so my husband and i are on vacation.
we are in another country visiting his non-jw family.
we lived here for many years, and our closest jw friends are all here, albeit a 4 hr.
MY kids have graduated from 2 of the best universities in the world, have great jobs, LOTS of friends, have traveled the world, and are free to think, say, and believe what they want. And that is priceless.
As hard as it is to leave, it is good that you have taken the step for the sake of your children. It is a point that I like to make to people that are in two minds as to whether they should take to step to leave or stay and go through the motions.
i'm new to this website and i thought i'd create a profile.
i was disfellowshipped in july of 2013 in another city.
i since moved and starting going to meeting about 6 months ago in my new city.
You have not said too much about your background, but if you are young and single, what about your future? The concern I have is that you will be locking in another generation to a high control religion. If you get married to a JW and have children, they will need to be raised in a doomsday cult that is fast becoming irrelevant. 2/3 JW children leave, and few of those say positive things about being raised in this isolationist religion.
If you marry a JW, and you already have some knowledge about the religion not being The Truth, there will mostly likely come a time when you will want to leave. That puts tremendous strain on a relationship. If you have children, it is often a turning point where it will suddenly hit you that you do not want your children to be raised that way, which can destroy a family if the partner does not feel the same way.
The younger you start building a normal life for yourself that does not revolve around a high control religion, the easier the rest of your life will be.
been lurking here for yyyyyeeeeears, but was too busy with school, jw life and other interests.
now that i'm done with education for the time being anyway, plus the jw life is under pretty good control, i can spend some time and throw my views here and there in some attractive topics.. born-in, and deeply indoctrinated, but with life experience came better comprehension of my lot in life and have come to accept that, just like the family one is born into, jws are my family, friends, my ultimate and overall identity.
a jw is what i am; like the song 'hotel california', and like so many on this board, check out anytime you'd like but one could never leave.. remember like it was yesterday the failed 'the wolf is coming' calls of 1975, mid-80s, late 90's, y2k, 2004 or so, and same will be with the latest effort to get people overly excited about 'the end'.
It's very surprising to observe many 'younger' JWs beginning to treat the Org as just 'a religion' and not follow it blindly as previous generations, or even take it into account at every single step in life. This way is most comfortable for many of us inside, and as I've gauged it lately, it's the way will continue as the younger generation continues to take over.
Changes constantly; can't hardly wait 'til they knock off the Friday from the big annual convention, also that they lower the pioneering hours even more. Lately I'm seeing a more relaxed outlook on college education as the admin. realizes is now a necesity to be better educated than just High School. Love it!
I have speculated that with 1914 being too far away to be relevant to people born after 2000, the religion will need to change tack and become just a religion, not a doomsday cult. It will then cut back on meetings and activity further, and push more for donations.
The other thing that needs to change is emphasis on living forever on earth. People would rather have an immortal soul than think they may be buried and gone for many years, until God resurrects a photocopy of who they once were. It was fine when all JWs thought they would never die, but now that the older ones realise they probably will, being immortal in heaven is a more appealing concept. That shift is already happening, with the number of anointed rising. Since the current Governing Body would not have been considered worthy 30 years ago due to their age, they themselves show their attitude rebellious in this area and so likely to be accepting of such a change.
i'm new to this website and i thought i'd create a profile.
i was disfellowshipped in july of 2013 in another city.
i since moved and starting going to meeting about 6 months ago in my new city.
There is a sample letter at http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/207544/1/My-cousin-got-reinstated-guess-who-wrote-the-letter-take-that-Jehovah#.VAMu57ySzZc
Once you are reinstated, will you continue to attend meetings or fade out? I understand that it is hard to lose family, but if you know it is not the truth, then you will regret later in life devoting time to the religion and not building a life based on reality.
please help with this: when i was in college, there was a lot of talk about university and how all who pursue that are wasting their time and all that.
even before going to uni, there was a lot of pressurr on me concerning my decision.
during that time, two elders sat with me for appointment as ms and asked me if i have freedom of speech in the org since i'm going to uni and i said no.
It is quite simple, don't accept the appointment. Make sure you don't report more than 4 hours a month and they won't even offer.
