WELCOME to your REAL LIFE!
It is great to have you here with us!
As you let go of the FOG (fear obligation guilt) of the society, you will find that life truly becomes enjoyable.
i suppose after lurking around for a few weeks i thought i might share my own personal story, as i think it would probably be a very freeing experience for me right now.
to start off, at 23 years old i'm actually a third-generation jw, my grandparents were baptized (my grandfather is actually an elder) when my mother was only a toddler, she was raised as a witness, then of course, married a witness and thus myself and my two brothers were born-in's.
growing up my mother was always very careful about what she taught me, all the good things for sure, about how we would live in a paradise earth and i could pet all the animals that i wanted and not worry about growing old, and she'd ask me who in the bible i'd love to see and talk with - my grandparents however, were a different story and the cause of i think, most of my childhood trauma.. they really drilled home the fact that we were the only people who were going to be saved, we were the only people that were going to survive and that everyone else was going to die horribly - that i shouldn't try to make that many friends in school because they would never be "real" friends unless they were fellow jw's and they would die anyway.
WELCOME to your REAL LIFE!
It is great to have you here with us!
As you let go of the FOG (fear obligation guilt) of the society, you will find that life truly becomes enjoyable.
there was a recent thread on another site where posters maintained that many of the *most* long-standing jw's don't believe at least one official watchtower doctrine.
i've even read reports from bethelites saying they've heard bethel overseers say they don't believe some watchtower theology.
this made me think - i believe there are a few official doctrines that are common for many jw's to be either in denial about or simply not really believe ( often one and the same thing).. i'd say these are pretty high in the ranking:.
The doctrines and teachings are irrelevant to the average witness.
They simply have to do whatever the society tells them that week via the WT or mid week publications.
It is kind of like: "Dont let facts get in the way of your obediance".
Also, "Dont think too much"
we just realised that everyone has had it wrong!
the bible even got it wrong.. noah didn't build an ark that stopped in one place.
no my friends, it was actually more of a shuttle ferry that had multiple stops on its journey.
Love it Zappa!
Just hope they were not part of the mass sacrifice bon-fire Noah had as soon as they landed on dry land!
Just think, some of the very animals that Noah saved in the ark, were then killed as a burnt sacrifice to Jehovah as soon as the waters subsided!?
Just so god could enjoy the smell of smoke and burning flesh??
when i joined this site at the beginning of this year, i was serving as an uber-zealous regular pioneer and ms in a foreign congregation where the need is greater.
i was giving public talks and having parts at regional conventions.
had started to have doubts but i hadn't time to focus on them, i simply was overcharged with so many activities and things to do.. i started by quitting pioneering but couldn't think i would give further steps for a long time.
Well done !
Yes, do not worry about those "friends" who you are currently missing.
The sad reality is, those people will drop you in a flash once they hear you are "spiritually weak" or worse, a "doubtful apostate".
As hard as it may seem, recognise that despite the years of shared history with them, THEY ARE NOT FRIENDS.
Real friends take effort to make. We thought as witnesses that we had dozens or hundreds or thousands of friends....WE did not. We had "conditional aquaintances"
i was sitting at a local city event enjoying watching an activity.
a friendly looking woman dressed in blue jeans and a floppy hippy looking top came and sat down besides me.
she notices i am sketching and says she likes to do this too.
How idiotic is that??
I mean, she comes by to "offer a free bible study". She is already talking with you...but then just gives a card and leaves??
She was talking with you already! If the Bible study is that important, and she had already established a report with you, JUST START with the study information there and then.
WHY leave a card inviting someone to a conversation that they are already having??
That shows the level of insincerity the org now has. IT IS NOT about a "witness or study", it is just about time - NOT people.
the october 2017 wt study article (simplified).
let us consider some examples of fake love.
when satan talked to eve in the garden of eden, what he said made it seem that he wanted the best for her.
The attempted reasoning in those paragraphs simply makes my face hurt (as I smack my head in disbelief at how STUPID the writers are!)
They are condemning themselves by saying that God's spirit can be blocked by a sinner in their midst. Really? Oh come on!!
I truly can not believe we all used to adhere to such crappy reasoning!
we just realised that everyone has had it wrong!
the bible even got it wrong.. noah didn't build an ark that stopped in one place.
no my friends, it was actually more of a shuttle ferry that had multiple stops on its journey.
Nice one waton!
hey guys.
a friend online asked me about my recovery and how i managed to recover relatively easily from watchtower indoctrination.
although i think a major part of it is acquainting oneself with information about the watchtower and it's history, a lot of it (for me at least) was an inner game.
OH WOW!!
FANTASTIC thread my friend! Really, really well written.
Thank you so much for sharing.
This is worth printing up and keeping handy...for ALL of us!
officer james givens has served with the cincinnati police department for over 26 years, but has never quite experienced anything like this before.
he was sitting in his patrol car in a parking lot when he got an unexpected visitor.
a goose came up to his car and started pecking on the side of it.
Oh wow....how amazing!
Thanks for sharing!
https://www.facebook.com/jw.0027/videos/799049613609936/.
the video was posted directly to a pro-jw facebook page.
i cant believe what i'm hearing... actually, nothing surprises be about this cult anymore.. didn't they say to the judge in the arc that they dont discourage college?.
Well now, the GB can't have witnesses getting an education...they might just "think themselves out of The Truth"!