Posts by NoviceLocs14

18

How many JWs would offer their young daughters as a bride to a single GB member

by Chook in

i think the bragging rights of parents would rule.

i've seen cos marry girls no older than there own children when their spouse has died..

NoviceLocs14

Shoot, they'll offer their daughters to ANY older man with some type of status in the org. I know personally of a sister who was 2 years older than me (18 at the time) whose parents welcomed the proposition of marriage from an elder in his 30s. She was bad mouthed in her congregation because she turned him down and married a "convert".

Ironically, the same elder in question turned his attention to me, who was only 16 at the time. He was extremely flirtatious and sometimes inappropriate. Instead of my parents being creeped out about this, they thought it was cute and teased me about what our children would look like.

16

My disassociation story

by Roger Kirkpatrick in

following is a summary of events leading up to my decision to disassociate from jehovah's witnesses and the unforeseen results of that decision.. a young man named joel engardio produced a documentary about jehovah's witnesses called "knocking" which aired nationally on pbs.

i purchased the dvd from joel before it was even released and we exchanged emails.

joel had been raised by his jw mother and had been active in jw activities during his adolescence, but he was never baptized as a jw.

NoviceLocs14

Thanks for telling your story. Those elders sound like control freaks to me. Your discussion about the lack of freedom from a fade vs disassociation reassures me that I made the right decision to DA.

On a fun and random note, it's interesting you mentioned the Knocking documentary. Part of it was filmed in my home congregation and territory (they even used the street my parents lived on for some of the preaching scenes). My family and I were featured walking down our street in the closing credits of that film. I take pride in knowing they unknowingly filmed an "apawstate" in their movie ;)

9

What the craziest thing you have heard of someone hauled before a judicial committee for ?

by Chook in

anything that's true

NoviceLocs14

When I was in my preteens, my family showed up to the KH for a meeting one evening to find that the tiny windows we had on the doors were shattered. Turns out a sister who had mental health issues and marital problems had done the deed. From what I understood, the elders talked to her and she agreed to take her medication, which she was not doing before.

A couple of weeks later, the same sister showed up to the KH, proceeded to disrobe herself, and started pulling the flowers out of the flower bed of the adjoining CO home. Needless to say, the CO was terrified. Police were called, and she was arrested. She was then Df'ed for not keeping her promise to stay on her meds.

Not too long after that we came to the meeting to find one handle missing on each of the doubles doors to the KH. Apparently the sister, angered by her disfellowshipping, threatened to burn down the hall while people were in it.

In hindsight, I feel bad for the sister though. She needed immediate and intense mental health care, and no one stepped up to help her get that (although at least the elders told her to take her meds, which was surprising).

41

What woke you up?

by MrRoboto in

for me, i think it was just the right time as i was starting to wake up on other fronts as well (anyone who had went through these will know what i mean).

but it started when i was looking for what info goes on a publisher card, which led to me reading one person's story (ex bethelite) which was pretty crazy to an all-in jw but who trusts those apostates...?.

then i started watching videos on cults, as if my subconscious was trying to tell my concord mind something... when i saw a particular one about a young man in lds getting ready to start their 2 year preaching campaign, including a school, social activities etc, i realized that i couldn't tell the difference between the folks of this mormon cult and the jws (save for some religious differences) .

NoviceLocs14

@Wake me up before you Jo Ho First off awesome screen name lol. But yeah, google Johanes Greber (sp?) and NWT. (I know a lot of folks on this forum aren't religious or are into the Bible, and I respect that.)

One of the major scriptures that shows his "influence" is John 1:1 where it says in the NWT "The word is a god". Virtually all other Bible translations don't have the article a in that verse and capitalize the noun God, which would pretty much support the concept of the Trinity belief.

There are actually scans of letters from the WT Society to the Greber foundation asking for additional copies of his "Bible translation". I'll see if I can find the links and edit my post accordingly.

41

What woke you up?

by MrRoboto in

for me, i think it was just the right time as i was starting to wake up on other fronts as well (anyone who had went through these will know what i mean).

but it started when i was looking for what info goes on a publisher card, which led to me reading one person's story (ex bethelite) which was pretty crazy to an all-in jw but who trusts those apostates...?.

then i started watching videos on cults, as if my subconscious was trying to tell my concord mind something... when i saw a particular one about a young man in lds getting ready to start their 2 year preaching campaign, including a school, social activities etc, i realized that i couldn't tell the difference between the folks of this mormon cult and the jws (save for some religious differences) .

NoviceLocs14

I was a die hard staunch born in JW, regular pioneer, in the foreign language field, you name it. I was still believing when I actually started fading. The reason for my fade was the guilt I felt for living a "double life" by secretly dating my now husband who was not a JW.

Even when I literally ran away from home with the clothes on my back (yes, I was pushing 30 and still living with the parents) to elope with my husband, I still believed the BS and continued to be racked with guilt.

