That was a very funny story. Twisted, but funny.
One of my parents favorites, was a time I was also bored at the meeting. I think I was 4 or 5. I was squirming around and generally misbehaving, and after repeated warnings my father decided it was time to take me to the back and teach me a lesson. Well, 1/2 way up the aisle, being carried over my father's shoulder, I reached my hands out and said loudly, "Jehovah, save me."
He didn't.
Posts by ivy
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6of the mouth of babes
by Crumpet ini don;t know what made me think of this as its a memory i haven;t retrieved in 17 years at least but it made me chuckle and it was a favourite story of my parents!.
when i was 6 and my little sister was 3 we were at a thursday night meeting, when she began to whispher to my mum " i want a smack".
my mother thought she had misheard and looked away but no lil sis said it a bit louder tugging at her arm, "mummy i want a smack.
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ivy
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54
What made YOU drop Christianity?
by GetBusyLiving inafter i read coc and left the dubs for a short while i considered myself christian.
the way franz explained it, all that is required is to have faith in jesus and to love your neighbor as yourself and then you will be 'saved'.
the more i started pealing away at the onion though the dumber the premise of someone dying for my 'sins' seemed, and i just lost faith in it altogether.
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ivy
I did cling to the Christian label for a while out of fear for my eternal life. But at some point it's just not worth it. It has already been pointed out that the all-knowing god is going to know how you really feel. If you believe that, pretending will do you no good. I can't make myself agree with him, so the fear was going to be there regardless. Dropping Christianity was one of the most liberating things I've done. Sure, I may lose my life in the long run. But I wasn't going to want to live in his version of Utopia anyway.
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What made YOU drop Christianity?
by GetBusyLiving inafter i read coc and left the dubs for a short while i considered myself christian.
the way franz explained it, all that is required is to have faith in jesus and to love your neighbor as yourself and then you will be 'saved'.
the more i started pealing away at the onion though the dumber the premise of someone dying for my 'sins' seemed, and i just lost faith in it altogether.
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ivy
I was the rebellious child of a tyrannical, overbearing father. My life?s experiences just made me feel more compatible with satan then god or his perfect son. I left Christianity because it is ?preposterous that a god could set up something so unfair and nonsensical?. And yet, that?s god for you.
This thread reminds me of a great line in a Concrete Blonde song:
"I told the priest, don?t count on any second coming
God got his ass kicked the first time he came down here slumming.
He had the balls to come, the gall to die and then forgive us.
No, I don?t wonder why, I wonder what he thought it would get us?" -
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Have you conquered the indoctrination?
by Frog insomething i?ve wanted to ask you all for a while.
had you 100% denounced jw doctrine to yourself at the time of your leaving the org?
i know many have said that specific issues prompted them to leave i.e., wt membership in the un, silent lambs/child molestation policy, malawi political party card issues, inconsistent changes in doctrine i.e., 1975/1914 generation not passing?new light begets old light begets new light etc.
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ivy
The indoctrination is exactly why I joined this forum. I have spent over 10 years out of the religion but still believing. (I swear I am a fairly intellegent person) After spending some time reading posts I think that the time it takes to get it out of your brain may be related to why you left in the first place. Some people left because they learned enough about the inner workings of the borg that it made them realize that they could not be the one true followers of the one true god. (I envy you). I think that must make it a little easier to discount many of the teachings.
I left because I disagreed, not with the JW's, but with god. Which can really make that stuff stick in your head.
Krystal's story does bring some memories back. I know what it is like to be in love with the worldly boy and get pregnant at 17. It does take a lot of courage to stand up to the JW family and say, this is who I choose. After that, college (in my case, the boy ended up not really being what I wanted) single motherhood, and a family of friends that are some of the best people I know, despite what god may think about them.
But the indoctrination stays. I was busy over the past 12-15 years. I'm ready to start working on that now. -
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How do you amuse yourself during the daily commute?
by Crumpet ini commute to and from work between 2 and 4 hours every day.
does anyone else commute and what do you do to pass the time?
how long do you travel for?
