it never ceases to amaze me that your personal friends have no clue what it is like to have been one.
i was speaking with a friend the other day about having been a jw.
she said, oh i have a dear friend of 30 years who is one and she is so nice!
Lieu, that's hilarious! And thank you HB and bless you for helping your friend get out of it!!
Sometimes (not so often as I used to!) I will mention to someone that I was raised a Jehovah's Witness. They'll say 'oh, that's nice.' Oh my GOD does that drive me nuts. Even when you try to explain 'NO it was really NOT nice' it takes mental energy that people aren't willing to invest. That's why I love this place, you all KNOW.
seems to be quite a few posters recently pulling down the beliefs of jw's as not biblical or truly christian.
maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, i really don't care.. in some important ways though mainstream christians often behave better than jehovah's witnesses; most don't practice shunning or impose lethal medical prohibitions on their members.
many are far more tolerant of the lgbt community and a few even make the awkward attempt to square the fact of evolution with their faith.. please note that i'm saying some, not all.. so i suppose it's fair to say that differing forms of christianity can be better or worse for individuals, families and the wider community.
Thank you Lisa!! I don't know how you know so much about 'normal' churches, I know you don't go to one! But your points are exactly right, about mine and many others.
Doctrine was important to me when I was leaving JW's, and I spent a lot of time and passionate energy researching and proving to myself and my family that the witness doctrine is screwed up. Their doctrine is NOT one of the few things they have going for them. If I was going to name a few things, I think it would be ability to find their way around a bible (a skill learned from their practice of matching up scriptures all over the bible that don't actually go together), and the fact that they are a cult helps people feel close to each other (even tho this is usually pretty superficial and if you start diverting from the group views, they start dropping from your life like flies.)
hey everyone!!
i hope everyone is doing good today.
i don't share or comment often, but i'm in the mood to do that today.
i just watched a show on tlc..where a man killed his mother, and father.
after the show was over, and everyone said their comments....one comment stuck in my head.
the comment that stuck in my head was" he not only lost his parents....he lost everyone associated with himself"... .. i thought to myself.......it happens in kingdom halls every day, and not for murder......but for something petty....like smoking a cigarette.. any views on this?.
out at the mall with mrs. otwo, she sees a shirt on the rack that was marked down from $25 to just $4.
she holds it up and says, "should i buy this as a workout shirt?".
i tell her "no, because as soon as you figure out what it means, you won't wear it anymore.
i left the watchtower in the winter of 2008. my first year out was by far the most difficult.
i had every intention of returning to the watchtower for the very purpose of being able to speak with my friends and family.
i had already concluded that the teachings were not the "truth" [after reading crisis of conscience] so coming back was more emotional then anything.
Saved, your post reminds me of something I observed right away when I left the jw's and joined a new church. In the first sermon I heard, the pastor spoke of his own human weaknesses, how he felt when his daughter was born and he learned she had severe physical abnormalities. It was almost shocking to me. Not once in any talk did I ever hear a witness brother say anything of their own personal weaknesses or struggles or lapses in faith. Not once! Everyone has to pretend they are perfect all the time. It's difficult to find any genuine witnesses who aren't 'pretending.' Even among friends, you don't talk about these very real things. It's not part of their culture, which is built around 'appearances.'
It's still hard for me to admit my own failures to other people, but I'm learning, and its a much healthier practice than pretending I'm perfect.
truth is absolute.
there is no such thing as 2=1 or 1=2.. if one starts out with the equation 2=1, one has already failed.. truth = truth.
you cannot change whether something is truth or not.. when the organization teaches one thing as a truth (ex.
I told a weak witness recently to examine his religion. I said to him that the truth can stand up to research.
Crossing my fingers that he listened to me. If he drops the cult, he will have huge relief from his guilt issues and never, ever being good enough despite decades of trying.
The truth CAN stand up to research, if it's true. And if it doesn't, it's false, and doesnt deserve to be called truth anymore. Name me any type of ANYTHING that it wasn't beneficial to research outside material about before signing up for. What company you might want to work for, what insurance company you might want to get, what stock funds you might want to buy, what school you might want to send your kids to, how to build a house most efficiently, what car to buy, what shoes to buy...suddenly when you are choosing a religion, witnesses expect you to do NO outside research. This thing that controls your life and affects you in every way, you aren't supposed to research outside info on. This thing that is going to consume almost all of your free time....you aren't supposed to do outside research on before signing up. This thing that controls your WHOLE. LIFE.
TRUTH CAN STAND UP TO RESEARCH. Isn't it eye opening they feel so threatened by research? Doesn't that tell you something?
this is a question for ex jw's who have joined another christian faith group.
the purpose of my question iis to find out which christian faith group you chose after leaving watchtower and what convinced you to travel this new spiritual path you are on.
i am interested to know because i personally would like to find a genuine faith group where i can feel true christian liberty as i initially thought i had with the witnesses.
been lurking around here for several weeks.
posted once or twice but not too much.
i'm a covert fade at the moment.
Hadriel I just want to say I find you really likable and intelligent and I love that you want to help others and even have the resources to do that.
People like you are very good news for people stuck in the org.
I would just say, for your kids, be sure to encourage them to join clubs or sports that will help them make new friends. Once they have new friends they will be able to move on. All that advice about avoiding extracurricular activities was really great for preventing witness kids from making friends, and they know it.
i swear you just cannot make this stuff up.
i just heard from an older sister in the hall that donald's trump son-in-law bought part of the brooklyn heights compound, i think she said the 25 building but what ever.
she than went on to say and to quote her "the donald knows it's the truth.
