We never worked affluent areas. Almost everyone in my congregations were on the poorer side of middle class. There were a few elders that ran their own businesses and made decent money. But even though we never went door-to-door in wealthy areas I still heard comments like these. My family moved a lot and we went to a lot of open houses so I never felt any great desire to live in any one specific house.
jwundubbed
JoinedPosts by jwundubbed
-
61
Did others experience this on the ministry or among JWs generally?
by slimboyfat insometimes it's hard to know if our own experience of jws was typical and what features were peculiar to our own area or the individual jws we knew personally.
i was wondering if others experienced this among jws:.
a few times on the ministry, when we were working wealthy areas with large houses, some brothers and sisters would make the comment that they look forward to taking ownership of one of these big houses after armageddon, when the worldly people have vacated them.
-
-
-
-
-
jwundubbed
Ridicule can absolutely be a tool used in criticism and analysis. It can work very well in educating people, just as non-ridiculing humor can. But it shouldn't be the only reaction to an idea because then the justification behind the ridicule is lost.
-
-
-
jwundubbed
People.... anyone deserves a certain level of common decency. Respect however is earned... or not as the case may be. I would not advocate respecting nor disrespecting any group of people based on their beliefs. Take it on a person to person basis and see if they have earned and deserve your respect.
Ridiculous ideas do not deserve ridicule. They deserve to be examined and criticized so that people can learn why they are ridiculous ideas in the first place. You don't erase stereotypes, bigotry, or silly ideas with ridicule. You change those ideas and behaviors with education, insight, and knowledge.
-
22
New to JWD, Hello!
by jwundubbed inmy story in a nutshell... .
scientist for a father; extremely mentally ill, 'annointed' mother.
was privy to and also suffered a lot of abuse.
-
-
jwundubbed
Thank you, @Eden!
-
26
Who are the "Inactive"?
by thereishope inthis was my starting point in this journey of rediscovery, and i've made great strides, but here i am again asking the same question.
all this talk re the rc and the shunning of the inactive ones.
there is no announcement made obviously about "shun sister so-and-so, as she is inactive.
-
-
jwundubbed
But you can only be inactive if you have been baptized, right?
-
22
New to JWD, Hello!
by jwundubbed inmy story in a nutshell... .
scientist for a father; extremely mentally ill, 'annointed' mother.
was privy to and also suffered a lot of abuse.
-
-
jwundubbed
@smiddy, Thank you!
@Xanthippe, Than you. Don't you just hate auto-correct? Every once in a while it is funny, but most of the time it's just annoying.
-
26
Anti-religion T-Shirt idea
by Simon ini want a t-shirt.
something that says "religion is crap, i don't care which one".. i was thinking of adapting the "coexist" one to say "toxic" instead which is great because it removes 'science' but includes all the major world religions.. anyone else have any ideas?.
also a tag-line ... "whatever god you worship, he's a weirdigan".
-
-
jwundubbed
@TimeBandit,
That is awesome!
-
20
Differences Between Ex-JWs
by David_Jay inwe are not all the same--a real "duh, david!
so i figured if i didn't feel that sense of solidarity that seems missing among the debating, then i was part of the problem.
i'm responsible for making this place feel like a support and place of solidarity, just as much as anyone else.. but approaches i tried didn't work until i shut up for a while.
-
-
jwundubbed
Born into the religion, if that is you, is very different. You were made to do this. You may have liked it or parts of it or you may have hated it all, or a mixture of this. Your being baptized as a JW was not a choice, not like it is for converts. You were not necessarily searching for what the JWs claimed they had. This was probably expected of you. Leaving means leaving life as the only way you've known it. You are more likely to be done with all things religious after this because your only experience with religion was so distasteful. For all I know, it took you more courage and effort to leave than it did for someone like me.
You got a lot right here. We never had a choice to start with. We never learned anything different until we went out searching for it ourselves. Living with the expectation of baptism in order to be saved and that is the only choice offered... yeah it isn't really a choice. Unless you are denied the great privilege of getting baptized. I was denied. I didn't even get to answer the questions. I was a quiet unassuming introverted kid. And actually that was the beginning of the end for me. I passionately believed that my baptism was between me and Jehovah, and no man had the right to deny me that relationship, and so I went and got baptized without permission. Just went and did it. I knew a lot of kids that were refused that right, and most often because their parents were vocal critics of the organization. Yeah, that was my parents... even my annointed mom openly criticized the organization!
