I went through my 10 year stay in the truth not knowing a whole lot about any of the teachings i realize. i knew of them, knew the rules cause i read them all the time in the KM,WT,awake....but i couldn't explain most of my beliefs with the bible. i entered the faith at 13 years old, on my own and guess what at 13 years old with no parents pressuring me i really didn't like studying. it didn't mean i didn't care. i did care. to the point that i trusted the brothers 100%.
When i was 18 i decided to go to thailand to volunteer. i had been baptized for a year and still hadn't filled out all the paperwork for the NO BLOOD position. when the elders found a few days before i left they called me into an emergency meeting to figure out the whole affair before i leave.
i sat with 2 of them for how long exactly i don't know but not long enough to take the type of decision i took in the end.
I knew beforehand we weren't allowed to take blood.don't have a transfusion, don't eat blood sausages, etc etc. jehovah said so in the bible.i could find more or less the verse that said that. And I believed it totally.
the topic of blood makes me very sick and i almost faint each time i have to give blood for analysis.so i was very uncomfortable during the convo and wanted to get it over with.
They went through the papers with me and talked about the other forms of treatment available like replacing the volume with a solution and that most witnesses agree with this type of treatment and i said yes i would agree to have that. then they talked about giving my own blood and taking it back later so it was a transfusion of my own blood but that a lot of witnesses didn't like it because sometimes the blood was mishandled, it could be spilled on the floor etc. and a lot of witnesses don't like it---so i don't like it either. Then they talked about that machine where your blood passes through it so it's like an extension of your body,...then the blood fractions.....HAAAAAAAAAAAA!
i needed to go to thailand a few days for the next 3 months by myself, i was 18, i hated blood. i never knew about ALL the different possibilities for treatment....and i knew nothing about these blood fractions AND TOLD THEM THAT, they had to explain it to me during that meeting. I didn't think i would ever need a blood transfusion and in such big matters my reasoning was: to use conscience is to bend the rules and ultimately DISOBEY. That thought process must have taken 1.5 seconds since I was so brainwashed so i just said i don't want any fragments of blood my conscience doesn't allow me.
And they said ok we understand and that was that. i took those papers in my suitcase and god knows what would have happened to me if i had gotten hurt in a foreign country by myself, with a non witness mom accross the globe, and paper saying i entrusted 2 NO BLOOD advocates to speak for my health if i couldn't do so for myself.....that made me think i'll have to ask her if she knew i carried that around. and that she may have had to put up a fight to save me.
anyways long story.
my point is:
1) those elders had no right asking me to take such a decision with such a weak knowledge of the subject and on such short notice.
2)18 years old makes you an adult in the real world but i was very much the 'spiritual orphan child' of the congregation.even though i was 18 when i officially signed those papers, i knew from when i was much younger that i wouldn' t take blood not because i had reasoned but because i had BLIND FAITH.
3) more should be done by the authorities to protect children from these cults especially when life-threatening issues are involved.(i was only 13 when i took the 'truth')and to make parents aware of the dangers . my mom thought it was a great thing...but not for long. After i got disfellowshipped she told me she could see i was brainwashed but thought it wiser to just stand by and wait because she knew she could lose me if she opposed me. scary isn't it?
4digitcode
JoinedPosts by 4digitcode
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13
blood card
by 4digitcode ini went through my 10 year stay in the truth not knowing a whole lot about any of the teachings i realize.
i knew of them, knew the rules cause i read them all the time in the km,wt,awake....but i couldn't explain most of my beliefs with the bible.
i entered the faith at 13 years old, on my own and guess what at 13 years old with no parents pressuring me i really didn't like studying.
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4digitcode
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Obves correct! Yearbook 75 says BABIES who take blood won't live forever!!!
by Witness 007 inyearbook 75 p.223-224 witness couple and their 6 day old cheryl, who needed blood.
"darell and rhoda correctly viewed blood transfusion as a violation of god's law, and thus oposed it.
they were concerned about the babies welfare, for everlasting life is only the prospect of those adhering to god's laws.
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4digitcode
i applaud you mathilde for saving your son's life despite thinking you could be destroyed by jehovah for it. that shows a lot of courage and selflessness!(is that a word....i mean opposite of selfish....sorry english is not my first language)
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Were YOU Set Up To Fail?
by Sarah Smiles inas a child, i believed jdubs were the only ones who had truths.
we as children tried to live our lives clean without smoking, drinking, cussing, stealing and etc,.
as i became an adult and associated with others, i had fallen beneath the jw cracks.
