Posts by Miss Chievous

187

Favorite Love Songs?

by Robdar in

jw
friends

until recently, i have never been in love.

oh, i had lots of lust, but i cannot say honestly that i was in love.

silly love songs made me roll my eyes heavenward.

Miss Chievous

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpO9MSEWpxc

70

How many of you were baptised at a young age?

by lepermessiah in

jw
friends

one thing this site has made me reflect on the baptism practice in jw land.. many of us were raised in the religion, thus you were given the pressure early on to shoot for baptism as a goal.. i remember feeling bad because i waited until the ripe old age of 14 to take the plunge.. looking back, i realize that when i was 14, i didnt even know what my favorite color was, let alone have enough knowledge to make a life altering decision.

yet, growing up in that climate, i would say anyone who waited past their early teens to get baptised was viewed with great suspicion and was likely to be viewed as "bad association".

kids who took the dip at 8-9 years of age were viewed as "wise beyond their years" and the like.. how old were some of you when you were baptised, and what are your feelings on the matter?.

Miss Chievous

I was 16, was brought up in the org but parents weren't great about family study (thank goodness!) so had a study with a sister in the cong and decided I was ready. Mum and Dad thought I should wait, didn't listen to them, I knew it was the right thing to do. Why are parents always right in the end?

Apart from the issues everyone else here has mentioned I noticed with all the young people in my cong that as soon as you were baptised you were basically left to your own devices. The support from others died away and it felt like a big anti-climax. I know of one sis whose family came into the org when she was 12, she had to be dragged along for a few years, eventually had her own study and by 16 she was baptised, at 17 she was disillusioned and left. Wish I'd seen through it so fast!

I always wondered why Jesus was 30 before he was baptised, now I understand.

Miss C

154

JW Apologists please tell me where your God was when .....

by wobble in

during the dark days of the second world war , the monsters that ran a concentration camp decided to hang a child.. they hung the poor little chap so that it took half an hour for him to die, all the while making the other inmates look into the face of the child.. where was your god then ?

was he not strong enough to do anything or did he just not care ?.

if the first then he is a very weak god, if the second then,.

Miss Chievous

Ok I'm going to play God's advocate for a bit, don't hate me for it!

Why should God interfere in what happens on earth? From his point of view he has given us the Bible as a guidebook on how to live, he has made it so simple (love God, love your neighbour as yourself) that we can't go back to him and say we could't understand how he wanted us to live. He even sent his Son to earth to help us and give a model of how to live.

That's all very well you'll say but he has the power to do so much more doesn't he? Of course he does but he has also given us freewill, we as humans can do what we please, we can either live as he would like us to live or take our own path. How can he interfere without taking our freewill away? Humans seem to want it everyway, we want to live as we see fit when it suits us but as soon as we start suffering we want God to make it all better. Innocents do suffer but we can only blame our fellowman for that, not God.

Maybe he has to let the whole system man has built collapse (religous, political, business, social) before he can step in and save us from ourselves, maybe that is the only way we will learn?

Am I still thinking too much like a JW?!

Miss C

15

What translation of the Bible do you use?

by Miss Chievous in

after leaving the org i got a compemporary english version of the bible and although it is not a word perfect translation it is so easy to read, something i never found with the nwt.

it is the youth version of that translation and along side the scriptures it has small sections on bible history, major themes running through the scriptures, questions and answers on important issues, advice on real life situations and how to be christian.

makes bible reading much more enjoyable.

Miss Chievous

After leaving the org I got a Compemporary English Version of the Bible and although it is not a word perfect translation it is so easy to read, something I never found with the NWT. It is the Youth version of that translation and along side the scriptures it has small sections on Bible history, major themes running through the scriptures, questions and answers on important issues, advice on real life situations and how to be Christian. Makes Bible reading much more enjoyable. I am wondering what other translations people here like using.

Miss C

10

Woman died after refusing transfusion (Belfast)

by BluesBrother in

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/woman-died-after-refusing-transfusion-14604429.html.

saturday, 19 december 2009. a jehovah's witness who refused a blood transfusion in hospital had a 98% chance of surviving the bleed that killed her - if she had been given the procedure, an inquest was told yesterday.

grieving husband philip baxter said his wife anita (56) did not want to die but did not want a blood transfusion.. a coroner has called for hospitals to consider seeking a court ruling in similar contexts, where a patient refuses blood on religious grounds.. mrs baxter, of naas, co kildare, died of acute cardiac failure caused by blood problems in tallaght hospital on september 15, 2009. the jehovah's witness died five days after surgery to remove a tumour from her colon, after which she suffered significant bleeding.. surgeon diarmuid o'riordan told the inquest there was a 98% to 99% chance she would have survived if she was given the appropriate blood transfusion.. dublin county coroner's court heard yesterday that mrs baxter signed an informed consent form stating she didn't want blood, even as a life-saving measure.

Miss Chievous

I have known this sister since I was a child, heard about her cancer, operation and subsequent death all in the space of 24 hours.

