Posts by VIII

10

New and confused

by Catareta in

jw
friends

please don't hate on me.. im a 30 something blind woman, who has been aware of the witnesses a while.

after my dad died five years ago - i questioned my own faith - christian (anglican).

tried everything - the occult, new churches etc.. 3 years ago i was suggested to have a study by a good friend who is jw.

VIII

Catareta you said:

I wondered, when will they start suggesting ministry...and my conductor has said today, sometime in new year...
im petrified- I came for answers.. I'm scared that if I leave I'll lose some of my friends and get people asking me to come back.

Having been raised as a JW, they put high value on Field Service and the Ministry. If you are at all capable of going out door-to-door, even with a handicap, they will expect you to. And, with a handicap, they will use that to their advantage. You will be less threatening and people may be more inclined to listen and perhaps open the door.

BTW, going door-to-door sucks. Between being told "No, not interested" to the dogs chasing you to clearly home people not answering the door, there is no "Upside" to going out door-to-door.

26

Vigil held for Burney man who died after being set on fire

by no password in

vigil help for burney man who died after being set on fire.

community members shared their memories of wicks, a member of the jehovah's witness hall in burney.

many of them remember him from his post at the shell station, where he worked along with his wife.

VIII

I agree with Simon.

Reading this my first reaction was "This is a horrible, evil person who did this". I just can't fathom why you would douse someone in gasoline and light them on fire. What a horrendous way to die.

Very sad.

55

Let's Be Honest - You or One of Your Ancestors Was an Idiot

by Simon in

why were we ever a jw?

were we mad?

we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.

VIII

This has been a fascinating read.

I'm born in; 3rd gen. My maternal great-grandparents were in back in 1914 waiting for the great big A to happen. Then nothing. She had my grandfather and he never gelled with the JWs. He married my totally cray-cray maternal-grandmother and she jumped on the JW crazy train. 4 kids later and they divorced when my Mom was 12.

Fast forward: He got custody of 4 girls in the 1950's!! She (crazy grandmother) disappeared and my Mom got suckered in by the JWs going door-to-door by a neighbor lady in 1968.

My Dad was nothing. We never went to church. We did birthdays, Christmas (I was only 4 when she joined) and that's all I recall. Then I was in kindergarden and I was told I couldn't say pledge to the flag or sing happy birthday etc.

Dad got baptized and became an MS. Then he wanted out and got himself DFd. All within 10 years. He was gone.

We got stuck with Mom and she is still in. Ardently, I might add. I just received my mailed Watchtower and Awake mags yesterday. Puke.

I would call my parents, all my aunts on my Mom's side and their spouses, idiots. They all joined for the 1975 rhetoric. They all had various reasons (looking back I see what, etc) for wanting "Paradise", however, when it didn't happen they could have walked away. They still had friends on the outside. Now? Way too late. They are locked in. All their friends and associates are JWs. And kids. And kids of kids. Except me. I'm the Apostate.

20

Give my Cubbies some love!

by JRK in

jw
friends

how many of you think the cubs deserve a world series championship for the first time in 108 years!?.

jk.

VIII

Go CUBS!!!

20

Differences Between Ex-JWs

by David_Jay in

we are not all the same--a real "duh, david!

so i figured if i didn't feel that sense of solidarity that seems missing among the debating, then i was part of the problem.

i'm responsible for making this place feel like a support and place of solidarity, just as much as anyone else.. but approaches i tried didn't work until i shut up for a while.

VIII

When I got baptized I did it with my fingers crossed (figuratively) behind my back. I simply did it to be accepted by the JWs I was hanging around with at the KH. If I wanted friends, I needed to be baptized. I was 13. I knew it was fake. I knew it was garbage and I never prayed and I didn't know half of the answers to the questions the guy I studied with was asking me. He still let me go ahead and get baptized.

I can see his face--an older man, gray hair; glasses. Basically someone who would be lost in any crowd. He would ask me questions from whatever book we had to study from right before 1975 and I would guess at the answers.

I just needed to say I was a baptized Publisher. Then I would have friends.

A pathetic way to be accepted.

When I went to college I never once heard from my JW pals. I was a renegade just for getting an education. That did allow me to fade away without being DFd. After that I never looked back and never went back.

