My youngest sister who won't give up on me. My used to be best friend. I miss her. She stopped seeing me after I asked some probing questions as to how she could want Armageddon to come when it meant her parents who weren't witnesses would die and wouldn't be resurrected. She gave me the "jehovah reads hearts" rubbish. When we all know they don't teach that. I wish my mum would too of course but she will never change now she's 85. Also my husband. Really awkward living with a witness as many of you know.
disillusioned 2
JoinedPosts by disillusioned 2
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Who would you like to hear of leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses ?
by wozza ini'll start off with this one:.
some years ago when i was formulating my exit, i employed for some time an ms brother from another congregation.. i'd had a couple of young "worldly" lads work for me but they proved unreliable as they used drugs or alchohol and consequently would'nt arrive at work and such like.. so when i was was contacted by this brother and spoke to him and heard he'd worked at the australian bethel for some time on construction and wanted an opportunity to learn the trade of bricklaying ,i thought ,"great someone to finally trust and be reliable".
he was in his 40's at the time and he worked like a trojan ,was honest ,really likeable and interesting ,could play the classical guitar beautifully ,had a beautiful family.
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Did an EX-JW wake you up to TTATT or did you put the effort to wake up yourself?
by John Aquila inhow many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
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disillusioned 2
Nobody woke me up. It was little things that bothered me at first in the bible. The account of Job always bothered me, especially when all of his children died but Jehovah rewarded him with more! So everything was alright then. No, all of his children died! I argued with my mum over this when I was still a child. I said, if we all died, would you want us to be replaced by more children, would that make you happy? She got annoyed with me so I had to let it go. Abraham having to kill his son to prove he was faithful to God. What kind of a God would ask someone to do that to his own son. I reasoned that I couldn't have done it, so thought of myself as someone who didn't have much faith. When I was a young child I cried over the Armageddon pictures in the paradise book. That picture is etched on my memory of the earth opening up and people falling down. Or the picture of the flood and the mother holding her baby with such anguish on her face. I thought how can God kill babies, it's not their fault. For years there were things like this that bothered me.
I carried on going, I was young. I tried to push all of the things bothering me to the back of my mind. I got baptized in 1973 at 17 with Armageddon looming very shortly. 1975. That was all anyone talked about. It came and went. Nothing happened. I carried on because of my family. I left school at 15 because of 1975. No further education for me, what's the point, everyone said. I believed it. We all did. Over time new ones came in, 1975 came up now and then. They denied the society had ever said it. I would argue with them that they did. My mum would agree with me. Years went by, I continued going but not regularly. I got married, had five children (didn't listen to the advice about that) gradually became inactive. My husband also became inactive. Then he returned and one day came home with about 20 watchtower and awake bound volumes. I was not happy about this. He put them all in a bookcase in the living room.
One day in my mum's we were talking and I mentioned 1975 again and I couldn't believe it but she said they had never actually said that, the society, it was certain individuals and it spread. I said it was in literature I remember. I had no way of proving it didn't know where to look. I started going through old books, found much about generation not passing away. Started going through wt volumes which dated back to 1960. Couldn't find anything about '75. Went on internet, ......... found it! I was thrilled. I was right. I wasn't going mad. Went to the volumes and we had the one it was in. 1968. From that point I became obsessed about proving them wrong. I spent hours over months, even dreaming about what I was reading. I couldn't sleep properly. I just wanted to keep reading. Eventually I found jwfacts, read everything on there. Found jwsurvey then this site. Watched tons of YouTube videos, downloaded crisis of conscience on my phone, it was so difficult to read it on there, tiny! I knew then definitely they were wrong. So initially it was me and the old literature. So grateful for the internet and finding like-minded people.
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There Have Been So Many Changes Lately!
by disillusioned 2 inthese words were spoken yesterday by my 85 year old mum.
she told me they had a special letter read out on sunday read by one of the governing body telling them they were stopping the ministry school.
i feigned surprise.
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disillusioned 2
These words were spoken yesterday by my 85 year old mum. She told me they had a special letter read out on Sunday read by one of the Governing Body telling them they were stopping the Ministry School. I feigned surprise. I said why do think they have done that after all these years? She said I don't know. I said many would probably be glad because they didn't like doing it because of nerves. She agreed, she never liked doing talks, only did them because she felt pressured to do so.
She never mentioned the reduction of the Watchtower and Awake and I couldn't ask or she would have wanted to know how I knew. I didn't push her, but she seemed to be in shock and puzzled and a bit down about it. She said a few times "there have been so many changes lately"! I think all the changes must be having a big affect on the older ones. I would love to have been a fly on the wall after the announcement to hear how everyone was reacting to it.
