i am 39 years old.
i converted to the jws when i was in middle school due to a witness in school and my family having issues at that time.
i found instant friends and family at the kh.
Welcome to the forum.
So glad you are "out" and got an education. Why not just have some quiet time with hubbie and ask him what he thinks about a few things? Don't pressure him. Just let it be for awhile. Maybe you could slowly start sharing things you've learned about the WTS and let him have time to digest them.
10 years ago i stopped attending jehovah's witness meetings for good.
walked out of the kingdom hall cold turkey never to return based on injustices i observed among others and myself at the hands of elders giving out not god's counsel but personal opinions as counsel .
some of them weren't even giving out wt society counsel- just personal opinions.
You are right-it is tough at first, but so worth it to lead your own life without constantly striving to please everyone in the congregation and always feeling that you are coming up short. No matter what you did, someone in Africa did it after crossing a crocodile-infested river, or did it with no legs.
You are also right that the friendships are conditional. My husband and I had hundreds of "friends" after being in many congregations, always on building projects or some volunteer something. Where are they now? When we quit going, they quit calling.
I raise my glass back to you! We are freeeeeeeeeeee
after waking up and wanting to get out of this nightmare, the word apostate is really bothering me.
if i quitely become inactive, fade away will i just be looked at as "always weak".
i want to scream out how big a fool i was.. and now telling my poor young daughter how wrong i was to bring her up as a jw.
I don't care what word they use to describe me.
I was "in" for thirty years-they took thirty years of my life and when I finally realized they were not "the truth," I left, went to college, and now at sixty-two look like a fifth grade teacher. No one at the elementary school runs away when they see me coming, so there....
please welcome jen1 to the jwnforum.
she posted for the first time on my thread 'making connections.
' let's all please encourage her!!!!.
Welcome to the forum. Please come here and vent...we understand. You will never be good enough for the JWs. I hope soon you can leave the guilt behind and find things that you and your husband can enjoy doing together instead.
just thought i would share with everyone how my jw sister treats our family.
my stepmother passed away 2 weeks ago, and had been in and out of the hospital.
so my brother told my jw sister, and she came running to town (5 hour drive) and they didn't call me but did call my oldest sister who then called me.. the jw sister took what items she wanted and left town.
Sorry to hear of your loss. Isn't it amazing how people run and "help themselves" to the belongings of the one who died?
You can't choose your relatives......
yeah i've had a lot to deal with lately.
i also lost my auntie this summer, and today was when all the will got finalised.
it brought back my loss.. i wonder what the future hold's deep down i know she is gone.
So sorry to hear of your loss. I hope we will be together with them in the future.
this is my first post on jwn, and i would like to take a few lines to introduce myself.. i currently am still in the organization, though my conviction in the last 1-2 years is more or less agnostic/atheist (closer to atheist).
i am an ex-elder and mts graduate, having served in another 3 congregations, apart from my home one.. the reason for the above-mentioned conviction shift has to do with science and rational, logical thinking generally, and with the grand theory of evolution, specifically.
it took me long, endless sessions of hard reading and study of serious scientific literature (plus cross-matching all the quotes and claims in jw evolution-related literature), to finally make the shift from utterly firm religious belief to doubt, and then to lack of religious faith.
Welcome to the forum.
Your English skills are excellent.
i finally decided to post.
i'm so scared of being caught, so i'll be vague.
i'm an appointed brother.
Welcome.
So glad you did get an education, and that you are now free to use that educated brain to think for yourself!
this is a very strange thing for me to do.
i have been an active witness for over 25 years.
i currently serve as an elder and i conduct the watchtower study.
Welcome.
I remember when the 1995 change of generation "new light" came out. It was very unsettling, and I asked my husband a couple of questions. He was the WT conductor at the time. He basically said that it made sense and gave me to understand that we shouldn't question. We are both out of the organization now, after more than thirty years in.
I don't know with whom this originated but it is so true: Better to have questions that you cannot answer than answers that you cannot question.
new guy here so i thought i would make a brief introduction.. my exposure to the jw's is indirect, as i have never been a member; however my wife of 22 years grew up in a jw household.
her dad is the grand-pooba or whatever level of "elder" you call it for his kh.
her mom, sister, brother, and their spouses all died in the wool witnesses.
Welcome to the forum.
I suspect your FIL may argue with you because he's been given to think that reading the WT magazine and the Awake and all the other publications gives one the equivalency of a college education.(Yes, this was published in the Watchtower magazine quite some years ago) Since he dotes on every pronouncement of the WT Society and their publications, he feels that YOU are the mistaken one, and that the flood explains the sharks teeth in one location, and that they just haven't found them in another location yet. He probably left that conversation feeling that you were pathetically misinformed, and that the WT Society is so far above your puny college experience. He is content to wait for the day when the shark's teeth are found in other locations, and can smugly show you how wrong you are.
