Posts by out4good3

college is just another headache..college is all nothing but getting most people in trouble with fraternities...sororities...etc...etc...mostly drinking, wild parties, and sex. another bill that parents of the college students or the college students themselves have to pay in the long run and their degree now these days don't even count as much, even with degrees it doesn't seriously guarantee you a higher paying job.

All the above is just another load of WT regurgitated bullshit. You've been watching to many GGW videos and news articles of spring break vacationers.

The return on investment of a higher education more than makes up for the sacrifices and loans it "might" take to earn a college degree. I say might take because I now of many people who scrimped, saved, sacrificed, worked multiple jobs, and applied themselves evidenced by winning scholarships to put themselves through school.

I work in an educational institution, both in an instructional and support capacity, and I can tall you that the majority of the kids I see take their educational goals very seriously. The minor few that you speak of are often those that have grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths already and have a rich parent paying for all their expenses.

I remember when I first wanted to go to school to prepare for a better future and my JW wife objecting citing the reasons of the WT-speak you mention. It wasn't til ten years later that I realized what a mistake I'd made by not going and getting that degree. It kept me in fast food restaurants for all those years while I watched and trained the college educated people they were hiring for management positions being trained by me to later tell me what to do.

51

how long in truth,,,what was the final "straw"

by peaches in

jw
friends

i was in for 30 years.....my ex was an elder...."holy spirit appointed" he tortured me....i was married 33+ years....you know,,,marriage is sacred...you can leave,,,i know,,,,if abuse is intolerable....but that starts a series of events...etc etc etc....i finally left everything...and moved far away.....people actually believe "holy spirit" appoints people,,,my ex would not pray unless there was an audience...you know,,,,people invited over for supper kind of thing,,,you get the point..... my best friend had a mental breakdown,,,,she basically became psychotic.....had to be hospitalized....she took up smoking,,,got disfellowshipped...and lost all emotional support....to this day,,,,as far as i know,,,she is still disfellowshipped...needs to be hospitialized every so often....she is on complete disability.....and still trying to get back into the org....her mother does support some what,,,,even though she is a witness herself,,,,,takes her to assemblies,,,,memorial,,,etc,,,,this has gone on for years.....she cannot mentally handle the organization,,,nor can she mentally handle not being a witness...lost everything....guilt....etc..... did not mean to ramble on so much......i have mental scars that will not go away....because i stayed in a "mess" for god,,,,i could write page after page of things like the above....as being my "last straw".......curious about you here on the board....any specific "breaking point" or a collection of many things..... thanks for your in put...peaches.

out4good3

6 months after baptism in 1991 I could sense that something had gone awry, but I just couldn't put my finger on it yet.

I remember about a year later, I was out in service with my wife, and we went to this door. The guy calmly invited us in sat down with us and after his presentation started asking us questions. In retrospect, this guy was asking questions that was leading to the exposure of the organization.

Well....it had gotten to the point where being newly baptised I couldn't answer some of his questions so I promised him I'd get the group overseer to stop by his house. Well when talking to the elder group leader about the questions they man was asking and getting nowhere in getting him to go by the guys house to talk to him,my eyebrows went up. If I remember correctly, that was probably the last time I went out in service.

Two years later, I'm sporadic at the meetings and beginning to drown in debt holding on to basically a burger flipping job and I decide I'm going back to school. The reaction I got from my wife, who wasn't working at the time, was as if I'd turned my head 360 degrees, started spitting pea soup, and spiderwalked down the stairs. I had two elders in my home every other weekend after that decision telling me that I was wasting my time, that I'd only be able to get a near minimum wage job with a degree, and that my time would be better served by being out in service.

I realized then that these spiritual shepherds were nothing of the sort.

But, I would have to say that the defining "straw breaking the camel's back" moment was later an argument I was having with the wife and she was ragging on me about not going to meetings and wanting to know why,all the while downplayhing the reasons I was giving her, the stress of the moment got so bad that my body went into full revolt and I started throwing up.

After I'd finished "hugging the bowl" and walked out of the bathroom vomit streaming down my chest.......what did she do?

Picked up right where she left off.

It was an epiphanous moment where I realized that if this is the t ype of character this religion turns people into, I would have nothing to do with it.

12

Did you feel lonely after being disfellowshipped?

by paul from cleveland in

jw
friends

out4good3

they didn't DF me.....I DF'd them. So, I didn't feel lonely in the least.

