Last JW meeting (page 2)

La Capra

I know I have posted this before. I had made the decision more than a month before my last meeting, but couldn't do anything because my mom had planned this big trip with her step-sister, my step-cousins (JWs) and her best friend. Tickets had been purchased, condos had been booked, and by damn I was not about to miss Hawaii just to be free of approximately a dozen or so meetings. I was in Hawaii, we went to the Sunday meeting. And as each little milestone in the meeting passed, I would think to myself "last opening song", "last opening prayer" "last polite applause after a sucky public discourse," etc. My exctiement rose as the WT study ended. I tried to leave my songbook, WT and Bible in the chair, but some kid saw that I left them and brought them to me before we walked out, so I was stuck with them. August of 1987-not quite as important as the day I decided to leave, but up there. I was glad I knew I would never go back the last time I went. I will never set foot in another Kingdom Hall, as long as I live (not even for my mother's memorial service). And Evita-I think that was 1983-it was a one year break from summer conventions in the Cow Palace. Why do I remember? I had my first panic attack there, when some lady accidently brushed my shoulder, and declared I had soft skin-several people around her started stroking my shoulders, arms and back (I was wearing a sundress) as the crowd was leaving for the day. Summer after ninth grade....Shoshana

Quotes

Blondie said:

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Elephants conditioned from early age to be chained to post and not leave even when strong enough
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No WAY! They actually used this analogy? Don't they know that this analogy is, in my experience, used by CULT EXPERTS to explain HOW CULTS WORK?????

I have seen it used thusly: when a cult leader says "anyone is free to leave [the cult]" it is analogous to the elephant owner saying "this elephant is free (physically strong enough) to leave. That fact that it stays and works proves that it likes working here".

Yes, cult victims, like strong elephants, ARE physically able to leave, but the MENTAL CHAINS they have learned from years of conditioning are too strong.

Man, have JWs turned this powerful anti-cult analogy into something to be PROUD OF???? How stupid!!!

Next they will be saying they are proud when their children die after refusing a blood transfusion.... oh, wait a minute...

~Quotes, of the "Pavlovian apostate" class

tetrapod.sapien

:My last was the summer convent of 1986. I stood there until everyone left and then I took a picture with my new camera of the empty stadium, the wish being that the WTS would collapse and never fill up again stadiums with people.

wow. that's wild.

my last meeting (The Last) was about a month ago. i walked around and shook many peoples hands, saying that i had never been better with a big smile on my face when they asked me how i was doing. when i stepped out of the hall, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping. and suddenly i got a little tear in my eye and laughed to myself. the feeling of freedom. amen!

Quotes

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Hard to say exactly when was my "last" meeting. I remember I went to hear the announcements on a Tuesday night hoping to hear my "DF/DA announcement" but never heard it -- my release was denied.

I remember my last Circuit Assembly. I was already mentall free; had read Penton's Apoc.Delayed. When the speaker (Bro. Humpries) asked the audience Are we thankful for the spiritual food Jehvoah God has provided??? and simultaneously raised up the latest book that had been released the previous summer.

Clearly, he equated this book with instruction directly from God.

This was the same concern I had raised with my good friend only weeks earlier. So I looked over at him and gave him a "I told you so" look. He looked back with a "disgusted" look.

Later he said "Boy, I just KNEW you were going to misunderstand when he said that".

The level of DoubleThink really hit home for me then. It was great that my last CA had such a strong message!!!

love2Bworldly

LaCapra--I remember the Cow Palace days.

I don't remember my last meeting. I just remember how uncomfortable I was at the Hall where I had been disfellowshipped/reinstated. It left a very bad taste in my mouth. People that I had known for years acted so fake around me after I was reinstated. That place had a very high population of the 'point your nose in the air group because they are so righteous' JWs.

I just had a memory pop into my head that I had forgotten about. I remember when I was disfellowshipped and started attending meetings; my JW sister lived out of town and hadn't spoken to me for several years. I was a new mommie, my daughter was about one month old. Apparently my sister was visiting but came in late; an attendant seated her in the row in front of me. Here I was holding her neice that she had never seen and she didn't acknowledge me at all. She wouldn't even help me with the baby at the assembly the next month, even though the elders told her it was a conscience matter since I was trying to come back. (sigh) I hate that damn religion.

scotsman

Yip

I'd had six months of not attending meetings, then went back for a couple of months as an observer. One eveing just before the TMS & SM my mum said she could tell my heart wasn't in it. I'd planned on going for a couple of more months as I was supposed to be a witness for a friends wedding, then I was going to stop. We agreed that night would be my last meeting. Turned out to be a corker. My friend's dad got up and gave a talk about me. No name, just a description of individuals the congregation should avoid that fitted only me. After the meeting everyone avoided eye contact with me.

I'd grown up there, been one of their shepherds, and loved a lot of them. My poor mum was a lot angrier than me.

scotsman

I should add that I didn't feel angry because while I was being described as borderline wicked for not answering, declining the offer of a bible study, meeting ex Witnesses, and questioning the need for reporting I was thinking that if only they knew about the sex I was having with my boyfriend, these would seem pretty trivial.

It was in May 2002.

xjwms

I really don't remember.

It was in 2001 though

heathen

I remember my last meeting . I wasn't a dubby but had the home book study going on . What happened was the jerk I studied with started playing some sort of retarded head game with me especially since I disagreed over some crap they were trying desperately to force on me , so I threw the basturd out during the bible study . LOL . Just like that, I was very angry at their attitude and disrespect . A couple of months later some elders finally stop by without warning but I just told them I wasn't interested anymore and that was that . They still come around while in field service . I really wish the organization was everything they want people to believe it is but there's just no friggen way . They are petty , back stabbing hypocrites and don't deserve the time of day . I just don't have the patience to deal with their mentallity .

DanTheMan

La Capra, enjoyed your post!

Mine was sometime in Dec 2001 or January 2002, can't remember exactly when but I remember the meeting pretty well. The lowlight of the meeting, the point where I started shaking my head "no" in spite of myself, was when the speaker giving the public talk gave some fine counsel to the youths in attendance regarding education.

He said that Christians don't need to take a lot of math in school, they should only be concerned with learning "the basics". I couldn't believe what I was hearing. WTF does taking advanced math courses in school have to do with anything?? Funny that something as simple and stupid as that was like a final breaking point for me. I was so tired of the WTS and their representatives the elders lording their authority over the flock and giving idiotic counsel about every freaking aspect of life no matter how mundane, and this speaker's comments about math epitomized my frustration.

It only got worse during the WT study. I didn't know it when I walked in the front door of the KH that morning, but when I walked out afterwards, I knew it was over.

Last JW meeting

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