Posts by NowImFree

46

Born again JW's?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i am sorry, but i just find it so hard to see a bunch of former witnesses doing the whole born again thing.

acting in a way that is just trading one line of thought, for another.

basically, one time you said you were waiting for the "new system" and now you pulled that thought out and replaced it with the "waiting for heaven" comment.

I just wanted to mention that I am a born again Christian, but I would not call myself radical or a "right winger". I do not judge people like I did when I was a witness. I see my own faults and weaknesses and I know that my only salvation is in Christ alone, not religion and not in my own works. I see some of the people who claim to be
Christians such as all the ones who are mixing in politics (like James Dobson and others) who are very judgemental and condemnatory of others and I do not want to be anything like them. It bothers me that people lump us all together because Christians are very diverse, unlike JWs. As a Christian, I enjoy life, not like when I was a witness. I can celebrate the holidays, I can be friends with whoever I choose, I can read whatever I want, debate with people of any belief system and not get scared. There is no comparison with my life now as opposed to when I was a witness. I feel freedom instead of being in prison, big difference.

Wendy

46

Born again JW's?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i am sorry, but i just find it so hard to see a bunch of former witnesses doing the whole born again thing.

acting in a way that is just trading one line of thought, for another.

basically, one time you said you were waiting for the "new system" and now you pulled that thought out and replaced it with the "waiting for heaven" comment.

NowImFree

Hi sspo,

If you really want to know about me personally, I had many personal experiences including a dream unlike anything I had ever experienced. The dream occurred after I had been praying for direction about the witnesses on if I should disassociate or stay in for a while. I had thought it would be good to stay in the organization so that I could try to talk to my JW family about what I had found out about the organization, kind of a closet born again Christian within the organization. I really thought that would be an OK thing to do, at least for a while. Well, that night I woke up about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning because I had an intense dream or, not sure what it was was. I was so shook up I woke up my son and told him what had happened to me. The very next evening, the PO of my hall called and wanted to meet with me to discuss "what had been going on with me". I had not been to the hall in year nor had I tried to contact anyone or seen anyone. But all of this happened within 24 hours. He ended up coming over the next morning and I had a long debate with him and I disassociated that day. There is a whole lot more that happened andit proved to me that God is really involved in peoples lives, especially when they believe in him. And if you believe, he will prove it in amazing ways.

13

JW'S art of celebrating without celebrating...

by kzjw in

wtf people??!

i mean if jw's can watch &/or purchase xmas movies, toys and other stuff during the holiday season, then isn't that celebrating?

we went out & bought a an x-box 360(the $400 one!

NowImFree

My JW sister and her JW family celebrate "family day" in January. They do this on their anniversay which is early January and it involves feasting on a big family dinner, wrapped gifts being exchanged among the whole family and decorations. It looks like Christmas, sounds like Christmas and smells like Christmas, but they say it's not Christmas. And they cannot spend any time with non-JW family member during the Holidays.

Another hypocritcal story for you. I have a friend who disassociated and she is married to a JW elder. So that he would not have to spend Thankgiving day and weekend with his wife(my friend) other members at the kingdom hall invited him for Thanksgiving and the entire weekend, which involved feasting and having a good time with other JWs. But he could not spend it with his wife and kids.

How sick is this? What a family destroying religion.

46

Born again JW's?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i am sorry, but i just find it so hard to see a bunch of former witnesses doing the whole born again thing.

acting in a way that is just trading one line of thought, for another.

basically, one time you said you were waiting for the "new system" and now you pulled that thought out and replaced it with the "waiting for heaven" comment.

NowImFree

I left the JWs about 6 years ago, disassociated and consider myself a born again Christian. My faith is not in religion, it is in Christ. I always believed in God, ever since I was a little kid, as far back as I can remember. My mother raised me as a JW. I did not lose my faith in God when I left the organization, my faith in God grew when I left because I realized who Jesus is and went to him for salvation instead of men. What I lost faith in was the Watchtower Organization because I realized they are a false prophet and very destructive. That is not God's fault, I was in it because my mother raised me in it because she was deceived.

