witnesses say that when people leave "the truth", they get involved in a debauched life, misery, and general unhappiness.. they give experiences of some that left the "sweet fellowship" of the "brotherhood" and the awful results because of it.
then, they come back and their lives change 100% for the better!.
have you found life to be miserable and unproductive since "leaving jehovah"?.
So much happier. I have friends that are friends because they want to be and its not conditional on how active you are in the congregation.
I also no longer have to put up with guilt trips because i have a good job and career.
My mum asked me this question a few weeks back and when I said I was happier now she let things be. I'm hopeful that this attitude from my parents will continue as I know how fortunate I am compared to others here.
i remember the whole process of selecting a host city for australias last international convention.
the australian bethel played the nsw government against the victorian.
it was so similar to choosing an olympic city and the big boys from bethel knew how to play the game.
Not the first time there has been both branding.
My dad went to one of the international conventions in the USA in the 1960s and still has the wine glass given out on the flight with dual branding with Pan-Am airlines and the title of the convention.
so the bf is out of state for a wedding.
when he told me it was today, the day before easter, during lent, i realized it was probably for one of his jw or lasped jw family members.
he also happened to mention there was no booze at the function (horrors!
No YMCA allowed.
did anyone notice?.
Slightly off topic but remember once visiting bethel in London and they had a department where they would restage the photographs using indian brothers and sisters for the foreign language magazines to be all inclusive.
i'm trying to compare some statistics and figures on this to share later in the thread to see if more long-time witnesses are exiting- or are newer witnesses exiting after a shorter period of time.
and - are more people exiting in the last 10 to 15 years than before.
so your answers would be helpful in looking into this .
Born in. Baptised at 23 in 2004. Stopped being regular during 2007 stopped the little FS at this time.
Finally stopped going completely at end of 2008. Went to memorial 2010 to please parents but will only set foot in hall for that or funerals.
...well, as was explained to me anyway.. since countries that were previously under ban are now able to report, this has resulted in the partaker numbers to go up.. .
.
um, yeah... .
That could have explained the increase if this was the early 1990s when bans were lifted in the old soviet union and some african countries. It doesn't wash with me now though!
i sat in the car with some trepidation and minor nerves and walked the 200 yards to the k/h on this damp dreary night.
i was a bit early and was greeted pleasantly by a hall attendant who shook my hand an asked my name, as i walked inside to my surprise i recognized 3 of the brethren, one was a guy who was a reasonably good pal who dated a friend of mine all those years back, he exchanged glances and he blanked me, the others were a middle aged couple who were sat a few rows in front of me but no eye contact was made, i proceeded to sit down and another 2 sisters greeted me, so in the space of about 10 mins a grand total of 4 people have made the big effort to say hi.
the opening song commenced and the sister next to me kindly offered me her songbook.
good on you. i agree totally with cantleave.
just got back from memorial.
only went so that i could say to my parents that i had gone and to remind myself why i left.. oh my word!!!
it was sooooo painful.. got there a bit late - it was a couple of minutes into the talk.
How many partakers in 2009?
I think it was 10,400 or something.
Sunday April 18th. They announced it after the memorial.
just got back from memorial.
only went so that i could say to my parents that i had gone and to remind myself why i left.. oh my word!!!
it was sooooo painful.. got there a bit late - it was a couple of minutes into the talk.
My mum tells me that when I was about 3 or 4 I would sit on the bus singing We're JWs! The shame!
