i know while in the org we get told alot to tell everyone that we are jw's, cos its reputation is so good.
but that dosn't explain why people still refuse to answer the doors to them, or hide when they come aknocking.. so how are jw's really viewed by the outside world?.
I used to think they were just like any other harmless religion, they just pestered people more than the others.
Even after I married into a JW family (wifes parents) and began to get the stories I still thought things like:
"If they haven't got time, can't they just not bother doing the studying", and "can't they just not go?"
It's only when I started reading up on this site and others that..... well holy SH*T!!! what is THIS????
the st. petersburg times completed a three-part expose on the cult of the scientology.
good reading, and good information to use with jws.. part 1 of 3. .
part 2 of 3. part 3 of 3.
I love reading the Operation Clambake message boards (I nearly got suckered into it when I was a student 25 years ago), and there's a huge flap about this at the moment, although whether it will lead to any long term change is debateable. Cults have a habit of riding these things out without much net effect.
i have been here for almost six months now and thought i would mark the occasion by starting one of these threads.
you may have been lurking on this site for a while, learning a lot but too afraid to participate.
i was convinced that somehow my ip address would be traced or i would be i.d'ed.
OK, I'll bite :)
I'm not a JW, never have been, I was raised protestant but am now an atheist.
The reason I've been lurking for the past year or so is because my wifes parents are, and it has been causing quite a bit of friction in the family. My wife was brought up in it but left at 18, never baptised, just stopped doing it when she was forced to leave home because of wordly things. I met her 8 years ago (she 30 by then) and was constantly bewildered by why I seemed to be being so harshly judged by her parents, and why they behaved so oddly on occasion. Now I know, and this site has taught me a helluva lot about what kind of behaviour to expect and how to react to it (especially when it comes to attempting to influence my own offspring).
So thanks everyone on here, your stories, whether sad or entertaining, are always informative.
I probably won't post much unless I've something specific I need to ask about, but I'll always be here.
PS. NO ONE else in the entire family is in, so we hold out the hope that one day they will just leave, let's just see.
HolyParrot
