Posts by Had Enough

76

Question to shunned persons

by HesterPryne in

hello everyone,.

if your jehovah's witness relatves came to you and said..... "praise jah, there has been 'new light" and we can associate with you again!".....

what would you say or do?

Had Enough

Hi stephenw20:

You are right on when you said:

its unfortunate the brainsurgery that takes place.... and the artificial hearts that are transplanted......

It bothers me to think back to my days of following what I thought was Bible principle. I did the "don't talk to them" routine even though I felt so bad doing it. Something didn't sit right with me about it, but I thought "hey...the Bible does say don't even say a greeting so who am I to question the Bible and the 'spirit-guided GB'"

Once I started researching what the context was of all the scriptures they use to "uphold" their shunning policy, then "the lights went on". I can't believe I didn't notice that before. But like so many other times on any subject, when I couldn't explain a certain scripture, I'd just skim past it and hope the householder wouldn't ask me what that meant. (must be part of the brainsurgery) Probably that's typical for many JWs too. I'm beginning to see how 'not alone' I am in my thinking then and now.

btw....happy 500 --I noticed your post on Fredhall's thread and said it there too.

Had Enough

28

Oh. So You're A Seventy-Fiver Then, Are You?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

does anyone take any responsibility for what happened in 1975?

maybe i should say what didn't happen in 1975!.

i mentioned 1975 to my still devout but not so fundamental jw mum.

Had Enough

Hi JT:

How sad for your mom. Carrying a child should be a happy and calm time not one of fear and guilt.

I know what you mean about getting ticked off by some new "Prissy..." JW posters coming here with their attitudes. My dander gets riled up too as you well know from some of my posts, but 'yes' I too have to remember they are just programmed to answer that way, and 'yes' many of us were there too. (maybe not as ignorant as some of them come across but nontheless we were there too)

I'm glad you remind me of that point though...sometimes the 'ole bloodpressure overheats.

Java:
Thanks too for the insight. Paradise..I almost missed it..sitting under a beautiful tree...looking up...except when there's a bird directly above) [8>]

Had Enough

23

Like a moth to a flame

by Esmeralda in

jw
friends

hi everyone.... what is it about this place?

what is it that keeps drawing me back when i have.

all these plans to try to just leave the jw issues alone, behind me and think.

Had Enough

Hi JT:

Right on!!!!

Why it took me so long to realize this, given my obsession with needing to have answers, I'll never know.

Maybe I was just like so many others who "put getting the answer on hold by waiting on Jehovah for the answer". Like I've labelled that before, it's like wearing blinders.

Wow! It feels so good to have them off now.

Had Enough

23

Like a moth to a flame

by Esmeralda in

jw
friends

hi everyone.... what is it about this place?

what is it that keeps drawing me back when i have.

all these plans to try to just leave the jw issues alone, behind me and think.

Had Enough

Hi Esmeralda:

Glad to hear from you today. This thought has entered my mind since I started coming to this site a little over 2 months ago. I could'nt find the words to explain it because I didn't understand it myself, but being here and posting for the past month or so, has given me such a liberated feeling! I have learned so much about myself too, from being able to finally express my long-time suppressed feelings and doubts.

Reading yours' and others' experiences has opened my eyes even more and strengthened my conviction to keep learning more and trying to find a way to put my knowledge to good use with my still-active family.

When I read about your days of tears and feeling down, and yet you come here and give someone in need, your encouragement...those gestures spur us on.

Mommie:

When you said:

maybe a voice out there saying, "We have been there and still survived" is what they need to hear

, I say "YES" that's exactly what we need to hear, especially for me when I read someones's experience far worse than mine. It gives me a needed "boot in the rear" to get out of that day's slump.

JT

Your words:

we will always be attached at the hip due to this life exp. that we share...Often times when folks go through something together and SURVIVE to tell about it---- they realize that no one can really understand what it was like- you have to exp. it to know

rang so true for me.

