right now, at this point in my life, i feel like i should be angry, sad, upset, annoyed, whatever emotion that most of you guys here feel or have felt.. but the overwhelming feeling i get, and i have got since waking up, is indifference.. i think that this might be my subconscious coping mechanism.
when i go to the meetings or take part in any other wt related activity, i don't care.
i just really couldn't care less.. i mean, i do care, but i think it's more a fascination now about the whole thing.
I'm not sure what a normal response is to finding out you were in a cult. For myself I would say I feel exactly like the opening post. Not sure if that's normal but I agree with you.
cappytan- if you're exploring Buddhism may I recommend the book The Good Heart, A Buddhist Perspective On The Teachings Of Jesus by the Dalai Lama. it really helped me grasp some of the teachings of Buddhism, and is a very good read.
once again the beloved and loving governing body are demonstrating their utmost disdain for the rank and file members of the jehovah church.
let us review this interesting trend, starting with some facts!
yay, facts!!!
ok here's the situation i know of.. a women was in a situation where she was forced to reveal a hidden sin and was given a private reproof for it.
before this she had an other wise clean slate.
btw the reproof was for an unrelated matter and had nothing to do with apostasy.
i think we've all noticed a ton of newbe's these past months.
one part of escaping or thinking about escaping the jw's is coming to terms with what you believe now and/or what direction you are leaning towards.. here is a site that has a quick quiz that may be of some worth or just for fun.
i took it when i first signed on here and the results surprised me because it was pretty accurate.. you don't have to sign up for anything and when you finish you will get a percentage answer on 20 major belief systems.
couple of months ago, just after christmas, i was browsing the religion section at one of the local used bookstores.
i kind of keep my eye out for some of those embarrassing jw gems.
i've found a mint condition green bible there before.
when i first came to this forum i was of the belief that those of us who were still in due to family reasons were few in numbers perhaps one in a thousand in the jws.
soon i came to the realization that there were many more.
we have dozens of posters here who are mentally out but still in.
when i first came to this forum i was of the belief that those of us who were still in due to family reasons were few in numbers perhaps one in a thousand in the jws.
soon i came to the realization that there were many more.
we have dozens of posters here who are mentally out but still in.
it took a few years but i finally decided to join yesterday.
my background, born-in, still go to meetings for family reasons, i am inactive however.
if you were to ask when i first woke up i would say 2010 with the overlapping generation garbage.
@KateWild when I first woke up in 2010 I went into a slow fade and then completely stopped going for about 2 years. It's only been in the last year that I've started going again to keep the peace in my wife's family. I honestly don't mind to much going the couple times month that I go. My feelings range from completely checked out and bored to chuckling to myself at some of the crazy comments. Once in awhile I do get angry at what's being said but I'm lucky that my wife is also fully awake so I always have someone to vent to. She definitely can't take going to the meetings as much as I can so she rarely goes, I represent the family, which is all anyone cares about in the hall, being seen once in awhile. We presently have no kids so it makes it easier. Hopefully one day we can totally be free but until then my current situation is ok.
@WingCommander yes the hall is extremely liberal, but also the elders are all extremely lazy. They really don't bother me at all, I was asked once if I wanted a shepherding call, I politely said "nah, if I need one I'll let you know." haven't been asked about it again, that was 2+ years ago.
so this week is our co visit, the first with the new arrangement where the second mid-week meeting has been deleted.
so only 1 "service talk" by the co.. this time, i decided to listen with a different focus.
listen like it was a sales meeting (i have been to many, and hated them all).. ok, so we go thru the obligatory theocratic ministry school, blah blah blah, so wonderful.
I think the hall I go to had that exact same boring talk. One weird comment he made was that quoting from the old NWT bible wasn't a sin. He quoted from it a few times in his talk and wanted to make sure we knew that it was ok to do that and we weren't sinning if we did. Anyone else hear that or was he just going off the reservation with that comment?
so here we are, almost a year into the "new" congregation donation arrangement.
and its beginning, as was predicted, to fail miserably, and to have direct negative consequences on the poor sheep.. let me give you a little experience, directly from our congregation of about 80 publishers.
back in may, after reading the letter about the "new" arrangement, the elder body decided to "donate" the extra funds on hand to wt, as directed.
