Thanks Blondie
I read it but I don?t believe it! I left in 97 so I never read that Question from Readers. I never thought it was an issue. Now, I just am speechless. For a group that almost makes those with children feel guilty about it, and condemn those who use sterilization as a method to control the number of children one has, it is just amazing.
I love the reasoning, btw...you might stumble someone. Oh boy, that seems to be the catch all phrase for everything. It?s not what is best for us/me but what it looks like to everyone else in the world. Who said you can please everyone anyways, and what if you stumble someone any ways. Good grief. I am stumbled just reading this crap!
Jahna
Posts by Jahna
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36Please help with list of ways WTBTS has gone beyond scriptures...
by FlyingHighNow ini want to compile a list of ways the wtbts has gone beyond scripture.
deciding that god will destroy you forever if you smoke cigarettes.
i know someone will come back and say there have been 900 threads on this subject.
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Jahna
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39
Love or Hate Field Service
by XBEHERE inhow many of you went out in the field because you had to or because you wanted to?
if because you had to, how did you feel while doing it?
just curious.
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Jahna
I loved the coffee breaks! The rest well good moments and bad.
Jahna -
36
Please help with list of ways WTBTS has gone beyond scriptures...
by FlyingHighNow ini want to compile a list of ways the wtbts has gone beyond scripture.
deciding that god will destroy you forever if you smoke cigarettes.
i know someone will come back and say there have been 900 threads on this subject.
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Jahna
Clothing dogma.
I remember walking door to door in -40c in a skirt, with track pants, leggings and a long to the floor coat on. You couldn?t even see the skirt but you had to wear it no matter what. Talk about cold!
No beards, who thought that up. Interestingly a brother from Europe came to visit my family and he showed me some pictures from Europe. This brother wore a beard. It?s acceptable there! But here, no he had to shave it off to be accepted.
Not be able to go bare legged for a sister! Not all congregations had this ?rule? but even in the hot summers you had to wear panty hose or else. (Song of doom heard in the back ground).
Brothers must wear a suit jacket, long sleeved shirts and tie, no matter what. I have been in non air conditioned halls where the inside temperature reached well above a hundred, no breeze and high humidity. Suit jackets and all the rest. The men looked like morons. Take off your jacket in such a case. Are we not supposed to be ?reasonable?? No it?s better to pass out on the platform from heat stroke.
Need the list go on. It appears that outward appearance means more then common sense or shifts in society perception on attire. It?s a wonder we are not all still wearing long dresses and top hats.
Jahna -
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Jahna
Not being able to listen to the music I happen to like. I am still waiting for all this heavy metal to turn me into a drug and alcohol addicted town whore possessed by demons. And I am 38! Also believing everything in the Watchtower is true, my mother still comes up with some real winners that are Urban Legends, myths and totally untrue. Jahna
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15
Things that really bothered you.....
by bakedmonkeepie ini was thinking about the "glorious" past of my association with the witnesses..... and i started thinking.
were there ever things that really really bothered you that they were doing, and it made you stop and think about what you were really getting involved in?
mine would be at an assembly.
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Jahna
I can relate with you Wendy. When I was pregnant with my second child I almost lost her and was placed on complete bed rest. One sister came over once a week to clean for the book study I had in my house and that was all. I was left alone with my toddler and a bed, not to mention we lived in the country. My mother in law had some back problems and all the sisters were there canning for her! Thanks a lot kind congregation. It was the beginning of the end for me, I will never forget that treatment, for as long as I live. For several years after this when I read about the loving brotherhood found in the congregation ect in the Watchtower ect, all I could do was cry. Jahna
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54
Another survey from Lee
by Lady Lee inreading simon's post about how things used to be i started thinking about how the internet has changed things.
many believe the internet and the freedom of information it contains will be the undoing of the wts.. when i was a jw, there were a few dfings but maybe one a year or even less.
people drifted away but we really didn't pay a lot of attention unless it was a close friend.. in here we see new people coming in all the time.
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Jahna
* What year did you leave? 1997
* How old were you when you left? 31
* Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave?
Yes and no. Yes I found out that worldly people were not as bad as all that, and that they cared for me more then the congregation did. Those worldly people of course were found online as I would never have thought to look offline for such association.
* If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision? N/A
* What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a Dfing).
Realizing it wasn?t me being a bad person which made me feel as if I was a leper in the congregation. I spent years thinking God didn?t really want me, but I kept staying for the children. When I finally left I left still thinking Jehovah?s holy spirit had left me and I was honestly thinking, I was going to die. It didn?t make much difference back then if it was sooner rather then later.
* If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind?
Re learning how to live life again. I have never even thought to research anything to do with Witnesses until about a month ago. I have felt all along, if God doesn?t want me, so what, it?s my life and I am going to live it my way. I am not a bad person, if the congregation doesn?t like who I am, so be it. I don?t need them in my life anymore. I no longer yearn to be part of something that made me feel so lonely for years. After reading this site and a few more, I am beginning to question a whole lot more then, brotherly affection. I have to admit, the Dateline show hit me hard. Now I am happy I am no longer part of the congregation.
