Posts by LongHairGal

64

Havent gone to the kingdom hall in ten years but may have to go back...

by Joliette in

made a big mistake of talking about being raised as a jehovah's witness to some old friends and family.

people have told me that i am still a jws even though i've never been baptized.

i'm in school for social services, dealing with student loan debt, and a lot of other debt.

LongHairGal

JUST FINE:

You are super-right that you have to take care of yourself as a female..and I’m glad you learned how when you left the religion!

I came into the JWs as a young working adult. I couldn’t get over how much resentfulness I got from people there (both male and female) because I worked to support myself! This concept was so alien to them! I had Stepford-type wives with a 1950s mentality who acted like I was an aberration and I had very few friends there. Years later I ended up walking away from the religion and in time I Retired.

This past year (2020) with the Covid crisis I read how the JWs wanted people to donate all sorts of goods (food and otherwise)..and THEY would decide who was needy and would get whatever, etc. I thought to myself: if I were gullible enough and did not prepare for MY future I would have been so screwed it wouldn’t have been funny!.. I would have found MYSELF looking for charity and would have been at the mercy of petty elders and other JWs!!! 😳 So, all the idiots who criticized me and made remarks about not being ‘spiritual’ because I worked full time...can go take a flying leap.

I cannot stress enough that if a woman does not get married and have a man support her..she HAS to get an education and a career of some sort to provide for herself!!! And she has a relatively small window of time to do it. It doesn’t matter that we are in the 21st century. This fact did not change.

The OP is still young enough to do this and I wish her all the best.

64

Havent gone to the kingdom hall in ten years but may have to go back...

by Joliette in

made a big mistake of talking about being raised as a jehovah's witness to some old friends and family.

people have told me that i am still a jws even though i've never been baptized.

i'm in school for social services, dealing with student loan debt, and a lot of other debt.

LongHairGal

JOLIETTE:

I read your post and am sorry to hear what you are going through. Yes, living in the world is tough, no lie.. It is especially so for people raised JWs who never really got established with a decent job/career. Those who leave the religion now know they have to jump feet first into getting their education, etc. as there is no time to waste.

Your concerns about your financial future and situation are valid and the reasons you want to go back, because (as you say) you are struggling now and worried about student debt and worried about possible health issues, etc.

However, are you absolutely certain your family/mother are going to let you live with them? Will they support you or let you live there jobless? Do you have an expectation of inheriting a house or property?..Even if you were to inherit a house, you need money and income to maintain it (taxes, utilities, repairs). Um..Do you think you are going to get monetary assistance from the JWs in the congregation?? 😬 Please say you don’t believe this..There are fewer people there even able (or willing) to give $$. They are being hit up left and right.

This is where your job/career would come in. If you became a JW again..you would be strongly discouraged from having one. This is what they DO - especially to a woman. They tried to do this to me and I wouldn’t be Retired if I listened.

Nobody can tell you what to do as the decision is ultimately yours. I wish you all the best if you decide to go back to the religion.

14

If The Jehovah's Witnesses Stole Your Past...Don't Let Them Steal Your Future!

by The Bethelite in

jw
friends

yes, many here have lost many years of life due to being infected by this cult like religion.

for many it is very hard to let go of that life and those wasted years.. of course people need time to heal and this web site is a great place to do that, swap war stories and commiserate.. i was in for over 50 years.

so of course it will be with me for the rest of my life.

LongHairGal

LONGLIVETHERENEGADES:

You said it correctly that our Time is the currency of life itself! And, we have a limited amount of it.

Every person on the forum has invested a different amount of time in the religion. Myself, I was not born in but came in as a young working adult. I wasted about twenty+ years there (even if I was on the fringes) and am Out that amount of time. Many others were born-in and/or spent more time there. The longer somebody is in the harder it is for them.

While I am angry about failed prophecies and the deception which got me in, I am more angry about how I was treated.. Even though what I experienced personally can never be forgiven in my book (and I would never again subject myself to this treatment anywhere).. I do believe we have to move on.

We all have a New Year in which to work on it.