BTW, I hated being in the "Truth" from when I was a child. I knew that they were wack-jobs way back then. If any of you met my family you would understand. I mean that. They are all loony-toons. And all JWs. I figured I had to be switched at birth. I seemed to be the only one who knew that the JWs were nuts.

53

Finally posting and I'm FRUSTRATED!!!

by stephanie61092 in

okay, i'm about to engage in a major word vomit.

just giving you fair warning as your time may be better spent somewhere else.. so, i'm sitting on my lunch break, bawling my eyes out, and writing on this forum to people i don't know yet probably have a great deal in common with but at the same time, used to scare the daylights out of me.

for years, i would come across this forum and 'lurk' awhile if you will, or see things on youtube.

VIII

Has anyone heard from Stephanie? Hopefully she is OK and still around...

91

My brother died last night

by LisaRose in

jw
friends

i found out this morning that my brother died last night, he was also an ex jw, 73 years old and died of heart disease and kidney failure.

it was not totally unexpected, as he had been in poor health, but it's a blow, especially as i just lost another brother two years ago.

there were six of us, now only four.

VIII

Very sorry for your loss.

77

In The Name of Love, Need Your Opinion

by thankyou in

i'm non-jw.. been following this forum.

most of you folks have been through hell, but are still loving souls.

i'm reeeally impressed and glad to be here.. my question is at the end of this.

VIII

My Mom was a serial dater of " Worldly " men in her 30's and 40's. She was looking for a husband but also looking for someone who would convert to JWs. All were well off. None would convert.

She played the game your friend is playing. She was seemingly Spiritually Weak yet went out in service every Saturday and to every meeting. We were gossiped about because of her dating practices and ended up being shunned because of her behavior. She got DFd for fornication for her one lapse and had sex with one of her boyfriends-1 time. She confessed the whole thing to me-I was 15! Long story.

She lost all her friends and learned you don't leave the JWs without painful repurcussions. She got reinstated and never lapsed and never dated again. She is now a complete JW robot who is gleefully waiting for Armageddon and Jehovah to annihilate billions of people.

Your friend is not looking for rescue-she's looking for a convert.

Please stop trying to get her out. It's a waste of time. When a cult member is in, only they can get out. They have to make the effort to see the light.

56

The watchtowers view on Rape!!! must see

by Khaleesi in

this person did a great job putting this together... i am disgusted with wt policies & them acting both judge & jurywatch "noonespecial - rapists - jw" on .

youtube.

https://youtu.be/lwufz7gyozm.

VIII

Why isn't this type of stuff getting to the media?

The JW belief of "leave it in Jehovahs hands" is beyond crazy.

25

JW Kids Who Lack Sincerity: Are You In The Flipping Truth Or Not?

by Apognophos in

did any of you know a jw youth who didn't seem to really even try to be sincere about the "truth"?

not someone who led a double life while pretending to be a goody-goody jw.

i mean the kind of kid who went to the meetings and did field service while making minimal effort at maintaining a pretense of being a true believer?.

VIII

I would question the logic of every Watchtower and Awake article and everything the WTBTS put out that went against what my Mom said at home. Such as her agreement with Women's Liberation (this was the late 1960's and early 1970s) and yet, the WT position that women should be in subjection-My Mom hated that, yet, went along. When I, as a child under 10 years old, would ask her how she believes the WT on this, her answer would be "Shut up, it's The Truth." Uh, yeah, sure.

There are so many examples of the lying and hypocricy of the JWs, I knew, before 1975 and the Armageddon fiasco, that they were a bunch of fraudsters. And I didn't have the Internet to go back and look at old articles and things Russell and Rutherford had said and done.

My way of dealing with it as a kid and as a teenager was to go out in service and be bored, play loud music as we drove door to door, I would question the others in the car and make them uncomfortable. Then I would just shut up and let them think about it. I never got DFd, but I faded as soon as I got to college.

I was a very lackidaiscal JW. I stayed in because I needed a roof over my head. My Mom would have thrown me out if I had left before that and in the late 1970s to early 1980s there were not many options for young women. So I bided by time and left when I was in school. I went back home and lived for a while but since I was working my Mom let me off the hook on going to meetings. I worked a lot of OT. I had a great reason to miss FS-every Saturday we worked. Money! And, since I paid her rent, she couldn't say No to me working extra. Her greed won out over FS.

So, I was flipping out way before I actually left. Like lots of folks here.