Jahna
Forever trusting in who we are, and nothing else matters....Metallica -
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Just Another Example of "Where is the Love?"
by codeblue ini just had a delivery from fed-ex , i accepted a package for my neighbor at her request since she wouldn't be at home.
the fed-ex guy looked confused as i opened the door.
i cleared up the confusion by telling him that since my neighbor was working, she wanted me to accept her package.
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Jahna
Hello.
Funny, when I was going, I never ever missed a meeting, even through three pregnancies. All my children were less then a week old at their first meeting. I suddenly realized how much "love" was in the congregation when I got sick and was in bed a few days. My internet quilting group missed me more then the congregation. My email was filled with, where are you, we missed you today, where as the local congragation never noticed. I left about 4 months later full time.
Jahna
Forever trusting in who we are, and nothing else matters....Metallica -
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What album make you feel better?
by Nosferatu inis there a certain album that you own that just makes you feel a hell of a lot better?
for me, it's cinderella's "still climbing" album.
it's about life in general, about how it sucks, but you gotta make it work for yourself.
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Jahna
Hello everyone
I don't have "a" album just a group and that would be Metallica. they have helped me through a divorce and finding myself afterwards, not to mention giving me the spirit to move forward in my life without the Organization. Without a doubt, the artist and the style of music has helped me through out my adult life.
Funny, when I was growing up with a Witness mother, she told me metal music would make me a whore, alcoholic and drug addict not to mention be demonized. Some 20 years later I still haven't seen any of that happen. For the time I stayed away from my preferred music, while being an active Witness, I just couldn't bring myself into the head space of "all will be fine" and I became more and more frustrated with my life and life in general.
It's amazing that my so called "anger music" makes me feel so much better.
Jahna
Forever trusting in who we are, and nothing else matters....Metallica -
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JW Women
by Sassy inpurple had a thread about sisters and feeling left out or forgotten and while i do totally relate to what she posted about and agree with it from personal experience, what i experienced as a married jw wife i found more intollerable and it was one of the reasons that i ceased to be a jw.
it is one thing to be a woman and single and feel like you miss out on some social activities because you aren't a "couple' or a "couple where both are jws" and that does stink..
but be a woman who is married and your husband is a 'so called jw'.. you have no rights.. you can not even talk to the elders without your husband in their presense.
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Jahna
Thannk you everyone for the warm welcome. I look forward to reading and sharing more with you all in the future. Jahna
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JW Women
by Sassy inpurple had a thread about sisters and feeling left out or forgotten and while i do totally relate to what she posted about and agree with it from personal experience, what i experienced as a married jw wife i found more intollerable and it was one of the reasons that i ceased to be a jw.
it is one thing to be a woman and single and feel like you miss out on some social activities because you aren't a "couple' or a "couple where both are jws" and that does stink..
but be a woman who is married and your husband is a 'so called jw'.. you have no rights.. you can not even talk to the elders without your husband in their presense.
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Jahna
Greetings everyone
I have been reading the forum here for about a week or so. This topic hit close to home. See I basically grew up in a JW house, did the right thing and married a nice JW boy. I even had nice JW children.
My now ex husband and I worked together in a family business, one which the brothers often would visit. Mostly elders and MS mind you, but we had a lot of traffic in and out. Because my husband couldn?t find the time, it was left on my shoulders to study with my kids, which I did. My oldest is very bright and at the age of 5 read quite well. He was the example at the book study and watch tower meetings because he could answer all by himself, read the bible ect. At the age of 6 he, much to the surprise of the elder in charge, was able to explain the horse men of Revelation where as the elder could not do it off the top of his head. Nothing like being shown up by a 6 year old!
I was literally floored when during the many visits to our business, the brothers would all pat my husband on the back saying how well his family was doing, how bright his children were and how wonderful it was to see them grow in the truth, because of "his" studying with them. Even if I was standing next to him, no one would even mention my involvement. Of course he would take all of the credit.
No one realized how hard it was for me, while I not only worked full time with my husband, I had a pre schooler who needed special education as she was learning disabled. So here I was driving her all over town, only to get back and pick my son up from school for lunch and then after school to take him back to work with us. Our children came to work with us, as baby sitters were taboo according to my husband (guess who watched them and worked too). After leaving work at 5:30 or 6 I rushed home, cooked a meal and then got everyone ready for the meetings, while my husband complained and I often had to fight him to even go to the meetings. Yet he was doing a great job! Once the third child came along I was burnt out.
Finally I left him, that day he played bumper cars with me as I drove to the police station afraid for my life. The police arrested him and placed a restraining order against him, he ignored it upon release. I lost my job (dah) and he refused to pay support of any kind, leaving me with a heavy mortgage, food, bills ect and no money. One elder finally visited after 4 weeks only because the PO was visiting. The "talk" they had with me centered around my smoking (after the bumper car experience I picked up a pack of smokes after 14 years smoke free and started for a week or so, then quit) and leaving my husband. No mention on how I was doing, no questions are we ok, (they knew of his arrest), no questions about support ect nothing. They prayed and left and I never looked back.
For someone who never missed a meeting, even though I was told to be stay in bed during the pregnancy of my second child no one even missed my attendance at the meetings when I finally stopped. No words of encouragement while I worked and Aux Pio with two kids (on top of the rest) nothing! He (my husband) was doing so well with the family, way to go!
He is now living with a witch, (literally). Guess he wasn?t so good after all.
Jahna