just curious about others experience.
i've been living just a few miles from a kingdom hall for 9 years.
i've been called on 0 times.
But it's hard to act like that when you are as sweet a person as lisarose!
lisa how about a note saying you are an exJW, but if they would like to hear all about the true history of their cult, as well as how much happier you are since leaving their cult, you would be happy to tell them, and if that was the case, please knock!
so, here's a bit of a different point of view.
while most of us will agree that our time within the jw cult was rather terrible, however, i'd like to look at another aspect.
did anything good come out of being in a cult and then waking up from it?.
i'm going to be honest and from the heart when i say that for 40 years in the jw religion i was very happy in my ignorance!
man, what a trip it was.
i loved every minute of it but then i was absent the bad in my religion.
so, here's a bit of a different point of view.
while most of us will agree that our time within the jw cult was rather terrible, however, i'd like to look at another aspect.
did anything good come out of being in a cult and then waking up from it?.
I just enjoy everything so much now. Doing things I never could have done when I was in. Singing the national anthem, voting, watching the kids on their sports teams or fun activities, birthday parties, holidays, going to church (and not being forced to), celebrating the change of seasons, enjoying my time the way I want to, enjoying volunteer activities by choice, not feeling judged all the freaking time.
I think we don't take anything for granted, like people who have always had these things often do. We enjoy them to the full, knowing what it's like to be repressed and voiceless and forced to do stuff, and kept out of fun stuff.
so my mom who sadly is still in the "truth" asked me if i was going to the circuit assembly this sunday.
she knows i don't go to meetings anymore but usually when she would mention the assemblies i would say yes and go pretty much just for her sake.
however, this time i couldn't bring my self to saying yes, i've been reading "crisis of conscience" and i just can't bring my self to go anymore, even if it's for my mother.
we all know the wts abandons and invents beliefs faster than apple can churn out new shiny stuff.
but have they ever abandoned a belief and later picked it up again?.
i remember many years ago we had one of those post-district-assembly review parts (part of the service meeting) where they were discussing some "new light".. there was some confusion about which was the "new" and which was the "old" and a semi-discussion ensued with people commenting.
All they have to do is read the first chapter of Hebrews to see Jesus is not Michael!!
I had no idea they used to think he was the pope tho...LOL....weird! This religion has always had the most bizarre teachings. Witnesses are quite the acrobats aren't they.
i have thought about how ttatt came full circle for me.
how the connecting the dots was simple and just made sense,.
how silos of information are literally at our fingertips today.. why is it that the ones we love cannot get ttatt?.
People who have had doubts their whole lives (like myself) often just try to go through the motions and be good sons and daughters for their parents and to not let them down. For me, I would have just kept going along with it, except for 2 factors. 1.(and this sounds cheesy) I fell in love with Jesus along the way, by reading the New Testament, and couldn't reject him at another memorial. And 2. My kids were getting older and I didn't want them to feel pressured to be baptized and repeat this cycle. Like dozy said above, those were my tipping points.
hellloooo fellow apostates, mentally diseased devil worshippers :) how is everyone?.
today, i listened to a song about praying and how one can pray anywhere.
well, this song brought back the horror of sitting in restaurants, mcdonalds, coffee shops etc and having a group of brothers and sister bow their head and pray for what seemed to be an eternity.
I hated restaurant praying too. why couldn't people just say their own prayer if they had to? When someone wanted to say it for everyone that was just horrid. Look down, fiddle with the napkin in your lap till it's over.
I actually do not normally pray before meals (and I'm christian). I just don't like to pray then.
i've been lurking for about 3 months now and thought i'd better finally sign up.
you have all been an immense help to me as i have come to realize that this isn't the truth so i want to say a great big thank you!
what a crazy, emotional ride it is to finally face the truth about the doubts that i have carried for many years.
so many of us have been taught that the name of god is jehovah , if like me many have come to really appreciate god's name .. .
more accurately we , at least many or most love the name of jehovah , or more accurately should i say this pronunciation .
does god care what we call him , of course he does , he had his name written in the bible as yhwh ( best i can do on this computer ) , more than 6000 times .
If the exact name were so important, Jesus would have used it in his model prayer. Instead, he said 'when you pray, pray this way. Our father...'
You think any witness would ever pray without mentioning the name Jehovah (over and over and over?) well Jesus didn't mention it once! Ever. Seriously. Like phizzy said, he's just God. Yahweh was important to the Hebrews, he was their chosen people. But since Jesus came, he is everyone's God.
