nugget

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Posts by nugget

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  49

  My 71st Birthday Confessional

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was born january 15, 1947in mt.

  carmel hospital, detroit, michigan.. within six months of my birth, my mother would bundle her baby boy into a blanket and board an american airlines propeller-driven plane--in effect, leaving my father behind--to return to her hometown, ft. worth, texas.. my dad had an excellent job working for cadillac as an inspector.

  it was a union job.

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  nugget

  Happy birthday Terry hope you have a good day you post was intriguing I found it interesting thank you for sharing.
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  13

  Non JW and JW friendships

  by ricsa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  himy story is as follows.

  i've been friends with a guy for round 1,5 years.

  he told me once he had another guy friend who was gay.

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  nugget

  The fact that he has only recently confessed to you he is a JW rather than the more acceptable and generic Christian shows a lot. The fact that he also is happy to listen to you talk about your sex life and he has a gay friend would indicate that he is not as devout as you think. A truly devout JW would have no worldly friends only work colleagues and any friendships with people outside the organisation are by nature shallow. They would not be happy to converse about sex and relationships either.

  I have found that people who live on the edge like this are the most likely to shun and throw others under the bus to save themselves. This is partly a distraction so the elders do not look too closely at them and their behavior allowing them to put on a front of respectability whilst they flirt with the world outside the organisation.
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  24

  Come on, Mainstream Media!

  by Wild_Thing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it has been sickening to read the most recently leaked documents by faithleaks.

  it makes me so angry because so many of us have experienced first hand the horrible policies of the watchtower on abuse.

  i feel like these documents are finally the smoking gun we have all been hoping to expose the watchtower, and so far, the only mainstream news that i have seen pick it up is newsweek.. what will it take for the mainstream media pick this up and give it the attention it deserves?

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  nugget

  For us JW abuse is real and affects us all on a very personal level. For us the organisation was once our whole world and we were led to believe that they were an influential and important group. This is not true they are a small fringe religion with little influence outside their membership and as a result the mainstream media needs more to make JWs newsworthy. By sharing stories and highlighting abuses we do bring the stories to the attention of people who might otherwise never look for these on their own.
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  19

  My fading suffered a miscarriage

  by Ireneus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i thought of successfully fading out, but suffered a miscarriage last week.

  i gradually decreased the number of meetings i attended.

  in the latter half of the year it became once a month, then once in two months, once in three months ….. last week, two elders who visited me, after their bla..bla..asked: “where will you go leaving the motherly organization—the only truth now available on earth?”.

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  nugget

  I am sorry to hear about your miscarriage I hope you are ok. It is an emotional time and you could have done without the added pressure of a JC.

  It can be an exercise in futility since you have already been judged before you attend. I think you made the right decision to protect yourself from further stress. Certainly this was not an appropriate time for elders to question your faith but a lack of compassion is one of their traits.
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  40

  Introduce myself

  by dantoole87 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'd like share why i went from being a teenager determined to work in full time service for jehovah my entire life, to now being on here commiserating with you all.

  i use to be an atheist but i now believe in god.

  but i'm not preachy about god.

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  nugget

  Seems like you and your wife have both been through the mill. This religion chews you up and spits you out. I feel sorry for any child left in the organisation especially girls. As you have expressed it it is a patriarchy and girls have no status and are molded to put the organisation first. Your wife may wake up eventually but she has to make her own choices.

  You have time to rebuild and find a new direction in life. It will all be very intense for a while but it will get better. Welcome to the board
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  16

  Hooray! Bound volumes in the trash!

  by stillin in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  my wife has held onto them like they were family heirlooms.

  we are cleaning and clearing out accumulated stuff and i pointed out that there is the cd-rom library now and that the society has made revisions and really doesn't want us to be reading the old stuff.

  she said that even though there have been changes to the teachings, the wrong understanding served its' purpose at the time.

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  nugget

  I have found that these things must multiply in the dark every time I think I have found the last leaflet, brochure and book I clear out a cupboard and find more of the things.

