Without the Internet. Would you still have been a active believing dub??

by Samuel Thorsen 71 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Whiskeyjack

  I started fading when I was about 22 because of the dysfunction all around me that I observed. As well, continuing "changes" in doctrine/policy by the GB told me that this particu;lar group of old men didn't know what God was thinking either.

  It was years later that I bothered to google JW's on the web but even then only briefly for curiousity. Somebody mentioned this site to me last winter and I'm still amazed at what I didn't know about the org.'s history months later.

  I feel compelled to use all this info. as ammunition in debates with JW relatives at the right time.

  W.
• 

  Lady Lee

  Without the internet I would still be a believing EX-JW
• 

  crazyblondeb

  I left in 1981, after figuring it out it wasn't OK for my stepdad, a MS to sexually abuse me. I missed my family so much I was reinstated. That lasted 3 months, DF'd again (that goodness). For many years I was NUTS- drunking, drugging, and all that partying comes with. Then I got suicidial. After I found these sites several years back I feel ALMOST normal. At least for us. Besides, it's a heck of alot funner than being in the mental wing and doing the thorazine shuffle!! But now I know it is ok for me to have gone thru all that I did. That I didn't do all this, (well, most of it)---they did it!! Now, I can be crazy with the rest of you!!!

  For being demonized, ain't this site great!!! LOL
• 

  skyman

  I would still be a faithful Borg member trying to assimilate.
• 

  NomadSoul

  AuntieJane, when I decided to tell my parents they didn't want me at home so I left. They didn't want to do anything with me. Even when I moved out I helped out my siblings anyway I could, more than my father. When my mom saw that she apologized to me and she admitted that she acted wrong and to forgive her. A few months later my dad had a stroke and was disabled. I told my mom about my plans to start college and she welcomed me back home to help me out. She doesn't attend the meetings that much anymore, about 2 times a month, or when the elders come to talk to my family. Recently in the past 2 weeks the elders have to tried to talk to me but I just go to the my room and lock my door and do not say a word. They tried to get me to sign a letter through my mom saying I renounced begin a Jehovah's Witness, and I refused. I do not know their next move. I ignore any elders when I see them, and I haven't seen any jws that I know.

  Thanks to everybody in this board that participates, I like reading what everybody else thinks about different subjects.
• 

  Athanasius

  No, because I left in 1984, years before I had Internet access. In that year I read Crisis of Conscience. After that I resigned as an elder and quietly left the Organization. By the way, does anyone remember the year that Al Gore invented the Internet?
• 

  EvilForce

  Yup, about 4 years before George W quit doing blow.
• 

  AK - Jeff

  Wifey and I knew something was wrong. The lack of love was a real issue for us.

  I feared all the 'apostate' dangers online, so I avoided them for the longest time. I did research [or rather tried to] the 607BCE date, and became aware that not one single bit of evidence was available to support it. But even then I avoided all 'apostate' sites. I did a lot of calculations that convinced me that the 1935 'sealing' could not be right, and I was still jaded about the abrupt dropping of the '1914 Generation'.

  Through all that, I was skirting the apostate sites - but I became aware that Ray had written two books. [Without the internet I would not have known even that]. I remained afraid to order them, kept going back to the Commentary site and thinking about ordering. Then one day wifey tells me that she ordered them. When they arrived I devoured them - twice!

  All the doubts made sense now - and we left with purpose about 18 months back. The doubts were real - but the internet made them gell. The internet made our move out much more rapid than it would have been!

  I remain convinced that many will leave due to the internet that would not have been able to put all the facts together without this tool. It may in fact help the organization to eventually disintegrate - or reform in order to retain membership.

  Jeff
• 

  Axelspeed

  I was already on the way out...it just wasn't doing it for me anymore. The year text for that year was about the yoke being light, something i knew just wasn't happening for me. Ironically an elder at the time mentioned COC and how he read it before becoming a witness (at the time he was stronger than ever, tho i think he will eventually come around once he sees completely the that what he read was truth...he's already stepped aside as elder) I believe that the internet is hurting them badly tho...more than they even realize yet. Without major changes, the glory days of the WTS are over. Axelspeed
• 

  AnnOMaly

  The internet has speeded it along for me. It would have been a much slower process otherwise, although I'm sure everything would have unravelled eventually. The net has also provided validation - that there are lots of others who see the same as I do - and crystalization for the main concerns about the org.