Posts by Sail Away

15

Baptized at a young age, homeschooled, and pioneered ...

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

and all of this by the time i was 14. i was the youngest person in my pioneer school.

was anybody else in the trenches (to this degree) at such a young age?.

i look back on it now and marvel at how isolated i was.

Sail Away

stuckinarut25 hours ago5 hours ago

Too bad it will bite them in the back side when these kids get older

Finkelstein4 hours ago4 hours ago

She wasn't stupid, just uneducated.

Yes that's an important thing to say, just because a child is home schooled doesn't mean they are stupid but only uneducated on many things, they tend to have a restrained or repressed intellect.

Not always so. We home schooled our daughter through 11th grade. She graduated top in her 12th grade class and received a 75% scholarship to four years at a private college, graduated sumaa cum laude, earned her teacher's certification and now teaches 5th grade in an international school overseas.

Our son owns his own marine rigging business and employs three people. We home schooled him through eighth grade. He went on to graduate with honors from a marine studies magnet school in spite of profound dyslexia. He didn't go to college and is still a success in business just like his parents.

Best not to make assumptions or sweeping generalizations.

51

Did you ever have a discussion with an apostate that helped your journey out.

by jwfacts in

there seems to be a number of different ways that apostates try to get jehovah's witnesses realise they do not have the truth, ranging from subtle comments to aggressive attacks.

do you have any that looking back helped you finally leave.

some of the methods include:.

Sail Away

This:

"or did you make your mind up to leave prior to becoming aware of any "apostate" information?"

It took me about six weeks to weigh all the information I had to consider after 42 years of being an all-in JW, and I simply walked away.

Then I read JWFacts, Crisis of Conscience and The God Delusion by Dawkins, all in about two weeks, confirming my decision to choose family over religion was right.

13

Elder Told A JW To Ignore Governing Body Advice

by pale.emperor in

i had an interesting conversation with a fellow ex-jw yesterday.

for the sake of this post lets call her "katie".

katie is a former pioneer who suddenly stopped attending meetings and managed to be left alone by the elders.

Sail Away

Shunning was my tipping point. I never shunned except for an arrogant COBE's son who called me to let me know there would be an announcement, but he would be back in a year. Turns out he embezzled funds from his JW boss's business AND the KH collection box. I was fine with shunning him, because he essentially gave the go ahead and should have gone to jail. He was back in a year.

My daughter walked away when she was 17. Stopped going to meetings cold and "respectfully declined" a shepherding call. My son acted out when his JW wife left him and was subsequently DF'd. My son and daughter both committed the same "sins".

I was told that I could still have a relationship with my daughter, because she hadn't been DF'd and hadn't been disciplined by Jehovah. She would have to straighten things out when she returned. I guess YHWH didn't love her enough.

Another elder said I could still visit my son, because of concerns for his mental health. He told me, "just don't talk about it with the friends". This same elder and his wife maintained an amicable relationship with their DF'd daughter. I told him I wasn't about to be a hypocrite. The teaching was that I should have no contact with my son, and that wasn't to going to happen.

I couldn't wrap my brain around this level of crazy. I told him I wasn't about to go to meetings and pretend I was shunning my son when I wasn't. Now I'm here.

37

Which Watchtower publications did you keep?

by Schnufti in

i'm currently cleaning up our bookcase and need to decide what goes into the trash.

i'll keep the watchtower books that are not available online anymore (e.g.

the brown "reasoning" book).

Sail Away

All donated to a cult awareness library.

32

At This Point In Time How Would You Feel If You Were Disfellowshipped?

by minimus in

jw
friends

before my mother's death, it would have impacted me.

now , i wouldn't care..

Sail Away

I resigned for my husband's sake. He wanted to keep some semblance of a relationship with his parents. There is no relationship. My father-in-law tolerates a call now and then. I sent photos of their brand new great grandson-- no response. Maybe MIL died? Hard to know for sure-- haven't seen them in over 5 years. My JW "friends" don't initiate contact, so I return the favor. Six years out, and I just don't care.

22

Do You Miss The "Red Dot"?

by minimus in

jw
friends

lol ...if you are new here, you might not understand the question..

Sail Away

Absolutely miss the red dot--please "reinstate" it!

46

How many years did you waste away in the Org?

by Tallon in

in my case; 27 years.

7 of which were as a ministerial serpent ... sorry, i mean 'servant' ;).

Sail Away

42 years in-- From age 10 until 52 years old

32

AUSTRALIA - Petition to Cancel the Charity Status of Watchtower and Jehovah's Witnesses

by jwleaks in

a petition has been launched in australia to coincide with the child abuse royal commission's adverse findings against watchtower and jehovah's witnesses.

the petition is to the australian charities and not-for-profit commission to cancel their charity status.. https://www.change.org/p/australian-charities-and-not-for-profit-commission-acnc-cancel-the-watchtower-bible-and-tract-society-s-charity-status.

[quote].

Sail Away

Signed

12

Simon. Persistent unread message error.

by nicolaou in

for the last few days i've seen a nice green unread pm indicator even though there are no new messages (which is dreadfully sad).. not really a problem but thought it might be worth waving my arms and shouting about in a new topic.

.

and maybe get a few pity messages in my inbox .

Sail Away

My inbox shows two fictitious new messages too. It has been like that since the change over to the new website. Sorry to be a bother, Simon!

36

Sample Disassociation Letter please?

by LifesNotOver in

i want to send a disassociation letter to the elders at my old congregation.

how do i address it and what wording do i use?

i know it's not something i have to do, it's symbolic for me.

Sail Away

Sailor, just curious if that got them to avoid making the public announcement? And with what result? Does everyone still shun you/treat you as DFd? In what area do you live?
Thx! for sharing your experience.

DOC, I live on the Northeast Coast of the USA. I am not shunned. JWs are polite and cordial when we cross paths in town. We exchange pleasantries and family news. I recently had a lovely 2-hour-long chat with my former P.O. at our retinal specialist's office. This blew my mind. He had to have seen my letter!

That said, I am clearly on a do-not-call list. They skip my door when in the neighborhood. I don't call them, and they don't call me. I like it that way!

I walked away in 2011, and resigned in 2015. You can see my letter posted on this forum.

Diane