Posts by exwitless

36

Do you still pray?

by Layla33 in

jw
friends

i was wondering about this the other day before i went to sleep, out of habit and my spiritual beliefs now, i spoke to the spiritual realm above and asked for guidance and protection.. i remember my journey of leaving the jw "borg" (a new term i have picked up here - i like it!

) and at first i refused to pray at all, and then i wasn't sure i wanted to or not, and then i developed my own sense of the higher power above and spirituality and every night before i sleep, i feel blessed to have another day of life, to do it all again.

even on days when i am not having such a good day, i take time to ask the higher realm for strength and direction.

exwitless

Nope. I can't, and have no desire to. When LDB and I first agreed to studying with the borg, I was one of those who said "I'll never become a JW." Well as the story goes, I did become a JW. I fought it at the very beginning, because what little I knew about the dubs then was what I thought was weird; for example, not celebrating Christmas, going door to door, believing only 144,000 would go to heaven.

I was raised Methodist, and LDB was raised Christian Scientist. I wanted us to come to some sort of agreement about religion before we got married. I prayed fervently for God to direct me to whatever religion he wanted me to participate in; whatever he wanted I would do. Well, within a few days, LDB's workmate offered a home bible study. I was sure this was god's answer to my prayer, so I jumped in to the borg with two feet.

Now, after 14 years in the borg and out for 1 1/2 years, I feel stupid for praying to "god" to guide me to whatever religion he wanted; and I feel stupid for believing he answered my prayer by sending the JWs to us. I feel betrayed, I guess, in a way. I don't really know if there's a god. I don't really care to know right now. I just know that one very honest-hearted prayer landed me in a CULT for 14 years; I'm poorer and have less friends than before I was a borg. I missed out on 14 years of my life. That's what prayer did for me.

53

Things You HATED About Being a JW

by minimus in

jw
friends

there were a few things that i hated about being a witness.. i love music and live concerts.

quite often i'd have to play my music privately or hide an album cover for fear it might "stumble" someone.

i hated worrying whether someone was going to somehow get "stumbled.. regarding going to concerts, it seemed that certain artists only came to town on a meeting night and i'd miss the shows.. what did you hate about being a jehovah's witness?.

exwitless

I'd have to say I hated field service the most. I mean I HATED it with a passion; but I always felt like I was the only one who hated it, and that something must be wrong with me.

Secondly, I hated going to 3 meetings a week, being exhausted after working all day, no time to eat dinner, sometimes studied for the meetings on my lunch break at work.

Oh, yeah, that reminds me of something else I hated - having to "study" for all the meetings. There was one hard-ass elder in our KH who would walk up and down the isles, pretending to be doing something else, but what he was really doing was looking at people's Watchtowers to see if they studied it. Then he'd comment during one of his talks in a very condescending way how he noticed that we're not all studying for the meetings.

27

Proof WBTS is downgrading 1914

by yesidid in

jw
friends

maybe they're keeping the doctrine but they are not writing about it as much in the watchtower.. below are statistics from their 07 cd showing how many times 1914 was mentioned in the watchtower for each year 1950 to 2006 .

i have divided the years 1950 2006 into segments of eight excepting for the last, which is nine.. on the side i have the average for those years.

notice they have gone from 88.87 a year to 24.44. .

exwitless

1914 is doing the fade, no doubt. Its meeting attendance is becoming more irregular.

Pretty soon, 1914 will only come to the Memorial once a year just to make an appearance. The GB will attempt a "shepherding call" at it's house every few years. One of these times, the GB will pop in unexpectedly and find that 1914 put up Christmas decorations. 1914 will be considered a "bad association".

I doubt 1914 will ever get DF'd though.

80

Even active witnesses think this is way over the top.....

by yourmomma in

jw
friends

there were gasps after watching this.

i heard the anti college talks at the dc this year, and while many people i know didnt agree with them, this following video stunned many of them.

there are many people on this forum, many have gotten to where they are many different ways.

exwitless

Yeah, the part about the guy shooting himself and magically "curing" his OCD problem was WAY over the top. Comparing "surviving" college to surviving a suicide attempt is ludicrous; it's a major scare tactic used by the CULT to force people into relative captivity.

I am sure that in the eyes of the GB, college is evil. Not because it might divert your attention from "serving Jehovah", or because there are "more worthwhile things to do"; it's because when people go to college, they actually have to think for themselves. They have to read certain books for their classes. Heaven forbid, they might be required to take a World Religions class or Philosophy or something NOT taught by the cult. They know that if people educate themselves and get their heads out of the sand, they'll realize the mind control they've been subjected to and they'll leave the borg.

The grip of the GB is tightening...