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4digitcode
right on IP_SEC!!!!
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11
just sent final email to my 'best friend'
by 4digitcode ini'm so drained emotionally from it but i did it.
i learned a few days ago through her ex worldly boyfriend that she had told him she tries to email me but i don't answer, she called me and i hung up (all things she has done tome in the past 9 months that i have been trying to get in touch with her).
she told him i had gone crazy and moved to italy and no one knew where i was and i was not talking to my jw mom anymore ( i moved to italy for almost 3 years to work, study and learn italian and my mom is not a jw!!!!!!
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4digitcode
and why the heck do my posts come on as one big block with no spaces and no paragraphs. What's up with that?? :)))
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just sent final email to my 'best friend'
by 4digitcode ini'm so drained emotionally from it but i did it.
i learned a few days ago through her ex worldly boyfriend that she had told him she tries to email me but i don't answer, she called me and i hung up (all things she has done tome in the past 9 months that i have been trying to get in touch with her).
she told him i had gone crazy and moved to italy and no one knew where i was and i was not talking to my jw mom anymore ( i moved to italy for almost 3 years to work, study and learn italian and my mom is not a jw!!!!!!
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4digitcode
i'm so drained emotionally from it but i did it. I learned a few days ago through her ex worldly boyfriend that she had told him she tries to email me but i don't answer, she called me and i hung up (all things she has done tome in the past 9 months that i have been trying to get in touch with her). she told him i had gone crazy and moved to italy and no one knew where i was and i was not talking to my JW mom anymore ( i moved to italy for almost 3 years to work, study and learn italian and my mom is not a JW!!!!!! never has been.) while in the meantime making me believe she was not with him for the last 3 years when they had been dating the whole time till august of last year. i don't understand i never judged her for her worldly boyfriend, i never ratted her out for some of the things she's done....she was the one telling me i had to judge to hate what jehoavh hates. my email started out telling her all this stuff and asking her what is wrong with her and why she did that but then what do i do????i start telling her to get out of the cult and to read crisis of conscience and to read about mindcontrol and child molesters and mexico malawi, and 607 BC, etc.........something i had said i would never do becasue i didn't want to affect her faith. and the worst part is i'm a repeat offender! i did it yesterday as well with a brother i cared about so much while in the truth(totally platonic)...in less details but i did it anyway. he had told me that raymond franz was an apostate and that's why he got df'ed and i wrote to him the real reason why he did and asked him ' how much else don't you know?'......................i love these 2 people. i truly hope my 'friend' looks more into it even though if she does i don't know how i would feel if she tried to get in touch with me as i'm not sure wether the compulsive lying is JW induced or just her own personality.i just wanted to get her out of a cult that i know for a fact is making her unhappy and the reason why she felt she had to make up that whole story to her boyfriend to justify her behavior with me.............i don't know i'm tired. i posted my picture yesterday on this site, i'm sending out apostate letters.......i don't even know if i had a right to do that. i know raymond franz wrote that he felt his conscience pushed him to tell people the truth about the society, and my motivations were absolutely those in the last paragraphs of my email where i tell her she doesn't have to lie to justify the actions she has to take for the WT.......but at the same time...i don't know it feels a bit wrong. Do you think what i did was ok? i want your honest opinion. not wether what i did was best for me(i.e. venting anger, seeking to clear my name,etc cause i know i told her what was on my mind about her lying about me) but wether it was best for her....to present facts that may help her break free or otherwise disturb her deeply and make her life among JW much harder. Let me know. thanx.
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Great QFR, really stupid answer from WT
by erynw ini originally posted this topic under "deuteronomy 24:16 vs 2 samuel 12:14" (http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/142118/1.ashx).
it was suggested i retitle and repost it as my title did not really convey what the topic was about, so here it is again.. i was looking at who incited david to take the census, satan or jahooba (2 sam 24:1 vs 1 chron 21:1).
anyway, i was searching the wt 2006 cd and i came across this qfr that has nothing to do with what i was looking for, but i could not believe what i was reading.
