Posts by myMichelle

My hubby did just that. He was raised in the org, but left as a teenager (before being baptised). Later, after marriage and two kids, he returned to the Organization. He went to the Freeminds site, to Shaun's site, and he read the letter at the following site just a few weeks before getting baptized. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Creek/8867/Letter5web.html

I showed him these sites. I showed him quotes right out of the Organization's own literature. I asked questions and even pleaded with him and it was all dismissed out of hand. I will never understand that. I try to, but as of today he has not been able to successfully explain why he did what he did. I just don't understand how I could be the perfect person for him to marry, to raise kids with, to handle the household finances, to make other decisions with, but somehow I was too biased, silly, emotional and just had no idea what I was talking about when it came to the WTS.

Despite vehemently disagreeing with his decision to seal his commitment to the WTS by getting dunked, I have never considered him an idiot. (A jerk at times , but that is a whole other thread.) I have always considered him to be a highly intelligent, analytical person--he just made a poor choice in his religion of preference.

When I became an idiot, my wife didn't become an idiot. I was an idiot for ten years while my wife patiently waited for me to quit being an idiot.

I have read where you make similar comments before. I have a lot of questions about that, being in a similar situation (husband the JW, the wife not). I have the nonJW spouse perspective and have heard from other nonJW spouses, but I would really like to hear about this situation from the JW spouse's perspective.

Did your wife ask you questions, disagree with you joining the WTS? How did you view this if she did? What did you say to her when you decided to leave? Do you have other family in the Org? Etc, etc, etc.

My hubby is becoming more and more inactive, but it will probably be many years, if ever, before we will ever be able to discuss the whole subject without a flare-up in tempers. If you could offer some insight into this type of situation, I would appreciate it. That is if you don't mind, and if this db is too public, my email is available.

Thanks, that's it for now.
Michelle

14

Emotional Bankruptcy after the Tower

by Esmeralda in

jw
friends

"in many ways, poverty is a state of mind.

emma bromon, ~founder of liberty house, a halfway house in new orleans for homeless girls with children, or who are pregnant.. this quote inspired me tonight, on an evening where i certainly needed to feel inspired by something.

it made me question the way that i feel sometimes, that sickening out of control emotion that keeps me awake some nights.. nights like last night.. the feeling that carries over into days like today, .

myMichelle

I will live richly, because I stubbornly insist that beneath my pain, is the capacity to give love,
and receive it.

Good, keep insisting it--and believe it. I see proof of that in each and every one of your posts.

Here's hoping today will be a better day for you.

Michelle

33

Celebrate with me today

by Esmeralda in

jw
friends

today, april 20th, is the fourth anniversary of a very special day in my life.. the anniversary of my rebirth.. this rebirth was not a religious experience, but it was something totally pure, amazing and healing.. it had nothing at all to do with the society, or rather, of freeing myself from it.

it was however, a giant first step in that direction.. today is the fourth anniversary of the day i got letter that changed everything.

the words on the pages were alive, and magical: they released me from my old life and for the first time.

myMichelle

Absolutely beautiful, Es, you have a wonderful gift of imagery. I'm so happy you and Justin found each other. Thank goodness for that special day, I know I'm all the richer having had the chance to meet you.

Hugs to you, Justin, and Es Jr. (can't remember her online alias).

Michelle

Edited to change color, my first choice--ewwww...

6

Need A Laugh? 5/15/01 WT

by myMichelle in

i resisted posting this on the "main" page, trying to comply with the division of posts that simon is encouraging.

(no thanks necessary, simon, just following the rules.).

well, i finished my dinner a little while ago and whilst i was tidying up the kitchen, i noticed that i had received my 5/15/01 issue of the wt.

myMichelle

I resisted posting this on the "Main" page, trying to comply with the division of posts that Simon is encouraging. (No thanks necessary, Simon, just following the rules.)

Well, I finished my dinner a little while ago and whilst I was tidying up the kitchen, I noticed that I had received my 5/15/01 issue of the WT. (A subscription started by an anonymous benefactor, don't you know.)

Anyhoo, I pull off the wrapper to file it dutifully away, when I erroneously glanced at the back cover. In great big words it proclaims "Thank Jehovah's Witnesses for Religious Freedom". I hoped none of you choked as I did, I did warn you in the title of the post that this is funny.

Before any local apologists start to try to explain what the authors "meant", let's just all reflect on the irony of this little statement. Let's reflect upon exactly how much freedom of religion the WTS offers its members.

Well, that's all for now,
Michelle

26

uh oh

by Esmeralda in

jw
friends

...my husband just got laid off, again.

the big job the company had been promised fell through.. this is the second time in three months, but this time they said that the company will most likely.

fold within weeks.

myMichelle

Oh Es,

Confound it all!! Sending supportive thoughts your way, and Jack's too. :)

Don't have any lean time stories, although one Friday my husband was told to clean out his desk that they had eliminated his job position. No warning, although it wasn't totally unexpected, the rumor mill was churning, but that isn't always reliable.