I wondered at first too, why so many keep hanging on here after so many years away from the org. I asked myself "Why is our leaving so different from someone leaving another religion"?

But it soon became apparent to me that for so many of us, it's because of the hold the org has on its members by means of the strong conviction we're the only ones worshipping God in the only right way. We believed so strongly in the 'coming end of the system' and the 'paradise' we would be privy to. The excitement along with fear of failing and guilt when we did, is like a giant hook stuck through its members. In turn, these beliefs caused the lives of most of us to be affected in ways the 'world' didn't go through.

I identify so strongly with your phrase about "questions" at the end. I too want answers and not feel afraid to ask questions. I've always been a stickler for answers and detail, and am often teased in a loving way from my friends who know when they tell me something, I have to get the full picture...I don't like having to fill in the blanks.

To all:
It just makes my heart swell when I see you all take the time to answer those who need it, whether it be with sympathy, suggestions or a funny remark. They help not only the one you're answering but those of us who read it too. I'm so glad to be getting to 'know' all of you.

Had Enough (but not of this place!!)

22

thoughts about miscarriage

by silentlambs in

jw
friends

i remember the date, may 15, 1991, it was the date my wife miscarried and a young life was lost.

there was no funeral, few remarks of support.

i will never forget the remark of my mother, well it never was really a baby after all.

Had Enough

How sad silentlambs!

How sad that as JWs who claim to have such love for fellow man, that they can't find the words of sympathy one needs to hear at the loss of a loved one. They seem to feel they're not being spiritually strong and faithful to the resurrection promise if they express grief or sympathy. Many times attempts at condolences fall flat.

I've been in both situations as a griever and as sympathizer and have wondered why the gathering at the hall seems to give the impression its just another meeting.

Your poem was a true avenue of closure. I will remember those words for my son and his wife and the child they lost before birth like yours. It is a loss that doesn't go away..but can be soothed by calming, heartfelt words of understanding and caring.

Thank you for sharing your heartbreak with us and my please know that my thoughts are with you and your wife.

Hopefully the good that will come from your post will be that more are made aware of the need to be empathetic for those suffering a loss of an unborn child and to be conscious of the effect their words have.

Had Enough

28

Oh. So You're A Seventy-Fiver Then, Are You?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

does anyone take any responsibility for what happened in 1975?

maybe i should say what didn't happen in 1975!.

i mentioned 1975 to my still devout but not so fundamental jw mum.

Had Enough

Hi somebody:

My blood begins to boil too when I start to talk about this subject since the GB's pride and arrogance and greed affected so many peoples' lives and the serious choices they made for their future (or should I say the choices they didn't make for their future).

Older people than I am, failed to make serious financial choices for their future that affected them in the following years. Many still held on to the belief that if it didn't happen in 1975, we may just be a few years off in the calculations...besides the generation since 1914 will soon be fulfilled anyway so no need to waste money on retirement savings and life insurance, etc.

The quotations you found are so typical of the many many statements the GB made only to be enhanced by the elders and CO's in their talks.

But the height of hypocrisy came when they gave the explanation that it was God's way of "weeding out the org." or "cleasing it"!!!

Man am I ever sure I've...
Had Enough

28

Oh. So You're A Seventy-Fiver Then, Are You?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

does anyone take any responsibility for what happened in 1975?

maybe i should say what didn't happen in 1975!.

i mentioned 1975 to my still devout but not so fundamental jw mum.

Had Enough

Hi Unclebruce:

And your're dead right!!! We, the r&f, only thought that way because of what the GB was saying and directing the CO's and DO's to tell us.

What else were we to think with the constant reminder of "how close 1975 is" and relating experiences in the KM of what "some were doing in these last days like selling their houses and possessions to pioneer for the short time remaining".

I can remember conventions where the CO held up a paper-contructed clock showing the hands at 11:59 saying "see..we're that close to the end", comparing it to being 1 minute 'til doomsday, and saying "the new system is no longer around the corner, but is now at our doorstep".

