Welcome, Red So Deep! It sounds like you have some challenging months ahead, but we're here to help. Keep being open and honest, you're gonna do great! I look forward to seeing you around.
SNG
stuck in!
by red so deep 35 Replies latest jw experiences
-
-
Corvin
Welcome.
You certainly do not read much like a typical 17 year old in (or out) of the organization. Your language is very mature. Wow! You must be some kind of prodigy to articulate matters the way you do.
Anyway, you have come to the right place for support, research and understanding. We have the garden variety apostates here who can help bring you to full maturity with regard to your defection. It will not be easy for you, as if it hasn't already been, but we are here to help. I have five teens, three of which were raised in the org like you, none of them baptized however. They are out of the org now eventhough their JW mother and step dad are constantly on their arses to go to the meetings. Seeing as how they live with me now, the don't have to go.
Hope you find the answers and help you are looking for here at JWD.
Best Regards,
Corvin
-
cyberguy
Welcome Andrew!
Well, you?ve come to a great place to discuss JW-stuff and when you?re feeling a little down-and-out! You?ll find you can discuss almost anything here! Furthermore, there are many x-JW parents here with young folks your age (or have had children, but are now grown up) that can offer wonderful advice on how to cope with JW?ism, your family, and life in general. Why not continue to take advantage of this!
As far as your depression goes, I have a teenage niece (14) that is going through something very similar to you! My brother, an elder, knows how to push the "guilt button" by preventing her from leaving her room (and other restrictions), if she refuses to go to meetings. Now, she?s on depression medication and has to have home schooling, because she can no longer function in a normal school setting! A specialist has been assigned by the county school system, to visit and monitor the situation (I wouldn?t be surprised if they?re carefully watching to see if this might be child abuse).
Aside from gross misconceptions in Bible understanding, one fundamental problem that you?re evidently facing, is that JW organization forces a very "scripted" way of life! If you don?t follow their "script" then you?re a very bad person! How closely you follow their "script" determines how well you are accepted and even loved, conditional love from an organization that claims to worship a God that overflows with unconditional love?blatant hypocrisy! Consequently, love is replaced with fear and guilt!
True Christianity has freedom of speech and overflows with love for family and neighbor! They don?t want you looking at sources outside of the organization for wisdom and spiritual understanding; they loose control when you really learn the truth about the truth!
Anyway, you don?t have long to go before you?re able to move out. Why not start to make friends now, outside the organization. You?re certainly welcome here and this is a great place to start.
PS ? what kind of instruments do you play? And what kind of music are you into?
Take care,
Warmest!
Cyberguy
-
little1
It seems to me from what I have read here that an early exit would be a good idea. It makes me so sad to read the stories of those who spent years and years, missing opportunities while serving such a heartless, thankless organization. I had an aquaintance who was valedictorian of her graduating class but not allowed to speak at graduation because of the org. She wanted to go to college but instead married a guy she didn't really love to please her JW parents. I think of her often and the other "young ones" stuck in a situation that is not really what they would choose if they were allowed to think their own thoughts and make their own decisions.
I am standing on the sidelines cheering you on as you break out of the mold and look for your own answers to valid questions. Stick around here, there is much to learn and many here are able teachers!
L1
-
red so deep
wow. thanks again for the words of encouragement, it really means alot to me. i fully agree with all the suggestions made here, especially about college. i'm also going to visit some relatives in florida this fall/winter for a while, so that will be nice to get away from the JW routine for a while. and my grandma, who i'm going there to visit, is inactive, and when she visited us here recently, she was very supportive of my searching about religion outside of JW literature. she was baptized, but never has done anything to merit disfellowshipping, but just drifted from the organization because of the hypocricies and the somewhat militant routine of "faithful witnesses." i was very happy to find out that, now free from the organization, she was there for the 1st birthday of my little cousin, who is obviously from a non-JW family.
anways, i just wanted to say thanks again, and it's wonderful seeing people outside of the organization showing the unconditional love and support that the JWs could never give!
-
dh
hi andrew,
definitely a warm welcome to the board, and it's great to see you take the first step down this road, and i'm also glad you are seeing them for what they are and you are only 17, i left when i was 18, so in a lot of ways we are very lucky, born in, but leave young, when i read some of the stories of people on here, they have spent their entire lives in, and then at the age of 50 realise they have been lied to.
anyway, not sure if that is encouraging, but welcome, and stick around!