by ko38 32 Replies latest jw friends
ive not heard anyone give an example of teaching their children the christlike personality
I notice you have only 17 posts.
If you spend some time here and read more threads, you will find many examples of this. In fact, for many here at JWD this is the reason they left the Watchtower as they were not seeing Christ-like behavior in Watchtower material or in the brother/sisterhood of the JWs.
FYI - I have been out of the JW religion for 10 years.... and I LEFT... the elders didn't find me in another town for 5 years and my mother is the one that pressured them to DF me because I wouldn't return to her religion.
FYI - we aren't all immoral druggies. In fact I find that I might be MORE MORAL on my own with my own conscience than with the elders policing my every move. When I was a JW I was the only girl almost in the congregation that wasn't sneaking out and having sex or doing drugs.... most of my JW friends got caught at some point doing something wrong. Personally I have never tried a drug in my life, never needed to, never wanted to, never smoked a cigarette even.... and married, so I hope I'm not committing any fornication.
So what becomes of me? I don't lie, cheat, or steal, don't use drugs, and don't commit immorality. What becomes of me? I refuse to ever go back to the JW religion? Am I still damned in your righteous opinion? I don't have children and if I did I would NEVER teach them their religious crap. I do have a poodle though and she knows all the 10 commandments!
ko, did you see a Wild Beast with 7 heads and 10 horns before you wrote this??
No fear, KO38. I am a simple Christian, not an xJW, and I promise I have raised my children with love and firmness. Check my posts if you disbelieve me. It is disrespectful to paint us all with the same brush. Like the rest of humanity, some stumble and fall, and most dust themselves off and learn from their mistakes.
well said - Jgnat - I agree and live to the same priciples.
ko38, What happened here? In your first few post I did not see this attitude. Perhaps you have hit one of the greiving stages - anger? It seems a little early, but I give you the benifit of that doubt.
But that said - let me defend myself - I cannot speak for any of the others here - although I have great resprct for the fact that all of us have had to come out of an authoritatian control group and try to reassimilate our lives - that takes a lot of forms. But I do believe that judgement and condemnation should issue from the right source - Christ. Not you and I. I left that self-righteous judgementalism back at the KH. I don't think Christ liked it - and it was a component in why I left.
I personally live by high principles - they have issued from the Bible, which I respect as God's word. I have been married for 30 years - never committed fornication in my life - I have never smoked drugs or taken illicit drugs at all - I don't lie, steal or cheat - I have not burned the Bible or burned Jehovah in effigy either. I am raising my grandchildren and every nite my wife and I read Bible stories to them and try to train them with love of God and neighbor, the two great commandments. As I glance to my bookshelves, which are my constant companions, I count 17 Bible translations and scores of Bible references.
I left Jehovah's witnesses precisely due to the things you mentioned. I left due to conscience - I find myself here due to the need to have some sort of community with others who understand the process of readjusting to life outside the organization. I do not agree with all the various lifestyles and attitudes that can be seen here. I neither condone nor condemn most of it. But I understand how some could even have lost faith in God at all - after the hateful way in which some have been treated.
ko38 - I hope you find your way. But rest assured that many of the persons here live upright lives (from your perspective) - but all are human beings that should be treated with respect - something that they did not get from Big Brother Brooklyn.
I do not condemn you either - but hope you can develop tolerance enough to understand that this forum can help you to be what you want to be - if that is a witness in good standing, then I hope you go back there and do that - I am 'technically' a witness in good standing - never reproved or reprimanded or counseled in any way for wrongdoing - but I will never go back because I love righteousness and don't think it resides in the wt or any organized religion.
Your CHRISTIAN brother - Jeff
Move along here nothing to see...move along people.
ko38
Leaving or finding out the troof is not the truth is a real shock to the system especially when you have carried guilt for many years. Doing our best to be compassionate human beings is all that any loving God would require.
i think that pretty much says it all.we can all whine and groan about how the society has wronged us and how they are so self preserving and wrong , EVIL, false, controling decieving, self righteous,and whatever.those who speak of giving up or god is dead or now i smoke pot and god loves me or now i commit fornication and its okay or those that get drunk and say thats okay.man some of you sound like the apostate definition according to the society.THE EVIL SLAVE.in order not to allign yourself with SATAN your job i think is simple.stop doing wrong.
not....FORNICATION...! (actually, i've never gotten drunk or smoked pot, so there.)
