Posts by Phoebe

27

Asking for help with wife

by Are you serious in

hello everyone, my wife wants nothing to do with my awakening.

every time i try explaining something she tells me she doesn't want to hear it.

i believe she's afraid of learning something she's not ready for.

I was that woman. My husband woke up long before me and so did my nephew. They fed me little bits. I wasn't listening - at first. I defended. I warned my husband about 'apostate' websites. I even said if I can still stick to the truth despite all the problems, then I'm sticking with it.I told him he was dicing with the devil looking at John Cedars and JT (critical thinking) on Youtube.

But slowly it seeped into my mind. You have to do it for yourself. No one can wake you up. I could also see the total lack of love in the congregation for people not in cliques. The callous, unloving way elders handled matters.The child abuse problems.

Gradually it all started to come together. Like a misty window slowly being wiped clear. One night I took a peek at a JT video and learned some things that shocked me but started to make sense. But the waking up was horrendous. Your wife may be afraid of that. I was. The mental anguish was just awful.

Go slowly. Very slowly. Hopefully it will all come together in time.

34

Today's W.T when it mentioned Depression and Anxiety

by Isambard Crater in

our co-ordinator put his hand up and commented saying that people who go on about how depressed or anxious they are just need to stop giving in to impulses and show more self control without letting their emotions rule their lives.. if anyone from the media, a government agency or some other public body heard a comment like that, they'd have a hard time exercising self control over the rubbish this elder spouted, which my friends and family with genuine depression found insulting..

Phoebe

Unbelievable. What an idiot. Imagine anyone sitting in that hall that suffers from anxiety/depression. Well, let's hope he suffers from it one day! That makes me so angry.

12

The Unforgivable Sin (LOL)

by Cimarrona in

i remember my mother teaching me that a conscience was like an alarm in my head that would warn me when i'm on the verge of doing something immoral.

if i ignored the beeping, the batteries would run out.

i'd lose my moral compass.

Phoebe

Wasn't the unforgivable sin demonstrated on the broadcast? Stephen Lett and his garlic bread?

11

Spillane, Mickey Spillane--Cool Brother Spillane-naked wife on the cover

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

spillane, mickey spillane.

he pulled no punches and his pen was as fast as his gun.

after all, it took almost three whole weeks for mickey to type his first novel.

Phoebe

I liked his style and as someone who secretly writes (I have a book on kindle under a pen name and I've been published in women's mags) I would use Mickey Spillane as 'well, there's a witness who writes, why can't I?' to which I was tersely told, he wrote when he WASN'T a witness.

It sickens me that at my age, I was so fearful of being found out by my elders I used a pen name! I didn't dare tell a soul. Sounds like Mickey didn't give a flying fig, well done him.

28

Why I lost my religion

by Sour Grapes in

i was a jw for over 50 years and recently just stopped cold turkey going to the meetings.

years of sitting at the meetings with the boredom, the gloom and doom, repetition of doctrine, the gloom and doom, the fake love, the gloom and doom, the end being so close, do more - do more, just got to be too much for me to stomach.

i stopped praying to god and no longer thank god for the food before i eat.

Phoebe

I listened to a Peter Gregerson talk - found the link on here - from years ago. At the end he said the Watchtower was guilty of causing thousands of lives to be lost because of the blood policy, ruining families and smashing peoples faith. That last bit resonated with me.

My husband wasn't a born in, he came into it when he was in his late 20s. He still has faith. He reads the bible and prays and says he feels closer to God.

I was born-in and left last May. I'm 64. I don't know who God is anymore. I have no idea. I can't pray. I don't read the bible. I don't know what to believe. The Watchtower has taken that away from me with their lies.

I know a lot of you don't believe in God. but I would like to. I would like to be comforted by prayer. I would like to have hope. I wish I'd been left alone to find God for myself instead of having it force fed to me and made to feel terrified of God.

23

Leah Remini (Scientology expose' series) "May turn attention to Jehovah's Witnesses next"

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4935392/leah-remini-turn-attention-jehovah-s-witnesses.html.

remini said that she was warned of the jehovah’s witnesses that 'these f----rs are super powerful,' but is not one to cower in fear.. 'are you ready for my response?

'i don’t give a s--- about powerful.

Phoebe

There are enough heart breaking stories in exJW land for Leah to be interested. I've come across many on Facebook and in the comments on Youtube. I just hope if she does it, she'll go to those people. The people that make you cry when you hear how they were treated. They are the testimonies the world should see. Not the celebs.

64

Why is there such a 'high turnover' within the Jehovahs Witnesses?

by UnshackleTheChains in

i happened to come across a time article in 2008. it was basically talking about the high turnover in american faiths.

it mentioned the jdubs and highlighted the following point.. an even more extreme example of what might be called "masked churn" is the relatively tiny jehovah's witnesses, with a turnover rate of about two-thirds.

that means that two-thirds of the people who told pew they were raised jehovah's witnesses no longer are — yet the group attracts roughly the same number of converts.

Phoebe

in my 60+ years most of the kids I grew up with in the 'truth' left. Only the ones who were climbing the theocratic ladder and came from well connected families stayed. As my own kids grew up almost all their friends in the congregation, including them, didn't stay. Born-ins are in it by default, as someone said above, and the pressure to conform and tow the line is so strong, there's no room to develop as a person. Everything is monitored, from the length of your skirt to your hairstyle. No wonder, the minute these kids get away from family they leave. It's only idiots like me, who were terrified into staying. I was too scared to say I didn't want it anymore because I didn't want God to kill me. Even until last May I was still locked into the fear.

I also knew many, many people who came in and went out. We had a brother once on the convention. He'd left his biker life - tattoos etc - to become a witness and was hailed as a success story. I knew him well. After about 5 years him and his family left.

If I sat down and tried to list all the people I knew that had left - born ins and converts - it would take forever. There has been so many.

It's a hard religion to be in and there is so much pressure to tick all the boxes or else. But then you get others that seemingly sail through life as a witness. The well connected people who often get away with all sorts.

Just wish I'd had the courage decades ago to say enough like my friends did.

20

Classic situation at Circuit Assembly Day

by freddo in

jw
friends

so i've just skived off to the car park half way through our assembly day - what a classic morning.. i'm sat right behind an early-teen kid with some sort of special needs (autistic?

) who's sat with what looks like his late-30's harassed single parent mother.

(or married to an unbelieving mate?

Phoebe

freddo

where are you? Can you say? my lot are at the assembly today.

12

Self Intro

by Cimarrona in

i've done a good deal of posting in my brief 24 hours here so far, figured i might as well provide a slightly more in depth narrative.

second generation born-in.

elder's daughter and elders' granddaughter.

Phoebe

Hi. Great to meet you on here and wow, good for you!

21

Shunning: Extreme apathy!

by StephaneLaliberte in

i thought i'd share this one with the group.

many years ago, my mom was disfellowshipped.

then, my sister passed away in a car accident, she was fairly young, as she was in her early 20s.

Phoebe

By their love you will know then. Not.

These experiences are heart breaking but sadly, not rare. My DA nephew was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack (he was only in his early 30s) but his father wouldn't visit him in hospital. What if he'd died?

Cold. Heartless. Evil.

The more I hear, the happier I am I finally got out.