Hi Everyone!
i joined the board this month and holy cow, are there ever some interesting points of view here.
A bit about my background: My Dad was an unbaptised born-in who nevertheless went to Vietnam and college where he met my Mom. Mom was Lutheran, but Dad told her the only religion he was interested in belonging to was the JDubs. They married in the early 70s and were both baptized. I came along in 76. I got baptized a month before my 12th birthday. My mom was really 'encouraging' me to get baptized, and I think I realized that my doing it so young and being such an exemplary little sister would improve her status in the congo, since Dad only ever advanced to mic carrier. In my early teens I hoped to go to Bethel, but the elders told me Bethel had no interest in single sisters. Soon after, I was chided by an elders wife for daring to ask a question of an elder about a point in the daily text. After those experiences, I started to realize just how sexist the organization was. I started living a 'double life' and planned my escape to college. I was disfellowshipped for smoking cigarettes just before I left for college, and I was pretty much on my own until my sister disassociated herself five years later. Went to college about an hour away from my Midwest town, because there was no way I was going to stay in my hometown and run into witnesses all the time. Stayed in school a long time figuring out what to do and eventually went to law school. While in school, married a Canadian and emigrated to Canada in 2005.
I haven't darkened the door of a Kingdom Hall since I was disfellowshipped. My mother doesn't shun me completely, but I almost wish she did because I find it tough to maintain a genuine relationship with her. I hadn't really kept up with changes to JW beliefs since I left, and thought of myself as a perfectly well-adjusted Ex-witness and atheist. Then recently the hubs started looking into pagan beliefs and witchcraft, and I was freaking out with disapproval about how it was demonized and I didn't want it in my house, and he wondered where this complete wall of disapproval I was putting up was coming from. And then of course I had an ah ha! moment. I know who taught me to worry about things being demonized! Reading through all the posts this month, I think I was probably carrying around a lot of guilt too about having left without realizing it.
anyway, as I noted before, I find this board a crazy and wonderful place, and I've decided to be a bit more challenging to my mom when she makes comments about how bad things are in this system of things, or asks me if I still think about Jehovah. instead of trying to change the subject I'm going to start asking her questions, like maybe about how she feels about all the child sex assault claims the WBTS has settled. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.