What was your breaking point? (page 2)

Thegoodgirl

I doubted for a long time, but one of the reasons I held on was because I thought, what are the chances that they predicted 1914 and that was the year of the first world war. Well, then I said, the only thing that would show me they were false is that they would somehow change the rules regarding the "within this generation". And they did.

(Also, I really wanted to go to college, and community college was turning out to be a waste of time, and after three years of taking about every class possible, I stil lcouldn't get a job.)

(Also this guy in the congregation who liked me and I turned him down, well, he killed himself. So then it was really awkward to go to the meetings, and I just wanted to get away.)

(And then my little sister got DF'd, and I just couldn't shun her, and I hated everyone who did so.)

So I moved off to a university town, and immediately realized the world didn't fall apart, and bad things weren't happening to me for leaving. Wow. I like being normal. So I stayed out.

funes

It's the living of this life waiting for the life after death that broke me. I grew to understand that this life, with all of its imperfections, has to be lived now...you'll be amazed at the highs and lows of real life, life without an artifical plateau of numbing repetition and lemming-like mentality.

On a different note, Luna2, what 'new light about the 1914 generation'?

iggy_the_fish

I'm thinking you've been away a while, funes

Have a look at http://quotes.watchtower.ca/generation.htm about halfway down the page for the famous "new light" Watchtower article. To cut a long story short, in 1995 the meaning of the word "generation" changed to accomodate the fact that 80 years had passed from 1914, and whaddayaknow, still no new system. This generation now just stretches on and on and on and on until said new system arrives. Is that what you wanted to know?

ig.

Mysterious

Well it was closely tied to realizing I was a lesbian. I could not reconcile the JW idea of a loving and caring god that would create gay people and then require them to be miserable and treated badly in order to serve him. No one would reason on the idea they just blindly spat back society literature and wouldnt even think for themselves or read information not from the society.

funes

Yes Ig, that was it, and yes, it has been a long time, 21 years now....I always wondered how that would be dealt with. Thank you.

PS. This should at least add a little more to your breaking point.....

jeanniebeanz

(((((((((((((Bonnie_Clyde)))))))))))

La Capra

After being treated really poorly by my peer group and the "bitties" because I went to college (part time, still made all the meetings and had as many "hours" as they did), I felt really rejected. I made a few new acquaintances in my classes. They were truly kind, caring, and frankly loving. Far more loving and accepting than anyone I had ever come across in the JWs. It was then I realized there was no love with JWs. I wasn't sure what it was, but it wasn't love. I could recount tale after tale with JWs where love could have been shown, and never was. And on the flip side, I could see kindnesses shown all over the place in the "world."

When I spent literally 30 minutes of my undivided attention on the evidence and logic of the JW religion, it crumbled quickly. It was sudden. I didn't fade or piss around. I was fully in one day. And fully out the next (even though I "posed" for about three weeks to get through a vacation with other JWs). I have never even wondered since then if I had made a mistake. They must not have done a very good job of brainwashing me.

Shoshana

luna2

funes, the business about it not being a literal generation. We were always taught that the generation that saw 1914 would not die off completely before the end came. I believe the change came about 1995. They altered what was meant by "generation". I never did understand their new definition so I can't really explain it even now, but I know it took them off the hook as those who were born in 1914 (let alone "saw the events" of that year) were getting quite elderly. It looked like a way to squeak out from under a prediction that was rapidly going to be proved false. edit: LOL I replied before reading further than your question. duh!

EvilForce

For me it was a death by a thousand paper cuts. A few notable examples...

Being "marked" from the stage for going to university

A gay friend of mine who's parents didn't bother to go to his funeral .... that would have acknowledged his lifestyle is what they said.... I asked them what about when someone dies all their sins are paid for. A trip to the back room for that comment.

Being gay myself and listening and suffering silently when those homophobes would make all kinds of horrible comments.

I could never do enough. I'd average 12 hours a month in FS...they'd want more. I'd aux. pioneer one month...(and about kill myself due to working, school, and KH stuff) then they'd ask why I couldn't do it every month.

Never ending personal comments about my hair length...tie color...wearing a sportscoat instead of suit. I was a poor college student for crying out loud.

Being mocked for my degree I was pursuing as being haughty and wanting to shortchange Jah....

The list goes on....and on....and on.....

wanderlustguy

When I was asked the questions - Don't you love Jehovah anymore, don't you want to live forever?

"Jehovah's" organization...if that is indeed what it is, is something hateful to me. So if that organization truly represents what I am supposed to worship...no thanks.

More so, the breaking point was the living forever part. Death sounds like a great vacation, since that is the only thing they claim to offer, once it held no value to me anymore, their power was gone over me.

Of course now I have a reason to want to live like never before, but now I guess I know too much.

WLG

What was your breaking point?

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