What was your breaking point? (page 3)

DanTheMan

There were a lot of things that led up to my breaking point, but a 60 Minutes II segment that ran in the fall of 2001 was the clincher. It was about a 15 year-old boy who was suffering from sickle cell anemia (a terrible disease), and the treatments he was constantly undergoing were starting to become ineffective in slowing the progress of his fatal condition. So his doctor decided to try an experimental treatment: a transfusion of umbilical cord blood. The blood that he received was a different type than his own. The transfusion changed his blood type to the donor type and cured him of the disease, and I thought that was fabulous, I think I even got choked up and cried a little I was so happy for him. Here's a link to a synopsis of the segment:

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2001/nov/01112904.html

At the time I was in crisis over my association with JW's, I felt like I was going crazy and I had problems with a lot of aspects of JWism, the blood issue being a big one, but I hadn't searched the internet for information and was still basically a believer, though a very miserable one and hanging by a thread. But the dam broke after that segment, I started to really question things in a serious way, without employing the usual stop-thought techniques that I had developed over the years. I attended one meeting after that, but it wasn't the same, and soon I was searching the internet to see just what those wily 'poztates were saying that the WTS was so desperate to keep me from seeing. :)

garybuss

My Witnessism was like a boat and different things would poke a hole in it. When I was younger the excuses and the rationalizations would work to plug a hole and the boat floated but the bold predictions for 1975 was like hitting an iceberg. When I saw the year text for 1974 I knew the Society didn't believe their own hype.

Once I saw the tittle dog Toto pull back the curtain and I saw the Wizard, I never believed in the Wizard after that.

Dragonlady76

The society's view and treatment of women, I never liked the "headship" rule.

DL76

patio34

Ha! I'm probably the only person that left because of a Walt Disney movie! Call me weird (but not to my face ), but the movie Dinosaurs was the final straw.

I could never reconcile the violence in nature to a "loving" creator. That movie struck me---again---that violence in nature (in the dinosaurs in particular) pre-dated any sin by Adam, since dinosaurs pre-dated, by far, humans (even by the WT's own admission).

Then I started reading books by scientists themselves instead of relying on the WT to filter science to me.

Pat

reagan_oconnor

Who said "death by a thousand papercuts"? ITA with that...

The final straw for me was sitting all alone at a district convention (I was DFed and no one spoke to me) and hearing them talk about "keeping pace with God's chariot" and the "new light" of the 1914 generation. Gag. I decided then it was all a farce.

I went ahead and got reinstated, for my family's sake, but never attended another meeting after that.

jeeves

wow

so many things contributed to my leaving. i don't know how much of it i ever believed...

i've always been a logical person and since i was a child a lot of the stuff i was taught didn't make sense.

my mom is quite a feminist and she raised me that way too - it's interesting to see her struggle with her witness way of life and the way she really is...

Honesty

When I found out the truth is a lie.

tnangel73

Hi, I am new here. My breaking point was when I had missed 2 meetings and labled as inactive. 2 meetings! Its funny now, but it made me so mad at the time. This was about 7 or 8 years ago. I can't really remember. After I had heard that I was "inactive," I thought why not just stop going anyway? The "truth" wasn't helping me find any joy anyway. I had "faded" away until now. A fter this long of being "gone" I am single and 6 and half months pregnant, and have had the elders just dying to talk to me and to attend a judicial committee meeting. The elder that first called me on the phone asked if he could talk to me. When I said yes, he then said he would have to get with the other 2 elders for a time it would be convenient for them. It clicked with me "Ahh, a judicial meeting." Sneaky elder. Right now I have 7 days to respond to them or not, as I plan on doing. I told my mother like 2 weeks ago to just tell them to do what they have to do. I am not going to sit there and give details of my "sin" to them. I know what they will say, the scriptures that they will read, and all that. I just can't say that I will repent and go to their meetings when I am sitting there thinking "So where in the Bible did that come from?" I feel very bad for my Dad and kinda scared for him because when I didn't show up for the meeting they wanted to have today they talked to him. He asked them where they had been for the last 7 years because in this time not one Jdub has talked to me about why I stopped going to meetings or to "encourage" (gag) to come back. Its very stressful in itself being pregnant. I am not with the father and that was another concern of theirs. That was my choice, though. I just didn't want to move in with the baby's father. So, after all these years and trying to fade away, they now want to exhibit their control. Ugh. Besides that I am pretty happy and excited about my baby.

soundbox_guy

Thanks for all the responses. I saw a little of myself in everyone's posts, not just one, but all. I can relate to the whole job thing. I always wanted to go to an art school or either film school but just attended a crappy community college that I feel isn't even worth typing onto a resume. Sure I didn't have a lot of money for a big time college, but maybe I would have tried harder to get scholarships if I wasn't tricked into thinking that big time colleges are evil and that it would be a waste of time to devote 4 years to them because the new world will be here before you're finished. When I think back about it, it upsets me. Then not only that, but when you give up all the stuff they say give up, the very people that tried talking about you for trying to be too successful, you see them buying new cars every year and walking around in new suits every assembly. Then they try to talk about you for not having such things, which makes me even more upset. It's like your bound to lose no matter what trying to listen to them. Since I did miss out on going to a big time college, though, I just decided to take the "Good Will Hunting" approach on the side and just bought a lot of books from bookstores to learn extra things on the side. I even use my own artistic knowledge combined with what I learned from community college and the additional books I've read to make my own short films. I never talk to the elders about my abilities in this area because all they would do is put it down. My own brother who taught me a lot of the things I know, questions me and asks what I'm going to do if one of my short films or characters catch on and I become rich and famous....like that's a bad thing. After becoming a witness I feel like it has made me lose most of my natural personality and my ability to use my sense of humor. If I try to be funny around them, they don't get it or misinterpret everything. If I dumb my humor down to their style, that's the only way they laugh. The only time I get encouragement and feel special is when I go to work and nonwitnesses actually tell me how much they like my short films and ideas. Actually now, I hope I do become successful because it will be even more reason for me break away and move somewhere else where people can be more supportive of me and what I like.

As far was what tnangel73 said about the elders and their judicial meetings.....when they met with me before because of me being with a nonwitness that I was in love with at the time and who I engaged in "unclean conduct" with....I remember it seemed like when I was repeating back all the stuff I did with the girl, that one of the elders was not only surprised at the stuff I did but was enjoying hearing about it, but I don't know, maybe that was just me thinking that. I do know that my mother treated me like I was some sort of man whore afterward though. Anytime any female called the house after that, she always asked who it was and gave me some mean evil look like I was 10. I rightfully took a lot of offense to that because she made it seem as if I was some freak that would screw any and every girl that called the house. Sometimes it wasn't even girls I knew, just some telemarketer that happened to be female, and still I'm getting questoned like I'm secretly having girls call me so I can do them or something. Then JW parents wonder why their children leave when they grow up....maybe it's because of treating them like they're never good enough and always being distrustful of them and acting like they don't know anything because they're "young people."

mtbatoon

I'll be as honest as katiekitten and put my demise down as wanting to increasing my chances of getting some skirt. OK not as principled as most but what else was a 16 year boy going to be thinking about?

What was your breaking point?

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