since me and my siblings had to go to service every saturday, and i mean every saturday, i missed out on something so normal as watching good ole saturday morning cartoons from the 70's and 80's.
i remember wishing i could stay home just one saturday so i could watch cartoons.
but noooo we had to go save lives!
Being an angel in the school nativity
decorating a xmas tree
Smelling and seeing a firework display for real
relaxed clothes
parties
attending dance classes they were saturday mornings
doing gym classes they were also saturday mornings
learning to do ballroom that involved dancing with boys -i was 7!!
just had a jw freak out over some magic 8 balls that i have.
next thing you know i turn my head and it was thrown into a box to get rid of it.
is it because it has the word magic in it?
My mum saw the Disney holiday handbook on the table which was entitled 'The little book of magic" she was then convinced it was about witchcraft. The cover had a picture of Micky mouse on it!
i once asked my dad why, with all the power the wt insists on having so much control over its adherents' lives, they don't provide information about healthy eating habits or, like the adventists, wilderness training.
i mean, the gb encourage people to remain poor, and poverty is known to correlate with health outcomes, particularly those that are diet related.
i'd say most witnesses i knew over the age of 40 were overweight, had high blood pressure, heart problems, gastrointestinal issues, one kind of cancer or another (no doubt a result of eating their feelings if you ask me).
I think some of it comes from short term thinking- if panda paradise is round the corner along with perfect bodies why treat your health with any respect. Likewise I think many including were told they wouldn't get old/sick and die so aren't emotionally prepared for it. Every sign of ageing reinforces the disappointment of no Armageddon.
I also think the very sedentary lifestyle as sport is discouraged or even having hobbies together with poor diet from low wages and not enough time have contributed. There is also a deep distrust of both medical and mental health professionals replaced by use of quack cures.
the sky is so dark here in the south of the uk.
could be armageddon starting.. or then it could be dust particles in the atmosphere..
Its hilarious that with so many atheists 1 funny colour sky and everyone thinks s""*t Armageddon's here maybe the JWs were right after all!!
so im walking through town today on my lunchbreak and spot the unmistakable walk of my younger brother.
this is the one who left watchtower... well it turns out he's returned to the vomit after stupidly turning up to the 2017 convention and a few elders filling his head with seeing our dead dad in paradise and to "wait on jehovah".. a few meters behind him was my sister.
she spotted me first, then hurried up her step to my brother.
Well worldlyness may be catching.
what a breath a fresh air to be free of watchtower.
now i can finally rant about the things i put up with that i'd never put up with now.. in no particular order:.
little kids in suits.
Its been a while but here's some of mine:
Anything formal especially dresswise
The expression 'the truth' its anything but.
Passing big family occasions in order to go to a meeting
' we don't celebrate....' Was the buzz word when I was a kid for basically anything the petty rules forbid.
' you have been seen wearing/ doing/with......'. Doesn't matter if your on a remote mountain in Mongolia some idiot will see you and report you for wearing or doing something inappropriate. If there's a way of looking at a situation that could be innocent or could be guilty no prizes for guessing how it will be assumed.
Brother so n so, sister so n so. You are not related stop pretending you are.
Anything nasty is ' Jehovah's living provision" Noooooo its just nasty.
That's my venting done
.....the truth was not the truth... ?
.
I'm a bit unusual here because for me it was growing cognitive dissonance that something didn't fit then a few incidents.
I was there at Twickenham assembly when 1975 was announced from the platform. Although young I was old enough to know what was said and that it didn't happen. Some years later I innocently asked my study conductor for the WT from 74 that predicted it and they pretended they didn't know what I was talking about.
I played music in lots of churches as a teenager. I waited for everything the WT said about churches to be true. It wasn't. I did not get struck down, I just met lovely friendly people.