Free2beme, you have your set of beliefs just as I do. We all have to come to our own conclusions. You cannot understand why people like me have faith or believe in life after this life. But, I cannot imagine this life being all there is. I cannot imagine losing a child and thinking that I would never ever ever see them again. I cannot imagine loving people in this world with all my heart and soul, and believing that this short time here is it and none of us will ever be together again or be able to love each other ever again. That would be heart breaking beyond imagination for me. To believe that we are alone and that no all powerful being is seeing the good and evil going on and that there will be no real justice, ever, would be complete emptiness for me. My life is so much more richer in this life BECAUSE of my belief in God. You cannot comprehend how we can believe but for me, I cannot comprehend the emptiness of not believing. I would be terrified all the time of losing loved ones, because I would think this is it, this is all there is. It would be beyond depressing for me, it would be total dispair. Do you have children or close family members? If so, how would you feel if they died and you believe you would never see them again, that they are gone forever? If you feel that way, I don't know how you could survive it honestly. I hope you can understand what I am trying to say.

Take care,

Wendy

5

Clergy Mandatory Reporting States

by NowImFree in

i have a questions for everyone because i need information per a question from someone on another forum.

this may have been brought up in another post but i haven't found it.

my understanding is that the elders are told to report abuse to the authorities only when it is mandated by state law requiring clergy to report.

NowImFree

Sorry Saoirse, you probably misunderstood what I was looking for. I was looking for the Watchtower guidelines, what they "claim" their reporting standards are. I thought they said they report when the state mandates clergy to report. I thought they said that they pretty much only gaurantee they will report to the authorities when mandated by that particular state. I am looking for where the Watchtower stated somewhere about this.

Thanks for sending though.

NowImFree

5

Clergy Mandatory Reporting States

by NowImFree in

i have a questions for everyone because i need information per a question from someone on another forum.

this may have been brought up in another post but i haven't found it.

my understanding is that the elders are told to report abuse to the authorities only when it is mandated by state law requiring clergy to report.

NowImFree

I have a questions for everyone because I need information per a question from someone on another forum. This may have been brought up in another post but I haven't found it. My understanding is that the elders are told to report abuse to the authorities only when it is mandated by state law requiring clergy to report. But in other states, they are keeping it internal because clergy are not forced to report in those states. I cannot remember where I heard this, possibly JR Brown in a video or audio from Bethel but I am not sure. Can anyone help me find this info for someone who does not believe this? They think elders are instructed to report by the Watchtower regardless of the state laws but I don't think so. I think they only report when they absolutely have to.

Thank you,

Nowimfree

61

Zone talk by David Splane - Four figurative giants - Education etc

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

found this interesting talk on e-watchman's site.

it was given by david splane, a gb member.. the talk is really interesting as it gives a more focused look at the troubles the society is facing as it trys to cope with education, peer pressure etc.. .

http://e-jehovahs-witnesses.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=454.

NowImFree

You know what disgusts me the most about this? The fact that David Splane basically said that JWs shouldn't believe any negative media reports about the organization. Let me guess, I assume he is talking about the molestation cover ups? In my immediate family and my extended family there are two children that were victims of abuse within the organization, in both cases, parents were told not to get the police involved. It's all true folks, they are liars and everything they have been accused of on Dateline, Panorama and other news stories are true. They have and are covering up child abuse, by using the two witness rule.

What he said sickens me because if anything comes out in the media about any other denomination, they immediately point to it as fact and say, see, see. But not so with anything that comes out about the Watchtower. What a double standard and so much hypocracy it is nausiating.

