I don't think you can refer to yourself as one of "us" as you are not living your life as "spirit directed" ones demand you live to be one of them.
moreconfusedthanever
JoinedPosts by moreconfusedthanever
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76
Hi, all...I'm a faithful JW who is sick of lies about us
by James Donalds ini was baptized 30 years ago and have been in the faith for over 35 years.. our organization isn't perfect.
but i'm sick to death of seeing stereotypes about us.
we are not mindless automatons.
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Christmas as a JW child
by Phoebe ini am sitting here, so utterly bored and waiting for this day to be over.
so i'm starting a new topic that probably has been done a thousand times but hey, i'm fairly new here.
humor me :).
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moreconfusedthanever
My mum chose the cult when I was 3 or 4. There are photos of me as a baby by a Christmas tree but I have no memory of celebrating.
Christmas and Easter too were horrible times to be at school. Teachers were mean and hated the witness kids who would refuse to colour in a tree or an egg.
Having worked in a school I have seen and heard the experience from the other side. In my class we had a Hindu boy who was not allowed to celebrate either. The teacher made sure to make him suffer. Every day during the Easter period and Christmas period she would remind the class that he was not allowed to join in and shake her head and say how sad it was. These children were 5 year olds.
She made no effort to adjust her curriculum to him and seemed to take pleasure in torturing him. I told her that it wouldn't be hard to find worksheets for him to do that were not ",holiday" based and just to give them to him quietly so as not to make him feel even more isolated than he already was. She didn't do it of course but I hope it made her think about what she was doing to him. These children have no choice in the matter I felt so bad for him because I knew exactly what he was going through.
Even when still "in" I would let my kids go to the discos and end of year concerts and I would get all their friends a small gift and a blank card (not Christmas) that the kids could write them an end of year message and if they got Christmas cards I would let them keep them.
I can't see us celebrating Christmas as a family any time soon because to me it's so commercialized and it annoys me that they still insist on celebrating Jesus birthday in December when it is widely known to be a pagan celebration. I won't do it just because everyone else is doing it. But it is nice not to feel guilty about saying ", thank you and you too" when someone wishes you a merry Christmas.
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One of the things I disliked about moving to a new congregation
by Jules Saturn ini hope i’m not the only one who experienced this but i hated it when we moved to a new congregation and another family from the congregation we were in would move to the same congregation basically following us.
and it was annoying because i always felt like there was this competition over privileges and participation during the meetings with this particular family.
it was so annoying.
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moreconfusedthanever
Creepy much? Maybe your family were their only friends and they couldn't bear to be in the cult without you. Lol.
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Confused
by Kas12 ini am 12 years old and im confused because my mam is leaving the truth after 12 years and i want to celebrate xmas but she still doesnt believe that should do it coz even though shes realised society has lied about things she still believes in god.
im unsure whether i believe in god or not but i havent really looked into it much ..
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moreconfusedthanever
Maybe you could ask to join her in her research and do it together. Inform yourself.
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1st month of fading
by Jrjw ini'm nearly at the end of my first month of becoming inactive.
only my daughter knows.
i've had a cold half of the month so no questions or pressure has been put on me yet.
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moreconfusedthanever
Everyone is different. In my case, I just stopped going. No one has come to check on me. They ask my mother about me at the hall but none of my "friends" have called or even text me.
The elders only ring right before a CO visit although they did come on a shepherding call over a year ago. We screen our calls s they are easily avoided as they don't leave messages.
We have been in the same congregation for over 40 years and haven't been to a meeting now in 2 1/2 years. Haven't needed to move house.
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The Exponential Growth In Technology Spell A Rapid End For Bronze Age Diety Cults Like The Watchtower
by Brokeback Watchtower inas information floods the airwaves and available at one's finger tips in privacy.
thanks to incognito browsers one can do a search and keep it from family members with ease.
pretty soon one should be able to go to any kingdom hall and see very few youths only long time older ones.
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moreconfusedthanever
When we were growing up if you wanted to know something you needed to go to the library or read the encyclopedia if you were fortunate enough to have one. We were encouraged to use awake articles to complete school assignments as they had already done the research.
The internet and this age of information at your fingertips is certainly going to be a factor in cult membership numbers.
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Crisis of conscience
by Jrjw inhi everyone.
what does anyone think of the crisis of conscience book?
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moreconfusedthanever
I loved that book. Read it in two days.
He gave his entire life to them. Sacrificed much in the name of serving Jehovah.
just because he wouldn't agree with everything they wrote they went on a witch Hunt to find some way to ensure his knowledge of the inner workings stay secret. They disfellowshiped him and then give him a terrible name in the JW community.
The thing that got me was the way they make decisions on rules. 2/3 majority votes on issues that actually do mean life or death and no prayers to Jehovah on the matter. The blind followers still believe that they come together weekly to prayerfully seek guidance.
They are so far from Christian.
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What Made You Decide To Finally Leave The Organization?
by minimus inwas there one certain event or was it more a cumulative thing?.
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moreconfusedthanever
My waking was a slow process. The lack of love in the congregation and then always being told "it's not Jehovah doing it to you so don't punish him by taking away your worship."
I told my mother years ago that Jehovah is not at the kingdom hall. He couldn't be.
The new bible bothered me, the change in the blood stance, the overlapping generation.
Having children and explaining what we believe to them and it sounding ridiculous to me was what made me finally decide never to return. I didn't want my children to grow up in the life of fear and solitude like I did.
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What's their game?
by punkofnice inblimey o'reilly, what are those blokes up to?.
the governing body seem to pull 'new light(tm)' out of their backsides when they can save money.
then, out of the blue comes some weird crap that will lead to the jobos getting spat at.. what is the gov bods game?
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moreconfusedthanever
Pardon my ignorance but to what out of the blue crap are you referring? What have I missed?
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I know this shouldn’t bother me...but
by MTSman inso i woke up this morning with nothing planned for the day.
i rolled out of bed around 9am and went to local mcky ds to get some breakfast, and lord and behold there was a group of jdubs sitting around eating and sipping on coffee, probable counting time.
anyway, i glanced over and recognized all of them and they glanced back at me.
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moreconfusedthanever
I would have walked up to them with a big smile and said "good morning. bit early for the morning tea break isn't it?"
It is very infuriating when you get treated like second class by a bunch of pretenders but you are the lucky one because you are free.