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Lights
by Drudge ini know some jehovah witness that have a yard full of lights, that they put on at night time.
but when xmas comes around they don't light them up!
of course, because they don't want their neighbors to think they believe in xmas.
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disillusioned 2
I am one of those people who likes lots of lights in garden all year round. But come Christmas when everyone else is putting up their Christmas lights my husband (jw) takes them down! -
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666 Jehovah Witnesses in Iceland
by disillusioned 2 injust came across this news article and thought you all might like to see it.
quite funny.. figures on registration in icelands religious institutions have yielded some interesting results.. visir recently compiled data that they requested from the national registry on the numbers of people registered with different religious institutions in iceland.
unsurprisingly, the largest number of registrants belonged to the national church; some 240,395 icelanders out of the total population of 331,244 belong to the church, either by voluntary registration or from being autoregistered at birth.. where other religious institutions are concerned, one of the more interesting data points is that there are exactly 666 registered members of the jehovahs witnesses in iceland..
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disillusioned 2
Just came across this news article and thought you all might like to see it. Quite funny.
figures on registration in Iceland’s religious institutions have yielded some interesting results.Vísir recently compiled data that they requested from the National Registry on the numbers of people registered with different religious institutions in Iceland. Unsurprisingly, the largest number of registrants belonged to the national church; some 240,395 Icelanders out of the total population of 331,244 belong to the church, either by voluntary registration or from being autoregistered at birth.
Where other religious institutions are concerned, one of the more interesting data points is that there are exactly 666 registered members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Iceland.
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The only way to preach!
by ToesUp inthis pic was posted on a pro jw site.
easy way to get your time in.... no need for special pioneers!.
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disillusioned 2
The cart in my local shopping centre is manned twice a week. Only in the mornings. One day two old sisters are standing right next to the cart holding magazines in their hands trying to get people to take them. The other day it is manned by younger sisters who stand a few yards from the cart leaning on a fence talking to each other. Years ago I definitely would have been in the latter category. Much better than door knocking. -
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A call from family - Armageddon this month!
by kaik ini very seldom receive a call from my jw siblings, i mean seldom.
i can count them on my hand in past 10 years.
while we talk about mom a lot and i am in touch with her, i was very surprised when i received this call.
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disillusioned 2
Five years ago my sister-in-law put on Facebook after returning from assembly: a speaker at the assembly said, concerning Armageddon, IT'S NOT SOON IT'S HERE! She was so excited. This of course was greeted with loud applause. Idiots! -
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Where you are in your life now.....What would you have preferred .... To be left in ignorance ? ...Or to know the truth about the truth
by smiddy ini think possibly their are a few valid reasons for either options to this question ,depending on a number of factors .. such as how old you might be, how long you have devoted your life to the "truth" as you believed it .
?....how it may affect your mental/physical health and well being.?.
how it will affect your financial position in your life ,?
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disillusioned 2
I would have preferred (and have said this many times to my family) to have never been 'in the truth'. But I can't change a decision made by my parents, which has affected my whole life and still is.
I am glad I found out TTATT but it has caused immense conflict in my life with my family. Trying to make them see what I now see but couldn't has caused much pain and tears for all of us. So in that respect with reflection I admit it would have been easier if I had never questioned anything and just been a good little girl and kept my mouth shut and carried on like a little robot. But I couldn't and so here I am.
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What is the most bizarre counsel you received as a JW, from a JW?
by Funchback inthere were many addressed to me.
for example, i once had a sister tell me i was gambling because i liked playing skill crane (the machine where you have to try to pick up prizes like stuffed animals) at the arcade.
i then fired back a her: "you saw the r-rated movie 'backdraft.
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disillusioned 2
We were told by an elder that we couldn't have our wedding filmed in kingdom hall because it wasn't showing respect to jehovah. Six months later a friend of ours got married in same hall and they were allowed to have theirs filmed. Was I mad! -
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What is the most bizarre counsel you received as a JW, from a JW?
by Funchback inthere were many addressed to me.
for example, i once had a sister tell me i was gambling because i liked playing skill crane (the machine where you have to try to pick up prizes like stuffed animals) at the arcade.
i then fired back a her: "you saw the r-rated movie 'backdraft.
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disillusioned 2
My dad was told by an elder that he had to get rid of his beard. My dad argued with him over it saying that Jesus and disciples had beards. Elder said he thought the beard looked scruffy and they weren't supposed to have them. My dad said "well I don't particularly like your socks" and walked away and never went back.