Posts by Sail Away

83

As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

after listening to the hearings of the australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, i am no longer content to have simply walked away from the organization.

as a matter of conscience, i do not want my name linked with the organization in any way.

i know this letter has been posted previously, and i thank the author.

Sail Away

DarkKnight, please let us know how that conversation goes.

Wishing you freedom,

Diane

83

As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

after listening to the hearings of the australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, i am no longer content to have simply walked away from the organization.

as a matter of conscience, i do not want my name linked with the organization in any way.

i know this letter has been posted previously, and i thank the author.

Jookbeard and Worldling, thank you for your kind words of support. I'm five years out now, and life is so much better than I ever imagined it could be without the Fear, Obligation and Guilt imposed by the GB and those under their destructive mind control. Walking away from the organization was truly a life and death matter for me.

Worldlilng, I do hope others will find my letter and experience of help and would absolutely feel honored if someone chose to use my letter as a starting place for their journey toward freedom. I relied on those who went before me, their research and the good advice of the posters on this forum in planning my exit strategy and composing this letter. Sharing it is my way of paying it forward.

Of course, every situation is different, so we all have to make our own way. Hard decisions have to be made. When I was ready to write this letter, I had already lost all the the WTB$ had to take from me, and I wanted a clean break. We all have to weigh the potential losses and gains before severing ties in such a final way.

Sadly, for as long as my in-laws are alive and still shunning my husband, our children and their grandson, the reminders and ties will still be there. They still don't know that I am out as they live over 500 miles away, and Mr. Flipper helped FOG them regarding my "spirituality". For now, they still think I am in good standing in the congregation.

My husband was raised in since he was five years old. He was never supposed to grow old. He is 65 now and is dealing with the health problems that come with age. His parents converted when they were in their late twenties, and they are now in their nineties. It seems they are willing to continue shunning and die alone without family, loyal to this organization and its morally bankrupt leaders.

At least our children and grandson are now free, and they are all loved fully for who they are without condition or judgement. The WTB$ did not win out in the end.

Diane

83

As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

after listening to the hearings of the australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, i am no longer content to have simply walked away from the organization.

as a matter of conscience, i do not want my name linked with the organization in any way.

i know this letter has been posted previously, and i thank the author.

Sail Away

Nathan Natas, feel free to misunderstand the penguin story as much as you wish, and congrats on successfully derailing my thread.

44

Things I remember growing up in the 70s

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

i remember sitting on my daddy's lap and driving an imaginary car, i also remember sitting on my mummies lap on the front seat, without a seat belt whilst my dad drove a real car.

i remember we bought fish and chips from the chippy wrapped in yesterday's newspapers.

i remember bouncing up and down on my space hopper in the garden.

Sail Away

Simon

Anyone remember those green-shield-stamps books?

Simon, Yes, they were called S & H Green stamps. How do we remember this stuff?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps

83

As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

after listening to the hearings of the australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, i am no longer content to have simply walked away from the organization.

as a matter of conscience, i do not want my name linked with the organization in any way.

i know this letter has been posted previously, and i thank the author.

Sail Away

SecretSlaveClass said, "Comgrats! (sic) Another sheep broke the pen, ran away and learned how awesome life was without a sheep dog bullying it! Essentially you've graduated to a gazelle

Nathan Natas, I took SecretSlaveClass to mean that I was free from the elders that pose as shepherds, but are in fact wolves in sheep's clothing who bully the flock. I appreciated his comment about my freedom very much.

Simon, I love the story about the little fairy penguins!

Diane

71

2016 Regional Convention - Sunday Morning synopsis

by Jehalapeno in

jw
friends

via reddit.

here are the morning program highlights.

will update for the afternoon once it's all over.

Sail Away

Great post Half banana! It's interesting to me that I was sensing a shift toward more control in the mid-2000's. It is why I finally knew I had to leave in 2011. I knew they were going to tighten the control around family members associating with DF'd ones beyond "essential family business", and I was just not going to shun my son.

Hopefully, the shift toward this seige mentality will wake up more and more individuals and families and free them from the extremism of this doomsday cult.

83

As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

after listening to the hearings of the australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, i am no longer content to have simply walked away from the organization.

as a matter of conscience, i do not want my name linked with the organization in any way.

i know this letter has been posted previously, and i thank the author.

Sail Away

Xanthippie and Mr. Flipper, life on the outside is great! I had my first birthday cake this year at age 58! You are both so right about family. I chose mine over everything I had ever known since my pre-teen years. I simply refused to shun my children. I have seen the pain it caused my husband. His parents have shunned him for 35 years now. They have lost out on so much.