13

How Life May have Started on This Planet Without YHWH

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

some may be interested in this research from the scripps research institute.. this research and its conclusion builds on previous work, quote: "in a study published in the chemistry journal angewandte chemie, they demonstrated that a simple compound called diamidophosphate (dap), which was plausibly present on earth before life arose, could have chemically knitted together tiny dna building blocks called deoxynucleosides into strands of primordial dna.. the finding is the latest in a series of discoveries, over the past several years, pointing to the possibility that dna and its close chemical cousin rna arose together as products of similar chemical reactions, and that the first self-replicating molecules -- the first life forms on earth -- were mixes of the two.".

read more at this science daily web-site .... link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201228095428.htm.

LongHairGal

PISTOLPETE:

Very good posts and thoughts.

With regard to us being created as an experiment and (they) didn’t quite know what they were doing. Possibly. I often felt that when I read the biblical story of the flood I wondered why He didn’t know his creation was going to displease him..and to destroy a whole world as a punishment??

With regard to what you last said: “those being(s)(?) who created life on earth are long gone”..that could very well be the reality - depressing as it is. To be abandoned. Otherwise, where the HELL are they?

I had read somewhere that ancient mines in Africa were found (hundreds of thousands of years old) and that the first humans were supposedly created (Ancient Alien theory) to be a slave race to work these mines. This is also depressing and far from the noble beginning some imagine the human race had..But, will we ever know the truth about any of this?

33

Are Jehovah Witness willing to end studies?

by Maria Nieves in

https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/watchtower-study-october-2020/how-to-conduct-a-bible-study-that-leads-to-baptism-part-two/.

i recently came across the above watchtower article which spoke about conducting bible studies which lead to baptism.

it progressed to say that if the bible study instructor does not see growth within the student or the desire to work towards baptism, then the studies should end.

LongHairGal

MARIA NIEVES:

I believe they would be willing to end studies if someone doesn’t ‘progress’ in a certain amount of time.

They are lucky they can hang onto the JWs they already have! They will not want to risk having these JWs around a so-called worldly study that possibly has more education than they do, thinks too much and asks questions they cannot answer!

15

Please Watchtower Society : Not another '' LIVE FOREVER'' publication.

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

there will be another new generation of watchtower society followers that will be introduced to ''the.

carrot and stick.

'' promise something that will never be attained!.

LongHairGal

PISTOLPETE:

Yes, it is true that the older generation of JWs is passing away. These people who expected to walk into the ‘new system’ are mostly gone.

Even years ago when I was active, I heard an elder in conversation say to somebody (about someone who died) that many JWs will get to the new system the ‘underground way’. This made me angry when I heard this because it sounded like they were backing away from their belief that the new system was coming in time so they wouldn’t need to experience death.

When I began my Fade several years later, the first thing I did was to rid my mind of this paradise earth teaching because I felt it was a cruel trick to play on my mind. I don’t know if I truly ever believed it. It was a nice mental exercise..Everybody and every creature has died all throughout history (unless a few special people are keeping their existence secret).

The fact that a new publication might possibly be in the works to whet younger people’s appetite to supposedly ‘live forever’ and hang onto the religion doesn’t surprise me..I just know I’M past the point of falling for this.

28

I have a deep seated hatred for the leadership of the JW Cult

by mrquik in

i look back on my life & realize all major mistakes fall at the feet of the jw leadership.

no college, no birthdays, basically no celebrations.

lived my younger years as an outcast.

LongHairGal

GREATTEACHER:

Well, I’m certainly not ‘chained’ now and I’m glad I was raised Catholic and had a normal childhood and heeded my father’s ‘worldly’ wisdom.

Yeah, I know different congregations may have differed slightly but overall - the hypocrisy stinks to high heaven with these people. They thought single women were going to be targeted to do favors. But, they got nowhere with me.

At some point, some younger wives got jobs and then it was OKAY!! But, it sure wasn’t if I did it...Also, ALL the older JWs that I knew without exception had been in the workforce when they were younger and were getting their pensions!