The Health Services Authority in Ireland are now considering new powers for doctors in situations where the patient is unconcious at the time of an emergency due to blood loss even if they say they don't want blood under any circumstances. They said it might be necessary because faced with a life and death situation the patient may want to change their minds. Could this stand up in court?

Miss C

53

Anyone leave the org without the help of the net?

by Miss Chievous in

just wondering if anyone here left the org without ever looking at anything on the net and if so how did it happen for you?.

miss c.

Miss Chievous

Just wondering if anyone here left the org without ever looking at anything on the net and if so how did it happen for you?

Miss C

39

Long time lurker, first time poster

by Miss Chievous in

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Miss Chievous

Thanks Twitch, yes I may have had a few brushes with them in the past...

39

Long time lurker, first time poster

by Miss Chievous in

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Miss Chievous

Thanks everyone,

Onthewayout, for a long time I felt this was a 'sign' but in reality witnesses are one of the only religions who call door to door, it's bound to happen.

Miss C

39

Long time lurker, first time poster

by Miss Chievous in

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Miss Chievous

Yikes! MS Word has added to my post. Lesson learnt!

39

Long time lurker, first time poster

by Miss Chievous in

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Miss Chievous

I have been lurking here on and off for over 3 years but this is my first post. I have been helped by many of the experiences here so I reckon it's time I put my own up here and maybe help others.

I am a third gen. witness, my Grandfather fought in WW2, prayed to God to get him out alive and help to find the right religion when he got home. Lo and behold a short while after he returned the witnesses called. Both my Grandparents converted and the rest is history. My father was baptised at a young age but left for a while in his late teens (the first of many rebellious stages in his life!) During that time he met my Mother on a blind date and they were married and shortly after she was baptised. It caused a lot of upset in her family at the time.

My parents helped establish a cong and gradually it grew into a group with a lovely, close, family atmosphere. Dad was the only elder in the cong for a long time, often taking all parts of every meeting himself. We did not see much of him in our early childhood and I wonder how my mother managed at times. 1975 came and went and he began having doubts about the org. but kept these to himself. By the mid 80s he was burnt out and resigned as an elder. There were long stretches in our childhood when we didn't go to any meetings or go on the ministry. My father drifted back and forth over the next few years, trying to regain some zeal for it but never quite succeeding. He eventually faded away along with my brothers. Nothing much was done to help them return.

I was baptised at 16 fully convinced it was the truth and I enjoyed a few years of aux. pioneering and being at the centre of things in the cong. As I got older I began to see how things were not as rosy as they had seemed in our hall. There had always been things that I could not agree with, such as God only saving witnesses, but I knew that God had put his name on this org. and he would sort things out in his own time. Now though I began to question how loving these people really were. When my Grandmother died I did not attend meetings for a 6 month period and yet nobody tried to contact me. I reckoned it was up to me to make the effort and so I went back to the meetings, at first on my own, then with my mother.

I was soon at the heart of the cong again, but the nagging doubts grew louder and I began questioning more and more. One day I was in a book shop and was browsing when I came across a small book called 'The Joy of Sects'! I flicked through it and found the section on JW's. It contained info on the society's connection to the UN. It was the shock I needed to wake me up. I showed it to my friend who just shrugged it off but I needed to know if this was true. With my heart in my mouth I looked it up on the internet and was pointed to eWatchman's site. I eventually found my way here and then my eyes really were opened.

I kept going to meetings for another year or so, all the time learning more and more of the truth about the society. It became harder and harder to sit at a meeting listening to the what was being taught. During that last year I helped 3 people leave the org. for varying reasons (one wanted to marry outside the lord, one was gay and another had been on the fringes of the cong for many many years.) I endured the wrath of more than one of the brothers and sisters during that time but managed to stay out of trouble with the elders. At time I felt so guilty for helping them out while I remained, still unsure of what direction to take. Eventually though the final straw for me came when I was minding the mother of my closest friend after she had had a stroke. She basically told me that my father ( a man who she had never met) deserved to die at Armageddon as he did not come to meetings. Well, being somewhat proud of my daddy I saw red and gave her more than a piece of my mind! It destroyed my closest friendship immediately. I could not accept that God would destroy anyone based on their meeting attendance.

After that there was nothing to stay for, I started my fade and have been out for 2 years and I feel freedom like never before. I still live by the much of the moral code the Bible teaches and am grateful for it as it has made me the person I am today. I am now free to explore the Bible without the constraints of manmade doctrines, free to express my Christianity how I wish, it is more real, more satisfying than ever before. I miss my friends of course but I do not feel bitter because they ignore me, rather I feel sorry for them, they are blinded just like I was for all those years. My problem is with the Org. and how they manipulate the brothers, how they cultivate fear, how they use guilt rather than love to motivate, how they lied to us all and how those lies lead to suffering and in some cases, death. I have no wish to be part of any religion now or ever again, my faith is in Jesus and God.

I've tried to condense my story as much as possible, hope nobody nodded off! I still have many questions and issues to deal with and am looking forward to getting your advice and opinions . Fading is a lonely process at times so it is good to know there are people who are more than will to listen.

Warm love

Miss C