yesterday, my dad told me an older sister passed away.
she wasn't too old (in her 60s), but i knew her 30 years ago and haven't seen her in 15 years; the main reason being that i faded 10 years ago.. yesterday, i seriously considered attending the funeral and catch-up with old jws i used to know.
after thinking it over, i decided against it.
I went to a friends, mothers funeral. Although I haven't been to the hall in about 10 years, nobody asked. Everyone was excited to see me and we were all very happy to connect. I would suggest that you go.
All of these people were very close to Me about 40 years ago, that's what's important. The bond!
i am now in my early 60’s.
i was baptized in 1980. i served as a ministerial servant and an elder.
i gave my all for many years but about eight years ago i started to question many things.
Wow!! Incredible post and comments by everyone!! Baptized in the early 1980's and left after a 2013 WT. I can truly empathize with everyone of "THIS GENERATION".
Really makes you wonder how anyone could stay in after reading Crisis of Conscience and the Generation Teaching change.
A prominent elder in Los Angeles (unsolicitly) told me a few years ago (at his mother's funeral) that he was going to KEEP Going because this is all that he knew.
Keep Chasing ya dreams everyone!! Despite being 50+; Chase those dreams!!
this is directed to born-ins.
around age 10 or 12 is when it first hit me.
i started asking questions about how the world worked and i really wanted an honest opinion from my parents.
The baptismal questions changed about 2-years after my baptism. They literally had everyone pledge their allegiance to "God's spirit directed ORGINAZION"!! Seemed blasphemous to me as a teenager.
An elder described it as signing a blank contract. I thought; "Isn't that bad?" This was also doing the time of Kareem (who played many years past his prime due to contracts and theft) and Majic Johnson's (1 million annually for 25 years) contracts being in the news a lot of the time. I followed the concepts of BAD Contract closely.
this experience highlights the level of my indoctrination, after 10 years of been a pomo.
a few months back my gf was hinting to me about what we could do for my birthday.
to be honest i just had no idea, that i even had a birthday.
Unfortunately; We will ALWAYS be a witness (or EX-witness) in some form.
It's like the song; Hotel California!! You can never leave.
It's THAT traumatizing!
when i was a teenager a younger fellow workmate was involved in the sport of judo.i got interested and went along to a number of sessions and took to it like a sponge to water ,and as a sport i was happy participating in.. not that much longer another workmate was getting re-activated in the religion of jw`s.
which i had never heard o before and then got interested in that .. conflict : was judo a sport that was compatible with j.w beliefs?
sadly i decided it was not and stopped any further involvement.. to this day i resent that decision i made back then .and i`m 82 years old now.. it was a sport i was comfortable doing and i enjoyed it.and i gave it up because of the religion .who knows what i may have achieved had i continued with it.
High school sports and college. I am not making that mistake with my children.
somebody mentioned in a recent topic that they had a conversation with a former elder whose breaking point was when the overlapping generation was highlighted in recent times and how he would never serve again until somebody gave him a scriptural reason to believe it.
i am in a similar position.
i have gone in the last 18 months from taking the wt study, leading fs groups, and doing talks on the mtngs to doing almost nothing, as i resigned a little over a year ago as an elder due to a combination of family responsibilities and huge doubts.
Bumping a good post I enjoyed. Since we had so many newly awaken souls; I thought I would share it again!
anybody have experience of taking psychedelic drugs they'd like to share?.
i'm thinking of trying one day.
.....would love to try them as well!!
hi everyone i’m a pimo elder ex bethelite and pioneer who has been having doubts for many years.
as of late i’ve come to have even more doubts mainly due to the gb pushing the vaccines and acting like salesman for big pharma companies .
i will never take these vaccines even if it meant i couldn’t go to the hall as was previously said but the gb have done a big u turn on this now.
WELCOME!!
After knowing what you now know; meetings and witness activities will never be the same.
I wish you the best moving forward!!
If/When you leave; do it on your own terms.
yes, i am posting again.
i could not for awhile technologically and it is now fixed thanks to simon.
thanks, simon!
I have always loved your post; You are definitely my favorite on this forum!
so i pioneered for 10 years in the 1990's it was 90 hours a month with alot of country driving.
i was shocked when brothers and sisters with full time jobs would park their brand new cars and go witnessing in my 20 year old orange datsun.
i was barely living on $250 a week as a yeah...window cleaner.
Their cars were probably leased; meaning they could drive limited miles every year or pay a fee!!
