Posts by urbanized

37

JW kids who are currently in college LOVED the convention drama!

by urbanized in

here's a transcript of a post about the 2005 godly obedience convention (which i read about on this board and seemed to highlight a drama in which a biblical story was highly distorted in order to discourage higher education) from a jw youth group on www.myspace.com.

posted: jul 5, 2005 6:43 pm.

hey everyone!

urbanized

There are lots of JW groups, and this one is specifically for "young JW's": http://groups.myspace.com/youngandfunJehovahwitnesses heh

20

Hi.. I'm also new and wanted some opinion...

by Lynne Y in

hi, i'm lynne.. i was wondering about religion for months and found this website.. i was hoping to get some feedbacks... almost everyone in my mom's family is a witness, and i was born and raised as a witness.

and yet, i never really wanted to get baptized, maybe because my father left the truth(?

although i don't like the expression, the truth, i don't know what else to say.. heh..).

urbanized

Lynne, it took me longer to correct the formatting than to write it!! Hats off to you doing honest hard research on the matter. Your religion, your relationship with your mom, it's all YOUR LIFE, and you should be the one making those decisions, even if the harsh environment at the KH makes you feel like the only choices you have are between LIFE and DEATH, you know better. Please come back here for help when you need it. jgnat, i appreciate the nice words. :)

37

JW kids who are currently in college LOVED the convention drama!

by urbanized in

here's a transcript of a post about the 2005 godly obedience convention (which i read about on this board and seemed to highlight a drama in which a biblical story was highly distorted in order to discourage higher education) from a jw youth group on www.myspace.com.

posted: jul 5, 2005 6:43 pm.

hey everyone!

urbanized

Here's a transcript of a post about the 2005 Godly Obedience convention (which I read about on this board and seemed to highlight a drama in which a biblical story was highly distorted in order to discourage higher education) from a JW youth group on www.myspace.com

Posted: Jul 5, 2005 6:43 PM

Hey Everyone! My convention was this past weekend, and i just wanted to let you all know it was GREAT.. SOOOOO encouraging!!!! The drama was excellent too, it was about timothy... i wont get into new releases, i want that to be a surprise!!! Agape to all! :-)

Posted: Jul 5, 2005 10:40 PM

whats up Courtney? where ya been?

yeah it was awesome!

Posted: Jul 6, 2005 2:53 AM

Mine was great too. I took some memorable pics and I started the new book.

Posted: Jul 11, 2005 11:17 AM

I just got back from mine. It was awesome. All the talks were very encouraging. I met some new people and it really helped me realize that I should be doing all I can to please Jehovah God. I mean, I thought I was already doing fine spiritually, but this convention really opened my eyes and made me realize that I can still be doing a lot more. The DRAMA was spectacular. It made me cry. lol. And I'm surely going to be .... okay ... I'm not going to give anything else away.

OVERALL ... IT MADE MY SUMMER!!!

Agape to all.

Posted: Jul 12, 2005 7:56 AM

yeah i had my convention in june but it was definately unbelievable. the talks were so good, the drama was inspirational and also in my convention an 88 yr old man got baptized. that was very touching.

Posted: Jul 12, 2005 4:26 PM

I felt like I knew everyone at mine. The shy feeling I used to get is no longer there because of the brotherly love I see during the conventions.

________________________________________

I just want to point out that when you go to these posters' profiles, you notice that in addition to listing things like "Hangin w/my J-Dub crew" or "learning about Jehovah's awesome creations" or "bein no part of this world for shizzle" under their general interests, they're also IN COLLEGE.

My selfless hat is off to these poor kids, trapped into this cult because of their parents, simply paying lip service to good snooze of the kingdom, or caught somewhere between piety and confusion, or something. I wonder if they even know what it was like to be a young Jehovah's Witness at ANY OTHER TIME IN HISTORY, when it was really unheard of for even the brightest young student to go to college, even community college. Selfishly, I think that maybe they are those lucky slacker JW's whose parents don't really pay attention to anything they do and get whatever they want. I want to send them all messages with a headline: DON'T YOU KNOW THAT YOUR COLLEGE EDUCATION WON'T GET YOU INTO GOD'S KINGDOM?!? LOVE, APOSTATEA. I want to ask them if they can imagine what it feels like to be asked at 29 by an 18 year old why you're graduating at such an old age.

I don't know. So does anybody have a take on this?