32

my letter to the elders and governing body

by leftchica in

.

to the elders of the maitland congregation and governing body of the watchtower tract.

and bible society,.

out4good3

I doubt if any will read it all. MOst likely, they'll just skim the first coupleof paragraphs, go right to the end to determine who wrote the letter, set up a meeting to ask you the loyalty questions, and if you don't answer them to their satisfaction, DF you.

Oh...wait a minute, they don't DF anymore, they just announce you as being no longer one of jehovahs-witnesses.

18

JW's and Selling Stuff at the Hall

by lepermessiah in

jw
friends

my wife got an invite to a "party" and got me thinking...... one of the biggest things that used to annoy me was how many members of the congregation were involved in those mlm sales schemes or "work from home" companies and they used the kh as the hub of their business.

many of those companies are very legit, and i have no problem with people selling that stuff, its just that people would use their field service tactics to pressure others in the hall to buy stuff.. every week, a member of my family would get invited to a candle party, cosmetics party, tupperware party, vitamin party, etc......you could go bankrupt just from the constant flow of parties and feeling obligated to buy something.. the sad part was that if you turned down the invite or went and didnt buy anything, you would offend the selller!.

then, they would always run around and deliver their orders before and after the meeting (unles the elders put a stop to it), otherwise you would see them out in their car after the meeting distributing everyones' orders.. .

out4good3

My wife, the hardcore JW that she is, quit accepting and going to all these invites for just the reasons stated. The only times she was invited anywhere was if someone was having a Mary Kay or elephant gift swaping party, or a baby shower.

32

"Do not become unevenly yoked"--weird comment at meeting

by sd-7 in

jw
friends

i heard a really bizarre comment at one of the recent meetings.

someone, in quoting this scripture, of course went with the usual doctrine of not marrying/dating someone who is not a jw.

but one woman took it even further, by saying that this applied even to people inside the congregation who 'weren't spiritual enough' or didn't have some magnificent spiritual goals in life.

out4good3

On the off chance that I used to go to meetings with my wife just to give her a little company, whenever someone made a bone-head comment like this, I'd give her the "look" that basically implied that that was the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

She would clearly be embarassed by comments like this and would try to explain them away on the ride home.

31

Well, I told my mom today that I haven't been to a meeting in 5 months plus I need some advise for next Saturday

by doublelife in

jw
friends

me and my mom made plans to see each other today so this morning she called me and said she was already in my area and wanted to know where to meet up.

i told her that i wasn't ready yet so to come to my apartment first.

i said that me and my husband are still in our pjs and she gasped and ask, "you didn't go to the meeting today?

out4good3

Like I said before, I was pretty much cornered by mom into meeting with him. So how can I not meet with him now? He's not some elder at my new congregation that I haven't attended. I can't just not be at home. He's my uncle. Even if I have a good reason to cancel he and my mom will pressure me to meet with him again. I don't think I really have a choice.

I'm sorry, but if you're a grown, bill paying, married adult, not living at home, why not just thank them for their concern but you don't want to meet to be questioned on this issue.

Or just forget all the apologetic prevarications and just tell the no!

As an adult, you don't HAVE TO talk to anybody you don't want to about anything you don't want to talk to them about.

What are they gonna do....eat you!!!!

24

leaving the wt - why?

by rockmehardplace in

jw
friends

so for some people, there is the one breaking point that makes people leave.

for me, not so much about doctrine, but about how people treated one another.

i always heard that we show we are the true religion because we have love among ourselves.

out4good3

There was enough straws to constitute a broom stick but the two that solidified my never returning to JWism was twofold.

I'd decided to go back to school as I saw no future in the work I was doing and looking down the corrider of time, I knew I needed to make better money. Two elders came to my house, at the invitation of my wife I suspect though she denies, and basically told me that I was wasting my time and that it would be better spent making meetings and going in field service....in theocratic pursuits. Realizing that theocratic pursuits don't pay bills, I went to school anyway.

The camel's back breaker though was, I don't remember how much later, a conversation I was having with my wife where she was railing on me for not going to meetings and insisting that I knew it was the truth....what else is out there. She was going on and on and wouldn't stop and caused me such stress that day that I actually went into the bathroom and started throwing up. Now, you would think me coming out the bathroom with vomit down the front of my shirt would stop her......

Nope, she kept right on going where she left off. At that point, I lost totally it. She finally got the message and dropped it.