The constant spin doctoring and legal dance stepping makes me sick.
The cost to leave was great, we all know how it goes - we get cut off. Shunned.
Even if we’d done nothing scripturally ‘wrong’ - in a moral sense - We found ourselves alone.
Good friends, good people who loved us as family, felt/feel obliged to think of us as ‘dead’.... ever hoping we may return to the cult.
I’m sorry.... But truly, it’s a Cult.
Awful.
on the 18th of september i turned in my disassociation letter in to the tigard congregation, 19 years ago.. my son turned in his letter in november 2001, 19 years ago shortly after me.
he was 21 years old.. two days ago we were working together on a wrap for his a/c unit on his bus.. out of blue, he says "i still miss it dad.
not the religion.
I stopped going to meetings around 7-8 years ago.
I was in my mid 50s at the time - over 25 years of building and forging rich friendships. Yes, yes, I know - so you could say they were not ‘real’ friends. But deeply close friendships stay in your heart.
Also, I know that politics can put distance between the closest friendships.
I’m sure that If I became a passionate and vocal Neo- Nazi supporter, I’d lose all my current friends - and I wouldn’t blame them.
The problem is that for witnesses, there are only two sides in this world - Jehovah’s side and Satan’s side. You stop going to meetings, stop nodding vigorously to all the teachings....that’s Satan’s ‘side’ to the JW.
EVEN though you may still honour and keep Scriptural living standards etc...even if you still keep faith in God... to the Witness, you can only be understood as having moved to the dark side.
Do I miss them? Do I miss the security of community, the decades old relationships?
Oh yes. It hurts.
But being with them was hurting too.
Have made some sweet new friends, it takes time. Fortunately I had non-witness friends who I’d known prior to converting who are still part of my life.
But I have to say, it’s hard to just forget those particularly close friends who remain in the org. They were family to me.
humans are basically social animals.
see most any isolated mammal, whether in a zoo or even an outcast of its pride and you'll see one mentally disturbed creature.
maybe, after this pandemic has faded and humans are able to interact once more, some jw's might think twice before being so quick to shun.
They won’t change.
just received a text yesterday...lovebombing to return with so called proof of the gt starting...scaremongering at its peak!.
"hey.
missing you at the meetings.
In the ’reasons’ for some ‘straying away’ or ‘becoming inactive’ there is one big gap, a missing reason.
None of those ‘points’ apply to me.
But here is my reason:
‘Loss of trust in the organisation and the Governing Body’.
Sorry, but I heard a manipulative tone and voice coming through - it shook me.
Ultimately, I couldn’t deal with learning new ‘truths’, my faith ‘assessed’ by my willingness to accept those ‘truths’ - with the responsibility of teaching others things that were not proven.
I don’t feel comfortable collectively worshipping with a group of people who believe that those who don’t belong to their brand of ‘ark’ are rejected by God.
Put that in your next watchtower study, JW.org.
I’m very angry at your ‘list of reasons’.
You take no accountability or responsibility...leaving those who lost their community to look like the weak ones.
You have no idea how strong I’ve had to be, in the aftermath and heartbreak of losing so much in terms of my known life, identity, faith and trust.
But, there are gains, I trust that the Universal source of all things is greater than poorly written magazines.
I trust in something much, much greater now.
i just got back from field service.
i haven’t been out in a few months so now we don’t keep any written records and we don’t know which houses are do not calls.
i also noticed i was the only one with a book bag.
When I was new to the religion, it didn’t take long before I was introduced to the different ways that dedicated pioneers got their hours in.
Why did I say nothing?
It was glaringly wrong, looking back.
I think I passed it off as ‘well at least the hours are spent focussing on Jehovah rather than the world’
😞
this was in the dailytelegraph paper from australasia.
the reason i copied it here is coz you have to be a paid memeber to read anything on their site.if anyone wants to check the source here it is.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourcecode=dtweb_wre170_a_ggl&dest=https%3a%2f%2fwww.dailytelegraph.com.au%2fnewslocal%2fliverpool-leader%2fjehovahs-witnesses-australasia-proposes-film-studio-office-and-replica-biblical-site%2fnews-story%2f7997a66dbe24ef1a24beea6805d97d68&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21suffix=61-a.
