Steve Lowry

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Posts by Steve Lowry

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  20

  coming back as a jw

  by nana in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've fallen for a man who is a jw and i haven't been one in years .i really don't know what to do or how the church will react to me being a divorce woman and all.

  the problem is my oldest son i don't how he would handle the change.

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  Steve Lowry

  Break it off and find someone else to love, or you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Listen to Mouthy's advice on this one. She's spot on.

  Steve
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  62

  If You Found A Wallet----Would You Turn It In??

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  would you have to think about it??

  ?

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  Steve Lowry

  I recently saw a wallet fly out of a truck while the driver was going through an interception. I got out and got it and called the guy later on. It took me two days to be able to contact the fellow; there were multiple addresses and phone numbers assigned to him in the wallet. There was all his pertinent stuff inside including his driver license and about seven bucks. When I finally talked with him over the phone, I asked him if he had been missing anything (I had to have my fun, ya know). He said, "Uh, missin? somthin? Huh?". So, I asked him if he knew where his wallet was and he said, "Uh, yea, guess I dunno where it is." Fking brain dead guy. So (while?s laughing quietly) I asked him if he wanted his wallet back. To which he said, " Uh, yea, guss I would." I don?t know, but if somebody called me and said they found my wallet, I?d be jumping for joy, wouldn?t you? Well anyway, I got the correct address, which wasn?t that far from me, and I dropped it off at his doorstep in a box the next day(with everything in it including the seven bucks). I wasn?t looking for gratitude or anything like that. I was just amazed at his nonplussed attitude, considering his occupation was a truck driver and he didn?t seem to care at all if he got his wallet back which contained his drivers licensee, or not. Go figure . . .
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  40

  Where were you when you decided to quit being a JW?

  by Steve Lowry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for me, it was at the hall.

  it was an evening meeting.

  i felt a kind of mental surge within me brewing and i got and went to the men?s room.

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  Steve Lowry

  After I quit being a JW, for a very long time (I think deep down), I thought I did so because being a JW was boring, or I was too lazy or I was just too wild to be a JW. And while all this may have been true to some point, it took several years (I had to discover who I was) to understand the real truth of why I left. At the time, I really didn?t have any of the deeper soul searching issues that so many have shared in these and other threads, regarding their exodus. For a long time I simply thought I was too shallow of a person to have continued to be a JW. Does that make sense? The real truth of the matter is, I really didn?t question very much of anything growing up a JW. And I think that?s key for those of us who were raised as a JW. We never really were given the choice to make the decision in the beginning, if it was the truth or not. We simply accepted it at face value. So on the back end, when deciding to leave, it was somewhat a foreign concept to me if it was the truth or not. I think I still accepted it as the truth, but I simply didn?t want anything to do with it anymore. And oh yea, I partied like hell for a couple of years. Drugs sex and rock and roll! It was a lot of fun. But as I matured I realized I needed to be a bit more stable and so I became so. It was then I suppose that I started to slowly understand more of who I was. In 1982 my JW sister disowned me, and I was pissed about that for while. But I soon just accepted it and went on with my life. I just thought she was a religious fanatic nut and dismissed her that way. I didn?t think much at all about my JW experience(s) for most of the eighties.
  

  In the early nineties I moved to Atlanta and came upon a church with several former JW's! It was very nice to have so much in common with so many new people. Well, after a couple of months of ?networking? with other former JW?s I realized that my sister?s behavior was NOT the JW exception, but rule! And I became very angry at the Watchtower Society at that point. I joined a former JW group and learned all that I could about their experiences, about the Society and everything associated with the JW religion. Looking back, it was only until THEN that I began to understand why I decided to stop being a JW all those many years ago, that night in at the Hall, while looking at myself in the mirror, in the bathroom. I realized finally that I could have NEVER been a JW for a lifetime. I?m way too independent of a person to allow any individual or group of individuals to tell me what I can do or can not do. Or, what I can say or can not say, or think or not think. I mean, fuck that! The Watchtower Society never put one crumb of food on my table! I make my way in this world and nobody is gonna tell me how to live my life, especially someone hijacked man made religion led by a bunch of pious pompous ass hypocrites.

  This is why I get so frustrated with JW?s who insist that they lead such wonderful fulfilled lives and want others to join in their fantasy. The JW life is one of oppression. It?s a mind killer and stagnates personal growth and development. It forces people through coercion to shut down their God given right to function as independent beings. It thwarts creativity. It instills apathy and stifles compassion. It creates elitism and encourages antisocial behavior. It teaches there is only ONE avenue of truth and one reliable source. It destroys families and rewards those who sacrifice their children to its inane principles and bylaws (i.e. blood).

  When someone asks me about the JW religion and why is it so bad, I feel pinned up and want to explode because I can?t it all out at once! (LOL) Its so NOT true and so destructive and in so many ways. It?s difficult sometimes to know where to start to explain what this religion is and is capable of doing to its followers. Oh, but I find a way, you bet.

  I may have not realized exactly why I quit being a JW initially, but I do now.

  Thank you for allowing me to share this with you this morning. Long post I know, but it was cathartic for me . . .

  Steve

  P.S.,

  Someone asked where I grew up, in this thread. It was in Miami Florida. I have a sister and a mother still mentally locked and chained in the dungeon of the Watch-Tower.
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  19

  What was your funniest/weirdest door to door experience?

  by Steve Lowry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  everybody's gottem.

  i know i can remember a few.

  once there this guy who came to the door who looked like a muscle man, very big and tough-guy looking and it put me off a bit.

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  Steve Lowry

  One I forgot about, was once when we were doing a ?tract?. You know how that goes; you don?t say very much just quote the given theme and move on. Well, this one tract?s theme was, "Could you use some good news?"

