when i first came into contact with jehovah's witnesses they were talking about god's kingdom bringing about a peaceful new world.
the scripture used being psalm 37:10,11 "just a little while longer and the wicked will be no more.you will look at where they were and they will not be there., but the meek will possess the earth and they will find exquisite delightin the abundance of peace..".
i took this to mean, then, that when jehovah intervened, at his appointed time, it would be instantly, invisibly, and painlessly.
Many years ago there was a free leaflet with people restoring paradise on the front and in the picture, a JCB!
I remember feeling cheated with that, because everyone knows that a JCB is a product of it's time and relies on numerous industries, processes, knowledge, manufacturing capabilities. To build one JCB, you would require literally hundreds of advanced industries and the educated people to run and work in the factories and facilities.
Hardly paradise. Back to the grind.
hope everyone near to the region affected in california is ok. it's shocking to hear of the destruction.
these affected areas are some of the places i visited when i came on a tour of the us.
malibu, santa barbera, la, santa monica, hollywood and so on..
Hope everyone near to the region affected in California is ok. It's shocking to hear of the destruction. These affected areas are some of the places I visited when I came on a tour of the US. Malibu, Santa Barbera, LA, Santa Monica, Hollywood and so on.
i thought i would give my personal experience on who i am, how i came into the world of watchtower, why i left, etc.
this would explain a lot about the answers i give and why they don't directly reflect my personal convictions (like a normal person--and i do mean that literally, kinda).
i cannot put everything here, but i can start bit by bit.. when i was 17 years old, my mother was on her third marriage and kinda starting her fourth (as she was dating this surfer dude-like guy who wasn't even 5 years older than me).
I would have called this...
2
"2 Elders, Jews and Dead Bunnies, four weddings and a funeral" ;)
i am writing to ask if anyone cares to share their experience and/or offer advice for people leaving.
i was raised in the religion, and both my parents died when i was very young.
i recently stopped associating because my conscience no longer allows me to preach or support the organization.
It's one hell of a journey and I didn't come through it unscathed. I lost my father at age 13 and saw a pioneer brother as a role model and followed that. But I found myself torn between trying to get a solid job and pioneering, everything seemed to be a choice of those two completely different things, and my now step dad made life at home intolerable, and even showed me the door literally, at age 15. I left home and moved congregations at age 17, but I found I lost the gel I had with all the congregation at the previous hall where our efforts were on rebuilding the hall every weekend. About that time I started to drink (always a little bit more than everyone else) and found temporary relief from anxiety. I married the first girl who came along who was stalking me, and things really went downhill from there. The marriage lasted two years.
Things are fine from me now. I do still have a few mental health gremlins, but I have a wonderful partner and am bringing up two boys 5 and 6 and attempting at every moment to be the father that sadly, I didn't have.
can i call you friends, i think so after 23 years posting here.
i am dismayed how jwn is being "dominated" or taken over by a few posters, peppering the comments.
in the past, the admin did not approve of this and did remove some posters from jwn.
Will have to look up how long I've been posting... :)
as part of a psychology msc research project, i am looking for participants to take part in a study designed to explore the experience of leaving the jehovah’s witnesses.. former witnesses who were raised in the organisation will be asked a few questions about their reasons for leaving, their experience of leaving, and how their life has changed since leaving.. taking part involves completing an interview over the internet.
according to research needs, the number of questions asked in each interview may vary.
the interview will take between 5 – 90 minutes depending on the questions asked and the level of detail you wish to provide.. your participation will remain confidential and anonymous, and it is completely voluntary so that you may withdraw at any time up to two weeks after the interview.
I volunteered to take part in this.
straight from the horse's gb's mouth - from the 2022 convention broadcast.. it's at the 38 min.
30 secs.
point of the jw broadcast: https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/2022convention/pub-co-r22_1_video.
In a meditative state, it is possible to experience that love is what connects everything in the Universe and if you believe like I do that the Universe is God, then indeed, God is love. The Universe loves all creation in it's infinite forms and the process of creation. It's easy to see that God is love in this context. How far removed from that repulsive video and the statement made therein!
saluting the flag was something not encountered very often here in the 1970s uk, in fact that kind of nationalism or patriotism was something i'd been warned about as a young boy, being brought up in the jehovah's witnesses from age 4, through meetings and the publications.
at some point, i don't know when, i decided it was more american, whether rightly or wrongly.. but even so, there was a large black and white photo of our entire school in panoramic format right outside my classroom on the wall saluting the flag, and i think this was the 1977 25 year jubilee of queen elizabeth ii.. now as a young person attending a fairly religious school in the 1970's, you were used to "making a stand" for things, letter in hand first day in a new class, and being ushered into one room or another to avoid religious assemblies and other xmas, and other seasonal celebrations.. one day the teachers, in their abundant wisdom, stood myself and a younger witness in the corridor right outside the assembly hall where the children would filter past.
every second or third child that filtered past would ask, "why are you standing there?
I remember the Silver Jubilee though, I was in junior school at the time and we all got a commemorative coin
I do remember the whole class finding a set of the decimal coins 1p - 50p in a wooden plinth. I thought at the time it was because we were all born in the year of decimalisation, but I'm not sure. There was one on each desk apart from mine.
Anyhow, I went to the teachers desk (picture Oliver Twist, "Please Sir can I have some more") and was told, that she didn't think I would want one because it's a celebration. And there was in fact, no coin set forth coming for me.
You might as well have just slapped me and said, "I'm gunna stitch you up boy!"
The teacher had never made alternate arrangements for my benefit with regard to celebrations before.
saluting the flag was something not encountered very often here in the 1970s uk, in fact that kind of nationalism or patriotism was something i'd been warned about as a young boy, being brought up in the jehovah's witnesses from age 4, through meetings and the publications.
at some point, i don't know when, i decided it was more american, whether rightly or wrongly.. but even so, there was a large black and white photo of our entire school in panoramic format right outside my classroom on the wall saluting the flag, and i think this was the 1977 25 year jubilee of queen elizabeth ii.. now as a young person attending a fairly religious school in the 1970's, you were used to "making a stand" for things, letter in hand first day in a new class, and being ushered into one room or another to avoid religious assemblies and other xmas, and other seasonal celebrations.. one day the teachers, in their abundant wisdom, stood myself and a younger witness in the corridor right outside the assembly hall where the children would filter past.
every second or third child that filtered past would ask, "why are you standing there?
Hi BluesBrother, I agree about the national anthem and experienced that in person. But with regard to saluting the flag, despite the large flag pole at the front of the school and the large black and white photograph picturing it, perhaps I should have stated, I never actually encountered the feared event of saluting the flag.
the last 2 1/2 years have been extremely stressful.
while the rest of the world was dealing with covid, i was also dealing with cancer.
in fact it seems none of my doctors knew about it.
Well done, I didn't expect the story to go like that as an infrequent member I hadn't heard about it.