John 12:32.
Not Bible thumping - however, if the scriptures are telling us something, then it appears millions and millions spent on global digital presence is not really required?
We’re meant to be talking about the Lord of the Universe.... not the animated/characterised figure of a massive marketing plan.
The Bible Project seems to achieve a decent output of illustrative scriptural messages - did they need a vast real estate acquisition and plan?
I don’t understand the thinking of the JW decision- makers?
i was looking at my hall the other day some of the upper elders who are retired now have had some pretty good jobs and lives of relative comfort.
i am not exactly sure what the education levels were but they were white collar.
most likely started in a world where you didn’t need a lot of education to get a head.
We ( husband and self) had a successful business built from pre-JW lives....nothing to do with a cleaning empire.
It was a bit amusing to learn how vast and widespread ‘cleaning’ businesses were amongst JW families/dynasties!
Big healthy contracts, big, big money.
And good for them, good work ethics and drive underlined the most successful of the wealthy business owning JWs.
The cleaning industry was perfect for the JW life model and there was a never ending supply of pioneering, clean and tidy JWs to undertake the various cleaning jobs, which gave the JW businesses an edge over other local firms.
Carpet specialists, office block cleaners... every shape and size.
Sounds like the ‘cleaning’ business thing is global amongst JWs?
It used to make me grin seeing all the commercial cleaning vans turn up at conventions etc.
i was reading today that the last star wars movie will be playing next week.
doing a little searching, i found that there have been 12 movies in the saga total, ( box office, total (12 films): $9.323 billion.)..
it got me thinking about when the empire strikes back came out, it was the second movie ( 1980).
I heard many strange, strange things amongst JWs....along with good, caring things...a mixed bag.
Something that always stood out to me, was an old semi-lighthearted practice amongst some JWs of bagging favourite pieces of real estate, for post-Armageddon occupation...whilst on the ministry.
i experienced this in two different countries, opposite sides of the globe.
It seemed so ‘wrong’ on so many levels, even if done in jest.
An elder explained that the brothers and sisters used to place their songbooks in the letter boxes of the houses that they ‘wanted’ after the destruction of the occupants.
I guess it was a joke....but for a Christian?
Really? How unhealthy to have that even lightheartedly on one’s mind.
i am so sick of this cult, this religion has such a grip on her.
since i left in 2014, things just are getting progressively worse.
and she it's just getting deeper and deeper.
When my other half and I were active Witnesses, for the 25 years we were involved, we were in a great relationship and the worst relationship.
I was the ‘driver’, I really loved the ‘truth’.
Secretly, he was ambiguous ( although never admitted it) and this showed up in his JW life in many ways. He felt trapped, but that was not known to me at the time.
You know, where there exists the potential for a caring relationship within a marriage, especially a long term marriage - it’s absolutely worth the work to find a peaceful co-existence.
So lovely to read the encouragement to stay and make it work from others here.
Such incredibly rich advice in the responses to you.
I feel for you both, don’t give up. 🙂
i literally had dozens of suits.
i still have more dress clothes than anyone i know.
i did give some suits and clothing away and to be honest, i still like wearing a nice suit.. brothers and sisters, are all your “ meeting clothes” still in your closet?
Sisters with special dressing rooms in their homes, filled with designer bags, clothes and shoes.
I saw this everywhere in the ‘truth’.
In London, sisters would walk to meetings in Prada sneakers, and change into their Loubatains at the meeting
Hey, don’t come to us if you are sick or needy, we’re all dressed up.
Thousands upon thousands on the wardrobe, the beauty upkeep..... not a penny on the poor.
What hilarious ’ Christians’ we all were.
And they are still turning up, still ‘faithful’.
Living life to the full in personal luxury in ‘the time of the end.’
And they pushed me away because I started to say ‘the king has no clothes.’
Sell your stupid luxury shit and give it to those in need.
