I am sorry about your loss. Certainly very sorry about the circumstances. It is very good of you to go to the funeral. Usually the funeral talk at the Kingdom Hall is very disappointing on a personal level as usually not much is said about the "individual" but just becomes another sermon. I went to a funeral at the Kingdom Hall many years after I quit, for a friend who also quit many years previously for her mother's funeral. After the funeral, her grown grandchildren were very angry that their grandmother was hardly mentioned. But, I was glad to go and support my friend. Of course, they try to be encouraging and state that the individual will be resurrected 'soon'. They said that to me and my family that our mom would be resurrected 'soon' - that was 37 years ago! Now, I find for me the hope that she's been in a better place already all these years instead.
Posts by Gayle
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24Ex-Father-in-law dies...
by Jim_TX inwhen i was married to his daughter, he was always thoughtful and kind.
i'm not one to ever want to borrow money, but there were a couple of times that i just had to.
he willingly loaned me money - which i repaid, with interest.
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54
My story- Here goes!
by Younglove1999 ini've just been writing away the past few days about my thoughts and feelings since my husband and i decided to finally call it quits and stop going to meetings.
in fact, he's the one who told me about this website.
he's a lurker though, so i don't think any have heard from him.
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Gayle
Welcome here! So happy for you & your husband & baby,,three more "freedom" rings!!!
I too was raised in the WT Society,,reevaluation really picked up for me when I too became a parent. Now I am a proud grandma,,my five children are free of WT baggage!
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54
My story- Here goes!
by Younglove1999 ini've just been writing away the past few days about my thoughts and feelings since my husband and i decided to finally call it quits and stop going to meetings.
in fact, he's the one who told me about this website.
he's a lurker though, so i don't think any have heard from him.
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Gayle
Welcome here! So happy for you & your husband & baby,,three more "freedom" rings!!!
I too was raised in the WT Society,,reevaluation really picked up for me when I too became a parent. Now I am a proud grandma,,my five children are free of WT baggage!
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21
Do You Know Any Hardcore Apostates?
by R.F. inare there any very active apostates in your area?.
i'm talking about the snarling, fire-breathing, district convention picketing, apostates that are an absolute nuisance to local congregations, and are very irritating thorns in the side of the watchtower society.. i don't know of any in my area but i've heard rumors of one group in particular that is well known and very active.
if it's true i'd like to find out who they are.
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Gayle
Instead of picketing at an assembly, I wish I could have a big neon sign up somewhere for all/many to see with alternating messages
Like: Jehovah's Witnesses Alert! . . . . . . .Blood Fractions OK now when banned before? . . . . .Organ Transplants banned before? . . ..
Jehovah's Witness' Children Alert! Alternative Service now ok-banned before . . . Did Jehovah change his mind or just mere men?
freeminds.org . . . . . .SilentLambs.org. . . . . . . .(the group about the blood issue - web site) etc . . . .etc. ....etc.
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41
What affected you more, growing up in the cult, or a dysfunctional family?
by Bumble Bee ini think for me, it was the dysfunctional family.
things from my childhood are finally getting to me.
i've tried for so long to just push them to the back of my mind.
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Gayle
I have resentment toward the cult (it speaks in the name of God) so had more seeming power ,,my parents became victims, I can forgive them but not the religion/cult.
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God help me - Just finished Crisis of Conscience
by Orgull ini don't know whether to laugh or cry.. a friend lent me coc yesterday and i stayed up most of the night reading it.
it took me 13 hours and i skipped the meeting today to keep reading, i couldn't bear to put it down.. i am shocked but not surprised at how closely ray's thinking mirrors my own in some ways.
the part that hit me hardest was.... "conviction, it has no meaning or validity unless it is individual, personal.
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Gayle
I understand your ranges of thought and emotions. I read Ray Franz' book also in the mid-80's. I had so many suspicions and questionings for some years before and became inactive in itself for that but Ray's book put all the sections of the pieces I had put together and finally felt a personal validation, a temendous weight lifted. It's bittersweet but gets sweeter and sweeter.
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37
How to get the programming out of my mind.
by Apostate.Jr ini have been reading this board for a year now, so i'm not new, but new to posting :)
please let me apologize in advance as i am having trouble separating what is true - from what i hear at the meetings, vs here, and private research, so i may ramble or say things that may sound watchtowery.
i still go to the meetings due to family pressure which may eventually end, not sure when, probably when i decide its enough.
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Gayle
READ, READ, READ
The WT Society had us reading only "their" stuff 5 hrs. a week, plus extra for meeting preparation and talks, daily texts, plus door to door plus assemblies. To open up your mind and exercise those brain cells and personal reasoning, you need good fresh knowledge. It takes time, but consider all the time you spent with that mind control literature that only has created an impossible "maze" in your head. It can be difficult initially but it does get sweeter and saner. Best Wishes!
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6
September Dawn" go see this movie
by Cheetos inyo dudes you have to go see the movie september dawn" being a jehovah's witness's for so many years it struck a raw bone.
i go into the theater there is only two people setting there during the evening showing i live in layton utah minds you this place is infested with mormons, as i walk in, the older couple says welcome to our theater haw haw haw, as i walk in i tell them hey i am not afraid to see this show nee neer nee neer.. the mormons have the same problem with being scared" and influnced by their bishops as we are by our elders, what a joke.. anyway go see this movie you will see what i mean..
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Gayle
I saw it,,I think a must see for xJWs! "Jehovah" is stated very often in the movie by the Mormons,,shows the cult control and paranoia of the cult back then, in the 1850's.
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35
New tactic in halls with sisters
by darth frosty inwas visiting with some 'friends' who my wife knows last night.
they were talking the ussual kh gossip whos gotten married you know the spiel.
but, what caught my ear was they were talking about all the recent marriages in the congo(3 this year.
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Gayle
I don't think it is so new either. In the '60's, girls in their late teens or early 20's found either the young males had left the organization altogether and the ones that didn't went to Bethel or went to jail because of the draft. Some of us would joke during the song then "Myriads and Myriads of brothers" & giggle & whisper 'where? where?" :)
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Apology for raising children in the Truth
by jeanne40love inwould you apologize in writing to your children for raising them in the truth?
i've apologized verbally........ none of them is going to meetings any longer...... my husband and i have been drifting away for several years..... .
i was raised a witness, and thought we were doing the right thing.
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Gayle
Nobody got a perfect parent! We five kids were raised in JWdom also. Dad was all the way with it, "as for me and my household, we will serve Jehovah!" Four of us pioneered and also went to Bethel (late 60's and through 70's). Much to Dad's chagrin, after leaving Bethel and gradually became inactive we "kids" were not under the 'spell' of JW world. Dad questioned us (and with some arguments too) and in the early 80's we had contact with others questioning and leaving around then too & when in the early 80's, Ray Franz wrote "Crises of Conscience", Dad was willing to read it. Shortly, after that Dad was disfellowshipped for apostasy. I realize that Mom & Dad were also victims of the mind-control cult and they meant well. I can only forgive them and I look back how the WT Society only makes parenting even harder (which is aggravating, when very, very few of their leaders - GB, DOs and COs, positioned Bethelites are so clueless to parenting reality). I raised my 5 children, free of the WT, I had no illusion that the WT heavy burden and extra rules were not going to be helpful to a parent nor their children in the long run. Take care.