for most all of us here we have had association with the jehovah's witnesses in some way or another.
there are many man-made "rules" within the organization.
that fact we all agree on.
I, too, brought integrity and honesty and morality to my association with JW's. It wasn't JW's that brought it to me. Perhaps this is an indication of the type of people being drawn to Witnesses.
I also am disappointed that there is some kind of assumption being made that only JW's lead moral honest lives. WRONG! I know people who are not JW's who are supremely honest, moral and kind.
I am what I am and have always been, both pre, during and post my association with JW's.
SS
who'da thunk?
http://upi.com/newstrack/view.php?storyid=20061024-033917-3795r.
report finds sex always on men's minds.
This is new news? A couple of weeks ago, I saw on the "news" that men think of sex every 6 minutes! ...which pretty much is constant!
were you on automatic pilot?
did you consider yourself a "stepford" family member?
did you do everything you were told to do, automatically??
Yes I was a mindless Witness! I "studied" a lot but studied according to the prescribed way...proving and disproving with the societies own literature. My thinking was very shallow and I never looked to outside sources for confirmation and answers... BUT I was well studied! Makes me ill now. Once I started doubting the new light issues regarding the generation and blood, etc., I just lost faith but didn't do outside research.
Of course, the internet has opened all of that up.
Also, regarding being a mindless witness... I was not only that, but just mindless. Reading ANY outside literature, even fiction, was discouraged. I have read little of the greatest literature in the world. I have read no philosophy because it was forbidden. Now, my mind is growing, and I am working hard to make up for lost years.
Duped, in many ways.
SS
...am i going to hell now??
?
yup... lol... I think about that every time it happens. I think Jehovah is SO unconcerned with a little glass clinking! He has a lot more to deal with than us. We have lived in a crazy world...
SS
"need greaters" ugh!!
i hate that phrase and i always have.
we knew a jw couple who applied every year to bethel and giliad until the age cut-off (age 35 or 40?).
Not simply "worldly"...
worldly people
worldly thinking
worldly actions/behaviors
worldly dress
...blah, blah, blah
Sounds like Amish terms... Picture black clothing and buggies...
Shooting Star
we all know that jw's don't make friends out of their religion, but in the jw religion, can members have close friendship with the other sex?.
my experience in the org.
makes me say no.. i remember one cold winter, i was waiting for a brother in his driveway, and my car was warm, and his wife was waiting for someone to pick her up in front of her home, and since i waiting in the entrance waiting for her jw husband to come out of the house so that we could leave in my car, so i told the sister, his wife, who was waiting in the cold, to sit in my warm car while her lift arrives, so she finally sat in my car, but when her husband came out of the house and saw her in my car with me alone, although she was seated in the back, he told her, why are you alone with him.. gee, they both knew me since years, and we were good friends.
In my experience and observation, it isn't really possible for anyone to be platonic friends. One or the other develops feelings... and the whole friendship is ruined! Now, as for JW's, it simply isn't allowed anyway...
if you have 13 minutes, here's a short iq test.. http://simple-iq.com/.
i guessed at a few answers, and ended up scoring about as high as i thought i was, but not as high as i wish i was..
Fun. I am average, but I could have told you that. Must be why I stuck with JW's so long.
i just finished talking to my uncle for the first tim in quite a while.
he's a long time elder and in charge of setting up all of the local circuit assys.
and partially in charge of da., so he knows a lot of bro's.
Instead of going to Freeminds for the letter, one can go directly to the UN-NGO site where there is a link to Watchtower! Check it out. Let's see..."I was just doing some research and bouncing around the UN site when I FOUND THIS LETTER!..." Much more credibility than going anywhere else. Here is the link...
http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/ngo-docs.html
Use it well!
Shooting Star
i'm talking about the new posters, like kitten whiskers, who started posting today (hope this works: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/120817/1.ashx).
and it seems like we're getting a few like this nearly every day.
people who were raised jws, really worry that they are doing the right thing in leaving, yet who have been made to feel not good enough by the wts, who felt they never measured up, who struggled with it, but came to realize that what they'd been brought up to believe was just not the truth.. the same stories are told over and over again, and they come from sincere, good people - not whiny, fault-finding apostates like the rest of us riffraff around here!
PLEASE ZARCO...listen to the heart that motivated you to post initially... If S4 is correct with the fact that there have been over 5,000 hits to this thread (how does one find that information?) then you, Zarco, have to know that you could be helping many people. How many of those thousands are on the fence about what to do, are in the process of fading without repercussions, or even wonder if they should stay and be a force for good in the organization?
There are SO many of us in a quandary.
Please don't let the "trolls" on the site send you away. True, it may be a difficult concept to swallow, thinking of staying under the radar doing something that others have been df'd for, but there are MANY here that value your insight, motivations, and love for "the friends". Not everyone here is a bitter "apostate" as you, of all people, well know. ...just hurt, confused, disappointed, even tired... I think that many of us can benefit from what you have to say. All genuine and humble thoughts are well appreciated.
I look for your posts...and will continue to do so.
SS
have you been lurking for months, perhaps years?
think of what you have learned in that period.
elders, how do you hold it it in.
Now YOU know! Have you been lurking for months, perhaps years? Think of what you have learned in that period. Elders, how do you hold it it in. Whom can you help with what you know? How can you help one another to "bow out" gracefully...WITH your loved ones? How can you help the rest of us trying to fade without DA? We love you for being here... We all want to be free of the mind control.
