was there anything positive about your jehovah's witness experience?.
I was 15 when I converted. That was in 1963. Being a JW got me away from my abusive family for a while. It got me a trip to New York City. It gave me the delusion of love and acceptance.
It was only after I'd been married to a JW elder for about 8 years that I started to smell a rat. I fell into despair and panic. In the long run, it made me stronger and determined to be educated and to do something real with my life.
i know that at some point i have to tell my parents that i'm planning to go to college.
i basically have two options:.
1. tell them early.
Are you financially able to move out? Can you live at the college dorm? Is your college in another town? Your parents, as others have pointed out, are likely to be upset regardless of how you handle the situation. If you don't have any money set aside, can you get a part-time job and start saving? You don't have to decide today. Take your time.
yesterday i was listening to the radio at work as usual.
i listen to npr (national public radio) on most days.
there was a report about some ex-jw's who were "daring to dream" again.
Yesterday I was listening to the radio at work as usual. I listen to NPR (National Public Radio) on most days. There was a report about some ex-JW's who were "daring to dream" again. The report pointed out that these ex-JW's had dropped out of high school and obtained a GED, but had never had a job earning more than 14K per year. It also stated that only about 8% of JW's get a college degree, the lowest percentage of any faith.
I was busy with a customer during part of the report. Did anyone else hear it?
i am a non-jw girl dating a jw man for almost 5 years now since end of high school.
most of the relationship has been long distance.
when we started dating, we wanted a serious long term relationship that would end in marriage one day.
You're getting a good dose of reality here. The truth is that JW males are taught that women are to be "in subjection" to their husbands and all of the other JW men for that matter. As a non-JW, you have no idea what a horrible situation your life would become. Even if both spouses are JW's, it's quite a challenge for the woman to not get on the wrong side of her husband or any other JW male.
To be blunt, RUN as fast as you can and as far as you can from anyone associated with this cult. There's no future in it.
i'm a baptized jw...been baptized for 8 years...and throughout the years i've been baptized i see "hypocrisy" so to speak in the religion...when you're new and not baptized that's when the jws want to invite you to every gathering they have, they want to appear like they're your best friend...they want to help you out when needed and so forth...however, once you're baptized you go to the elders for help they don't help you....all they do is gather you around the office...have bibles in hand and so forth...they give you articles as well, instead of physically helping you out....but yet when you weren't baptized they would physically help you out and not throw scriptures and articles in your face.
also when you ask for help and so forth with the bros/sisters they want to throw the "each one must carry his/her own load" scripture at you.....but yet what happened to the scripture of taking care of widows and people who are orphans?.
it's not just one congregation...throughout the 8 years i've been baptized i've been through many kingdom halls...many towns...many states...when i was inactive for awhile i even pretended to not be baptized and just play dumb when the witnesses came to my door...they're much nicer to you when you're not baptized then when you are baptized...why is that?.
Yes, Christina, we've all seen the "love bombing" turn to self-righteous harassment.
I recently watched a TED talk by a young Muslim woman who grew up in Norway. Her father wanted her to be accepted by the white culture, so he decided that the only way that could happen would be to make her famous. The two ways he considered to become famous were through sports or music. He chose music. When she was seven years old, all of her toys were taken, and she was given a small Casio keyboard and began learning to play. She had experienced attacks of hate from white people, but, after becoming a somewhat well-known musician doing public performances (while still a child), she started being attacked by Muslim men as well. They would say things like, "You're making our daughters think they can do anything they want!"
What I'm saying is that JW's are not the only ones who behave this way. But they are the ones who did it to us. I hope this experience is making you a more compassionate, caring person. If you need to make changes in your life, just do it. If you need to talk to a professional counselor, do so. Do what you need to do to make yourself happy. Best wishes!
maybe this will become a new catch phrase describing the type of people that the governing body loves to have in their organization and that they create if they're born ins.. broke......dumb......& stupid.
let me explain:.
broke: the gb keeps their members in poverty by condemning higher education and demanding that all their time should be spent peddling the wt propaganda and going to all the meetings.
What I recall is referring to the "man with the writer's inkhorn" taking names of those "sighing and crying" over conditions in the world. The disenfranchised, unloved, psychologically harmed, and otherwise rejected are easy prey to offerings of "love" by a cult. So, there is a built-in pathology to exploit by cults and tyrants. People need to learn how to make their life the way they desire to live it in order to cure their vulnerability to charlatans.
while growing up in the cult one thing that always bothered me was the way witnesses could forecast jobs/occupations that we're going to vanish in their new world.. for example, we would usually discuss at saturday night wt studies how doctors, nurses, funeral directors, and soldiers would go the way of the dodo.
i always found discussions like that just so strange.. in hs, i mounted an unsuccessful effort to enter veterinary sciences, the big answer was always "why" it won't be needed after armageddon 😝😜.
does anyone have their own story about professions that the witnesses believe will not be needed after the big a ?.
The only occupations I can envision for their "paradise" is farmer and produce eater. "Paradise" has no place for intellectuals of any kind, great literature. As Plato pointed out, the ideal state has no poets. There won't be any great stories of people who have overcome obstacles to success
I can't imagine statisticians or mathematicians having any place, except the engineers who do truss calcs and such for home construction.
Will there be restaurants in "paradise?" Not if it is as visualized in the publications, surely. So, no professional chefs, waiters and waitresses, or other restaurant workers.
We're not going to miss out on much, are we?
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I was married to an elder and decided to go back to college. I got the money from my "worldly" family. We had a fight about it every day, but it was worth it.
hi everyone- i don't have much of an update on my current situation ( refer to previous posts ) august 1st has past, (the day the judicial committee was supposedly held against me- and that i didn't attend, no word on anything as of now, thankfully i am moving to a new home next week which means no more elders sending me spooky jc invite mail!
anyways, i'm getting off the main reason why i'm posting.. so i have tendency to drift off into thought and have discussions with myself, ( i'm not crazy i swear!
) i was thinking today, have we heard any more updates on appearances?
As far as I know, the Bible is silent on the subject of cosmetic surgery - and colorful socks, for that matter. Their chief priority is image. The JW ideal image is no image. I believe that not everyone was meant to blend in to the background. That's why I love Dolly Parton.
i really felt for you sisters i mean i really did.
when you showed up at the sunday meeting and found out the subject of the talk was going to be -and i can't quite remember the exact wording- but something to the effect of marriage and headship, or honoring and obeying your husband, or something like that how many of you wanted to jump right back in your car and head home.
i mean 45 straight minutes of beating down you poor ladies and telling you that you are not worthy of making one decision, taking the lead in anything, don't question the man be obedient and keep quiet.
This is a topic that gets me going! I know that, as a JW, I had been brainwashed into a false consciousness. I was good at all the "womanly" things I was called upon to do - baking a cake, cleaning the toilets, playing hostess to some prominent local JW's, and generally being slavish.
At some point, I started watching "The Phil Donahue Show." Dr. Wayne Dyer was one of his guests. I found Dr. Dyer's philosophy interesting, so I bought and read his first book, Your Erroneous Zones. After reading that book, there was no going back for me. I came to realize that I was just as significant as anyone else, that it was okay to question anything, and to accept differences as mere social conditioning, not "evil."
I realize that much of what Dr. Dyer said should have been perfectly obvious to anyone. But it wasn't to me. It took me about a year to summon the courage, help and resources to escape. That was in 1979. Life has become quite an adventure since then.
