someone named john free popped in on one of my posts at exmormon[dot]com and mentioned this website.
i have a lot of questions.
i never knew much about about the jw church.
Loved your post, CD. Thanks for that. I have always had a particular vitriol towards Mormons... Then I figured out it was my own frustration with myself being raised a JW,...venting against Mormons was sort of an indirect outlet!! So many similarities, yet discussing how WEIRD and what a CULT mormons were was a favorite pastime!!
Did you really believe 6 kids gets your family your own planet?? And can a man say his wife's secret name to ensure her salvation??
i had to take the drivers license was up for renewal so while filling out the paperwork, i checked the motor voter box.
(explanation of motor voter: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=utf-8#q=motor%20voter%20law ).
they already had all my information.
LOL that is hilarious NJ.
zoos that is awesome. im going for Bernie. Hillary did a nice job at the debate, but it's ridiculous to think she will help heal divisions in this country, didn't she mention that was her goal? Yeah....
i really like voting for local issues too. But presidential elections are great. I love staying up late at night watching the statistics come in across the country. good stuff! I will be sad to see Obama leave tho. It's so weird thinking he won't be president anymore.
according to one source on a western european 'apostate' website, the org's plan is to abandon the name "jehovah's witnesses" in the future, and replace it with "worshippers of jehovah.".
http://www.bruderinfo-aktuell.de/index.php/fixnews/#comment-4313 .
the gist of the account appears to be a repeat of rutherford's re-branding and debunking of old predictions made by the previous shower of fakers.
whats worse than being an adult jw?
when i was a kid i always had a bad concience all the time.
i believed i would not survive armageddon for the fact that i didn't like going to service and i didnt like going to the meetings.
according to one source on a western european 'apostate' website, the org's plan is to abandon the name "jehovah's witnesses" in the future, and replace it with "worshippers of jehovah.".
http://www.bruderinfo-aktuell.de/index.php/fixnews/#comment-4313 .
the gist of the account appears to be a repeat of rutherford's re-branding and debunking of old predictions made by the previous shower of fakers.
so it's been a few months since i last went to a meeting but i've still had lots of guilty feelings about leaving, such as am i doing the right thing, thinking about friends and family, where do i go from here etc etc.
but i think once you stop believing you can't go back.. anyway, today i had a very nice experience.
my daughter had been to nursery today and when she got home i asked her what she had done and she excitedly told me they had been doing pumpkins.
It's such a nice thing to embrace the seasons, kids love this stuff, because they are just learning traditions and the cycle of life. It's such a huge relief not to have to say 'um, sweetie, actually that's BAD!' but instead to simply smile and say 'how wonderful! Aren't pumpkins great, how you can make faces in them and then light them up from the inside?'
hey!
i've been hanging around her for a while.
this is the third attempt at my 'hello'.
Hi miss Worldly!!
Does anyone remember that old MasterCard commercial??
MASTERCARD! International. So WORLDLY, So WELCOME.
miss worldly, you are so worldly and so welcome :)
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
My first experience with anti cult views was probably field service. We went out in service a LOT. We lived among a very educated population. Many of those people liked to get in long discussions about philosophical/theological issues, often for their own entertainment I think, and I still remember many of the conversations. It's interesting, because of course you are SUPPOSED to go out in service and have discussions with people, but doing that exposed me to all sorts of interesting ideas :).
So, I followed along with my parents, trying to be a good kid but always, always doubting. Eventually I hear indirectly that my cousin has slowed down going to meetings because, nope, it's not his job craziness like he excuses it to be, it's actually that he doesn't really BELIEVE IT. Whoa! Shocker! Someone in the family who doesn't really believe it!! I think this made it easier for myself to admit my own doubts. Still, when I researched a particular issue I was going through, I COVERED THE COMPUTER SCREEN with my hands, to try to filter out any apostate stuff I didn't need to see, and tried to keep my eyes on just my particular issue.
When there were signs outside the DC, I would say to myself 'just look down, don't read the signs, JUST LOOK DOWN!'
For me, it was doctrinal issues that made me take the big step. Otherwise, I was going to go along. Simply reading the New Testament instead of listening to the circuit assembly one day, I finally found Christ. I couldn't stay in any longer. Just in time too, before any of my kids were baptized. The first Ttatt fact I learned was about Beth Sarim. Sounded like Bethel, and I had never heard of it, there was an article in he 30's in LIFE magazine about it, and it WASNT IN THE PROCLAIMERS BOOK?? What???
i'll start off with this one:.
some years ago when i was formulating my exit, i employed for some time an ms brother from another congregation.. i'd had a couple of young "worldly" lads work for me but they proved unreliable as they used drugs or alchohol and consequently would'nt arrive at work and such like.. so when i was was contacted by this brother and spoke to him and heard he'd worked at the australian bethel for some time on construction and wanted an opportunity to learn the trade of bricklaying ,i thought ,"great someone to finally trust and be reliable".
he was in his 40's at the time and he worked like a trojan ,was honest ,really likeable and interesting ,could play the classical guitar beautifully ,had a beautiful family.
i made a medium level mistake at work today, and when i make mistakes it really shakes me up and takes me a long time to recover.
it completely rattles me, makes me feel awful about myself.
my mind keeps going back to the mistake reliving how i could have let it happen.
Thank you all for your thoughts!! I'm not the only one!!
I need to learn to brush off my mistakes, and say 'oh well. I'll do better next time' instead of let them eat at me. I'm not perfect, I will never be perfect in this life. I will do stupid stuff.
I feel better already, just saying that.
Ironically yes Xanthippe, when other people make mistakes or admit their lives aren't perfect I actually like them a whole lot better. This one lady I didn't like much, one day she told me her marriage needed a lot of work. Bam! I thought she was great. Yes, she became human. Why don't I have the same standards for myself?? I think being raised witness and trying to look perfect and be perfect all the time, and it's a works based 'faith.' There's a great shame in falling short of any of that. And yes im sure some of it might be genetic or neurological or just personality. But the judgmental culture was SO strong for us.
I think just being aware of this, and talking about it, will make our guilt and shame at our shortcomings, and failures at doing things perfectly, easier to deal with. John and mike im glad you're moving on from yours.
Thanks everyone!
