Info wanted

Lady Lee

What were the reasons you stayed a JW or remain a JW despite knowing something was wrong?

What excuses did you give yourself or others for staying?

Lady Lee

I believed the WTS was right for 10 years after I left. But I recall seeing things that didn't seem right for years earlier.

I recall being in a book study and as the reader went through the paragraph my family (who had old copies of the book) realized there were differences in the paragraph. We mentioned it and it was briefly discussed and then we were told it was probably just a typo and shrugged it off. That should have been a red flag but we never gave it any thought.

kls

My reason is on his way home LadyLee so i will let you know tomorrow, but one thing was i knew the hell i would face and it really was.

Lady Lee

When I was DFed I just thought my elders were strict. I had no idea they could be so cruel. I thought this was an isolated case. It wasn't until later I found out about the elder's manual. Heck I was living with an elder and didn't know about this book!

Robdar

I pretty much left when I figured it out. I immediately stopped going out in field service. I did occasionally attend meetings to keep from being shunned but my heart wasn't in it. I did the fade.

Lady Lee

I also recall discussions I had with my mother. We both felt like we were missing something. She said she could never feel close to Jehovah. I didn't either. We thought it was a problem with us. Neither of us realized that we could not feel close to God because there was an organization standing in the way.

We always felt we weren't good enough. That too should have been a red flag

Lady Lee

Ok I'm on a roll

Armageddon. I was there in '75. I remember all the talks, the anticpation, people moving to where the need was great, the push to make the good news known.

I also remember waiting all through the year until Oct. Nothing happened. Then the special talk. What a let down. I walked out of there wondering what went wrong. But I never questioned it once. Just shook my head and kept on going

DanTheMan

I couldn't fathom not being a religious person. So in spite of my increasing dissatisfaction with the WTS, I always felt like we had it all over the Protestants and Catholics, especially the neutrality issue.

JH

Neither of us realized that we could not feel close to God because there was an organization standing in the way.

Oh how true...

I felt closer to God before being a JW than after...

GoingGoingGone

I was raised a JW from the age of 7.

I was the perfect little witness child. It was to get my mother's approval, I know now. She was emotionally abusive, and I did whatever I could to try to make her love me. She loved the attention she got from the Witnesses for the 'perfect child' she had... so I kept it up.

Age 12... I knew there was something wrong with the JWs teachings. I couldn't believe what I was taught, no matter how hard I tried. My mother arranged for a pioneer sister to study with me. She later told me that she left the house with headaches from all the questions I posed... but I never did get answers I was happy with. Age 14... my great aunt asked me why I wasn't baptized (she was Catholic). She said, if you believed it, you would be baptized. I got baptized at the next assembly, to prove to her that I believed it, and to make my mother proud.

I could have left many times over the next couple decades, but I kept telling myself that there was something wrong with me, not the JWs. If I studied more, prayed more, went in service more... Jehovah would be happier with me and let me understand what I couldn't understand. The longer I was 'in', the harder it was to leave. All your friends, everything you have built your life around, will be gone if you leave.

I reached the end of my rope about 4 years ago, when my son nearly died. I couldn't believe that I had just refused to let him have a blood transfusion if he needed one, and yet I was secretly happy that he had a court order for a transfusion in his file in case one became absolutely necessary. What the he!! was wrong with me!!! It took me 2 more years, but that was the end for me. Can't do it anymore at all.

Never been happier in my life.... never felt so free. Sorry for rambling on and on........

GGG

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