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ivy
I drive about 45 minutes each way. I have been offered closer jobs, but the commute is actually a perk for me. Little traffic, beautiful scenery, and with a family at home, it's my "Alone Time". At this point I couldn't do it without my ipod. What was a luxury at first, is now a nessessity. I alternate between music, (having an ipod is like having your own personal radio station with no commercials) and digital books.
Now if only the gas prices would go down. -
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Regrets
by Blueblades indo you beat yourself up about things you should've, would've, could've done with your life, instead of becoming one of jehovah's witnesses.what regrets do you have, if any?
what are you doing now to overcome your regrets?.
blueblades
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ivy
Insomniac - No, that isn't childish, the first thing I thought of was the music scene I missed out on.
I don't have as many regrets. I didn't get baptized. I did escape that early marriage, and I did go to college.
While in college I really found my own voice, I guess I wish that had happened earlier. I sometimes think about the more self-righteous, or hypocritical JW's I knew, or about certain situations that I was put in or conversations I had, and I wish I could have put the woman I am today into the head of the child I was then. I would have given them Truth like they never heard it before.
Not that I'm still angry or anything... -
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Are the Demons Really Everywhere?
by professor inour witness family was obsessed with demonism.. at a very early age, i was introduced to strange stories of demonism.
a brother in the congregation had brought home a souvenier doll from a tropical island as a gift for his daughter.
the daughter would talk about how the doll would come to life, but the stories were dismissed and attributed to the child's imagination.
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ivy
I can't help it, I have to defend here
JW's are not against Harry Potter. My father is an elder, and my parents have taken my son to see the movies and bought some of the books for him.
It's the fringe freaks that cause this type of reaction. Like the whole smurf thing. I remember rumors going around my KH when I was a kid that my Cabbage Patch Kids were possessed and talking to me. I don't think that the borg actually tells their sheep to act this way, but I'll admit that they do cause some of the reaction with the constant threat of demons lurking.
I could be wrong, have the JW's actually written against Harry Potter. Tell me if so, I'll point it out to my father. -
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Are the Demons Really Everywhere?
by professor inour witness family was obsessed with demonism.. at a very early age, i was introduced to strange stories of demonism.
a brother in the congregation had brought home a souvenier doll from a tropical island as a gift for his daughter.
the daughter would talk about how the doll would come to life, but the stories were dismissed and attributed to the child's imagination.
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ivy
That is an interesting point that we may never understand.
I have a young boy who frequents the library I work at, he's not a JW, but of a similar fundamentalist upbringing. He once assured me that although Harry Potter was satanic because of the magic that was taught, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and other such are OK, because they are Disney. The kid is only about 8, so I couldn't really get into it, but I can't wait to see how he turns out. -
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Are the Demons Really Everywhere?
by professor inour witness family was obsessed with demonism.. at a very early age, i was introduced to strange stories of demonism.
a brother in the congregation had brought home a souvenier doll from a tropical island as a gift for his daughter.
the daughter would talk about how the doll would come to life, but the stories were dismissed and attributed to the child's imagination.
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ivy
Oh, I have those memories. These were the things that kept us up at night during slumber parties.
I remember studying the Salem Witch Trials in college, and thinking that I understood how that happened. The same thing happens among JW's all the time. Yes, it still happens. My son has a friend who is JW, around the age of 13. His mother goes all demon crazy every now and then and makes him throw away his pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh, or whatever else has been the rage, because she's sure it has some demonic influence. -
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I NEED HELP
by Shawn inhere is my situation: i am in the sacramento area of california.
i have a good friend of mine that is a jw.
she has recently not been attending meeting and not reading her watchtower.
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ivy
Shawn, to a great degree, the posts here are correct. You can not save someone from being a JW. I remember my own experiences with anyone who tried to talk me out of it just made me more determined to stay in the religion. Do not get into religious debates. JW's are warned that people will try to divert their faith by doing so. Instead, just show your friend that you are a good person. I remember that part of what made me leave was that fact that I had met many good people who were not JW's. I had friends who were Jewish, Catholic, gay, and atheist, and at some point I became too angry with the system to stick with it. My friends were not trying to get me out though. They accepted me for whatever I was. If you want to be a good friend, accept your friend in the same way.