quit trying to have sex outside of marriage,smoking pot,lieing cheating and stealing.i dont care who you are you dont want to die. ive tried it twice and am glad im still here.im no wuss either former power lifter very veril and have 4 children.some of you kill me with your live for today mentality.i have a hard time believing that you chose to leave rather than being disfellowshipped and just feel bitter.
i've don't remember l-y-i-n-g or cheating or stealing anything either. why does having four children make you v-i-r-i-l-e, just curious? the witnesses are the ones who live for today, marking off days until the end comes. we are the ones busy planning our futures...yeah i did leave that racket, willingly. i was not disfellowshipped. i just...walked away.
what do you want for your kids and ,much least for yourself?ive not heard anyone give an example of teaching their children the christlike personality.god help us all for we surely need it...........................................................prove me wrongum, what is "the christlike personality"? if you mean being loving, compassionate, kind, caring, and thoughtful, i didn't need the WTS to teach my child that. what i want for my child is something i never had... freedom to think and form his own opinions and view of the world; independence, confidence and self-reliance; educational opportunities; a life free from regimentation, thought control, anxiety, depression and religious oppression; and being able to explore his own spiritualtiy and finding God in his own way, if that is what he wants to do. that was one thing that always bothered me about the whole JW experience... it was so homogenized and sterile, completely without icons and imagery and beauty... i felt as if a place to worship God should have felt more ... holy, not... "sanitized for your protection". thank you.
i was re-reading In search of christian freedom by Fred Franz.i found something that disturbed me.on page459 on the topic of organization he says, in reality ,the scriptures show that Satan most often uses methods NOT TYPICAL OF, but directly OPPOSITE OF GODS.
he then states In view of that,how should we reasonably react to the claim regarding Satans development of a mighty visable and invisable as relates to the validity of a highly organized religious structure? he doesnt support that belief.anyway i took this to mean that satan would not set up an organization like jehovahs witnesses.WELL i was just starting to believe that they were from Satan and this made me feel as if i did the wrong thing.like OH NO DID I JUST COMMIT THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN?
well i was in a self damning mode by then.i came to the forum and was looking back at some old and older threads and found that many had made some comments that described some less than righteous behavior including same sex arrangements.i will say i read some very warm encouraging,thought provoking,educacational AND ALL AROUND FUNNY AND COOL STUFF.
upon reading the bad stuff though i (in my state of did i do the wrong thing?)began to think that if the forums members were to represent the truth of jws then they wouldnt talk like that.(now it sounds like some juvenile thinking that stems from dependancy)my comments about being a powerlifter i mean ex powerlifter(bad shoulder,knee and back now) and being verile with 4 kids was i guess my way of conveying that im not gay.im sorry if i offend anyone but i have always been homophobic.i dont try to persecute those who are gay or whatever its called these days,but i may have done so last night.(SORRY)
as far as the rest of my rant it was only directed to those posters that admittedly engaged in some of those behaviors.i know from reading former posts that most here are just like me or maybe better adjusted.OK DEFINATELY BETTER ADJUSTED.there are many that i am impressed with and would enjoy reading more of your posts and some who can and have tried to help me because they know what im going through,having been there themselves.(im not doing very good at it yet,i feel lost still and find myself searching for something to hold onto that is PERFECT.i guess it doesnt exist in this life.
i am very sorry for my statements if they hurt you,i did not make a thought out logical approach to who i was really talking to.in fact i think i was talking to myself.Hmmm thats scary.i have never really had much go right for me in life,but the one thing i thought i could always count on was jehovah.i guess it was mabe the society,maybe the hope,maybe the brothers and sistersI DONT KNOW.
i am very sorry it seems once again ive made the wrong choice in condeming instead of trying to help or be positive.i probobly wont post anymore because the last thing you guys (and gals) need is another newbie with security issues.
i sure hope someday things will make sense to me.........ko38
i probobly wont post anymore because the last thing you guys (and gals) need is another newbie with security issues.
That's a self pitying cop-out and you can't live your life like that. How do you think most of the people on this board started out? Just learn not to judge others, OK? Even if they do do a bunch of the things you said. If Jesus was alive today, he'd be hanging out with hookers, junkies, etc., like he did back then, not a bunch of self righteous pharisees who feel that they have the right to judge everyone.
Welcome, ko, but geez. Chill. Read, listen, and learn something. OK? We love you.
oy oy oy ! ... Do you think, that we don't know where you are coming from ?
ko38
The process of exiting a cult like the Witnesses is not always an easy, or pretty, one. We've all been there.
Don't worry about it. No harm no foul.
