Moshe, we want all the details when that elder dies!!!!
Barbara
i would love to hear your experiences when this worked out for you.
i had a great turning of the tables when i was 22. the con.
went out to a park for picnics, softball, that sort of thing.
would love to hear how.
i'm sure many others here would also..
i drew a blank on a particular question.
i basically had a talk with my parents over the weekend.
they've been jw's since the 50's and pops been an elder since 83. so i knew it was gonna be hard, but i basically told them to their face that i am no longer going to be a jw and gave a few reasons why.
i drew a blank on a particular question.
i basically had a talk with my parents over the weekend.
they've been jw's since the 50's and pops been an elder since 83. so i knew it was gonna be hard, but i basically told them to their face that i am no longer going to be a jw and gave a few reasons why.
the past few months have found me in a different frame of mind.
i no longer struggle with religion.
i have adopted a self label: agnostic christianist.
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I am coming to think we all have had our own "Personal Armageddon" if you will. That crisis of coming to the realization that for some that will be health related, cancer or some such issue or losing a family member to premature death ( an accident or whatever). An issue of unfairness or poverty and the facts that life isn’t fair.
Some how for us it was finding that we had been lied to pretty systematically. That the bible might have some answers, but never all of them like the witnesses would have us believe. Coming to grips with that crisis is what makes us what we are and how we live our lives, plus dealing with the family members stuck in that lie.
any takers?.
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i read your first post, here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/185315/1/stop-shunning#3448448.
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after lurking for a year, i'm glad that you've joined us.. .
Not a chance. Not all that smart at all.
But I am a reader, I was that kid who always had their nose in a book. Nancy Drew mysteries or the encyclopedia, it didn't matter... of course I read the Awakes and other publications that way too. Non discriminating, anything or everything it seemed. Even my dad's popular science magazines. So I was prepped to look for answers when I had questions, not always in the publications. I did know there was a world out there that was not as bad as the sisters would say. Ah the glamour of the "world".
So I left home and went to community college for a years training. Got a job and didnt look for a congregation close to the hospital where I worked. I was doomed, I made friends and saw a bit of the world.
My family would let me know when they were going to a convention, did I want to go along?. Occaisionaly I did, but only check in with a few girls who I had grown up with. It was making less and less sense, I felt no compunction to witness about any of it at all. The witnesses are so good at tearing down the other religions, but they also show you the way to do it to their own. You just analyze the witnesses the same way and it is so easy to see their shortcomings. The trouble was I wanted them to be right. Who wouldn't want to live forever?
Marriage and a family... along comes the internet. Confirmation in a heartbeat of all the things I knew were not right all along. From hundreds of sources. And here I am.
BSmart
i read your first post, here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/185315/1/stop-shunning#3448448.
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after lurking for a year, i'm glad that you've joined us.. .
I appreciate the Grateful Dead, but no such luck.
My first name starts w/ a B and Last actually is one of those Mart ones, you know Martin etc. there are several to choose from. Very mundane. On another board I am b.mart. it's an easy handle and a play on words of course.
Also the subject here is about a lot of BS and fits the subject to my way of thinking.
I can appreciate the be-smart and that probably entered into it too.
Bsmart
i read your first post, here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/185315/1/stop-shunning#3448448.
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after lurking for a year, i'm glad that you've joined us.. .
I love the site.
Got to thinking about a few things and thought that I'd google the witnesses. Lots of info about the shunning hits home. Somday I will probably post about it when the details are straight in my mind.
When I left home after school, I figured that since the end was so close and I could never live up to the "standards" (being imperfect and all) so I would see what the world was all about. Just knew I wasnt survivor material.
Still believed the BS though. Too many changes now for me to ever consider going back even though some family is still in.
The end didnt come and thankfully I married a swell fella. My sis probably prays for me cause she's not going to see me in the new world.... I just live as well as I can, and dont worry about her convoluted thinking. She has her own issues.
Thanks for the welcome.
BS-smart
has anyone out there ever wonder who gave the organization the power to shun.
oh i know you would say it comes from the bible.
but i suggest to you, it comes from their members it is really you.
First post here, I've been lurking for about a year. Born in, never dipped.
When I was a teenager the daughter of a JW was disfellowshipped for turning up pregnant with a worldly guys child.
The girls father was disabled and needed family to assist. He called the elders and told them that they should disfellowship him too because he needed his daughter to help out. He would not shun her, period.
They backed up big time, (He was one of their faithful examples, always at the meetings, bookstudies at his house. Liked by one and all) Said all they required was that he didn't speak of the "truth" with her. Needless to say I never had a problem speaking to her too. She was a sweetie, and is to this day a friend.
She didnt live at home. Never went back. She is doing well over 40 years later.
Bsmart (it was supposed to BS-mart but dont know if I can change it.