my history: i grew up as one of jw's.
parents are still.
both brothers have been df'd.
Yikes! I'm forty as well and while I didn't grow up in the wt, I can relate to the rest of what you wrote. I've been out for over four years now and I'm just starting to see that my value isn't based on how much I've done or who I obey. It took me this long to finally talk to other people about this painful part of my life.
There is life after wt though. It may take you awhile to figure out how messed up you are but eventually you will. :-)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=&storyid=2006-11-09t154755z_01_n08318708_rtrukoc_0_us-life-web-dullmen.xml&src=nl_ustechnology.
i think i have heard everything now.. jeff .
Carlson - a semi-retired former tax accountant
This is good, but I have a question. If the guy is only semi retired, wouldn't the use of the word former be a little premature? ;-)
long ago in an ancient kindom, there lived a princess who was very young and very beaufiful.
the princes, recently married, lived in a large luxurious castel with her husband, a powerful and wealthy lord.
the young princess was not content, however to sit and eat strawberries by herself while her husband took frequent and long journeys to neighboring kingdoms.
I think it was Colonel Mustard in the Drawing Room with the pipe wrench.
LOL! Actually, it was john (the class) in the footstool with the false prophecy.
i'm sure this question has been asked before .
i've come a long way in my thinking.
a very long way!
Yes, as soon as I realized how deep and high and wide the lying and liars were.
But I didn't blame God or Jesus for the lies of the WTS.
Blondie
I still have trouble with this. I don't understand why god would see the sincerity I know existed in my heart and reward that with a trip to hypocrisyland. I guess, I can't blame him for decisions I made, but my entire life, I've viewed god as my friend and yet when I was being lead along like a sucker, he wasn't anywhere near. With time, I hope to view this and him better, but for now, I'm mad at him and I'm convinced that if the situation were reversed I wouldn't do the same to him.
long ago in an ancient kindom, there lived a princess who was very young and very beaufiful.
the princes, recently married, lived in a large luxurious castel with her husband, a powerful and wealthy lord.
the young princess was not content, however to sit and eat strawberries by herself while her husband took frequent and long journeys to neighboring kingdoms.
The wealthy lord should be fried for leaving his sexually frustrated wife alone for long periods of time. Besides, who the heck wants to sit and eat strawberries all day? Variety is the spice of life. And contrary to common, wt belief, there are other spices besides salt. Still, the story doesn't mention whether the princess tried to make her feelings of dissatisfaction known to her husband, so who was more negligent of the two is not discernible from what's written.
Logical hole: Since the princess was only dallying for a day, then she was only a day's journey from home and since she didn't run into any trouble leaving, why was she so concerned with what she would encounter on the way back? Plus, she was able to travel from this heinous place to her godfather's house, but she couldn't go back home?
The godfather isn't godly or fatherly. What kind of person refuses forgiveness to someone who is sincerely sorry. Of course, maybe the princess wasn't sorry for her fling. Maybe she was only sorry for the fling not turning into something more. In that case though, wouldn't the godfather want to help reunite the couple so that the wealthy lord could move on with his life? Maybe the godfather just didn't want to be bothered by mere sinners. His repugnance suggests that he probably considered himself above that kind of activity. His sins were more refined than her base sins. Off with her head!
The evil wizard is already defined as evil so he's at fault no matter what he does. The story leaves out some pertinent information though. As we learned from the seinfeld show, people have a certain level of social responsibility when they witness an evil act. So, the evil wizard may have just been following his natural instincts. He may not have been designed or created with the ability to NOT be evil. Did the godfather have the capabilities to help and just not want to because he judged the princess as not deserving help. Did he have the power to make that call.
The point I'm trying to make is that we don't have enough information to say for sure who's right and who's wrong.
was speaking to a jw friend the other day (he knows i have 'doubts').
he asked me what i thought of the 2007 year's text.
i said it would be nice if jehovah did intervene soon, but that i felt that the society is wrong to be constantly telling everyone how 'near' the end of the system is, that they have been doing this for over 120 years, and that we should just focus on being good christians without always thinking the end is close all the time.
