The subject rarely comes up for me. Most of my friends and co-workers know that I am an Episcopalian. However, last year a co-worker's daughter married a JW. The way she described her new son-in-law, he didn't sound very "theocratic." However, the groom's parents were devout JWs and my co-worker was doing all she could to accommodate them at the wedding ceremony and reception. So I told her that I understood her dilemma as I had been raised in that religion. I wasn't embarrassed to mention my former religious affiliation, nor did it raise any eyebrows. People often change religions, its no big deal.
Athanasius
JoinedPosts by Athanasius
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40
Can you admit that you "used to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses"?
by undercover ini was reading about minimus' trip to the hospital and his telling them that he "used to be a jw" but he would take blood now if needed.. it got me to thinking; i don't like telling people that i used to be a jw.
that's in my past and i prefer to keep it there.
if asked about my upbringing or religious preference, i usually just comment on being brought up in a strict religion but i got over it..and then try to change the subject.
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Would you still be a JW
by purplebunnyfoofoo in.
would you still be a jw if you had not been disfellowshipped?
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Athanasius
I left voluntarily after reading Crisis of Conscience, which confirmed that the JWs didn't have the "truth." Though not DFd, I'd never return to the Watchtower dictatorship.
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Describe your Spirituality after Leaving JW's please
by esw1966 inwhat has been your attitude toward religion after leaving jehovah's witnesses?.
did you search for religious truth?
scoff at religion?
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Athanasius
The first three years after leaving the Watchtower I didn't attend any religious services. I spent my time working and completing my education. Time was also spent meditating and reflecting on myself and my spirituality. I prefer being part of a community to being a hermit. So I began my spiritual journey, during which I visited the Bible Students, the Unitarians, the Church of Religious Science, just to name a few, before becoming an Episcopalian. What appealed to me about Anglo-Catholicism was the emphasis on Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. Reason is something you don't find in the Watchtower. The Episcopal Church isn't perfect, in fact it has some serious problems and divisions at present. But for now it is my spiritual home.
However, each one has to make their own decision regarding spirituality. What works for one might not work for another. The important thing is to use your new found freedom to make the decision that is right for you.
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About half the DF's go back? Really?
by AuldSoul inj.r. brown said about half the df's go back.
i know some who went back and promptly faded, some who went back and were "bt" jws (barely there), a few who went back and quickly got df'd again usually before they even got privileges back.. but the one that takes the cake (in my opinion) is the former po of my parent's congregation who had been giving dc parts for years getting disfellowshipped a couple of months after giving the rousing talk, "abhor what is wicked, cling to what is good.
" only after his reinstatement did i discover that was his third df.
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Athanasius
Can't say what its like in the congregations right now, but in the 70s and early 80s when I served as an elder about 50% of those DFd applied for and were re-instated. Women were more likely to return than men. In fact there were only two men who got canned during this time who were re-instated. Apparently these two guys weren't really "repentant" because after associating for a while one guy left his wife for another woman and got canned a second time. As far as I know he is still out. I don't know the details about the second guy, but he too was DFd a second time. However, he was eventually re-instated. I think he is an elder now.Do they still use the term "re-instated?"
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I think any religion can change some one's life to a positive way.
by free2beme ini remember as a witness, how we always were told account of people getting their life changed in a wonderful way, when they became witnesses.
we always thought, "that is what happens when jehovah comes into your life.
" yet if you think about it, every religion i have ever encountered, has similar account of lives being changed by religion.
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Athanasius
You shouldn't limit your application to only religion, poppers. It can apply to any movement whether it be religious, political, educational, etc. I know some devout Marxists who would be in total agreement if you just change the wording to this:
1. The Party gives the people a sense of purpose. "Workers of the World Unite, all you have to lose are your chains."
2. The Party gives the people as sense of hope. "Arise ye victims of privation, arise all ye who are forelorn, for there's a new age beginning, there's a new world being born." The Internationale.
3. The Party gives the people organization and guidelines. "Every citizen will make his particular contribution to the activities of the community according to his capacity, his talent and his age; it is on this basis that his duties will be determined, in conformity with the distributive laws." K. Marx.
Sometimes I think politics is religion in a secular disguise.
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X - JW or Apostate?
by In Between ini thought this might be interesting.
if it's been talked about before, i apologize in advance.
what differences do you think exist between the two?
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Athanasius
I don't consider myself to be an X-JW or and Apostate. Just a person who spent some time in a totalitarian religious community before leaving to continue his spiritual journey.
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Athanasius
Ten years ago while shopping I met a JW who I hadn't seen in years. We had attended the same KH back in the 1970s and he and his family were in the CBS that I conducted. Of course the first thing he asked was which congregation was I attending? When I told him that I was attending services at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, he acted like he had swallowed his tongue. In fact it sounded like he was choking on something. Since he seemed to be unable to speak at the moment, I mentioned that though my new church family didn't have all the answers, I found more help and comfort in this Christian community than I ever felt at the KH. The JW still had trouble speaking, but said: "guess you gotta do what you gotta do" as he quickly walked away.
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Did you make life altering decisions because of 1975?
by restrangled ini had extended family members, both with families of 7, abandon good jobs and homes in the suburbs of chicago.
they moved to the wild outskirts of 2 separate states to protect their families from armageddon.
they both waited for 20 years, wound up financially destitute and finally had to move and depend on other family members to recover.. it would be interesting to read the stories from those of you who went through this time period as a jw.. r.
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Athanasius
Despite all the Watchtower rhetoric, 1975 didn't cause me to make any life altering decisions in that decade. At the time I had a good paying job, was happily married, and served as an elder in the congregation. In fact what concerned me most was the effect it would have on the JWs if 1975 passed and nothing happened.
Nevertheless, it was the Watchtower leadership's reaction to the failure of their 1975 prophecy and the blaming of the rank and file for the disappointment that led to my exit in 1984. So I guess you could say 1975 indirectly led to a life altering decision.
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It's 10:30am on a convention morning...
by undercover in...do you know where your faders are, watchtower society?.
i just glanced at my watch and realized that if i was still active, i'd be sitting in a coliseum fighting falling asleep listening to some elder drone on and on, but here i am posting on an "apostate" message board.
how cool is that?
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Athanasius
You bring back some exhausting memories, Mulan.
I too remember being a kid and having to sit through those 8 day marathons. They would start on Sunday morning and end Sunday evening the following week. Fortunately the last DC I attended as a JW was in 1984 and it was only 4 days. However, in 1989 I attended the DC as a non-JW. My girlfriend, who was Jewish, wanted to see what a JW convention was like. So we went to the Saturday morning session. It started around 9 AM. The attendants seated us just before the program began. After the opening song and prayer the speakers began their usual boring lectures. I don't recall what they said as I slept through most of the morning session. When they dismissed us for lunch I asked my girlfriend if she had had enough and she agreed it was time to leave.
She did have an interesting sense of humor while at the convention. Every time she visited the restroom she would leave in the stalls several of Randy Watter's tracts exposing the Watchtower. And I couldn't resist placing a couple of phoney Russell $3 bills in the contribution box as my donation to the "Watchtower's World Wide Witnessing Work." Though it was just the two of us, knowing the paranoia of the JWs, they probably thought an army of apostates had invaded.
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Geography quiz--can you guess where this picture was taken?
by cabasilas in.
for all you geography nerds out there...can you guess where this picture was taken?
i'll give another clue later.
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Athanasius
Could it be Nelson, BC?