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factfinder: You have just made a decision that could lead to happiness and fulfillment. First, you need to set goals and take steps to achieve them.
I don't know how old you are, but you need to find out what you want to do with the rest of your life. Do you already have a satisfying career and happy personal relationships. If not, you probably will in the near future.
Best wishes for a happy future. Keep coming back and letting us know how things are progressing for you.
i'm about 90% finished on a book i started nine years ago.
it will deal with jehovah's witness policy on conscientious objectors during war time.
from the 1800's through the end of the draft in the early 1970's.. i am also giving a personal biographical account of my own introduction to the religion, process of assimilation and ministry experience.. additionally, i'm working in timelines connecting the 2nd adventist teachings with russell, rutherford and mainstream watchtower doctrines.. .
For what it's worth, these are the interesting topics that I'm not sure most people know:
1. On the conscientious objector matter, no individual decided for himself that he was a conscientious objector. This "conscience" was injected into them with WT propaganda. I was a young dub (but female) during the Vietnam war. I was told by several young brothers that they could not accept a position in a hospital in lieu of military service because that would be considered "compromise." Again, the brothers did not themselves necessarily see it as "compromise." A young man had to be sentenced to public service work by a judge before that would be considered an acceptable way to avoid military service.
2. "Worldly" people have told me that JW's were harmless crackpots. I remind them of ruined lives of people who forego education or make a misstep which leads to being cut off from their own families.
3. Medical quackery is BIG in the borg. Vaccinations used to be forbidden, dubs were told not to chew gum, not to use aluminum cookware and similar crazy pseudo-scientific claptrap. The biggest tragedy of all is that dubs refuse blood transfusions that could save their lives because of what they are told is meant by scriptures not at all related to medical procedures.
You probably have already included all of these items in your book. Best wishes with publication.
http://sianrose.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/the-genesis-account-and-dinosaurs/.
I am glad to know that the Bible is not a science book, nor was it intended to be.
i am so thankful that i was able to learn the truth about the truthtm (ttatt).
i owe everything in my life to having left watchtower corp: my education, my position as a college professor, being able to write and publish, travel, family life, my beautiful children, being able to be openly gay -- and happy.
unlike those closeted homosexuals in the truthtm, i do not have to be afraid to be who i am.
I had a pre-JW life, so it was great just to feel somewhat normal again. I love reading, and can read books I enjoy now. I hate living in fear, and I can live in peace now. I hate not being able to make my own decisions, and I can decide for myself now and accept the consequences, as a mature person, because I have the status of an adult, not a developmentally delayed 7-year-old.
i was told by a family member the other day "if you want to leave jehovah, go ahead.
but don't think you'll ever be happy.
all the people i know who have left got burned by the world and they come back to the truth".
I take responsibility for my own happiness. I know that no one else can "make" me happy. Being able to make my own decisions, look at situations and determine what's wrong, if anything, working toward goals that I set for myself - all of these things make me happy.
As someone else said, I didn't know how unhappy I was as a dub. I was like the fly that lived in the vinegar jar, thinking it was the sweetest place in the world. Now I've tasted the honey, so to speak, and life is much sweeter.
Is everything perfect? No. Have I done everything I want to do in life? No. We have to accept the fact that there are some things we have no control over.
I am lucky that I have a non-JW family, so I actually got my family back instead of losing them!
for those of you who still have faith in god and feel a need to worship him, i sincerely hope you have more peace than i feel.
peace with my spiritual division with my wife continues to escape me.
i really need someone to talk to to help me figure this out but my work schedule allows for so little time so i come here.
It's sad to see families messed up by this high control cult.
If you don't have money for counseling, I recommend that you try Al-Anon. Al-Anon is for families and friends of alcoholics, but it can help restore serenity to anyone in a situation which they have little or no control over. Members of Al-Anon follow a 12-step program and learn what they do and do not have the ability to change. I hope you will give it a try.
One advantage that you have is that you are the man of the house, therefore "the head" of the household. If your wife is neglecting you, complain to the elders of her congregation, and see whose side they take. Make plans for meeting nights, and tell her you'll talk to the elders about "allowing" her to spend some time with you instead of going to a useless meeting.
I hope things improve for you.
http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/andre_sprog/english/2013/07/25/132435.htm.
zed.
They lambast us, but we are "persecuting" them? That argument is so weak it can't stand up. Is that any way to talk about the "mentally diseased" anyway. Don't the mentally ill have some protection under the law?
autobiography.
forever began at the day of my birth, but, it turns out that it was a lie,.
i am who i am when nobody's watching, then nothing is there to deny.. .
Mom was 16, Dad was narcissistic
Grandma and grandpa took me in,
I was handicapped, they altruistic,
Went to Holiness church to fight sin.
Was withdrawn, had a charming sister,
Who was lively, and baby brother so cute,
But I was the lucky one, I'm tellin' ya, mister,
"Cause I did'nt live with a brute.
Dad's boss was a dub and persuaded me,
Kept at it for 17 years, 'til I was 32,
Got mentally ill, knew I must be free,
Left my elder husband, got a degree! Wouldn't you?
i was approached by an elder about a year ago asking what i am going to do with my large collection of wt literature.
he told me the society had put word out that they were collecting old literature.
i asked him why but he couldn't give me a definite answer.
In the '80's I saw Joan Cetnar on The John Ankerberg Show. She and her late husband, Bill, were apostates before it was cool. She stated that she and Bill kinew of old literature being burned. As someone else pointed out, they can burn all they want, but somebody somewhere has every piece of it.
they don't want to think about their past, present or future.. they ignore any obvious weakness in "the truth".. they won't question their leader's viewpoints.. they will follow what the governing body (the faithful & discreet slave) says even if they flipflop a hundred times.. it's embarrassing to see millions of people refuse to think.. the only silver lining is that many of us were just like the witnesses of today.
there is hope!.
What is saddest of all is that they have a false consciousness (a term I borrowed from Karl Marx ) about life and everything in it. Their whole life is a lie, and they are afraid to consider the reality of that fact.
I think of them every day and feel sad that people who could be free choose to live in slavery and poverty.
