying because "Afterall... you know **** committed SELF MURDER."
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  Fleur

  oh GOD, confucious! ((((((((((confucious))))))))))

  i think i'd have hauled off and punched him.

  ***hole.

  this thread is just so sad. the stuff they put on little kids esp...i have a few stories of my own in that regard.

  the b*stards!
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  marked

  God, do I have to pick only one thing? :)

  First experience that pops to mind was moving to a new congregation and being "marked" immediately - probably because of my "soul patch". Apparently, only goats have beards.

  Then, when my meeting attendance started to slip, the same elders who never gave me the time of day at the KH wouldn't stop hammering my door down. It was then I realized how conditional and phony the "love" was in the org.

  I also grew really sick of the persecution complex so many JWs had. It was always "Poor, poor us." You know: "Look how the media unfairly portrays us!" and "Look how people always call us a cult!" and "Look what France is doing to us!" I mean seriously, if the Watchtower was the only frame of reference you had, it would seem like JWs were the only ones to suffer at the hands of Nazi Germany.

  marked
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  Confucious

  Fleur,
  
  Thanks.
  
  Really. It happend.
  
  I remember it like it was yesterday. Even though it was about 8 years ago.
  
  I remember, that NIGHT my BEST friend committed suicide, it was bookstudy night.
  
  I told the brothers that I wanted to sit out.
  
  I had SO MUCH pressure to conduct.
  
  But as a "good dub" I did.
  
  After that, the elders PRAISED ME for conducting saying, and I quote, "WE were worried about you for a while there."
  
  Translation... "WTF??? You would REALLY consider not conducting a bookstudy to grieve over this sinner???"
  
  (He was a dub as well.)
  
  Anyway thanks for the kind words.