Sorry to hear alot of what has happened, but it sounds like you're with a good guy now, which is great! May family is mostly in, but I just stopped going to meetings about 5 years ago. No need to disassociate myself, I've not been disfellowshipped, I just quit. After a while, you're family figures it out and can be pushy, but my thought is that people need to do what's best for themselves, as long as you're not hurting anyone. I don't consider making your own spiritual decisions as hurting someone else, no matter how much they try to make you feel that way. At some point family will start saying "Why are you doing something that means I can't spend time with you?" Remember that it is NOT YOU doing this, it is them. It's hard, but you have a life to live and a right to live it. Note: I'd put paragraph breaks in but they don't show up. Sorry about that.
Posts by thom
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21Not sure what to do - Not "in" and not "out"
by Alexia inlong story short: forgive my grammar, im in a hurry!.
i grew up as a jw by my mother who was baptized about two years before i was born.
my dad studied but was a severe (really severe) alcoholic and my older brother studied but was never really into it.
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109
Your most memorable Kingdom Hall meeting disruptions!
by easyreader1970 ini remember about twenty years ago some teenagers were caught fornicating in one of the additional schools.
the schools were downstairs, essentially separated from the rest of the kh.
they weren't just happened upon, though.
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thom
In 40 years of going to the KH nothing more than the same experience AlmostAtheist describes with the mics picking up CB's, and a few times the power going out. Neither of those was all that much of a disruption, we must have been too tired to fight.
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22
A jw reaction to the BIG Announcement
by Tired of the Hypocrisy inhey kids, what's doing?.
i sent off an email to a relative and asked if she heard anything about the big announcement this sunday.
i told her what i heard about it and here is her response.
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thom
I just mentioned this to my grandmother a couple of hours ago. Her reaction was about the same, "No, I haven't heard anything like that. They wouldn't do that, I'm sure."
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21
Thinking of giving it all up!
by eyeslice ini am sure this isn't a mid-life crisis i have done that and got out of the jws.
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but i am seriously thinking of just leaving the west with its rat race, emphasis on money, senseless tv and media, cars, shopping malls, pre-packaged food, supermarkets, etc, etc, and moving to india to live in a small cottage near a beach somewhere.. anyone else got the urge to get out of the rat-race?.
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thom
I have seriously considered a major change, but not one that gives up all the money, senseless TV and media, cars, shopping malls, pre-packaged food, supermarkets, etc, etc. I worked in Taiwan for a while in the 90's and I've considered going back as a teacher (English). Not sure yet...
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22
Crisis of Conscience stolen from my local library
by neverendingjourney ini finished reading combating cult mind control a few days ago.
i went to the local library to try to get a copy of crisis of conscience.
i had the librarian search for it, and it's not available in any of the municipal library's branches (i live in a fairly large city).
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thom
Or someone like me that checks a book out of the library, forgets he has it, moves across the country, finds it a year later and mails it back to the library.
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17
The WTS leaves me no choice but to ''fade''!
by RULES & REGULATIONS innotice what it says in the watchtower magazines from the 1980's about people who either reject or leave the faith of jehovah's witnesses.
if you get disfellowshiped,disasociate yourself,or reject the teachings of the organizationan ....... you will be treated the same.
they really give you no other ways of leaving the organization.
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thom
Some don't have the interest in taking on the WT org. I personally don't care if someone else is a JW, I just decided that I won't be one anymore (4 years ago). I didn't get df'd. I didn't da myself. I just quit going. I smoke when I'm driving around. We had Christmas lights up, halloween stuff. Just living life my way.
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34
Wife has gone back to the Organization...what can I expect??
by Shadow1 inmy wife and i have been married for just over one year.
while we were just dating, she had told me that she used to belong to the jehovah's witnesses, but no longer had those beliefs.
i thought i could handle all of this (i am a non- believer), but she has since got back to the org (all her family belong as well).
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thom
I know of a couple in your situation. She didn't "come back", but she joined the org when she was about 40 or so. He never did. To this day they're still married (it's been about 20 years), she's still a JW and he isn't. They both seem to respect eachother and seem happy. He does do holidays, but doesn't expect her to get involved. She doesn't tell him he can't. That's just an experience I know of. Of course every couple is different.
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12
Sunday Public Talk from 45 mins to 30 mins?
by united states of nothing inhas anybody heard that starting this new year they will be shortening the public talk from 45 mins to 30 mins?.
does anybody think this might be a way to accomplish two things:.
-get meeting attendance up.
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thom
I didn't realize the change but we went to the meeting yesterday and sure enough, the talk was 30 minutes. First I thought he (my father) didn't have enough material, but then realized what was going on. We left after the talk so I have no idea how long the WT lasted. There's no way I could have sat through that!
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30
I don't like using Jehovahs' name anymore
by LouBelle ini must say the more and more i learn and find my way around my spirituallity the less i use the name jehovah.
it just reminds me of everything i went through, reminds me of the ""bad"" and not the good of god.
it reminds me of hypocracy and mind control.
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thom
I tend to associate that name with JW's in my mind. The times that I've discussed god/creation/whatever with people, I usually just say 'god' or 'whoever might have created us'. I don't specifically believe in the god of the bible anymore, but I do tend to believe in a creator. I think maybe we were just his science project and by now he's off having a good time and has forgotten about us. I wonder if he got a good grade.
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thom
For a long time as a JW I expected god to kill most of the people on earth. I never really saw how that was right, but tried to tune it out. So, no, I didn't want to see the end come.