80

Even active witnesses think this is way over the top.....

by yourmomma in

jw
friends

there were gasps after watching this.

i heard the anti college talks at the dc this year, and while many people i know didnt agree with them, this following video stunned many of them.

there are many people on this forum, many have gotten to where they are many different ways.

exwitless

Kasee said:

Please, please, please, help me out here if you can, and shed some light on what is happening that will help me make sense of all this.

Kasee, you've already read Crisis of Conscience. I think nothing else makes better "sense" out of things than that book. Unfortunately, there is no more sense to be made of things. You are on the brink of allowing yourself to think for yourself and realize things aren't what they seemed to be. You may be fighting internally against what you have seen and read. Keep researching, keep reading, re-examine everything you claim to believe with your own mind and sense of reasoning. Follow your gut instinct and get the hell out now. Every day you stay in the "organization", you are allowing them to control every aspect of your life. Are you happy with the life they've decided on for you? Doesn't sound like it. You sound like a smart and reasonable person. You absolutely can and will survive, even flourish, outside of the mind control of JWs. PM me if you want to...

As for the video, I think my blood pressure just doubled after watching that. I HATE that kind of passive-aggressive mind control. "We won't tell you what to do, but we discourage you from attending college. And we would like to praise everyone here who dropped out of college when the learned the truth. Those who go to college will have to answer to Jehovah for it."

So in other words, you can go to college if you want to. It's your decision. Just remember you'd be going directly against the counsel of the "Faithful and Discreet Slave" to do so, and you'll be making it clear that you are putting worldly interests before the "Kingdom", and Jehovah would be displeased. No pressure, though, we aren't telling you what to do.

There is no better example than this to prove that the WTS wants to keep the "flock" ignorant and dependent on them. A sign of a true CULT!!!

24

What if regular meeting attendance wasn't a requirement?

by R.F. in

we all know how regular meeting attendance is the ultimate way of measuring the "faith" of those among the religion, other than field service reports.

what do you think would happen with the attendance numbers if you were only encouraged to go as a sort of option, if you weren't hounded for not attending regularly?

exwitless

I bet the Sunday meeting attendance would still be pretty good, but the 2 weekday meetings would be almost deserted. Except for those few die-hard dubs that are at every single meeting no matter what.

29

What lengths did you go to, to not miss meetings?

by exwitless in

i posted this in another thread, but i thought it would merit a thread.

the elders in our cong.

likened missing a memorial to an "unforgivable sin".

exwitless

Now I realize how many people were just like me before the meetings - hungry, exhausted, grumpy, yelling at the kids to get ready, rushing around trying to find a pair of pantyhose without to big of a run in them, etc. Sometimes by the time I'd get in the car to go to the meeting, my heart would be pounding like I had just run a race. I'd say busting my butt to get to the meetings definitely brought out the 'not-so-good' parts of me.

I have a question:
What does one mean when they say "I will get into trouble if I miss another meeting" ? This is coming from a grown adult. What kind of trouble and why?

It means the elders DO notice if you miss meetings, and when they notice, they start hounding you wanting to know why you're missing meetings. They can and will take away "privileges" from you like mic handling, counting the contributions, reading at the WT study, etc. if you miss for reasons they don't approve of.

29

What lengths did you go to, to not miss meetings?

by exwitless in

i posted this in another thread, but i thought it would merit a thread.

the elders in our cong.

likened missing a memorial to an "unforgivable sin".

exwitless

EDITED: ooo, ooo! "To what lengths would you go to not miss meetings?"

Oh, yes. I actually had it written that way after I didn't like the unnecessary comma. But I thought maybe it would sound a little stuffy and unnatural. I wouldn't have worded it like that in real life conversation, most likely.

Oh, the agony of English grammar!

BTW - I appreciate your humor and insight into my thread title dilemma.

29

What lengths did you go to, to not miss meetings?

by exwitless in

i posted this in another thread, but i thought it would merit a thread.

the elders in our cong.

likened missing a memorial to an "unforgivable sin".

exwitless

What lengths did you go to, to use unnecessary commas?

I know. At first I had it this way:

What lengths did you go to to not miss meetings?

However, I figured someone would call me out for saying "to to" . So that's why I put a comma in. Believe me, I'm usually a grammar and punctuation nazi. Let's just say I had comma diarrhea today.

29

What lengths did you go to, to not miss meetings?

by exwitless in

i posted this in another thread, but i thought it would merit a thread.

the elders in our cong.

likened missing a memorial to an "unforgivable sin".

exwitless

momz-I can totally relate to the exhaustion you must have felt rushing from work to day care to changing clothes to meetings... Did you ever feel good about it like you were 'suffering for Jehovah'? I know, it sounds silly now, but maybe that was the only way I could justify killing myself the way I did to go to meetings.