Posts by aprostate

41

Complaints

by Guyferna in

please only respond to this message if you read everything on here first.

thank you.. why do people spend most of their time here complaining?.

some say: the organization is too strict!.

aprostate

Guyferna
Are you complaining about complaining? Think about it.
Cheri

12

To Guyferna, Re:Complaints

by Joe Nigma in

hey guyferna!.

god is a free thinker.

yah, he is!

Joe wrote: I also wondered about the 1975 thing. I looked and searched and found nothing in any of the watchtower and awake articles. When I ask someone here all they give me is websites. They have no proof.

Are you kidding Joe? Were you a Witness in 1975? If you were, I don't know how you could say that.
Cheri

13

family, tragedy, and life thereafter(PLEASE READ)

by nappybomber in

hello everone who clicked into this message.. well, my story is pretty much about "shaken faith".

to keep this short, my mother died in 1990, leaving behind 5 children.

therefore, my aunt marilyn waldron took all 5 of us into her home, and together with her son, raymond, we became her 6 children.

aprostate

Hi Rashawn,

Wow, you have been through alot. Congrats on keeping sane through all of that. You are a pretty strong person to have made it.

My only suggestion is that you keep researching about the witnesses. The more knowledge you get about the JWs, the more sure you will feel about your decision. At least your brother will have one lifeline out there that isn't a witness.

I am glad that you are on the board.

A BIG hug
Cheri

5

Ah, the WatchTower...(rant)

by xyzzy in

please forgive me if this post doesn't seem logical to you.

i'm just letting myself go.. my mom was baptised into the wtc when i was two years old.

i grew up in the witnesses.

aprostate

Hi Jim,
Yes, Having grown up a Witness I know exactly how you feel. I lived in fear all of the time. The Witnesses regulated every facet of our lives even our thoughts and when you first leave, if that is all you have ever known, it is like you are still a child. One thing that helped me was going to the Unitarian Universalist meetings. There are people there who are christian, atheists, agnostics, pagans, etc. It is not for everyone; but, I thought it might help some who feel they have nowhere to go.

Shygurli (Stella) Obviously, somehow you missed out on the fear most of the ex JWs felt when we were growing up or you wouldn't even be reading this board. The witnesses tell you not to even look at anything written by ex JWs. When I was a believing witnesses I would have been feeling such guilt in doing anything that the JWs said not to do. I thought what they said was as if God said it himself.

Life is not always happy for anyone and it is very hard to leave something that has been your entire world. That is one of the things that Witnesses use to keep you in their grips. "Where will you go?" I hope you learn to have compassion and love for others who are not Witnesses. BTW, did you know that Jehovah's Witnesses have a very high depression rate?

Well, I am proud of you for looking. That means your mind is not completly closed. I hope you continue to look, the more you look the less brainwashed you'll be.

Love to you all,
Cheri

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Einstein

17

What to you do when you are being shunned?

by aprostate in

i used to be quiet around witnesses who were shunning me.

i changed my mind after my dad's funeral a couple of years ago.

i was their alone since i live in a different state; but, i guess everybody still knew who i was because of my mom.

aprostate

I'm sorry so many of you have had the same experience at dub funerals that I did because I know how bad it hurt me. It disgusts me what some of you have had to go through. I wish my skin was a little tougher than it is; but, at least I'm better than I used to be.

I am so glad that I don't live in the area where I was disfellowshipped at, so I don't run into any Witnesses that I know here.

Another good thing; I think their shunning me doesn't look to good to the outside world. A nondub girlfriend I have from back home went to my great aunts funeral. She said they were all talking about how bad all my family treats me because I'm not a JW like them. My parents disowned me when I was dissassociated and was disfellowshipped. Told me that I would have been stoned if I lived back in the days of the Bible. I don't know if that meant for fornication or for turning my back on Jehovah. My dad asked to see me when he was dying. So he talked to me then. When he died he said, "Did you ever THINK we didn't love you". I think he practiced that speech for when I came back to being a JW; but, because he was dying he knew it was too late. Since my dad has died my mom has been talking to me a little bit. Trying to do it only when it is business; but bending a little.

I am so glad that ex-JWs now have the internet and that the Witnesses are not growing anymore. They used to love to say they were the fastest growing religion in the world. 20 years ago, you were just left flailing (sp).

Sorry, this is kind of skipping around; but, thats just how my thoughts were running.

