littlemike I like your post. I felt the same way with my 75 year old mom. I love her dearly but I have come to the realization that trying to force her to see that the WTS has lied and coverered-up many things is like trying to move Mt. Everest. When I left in the 90's I talked to I was blue in the face. She sat down and watched the "witnesses of jehovah" film with me and my christian buddy who help me see the light about the WT and she dismissed the whole film as "apostate liars" who are part of the evil slave class trying to trick the JW's. I then realized that JW's are so programmed that only Jehovah and Jesus can open their eyes. So now I don't and I mean don't discuss religion anymore with her. Everytime I go over her house I get that "apostate" stare from my family. They act as if I have vomit all over me. I feel so uncomfortable that I rarely go over their because of my family and their fear of "apostates". I used to think that "apostates" had the demons in them when I was a staunch JW and I mean I was more staunchier than my mom before I DA'd myself, so I just have left it in Jehovah's and Jesus hands. Mulan I just "love" your comments when you post because you always give good advice and I never detect JW-bashing from you. JW-bashing only reinforce JW's that we as ex-JWs are bitter, disgruntle DA'd and Df'd JW's who are trying to bring Jehovah's organization down. My christian buddy was right when he told me just wait and be patient and slowly my mom will start having some doubts. Fast forward to 2004 I almost had my eyes pop out of my head when I went over to my mom's house and saw that my non-jw niece who lives with my mom had "Christmas lights" in her room. We could not even say the word "christmas" when I was growing up because it was demonized and to look at a christmas tree would have brought Jehovah's wrath. So my christian friend was 100% right when he predicted that my mom would slowly break away from the JW's. She has become inactive at the meetings and I feel that in her own mind she is tired of the "armaggeddon is the around the corner" game. So littlemike just let Jehovah and Jesus do their work on your mother and not try to beat her upside the head with the JW's are wrong speeches.
booker-t
JoinedPosts by booker-t
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19
Telling my 85 year old dad the reasons why
by littlemike inmt father became a jw during the second world war .
he was conscientous objector before that.he is now 85 years old and i left jw 2 years ago.. on monday i went out with him and something he said just set me off.
in 15 minuted i told him about raymond franz, carl olof johnson, 607bce.
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The day a brother died in my Hall, & the unbelievable events that followed.
by Mr Ben inthis one really freaked me out.
i was so brainwashed at the time i found a way to justify it.
i think i?ve been repressing my anger about this and now i need to vent.
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booker-t
Mr. Ben this was a very good subject you brought up. I remember when I was about 8 years old and we were at Monday nite bookstudy, right in the middle of bookstudy my brother who at the time was about 5 years old start throwing up uncontrollablely. He kept vomiting, and vomiting and vomiting. I just knew that the bookstudy conductor(an elder for many years and real good friends with my family) would stop the bookstudy to see what was wrong with my little brother. The elder just kept going on as if nothing was wrong with my brother. The sister whose home the bookstudy was in got out her vacuum cleaner and started vacuuming up my brother's vomit all the time everybody continue to sit there and listen to the elder asking the bookstudy questions. I was so angry that they did not stop the bookstudy and I was also angry at my mom for not taking my brother home. She just continued like nothing was going on with her son. The sister vacuuming gave my brother a glass of water and some pepto bismo and we finished the bookstudy as normal. You just can't believe how this robotic behavior impacts a child growing up. I now know that I would never let a religious service come before my children. Thank you Mr. Ben for bringing this topic up. Jehovah's Witnesses need to be exposed for what they really are. Enough is Enough of them covering over cultic behavior and practices. I really feel for the sincere JWs because they have been duped. This is why ex-jws have a rough time when they leave because of many of the horror stories that they have witnessed it is hard to move on.
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aLCOHOLISM in the congregation
by badboy inwere there any alcoholistics in the congregation you attended?
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booker-t
I iis amazing now to me since I am no longer a JW that what really goes on in the WTS and JW's. I grew up feeling so guilty all the time and feeling that I was not serving Jehovah 100% because of the elders "guilt trip" on the congregation. I felt that I just did not measure up and that I would be destroyed by Jehovah at Armaggeddon. I look at the organization as well as other churches and religion(because I think that there is a common link with "all" religions) and now just shake my head in disbelief that I was so controlled by religion at all. Now I realize that many of the elders in my KH drank or were closet drunks. One elder in particular I remember I saw him at Sav Ons with 2 hugh Vodka bottles. I was shocked because his family ran that hall. Then it was announced that "Brother so and so has been reproved for conduct unbecoming of a Christian" and he was also "deleted" as an elder then I remembered just seeing him with those vodka bottles. I don't know if this was why he was "reproved" but he later died from liver damage. I truly believe he was a closet alcoholic. The org puts so much pressure on JW's it is no wonder some drink too-much. Fortunately I never used drugs or alcohol to self medicate myself just used knowlege (I love to read) to become more powerful. I am now "DA'ed" and feel free as a bird now. I am getting my college degree now at 38 years of age. But I feel so free now.
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booker-t
I remember years ago at the kingdom hall I attended an elder's son was a known homosexual but this elder son was not disfellowshipped or reproved but continued to come to the meetings and go out in field service. Everybody was talking about it and the son got caught in a gay bar after being arrested it was becoming to well known and people were beginning to rebell in protest at this kingdom hall because this guy was not df'd or reproved. To make a long story short the son died of Aids and the elder was eventually disfellowshipped his wife was disfellowshipped and the whole family left JW's I heard through the grapevine that the elder was reinstated and remarried. The other son is still an ex-jw and doesn't plan on ever coming back to the JW's
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Do You Think Your Family & Friends Will Ever Get Out Of The Religion??
by minimus incan you imagine certain ones making it out of the religion, somehow, sometime?
