this earlier topic [why do it feel bad about my children leaving jw religion?
] is what causes me to ask this question:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/208031/1/why-do-i-feel-bad-about-my-children-leaving-the-jw-religion.
I understand were you are coming from in this question.
I to will refer to the answer given by Mad Sweeny. JW's by no means have a monoploy on the market with regards to morals and values.
I have many friends who were raised decidedly unreligious and still have great morals and values.They are honest, generous and kind. They are not JW - and for that matter, they are not Catholic, Jewish or Muslim.
Your morals were not given to you by religion.
One day I hope you find that 17 is not when life is peaking - but just beginning. You have so much of your life in your future - live it the way you want to - not the way someone tells you too.
I was once 17 and thinking that life was depressing and that I was not good enough. Guys did not like me and lamenting that I hated service ( when it should be joyous?). As a good JW I would have needed more anti depressants.
I hope you enjoy this board - Welcome!
i read some postings here earlier where some were saying they had never heard of meetings staring at 7pm.
i may have misunderstood.. were/are there different start times elsewhere?
our times in uk were.
I should specify:
Book study: 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Theocratic school and etc, : 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
i read some postings here earlier where some were saying they had never heard of meetings staring at 7pm.
i may have misunderstood.. were/are there different start times elsewhere?
our times in uk were.
In California
Meetings were at 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Sunday is varied cause several congs. used the same hall and the time would rotate yearly.
I cannot say this with much current authority, as I have not gone to a meeting in over 5 years.
i was born in the 70's and my jw mother spanked us a lot... actually, beat us is more accurate.
i know of other people from the same generation (lol!
) and it seemed to be somewhat common during that time period within the organization.. i also remember wearing a lot of second hand clothing and having pretty dismal school lunches and we were simply not allowed to ask for anything - needs or wants.
headisspinning - maybe we have the same parents !
I also was raised in the late 70's/early 80's and spankings were very common. There was even a room at the Kingdom hall to administor this "discipline" at. My mom was heavy handed. I even remember being out in service and my mom tossing me in the car, driving us home, spanking me with the wooden spoon, and then getting back in the car and meeting back up with the group in service. My mom did this really twisted thing - she would sit on the couch with the wooden spoon in her hand and she would make me come to her and so I would lay over her knee , on my own accord, so she could spank me. It was pointless to hide - just get it over with - and boy did it hurt !
I was always in second hand clothes. We were pretty poor though, so I am not sure that was because we were JW's but because we were just broke.
I do not have kids, nor plan to have any - I am afraid I would be to hard on them.
here's mine :.
back in the early 90's we went to the sunday talk and wt study.. lo and behold, a friend from the 70's who was df'ed ( he had just been reinstated) was there along with his parents.
i had no idea that they would have been there.. one of my kids was getting sick, so my wife and i were up-down the entire meeting walking him around.
I count them ALL as bad - but the worst was torward the end of my "JW career", when a brother had a stroke on stage and when the abulance came and the fireman were wheeling him out on the gurney the elders insisted on continuing the meeting and giving talks. I thought it was so inapropriate and I was embarrassed that could not stop the meeting for 10 minutes while the fireman tried to save this guys life !
this is probably the stupidest thing to ever be wriiten on here, but i need to just talk/type it out.. my cat got run over last night & killed, i am a complete mess.
my hubby has gone away with work today for a few days today so im on my own & i cant cope.
i know loads of you will think, it was just a cat get over it, but dam i hurt so much.
I am so sorry for your loss. I had a sweet kitty that was my heart for 7 years. He was my campanion during my divorce and I loved him so much. He used to jump into bed with me and sleep under my arms. I had him leash trained and I would take him for walks. He got hit by a car after slipping out the front door in August 2009 and I was heartbroken.
Take time to heal from you loss. Maybe one day you can heal and open your heart again.
I wish you the very best -
my mum used to smack me on the arm with a rolled up wt when it was my turn to answer, she said it was " to make sure you didn't forget!".
most of the time i ended up just yelling "ow!
" and rubbing my arm, but she never got the message.. another way was to scream at me non stop all the way home after the meetings if i hadn't answered up.
I STILL have a fear of speaking to a crowd because of being forced to answer and also give talks as a kid. When my family had our watchtower study at home, I was made to pic three questions that I would have answers to. I would write my answers in the columns and read them verbatim when I got called on. I still get sweaty palms thinking about it !
I did it cause the look of dissapointment from my parents was worse than any spanking.
why did you leave the organization of jehovah's witnesses, and/or why are you contemplating leaving the organization of jehovah's witnesses?.
i've tried to boil it down to the most likely answers based on all the reasons i have heard over the years from xjw's.
a. because the watchtower bible & tract society does not have the truth.. b. because i had a personality conflict with other members of the organization.. c. because i discovered that the wtbts was not being honest or forthcoming about its history.. d. because serving jehovah was too difficult and i just wanted to be worldly and do wicked things.. e. because the governing body of jehovah's witnesses have proved to be false prophets.. f. because i found just cause to disagree with erroneous jw teachings.. g. because the governing body and/or elders were hypocritical.
I kept hearing from the platform that Jesus's "yoke was kindly and light" and yet I NEVER was good enough, I NEVER did enough, was NEVER "one of the happiest people on earth (infact I was on anti depressants ) and I got sick of faking it! If it was so "kindly and light" why did it feel like a million pounds ?!
I did think it was the truth when I left, and yet I left anyway cause I could not deal with the "kindly yoke" that had been slung around my neck. Now I KNOW its not the "truth" and I am that much better off.
So H and then A.
the couple that i studied with were major hypocrites when it came to their entertainment choices.
i remember the first time i was invited to their house for dinner, this was the first time that we just hung out socially, and they were playing music.
a song came on sung by a girl group that liked to pretend they were bisexuals (or lesbians, whatever) and i thought 'hey, maybe these witnesses are pretty relaxed and cool after all'.. boy was i wrong.
I had seen the Good Bad and Ugly by the time I was 10, but was not allowed to watch The Goonies.
What can I say ? My dad liked Westerns.