Lurkers, please choose life with your family now over the false promises of a future paradise! You will not regret it! I promise.

83

As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

after listening to the hearings of the australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, i am no longer content to have simply walked away from the organization.

as a matter of conscience, i do not want my name linked with the organization in any way.

i know this letter has been posted previously, and i thank the author.

Sail Away

Snakes, thanks for asking. I’ve been thinking about updating this thread. Things have been busy lately. Our family met up in Washington, D.C. for Father’s Day weekend and then my daughter, her fiancee and our grandson came back to Connecticut with us for an extended visit. They live and work in Guatemala City and were having trouble getting the paperwork straight to get married down there, so we had a whirlwind wedding here. It was fantastic! They were already a family, but this made it official. Her husband is Irish-born retired special forces and is a really great guy.

I hesitated to give an update before now because I had only had contact with fringe witnesses—either the mostly-inactive-over-the-years type who might not know about an announcement or the do-your-own-thing sort of JW. The one sister that I still see socially knows I am “inactive” with no plans of going back. She believes I am committing spiritual suicide by associating with my disfellowshipped son, but that it’s my choice. She says she has plenty of friends that aren’t witnesses. She suffers extreme cognitive dissonance, but that’s a whole other topic.

After a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago, I can definitively say that they did not announce my name from the platform. I spoke at length with a born-in full-time pioneer. (Actually, she is the one that turned my son in to the elders which led to his being DF'd!) She pleaded with me to “come back to Jehovah.” She thought I had been “stumbled.” I told her my decision to leave was an ethical one and that I disagree with certain organizational policies and procedures, both locally and at the Branch. I told her I didn’t want to go into that and risk damaging her faith in some way. (I honestly don’t think it is my place to openly “un-witness” to a staunch, believing witness. Unless they have doubts and are searching for answers, it won’t likely do any good and will only serve to reinforce their belief. This is not to say that I don’t try to plant seeds of doubt when appropriate.) Of course, she gave me the line that “men are imperfect” and pleaded some more. I told her that I love and miss “the friends”, but I am happy with my decision and my life and changed the topic to catching up like old friends.

It was interesting to me that this pioneer had been to her R.C. and didn’t feel a need to shun me because I’m “inactive.” We have only celebrated Christmas in Guatemala so far, and I have blocked all known JWs from my Facebook page, so maybe I haven’t been outed as an unbelieving “apostate” yet. No need to break the uneasy detente that is in place. I say uneasy, because even though I’m glad that I severed ties with the organization, I still get a kick in the gut when I have any interaction with former “friends.”

Last weekend I ran into a couple that my son and I were close to. In fact, they gave my son and then DIL their engagement party in their home. The husband is a long-time faded JW. His Dad and step mother walked away first, and then he faded. This all had happened before I walked away. The wife was quite cool to me when we first started chatting, but she warmed up by the end of the conversation. I did a little Facebook stalking and found out that she plays drums in a band with her hubby who is the lead singer. They play at local bars, fairs and farmers’ markets. I hoped that maybe she was out too, but she is still Facebook friends with elders, ministerial servants and pioneers, so she’s probably still in, but living her life the way she chooses. This couple is in their mid-thirties.

So that’s my update. It will be interesting to see how the local elders react should we meet. That hasn’t happened yet. Fortunately, all but one or two don’t live in the local “territory.” They have been imported to “assist” the local congregations. Ours is a small New England rural town with no real jobs, high housing costs and high taxes—not the sort of place that draws the average JW. Everyone is related to everyone else, and there is a lot of nepotism and in-fighting in and between the two local congregations, so the C.O.s are always sending in new blood. They have installed a revolving door at the KH! Fun times I so don’t miss!

Diane, aka Sail Away

22

How To Spot A Cult - This is what started woke me up!!

by pale.emperor in

this is the article that woke me up.

i felt sick after reading it.

then sad.

Sail Away

Marked. Thanks!

21

For Dog Lovers-- Meet Stanley!

by Sail Away in

have you ever had a dog that was dumber than a box of rocks?

i have; his name was dave matthews.

we loved him anyway.

Sail Away

Rebelfighter, I trained Emma using the methods outlined in the books The Loved Puppy and The Loved Dog. My Dad was a police officer with a canine partner. I admire the dicipline of police dogs, but wanted to use a gentler training method. Emma is the best behaved dog I have ever had, but she was not a rescue dog, and I trained her from a pup.