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4digitcode
not only pro choice but pro infanticide. nice. why don't they just say it in pure english-the kid was a bastard, so that's why we think it's ok that god killed him............They remind me of NAZIS.(how i came to that perception was in a rant that i chose to delete as i wouldn't want it to be miscontrued as what I think, and wouldn' want to hurt anyone's sensibility)
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Were You Treated Unfairly In The Congregation?
by minimus inthere is clearly a caste system in the organization.
there is a pecking order.
certain classes of people did not associate with those not of the same ilk.
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4digitcode
yeah definitely. not because of the categories you put up though. i was reprimanded and since then people slandered my name for years. when i was in the french congregation in new york/ the native french were at the top, then americans who spoke perfect french were next, then the haitians who spoke perfect french, then the africans, then the americans who spoke bad french, then the haitians who spoke bad french.actually it was even more subtle if your french had all the cool parigian expressions you were top, whereas the haitians were bottom because they spoke it in a caribbean way.The native french spoke that way naturally so the cool ones didn't even care(i'm in this category-am belgian though), the snooty ones loved the hierarchy. it was sad when americans or haitian people tried to speak with typical french sayings. it was so phony and i felt bad they felt they had to do that.:(
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Great QFR, really stupid answer from WT
by erynw ini originally posted this topic under "deuteronomy 24:16 vs 2 samuel 12:14" (http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/142118/1.ashx).
it was suggested i retitle and repost it as my title did not really convey what the topic was about, so here it is again.. i was looking at who incited david to take the census, satan or jahooba (2 sam 24:1 vs 1 chron 21:1).
anyway, i was searching the wt 2006 cd and i came across this qfr that has nothing to do with what i was looking for, but i could not believe what i was reading.
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4digitcode
hey hey hey you're not getting me this time Deaconbluez is at it again and is just posting under his friends name RIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT??????? cause this is by far some of these sickest crap i ever heard from them. i hope that reader left the org after that answer. IP_SEC that was my exact reaction!!! notice how they even say after that well the baby would have died anyway along with his mama if she had been stoned so...like...2 reasons why it's ok...like whatever.
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Child Baptisims Really Pissing Me Off. Linked to DF's
by oompa inas a parent with a df'd 22 year old son who i love to hang with, i just need to vent a little.
my completly ingrained family do not treat him as family.
it kills me.
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4digitcode
i had been studying since i was 10 and finally took the plunge when i was 17. not because i really wanted to. some elder came to me after a meeting and said 'what is keeping you from getting baptized? you still have time till the next convention'. i was like ok i'll think about it, went through the questions and did it. never did a dedication prayer...i'm not even sure i knew i had to.just took the plunge.of course i felt some of the weight of baptism and was really happy i was dedicating myself to god.Man so much love bombing that day, it brought me to tears....i was so loved.and what privileges i got!!!the privilege of now slowly being revealed all that was wrong with the org,because no one had to pretend anymore, full coverage of other members private lives, and i was now on the market for a wonderful spiritual brothers.....have to go puke now.....
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Being true to yourself
by blueviceroy inyou know ,i was studying with someone who was a jw and came to this forum thinking it was a jw thing and found something i didnt count on and that was people that had bee there in it and saw it for what it was.i read so mant posts and realized that i could never ever live like that pushing things on people instead of really living in a way that mattered to all people that are lurking and still jw i hope that maybe you will think about being honest instead of being trusting i cant help but feel that stepping back is something too few people do in any aspect of life and the feeling i have about being fed a line of crap must be pretty minor compared to the lifers out there who woke up i realized there was no way i could ever be a jw the whole time i was studying i was struggling with my own common sense that kept whispering to me that what i was hearing could really be coming from a grown man of approx.
50 years of age being true to yourself will keep you happy if you are living a lie your life will be meaningless and desperate the erosion of all that is good in you is inevitable secrets kill slowly and its no kind of life complete honesty takes courage and strength but it is the only way to live i dont wont to sound preachy and i apolgize if i do > but im really relieved that i only had a close call< i feel as if jws prey on peoples good intentions and desire to live a good life as anti jw as this must sound let your consience be your guide.
( is that how you spell consience?
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4digitcode
i'm happy for you it was just a close call. i was 13 when they got me.my dad brought me into it and then peaced out. so all my spiritual mothers and fathers took 'care' of me and made sure from such a young age i would already have the mantra in my head 'where else shall i go?' took ten years to break free. those who live by your motto either go crazy in the religion or leave eventually when they are strong enough or when being true to themselves got them df'ed.