Posts by laverite

102

Since leaving the truth, do you celebrate holidays, and does your participation in such bring you happiness?

by Stand for Pure Worship in

jw
friends

i ask this respectfully, and do so after watching a favorite show of mine's season opener which had a new years storyline.

hollywood tends to make movies and television show episodes centered around holiday themes appear warm and blissful.

while i'm thankful to have never participated in such holidays, i can't deny my curiosity about ex-jws that do celebrate.

laverite

Aunt Fancy - good for you! I loved reading your post.

Looking back, the prohibition on holidays makes a lot of sense from a cult perspective (though not from a doctrinal perspective). I treasure the holidays now. I was born in so I never had them growing up. As an adult with children, I love Christmas so very much and my kids do as well. Wonderful family times and memories. I love Christmas so much that I keep a few Christmas decorations out all year long -- tasteful ones that don't scream Christmas without the larger Christmas context (and décor), but I know what they are and they give me a lot of joy to look at every day. Then when Christmas comes along, I decorate like crazy, and it helps those previously "hidden" treasures to just pop. Love it!

And, it always gives me a giggle when I hear JWs (and JW relatives) on facebook self righteously talk about not "celebrating" the holidays. Such hypocrites. Because they do, too, celebrate the holidays (without calling it that, and making a point of how they are not celebrating the holidays). So funny, yet so sad.

26

Did you suffer humiliating childhood experiences as a JW?

by yadda yadda 2 in

in john cedar's (jwsurvey.org) latest excellent article on his blog about a us teacher that got reprimanded for trying to force a jw boy to salute the american flag, he relates a similar childhood experience where he was terribly humiliated at school in view of his classmates.. this reminded me of a similar humiliating experience i suffered at school, when i was 11 years old.

during our school's end of year 'prom night' (not actually called that in the country i live) which was in the style of a disco night, my unbalanced jw mother came to pick me up early and stormed right into the hall and grabbed my arm and pulled me out in front of all my friends right in the middle of the dancing.

on the way out she gave the teachers a lecture about the music being far too loud and how unwholesome the whole thing was for children of my age.

laverite

YES so true Outlaw. SOOOOO true.

Hard to pick a humiliating experience when you have a childhood full of them. I was horribly humiliated at the Kingdom Hall once. I was forced to go to the meeting as a teenager even though I was sick as a dog. I violenty puked my guts out at the hall during the opening song and prayer. Violent stomach illness during a prayer at the hall as a teenager was HUMILIATING. I just wanted to crawl under the ugly green shag carpet.

PS - I was rushed home after exposing the whole congregation to my illness. It seemed to have spread as the meeting attendance dropped dramatically over the next two meetings. Or, maybe they were terrified I'd show up again.

102

Since leaving the truth, do you celebrate holidays, and does your participation in such bring you happiness?

by Stand for Pure Worship in

jw
friends

i ask this respectfully, and do so after watching a favorite show of mine's season opener which had a new years storyline.

hollywood tends to make movies and television show episodes centered around holiday themes appear warm and blissful.

while i'm thankful to have never participated in such holidays, i can't deny my curiosity about ex-jws that do celebrate.

laverite

Growing up a JW, it was all about TECHNICALITIES -- getting to celebrate holidays while making a huge point about how we weren't celebrating anything at all (birthdays, Thanksgiving, Xmas, etc.). We just "HAPPENED" to be doing what everyone else was doing for that holiday but we were JWs so we weren't actually "celebrating." Such BS.

It's really quite laughable, except that it's also very sad. We were also taught it was ok to lie up a storm by saying things that were technically true. I find it very sad to have been raised that way. I am thankful to have escaped from all that as an adult. It's so much better to live with integrity and to appreciate real truth, not some made up Corporation "Truth." Calling something The Truth does not make it true.

