by Sirona 83 Replies latest jw friends
EXJWs: Did you pursue a course of immorality and then research the JWs to look for holes in doctrine?
Absolutely NOT!
Being bothered about what they say about ex-members does not bother me in the least. They lie to people all the time, why wouldn't they lie about this? I did absolutley nothing wrong. I just left.
No, when I left I was a JW in good standing. My reasons for leaving were mostly doctrinal, plus I could no longer tolerate the oppression and hypocrisy of the Watch Tower organization.
Let me predicate what I now say as being just my humble opinion:
It does seem that many (though not proven statistically) the majority of exJWs do swing to the extreme end of the pendulum (whatever the limits of their personal pendulum may be.)
From what I've come to understand, this is a predictable human behavior. In some cases, it may be a latent desire to engage in such activities, suppressed only so long as as the religion, family, and friends can succeed in constraining such extravagances.
otoh, we have the Quakers, who allow, and even encourage, a period of un-restrained profligacy...to be followed by a formal statement of commitment to the religion (or, at least, to become a Mennonite).
Sometimes, in the analogy of "throwing out the baby with the bath water," exJWs indulge in behavior which they will later regret, especially insofar as it violated personal morals that they temporarily ignored.
Craig
Right on jwbot.. my thoughts exactly!
As a kid I had a hard time believing in the doctine. It is only coincidence that I lead an immoral life ;)
EXJWs: Did you pursue a course of immorality and then research the JWs to look for holes in doctrine?
No. I was a faithful JW to the last minute and had to be dragged out kicking and screaming by a conscience that can no longer allow me to believe things that I saw were patently false. It was specifically the creation vs. evolution issue and the related issue of the literal inspiration of the Bible that broke me.
Incidentally, I should say that I never doubted the doctrine. In fact, I thought that, given the Bible being literally inspired of God, the doctrine was pretty strong. Obviously, I had much to learn! - but I didn't much care about that since there was the larger, totally encompassing issue of whether the Bible was worthy of that type of faith.
Now that I'm out of the organization I do a few things that JWs consider "bad," but I must say that I consider myself a much better person than I ever was able to be as a Witness. At first this struck me as a novel idea because of the conditioning that Sirona mentions, but now I see that it is the standard course.
Hey, how about this for an ad: JWs - be a better person: leave the organization!
SNG
P.S. Great thread, Sirona!
Re: You are EX-JWs because you want to live an immoral life!
Maybe I should lead a more immoral life in order to have a little more fun, but no, I don't consider myself
an immoral person. Unless you consider going to Amsterdam for a meetup with friends immoral.
Andy
Andy:If it's the same meetup that German is going to, I'd watch yourself, if I were you
He sidles up with his innocent comments and then... BAM!!!
Before you know it...
LOL
LT.
It's the same meetup, yes. You're right about the ol' GermanXJW.
But I'm not as much worried about him as I am about Vivamus.
She's the one you gotta watch out for. So we're bundling forces.
lol.
Andy
They say that all good things come in three's.
I don't know who said it, but it sounds good, so I'm sticking to my assertion that "they" say it.
(edited whole post, due to over-familiar comments that could be misconstrued)
Not to work anything up, but it seem most of you engaged in things that could get you dfed if the elders found out, and this was after you stoped believing JWs. At least in my area I think the stigma is you stop wanting to be a jw and then "jehovah's spiritual protection" leaves you, and you become worse that a wordly person. I tend to find this true. With out the peer pressure to conform to a group like jws some people that would want to be associated with a high control group will loose their group dependant moral compass.
It is hard being a JW guys can you give the few of us that know the whole story, and still like it here a little slack. I mean all of us cant be religious wackos, some one has to be a normal person and a JW. Otherwise some fool will start mixing the speacial kool-aid to catch jehovah's celestial chariot.