NowImFree

27

Our son is in jail for a crime. My fam says its my fault for leaving JW's.

by ontarget in

jw
friends

my wife and kids left jw's 7 years ago.

all seemed well and then last week my 20 year old son committed a crime and is now in jail 1500 miles away.

everyone that knows him says he is a good kid.

NowImFree

Hi Ontarget,

I know exactly how you feel. I have a son who has been in trouble with the law and it has been heartbreaking for us all. We just recently found out he has bi-polar disorder, and has been misdiagnosed and treated with the entirely wrong medication for the past 3 years. Now he is on the right medication for bi-polar disorder but in the meantime, the damage was already done as far as his legal problems. It has been very stressful, and he has been very depressed with himself for getting into trouble and causing the family to go through this too. Just be there for your son, he needs you more than ever, and don't pay any attention to self righteous judgemental people. Most of us have done things at one time or another that could have landed us in trouble, but maybe we just weren't caught. Going through this with my son has changed me, it has made me much more compassionate about other people and their problems and it has also taken away any old judgemental self righteous attitudes that carried over from my previous JW days. And it has changed my son, he is now getting the help he needs and is taking his life and his actions a lot more seriously. Sometimes things happen for a reason.

Hang in there, you and your family will be in my prayers.

Nowimfree

22

Big day for me tomorrow

by iamfreenow in

hello everyone, i haven't been on here for a while, though i have read a few posts from time to time when i've been visiting my friends linda and trevor.

i would like to be here more, but i am retired now, and can't really afford a pc or the internet, being on a somewhat limited income.. since i left the watchtower society in august, i have kept myself reasonably busy.

i attend a couple of evening classes, help my non jw son and his wife out by babysitting when needed, and manage to see my jw sons' children as often as possible.

NowImFree

Hi Marion,

That's so awesome. I did the same thing on Mother's day of 2003, I had a real baptism into the Christian faith, not the JW kind of baptism where you are baptised into their "spirit directed organization".

And isn't it wonderful to have true friends who will support you, I have also found much truer friends since leaving the organization.

I hope you have a great day tomorrow and welcome to the faith!

NowImFree

45

Why I'm mad at god.

by Abandoned in

jw
friends

the past couple of days, i've been posting a lot about how disappointed and even disgusted i am with god and how he runs his universe.

i guess that probably offends some people.

i don't intend to make people feel bad, but here's what's been going on in my life lately:.

NowImFree

Hi Abandoned,

I can so totally relate to what you are feeling. A have been a Christian for the past 4 years since leaving the JWs. I have just had the worst year of my life. I have been hit with financial, legal, family troubles, health, you name it. I have to sell my home to get out of legal debt due to the legal troubles of someone in my family. I am a single parent so I am trying to deal with this pretty much alone. I also was recently diagnosed with Graves desease so I am having lots of problems with that, and a job that is so stressful I break out in hives and rashes. However, I have had great friends in all this and I have found out who my true friends are too. This year has been absolutely insane and I have wondered at times, why God is letting all this stuff happen. People have told me that like Job, my faith is being tested and maybe I will learn something in all of this, which really doesn't make me feel better at all. I don't really have a good answer other than the fact that, just when I think I can't take anymore, someting happens or a friend calls to comfort me and someone does something kind, and then I feel he really is there sending some comfort just in the nick of time. I do believe this is some kind of test, why I don't know but I don't think it can last forever. I can totally relate to that scripture about about walking in the valley of the shadow of death. This place can be crap and people can be both wonderful and awful. If I have learned anything in all these trials, it is that I am much less judgemental than I used to be, which was something that carried over from being a JW, and I am having to learn a lot of patience with people that are driving me nuts, and sometimes I am totally failing at that too. And, I have found true friendship with the few who have really been there for me. I have been shocked my some who I thought would be there for us, and haven't been, and the ones who I never expected who have been.

I hope things go better for both of us in 2007 and whatever you do, don't give up. You are in a valley right now and there is light at the end of the tunnel even when you can't see it yet.

Take care,

NowImFree