I was immediately bombarded with emails full of guilt trips by my family and elders (I had changed my phone number). The elders, unsatisfied with me not returning their correspondence, looked up the number to my new job and proceeded to call my job several times a week. I finally contacted them back by email and told them I would prefer to meet the local elders in the area I had moved, so that I could have an objective viewpoint on my situation. They proceeded to tell me that I needed to follow "God's arrangement" and meet with them. I felt like a criminal fighting extradition lol...

For some reason, that was the straw that broke the camels back. I began to see the hypocrisy and lack of love. I then decided to research the religion I had spent my whole life in. All I did was google "Jehovah's Witnesses". I was able to weed out the logical arguments from the illogical ones. A major discovery was finding out that the translation of the Bible I had based my beliefs on, the NWT, was influenced by a spiritist. (That got to me personally, since I still identify as Christian.) I also discovered Crisis of Conscience, and reading that book pretty much sealed the deal for me. Literally less than 2 months transpired between my initial research and sending my DA letter. It was only then that the elders stopped harassing me.

25

I Give Up!

by pale.emperor in

im giving up guys.

i've reached the end of my patience and now i finally refuse to waste any more time on part-time witnesses.

i've text all of my active jw family members and told them to delete my number from their phone and never contact me again.

NoviceLocs14

Hmm sounds like my DFd sibling who chided me for choosing to live my life, and still continues to do so. I don't blame you at all for that. At least you let them know how you feel.

71

Wow i do not reconize this religion anymore...

by _Morpheus in

had the misfortune of stopping by the "regional" convention yesterday.

i promised my daughter i would come to sunday afternoon so she wouldnt have to ride home with her mother.... holy crap it was weird!

im sure all of this has been covered on the forum but to actually see it.... just wow.

NoviceLocs14

Wow! I've been out for less than 4 years, and this is what it's turned into? That's really insane!

34

7 day conventions?

by HereIgo in

did any of you attend the old school week long conventions?

i have heard stories and it seems like these were mostly in the 70's and 80's before my time.

i couldn't imagine.

NoviceLocs14

I vaguely remember the 3 1/2 day ones where they fed you sloppy joes and danish rolls. I think the last of those were in 1993 when I was around 8 (and they stopped feeding people lunch as well).

20

Dealing with Loneliness and Social Anxiety

by NoviceLocs14 in

hello, this is my 1st initiated post on this site, so i'm a bit nervous.

i did search for similar topics on this site, but a lot of them have been inactive for several years, so here goes.... a little background, i was pretty much born in "da twoof", baptized at 17, pioneered for about 6 years, was part of the rbc part time, and was even in the foreign language field for the last 3 years i was a jw.

so i pretty much had a pretty active social life within the organization due to being part of all of those things.

NoviceLocs14

Thanks for the advice so far. I do work and actually was able to go back to school and finish my Masters, but I almost feel like fear of rejection keeps me from getting closer or pursued those friendships of the people I come across there. I think my social awkwardness is obvious at my job too. While I try my best to be friendly, it seems like I still struggle to fit in.

I've tried looking up exjw groups in my area (I've relocated since my disassociation). So far I haven't found an active one, but I won't give up on the search.

20

Dealing with Loneliness and Social Anxiety

by NoviceLocs14 in

hello, this is my 1st initiated post on this site, so i'm a bit nervous.

i did search for similar topics on this site, but a lot of them have been inactive for several years, so here goes.... a little background, i was pretty much born in "da twoof", baptized at 17, pioneered for about 6 years, was part of the rbc part time, and was even in the foreign language field for the last 3 years i was a jw.

so i pretty much had a pretty active social life within the organization due to being part of all of those things.

NoviceLocs14

Hello, this is my 1st initiated post on this site, so I'm a bit nervous. I did search for similar topics on this site, but a lot of them have been inactive for several years, so here goes...

A little background, I was pretty much born in "da twoof", baptized at 17, pioneered for about 6 years, was part of the RBC part time, and was even in the foreign language field for the last 3 years I was a JW. So I pretty much had a pretty active social life within the organization due to being part of all of those things.

I disassociated about 3 years ago, and literally lost all of my JW family and friends overnight. Although I'm happily married and have a beautiful daughter, and have been pretty much adopted by my hubby's family, I still can't quite shake the feelings of loneliness from losing all of my family and social circle. My husband doesn't always understand how that feels (since he never was a JW), and although he's kind of a loner himself, he still has a close circle of friends that he can still turn to (which I honestly envy at times).

I honestly feel like I struggle to fit in virtually everywhere (work, etc), and I haven't made any decent social connections since I've left the JWs. My husband has encouraged me to just ago out there, find out what I enjoy and meet like minded people who do those things. However, my social anxiety has caused me to make excuses for not doing so. At times, I'm literally terrified of meeting new people. (I also honestly struggle with figuring out what I really do like, since my life has revolved around JW activities for so many years.)

I just wanted to post this to see if any one of you have experienced something similar since leaving the JWs. If so, how did you cope with it?