Hugs,
Cheri

17

What to you do when you are being shunned?

by aprostate in

i used to be quiet around witnesses who were shunning me.

i changed my mind after my dad's funeral a couple of years ago.

i was their alone since i live in a different state; but, i guess everybody still knew who i was because of my mom.

aprostate

I used to be quiet around witnesses who were shunning me. I will never do that again. I changed my mind after my dad's funeral a couple of years ago. I was their alone since I live in a different state; but, I guess everybody still knew who I was because of my mom. Only one person came up to me and said they were sorry about my dad to me. They would say something to my mom and walk right past me. So I just sat there saying nothing. I didn't start crying until the one girl was brave enough to talk to me. I had known her as a girl in a different state. She told my mom she felt sorry for me and couldn't keep from talking to me.

After that I made up my mind that I will never make it easy for them again.

What do you do when confronted by someone shunning you?

Cheri

20

SAD!

by 2SYN in

well this isn't just another "boohoo, i'm so depressed, bwaaa!

" thread...this is a more detailed investigation into the reason behind my sadness.

i felt like i could share it with the people on this board, as you lot in general seem to be far more emotionally sensitive than a lot of people on the internet.. i've been listening to ok computer by radiohead, and i must say, it's by far some of the most emotional music i've ever listened to.

aprostate

I have the opposite problem and I hate it. I cry when I don't want to and I don't know how to stop it. The more I tell myself to stop, the more I cry. I think it is my anger. It is not acceptable for women to show excessive anger. I had so much anger when I was a witness. Being brought up a Witness with a abusive dad....believe me I was angry. I had no other way to express it that was acceptable and now all my emotions come out as tears.

32

Do you still believe the WTS doctine's?

by TheRecordCollector in

man is a soul,.

christ was created, .

holy spirit a real person, or god's active force?.

aprostate

I don't believe that the Bible is the word of God. I don't know if there is a God. I hope there is.

17

New member

by aprostate in

well heres my story and i'm sticking to it :).

my grandmother became a witness when my mom was a teenager.

my mom became one when i was 4. that would be in 1954. i remember going to the international convention in ny at the yankee stadium and polo grounds.

aprostate

Not apostate. I'm a Prostate. LOL

17

New member

by aprostate in

well heres my story and i'm sticking to it :).

my grandmother became a witness when my mom was a teenager.

my mom became one when i was 4. that would be in 1954. i remember going to the international convention in ny at the yankee stadium and polo grounds.

aprostate

Well heres my story and I'm sticking to it :)

My grandmother became a witness when my mom was a teenager. My mom became one when I was 4. That would be in 1954. I remember going to the international convention in NY at the Yankee Stadium and Polo grounds. I have pictures of my grandmother and grandfather sitting at contribution boxes. My dad did Lithuanian translation for the talks. I have a million slides of it if anyone is interested. I was baptized the first time when I was about 10. (I can't remeber the exact age) I still remember portraying being in the New World in a skit with a stuffed lion on the stage at a circuit assembly. I remember the days when women covered their head on the platform. My mother always used alot of guilt messages with me to get me to be a good Witness. "Don't you love Jehovah"? " Don't you want to live in the New World?"

Along with a righteous indignation that we were right about the holidays, I secretly wished I could be honest about the excitement of looking at the kids in costumes at Halloween and the colored lights twinkling in the snow at Christmas.

Two of my aunts and uncles became witnesses also. I'm sure some of you who were Witness children in the 60's and 70's experienced the fear that I did. I had many nightmares and dreams of finding places to hide when the great tribulation came and "they" came to persecute us. I also found out in this time that my dad was molesting my friend and some other little girls that he studied with; but, my mother never turned him in to the Witnesses. I guess that would have disrupted her life to much. I met a man who was studying to be a Witness in 1971. One thing led to another and we got disfellowshipped for fornication. So I wore my figurative big "F" on my chest. I was very repentent and wrote my letter to get back and was reinstated. Eight years and two children later my husband and I are getting a divorce and I decide to go to a therapist to help me through it. It seemed to be the thing to do at the time. My mother was really against this and to this day my mother blames her for me not being a Witness. In truth, I had started having doubts long before that, probably when the end didn't come in 1975. Boy, thats a long story in itself that I am sure you are all familiar with. My therapist helped me to not be afraid and to think for myself. I was so afraid of demons and never being good enouph and of the end of the world. She never told me what to do. A big moment in my life was after a session one night when I sat in the bath tub and my arms slowly wrapped around my own shoulders. It was a spontaneouos thing. Trembling, I cried "Cheri, I love you, you are a good person". I can't express the intensity of the feelings that flowed through me. Next, I went to the library and looked up every thing I could find about JWs. I found out their "real" history and that there were people up there in NY making the rules and regulations of JWs. Not God. Then I started reading the Bible from the beginning without the fear that I had always had.

I moved into an apartment over the man who is now my husband of almost 20 years. My mom found a beer bottle by my bed and asked me what was going on. I of course, didn't believe in lying so I told her. She of course went to the elders. (to be continued, I have to be somewhere tonight)