Posts by AudeSapere

34

Is It Just Me??

by What Now? in

we're 2 years in to our exit from the witnesses.

we're not disfellowshipped or disassociated ... just inactive.

none of our friends speak to us anymore.

AudeSapere

I just read your follow-up comment about 'church' and the bible-thumping friend.

You can join the church for what you get out of it and join a separate play group for association on a mommy level. You don't have to find everything all in one function. It's really, really hard to do that.

As for the friend who keeps witnessing to you... Just tell her that you really enjoy her company and the kids like playing together but you are not interested in hearing about her church. It's just too raw for you right now after having been spiritually abused for a few decades. You can share your story or not. But *most* people will take the hint to tone down the preaching after the second or possibly third reminder. Just cut her off mid-sentence when she starts to preach. Unless you really don't want to give her another chance.

I have a new friend who has bible study evening weekly with women from her church. Mostly they get together to drink wine. We laugh about it. She enjoys it. She knows I have zero interest. Sometimes she tells me about a topic they discussed. Sometimes I tell her my thoughs. Sometimes she cares and sometimes she doesn't. Same with me. But we are still good friends. We don't *have* to agree on theology or philosophy in order to appreciate each others better qualities - and the mischievious ones, too!

-Aude.

34

Is It Just Me??

by What Now? in

we're 2 years in to our exit from the witnesses.

we're not disfellowshipped or disassociated ... just inactive.

none of our friends speak to us anymore.

AudeSapere

Toddlers are tough. Then all of a sudden (almost) they snap out of it and become delightful preschoolers.

Find an activity to do outside EVERYday. Go for walks. Stop and look at flowers. Take a class just for yourself. Take a different class for your toddler and you to play together.

Check out local craft stores. Likely there are holiday things to do. (You can participate even if you don't relate the religious side of the holidays.) This way you will start creating holiday memories for your child(ren).

Do something fun - EVERY day.

It will get better.

There are many posters here who have been where you are now. They have created good supportive friendships for themselves and their children. Besty and SweetPea come to mind. Maybe SweetPea can tell you what helped her to make new, non-conditional friends...

-Aude.

82

Do you remember the 15 minute break at the Sun. meeting?

by 3rdgen in

a poster on another thread reminded me of when there was a 15 min.

break between the talk and the wt study on sundays.

the break was supposed to be to allow jw's time to drive their bible studys home from the talk.

AudeSapere

Dagney wrote: ... when I was a kid I used to "play meeting" and line up the dolls and proceed to beat the crap out of them.

OMG! That is horrible. Bad enough to get beat. Worse when it's in public. But to incorporate beatings when playing 'Meeting'. Too, too much.

-Aude.

82

Do you remember the 15 minute break at the Sun. meeting?

by 3rdgen in

a poster on another thread reminded me of when there was a 15 min.

break between the talk and the wt study on sundays.

the break was supposed to be to allow jw's time to drive their bible studys home from the talk.

AudeSapere

Tiki reminded me of a few more things. Yes, the public talk was an hour long - *if* the speaker did not go over. Sometimes the (what is the brother that introduces the speaker and the songs, etc called...?? Like an emcee, but that's not what he's called) speaker would be interrupted and told to wrap up in 2 minutes. LOL.

In our hall, the WT study sometimes went WAAAYYYY over the alotted hour. Once by almost 30 minutes. Brutal.

Handbills! I remember those. Speaker's names were omitted very early 70's for us, I think. Then for a couple of years there were just the talk titles.

Purpose of the intermission, as I think I recall better now, was to let the public leave after the advertised talk - but not before being greeted by individuals in the cong and being offered a free home bible study and invited to return the following Sunday. WT study was not that interesting to the public as it contained 'deeper' spiritual (read: crazy) information for discussion.

One of the happiest reports EVER was when the letter was read to limit the Sunday meeting to 2 hours TOTAL.

Start-to-finish, including songs and prayers. Seriously, some of those meetings from the early/mid 70's exceeded 2.5 hours. Add 30 minutes for us (elder's family) to arrive early to open the hall, an elder's meeting after the meeting and/or wait for everyone to vacate so we could lock up... Some days were there 4-6 hours. We brought books to read and homework to do.

82

Do you remember the 15 minute break at the Sun. meeting?

by 3rdgen in

a poster on another thread reminded me of when there was a 15 min.

break between the talk and the wt study on sundays.

the break was supposed to be to allow jw's time to drive their bible studys home from the talk.

AudeSapere

I thought it was designed to be a smoke break, then discontinued both to discourage people from leaving at 'intermission' and the pending ban on smoking. The break was discontinued in the early 70's.

-Aude.

49

Terminology the Society Hates?

by toweragent in

in my most recent talk, i got counseled for using some terms that were not prefered.

for example i said "new testament" rather than "the christian greek scriptures".

i also used the term "gospel", but even worse, i made reference to the "synoptic gospels" and the "gnostic gospel".. i guess i never thought of it before, but when i looked at the societies information on the matter they always say things like, "the so-called new testament..." or "the so-called synoptic gospels..." why with all the "so-called?".

AudeSapere

They don't like to use the word "shun".

They have perfected the artful deliverance of the word, but do not use the word itself.

-Aude.

11

Name of new TV Enterprise

by InquiryMan in

how can they use the name jw broadcasting when there is already a non-witness corporation based in atlanta with that name?.

jw broadcasting, llc, a television broadcasting company, provides multiple program streams to the viewers with a digital television receiver, such as news, business, entertainment, finance, health, politics, science, technology, travel, weather, and sports.

the company was incorporated in 2002 and is based in atlanta, georgia.

AudeSapere

Did I read somewhere here on JWN that the website 'jw.org' was purchased by WTS from 'Jewish Women's Organization'???

-Aude.

8

Farewell cruel world of JWs

by sparrowdown in

jw
friends

imo the most exciting thing you will ever do in "the truth" is to leave !.

that's right, no website or rc nu-lite or service meeting letter compares.

to the adrenaline rush of waking up, planning your strategic withdrawal,.

AudeSapere

That's a very reasonable schedule.

I stumbled on a near-perfect fade while, ironically, trying to maintain my faith in the JW org.

I knew some things were 'off' in my own cong so I started visiting a couple of neighboring congs. Also, my family attended a hall about 30 minutes away so I would visit there pretty often. It got to the point where people assumed I was attending elsewhere and stopped asking me where I'd been. When they asked "were you at the XYZ hall last week" I would just say 'yes'. The fact that it was 2 weeks ago and I had skipped the past 3 meetings altogether were not their business.

It also helped that I had moved out of territory several years earlier.

I've moved again, no one knows where I live now. My home and cell phone numbers have changed and my publisher record card has probably crumpled in the back of the box.

-Aude.

10