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booker-t
I remember an elder that I knew when I was growing up JW. This elder was so serious and strict that I would tremble just being out in field service with him. I thought he was so zealous. I had him on a high pedistal that even the apostles could not have been on in my mind. Well years went by after I had left the WTS and one day I went into a church with an ex-jw friend of mine who had invited me and lo and behold I saw this elder's daughter at the church service. I nearly fell out of my chair because I was in a state of shock that she was there. She had been baptized as a JW at the age 14 and her whole family were zealous JW's. After the church service I tried to run out of there without her seeing me (even though I was disassociated) I still felt the JW guilt. But she caught up with me and hugged me and we talked for 2 hours after service. She told me that her father (the strict elder I mentioned) left JW's and wanted nothing more to do with them. She also informed me that her father hates the JW's and suffered a slight nervous breakdown. I was just too shocked to say a word. She told me that she married a non-JW and the JW's were given her a hard time so she just left the JW's and never went back. She was shocked that I was no longer a JW because she knew my family from the time we both were preteens. We are both in our late 30's and the last time I saw her was in the year 1976 or 1977. I finally realized that many JW's even the most staunchiest JW probably have doubts or questions about the WTS but just keep their mouthes closed. I found out through this girl that many of the JW's that I had grown up with either were disfellowshipped or disassociated from the JW's. It is a very hard life to live as a JW and many JW just get tired of it.
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Circuit Overseer Explains How The Internet Is A Trap!
by minimus inmy mother told me that the co gave a talk on how a spider spins his web and it can take a very long time for the web to be made but just like that--- before you know it---it can catch its prey and devour it.
it's the same with the world wide web, the internet.
there are reports, according to the co, that in new york, a very prominent "anointed" man was disfellowshipped and he has his owm website where he has answered many jws questions.
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booker-t
I remember in 1983 I used to work at this job that was surrounded by "born-again" christians. And some of them was telling me that christians should not use credit cards because they would be receiving the mark of the beast, that christians should not buy products from proctor and gamble because the owners were satan worshippers, that christians receive the mark of the beast when they have certain products such as clorox bleach etc; I could not believe that these christians really believed that mess and some of them stopped talking to me because I would not get rid of my credit cards and I would not get rid of products by proctor and gamble and so forth. I just am amazed that born-agains would condemn everybody else and call them "cults" if they don't go by the born-again philosophy but when they do some crazy things are believe in some crazy things it is accepted by born-agains with no problem. I once went to a pentacostal church and the people in that church were banging their heads on the floor and foaming at the mouth but this is accepted by christians as a sign of the Holy Ghost. Where in the bible does it require a person to act like a lunatic and possibly harm themselves in order to be good in God's eyes? I don't condone JW's for some of their crazy beliefs either but I just don't understand born-again christians. Everything goes in the churches and you all do not question it or rebuke it just blindly accept it and then have the nerve criticizing another group. Clean up your own back yard before you look at someone's elses.
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booker-t
I new on these post so please forgive my computer skills. But I posted this question because I am in my late 30's and I know about all of the WTS skeletons. I learned about all of them from the "apostates" in a matters of a few days. I just can't believe that JW's who have been in the WTS for over 30 and 40 years did not know about some of the skeletons. You had to have known if you were reading or studying some of the older publications and they mentioned things like 1975, beth-sarim, Johannes Greber,etc; My mom and aunt have been JW's since the mid 1960's and I know they must have heard about some of the skeletons that I learned about in 3 days. Can a person be so blinded that even when they see 1975 and nothing happens in that year they can forget all about it? Please help me out there I am trying to figure this thing out. My mom tells me that everything that apostates say are lies and a hate campaign. But my response to her is Why has the Watchtower Society not sued apostates in court if they were telling false info on the WTS?
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What Makes Some ExJWs So Angry & Others So Pleasant???
by minimus in.
from what i can see, it appears that some exwitnesses are either handling life outside the organization pretty well or not well at all.
i wonder if some persons simply, by nature are angry, unhappy persons while others are naturally good, "honest-hearted ones" that simply want to find some measure of happiness.
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booker-t
minimus,
I love your question. The answer can be summed up by an offbeat joke. I once heard a born-again christian man say Jehovah's Witnesses are a pain in the butt, and ex-Jehovah's Witnesses are even a bigger pain in the butt. I did not understand it when the man told me this but he explained to me that JW's think they know everything about the Bible and have an superior attitude. But when they leave and become born-agains they are worse because they still have the JW's know it all attitude compounded with the born-again christian know it all attitude so you have a bigger pain in the butt person so this will definitely create a mean and unpleasant personality.
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HOW ABOUT MENTIONING JESUS AT THE MEMORIAL!
by Mary inwell i went last night...........did anyone else notice how the talk focused almost exclusively on the 144,000???
jesus was barely mentioned.
the first couple of minutes talked about when the israelites left egypt and the passover was instituted.
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booker-t
Mary,
My question to you is why do you go to the memorial at all? Going to the JW's meetings is just going to keep you hooked. I am speaking from experience so please don't take offense or feel I am being judgemental. I DA'd myself in 1991 and I went through hell wondering if I should go back or not. I went to some meetings and sat in the back like I had the plague and went to a few assemblies and I just got to the point where I just could not stomach it any longer and walked out of the Kingdom Hall and never went back. I took controll of my life that day foward and I feel so much better now. I still feel abandoned by my family who are still devout JW's to this day but I had to make a choice either them or me and I chose me, myself and I. I know that these ex-jw's are helpful when you first leave but there has to come a time when you move on with your lives and I notice that many ex-jw's just can't let it go. Either you are going to be free or be imprisoned by the JW's.