Not DA'd, Not DF'd - but pretty much Disowned... (page 2)

jt stumbler

Ingy,

Sorry to hear of your predicament. Can't you just feel the Chrislike Love?

This is a hard one, but you will get through this and be a better person for it.

Best wishes.

Ingenuous

Purza:

Are you 100% sure your dad will run to the elders?

Pretty much. One, he is an elder. Two, he said, "I'm going to the elders to tell them you're studying the Bible with a religious group."

Oh, for the bliss of obfuscation!

Many thanks to Jeff, dedpoet, daystar, bryan and jt. I'm thinking over what you've said.

Narkissos

Wow. It brings me 20 years back -- thought I was hearing my own father at times.

You sure have figured it out very well, and I have little advice to give. Shortly put, I'd say wait and see. If your father does tell you and if you are summoned to a judicial Committee, you may still choose to go or not to go -- the end result will probably be the same.

Remember, you are not required to have an answer to every question. Stick by what you do know and believe now. When I was before the judicial Committee that df'd me for apostasy and was asked to answer by yes or no to a series of doctrinal questions, my answer often was: "I don't know. Right now I just can't say I believe that." At some point I added: "Maybe in a couple of weeks I will understand that you're right and I'm wrong. However tonight I can't say otherwise." I never regretted that.

I'm very sorry for what you are going through. I know how painful it is, and I wish you the very best.

Please hang in there.

Elsewhere

I wonder if your parents would be open to family counseling.

Tell them you don't want to loose them and want to schedule some time with a counselor.

misspeaches

so it's your fault we're going to shun you. You've rejected us

Bloody JW thinking...

Your being true to yourself. It's hard and your hurting. But here you have a massive network of people ready to help you through this most difficult period you are going through. Hang in there!

sinis

I had a recent discussion with my mother a few weeks ago. She claimed I was an apostate also. The way I reasoned with her and basically got her to shut up was by asking her to look me in the eyes and before god himself tell me to my face that I was apostatizing against what the BIBLE says and not some man made organization. In the end she could not do it. I like to remind people that the same judgement they give to others will be given to them in the end. If you get called to a JC I would take a few small stones and before the meeting gets under way I would hand them out and tell those present, as did Jesus, that those without sin to cast the first stone... and ask where the mercy is in the whole arrangement. I would like to see the scripture that says you can't read the bible and understand it on your own. They may pull the Etheopian eunich crap but realistically his beliefs were centered around paganisim and christianity was completely new, so he needed someone to teach him the elementary things. Nothing more, nothing less.

Nathan Natas

Your dad, THE (pathetic inept) ELDER, was incapable of making a better defense of his faith than that, so he resorted to emotional blackmail. I would suggest you change your telephone number and not tell them, and if you have an opportunity to move, take it. Let them have their judgement in full.

sinis

Oh, and you may want to share:

2 Corinthians
Chapter 4

1: 1 Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged.
2: Rather, we have renounced shameful, hidden things; not acting deceitfully or falsifying the word of God, but by the open declaration of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
3: And even though our gospel is veiled, 2 it is veiled for those who are perishing,
4: in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5: For we do not preach ourselves 3 but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.
6: 4 For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of (Jesus) Christ.
7: 5 6 But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
8: 7 We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
9: persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed;
10: 8 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
11: For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12: 9 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13: 10 Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke," we too believe and therefore speak,
14: knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence.
15: Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.
16: 11 12 Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
17: For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18: as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.

Ingenuous

misspeaches, thank you for your words. I'm counting on JWD, as I've done in the past during my investigations.

elsewhere - Your suggestion would be wonderful if my family were reasonable. I'd be laughed out of their house for suggesting counseling. According to them, I'm the one with the problem, not them, and anything a "shrink" would have to say would be irrelevant to their "spiritual" decision. They wouldn't set foot in a counselor's office. My mother at one point suggested that my past depression and mulitude of medications and having seen a counselor was somehow skewing my thinking - despite the fact that the help I got saved my life and everything with them had been peachy till last month.

I was thinking of a couple other things my Dad said. When he told me how offended he was at the article I'd sent him last year, he reminded me that I had stopped talking to a former classmate because the classmate came out after graduation as homosexual. I wanted to keep the friendship going because this person had been such a good friend to me in high school, but I stopped writing to him after he came out because my Father told me to and I convinced myself he was right. [You can see that I had absolutely no boundaries or experience with independent thinking - this was after I turned 18 and had started college. I had promised my parents in my pre-teen years that I wouldn't go crazy on them when I became a teenager, explaining why I've not experienced owning my own mind until now, 10 years later. Personal responsibility is scary for a neophyte like me.] When the classmate couldn't reach me via email, he left a (understandably upset) message for me: "Fry in hell, bitch."

My dad said responding to his refusal to discuss the article by saying I wouldn't bring up any similar discussions in the future was the same as telling him, "Fry in hell, bitch."

He also brought up Matthew 16:19 to justify doing whatever the Org said to do, even if it was wrong or misguided, because 'whatever they bind on earth will be the thing bound in the heavens.' He could not see the absolute insanity of misusing the scripture like that.

I wish I was brave enough to face-down a JC. But I'm tired, I'm raw. I'm tired of the stress giving me chest pains and keeping me from eating and sleeping properly.

Finally-Free

The JWs squeal like pigs when they're "persecuted" but they don't hesitate to persecute their own family members if they exercise their constitutional right to "freedom of religion". And that's what they claim they fought so hard in the courts for, isn't it? HYPOCRITES!

JWs also maintain that Jehovah gave humans freedom of choice with regard to worship. Yet by their actions they're trying to take away that god given freedom. They are, in effect, placing themselves higher than the god they claim to worship.

For the most part they're too stupid to see it.

W

Not DA'd, Not DF'd - but pretty much Disowned...

Share this