My therapist told me that as a 2 year old I was ran over by a truck. That was his comparison for my parents accepting the Jw beliefs when I was so little. He said there was no way I could have reacted any differently, you believe your parents..full stop. I stayed a witness when they left..why? Because I felt like I belonged to a group that gave me an identity. My self worth was very low, coming from an abusive family, being a witness filled a need at the time. As the years past my doubts became more and more difficult to ignore. When I left I wanted to embrace strangers on the street and ask for forgiveness for judging them. I feel shame to think of how I thought about certain groups of people, now some of those groups are my dear friends. They have never once said a bad word about my past and what I was before. Amazing really. I think stupid is not the correct word...uninformed in general...a little better maybe?
chicken little
JoinedPosts by chicken little
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48
Forget all of the stages: Denial, Anger, Sadness - Don't you sometimes just feel STUPID for having believed in the Organization?
by BonaFide ini know i have been through all those stages, i denied it, then i got angry, definitely sad.
months and months of this, and i still am in for my family and friends.. but sometimes i just feel stupid.
why did i ignore basic common sense for so long?
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Another excellent news article about Hughes lawsuit in National Post
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1637102.
did bethany have a choice?the father of a jehovah's witness who lost her life after refusing a blood transfusion is fighting back.
juliet guichon and ian mitchell, national post .
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chicken little
Excellent reporting. Thank you for posting it.
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JW-ism in various countries: how much influenced by culture?
by InquiryMan ini have been on various boards the past decade.. i cannot help but see that in some respects, esp.
american jw ism is more extreme than its scandinavian counterpart, perhaps both ways.
of course this also has to do with the fact that in american society, religion plays a far greater role than in scandinavia... but it seems that its practiced in a more stern way in some parts in the u (e.g.
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chicken little
I agree that there are differences country to country and the general "feel" of the population towards religion can determine if there is a hardline or more lax.
I lived in the north of England and the small minded mentality was far different to that which I experienced when I moved to London. Then some years later we moved to Denmark and the english speaking congregation was a shock..it was so laid back!
The danes had light beer at their conventions for years...there was a lot of muttering when it was stopped. Sisters wear trousers in the winter on service (I have seen jeans and jogging bottoms). Beards ok. Longish hair ok. Backless dresses, seen it alot. Trainers for shoes, quite ok for youngsters. However if you travel across Denmark to the more conservative Jylland then everyone is small minded...my daughter was told off for wearing a beret to the meeting.
I often feel sorry for those poor brothers in hot countries that are forced to wear ties on service........in the bush!! I am sure some must rebel.
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Roll Call !!! I am going to reveal my name, anyone else DARE?
by Leprechaun inroll call, just as it is written i am not afraid what can man do to me.
my name is shane draney i live in ogden utah, i am supposed to be going to the roy city congregation but i am not going to so there!
but you never know since i was raised in it, its been hard to shed drinking the cool aid.. .
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chicken little
I am tooo chicken!
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Pretty good Article about Hughes in the National Post
by Will Power ini hope this continues to get attention.. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1629449.
thank you mr. hughes.
wp.
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chicken little
Oh Garybus, I feel so sad when I read your post. You suffer. I wish it could have been different for you.
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Recent article on bride price
by meangirl ini am new to the site so forgive me if i'm doing this wrong but somebody posted an article by the society recently on the christian view of brice price or something like that (sorry don't know how to find it) and it really sickened me.
something that i have been dying to say and registered just to do so is that they are so full of it!!!
does anyone remember the article back in the 40's about how it was not right to tip your hat at a women because that would be elevating her above the man and that the woman was never to be elevated above the man......yet during our modern times they write an article saying that this custom is not wrong or demeaning but rather how to do it in a "christian" way.......so tipping your hat to a woman is wrong but apparantly selling your daughter is aokay?????
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chicken little
Welcome to the board....the bride price is acceptable to the witnesses because it was practiced in bible times, otherwise it would have been thrown out as pagan like everything else the society is against. I did not know about the 40s thing with the hat...wow...I would be flattered if a man had done that for me...still I am an old fashioned kind of girl.
Keep posting nice to have you here
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An insiders account: the effort that goes into a District convention drama
by truthseeker inwhile much has been said about bible dramas in recent years, very little information has been given on the effort that goes into one.. i thought i would share my experience.. i played a minor role in the 2003 drama, "boldly witnessing despite oppsition".
this was a full costume drama and revolved around overcoming opposition to the preaching work.. when a congregation is chosen for a bible drama, it is a serious responsibility.
the presiding overseer takes full responsibility for the drama, and in effect becomes the director.
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chicken little
My husband had the "privilage" to direct the dramas that would be used as slide shows. It was an amazing amount of work. He directed a few "live" ones as well..I think he should have been an entertainer, everyone always said his dramas were the best. I remember as the submissive wife being dismissed by the high ups from bethel when they wanted to discuss the dramas to be sent to third world countries. I felt like the third wheel on a bicycle..not funny.
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whats the longest DF'ing you have known?
by wobble ini know of a guy who was df'd for over 12 years,all the time he was on at elders in different congo's that he moved to to get himself back in,of course they referred things to the original jc who informed them that he had made no effort to put things right so he could not come back,not repentant.
(it was a money matter).
he finally cracked it though,is now back in.. what is the longest such case you know of?
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chicken little
18 years a sister in our cong tried to come back...she has a personality disorder....never could control her emotions..told the truth. It held her back for years..poor thing came back and then was avoided as people knew she was drinking, she is an alcoholic.
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I guess we are all heretics.........
by awildflower init always amazes me how expendable we are to this organization.
especially if you are the mom of unbaptized children and the wife to the 'unbeliever'.
in my experience, i was let go and forgotten quite easily (although i get the feeling it might not be over!).
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chicken little
I felt the same as you. We were a high profile family..haha...well everyone enjoyed out house, garden, food and entertainment. Yet we went without a ripple...the only elder that came by after 4 months was a kind oldtimer who was sad and confused as to why we left. We could only reassure him it was not his fault.
I think many elders are scared of the heretics, they cant burn us at the stake, if they cant disfellowship then they are at a loss...we take away their power. I had no intention of ever going back but I did expect a shepherd to at least look for the lost sheep. Now I know that they are not shepherds, they are the spanish inquisition...and nobody expects that do they?
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Is it true that a Gilead missionary murdered two other missionaries?
by BonaFide inwhen i was a missionary, i lived in several missionary homes (graduates of mts sometimes lived there with gilead grads).. so of course at first we were all formal and nice.
in time, we kind of got on each others' nerves.. and at first we all told these great experiences from mts and gilead.. after a few months, those stories lost their luster, and we all started to tell the inside scoop about our congregations, bethel, etc.. so one of the gilead missionary couples told me that while they were in gilead, brother jack redford told them confidentially that there had been a murder in a missionary home a few years ago.
i seem to remember it was in the south pacific.
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chicken little
Actually I remember reading on Randy Watters site...his bethel experiences..some on e wrote in and said he had killed someone in a missionary home...it was in the south pacific...wonder if it is still on the site.