Don’t ask where the trend came about pursuing poverty. But, the poverty being pushed wasn’t for THEM - just some other fool....A lot of the people who criticized me went to their graves after living a cushy life.

Looking back in retrospect I’m delighted I never listened to the foolish talk by older ones and even my own age peer group. These people wouldn’t be supporting me in Retirement now, that’s for sure. In fact, some of the younger couples may have gotten smart over the years and one partner got a job in an office because they needed medical benefits. Good for those who did because they were probably able to Retire!

One thing’s for certain: I’m glad I’m not there now because anybody who came up to me with an envelope asking for money for people who never wanted to work would be told off.

28

I have a deep seated hatred for the leadership of the JW Cult

by mrquik in

i look back on my life & realize all major mistakes fall at the feet of the jw leadership.

no college, no birthdays, basically no celebrations.

lived my younger years as an outcast.

LongHairGal

GREATTEACHER:

Interesting you say your dad was an elder who ‘always’ held a full time job - and was able to retire at 58 with a pension.

I also had a full time job but treated like shit in the congregation because of it..I guess because I’m a woman, right?..(Double standard).. These covetous idiots (who were apparently bothered by the existence of an independent woman with self-respect - who minded her own business)..thought they were going to get ME to quit my full time job to pursue poverty and pioneer - and do favors for Users to boot. I refused of course and let their garbage go in one ear and out the other! I wouldn’t be Retired today if I had listened.

I’m not the envious type and never resented anybody who was affluent, rich, dripping with diamonds, comfortably well-off or whatever. If they were able to retire early - fabulous. But, what I DID and do mind are older hypocrites who already had a job/pension under their belt who attempted to interfere in my life as a young person. Luckily, I never listened!..Maybe because I wasn’t born in.

There is absolutely No forgiveness in my book for what I experienced in the JW religion and this is mostly why I got the hell out.

28

I have a deep seated hatred for the leadership of the JW Cult

by mrquik in

i look back on my life & realize all major mistakes fall at the feet of the jw leadership.

no college, no birthdays, basically no celebrations.

lived my younger years as an outcast.

LongHairGal

MRQUIK:

I feel some of your pain and I wasn’t even a born-in.

I’m a twenty year ‘Fader’...What particularly bothers me is that there appears to be no accountability. Time just marches on, people die and the wrong done to them is forgotten, etc. I’m just grateful I followed my gut years ago..The only thing I can take comfort in is that the internet and the media exposes everything today and young JWs aren’t going to remain ignorant like in times past.

You deserve to get some happiness out of life!

84

QUITTING QUIETLY here is the Canadian version of the document

by gone for good in

a while back, i suggested that an easy, quick, quiet exit with the signing and dating of a concise and irrefutable document would spur faders and pimos to preempt the elders' interference by quitting quietly first , before a fade or a confrontation.

here is the document .

https://1drv.ms/w/s!avoitfxyvyqghq3gbmkhfyqp_jqp?e=8bttg1.

LongHairGal

GONE FOR GOOD:

Hi. I’m sorry if I misunderstood as I thought your intent was to stop shunning by submitting this signed and dated document. I see where you are coming from in that you want to stop the disfellowshipping of voluntary leavers.

However, if you were able to do this, what would it accomplish as far as the religion is concerned? Whether DFd or voluntary leaver: they see you as Out. It’s a distinction without much of a difference. It’s sort of like saying I quit so that somebody can’t say they were fired. Once somebody submitted this written document there would be a private meeting about the person and it would be put in their file. Even though there would be no formal announcement, the gossip would start and the person would be the talk of the town. There would be gatherings where the person is the topic of conversation and the whole circuit knows.

Having no announcement made does not mean a person will retain their friends and family there. I don’t think you can win here..Even if somebody retained one friend, this person would be your friend secretly and would not broadcast it because then THEY would be judged.

Of course, none of this matters if a person wants to leave and not have anything to do with anybody there. The problem arises if somebody hopes to defeat the JW system in general to avoid being shunned or gossiped about because this would be a lost cause. I would say just Move On with your life!