As an older teen I knew I hated being different and hated the restrictions. I faded through my uni years but still had a bit of 'maybe they're right' for a few years. The single biggest incident was really very minor. I was travelling and had spent a perfect day snorkelling off the barrier reef. I did a lot of thinking when I travelled and realised that the world is a truly beautiful marvellous place. The lie I had been sold that it was all dreadful outside the WT, that everyone in it was out to get you just didn't have any evidence. I looked at how beautiful it was and knew that armagefon was not coming any day soon if ever. I think it was the culmination of years of stuff not adding up rather than any specific doctrine. There was n Internet then to redirect you I just worked it out for myself.
so i've been a protestant for most of my life, it's how i was raised, but recently i started questioning my faith more and more and now i feel like my beliefs resemble that of a jehovas witness rather than a protestant.
i don't know any jehovas witnesses, so i was just wondering how a lot of you found the religion and adapted to it?.
I was born in and deflected to real Christianity about 25 yes ago. There are many differences but predominantly it is the cultural difference rather than belief difference. Ie I go to church to worship god and have fellowship. I can openly challenge leadership. I can not turn up for 5 yes at one point etc and I have no flack from management for that. Before joining you should read JW facts although his stance like many ex JWs is atheist he raises a lot of awareness about this cult and just what you would be joining.you could simply shop around amongst evangelical or baptist type churches or you may conclude that none is for you. Bear in mind everyone on this site and there are 20k of us left for a reason, many others want to leave but are trapped..Personally there's nothing to recommend this cult at all.
meetings are boring for young kids and old but i'm going to focus on young kids 5 or 8.. i think is unfair that young kids get punished for falling asleep or zoning out.. as meetings are not as boring but i have to go to school the next day and staying up till 10pm isn't the best i can't get out of going.. but think of the young kids that dont even understand most of the teachings.. i know most on the site are adults but i heard of adults falling asleep..
To get through the unbelievable tedium as a kid here's a few ideas. Set your self silly but tricky maths problems. Count heads, count blonde vs brunette, married vs singles and work out percentages. Count backwards from 1000. Work out a system of signalling with a friend there and send messages back and forth. Take loads of loo breaks, take a phone to them and surf. Miss as many meetings as you can. Its 2 hours of your life you won't get back.
I've never understood why WT don't copy what churches are doing with the yoof its far more effective. My daughter loves the singing she dances at the back, there is a packed kids program from creche to 16 with police checked skilled helpers who do bible stories, prayer, arts n crafts cooking which she and my son loved. She looks forward to it because its child friendly. We do messy church once a month which is open to anyone not sure if you have that in US if u do popnalong. Its just bible themed arts n crafts, games singing and loads of fun. We are a very small town and had about 50 kids come along Monday. We feed you for free too as it's a poor area and our church like to reach out. As a result our numbers are growing its far more effective than carting. At the last big summer conference I went to they built a skate/bike park for the older kids which blasts out christian rock at teenage friendly volume. Imagine Assembly's doing that. It works young people and families stay in.
well, it's been a long time!
i first lurked here around 20 years ago and read huge amounts of threads which certainly helped when i was making my decision to leave the religion.
i was never baptised (resisted it!
See I never found the confrontation worked for me they read aggressive apostate backed into a corner. I found my stronger card was to be the daughter I wanted to be , I found by minimising and ignoring their cult it reduced the impact. I've found the questioning stopped after a couple of years. Now we do occasionally talk about God and I've even had some acceptance about my beliefs but I appreciate that is rare. I would react to the questions empathically_ ' I appreciate you care but I'm fine ' type approach
I did ask a very telling question however I asked my mother " if thexWT conflicts with the bible who do you believe?' She was pretty stumped at that..
In terms of sadness as I said before I feel pity for them and a bit embarrassed. They went to a local shop to by foil blankets for their go bag recently. I can just imagine the conversation in the shop. Then I thought most normal people would see my own parent's as loonie amagedon hunters which they are I guess it was just a rare glimpse of how odd their normal really is.
