When I was a devout JW I would literally look at "apostates" picketing the assemblies and want to spit at them because I hated them that much and felt that they were of Satan. I remember one time I saw an "apostate" walking from the assembly and a friend of mine an myself were actually talking about confronting him and telling him off. I just cannot believe how much I hated "apostates" when I was a JW. Now my best friends are apostates(ha,ha,ha). Boy the elders in my hall would turn over in their graves if they knew that their little JW poster child is a DA'd apostate now. I really have to admit I enjoy being on the outside of JW's looking in. I don't feel the pressure that I once had when I was a JW. I can now say they are wrong on this or wrong on that without feeling that a lightning bolt is going to strike me dead as I used to feel when I was a JW. When I talk to JW now I feel sorry for them because they are so blinded by the Watchtower's rules and regulations. I was talking to a JW elder the other day and he has been a JW for over 30 years but when I told him about Beth-Sarim, UN connection, Johannes Greber and many of the failed prophecies he was totally in the dark about it. I just don't understand how a JW can sit through meeting after meeting and not see some of the deceptions. In my own defense I was very young when I was a JW so I did not know or understand some of the failed predictions as I do now. The WTS did mention some of their mistakes but sugar coated alot of them. I now feel glad that apostates are exposing JW's and all of their skeletons. I think JW's have a right to know what their leaders are doing behind their backs.
How did you feel about "apostates" when you were a devout JW?
by booker-t 27 Replies latest jw friends
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jeanniebeanz
Felt fear and hatred for outsiders when a jw. Only learned the meaning of loving my fellowman after leaving the witnesses and studying the bible on my own. They make me mad in their blindness and lack of empathy for others, but I feel sorry for them and do not hate them in general.
Jean
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orangefatcat
yes their "smoke and mirrors' are slowly going up in smoke.
Apostates are quite remarkable people. They are willing to take the ridicule that JW through in their faces. They can prove what they say and back it up with authority.
They don't crack under scrutiny. They are wonderful people who have suffered at hands of an organization that has lied and decieved people for well over a hundred years. We don't hide our feelings we declare our convictions to all who want to listen. We care about how people have been bad hurt by the rules and regualtions from the Governing Body elders and congregations. And thanks to Simon and his lovely wife we have this wonderful forum where we care share and talk and reason with one another.
I felt when I was a devout witness that I was better then they were. Because God was on our side and they were the instruments of the devil. I never spoke to an apostate, but have come face to face with one at a convention. They were weary wolf masks and handing out an information sheet. I never took it even though the person wished I had. And if I had of taken it I probably would have left the organization years ago.
Well its nice to see you in JWD and welcome.
Orangefatcat
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ValiantBoy
Hated apostates. They were so much worse than run-of-the-mill disfellowshipped people. Denounced anybody that expressed doubts. I was such an ahole.
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dh
a thing to be looked down on with supreme theocratic arrogance.
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jellybelly
I thought they must be completely nuts, i couldnt imagine why they would stand out at assemblies and hand out fliers and hold up pickets. But I was also curious. They must have a reason I thought.
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Narkissos
"Apostates" remained quite an abstraction to me before I became one. There was not so much talk about them before the 80's, when the GB's conservative winning side discovered its fondness for the epistles of Jude and 2 Peter. Even then I never met any of them, but funnily enough, it was getting easier to read what the "apostasy" was about between the lines of the most outrageously derogatory Watchtower articles. And even in this most faint and indirect way, it helped a lot.
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Golf
I was always CURIOUS. Now I know the answer.
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TheEdge
It's a very clever defence mechanism the JWs have though - as every time they are ''attacked'', it reinforces their belief that they are God's People........have had this said to me soooo many times.
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blondie
How did you feel about "apostates" when you were a devout JW?
Good question. Based on my thinking and actions, I guess I wasn't a "devout" JW.
I really never noticed much until I was in my 20's. I had heard about "30 years a WT Slave." When I was searching for some info on Mormons at the library I stumbled over this book and Barbara Grizutti's book. I was so afraid to check them out thinking that somehow some JW would have access to my library record or that one of my JW roommates might see it in my car or bedroom, that I would just read them at the library for several hours at a time. I started searching out every article in newspapers and magazines on JWs (the internet makes it so much easier now).
When I heard about JWs that had left "the truth" and were teaching that they were now of the anointed and/or that more than 144,000 were going to heaven, I was curious and wondered what their scriptural reasoning was. I wondered why Ray Franz left and wished I could talk to him.
I did see people picketing at a district convention once. They were handing out literature. The problem was that the Gestapo were out there too telling you not to talk to them or take any literature (that was disturbing); one brother wished them to Gehenna.
But if you are going to compare what the WTS teaches now to books and magazines and feel that apostates wrote them, read the Studies in the Scriptures and Rutherford's works. I wondered if they were even from the same religion. If any writings convinced me that JWs don't have the truth, it was those writings.
So my curiosity got me to this point and rather than "apostates" or "apostate writings" it was WT publications that shone the light on "the truth" and revealed the darnkess within.
Love, Blondie