i've heard that at the bethel here in canada (not sure if they're all like this) they sound an alarm-type-of-bell-thing at 5AM and they all have to report for breakfast, and sermons.
that's enough to make me quit! no jesus before my coffee!!
jeeves
JoinedPosts by jeeves
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22
Are Bethelites more likely to leave the JWs than others?
by Gill inhave you any experience of families whose sons have gone off to bethel and then decided to not have any more contact with their family and jws at all very soon after returning?.
i ask this question because i know of two families where this has been the case.. the first family had three sons who one after the other went to the london bether to 'serve' within a couple of years of eachother.. after three years there all three returned home completely different people.
they then left home, left dub land, two married non jws and another lives with his girlfriend.
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15
mail.yahoo.com
by IP_SEC inso, what do yall think of the girl on the yahoo mail sign in page?
http://mail.yahoo.com/.
see anything subliminal there?
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jeeves
something fun to do (from one geek to another) is click around the different language links at the bottom of the mail.yahoo page. you'll see the way they've marketed different women to different audiences.
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53
Cook at home or eat out?
by greendawn indo you know how to cook, even just a few simple recipes, or do you hate the idea of home cooking and prefer to always rely on restaurants and take aways, or just prepare easy snacks like sandwiches and melted cheese on toast?
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jeeves
we rarely cook, but when we do it's amazing. we get takeout a lot and joke about our inability to cook - had another couple over yesterday evening and blue them away with the meal we made!
i'm in a big city so eating out is not that much more than cooking - if you go to the right places!
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Witnesses sit next to me at the theater last night
by seattleniceguy inhad a bizzare experience last night.
i went to see the movie mr. and mrs. smith (which, by the way, was pretty decent).
my girlfriend and i showed up about 20 minutes before the show started, so we picked out some seats and then each went to the restroom in turn while the other watched the seats.
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jeeves
interesting!
i haven't seen a group of them since i left, thankfully. i'm a few cities over from where my congregation was.
however, the idiot witness guy that i dated when i really wanted to give the witness thing my best effort... he used to call me annually "to see how i was doing". once he called cause he heard that i wasn't a witness anymore and wanted to confirm. nothing like a district convention for the gossip and rumour mills! i told him i was very happy and hoped he was happy one day too.
the annual calls continued until i changed my cell phone company, and therefore my number.
ugh, witness guys (no offense to current witness guys intended, it's just that any i knew or dated thought they were literally god's gift to women and wanted a subjective one to hang around and take care of the house...)
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jeeves
i think it means more to stay together, unmarried. that way you're both there because you want to be, not because you have to.
everyone's getting married and subsequently divorced these days - do something different! live in sin forever!
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Field service horror/humor stories.
by sonnyboy inthis has probably been done before, but has anyone had any scary or funny things happen to them during field service?
i used to go door-to-door with the most obnoxious elder in the world.
if we approached a house, saw signs of life, but they didn't answer the door, he'd actually go around and knock on their windows!
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jeeves
wow. i've never heard the dog story. i mean i've heard dog stories but not that one!
i've only been called on once since i left - two young guys out in the evening. i was really busy otherwise i would have given them a "scantily clad female answering the door" story :)
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no one to talk to
by jeeves ini guess this is my introductory post.. like many of you, i was raised as a witness.. like many of you, i'm no longer associated with them.. it still hangs over me like a plague.
it's really annoying.
i haven't been to a meeting in 4 years, i'm "out of the closet" - my parents know i'm no longer interested, my oldest brother won't talk to me... etc.
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jeeves
thanks everyone!
ha - i feel better already. i found this site in december and signed up right away, but wasn't ready to post. today i did another "purge" of my stuff - getting rid of things i had when i was a witness (long skirts, lol!) and cleansing out the pictures of childhood friends i will never see again. afterwards i came to post on this board...
i've had plenty of internet friends and it's about time i made a few in the ex/recovering-jw genre.
perusing the board i have already learned so much about the way i have dealt with friendships in the past, and the way i feel about myself. ahhhhhh.
