FirstLastName

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Posts by FirstLastName

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  22

  No Natural Affection...

  by lostinnj83 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my latest encounter with my mom has me furious and i needed a place to vent:.

  i don't post alot but for anyone who has read any of my posts knows that while i have been struggling for some time, i am still an active jw working towards leaving.. anyway, i got into a car accident yesterday.

  fortunately i am well enough to type this up so for that i am greatful.

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  FirstLastName

  My brother did not come to my wedding cause it was out of town and he would have missed the Sunday meeting. His "relationship with God was more important".

  Its very frustrating. I am sorry.
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  25

  Your Baptism

  by Aunt Fancy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we have been going through our literature and throwing away a lot of it which feels great.

  my hubby came cross the program from my baptism in 1986. the divine peace dc held in the astrodome in houston, tx.

  he always wrote the attendance and the amount baptized so on that day there were 30,894 in attendance nd 531 baptized!

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  FirstLastName

  I was baptized at 17 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. I thought I was getting "older" and needed to commit. I have no recollection of the date only that it was summer time. I wore a super cute bathing suit with a huge white t shirt borrowed from my dad so that I would be "modest".
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  85

  Most Awkward, Embarrassing, Comical things you Experienced as a Witness ?

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many of us i'm sure experienced embarrassing or comical moments as a witness.

  some things we'd rather just forget , i'm sure, but some things helped us think on our feet, quickly in helping others .

  here are a few of mine.

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  FirstLastName

  I felt very very sorry for a 13 year old boy that had been assigned to give the talk about the Masturbation chapter from the Youth Book. Instead of the word "masturbation", he would say "the problem".
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  28

  Noah's Ark and the flood

  by confusedandalone in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so this morning i was thinking about a few things that hit me like a ton of bricks:.

  1. god destroyed the entire earth because man was evil - yet right after he destroyed them for being evil he said that he will never destroy all of manking again because the are evil.... 2. god asked noah to bring two of every kind on the ark.

  then he gets off the ark and sacrifices some of these animals.

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  FirstLastName

  I do not remember how I found this video (it might have been on this site), but it made me laugh about the flood story:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I225Vcs3X0g&feature=player_embedded
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  22

  JW family trying to compensate for us being "spiritually weak" through increased activity

  by cedars in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi folks.

  one of the things that has been most frustrating for my wife and i since beginning our fade as been the way certain family members have responded by ramping up their own involvement in the organization seemingly in a bizarre attempt to compensate for our lack of activity.. close relatives who were once doing precious little study and weren't going out of their way to attend meetings or go on the ministry are now studying every morning and busting a gut to attend "theocratic" arrangements.. it makes no sense to me, because salvation is supposed to be based on the beliefs and actions of each individual, not on those of his or her loved ones.

  just what is the logic by which they think they can make things better by doing more themselves?.

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  FirstLastName

  My feeling is that, being in the cult mentality, they perhaps do not know how to deal with your changes in belief, and the way they comfort their concerns is to fall back into deep devotion to a practice that they think will cause them relief from this anxiety?

  I think I might have done this myself when friends were DF'd growing up. Any break in the routine would cause people to fall back into habit they believe would sooth this anxiety. I recall a HUGE influx of attendees right after 9/11...

  Best of luck!
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  47

  Growing up as a JW was a form of mental abuse for me

  by Miss Fitt in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

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  FirstLastName

  I specifically remember when I was in Junior High my parents telling me I would probably never graudate high school, and secretly hoping that Armagedon would wait just a couple years so I could finish.

  Who would spend much time concentrating on a project/event that you knew was doomed to fail? So, I did not try very hard in school. Fortunatley I was quick to learn and did not have to try to hard to do well. I think of how well I would have done, had I just applied myself. What a lost oppurtunity.

  I have recently though of going to college because I do love to learn.
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  68

  I just want a divorce!

  by bornfree123 in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  hi there, this is my first post, but i've been buzzing around this site for years.. i got married at 18, hubby was 20, i was a regular pioneer and we were talking about serving in bethel.

  fast forward - i left in 2004 after a 5 year battle with my conscience, family and friends who kept insisting that i was just "weak and needed to have another bible study".

  however hubby and i stayed together although it was kinda on the understanding that we would just not talk about it.

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  FirstLastName

  I divorced my JW ex in a no fault state in the US. He did not want a divorce either. Forntuate for me, in my state, it does not matter is both parties do not agree. He only dragged it on longer by trying to get alimoney from me cause I made made more money. He did not get it and I got my divorce. Win.

  I wish you the best of luck as laws vary from place to place. I realise that I had the easiest case with no kids and no property, so I was fortunate. I can see why you would want this since you still seem to be connected to a person that has no activity and input in your life. Its natural to want to move on.

  best of luck and welcome to the board !
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  39

  Since you've left, are you still good friends with your bestest JW buddies?

  by Julia Orwell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is it possible that someone has a jw friend who's very active in the congregation, knows you don't believe it anymore, and is still your friend?

  i'm at the point where word is getting out that i'm not going to meetings anymore, and friends ask me if they'll be seeing me at the ca and i tell them i'm not going.

  they want to know why, and what they can do to encourage me.

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  FirstLastName

  To be honest, most of the "friends" in JW were pretty shallow and I don't miss them. So leaving the org was not the horrific deal I was told it would be. I have made many new great friends, so I did not feel like I lost in the situation.

  I do have one friend, that I knew in the org, that I still talk to. She lives rather far away, but when she comes to town we always like to meet up and go to dinner. I think I am her secret "worldy" friend, which I am happy to be to give her some respite.

  :)
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  92

  Your earliest doubt?

  by Apognophos in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this might be an unfair question for those who have been out of the organization for decades, but i'm wondering if any of you remember your earliest doubt -- maybe something odd that occurred to you as a kid (if you were a jw then).

  please try to limit to two doubts at the most :-).

  i think my first "doubt" was simply realizing that at the time of the flood, every animal that wasn't in the ark died (well, besides the fish, supposedly).

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  FirstLastName

  I was maybe 7 or 8 and we were driving all over town in our car on a Saturday for field service and I remembered a scripture that said " God will destroy those that destroy the earth". And I asked my mom if that includes us since we were creating so much pollution by driving all over town.

  My mom said " good question...." but did not answer me.
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  50

  DO NOT have children in this system!!

  by What Now? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  growing up, this is something that my other always told me.

  i've had several conversations with older sisters who have said that if they could do things over, they wouldn't have had children.

  other couples my own age are horrified at the thought of raising children in "this system".

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  FirstLastName

  Cult Classic - it was not my intention to offend anyone here - I have enjoyed sharing my opinion on this board, but it was never my intention to offend. I could have perhaps written that better after my second cup of coffee?

  I only meant to say that I totally respect why some people have children and they should totally respect why I choose not to regardless of what your choice is.

  :)