Two weeks later, he was working again, in a infinitely better atmosphere, in a field that he enjoyed much, much more. I'm rooting for an ending like that for you too.

Hugs to ya,
Michelle

16

Yoga-gate 2001

by Esmeralda in

jw
friends

good greif.

my jw relatives really, really need to get a hobby of some kind to keep them.

busy.. my sister claire stopped by today (with a hilarious story of a comedy of errors and how all.

myMichelle

Hi Es,

If I'm happy, I must be doing something wrong, right? *lol*

Clearly, you are in league with Lucifer! I bet if we threw you in water (a la Salem witch trial) that you would swim instead of sinking and drowning like one of God's innocent lambs.

sit around in our livingroom and watch Star Trek, the Next Generation

Another sign of your fallen state, an obsession with alien characters endorsing other belief structures. Woe befall you when we consider that awful Vulcan race with their pointy ears.

LOL! Tell them not only do you do yoga, but you burn incense while doing it and that you do yoga in the nude. See if you pop any blood vessels. Nosey people.

Michelle

14

JW attitudes on women - why beneficial

by tergiversator in

my secret wish, when i was about 10 years old and we were going through the revelation book for the second time, was that one day we would show up at the book study and all the baptized brothers would be missing and they would let me read.

i was pretty sure that i wouldn't mangle words like thyatira and laodicea nearly as badly as some of the poor brothers they roped into reading at times, who looked like they were being tortured during particularly difficult lessons.. i liked to read, i thought.

my older brother got to read a lot, even when he wasn't baptized.

myMichelle

-Tergiversator, of the When Do I Stop Being a Newbie Class?

20 posts.

Thanks for the post, Tergiversator (whew! that's tricky),

When I first saw it, I was worried, thought I'd have to pop in here and lay some pre-historic concept of women and "their place" to rest, glad to see I was wrong.

Welcome to the board,
Michelle

46

Tonight's memorial - did you go?

by dmouse in

jw
friends

my wife has just left for the memorial.. just before she went she asked me to come...this was the second year in a row that i declined.

i hated seeing her so sad, i almost agreed to go just to cheer her up but that would betray her in a very real sense.

to go to the memorial would be an admission in her eyes (and other jws) that i still believe deep down that it is the truth.

myMichelle

Hi rnault,

Welcome to the board.

I've never been in your situation before, but plenty of people here have. My husband is at a crossroads, he wants to fade away, but hesitates because he knows it will devastate his mom. I have a hard time understanding this, but reading posts like yours helps me to have some insight and empathy for his situation. Hopefully you will find your participation here just as helpful.

Peace,
Michelle

205

HELLO? HELLO? "ALL" SIGN IN???????

by waiting in

simon did away with the sex forum - so i must take the tradional route and post under "make new friends.

" how mundane!.

fyi ---- for all of us, please take the time to write a sentence or two about yourselves, and encourage new ones to do the same.

myMichelle

Greetings to the Emperor,

So as it was said, so let it be written, so let it be done.

Our one common link is being one of Jehovah's Witnesses - and walking away for good reasons. No exceptions.

I was never a JW, I walked away from the "bible" study I participated in with my husband, can that count? :)

Let's see...my quick summary:

Met a super-terrific guy, first love and all of those romantic things. Dated, got engaged, found out what religion he was raised in. Went to my first memorial, in Spanish, which went beyond the classes I had in school. Thought it was weird, esp. when my sweetie said that since we were engaged we could sit next to each other, but since I couldn't understand much beyond "con much gusto", it didn't leave too much of an impression on me.

Married in a civil ceremony, and since he had joined the military a year prior, off from our hometown we went. Except for memorial attendance, to which I would very grudgingly go to, religion was not an issue in our family. (His mom would phone to let us know when it was, so we couldn't forget.)

Fast forward a few years, moved back to our hometown, have two young kids, and religion became a major issue. Tried taking kids to both places of worship, I started attending the KH more, because I was lonely on "his" Sundays and the next thing I know he has arranged a "bible" study for the both of us. Participated in that for about 9 mos or so (it's getting fuzzy, probably self-induced amnesia), going so very painfully slow through the book, before I clicked on Freeminds (Thanks Randy!) out of the blue one day and I started reading there. I refused to attend the KH or the study any longer, while he dived further into the organization.

He was baptized at the end of 1999, telling me a day and a half before the event--I had just made my first post on the old H2O the day before. Lotsa turmoil for a while there, but I think things are smoothing out, well between us anyways. Matters between him and his JW family (mom, sis, and her family) are yet to be determined, as he is becoming increasingly inactive and trying to fade away.

That's it, oh except for my age, which I notice people are terribly fond of indicating in this thread, it's 32.

Hello to all the newbies here too, I'm a junior member, which I presume is a lot like being a butter-bar lieutenant who thinks they are all of that--which is annoying to those who truly are. Don't despair, 20 posts and you're a jr. member too.

That's all for now, time for me to meddle in some other thread.

Michelle