Posts by LisaRose

28

What do I do ?

by jdash in

hey guys, this is my first time posting on here but lets get started.. so i'm a 17 year old boy who currently attends meetings at a congregation in indianapolis.

i live with my grandparents, on my father's side, because my mother died in 2010. i been attending meetings since i was 10. my mother got into the religion but then got disfellowshiped.

my dad is on and off, he currently just got reinstated.

I vote for hanging in there until you are 18. Nothing good can come of disassociating in your particular circumstances. Start making friends outside the organization if possible so when you do make a break you have something. Start planning for how you will pay for college, see a school counselor who can advise you what financial aid may be possible. Usually local community colleges for the first two years are the cheapest way to go, but even that will be a stretch if you are kicked out and have to live in your own. My grandson faced some of these issues, he wanted an expensive private college which no one was willing to pay for. He chose to join the Air Force, four years in he is getting out soon and has money for college, some credits, some useful job skills and much needed maturity and can now go to his choice of school.

Be grateful for your grand parents, even if they are in a cult, they at least care about you and put a roof over your head and gave you some stability when you needed it. If you handle it right they might eventually accept your decision to leave, who knows?

Being free mentally from this horrid religion is a great start, you can do anything you want in life. Good luck!

17

What's out there?

by Jrjw in

someone asked me what does the world have to offer if left the truth?

'coz i'm still in the process of leaving i just said i don't feel i fit in the truth or the world.

she's known me for 12 years and she's the 3rd person recently to say i've changed.

LisaRose

It's a question designed to undermine your decision to leave by insinuating the world is just a big bad place, full of bad people, a common theme in the religion.

What's out there is what you choose to find out there. Of course if you have been living in a closed community like the Watchtower it can seem kind of scary, but the reality is you will figure it out and be just fine. Of course any change is hard and at first you may be uncomfortable, but just push through and it will get easier.

If you miss being part of a religious community, there are nice ones out there. If you want more intellectual stimulation then education might be for you. The thing is it's your choice, and choice is a beautiful thing.

20

Caleb and Sophia Video Mashup to Hard Knock Life

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

i thought this video was pretty well done and mildly entertaining to watch.. on another note, i am really hoping some clever ex-jws will do their own animation series with caleb and sophia as young adults trying to leave the org.

that would be awesome.

caleb and sophia ... the ex-jw years.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lwoitxaa_u.

LisaRose

Love this! It's funny how the Watchtower's own materials show how crazy they are. Most people would be shocked to know children are shamed into throwing away toys, made to feel guilty for wanting friends and disciplined for falling asleep in church.

63

Sister may have had a slight heart attack, do I text her?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

so my cousin phoned and told me my jw sister was taken to hospital with chest pains and it may have been a slight heart attack or possibly she's starting with angina.

now as some of you know my sisters and brother have had little to do with me for 29 years.

we've met at funerals, or arranged them, but i just thought today what if she did die?

LisaRose

I think text is a good idea, it gives you a chance to just show your concern without any expectations of a reply.

18

My childhood home, 60 years later. What about yours?

by compound complex in

jw
friends

greetings, former children:.

i really miss my childhood home, which we left in 1960. dad sold it for some 12,000 dollars; it recently sold for somewhere under 1.5 million.

it's only a tiny bungalow but in a prosperous bay area town, not too far from san francisco, california.. the art and literature that are so important to me -- and for many others of us -- got their start in my heart and mind here in the california mountains.

LisaRose

I moved around a lot, so don't have one childhood home, but one house I remember fondly was near Avila Beach California, it was an old farmhouse. I have many happy memories of roaming the hills and playing in the barn. Sadly, the last time I went by it had fallen down, just rubble. My mom actually built a room on in the fifties, that part fell down first, lol. The little two room schoolhouse where I went to first grade is still there though, it's a wine tasting room and art gallery now.

I currently live in the bay area and I love the eucalyptus trees too. With our winter rain the hills have greened up and it's so pretty, I am happy to live here.

18

Sorry to hear that you left the "truth"

by eyeuse2badub in

the other day i ran into a jw who just happened to be my very friend during my jw days (which were most of my life).

so for about 60 years we were each other’s very best friend.

we grew up together from about 8 years old and are the same age, now in our early 70’s.

LisaRose

It's a cult, they use mind control techniques, it's very hard to fight against. Steve Hassan, who was in a cult himself and writes books on the subject says that being intelligent is not a protection against getting sucked in, it has happened to a lot of very smart peoole.

You have to learn critical thinking skills and about how mind control works to avoid getting sucked in.

7

Did your children help you wake up?

by Zyron in

jw
friends

what help me wake up, (still pimo) in addition to lingering doubts throughout most of my life, and i'm in my late 50s, was the questioning from my children when they became teenagers.

i could not honestly defend the origins of the jws, prohibition of birthdays and other celebrations; especially when you realise that the whole belief system is/was based on crazy teachings of a businessman.. the real kicker is when you have a religion that has to produce its own bible to support its beliefs, that's when i knew the whole religion is an expensive and cleverly marketed belief system.

like most religions.. glad to say none of my children want anything to do with jws and two of them don't believe in god.

LisaRose

Yes, same. They never bought into it, and looking at it through their eyes helped me break free myself.

18

Sorry to hear that you left the "truth"

by eyeuse2badub in

the other day i ran into a jw who just happened to be my very friend during my jw days (which were most of my life).

so for about 60 years we were each other’s very best friend.

we grew up together from about 8 years old and are the same age, now in our early 70’s.

LisaRose

It makes me grit my teeth when I hear people say that either someone "left The Truth", or "left Jehovah" when they really just left a organization, but of course that is how they have been trained to think. You actually handled it very well, they seem open to further discussion so that's a great start, you won't ever change anyone's thinking in one conversation.

33

My younger brother officially Disassociated today

by pale.emperor in

hi guys.

just wanted to share this with you as it's kind of got me worried.

my brother who was also raised in "the truth™" met me in town today for a coffee.

LisaRose

It's hard enough for anyone to leave the religion, I can't imagine how much more difficult it is for your brother. It's better if he never had to talk to the elders, as they obviously have an agenda and won't consider his disability in evaluating what he says. I would encourage him to just say "I don't want to talk about it" to whatever they say.

37

Thank you, George Couch!

by charonsdog in

i just thought i'd share this story from my past.. back in the 80s i remember the big problem seemed to be about music.

(today, it's tight pants, i guess) the organization, society, whatever they were calling themselves, were always going on about the music we listened to.

disco, heavy metal, the whole "backwards masking" thing...couldn't escape hearing or reading about how satan was corrupting us unless we were listening to kingdom melodies or elevator music.. i was assigned to wtf in the late 80s and remember one of the articles stating that "young people know that the rhythm of rock music is the rhythm of sexual intercourse.

LisaRose

I once heard a talk on music in the nineties that went on and on about how horrible the song "Mac the knife" was. It's a jazz standard from the sixties about a professional killer, but obviously done tounge in cheek and actually a really great song.

My kids were teenagers at the time and had never heard of it, so totally irrelevant and silly to them, we all had a good laugh about it later. It was just one of the many things that convinced them that the religion was not for them, for which I am now very greatful.