Yep, you can't have it both ways. If god requires that people follow one organizations rules and regulations to the letter, than it would also make sense that he would send them the correct letters in the first place. On the other hand if an organization wants to take the route that everything they say is liable to change at a moment's notice than they shouldn't have any problem with people wanting to wait until it's correct before they tag along.
you talk to people in general about jws and what a crock of shit their beliefs are and you think 'maybe i went on too much!
' 'perhaps they weren't really listening anyway!
' "i wish i hadn't bothered!'.
How funny!!! I go door to door & love talking to people like you! I usually answer to all of your little snide questions with your own copy of the Bible. But when I show you what the bible says, the usual response is "well, I dont believe that." One man tried to stump me with a question when I answered him all he could say was , "Good answer." Even though I knew he was playing with me I still wanted to help him find accurate knowledge about the Bible.
Arrogance, thy name is inthetruth.
you talk to people in general about jws and what a crock of shit their beliefs are and you think 'maybe i went on too much!
' 'perhaps they weren't really listening anyway!
' "i wish i hadn't bothered!'.
Looks like JWs fear 'apostates' more than Satan himself!
They do. The god they worship won't help them if they go to the wrong website or talk to the wrong person. Their god of unconditional love, in fact, is just lying in wait for them to show any display of doubt - then he pounces on them.
I worked at a restaurant once that had a policy of zero percent tolerance for dirty tables. Management was always complaining because their rule was impossible to fulfill. It's the same with the jw. Each one is encouraged to work toward a goal that is unreachable. The pressure is never lowered because if the jw actually started seeing themselves as having intrinsic worth, they wouldn't need to start over from scratch each morning in winning god's approval.
were you ever talked to by elders or charged with something because of hearsay??
?
I did have an experience along these lines. I didn't receive any talking to from the elders, but I could tell that "eyes were upon me." Anyway, I was living in tijuana mexico at the time. My wife was a very kind person and always willing to help out those who needed assistance. One of the people she helped out was a young girl named flor. One of her sons got flor pregnant and then broke up with her so my wife kind of took her in as a daughter and helped her with the baby. Well, I gave flor a ride one day unchaperoned. It wasn't a long ride, but I did have to drive right through the center of our territory to give the ride and a number of people saw it. I didn't think a thing about it at the time, but there was a markedly different feel at the kingdom hall.
Situations like this are very beneficial, however, in helping one of the affllicted see that they truly are a part of a cult. If this really were god's organization, then why would he need humans. Why would anyone EVER be encouraged to pass on heresay as a SUPPOSED PROTECTION for the congregation? Wouldn't god and the angels pretty much have that aspect covered?
The jw appear to be a friendly group of conscientious bible lovers but its all a facade. By the time you realize that the level of back-stabbing and gossip and nepotism and such is as high or higher than the secular world, you've already bet your reputation and credibility on the validity of what the wt teaches. Being a jw is like being an out of control gambler. A gambler looks back at all the money that was lost and is even more convinced that he has to continue trying for that one big strike or his whole life will be a sham. Its the same with the jw. The only thing is that at least the gambler actually has a chance of strking it rich.
i'm sure this question has been asked before .
i've come a long way in my thinking.
a very long way!
This is an interesting question. For me it wasn't "would I ever leave," it's "when will I finally fit in?" When you are required to reprove your dedication to god every day, it's impossible to ever feel that you have any intrinsic worth. So, I didn't really think about leaving, I was constantly worried about when they were going to kick me out.
It's been about four years since I last attended a meeting at the kingdom hall and I'm finally able to talk about this. Instead of being ashamed of this part of my life, I'm angry that what the wt does is legal. I'm still a little fuzzy on what I ACTUALLY believe right now, but the one thing I KNOW is that for the rest of my life, part of my service to my fellow man will be warning people about this corrupt organization.