  My territory was this very economically underprivileged area and I came up to this lady?s door which was open (it was in the middle of summer). She was covered in sweat and sitting in a chair in front of a poorly operating fan with little kids pulling on her and some crying and, well you get the picture. So I ask her, "Could you use some good news? It seemed almost an insult (to me) seeing how what I was offering was no real help at all. I think she saw it that way too because she looked at me and then looked around her small crowded hot apartment and then looked back at me and said, " Sheeeeeit, man, you kiddin?" I felt like a total ass.
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  40

  Where were you when you decided to quit being a JW?

  by Steve Lowry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for me, it was at the hall.

  it was an evening meeting.

  i felt a kind of mental surge within me brewing and i got and went to the men?s room.

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  Steve Lowry

  For me, it was at the Hall. It was an evening meeting. I felt a kind of mental surge within me brewing and I got and went to the men?s room. I stood there looking at myself in the mirror. While I didn?t actually speak, I stood there looking at my reflection while telling myself that this (JW life) wasn?t right for me. I don?t belong here. I splashed some cool water on my face and made the determination that I was going to walk out and never come back. I walked back over to where I had been sitting and told my then JW wife that I was going home and for her to catch a ride with her mom. I walked out the door and never walked back in again. Damn, but that was a great feeling.

  The best thing about being in a cult, is the day you make the decision to leave it!

  Steve
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  19

  What was your funniest/weirdest door to door experience?

  by Steve Lowry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  everybody's gottem.

  i know i can remember a few.

  once there this guy who came to the door who looked like a muscle man, very big and tough-guy looking and it put me off a bit.

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  Steve Lowry

  Everybody's gottem. I know I can remember a few.

  Once there this guy who came to the door who looked like a muscle man, very big and tough-guy looking and it put me off a bit. I went through my little speech as fast as I could. When I finished, he spoke and his voice was that of a little girl?s! Like Minnie Mouse (sp?) or something. Poor guy. Damn it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.

  Once a lady came to the door in a see through negligee, very sexy. I stumbled through my words and she just stood there smiling.

  One Saturday morning I went out with my brother-in-law. We rang a doorbell and when no one came to the door he insisted on keeping up with the doorbell ringing. I said to him, "Come on, let?s go". But he was determined to make them come to the door. He just kept ringing that doorbell. Well, the guy finally did come to the door and when he did he lambasted my jackass brother-in-law for waking up his wife who was in bed with terminal cancer. I have to admit that watching my pious JW brother-in-law get humbled that way gave me great pleasure.

  My best door to door experience came the day I that realized what I was doing was wrong. I was walking along and for the first time it hit me that I was trying to get people to join a way of life that I really didn?t think was any better than what most people had (and maybe worse), nor that I really believed in myself. It was a moment of clarity and self-realization. I stopped, turned around, and went back to my car and that was the last day going of door to door for me. It was the beginning of the end for me as a JW.

  Steve
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  47

  Favorite childhood TV shows

  by Nosferatu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  now, i'm not referring to sesame street, mr. rogers, or any of the educational kids' shows.

  i'm talking about the ones for pure entertainment, cartoons and such.

  however, i can't really classify this as purely cartoons since some of you might have watched things like hr pufnstuf.. i grew up in the 1980s, when the magic of saturday morning cartoons existed.

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  Steve Lowry

  Sunday afternoons (after the K. Hall) we would have family over (non-JW's) and we would all either watch the afternoon featured Shirley Temple movie or whichever Tarzan movie was playing. The Tarzan movie show always started out with jungle beat music and jungle sounds and someone saying (yelling) S-A-F-A-A-A-R-I! And then the actual movie would begin. After the movie (and very often during) people would fall asleep all over the living room. It was a nice time and a good memory. Thanks for reminding me.

  Oh, my favorite cartoon was Spiderman. I loved the theme song.

  Steve
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  16

  Torn between worlds - How do you manage to co-exist?

  by truthseeker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  like many doubting witnesses, i am in (physically) and out (mentally).. .

  i have family in (physically) and i have family out (mentally).. some of my family are out (physically) but are somewhat still in (mentally) due to the mind control.. how do i deal with it?

  i don't know - some days go by and i just get on with life.

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  Steve Lowry

  My grandfather once said to me, "Son, you don't cut off a puppy dog?s tail little at a time. You cut it all off at once." A strange little expression which has helped me at times in many aspects of life, where I have been tempted to unnecessarily drag out the inevitable conclusion.

  To have inner peace I think you?re going to have to make the decision to leave both physically and mentally. Anything else is only going to server to frustrate you further. The one thing I hear people exclaim once they make the complete leap out of the Watchtower Society is the freedom they feel!

  Maybe its time for you to "cut it all off at once?"

  Steve
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  28

  New Contract

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just re-enlisted in the army today.

  i now have an indefinite contract...i'm officially a career military hack.. salute.

  i am an american soldier.

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  Steve Lowry

  I'm almost fifty years old and there are at least three things that I know I am proud of:

  I never called a soldier a 'baby killer' during the Vietnam War era, when it was in vogue to do so.

  I never called a cop a ?pig? back in the sixties and seventies, when it was the cool thing to do and most of my friends did.

  And I never called a black person a ?nigger? (possibly the ugliest word in the English language), although I was raised by a racist and that was a word commonly used in my house as I grew up.

  While there are things that I have done in this life that I'm not especially proud of I guess, I'm proud who I am and the stand(s) that I have taken through the years.

  Thank you for serving your country Yerusalyim.

  Steve
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  7

  Personal Testimony of Carl Yarbrough

  by Tower Man in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have a new testimony on my site from carl yarbrough.

  it's called "who do you trust?

  here's the link: http://www.towertotruth.net/testimonies/carl_yarbrough.htm.

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  Steve Lowry

  A good testimony.