we were supposed to be dedicated unconditionally to jehovah god.
we were willing to be persecuted to the death if need be.
if it came to taking a blood transfusion or dying, we were loyal to jehovah and would be a martyr for god.
I am afraid that I was absolutely loyal to the ideal. I refused a blood transfusion.
While drifting in and out of consciousness, my two main thoughts were "I must not accept blood" and "What will happen to my young children if I die"
I find it difficult to comprehend just how indoctrinated I was. It is scary.
CM
i`m thinking of "the life of brian " .
chevy chase and one or two of his" vacation" movies .
i will give a miss on mel gibsons "the passion of christ" ?
Went out and bought The Muppet Christmas Carol especially to watch on Christmas Eve.
this is an hypothetical question...i am doing well.
but i was thinking about how my jw family, grandchildren and all will feel when their inactive grandfather dies with no hope of being reunited in paradise.
of course there would be immediate rejoicing if i came back to the "truth" and a surge of conditional love from the "friends".
No. Never going back.
having a conversation with a pimi elder and i asked him how he deals with the fact that he never expected to get old.
i get the feeling that some dubs still have the original generation explanation hard-wired, even though they claim to accept the new version.
so my question is, how old do you have to be to be considered old?
I'm over 50 and still feel young đ
I feel younger at heart now I'm out than I did 10 years ago when I was in the religion .
i was driving through the high street in highbrooms, royal tunbridge wells, uk yesterday.. in amongst the shop fronts was something ive never seen before.
a large shop front with big glass windows,posters in the windows saying "start your free bible study today" (or something along those lines.
where the shop name would be there was a large jw.org logo and a blue banner.
Borg off and scruffmcbuff : I have sent a PM
CM
admit it, we all have things that we reel off when people ask what our favourite music is, just the same as if people ask what our favourite movies are.
we're meant to say "citizen kane" and "casablanca" and not "battleship" or "pacific rim" but we know what we're going to watch if they are ever on tv at the same time (and which ones we've never actually seen).. so how about some confession time?
what do you listen to when no one else is in the house?.
@Blondie Rach2 is my favourite ever classical piece. I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to it, yet it still always makes me catch my breath. I heard it live in concert a couple of years ago and it was the most emotive, incredible experience. My husband treated me to a Rachmaninov Concerto No3 concert last year and that was also incredible.
That said, I love a bit of ABBA and Erasure
CM
when a person is guilty and worthy of punishment, the judgment âwill already have been bound in heaven jesus said and if they are loosed or innocent it will already have been âloosed in heaven..in such judicial deliberations, jesus says, âwhere there are two or three gathered together in my name, there i am in their midst.â .
psalm 127:3.. children are a sacred trust, âan inheritance from jehovah.
jws abhor child abuse and view it as a crime.its recognized that the authorities are responsible for addressing such crimes.jws do not shield any perpetrator of child abuse from the authorities as has been alleged.
Alex stated : "Any JWs judicial deliberations are theocratic and not privy to the pubic as sharing in the knowledge of decisions or sins committed by individuals."
He claims that elders' joint decisions, especially with regard to judicial or congregation matters have already been decided in heaven.
So what explanation can he give as to why a young man in my old congregation was appointed as a MS while he was carrying out prolonged and continuous abuse of a child (this became privy to the public when it came to light and he confessed)
Also in the same congregation, a man who had been previously df'd for sexual misconduct was reinstated after the elder committee had supposedly sought guidance from God and the Holy spirit. It later became apparent that he also was still having extra marital affairs during the very time of his reinstatement.
Either the elders have no backing or guidance from heaven, or God is complicit in these sins. Which is it, Alex?
iâm just curious if you think your past life either adversely or positively affected your relationships?.
I would say yes, definitely. I stayed in an unhealthy marriage far too long because of the JW mindset - trying to hide from my friends and family what was really going on underneath the surface.
The strange thing is, the quirkiness in my nature that is an inevitable side effect of being in the cult was what initially attracted my new partner. The JW upbringing and subsequent release when I walked away has produced a unique combination of attributes and opinions within me which made him want to get to know me better.
there have been a number of threads / posts here over the years about ex jw`s needing to see therapists for what they are going through , and i can appreciate that.. obviously there are many ex jw`s on here that haven`t ever felt the need to see a therapist ,and i`m just wondering why not ?.
why does one feel the need and another does not ?.
is it to do with born ins as against those who were converts ?
I was in the religion from the age of two, so don't remember anything different. I also believed and trusted implicitly.
Since my exit three years ago I have not felt the need for counselling but I have the benefit of a very understanding partner (found after leaving JW) and it's therapeutic to have his perspective. He has the perception to recognise that many of my views still carry the remnants of a life of indoctrination which are more ingrained than I had thought.
That said, I personally know several ex JWs for whom counselling has been an important step in moving on.
As has been said already, we all have a different emotional make up and the cult lifestyle has had more impact on some than others
At least now we are free to choose whatever path we want without fear of censure.
CM
last night i dreamt i was at a circuit assembly; i even had a walk-on speaking part early in the morning program.
i spent the rest of the day âworkingâ the event in a security detail.
the dream lasted until the entire dayâs program was over.
I rarely have dreams related to the JWs now (my last meeting was almost 3 years ago) but I do still remember a nightmare I had as a child....
I had survived Armageddon and was searching round the carnage to locate my family members. I couldn't find any - not my mother, father or sister. I can still recall the feelings of panic this created in me, and convincing myself that Jehovah would make me forget my former life if it made me unhappy.
Bearing in mind I was not yet a teenager at the time and I am now in my 50s, it shows what emotional damage the organisation can inflict on children.
CM