  It is an amazing feeling clearing out the clutter.
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  16

  Christmas Eve Best Wishes To ALL of you .

  by smiddy3 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it`s christmas eve here in australia today and i wish all of you a very merry xmas simply because i can without being zapped , or hauled into a jc committee.. it doesn`t matter whether you are religious or not , i`m not now , however i can appreciate and respect those who do.. so whatever your views on the matter have a great day and enjoy the holidays in whatever grabs your fancy.. and if jw`s do come knocking on your door as they do this festive season wish them a merry xmas and anti-witness to them ..

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  nugget

  Happy Christmas to one and all.
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  38

  How do I handle this?

  by Phoebe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a little advice please.. it's now 7 months since i stopped going to meetings.

  we still get regular calls by elders - at least every 2 weeks.

  i can handle them.

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  nugget

  I wouldn't respond. A fade is at risk if you interact with members of the congregation. You have doubts about the faith and witnesses are very sensitive to people who are not totally committed. You could potentially set off all sorts of warning bells especially if this person's relatives are already doubting your spirituality.
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  27

  Dealing with Elderly Parents Who Still Believe the jw Religion is the truth

  by lancelink in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i left the religion back in 2008 right after my mother died,( the total lack of natural love/ affection was the final straw for me).. but my dad has become more and more focused on doing the wt bidding.. it just amazes me how he gushes on and on about the last days, his new bible studies, and meeting parts .

  but yet he makes no effort to have any type of relationship with his grandkids, there are 5 of them , non are witnesses.

  they are the children from several different sisters of mine, and myself.. so how do you deal with the witness stuff always being presented in conversations?.

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  nugget

  My mum is 80 and doesn't attend meetings as she is housebound. She believes the organisation is the truth but because she hasn't been to meetings she believes what she was taught when she joined the organisation. She hasn't kept up with current thoughts or changes and doesn't believe me when I tell her about the changes.

  Generally we avoid talking religion she is totally in denial anyway. She is sorry that I inherited diabetes not sorry she introduced me into a cult and messed with my life for 40 years. What can you do?
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  41

  What woke you up?

  by MrRoboto in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  for me, i think it was just the right time as i was starting to wake up on other fronts as well (anyone who had went through these will know what i mean).

  but it started when i was looking for what info goes on a publisher card, which led to me reading one person's story (ex bethelite) which was pretty crazy to an all-in jw but who trusts those apostates...?.

  then i started watching videos on cults, as if my subconscious was trying to tell my concord mind something... when i saw a particular one about a young man in lds getting ready to start their 2 year preaching campaign, including a school, social activities etc, i realized that i couldn't tell the difference between the folks of this mormon cult and the jws (save for some religious differences) .

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  nugget

  It was a gradual process and started after I had children. I started to look more closely at the materials especially as my son has Aspergers and found some of the material distressing. I looked at what I was expected to teach my children and was unhappy with the idea that they should not celebrate any achievements as this would be boasting. That they should always trust the elders, have no ambition or hope other than that taught by the organisation and have no friends outside the organisation.

  As it happened I could see that my son was seen as odd by other witness children they were not kind to him or were his friends. The meetings were torture for him as he couldn't sit still and would be taken out frequently for discipline by his father. In the end I took him out myself to the backroom looking stern and then let him fidget to his hearts content. He struggled in field service and would be vocal and speak up if he was uncomfortable or bored and other witnesses couldn't understand why he couldn't be made to be compliant. I could also see how the witness life was affecting my daughters self esteem negatively. At assemblies other witnesses were selfish and unkind when my son reacted to the loud noise of the feedback from the speakers and told us we were ruining their enjoyment and they would have to move. I told them not to bother we were going home. There were countless small acts of pettiness and casual cruelty that went against the idea of a spiritual paradise. I couldn't allow my children to experience the same humiliations and restrictions that I had as a child. They deserved to have happy and fufiling lives. My son would never fit into the witness mold and the elders agreed.

  While this was happening my husband was having his own doubts and got me to read "Combatting cult mind control" and "crisis of conscience". Both these excellent books put the final nail in the coffin and we left as a family.

  Although we had different reasons for leaving we were both convinced that we made the right decision. We had to weigh up what we would lose as a family and we have lost some family and friends against whether we could live a lie for the sake of keeping the same family and friends. In the end the children were more important and in order to allow them to grow as people we had to give up something from ours. We have been lucky, we have made new friends and connected with old ones, we have become closer to family members who have also left and some who were never witnesses. It takes work and effort to rebuild a new life but it is worth it.