http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxxsderj5aw.
have to say i thought is was funny, ive been in front of a few jcs, and they traumatised me, so to to see them being ridiculed and made a joke of, helps me in my recovery,
to this day, to see a bloke in a suit and tie and to hear serious tones like they used, goes right through me, i actually feel terrified, so anything that cuts through all that crap is welcome by me, though the consequences of those jcs, cos totally fxxk up lives, the power they have is just evil,
i'm quite new to this site, & have realised some members have a union jack symbol under their avatar.
i don't.. could we have a "show of hands" from any uk members?
i've already found several by reading older posts..
im from the midlands, (not the west mids)
been thinking about this and curious about what makes us all come to the decisions we came to in our fade/exiting the jw organization.. i think for myself having been born-in & raised a jw my doubts about the generation doctrine had simmered for years within me quietly and by the time i finally left in 2003 i had reached my breaking point.
also seeing unjust treatment of rank & file witness ( myself included ) just propelled me into my decision even quicker.
so - one day after meeting with 3 elders in a back room before a meeting and seeing their judgmental aggression towards me - i just told myself " enough is enough ".
i stopped believeing slowly, it was like a see saw, i would suddenly see through it, but then get scared that this meant id have to leave the religion i was raised in, and our family was always "in the middle of the cong", then id study and "prove" it to myself for a while,
then my gut instinct would get through again and in the end this gut instinct won out,
i stopped pioneering, became a "weak" publisher for an age, and then one day, i just could not make myself go anymore, i was just clingin on cos everyone i knew and all my family was in it, but it was soooo tiring pretending,
i then stopped, but moved out of the family home soon after and 20 miles away so i became anonymous,
i suppose cos i was a sister, they didnt feel id be a threat, so i was just ignored, that was 10 years ago,
i still feel quite sad about the people i left behind and who have nothing to do with me now except saying hello if i see them when i visit family, its such a waste of friendships that could have been lifelong if it wasnt for a stupid religion,
bloody hell its not even like we ever talked about anything spiritual when we socialised, our friendships werent Really based on a religion they were cos we got along, but then as soon as you leave, SUddenly, the religion becomes sOOOOOO important eh!
good to hear everyones stories, x
i have received two visits from car-groups this week and am trying not to freak out.
i think it is because the co's visit is coming up.
i have been home-but-hiding both times.
trust your own motives for hiding, you are looking after yourself in your own way, we all do this leaving shit in our own sweet way,
why should you have to talk to uninvited guests if you dont want to,
they will give up eventually, or slow down anyway,
it took me a while after leaving to start realising that i didnt owe my life to be an open book for ANYONE anymore, i didnt have to answer the phone if i didnt want to and i dont have to answer the door if i dont want to,
in the cong, we had lives where you had to explain yourself to anyone who asked, i felt like if theyd asked me to show them what colour knickers i was wearing, i would have had to have shown them! but news flash WE DONT HAVE TO ANSWER TO ANYONE ANYMORE!! (im saying that to myself too, cos i need reminding!)
so go easy on yourself, and give yourself a break,
a brother i know of was made up as an elder only some mere 6 weeks ago.
out the blue he has gone total awol and has now been missing over 24 hours.
i wonder if the stress of becoming an elder at 27 yrs old got to him !!!
i knew one that did a runner, yes he'd had a breakdown, but boy he probably needed one! and he hasnt gone back to the area or his family 4 years on, hes made a new life elsewhere, minus the religion,
do hope your elder man is doing the same, and finding some goddam freedom, cant imagine living a lie as an elder, that must be difficult, but then again, we all have different ways of being in and getting out
whatever it takes eh, boy that religion does push people to the extreme,
several years ago, before my wife and i left, my 5 yr old daughter got up during the watchtower to cross the aisle to sit with someone else.
she tripped on the roving microphone wire and smashed her head on the foot of a metal chair.
the bleeding was profuse and an ambulance was called.
well i say
bloody good on ya!!!
like you said amongst all the wordy legal "expert" replies, it wasnt really about the right or wrong of it,
it was about the fact that now you are free and you JUST COULD
bah humbug to the miseries who are having a go at you,
i bet it felt sweet to get a bit of revenge after being in bondage to them for years
im not into sueing really but i think i get the spirit of your actions! and a little bit of simple revenge dont alf feel good!!
WELL DONE ive never heard of anyone succeed in sueing a cong before so i think its hilarious, wont do them any harm, im sure "jehovah" will make it up in donations!!
come on now let it at me you scrooges!! i hope you are puking as i speak!!
born a dub.
never dated while in because i "wasn't ready for marriage", haven't dated since fade because i really don't want to burden my girlfriend with the bull@#% of dating me while i still have to put up a facade of being "just inactive" to my family so they won't shun me.. this sucks.
i want to be happy.
id say its worth risking, cos are you going to miss out your whole life cos of this?
and why do you have to tell them straight away anyway?
id wait till you meet someone you thought was really worth risking it for, and had been with them for a while and then you would probably have alot of strength and support from the relationship you would be in,
surely aswell, it would be up to the person you were with to decide if they wanted to suppor tyou, dont make that decision for someone else before you have even met them, they might have been in an abusive relationship before they met you , so supporting you through a fading situation might be the least of their worries,(just an example)
what im really saying is dont try to judge the situation from where you are now, instead, if you waited till in a loving relationship you may not feel as alone and scared, (still some fear, but you would have a much clearer picture of what you were gaining by being up front then)
hope that makes some sense, just dont feel you have to be honest with them, you arent playing by their rules any more,
i happened to access my old email address today.
amongst the many spams etc was a email from a old jw freind i used to know when i was in.
this was a nice freind to me, right up until she got herself a boyfreind and then just didn't want to know, in fact i hadn't heard from her since.
i agree with NC, what have you got to lose vs what would you gain,
i have limited contact with some jws but i visit them, never never let them into my life at my end, i just wouldnt risk it cos however much they life you, they will probably be too scared to not rat on you if they found something out that was aginst their Rooooooles
i know its tempting, i am tempted cos i really had som lovelylifelong friends in it who i still miss sooo much, but just be careful,
i don't know the details.
is it true that if you slowly withdraw, you are free to go but if you are active and do an offense, you are shunned.
is their principle whether you are appropriating and blemishing the name vs. severity of the actual offense.
it isnt logical, it does depend on the cong and elders you are around, thats my opinion
i faded and 12 years later have gotten away with it in the way of still being able to speak to my elderly family, and care for them, whilst living my own life for the majority of the time,
i moved away when i faded, so that helped alot,
obviously when i come across those from my old cong, they look at me as though i have 2 heads most of the time, although there are those that are genuinely pleased to see me BUT i never get invited to anything socially of course, so its like a 1/2 shunning really,
sometimes i have wished i had got dissed, cos then i would have had a clean break and would have been completlely free in one way, but then i would have lost my family, who i love dearly and who were brought up in it too,
when my family are passed on, i might tell them the truth of what i think of their religion!
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhvpb8g45y&feature=related.
neil diamond, that beats all!! hes the man!