I was an MS and then moved congregations. I started reporting 1 hour a month, so that they could not reappoint me, but would not get upset that I was inactive and chase me for reports. I was sometimes asked why I was not reaching out but over time people stopped asking.
been lurking here for yyyyyeeeeears, but was too busy with school, jw life and other interests.
now that i'm done with education for the time being anyway, plus the jw life is under pretty good control, i can spend some time and throw my views here and there in some attractive topics.. born-in, and deeply indoctrinated, but with life experience came better comprehension of my lot in life and have come to accept that, just like the family one is born into, jws are my family, friends, my ultimate and overall identity.
a jw is what i am; like the song 'hotel california', and like so many on this board, check out anytime you'd like but one could never leave.. remember like it was yesterday the failed 'the wolf is coming' calls of 1975, mid-80s, late 90's, y2k, 2004 or so, and same will be with the latest effort to get people overly excited about 'the end'.
Welcome.
have found a nice click within of like-minded JWs
Are you saying they don't accept it as really the truth, but you all hang out together as part of the same social identity?
i'm new to this website and i thought i'd create a profile.
i was disfellowshipped in july of 2013 in another city.
i since moved and starting going to meeting about 6 months ago in my new city.
Welcome kayanow. Do you still believe it is the truth, or are you trying to be reinstated for family reasons?
i'm sure real soon they'll have video chat online bible studies, email questions and answers, etc.
right now their website still has 'write a letter' option going on.
how many will get in on the online bible studies and emails and ask some probing questions, ttatt stuff?
How many will get in on the online bible studies and emails and ask some probing questions, TTATT stuff?
What a great idea. It could really backfire on the Org.
i struggled as a jw to accept that the good news of the kingdom was ever going to be preached in all the inhabited world by jws, as there were many parts of the world with few to no jws.
there are not enough to cover the 3 billion plus people in asia to allow everyone to get a chance to hear the message.
it also was offensive to me that jehovah would kill those billions that had never had a chance to accept the watchtower message.
I struggled as a JW to accept that the good news of the kingdom was ever going to be preached in all the inhabited world by JWs, as there were many parts of the world with few to no JWs. There are not enough to cover the 3 billion plus people in Asia to allow everyone to get a chance to hear the message. It also was offensive to me that Jehovah would kill those billions that had never had a chance to accept the Watchtower message. In the past, I was told that Angels would draw the sheeplike to his people, but even that was hardly possible in countries like India.
I have no doubt that the GB will start using their website as a way to overcome these objections. They can now say that the internet is accessible to virtually every person in the entire inhabited world. When sheeplike ones in areas that have no access to JWs search for truth they will find jw.org. Angels will direct a person's google search to go directly to the page that will teach them about Jehovah and save their life.
It is such an easy way for JWs to say they have now fulfilled prophecy. Obviously that reasoning is wrong, as most people will never look at jw.org, and a cursory glance will have absolutely zero affect on what someone believes, but I can see it being a powerful tool in satifying JWs that question their global relevance to Mat 24:14.
i was having a chat with an elder and couple of friends regarding apostates and how to protect ourselves and funnily how to identify them!.
during the discussion the elder mentioned: jehovah's witnesses is most attacked religion in the world.
there are no other religions that are under the spotlight.
JWs experience very little in the way of persecution. A few negative websites hardly constitute persecution. I get emails from JWs asking why I am persecuting them, simply for having a site. I don't promote it to JWs, and on it there is no call to action against JWs, so it is clutching at straws to claim it as persecution, but they have to because there is very little else that happens to JWs these days could be classified as persecution.
Perscution of other religions is far worse in some areas. There are scores of religions whose members are being killed each year. Just look at the wars in recent past in Ireland where Catholics and Protestants have been killing each other, or the what is happening in the Middle East, between Muslims, or Muslims and Christians. Or Jews and Muslims.
Falun Gong is a peaceful religion from China that has been banned and thousands have died for their beliefs over the last 30 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong
Christians are persecuted around the world. See https://www.opendoorsusa.org/persecution/ that lists the countries where Christians by the millions are suffering for what they believe.
JWs are an insular group totally removed from the reality of what is going on around them, and have developed their own persecution complex.