One of these kids even has a profile picture where he is kissing a beer bottle.

20

Hi.. I'm also new and wanted some opinion...

by Lynne Y in

hi, i'm lynne.. i was wondering about religion for months and found this website.. i was hoping to get some feedbacks... almost everyone in my mom's family is a witness, and i was born and raised as a witness.

and yet, i never really wanted to get baptized, maybe because my father left the truth(?

although i don't like the expression, the truth, i don't know what else to say.. heh..).

urbanized

Hi, Lynne. Welcome aboard. Please don’t mind this formatting if it all comes out in one horrible long paragraph; its hard to format text in this forum on a Mac. I'm new to the forum myself. Your story sounds kind of familiar to me. I didn't leave the organization until I was 17, but as you know, even that's a late age for an unbaptized girl. Which I was. I was never baptized for the same reasons as you describe, although there was pressure now and then. I wasn't one of those slack JW's or anything, my family was quite serious about it, I think that I escaped a lot of the congregational pressure that a teenager might usually face because of two reasons: 1) my mom died when I was ten, and I think people just felt sorry for me, and maybe expected me to screw up a little and 2) my dad had health problems that didn't permit him to handle anymore responsibility at the Kingdom Hall than serving as a Ministerial Servant, so his status in the congregation wasn't exactly riding on my baptism or anything. Anyway, as to your question of baptism, it's like marriage...if you have any doubts whatsoever, DON'T DO IT. Why would you make a commitment like that when you didn't want to? Of course the pressure to be baptized is immense, but you seem to have handled it thus far. My reasons for leaving? Lost interest, felt dead inside, wanted things that the Society simply would not let me have, it was boring, it was boring, it was boring. Did I find something else? No, not immediately. I had read James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and I had decided that like his main character, Steven Daedelus, I didn't care if the confines of religion were justified or not, I was making a choice to defy them, and if that choice meant condemnation then I welcomed condemnation just fine. It was dramatic in my head, but real life kept just going, and surprisingly well. Here is a really brief list of the transition phases I went through for the next 12 years or so (seriously generalizing here)

1. Left what I thought was the truth simply because it wasn’t for me. This meant that I was able to enjoy tons of things that I couldn’t before, have a life with interests, be free, etc. etc., but unfortunately it also meant that every now and then I cried under my blankets for hours because I was going to die in Armageddon.

2. Began to realize that the truth wasn’t really the truth after all.
This meant that I stopped crying under my blankets, and started feeling better about my life. I stopped feeling eternally doomed and damned and just started to feel normal. Amazing. I could now get serious about college and other things that never felt within reach. I sure didn’t like to talk about my JW past with anyone, however, because now although I felt free from blame for my worldly life, I felt somehow responsible for growing up in a weirdo religion.

3. Finally realized that the truth was not only a lie, but a crazy cult. Once I got away long enough from the cult, I saw it for what it was. This only took about 10 years. In the meantime, did I seek out spirituality of any sort? No, not actively. Most of the time I didn’t feel it was necessary. Sometimes though I felt sore inside for lack of it. My life had meaning though, something that I never felt while part of the organization. In the Org, I only mattered as long as I was a faithful member of Jehovah’s organization, an upstanding young Christian, etc. etc. My hopes, goals and talents meant nothing if they weren’t being used to promote the Org’s idea of God’s Kingdom. Nothing about my personality mattered one bit to anyone in that Kingdom Hall.

Last year I went church shopping for a place I could feel comfortable, get my weekly fix of heavy liturgy (something we all missed out on if we grew up JW) and belong to a community as I was about to graduate from college and leave that one behind. I also wanted to get involved in some church-organized community service. I visited an Episcopal church and I enjoyed it immensely, but I ended up becoming a member of the 2nd church I visited, a downtown Presbyterian church with a kind and interesting congregation. The Presbyterian message meant a lot to me because of many reasons, for one, there is no fiery hell, and that my ex-brothers and sisters, is the one I will never be able to get over. Presbyterian’s do not believe they are the only true religion, they do believe in responsible family planning, they allow all to take part in the communion- I was allowed to take part although I wasn’t baptized! They are not a perfect Religion; I don’t believe there is one. But I felt for the first time ever in my life, that if there was a right place to be in, then I was in it. These people were interested in who I was, they were interested in working hard to make their neighborhood a better place, they were educated, compassionate people of all political persuasions and I fit right in. Just as my Inquirer’s Classes were about to end and my membership was about to officially begin, the Youth Pastor took me out to lunch and asked if I wanted to be baptized. “Adult baptisms show God’s presence in our congregation,” was among some of the beautiful things he said to me concerning the matter. It only took me a few hours to think that one through, of course I did. It felt so different than languishing in the JW’s for 17 years, being told again and again that I needed to make this drastic commitment that meant my very life. Now I am a baptized member of this wonderful Presbyterian church. They don’t monitor my behavior, and they offer me many opportunities to get involved in civic and volunteer life. I could go on and on, but I’m not trying to sell the Presbyterian church to you. What I’m trying to do is show you that I left the JW’s for the wild open, and it was okay. I left and I did feel at times that there was something missing, and it was okay. 12 years later I found something wonderful spiritually and it didn’t matter how long it took me to find it, because in the meantime I found all these other things out about myself, through education, through relationships with friends & boyfriends, and through work.

