Well that's another thing, why does your reason for "denying god" really matter. Either you are or you aren't. And I don't see why the elders even need to know anything else.
DuvanMuvan
JoinedPosts by DuvanMuvan
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24
Is saying "I don't want to be a Jehovah's Witness anymore" enough?
by DuvanMuvan ini was just wondering.
say you were baptised and stopped going to the meetings, when the elders and people ask why can you just say you don't want to be a jw anymore without giving a reason?
i mean it's not like they can force it out of you and you aren't necessarily spreading lies or whatever they say apostates do.. if anything they'll have to keep talking to you to find an actual reason to df you so if you're literally as vague as possible then what basis do they have?
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24
Is saying "I don't want to be a Jehovah's Witness anymore" enough?
by DuvanMuvan ini was just wondering.
say you were baptised and stopped going to the meetings, when the elders and people ask why can you just say you don't want to be a jw anymore without giving a reason?
i mean it's not like they can force it out of you and you aren't necessarily spreading lies or whatever they say apostates do.. if anything they'll have to keep talking to you to find an actual reason to df you so if you're literally as vague as possible then what basis do they have?
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DuvanMuvan
I was just wondering. Say you were baptised and stopped going to the meetings, when the elders and people ask why can you just say you don't want to be a jw anymore without giving a reason? I mean it's not like they can force it out of you and you aren't necessarily spreading lies or whatever they say apostates do.
If anything they'll have to keep talking to you to find an actual reason to df you so if you're literally as vague as possible then what basis do they have? i was just wondering if this would work.
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46
Life for me as a jw (not really) teenager
by DuvanMuvan inhey i joined this thread recently and thought this was a good way to introduce myself.
i am 15, still going to school and i live in the uk.
a good chunk of my mum's side of the family are jws.
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DuvanMuvan
Jgnat I have a few friends i talk to about this stuff and this whole thing could have been over like two weeks ago but they can't take no for an answer
jwdaughter I don't wanna get my dad involved for one reason. The people in my kingdom hall like to jump to conclusions. remember that guy I said that my mum invited over change my mind? He wouldn't stop going on about me being able to "answer up in class", as if I was being peer pressured into beliving in evolution and couldn't possibly arrive at the conclusion on my own. If my dad starts backing me then they'll think I'm being pressured and be even more patronising than they are now. I already get more than enough "young ones-stand up for your faith" bs tbh.
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"Worldly" Friends vs "True" Friends
by DuvanMuvan inhey guys i am new to the whole forum thing (long time reader, first time postererer) and i wanted to get some other opinions on something that has bothered me ever since i first became a jehovah's witness.. i was always taught at the kingdom hall that friends inside the orginisation were the only ones i could count on and that the ones out of it (mainly at school) were just being controlled by satan to trick me into leaving the religion.. however, i always found it to be the opposite.
my "worldly"friends were all accepting of my religion (back when i was ok with being a jw) and are the only ones i have really opened up to about wanting to leave.
the only things i have in common with the other teenagers in my hall (3 boys, 3 girls) are that we've all been raised in the truth and... well that's it.. i was just wondering if anyone else found the same thing when they were a teenaged jw or if anyone still in my age finds the same thing..
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DuvanMuvan
You know I've been going to school with "worldly" people for quite a while now and I have never been offered a cigarette but the ypa books and stuff make it seem as if that's all people do.
Is it me or are they trying to scare the parents more than anything else?
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46
Life for me as a jw (not really) teenager
by DuvanMuvan inhey i joined this thread recently and thought this was a good way to introduce myself.
i am 15, still going to school and i live in the uk.
a good chunk of my mum's side of the family are jws.
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DuvanMuvan
Pulled the homework card to get out of meeting on Tuesday so I guess I'm gonna have to have my "discussion" on Sunday. If all goes to plan it will be my last meeting except the memorial probably and the district assembly or whatever the national one is called now seeing as my mum booked us a room. Even though she knew that i didn't want to be a jw anymore.
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46
Life for me as a jw (not really) teenager
by DuvanMuvan inhey i joined this thread recently and thought this was a good way to introduce myself.
i am 15, still going to school and i live in the uk.
a good chunk of my mum's side of the family are jws.
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DuvanMuvan
I'd like to stay and talk more but avatar is on and I promised myself that not even Jehovah is gonna make me miss an episode
thanks everyone
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46
Life for me as a jw (not really) teenager
by DuvanMuvan inhey i joined this thread recently and thought this was a good way to introduce myself.
i am 15, still going to school and i live in the uk.
a good chunk of my mum's side of the family are jws.
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DuvanMuvan
thank you everyone, you've been so helpful(helpfull? idk)
quellycatface: my mum, grandma, a few aunties and some cousins but compared to my family as a whole the jws make up like 30/40%
@ABS while my mum is baptised you might be onto something when you said she might be spiritually weak. After discussing Noah's ark and some other topics she attimitted that it does seem as if not all the answers are there. but instead she says that "we can't expect to have all the answers now" (because when trying to get someone to change their entire faith and lifestyle apparently you only need to know about half of what you're talking about"
i think the more freedom might be due to me coming into the truth rather than being born in and so I wasn't always expected to be this way. I also don't really give her much trouble at home, except forgetting to do chores on the weekends and the odd no homework detention from school.
I have on one occasion mentioned to her to look up candace conti but I don't think she got around to it. I don't really mind if she remains a jw tbh. The only problems might be if I had a girlfriend or something but I don't think she'll mind too much.
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46
Life for me as a jw (not really) teenager
by DuvanMuvan inhey i joined this thread recently and thought this was a good way to introduce myself.
i am 15, still going to school and i live in the uk.
a good chunk of my mum's side of the family are jws.