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13
Did you ever celebrate Christmas, and do you miss it?
by sonnyboy ini see so many people on this board who are angry over what the witnesses took from them.
i often feel the same way, so i try to do something anti-jw every year, which seems to help.
do you know what i'm going to do this year?
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jeeves
i never celebrated xmas growing up... BUT conveniently my parents anniversary was very close to christmas so we had a suspiciously similar celebration! gift exchange, family time, etc
my "worldly" relatives sent us kids presents and when i went back to school after the xmas holidays, i'd lie and say my 'anniversary' presents were xmas presents.
now i don't really celebrate, although i have a partner. he's not too big into xmas either, but there is something i like about it... christmas to me is feeling warm and cozy indoors when it's cold and snowy outside. it's a sense of calm
and i put up xmas lights outside for the first time last year! i bought the blue ones i've always liked!
childhood memory time:
on the way to the bookstudy as a child, sitting next to my mom in the front seat, we were looking at the xmas lights and picking our favourites. after saying i liked the blue ones, my mom explained to me that satan transforms himself into an angel of light and that i had to dislike the christmas lights or else i would make satan happy. i felt horrible! -
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Presiding Overseer Says They Will Ask If You Still Want To Be A Jehovah's W
by minimus inthe local needs talk on thursday discussed a few different things, according to my mom.
but the one that stood out most was that he announced that based on the new book, the elders will be checking on those that have not been associating with the congregation for some time.
they will ask, "do you still want to be a jehovah's witness?
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jeeves
wow that's interesting stuff.
part of me wishes i'd get a call or have the guts to write my DA letter... like then i'll be truly cleansed, and could quit thinking about it!
the other part of me thinks of my mom, and how she likes to self-diagnose herself with every illness she reads about. i think if i left for real she'd be a wreck.
i don't respect myself as a fader, though...
when i was really faced with being DFd i was so freakin scared. i attempted a reform post haste and begged for forgiveness! part of me was wishing they'd DF me anyway... oh well!
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18
no one to talk to
by jeeves ini guess this is my introductory post.. like many of you, i was raised as a witness.. like many of you, i'm no longer associated with them.. it still hangs over me like a plague.
it's really annoying.
i haven't been to a meeting in 4 years, i'm "out of the closet" - my parents know i'm no longer interested, my oldest brother won't talk to me... etc.
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jeeves
i guess this is my introductory post.
like many of you, i was raised as a witness.
like many of you, i'm no longer associated with them.it still hangs over me like a plague. it's really annoying. i haven't been to a meeting in 4 years, i'm "out of the closet" - my parents know i'm no longer interested, my oldest brother won't talk to me... etc
what do i do to get further away? i no longer own any jw publications. i am not in touch with any jw's except my parents, i am comfortable in my stand against their beliefs
however, i find myself talking about it. i need to talk about it. i need to say "hey this is how my life was growing up, isn't that effed up?" i'm thinking of going to therapy, just for someone to talk to, but therapy i think may make me feel broken.
i think i am broken though. i don't really have that many good friends - i'm slowly making new friends but it's certainly bizarre to have friendships that are 5 years old or less. since i was dropped by all my "friends" when i said i didn't want the jw life anymore, i find that i have dropped potential friends for stupid reasons. being raised to believe it's okay to drop the people you love/like because of their beliefs makes it easy to drop friends for petty petty reasons.
i feel like i'm always running away from it... that jw identity. if i mention something about my religious family, people understand. but if they ask what religion, and i answer "jehovah's witness" then suddenly i'm a scarey freaky science experiment to them. they ask about the beliefs and i barely remember - i hate answering because i feel like i'm preaching. i hate answering cause i feel broken.
but i want to talk about it. it eats me up inside! always following me like a shadow. i'm paranoid too, speaking of shadows... i've realized recently that since i left the jw's i've become VERY cynical. it's okay and good to be aware of your surroundings, not to believe everything you hear, but i've found that i automatically assume people DON'T like me. why is that?
i'm a nice person, i've always been a nice person, i'm finally admitting out loud that maybe leaving the jw's scarred me a tad, and i've got some work to do to get myself back...