i'm trying to compare some statistics and figures on this to share later in the thread to see if more long-time witnesses are exiting- or are newer witnesses exiting after a shorter period of time.
and - are more people exiting in the last 10 to 15 years than before.
so your answers would be helpful in looking into this .
I am mostly a lurker here, but I thought I'd join in this discussion.
Mother started studying in 1983 in FL, stopped for a while after we moved to NYC, then resumed studying (and including me this time) in 1987. Stopped again in 1993 and then resumed in 1994. She was baptized in 1995 and is still in, I was baptized one year later (1996) at the age of 17 and stayed with the group until 2009, leaving shortly after my 30th birthday, but I had pretty much stopped preaching by 2008.
CC
i'd love to know if any of the witnesses i grew up with in the city have found their way out.
i knew so many people growing up and i have no connections to my past now that i've been out for six years.
my husband has friends he has known for 20 years or longer and it makes me sad that my friends abandoned me the moment i started to show doubts.
yup- born and raised in NYC, born in 79, not out yet- but so wanna be...
CC
prior to you leaving the org did you come to the conclusion that if you didnt actually take the step and leave, that you would run into serious mental difficulty.. i really feel that for 5 years proir to my finally leaving i was quite impaired mentally by the teachings and practices of the org.
it was coming to a head though when i finally announced that i was leaving.
i really felt that i was under intense mental pressure and that if i didnt get out then i may end up doing something serious.
I am at this stage now- the feeling of despair trying to figure out how I am going to get out with my mother breathing down my neck saying I need to "wake up."
Heal thyself, mother.
CC
i have not been to a meeting for some years now so i would not know if it has been said ,but have the witnesses actually been told straight out not to read the harry potter books?
i ask this because my in-laws have seen me reading them and now think i am into evil stuff because i have them .
so is it just them or is this what is now taught in the orginization?
The dumbest one I heard recently was that we should not read are some of Shakespeare's works. Shakespeare! As a student, I learned to appreciate Shakespeare and cannot agree with this stance at all.
This was from one of the elders whose daughter wasn't comfortable reading one of Shakespeare's works-(i'm thinking Hamlet) because of the spiritism in it.
whatever!
CC
as i looked at the adam and eve story again, i realized the something is wrong with the story.
jehovah offers the pair all the fruits in the garden of eden save the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.
there's a problem though, why would there be a fruit for that if bad supposedly wasn't around at that point yet?
As I looked at the Adam and Eve story again, I realized the something is wrong with the story. Jehovah offers the pair all the fruits in the Garden of Eden save the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. There's a problem though, why would there be a fruit for that if bad supposedly wasn't around at that point yet? The implication might then indicate that God knew that evil was coming and did nothing to prevent it. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that an omnipotent God didn't see what was going on in Eden at the time either. A lot of it seems to imply that God either doesn't exist or doesn't care. I am going with the former.
Could it be because Eve hadn't partaken the fruit that she had no clue the serpent was "bad" until after she ate, because the concept of bad was tied into the fruit? What an awful paradox.
CC
ok i don't mean to copycat the other thread on movies, but it got me thinking.
i remember throwing out all my beloved beatle albums because they did drugs.
elton john was bad because he was gay.
During one public talk, the B-52s were mentioned as being bad because their name is taken from a military airplane- of course if Brother Know-It-All had done his research, he would have seen that the band took their name from a hairdo! Idiot.
CC
has anyone posted this, or has anyone heard that you can now be d/f for being obese?
not that i am, (slightly overweight but arent most people?
) but am curious to find out if it is true.
If I recall correctly, one of the things in the resolution at the convention this year was that we "as christians have to not overindulge in food..."
Of course I was trying NOT to listen, so I may have heard wrong, but I don't think I did because the statement struck me as STUPID!
I am not exactly a light guy myself. 6' and 250 lbs. I need to lose some weight for sure
CC
on a crisp september morning nearly five years ago, terrorists hijacked four american airliners in a coordinated suicidal attack on america.
within hours, thousands of americans were dead, new york city's two tallest buildings were gone, the pentagon in washington was ripped open and a stunned america was watching helplessly - fearfully - as images from ground zero filled their tv.
screens.
You bet 9/11 affected my life. I work and live in NYC, but not at all close to where the WTC once stood. I realized after that event that if there was a God, he didn't care. I then started to realize just how important my friends are to me and how I had to try and spend as much time with them as possible because you never know. I then started questioning my beliefs in the JW religion.
Do you know one of the elder's wives said that she though the planes were actually controlled by demons and that she believed they were targeting the WT buildings but then the planes were deflected by Jah's power and into the WTC- Crazy, huh? That comment upset me too, to trivialize all those deaths.
I really do think I am on the way to becoming an atheist.
But my heart and soul and innocence were destroyed that day and though time heals things, the fear still comes into mind occassionally.
CC
the witnesses are always trying to scare the faithful by telling them that if they don't adhere to the teachings and lifestyle of the brotherhood-----that bad things are going to happen to them.
for example, they might tell you of brother regret who left the "truth", had "fun" in the "world" and then got aids.
now he's back in the "truth" but he only has months to live................can you think of other examples of how the witnesses try to spook the rank and file?
Maybe a few months ago, my BS conductor was talking about how his daughter refused to read a book for class because there were some themes in there that were "demonic"- the author: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE!
Then the rest of the group was all like, I wouldn't let my child read that.
I had to hold my tongue about liking WS, especially since I went to a great high school where I read, analyzed, and enjoyed the works of Shakespeare.
I had known the JWs were crazy by that point, but this further cemented my belief.
I knew a girl whose JW mom said Star Trek was an affront to Jehovah, yet I knew an elder that used to be in my hall that loved it.
Psychos!
CC
If you're talking about groups that can play their own instruments as opposed to just musical acts or singers, than my absolute favorite band both growing up and of all time is the Bangles.
Nuff said
CC