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DuvanMuvan
Lol outlaw I'm starting to think you have a secret folder on your computer filled with millions of jw memes for any occasion
and thank you diana. In the long run I think it'll probably easier doing what you suggested. It's getting pretty frustrating having to watch avatar:the last airbender and play legend of zelda in secret. Especially since the wii is in the living room.
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33
"Worldly" Friends vs "True" Friends
by DuvanMuvan inhey guys i am new to the whole forum thing (long time reader, first time postererer) and i wanted to get some other opinions on something that has bothered me ever since i first became a jehovah's witness.. i was always taught at the kingdom hall that friends inside the orginisation were the only ones i could count on and that the ones out of it (mainly at school) were just being controlled by satan to trick me into leaving the religion.. however, i always found it to be the opposite.
my "worldly"friends were all accepting of my religion (back when i was ok with being a jw) and are the only ones i have really opened up to about wanting to leave.
the only things i have in common with the other teenagers in my hall (3 boys, 3 girls) are that we've all been raised in the truth and... well that's it.. i was just wondering if anyone else found the same thing when they were a teenaged jw or if anyone still in my age finds the same thing..
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DuvanMuvan
@Abiblestudent hopefully this answers your questions. I didnt want to post it here because it was a bit off topic.
also I was trying to find a quote where it said that Christian youths attract more friends or something. I don't remember the article but I definetely remember two pictures of an jw teenager at school getting these looks from some girls at school then in the next picture he receives a text of a picture of that girl. (Dw the picture was fully clothed and really cheesy) it might have been an article about dating though.
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46
Life for me as a jw (not really) teenager
by DuvanMuvan inhey i joined this thread recently and thought this was a good way to introduce myself.
i am 15, still going to school and i live in the uk.
a good chunk of my mum's side of the family are jws.
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DuvanMuvan
Hey i joined this thread recently and thought this was a good way to introduce myself. I am 15, still going to school and I live in the uk. A good chunk of my mum's side of the family are jws. My dad isnt religious and loves to get into biblical debates with my mum.
Currently, I am still attending the meetings. This is purely because as my mum puts it "[i am] too young to make [your] own decisions and until you are an adult I am responsible for your spirituality." She knows I dont want to be a jw anymore, a few brothers and sisters in my kh know I have doubts (my mum didnt want to attract too much attention) but to everyone else I'm getting along just fine in the "truth". I don't have to go on the ministry anymore though because my mum agrees there's no point me spending an hour every week trying to teach people about stuff I don't believe in.
I've been going to the meetings for a few years. I can't put an exact number on it but it was when I was 7. (I remember because my last Christmas present was a ps2).
when I first started going I never really paid attention in the meetings and my grandma studied the my book of bible stories with me. I was always encouraged to answer up in the meetings but after the first couple of times I still found it boring.
at school life wasn't really that much different for me except I had to memorise the reasons I didn't celebrate Christmas or birthdays anymore.
It wasnt until I started going on the ministry that I realised how boring it was. I can honestly say that I've never enjoyed the ministry. Ever. My field service group was small and everyone was elderly and all had the idea that on a Saturday morning, school is the best conversation topic ever. Still i thought that if I wanted that pet penguin after ammERgeddon (that's my bristolian accent for any other English people reading this) that I should just stick it out.
While all this was going on I was always being encouraged to set spiritual goals for myself. I usually just made some up on the spot to keep people happy. Still haven't become an unbaptised publisher after I set that goal back in 2011. I don't think there's any point denying that I'm lazy as fudge. This is what probably kept me from questioning anything for such a long time as well as fear of any "evil apostates". It was really a matter of memorising those answers in the reasoning/young people ask book I'm case anyone at school asked me anything.
After I turned 14 I started questioning stuff I read in the publications. things like women being submissive and whether or not being gay really mattered to god. One big one though that really made me think was the story of Noah's ark. After doing some research through the publications and stumbling onto jwfacts I came to the conclusion that it couldn't have happened. When I first went onto jwfacts I tried to covnince myself that I wouldn't read anything that I deemed "not based on facts". Meaning anything I thought was just hate speech about jws I wouldn't read. But like every cheesy ass cartoon will tell you, "learning is fun" and I couldn't help but read everything I could find on the site.
By August of last year I finally told my mum that I didn't believe i what jws teach. she still thought I should come to the meetings because if I didn't go anymore, I could miss the answer to one of my questions. We then wrote all of my doubts down into bullet points. I think there were about 6/7 main ones. The first one being Noah's ark. We originally planned to go through each one but we got stuck on proving Noah's ark is real and I guess we still are there now. my mum invited a brother who she thought knew enough about science and stuff to help me came over and together they tried to convince me I was wrong. A couple weeks before the arranged date he gave me some material he thought would help me make my decision. Unfortunately for him, I had read all of it before and i wasn't really affected by it.
Well that's why I thought he was coming. Apparently my mum gave the brother the idea I wanted a study of some sort and he came over ready to study 'The Origin Of Life' book (which I already looked over before telling my mum i wanted to leave anyway). We debated for a a couple of hours with no change in opinion. Since then I haven't had an actual discussion with him but he always gives me the old smile, handshake and "nice to see you" at the kh.
More recently, 2 weeks ago when I discovered I have a bible reading in April coming up, my mum suggested that if I really didn't want to do it I could always ask to come off the ministry school. I spoke to the head/chair guy and he wants to have a proper discussion at another time. I've been waiting since then but he's always been giving talks away or busy. Hopefully I can talk to him tomorrow and leave once and for all.
if I were to put my beliefs on a scale of 0-10 (with 0 being atheist, 10 theist and 5 agnostic) I'd say i was about a 2/3.
anyone know if it's too late to put this in the experiences category?