Posts by AshtonCA

33

Sad Today

by whyamihere in

jw
friends

it's has been a hard few months for me.

i am just so sad i don't know where to begin.

i feel so lost in this world and i have lost all my friends and i feel so alone.

Don't feel bad, sweety, there are so many of us who are in the same shoes as you are. I too am alone everyday. I have no real friends, I just gave birth a few months back and no one was there with me while I stayed 5 days in the hospital except my hubby and son. The people I thought were my friends came the day he was born, but never came back again nor called me and they did not come see him until we went to their house a month later.

I have no family here, they are scattered all over the US, and soon to be Europe (my parents are moving to Italy). I am here in this house all day long just like you are, I have 2 sons, an 11 yo whom I am trying to teach at home and not really succeeding, so he will be going to school for the first time in his life in a few months, and a 5 month old who has not seen one family member other than us at all yet. It stinks to be apart from family when no one lives nearby.

I know how you feel about being forgotten, I was adopted at birth and I never bonded with my mother, so she pretty much just passed me over to my dad because all I would do was cry when she held me. Even though were JW's we still celebrated birthdays and my brothers always got the cool birthdays. My mom and dad gave my oldest brother a cool sweet 16 birthday, then I turned 16 the next year and they didn't even get me a cake that year. They said they didn't have enough money, but I know it was more than that. They were very irritated with me, because I had given them a life of hell (I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD and they did not know it back then, so I was rebellious, lazy and bratty, and stupid). I never really fit in with them and I think they took it out on me.

Oh, they adopted me through an agency where the secretary was a JW and she had heard about a young girl who had come in who was very pregnant and was about to give birth at any time and who's father was also a JW and was forcing her to give the baby (me) up for adoption because she was only 14. I was adopted to my now parents at birth and I was raised JW until I was DF'd at 23 for sleepig with a guy at my work (who I am now married to!).

I just wanted you to know that you are not alone, in the grand scheme of things, anyway. If you ever want to chat, feel free to email me.

Ash

58

KM in 1974 praising people for selling all their stuff and pioneering?

by ithinkisee in

someone on this site mentioned they got a km off ebay that praised those that sold all their belongings and preached.. does anyone know which km that was?.

interesting, when going through the society's cd-rom i noticed that the drama for the district convention in 1975 was about noah's ark and was something along the lines of "there's still time left!

" (i'm paraphrasing).. -dm

AshtonCA

Luckily, my parents did not believe that the end was that near (in 1975), so they didn't do as a good majority of the others did.

However, after leaving the org, my mother began to study on her own and at one time, back in the early 90's, she thought that the end was so eminent, that she wrote me, even though I was DF'd, and told me that I needed to repent, stop smoking and clean up my life, because the end was very near and we may only have a few days or months or so left. Well, as we can see, that didn't happen. We did move closer to my mother who was in CA and we were in OR, and we did sit around for about 5 years waiting for "the end", but it hasn't happened yet, and she's still waiting. I do believe that it will come one day, but to sell everything, throw your most prized posessions away is silly. enjoy them while you can, I say. I don't see a problem with Watching, but to give up everything and take a risk like that, especially with children at home is madness.

Ash

10

Love & Marriage: Easier w/JW-Out or Non-Believer?

by prophecor in

many of us have spouses within & outside of the borg.

others are married to those who never shared our beliefs.

for those who are no longer practicing jw's, how are you navigating your relationships with your spouses or signifigant others?

AshtonCA

I personally am having trouble with my hubby about how he feels about the JW's. He calls them stupid for believing and being borglike. I told him that when he says that, it makes me feel stupid because I was one of those JW's for 23 years. I asked him if he thought my parents who both have masters degrees and are the 2 most knowledgable people I have ever met are stupid too and he said no, of course not. I mean, I do understand that a great number of JW's don't have much education above that of high school, but to call them stupid for their beliefs? I don't know, that just rubs me the wrong way.

I also said, that having faith in what you believe in doesn't make you stupid for believing in it, it might make you gullible, but not stupid. My hubby doesn't really have much faith in anything, so he doesn't know what it is like to believe without proof.

Ash

72

Anyone like me where you still believe in MOST of their doctrines?

by inquirer in

like i don't like that un involvment, record keeping.

i don't know what to think about the paedophile stuff, because you could accuse the catholic church of that too.

but apart from those things i still believe that god's name is jehovah, his son is jesus, no trinity, and he died on a torture stake... i love reading the new world translation, i believe it's the best one, but i love reading other translations too!

AshtonCA

I love reading the New World Translation, I believe it's the best one, but I love reading other translations too!

Inquirer, Here is a website for you about how inacurate the NWT bible is. We also thought it was the best bible out there until we started looking into it. Did you know that the WTS changed a lot of the scriptures to make them fit to their beliefs and teachings? This right here is why this organization is going to be done away with because the bible says not to add to the bible, take away from the bible change it in any way. I hope this website helps you see where maybe it's not best to try to gain all of your bible knowledge for the NWT.

