well, it's been a long time!
i first lurked here around 20 years ago and read huge amounts of threads which certainly helped when i was making my decision to leave the religion.
i was never baptised (resisted it!
My two JW siblings remain distant, although we talk occasionally. I have accepted this, as I don't believe in wishing and hoping for things that will not be. It's sad, but I feel it's as if they were alcoholics or addicted to drugs, I wish them well, would love to see them give up their drug of choice (magical thinking), but I have zero control over the situation, so to worry about it would only do me harm, and that would be stupid and do them no good.
I find meditation to be very helpful.
if you take the red pill, you'll have knowledge, you'll be awakened, aware of reality, you'll have freedom.. if you take the blue pill, you stay in your bubble, wearing rose colored glasses, and feel security in an illusion.. taking the red pill isn't something that's easy to do.
to accept that everything around you is an illusion built up on lies or half truths.
but hey, it might feel good to be aware and break free from this illusion.
I wasn't happy as a Jehovah's Witness so I wouldn't go back to living in a bubble, even if I could. Yes, it was hard losing family and friends, but it does get easier with time, while being in a soul sucking cult never got easier and never would have.
Eventually you will make new friends and have your own family, so you will not feel the loss of your parents quite as much. Throughout your life relationships will change, situations will change, people will come and go, you will adjust and move on. Five years from now you will wonder what you were upset about.
when parents say all the things we've done for you and your not doing anything for us in return like going to meetings, witnessing, answering up etc... how do you respond to parents?.
You could point out that Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door trying to convince people to leave the religion they were raised in and don't care that it may hurt their parents, because they believe that it doesn't matter what religion you were raised in, you should follow what you believe is the truth. You are simply following your own conscience, since you no longer believe that what the Watchtower teaches is the truth.
i have been watching leah remini's show about scientology.
as she interviews people i see that i was right many years ago when i said this is a lot like the jws.
they do not go after people quite the same way but they sure are very similar in how they run their org.
It's not weird that Scientology and Jehovah's Witnesses use many of the same techniques, they are both cults and most cults use similar tactics to maintain control over their members and make it difficult to leave. If you are demanding a lot and giving very little back, then you have to be underhanded to keep people from leaving.
revision date: 8/17.
the talk outline “jesus christ—earth’s new ruler” has been discontinued and should no longer be used.
it has been replaced by “who really is jesus christ?”note: this is the special public talk outline for 2018. the talk will be given in most congregations the week of monday, march 19, 2018.. .
I can see why "Jesus Christ, Earth's New Ruler" would be discontinued, why would the want to bring up that Jesus has been ruling in Heaven for the last hundred years?The freshness has pretty much expired on that particular teaching, he is not exactly a new ruler now, is he?
you all pretty much know my story so i won't repeat it but.... to say i'm being hounded by my local congregation is an understatement.
today the cobe finally found us in.
well, i refused to answer the door but my husband did.
Well, since your husband let them in, make him deal with it. Next time they come by, have him say that you are depressed and that it upsets you that they won't leave you alone and they are not to come over again without making an appointment, then don't return their calls, ever. They might be more respectful of this since he is the "head of the house".
greetings, friends:.
today, i saw an old friend in town, and, after we got caught up and finally said our goodbyes, she asked me to pray for her.
family problems were eating her up.. how have you responded if and when you were asked this?
People asking you to pray for them don't need to know whether I believe in God or not, they only need to know I care, so I usually just say that I will keep them in my thoughts and hope for the best.
so after three years of fading, my elder father has never really asked why we have chosen to stop attending.. today, after a mixed discussion, he starts talking about the "solution to all the world problems" and says "i don't know what you now believe, but i believe gods kingdom will fix everything" i let the comment go, and didn't respond.. then he goes on about the video "remember the wife of lot" because he just came from the convention last weekend.
"don't get caught up in this system...blah blah".
i couldn't help myself, and said one thing "dad, that video failed to show the next chapter of that account.
The Jehovah's Witnesses supposedly believe everything in the bible, so how could taking about what's in the bible be wrong? What if a householder asked about this account, would he run away screaming then?
He is obviously uncomfortable because deep down he suspects that you might be right and that is just a path he is too afraid to go down.
once i left ,i was done.
in over 10 years i didn't return except for my mother's funeral.
did you ever re enter the kh after you left?.
I went twice after I left. Once for the memorial, when I was visiting my mother, because it made her happy, although she sent me a letter after I got home saying she didn't want to talk to me anymore, "I want to die with a clean conscience". The next time was a few months later, after she passed away, for her memorial. It was the usual WTBTS promotional commercial, with barely a mention of the person supposedly being memorialized. Whatever, neither time meant anything to me.
That's been over fifteen years. I have two siblings left in the organization, both older than me, I may have to attend their memorials. Whatever.
so tomorrow is my last appointment with my psychologist.
we are going to commemorate it by giving each other a letter.. sept 2016 i sat, a quivering wreck, in her waiting room.
i was terrified.
Congratulations on breaking free! Don't beat yourself up because it took you fifty years, pat yourself on the back that you did it at all, many go to their graves without escaping, which is truly sad.