As far as your family goes Lynne, I could go into that story but this boundless paragraph would drag on and on. Besides, you know your mother best and how you handle that situation is up to you. Sometimes before my dad died, it was worth it to let him talk about Jehovah and the congregation and eternal gloom and doom and even agree here and there, sometimes It was only worth it to steer the conversation to something else. You need to follow your heart and I know it sounds easier than it is but that’s the best way to start things off.

74

who escapes more often, those born into it or adult converts?

by kid-A in

jw
friends

what strikes me on this board is the number of adult converts that have left the borg, either fading out or getting df'd.

from my experience (i was born into it, 2nd generation, left before getting baptized) most of the faders or escapees were also like.

me, born into it, never really accepted it and just bowed out at the first opportunity.

urbanized

I was born into it, my parents were recent, recent converts. Both claimed that had hid when JW's came to their door in the past, but then something changed, and I'm not sure what. My mother had no previous association with JWs, but my dad had been to KH with his mom when he was a kid and then just faded out. My faith was tested by the death of one parent at 10 yrs old, and by 13 I was leading a double life as they say. Never was baptized. My dad had horrible health problems so there was no exceeding pressure on him to become an elder, therefore less pressure on me to be baptized. By 18 I was leading my own life. In my experience at the KH I went to all my life, only those born into it or married into it seemed to leave. Suddenly a three-times-weekly fixture would just vanish; a few weeks would go by and you would think, "Where'd so-and-so go?" And then you would hear of their df-ing, or their da-ing. I'm sure it happens to all, though.

24

Life Force in Plants never mentioned by Watchtower

by VM44 in

the watchtower for decades has said consistently that both man and animals have the same spirit, or life force.

but what about plants?

i have not seen the watchtower ever mention that plants, which are living things, possess spirit, or a life force.. i wonder why that is so.. --vm44

urbanized

I know. Mark Lanegan is awesome.

11

"TRUE" Christianity? My Thoughts..........

by Sunspot in

the wts takes great pride in announcing that because they go from door-to-door to preach their beliefs, that they are "chosen" by god to represent him--the only ones who have the right to do so.. very misleading advertising, imho.

the facts being, that followers of jesus worldwide are living their lives in the true meaning of his teachings as they unselfishly give of themselves every day.. my understanding of "true" christianity vastly differs from that of the watchtower society.

my reasoning is this;.

urbanized

Sunspot, They're thinking what I was taught to believe while I was handing them out, and what the literature espouses non-stop. The only way that God's sheep can help the worldly people is to preach, preach, preach to them. Their kind of preaching involves, no, necessitates putting themselves above those they are preaching too. And oh, guess what, they're above spending their time, energy or money on trying to put an end to these problems, since only Jehovah can take care of it anyway. I really don't think it will ever change, because it's all part of 'being no part of this world' which is rule no. one.