Some feel that the KJV is the best and most accurate, but I find it hard to understand, so I prefer another one that is just as accurate, which is the NIV.

Here is the site. http://www.howellministries.com/nwtperversions.html

Let me know what you think after you read this site.

Ash

47

Forbidden Pleasures

by mtbatoon in

jw
friends

.

after leaving, what (excluding the obvious bit of slap and tickle) is your favourite forbidden pleasure.

for me black pudding, full of bloody goodness

AshtonCA

oops, I didn't know OS was a sin when I was still JW. My parents never believed that the org had any right to tell them what they could or couldn't do in their bedroom, so they did what they wanted and never told anyone, which is the way it should be anyway. So, we didn't grow up with the knowledge that these things were wrong between mates.

I was doing it with a few friends while I was still JW, but I was doin' it secretly too, I just forwent the marriage part of it lol bad me! yikes! Not proud, just shocked to find out what I was doin' was considered a deadly sin, oops!

Ash

56

DO YOU KNOW THE KINGDOM SONG WORDS?????????????

by vitty in

jw
friends

after being in the org for 20 years, being regular at every meeting.

i must have sung the songs hundreds of times, but i cant sing the first line of any song off by heart..

i asked my husband, kids if they could, they also cant.. can you?.

AshtonCA

Side note, sorry for the double post,

but when I was a kid, I thought that song said "kiss the sun" I could never figure out why Jah would want us to kiss the sun, wouldn't that hurt?? Also, everytime I see Sunkist oranges, I think of that darn song! ahhhh.

Ash

56

DO YOU KNOW THE KINGDOM SONG WORDS?????????????

by vitty in

jw
friends

after being in the org for 20 years, being regular at every meeting.

i must have sung the songs hundreds of times, but i cant sing the first line of any song off by heart..

i asked my husband, kids if they could, they also cant.. can you?.

AshtonCA

Kiss the son lest god be angry and you perish in the way. Ours is the god of true prophecy....

lol That first one is actually the one that would get stuck in my head, and I actually found myself trying to find it on the net last month. I think it was the catchiest one they had.

Ash

56

DO YOU KNOW THE KINGDOM SONG WORDS?????????????

by vitty in

jw
friends

after being in the org for 20 years, being regular at every meeting.

i must have sung the songs hundreds of times, but i cant sing the first line of any song off by heart..

i asked my husband, kids if they could, they also cant.. can you?.

AshtonCA

LOL love this thread.

My mom used to say out loud at the start of each song, "dirge number 1." or whatever the number was. She hated the songs! There were a couple that I would always get stuck in my head, drove me nuts.

We knew the guy who did the musical score and wrote a lot of the songs, he is responsible for when they redid the songbook back in the 70's or 80's. He was a fabulous pianist, but the songs were just too darn slow and funarial.

Ash

36

Is Wearing a Cross wrong?

by AshtonCA in

ever since leaving the org 10+ years ago, i have often wondered about wearing a cross and if it is wrong to do.

i think the jw's see it as an idol, and i do know that the baptists actually pray to the cross because after i left the org, i became baptist for 2 years and they did pray to the big cross on the wall.

i'm not sure i believe that praying to the cross is such a good thing to do, but is wearing one as a symbol of my belief wrong?

AshtonCA

Hmmm, let's see... you left the organization 10+ years ago? And you are worried as to wether it's wrong? Is there still a little influence here somewhere?

Well, my parents haven't completely let go of all of their beliefs from 45+ years of being in the "truth". And it isn't that I need my parents to make my decisions for me, in fact I'm rebelling a bit about other subjects as well (i.e. having a gay person as a close friend). I just wanted to see how others who have left the org. feel about this subject.

Somewhere in the bible (I'm bad at remembering quotes) it says that we have to bare our cross or something like that, I think, so my thought was, if that's the case, why not wear the cross as a symbol of doing just that. I could be completely way off here, I'm working next to no sleep due to a new baby who keeps me up all night lol

Ash

36

Is Wearing a Cross wrong?

by AshtonCA in

ever since leaving the org 10+ years ago, i have often wondered about wearing a cross and if it is wrong to do.

i think the jw's see it as an idol, and i do know that the baptists actually pray to the cross because after i left the org, i became baptist for 2 years and they did pray to the big cross on the wall.

i'm not sure i believe that praying to the cross is such a good thing to do, but is wearing one as a symbol of my belief wrong?

AshtonCA

I dont think the baptists would have 'prayed to the cross' although it may have seemed that way. i think they have it there as a reminder of what jesus did, and may look at it to remind themselves, but they would know it was wrong to pray specifically to the cross.

Nope, they specifically bowed down on one knee and prayed up to the cross even going so far as to say Oh heavenly cross, we pray to you for guidance, sor something to that effect. I had never seen it done and I was taken aback.

Ash