11

All the files from my business of 8 years have been corrupted

by usualusername in

jw
friends

all the files from my business of 8 years have been corrupted.. .

can someone help my before i throw myself off a bridge?

i live in london..

laverite

First, don't panic. You will ultimately need a good computer tech person who knows what they are doing and are experts in file recovery. What seems impossible may actually be possible. Just try to stay calm as possible and explore options and consult experts.

Good luck!

52

just got my first shun.:(

by unstopableravens in

laverite

First of all, who are the trashy acting people in that situation? NOT you!

Perhaps practice some responses to the shunning. Maybe think about how would you like to respond and mentally go over it and maybe even "practice." It couldn't hurt! Over time, hopefully you will see that you can refuse to give them permission to "make" you feel like anything. You can, with practice, gain control over your feelings in a way that does not let their immature and outright bad behavior hurt you.

Good luck. You may have felt like "trash/worthless" but the people who were shunning you were the ones who were the real "trash(y)/worthless" ones -- based on their horrible, inhumane behavior.

71

Trying to overcome my homophobia.

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

i had a music album by a gay guy before i was a jw and had no problem listening to it.

it's good music.

some of the lyrics are what you might call 'gay', that is there's some talk about boyfriends, gay bars, and queens and the intolerance the artist encountered as a gay man.

laverite

Try not to be so hard on yourself, Julia. The fact that you care about this shows you are a good person. No need to worry... Your emotions will catch up over time. In the meantime, please keep letting gay folks buy birds from you. And just try not to worry about what you think or how you feel about gay people. You will continue to evolve. It's a process.

PS - I am gay and I adore birds.

48

JW Preaching Work Ends in 20th Century ?

by Scorpion in

jw
friends

page 12 of the january 1,1989 wt original magazine paragraph 8 ends with the statement that the apostle paul's missionary activity laid a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century.".

(a subtle prophecy that 'the end' will come by the year 2000 a.d.).

this sentence is changed in the bound volume reprint to read "a work that would be completed in our day.

laverite

Very useful thread!

23

A typical day in the life of an awaken JW

by suavojr in

today is saturday and you all know what that means.

today is the day for our special worldwide event of our new tract number 38. luckily our (sales route) sorry... our preaching was rained out.. now you may ask how can i stomach the wt propaganda and be able to take the group out in service, still give public talks, comment, etc?

very simple answer, love.

laverite

I've seen a few 20 and 30-something JWs out and about in FS the past couple of weeks. When they walk door to door, they walk so slowly you'd think they were in a Matrix like slow-motion movie scene. It's rather hysterical to watch. Nothing urgent or "life saving" about it. It's all about wasting as much time in between houses. Bless their hearts. But at least, Suavojr, you find better ways to avoid talking to people. Good for you.

22

When You Were In, Did You Think Everyone Was Out To Get You Because You Were. A Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

did you feel that everyone in the world was out to get jehovah's people?.

laverite

I was terribly paranoid, and very scared as a child. I was expecting the Great Tribulation at any instant. I was constantly worried about persecution. I was paranoid about demons and dreamt of demon attacks on a regular basis. I was terrorized by the meetings -- the talks on demons, persecution and armaggedon.

I had the horrible misfortune of being in an earthquake when I was home alone as a youngster -- my first earthquake. I was on the sofa taking a nap and when it started to move, I jumped up, terrified and jumped right out the living room window (the door was right next to the window; why I didn't walk out the door, who knows). Neighbors found me running up and down the street utterly hysterical screaming about demons and shouting JEHOVAH. How damn humiliating is that?!!

I grew up in fear imposed by Watchtower Corp and the imagery in its publications. That's child abuse and plain and simple.

42

Do You Think Many Engaged JW Couples Fooled Around B4 Marriage?

by minimus in

jw
friends

when i was an elder, i had a few couples approach me to confess that they either played around or went all the way.. i suspect there were many more that did not admit to it, though..

laverite

Ahhhh...Bless your heart Minimus.