11

"TRUE" Christianity? My Thoughts..........

by Sunspot in

the wts takes great pride in announcing that because they go from door-to-door to preach their beliefs, that they are "chosen" by god to represent him--the only ones who have the right to do so.. very misleading advertising, imho.

the facts being, that followers of jesus worldwide are living their lives in the true meaning of his teachings as they unselfishly give of themselves every day.. my understanding of "true" christianity vastly differs from that of the watchtower society.

my reasoning is this;.

urbanized

This is a great post. I think that the Kingdom of God is kindness and love utmost for neighbor, brother, sister, stranger and self. When I pray for the Kingdom of God to come, I am praying for the spirit of these things to reside within me. Lately I think a lot about the stigma that the JW's attached to all forms of organized charity. I grew up actually believing that the Red Cross, the YMCA, the World Wildlife Federation, etc. etc. were all just a little bit ineffective and sinister. I think the JW mindset promotes a superiority complex and breeds laziness and a lack of concern for fellow humans. It is so easy to sit around and whine whine whine about how bad the world is and yet never lift a finger about any of the problems going on in either the global or local community. It's funny, I just finished getting my degree in Urban Studies. The last time I picked up an Awake (in the last 2 years or so) the cover story was something about 'THE URBAN CRISIS' Of course, I read voraciously to see what the organization would have to say about something I just spent the last 5 years studying. The first half and more of the article read like a standard, if somewhat sophomoric, academic text on the problems, urban blight, crime, sprawl, pollution, etc. etc. With only a few paragraphs to go, the article then took a turn; it basically said: Hey, man can never solve these problems. So let the cities rot, but faithful Jehovah's Witnesses continue to preach the good news of the kingdom to everyone who will listen. I know this is probably obvious, but it was only with the reading of this article that I realized that every single Awake cover article ever written used the EXACT same formula, for every single problem ever. I nearly puked. What a bunch of trash.

48

If you were bullied at school for being a JW kid..

by mtbatoon in

jw
friends

..would you thank the bullies now?.

i must admit that the social pressure was a large factor in my exiting.

though it was hell at the time i'd rather that than life as as dub now.

urbanized

Thank you everyone for the welcome! It's true, those teachers were priceless. Like an oasis in a desert of rigidity.

48

If you were bullied at school for being a JW kid..

by mtbatoon in

jw
friends

..would you thank the bullies now?.

i must admit that the social pressure was a large factor in my exiting.

though it was hell at the time i'd rather that than life as as dub now.

urbanized

I think I bullied myself even more than any of the kids at school ever could have. I was teased plenty, but never beaten up (not for being a JW) but I think I had more good experiences with the worldly teachers and students than bad. People trusted me, they thought I was smart and dorky. I got to use one of my anecdotes up on the platform at the Kingdom Hall one night, talking about how there was a small robbery at our school bookstore where I worked, but no one suspected me because I was "too honest to steal." Spreading the good news about the young JW's sparkling reputations among the world! Later in my academic career, when asked out by boys I didn't find all that attractive, I could quietly let them know that, with all my regrets, my religion prohibited me from dating them. It would backfire on me later when a boy that I did like asked me out. Back to elementary school, here's a connection I've recently come up with, and let me see if any of you guys have the same kind of experience to report. Then I'll actually introduce myself and all. :) I actually think that growing up as a middle-class white female JW taught me a lot about Political Correctness and the use of inclusionary language. Do any of you remember having incredibly understanding teachers and friends, who would never flinch once upon hearing about your situation? Then, when arranging for the class Christmas party, they would go out of their way to call it a "Winter Celebration" just so you, one Jehovah's Witness student in a class of 29 normal kids, could join in? I mean, it rarely, if ever, worked. My parents wouldn't fall for the old language switch-er-oo, but years later, now I think about the effort made on my behalf. Those teachers owed me respect, but they didn't owe me any special favors. But every year they tried hard, and so did some of the students, changing the wording of things that were dear traditions to them just so I could enjoy a glass of punch and a cookie with everyone else. I think about that now when I hear people whine about "PC language." I remember a recent thread in an online political science class condemning language that refered to the giant Christmas tree in Rockerfeller Plaza as a "holiday tree" or something similar. "Why do we have to please everyone? Since when is Christmas about anyone but Christians?" and on and on, and the topic degenerated into PC language involving race and ethnicity and on and on. I think if those people ever had an experience like my own, they would understand just how important language is. And I thank the JW's for giving me that opportunity. I begrudge them for lots of other things though! Anyway, I'm new here. Long-time reader, first-time poster, anyway. And I want to thank the lot of you for hours and hours of amazing reading. I'm truly surprised at all the wit and wisdom I find here. As we all know, growing up in a cult can make one bitter and fragile, and well, to be frank, I'm just really shocked at all the humour I'm finding on this site. I nearly split my gut at the office yesterday with "Points from the Assembly we didn't attend.." Thanks so much. I look forward to posting and reading a lot more.