The GB truly cashed in on the first enthusiasm shown in the info in the 'Life Everlasting-Freedom' book. The GB just 'ran with the ball' after that and scored wherever they could.

Had Enough

4

Written review

by Moxy in

jw
friends

i have a number of things to say about this wacky 45min school session.. why is it that it is inappropriate for the conductor to ever simply say that an answer is 'wrong'?

invariably, he must ask for 'another answer,' particularly amusing during the true & false when there is only one other answer.

shouldnt we be helped to reason on why someone might incorrectly come to this conclusion but why, in fact, this other conclusion is the 'correct' one?

Had Enough

Moxy:

You're right...there always seemed to be only a limited amount of time to get through all the answers so there was no room for discussion to 'exercise our minds' as you said. The only exercise our minds got was to memorize things not reason on them.

I remember (man, am I dating myself) when the written reviews were all handed in and the school overseer marked them and graded them a percentage. I even helped my dad sometimes by adding up the scores. Then they were returned to the publishers the next week for review.

Later on when we marked our own, I got lax and just flubbed some of the answers just to look like I had something in the blank. I wish now I would have had some of my teen friends sitting beside me then, instead of my elder (ex)-husband. I would have been much more fun.

Had Enough

28

Oh. So You're A Seventy-Fiver Then, Are You?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

does anyone take any responsibility for what happened in 1975?

maybe i should say what didn't happen in 1975!.

i mentioned 1975 to my still devout but not so fundamental jw mum.

Had Enough

Hi Moxy:

I don't know if I'd call it 'stigmas' or just silently wondering "what are they thinking bringing a child into the world at this time?" or sisters murmuring among themselves, but not an actual 'marking' that I can remember. At least in my area...but of course, things differed from cong. to cong.

For example, I never personally experienced the marking of the calendar I spoke of, but my friends in my present area, remember it vividly by their co, but I experienced the 'life insurance sales' and the 'warnings to the householders' etc.

I just know that from what I heard at meetings and especially assemblies, it was not a good idea to put yourself in that situation of the pregnant woman etc. It made me feel like I would be testing God to ignore the warnings and have a child then. The child I had in '71 was not planned so I purposely waited 'til after '75 to have another. That's how much of an impact the whole "hype" had on me personally.

Had Enough

28

Oh. So You're A Seventy-Fiver Then, Are You?

by Englishman in

jw
friends

does anyone take any responsibility for what happened in 1975?

maybe i should say what didn't happen in 1975!.

i mentioned 1975 to my still devout but not so fundamental jw mum.

Had Enough

Englishman: Thanks for posting this topic. It is another one of my bugaboos. You are so right when you said:

You had to be around pre '75 to understand what the atmosphere was like back then

I too remember the hype brought on by brothers' talks and suggestions in the articles and books and the results like:

-ones saying to householders in service that this may be the last time I will be here to speak to you before the coming end

-ones who felt guilty trying to sell long-term life insurance or not seeing the need to buy it

-having co's in their talks, mark off the days and months on the calendars showing how much time was left to 1975

-I personally worried about having a small child at that time and not wanting another one before 1975 for fear of "woe to the pregnant woman and those nursing a baby in the tribulation" warning

-seeing those who sold their houses to full-time preach before the end

-hearing other JWs say if they bought a house now, they would never have to pay it off.

For everyone who never experienced that time in the org. before 1975, just try to imagine what it would be like to grow up truly believing that you would never grow old....and what a shock to the system it is now to be pushing 50 and have grandchildren.

I could go on and on..

What makes me mad at myself is, I fell into the trap of blaming ourselves for "running ahead of the org. because they never said 1975 would bring Armageddon". I try to find the humour in all of it, but I know I would have done things so differently if I hadn't believed in that foolishness.

And I know there are many out there who blame Ray Franz for the misleading info. and so have pushed all the hype and excitement out of their minds. They have no clue.

Had Enough