Leaving was hard. It was made much easier by the fact that I was already being shunned. I figured if you will shun me based on a rumor then I might as well be myself and give you a real reason to shun me. I'm not religious but I attend Quaker meetings. They kind of rock. You go, sit quietly and meditate on your own beliefs for about an hour. You don't have to become a member and they are transparent about everything they do. But yeah, most the kids I know that left also left behind religion. Although... my brother is Buddhist and my sister is a Quaker. So... maybe it was just us that don't fit the mold?
I don't think you can or should compare the ease or difficulty people have in leaving the cult. I don't think that something so completely individual and subjective can be compared, nor should it be. There is value and validity in every person's exit experience. How a person is effected is entirely dependent on too many variables to make any kind of just comparison.
I have one family member now, barely hanging on, in the group, no blood relation but married in. Saying goodbye for me was simple. I was not leaving behind my family. In fact leaving the Watchtower was the opposite. It was essentially coming back to the family, to support, to my culture. It was like coming back to life after being dead for a few years. I cannot imagine it being the other way around. How do you that?
One day at a time, just like with any other great loss.
Having more than TTATT vs Only Leaving Because You Know It's a Sham
I never really learned the TTATT. I didn't care. I still don't know it well. And I still don't care. The facts of the JW doctrine was never really very important to me. Getting baptized was about my love for and relationship with God. I knew there were contradictions in the writings but I didn't think the organization and God were the same thing and if they were, then it didn't matter because God would eventually sort it all out. When I left it wasn't about what was wrong with the doctrine. It was about what was wrong with the way the organization was treating people. It was about who I was and who I wanted to be versus who I had to be if I wanted to stay. It was about if I could live with myself if I sacrificed my own personal values which didn't coincide with organizational values. I didn't realize how bizarro and wrong the doctrine was until years after I had left. I find that people who converted to the JWs are far more fastidious about the doctrinal fallacies than those who were born into it, even though many born-ins also fall out because of TTATT.
You relatively new ones are probably tired of hearing this or maybe don't even understand it, but the religion I once belonged to died a while back
This is so true! I remember being a little kid and having to think up my own little speech to get the people at the doors to pay $0.50 for both the Watchtower and Awake! magazines... and who would want a Watchtower? Boring! The Awake! magazines were at least interesting back then. They had the weirdest articles. Train surfing. Look it up! I cannot imagine going to the door and asking someone to watch a video with me! So much more embarrassing! I had a hard enough time going way back when and having to talk but at least that made sense. I was 'witnessing' to them. I pity the people who have to do that now.
-
22
New to JWD, Hello!
by jwundubbed inmy story in a nutshell... .
scientist for a father; extremely mentally ill, 'annointed' mother.
was privy to and also suffered a lot of abuse.
-
-
jwundubbed
@ZAPPA-ESQUE,
I went into Huge depression in 2010 which took 30 agonising months to recover from and even now I have the craziest dreams which always involve some issue of entrapment within the cult
Thanks for the reminder! PTSD brought out the sleepwalker in me. Crazy dreams too. And I had always had crazy dreams to start with, so they just got crazier. But I like crazy dreams. Go figure!
@neat blue dog
Back on topic, I prefer to call you undub, it's just clever and unique.
Thanks!
@naazira & @LisaRose,
Thanks for the welcome!
-
18
Is this the best you have to offer. Trump / Clinton?
by Lostandfound inhere in uk we have appalling choice between cameron / corby and some also rans.
are trump/clinton best the worlds superpower can offer up?
all candidates for office seem to be flawed , are no genuine people putting themselves forward?
-
-
jwundubbed
I'm planning to do a write in.... I don't like either candidate and I refuse to vote for the lesser of two evils. Those are the only choices I have ever had as a voting American. I'm not yet sure who I will write in, but at least I will be voting for what I feel is right.