How bitter are you? (page 2)

kls

Joker if you are not bitter then why do you choose to be cruel in the answers you give to some posts? If your anger is against us being Apostates , why do you come here?

Perhaps you might let us know where you personally draw the line as to what is 'bitterness' as opposed to 'indignation'? I am indignant about the way the WTS treated and treats its adherents, but I am not bitter about it.

The reason I mention this is that I have found that very few WTS apologists actually know the difference between the two, possibly because it might cause uncomfortable questions if they began to examine the differences.

Best regards - HS

Golf

Bitter you ask? Nah, I've got more important and fun things to do than reflect on what I did in the org. I put my positive energy to good use.

Guest 77

Odrade

hmmm... I CHOSE to leave, did not get "kicked out" as you persist in putting it post after post...

I CHOSE to leave because, by and large, leaving made me far HAPPIER than remaining in that religion. I was far more bitter as a JW. Bitter when I saw people being cliquish, bitter when I saw "wrong" conduct being swept under the rug, bitter when my 8 hours in field service weren't good enough for anyone to go to lunch with me. I can look back and REMEMBER the emotion of bitterness that was caused by my participation in that group. But now that I've CHOSEN TO LEAVE, I find a far greater proportion of positive emotions in every day.

Joker, you are the most selective reader I know of on this board. I'm sure in this entire thread you will manage to not see the majority of posters living a happier life, but take the ones who are (legitimately) bitter and make some kind of upper percentile statistic out of it showing that the exes are "all so bitter." LMAO.

O

Country Girl

You know what, Joker? I've thought long about your question. I am not *bitter*, I am self-righteously angry. That is what it is. There is a difference between those who are angry about nothing, and those who are angry about something. There are people that are angry because there's construction on main street and they are five minutes late for work. There are people that are angry because their cell phone ran out of batteries. Those are people that are angry about nothing. They waste their time and energy being angry. There is nothing that they can do, so why be angry? I *can* do something constructive with my anger, and that is to be HERE and to help other people see the folly of the JW's, and to help them when they have questions, with advice.

For me, the anger is deep. It's an old anger, not a new one, but one that must be resolved nonetheless. I am slowly resolving it, through the help I give, and the help I receive on this board. You know what? It should never have been an issue. I should have had a childhood, free of religious fanaticism, and free of abuse, but that was not the case. They say abuse is cumulative. If you are in an inferior position with the person who is perpetrating abuse, each incident is another assault on your dignity and self-esteem. When it goes on, prolonged, over a long range of years, then you have a tendency to become cynical and angry. That is not a surprise. There are those of us that have bright minds, and sensitive psyches, who knew when we were very young that it was a bunch of hogwash, were stifled and put down, and made to feel less than a human. That is what makes me angry. My questions, when I was young, weren't met with reasoned, logical responses, but with emotional fear. I lived in a strange place. My father was loving, but absent. My JW Mother was the Queen of the house, and whatever she said went. She thought nothing or raising a coffee pot cord to me... you know.. the wire covered with rubber? I had lots of bruises that had to be explained away to counselors. Not just me.. there was some other Catholic kids down the road that got the same treatment. It just isn't the JW religion, it's all of those that demand corporal punishment. This is not the way to raise children at all.

When a kid is beat constantly, you get a kid that is angry and wants to BEAT constantly. Who could NOT be angry? It could be classified as bitterness, but it's not unjustified bitterness. What about the kids that have their toys taken away for a few days? Geesh.. pity on them. The JW's encourage discipline with the rod. At least in my day they did. That only made me angry and defiant.

Country girl

willyloman

My bitterness ended the day I stopped going to meetings.

Ditto. And I was an elder when I left, had been for parts of three decades, a guy who had many "special privileges" along the way. I gladly left it all behind to escape the blatant hypocrisy and toxic lifestyle that was killing me and my family. I am not bitter at all. Do I regret some of my past actions as a dub elder? You bet. Is it going to cripple me emotionally? No way. Freedom is a wonderful antidote to toxicity.

Preston

I'll be real bitter if the Bo Sox and Dodgers lose their divisions again this year...

Evesapple

No bitterness, ever...I've never been happier. I often look back and think WOW! I am so proud of my life and the outcome...I look at my daughter and all the positive choices and path she has chosen now in high school. I'm married to a wonderful husband now, who is so richly caring and sensitive, and loving...( I could go on ) and nothing of what I had ever found in the "truth"....I have the most awsome little boy, now 15 months old....the only thing that saddens me, is that my mother, father, and sister cannot comprehend it, nor truely appreciate it. I have too many good things in my life now to ever be bitter.....what a wasted energy.

Sassy

I don't think I am bitter about too many things.. I have my moments when I am sorry about things, but bitter.. no

How bitter are you?

kls

JH

hillary_step