i aim to please
have you done things BECAUSE they were condemned by the WTS?
by doogie 25 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Nosferatu
Things that I did just because they were against the WTS started out small. I started smoking when I was still going to meetings. I've bought scratch & win tickets. I got drunk the day after my last meeting. I joined a rock band, wrote a song about the stress I had in the WTS, and preformed it live (http://www.angelfire.com/oz/benpony/Factor7.htm)
Everything else just seemed to follow the worldly lifestyle, maybe except buying Crisis of Conscience.
-
RR
Hmmm .... let's see.
I grew a beard.
I have celebrated birthdays, thanksgiving, christmas and other holidays.
Even though I hate them, I've purchased girl scout cookies too, my wife and kids eat them.
Speaking of Kids, I have two, not against policy, but was strongly spoken against.
I am a an ordained minister with the Associated Bible Students.
I have purchased a lottery ticket here and there.
I have supported various ministries.
I associate with disfellowshipped persons.
-
blondie
I would never do anything just BECAUSE they were condemned by the WTS.
I now choose to do things because I have decided they are wrong or right; if that means some times I agree with the WTS, no big deal.
Blondie
-
XQsThaiPoes
-Understood the Watchtower and Awake!
-
jws
I agree with Blondie, for the most part. Sometimes things the WTS condemns aren't good for you, like smoking. I wouldn't take it up just because they condemned it. But there are a lot of things that are merely their whim. I do things now because I want to, not because the WTS condemned it.
When I was a JW and they controlled my life, there may have been minor things I did just to irk others, like leaving the parking lot with the heavy metal music blairing. As a JW, I did several DF-able things, but it was because I was interested in trying them. Though at a subconscious level, it probably was being told "NO" that got me interested in trying them.
I think the one clear act of defiance against the WTS directly was seeking out "apostate" literature to see what they were running from.
-
doogie
When I was a JW and they controlled my life, there may have been minor things I did just to irk others, like leaving the parking lot with the heavy metal music blairing.
that's some good stuff...i thought this was just my idea.
i agree that doing things simply out of spite are certainly not productive or positive...but sometimes they can be fun (maybe more than "sometimes"...).
-
kls
Yep, Doogie not a virgin nooooo more.,,,, Take that you wet tower.
-
SwampThing
OK, what's the deal with Girl Scout Cookies?
After reading all these posts, I can see now why the JWs I know never tried real hard to recruit me. This stuff sounds like normal, every day life to me...:)
Swamp Thing.... *proving that I really never have been a JW*
-
Sunspot
I live a normal lifestyle now, including celebrating the holidays, putting a flag out on the front porch, and all the other things that nice normal folks do. These are things I chose to do because it pleased me.
The only thing that I did in defiance of the WTS was to wear a pair of tiny earrings shaped like a cross to a family B-B-Q. It was my first "independent action" that I took. They were so tiny that nobody noticed them (I asked a close family member) but they felt like they were a foot tall to me!
I did something else that gave me great pleasure (no---not that!), a few of us from an exJW support group burned our "blood cards" at midnight on New Year's Eve...as a sign of our new-found independence! I burned it in the kitchen sink and hubby thought I was insane! But *I* felt good about it!
hugs,
Annie