Posts by Sirona

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

Sirona

Honestly,

I have met more spiritual people OUTSIDE of the JWs than inside of it.

I've met, in the 8 years since leaving, people whose bible knowledge puts the JWs to shame. I'm not kidding. There are people out there who know so much more about the bible than JWs do. Some of them accept Jehovah as Gods name and they preach to others (but not door to door usually).

I've also met really spiritual non-Christians. People whose lives are truly about giving to others. They spend time each week giving to others and doing things for others. There are people like that on this board, but of course they don't advertise it because they are not like JWs (they don't need to prove themselves to everyone else, theirs is a relationship between them and god). Some spend hours and hours doing healing and prayer for those who are ill. Some give up their time to do charity work or community projects.

These are the people you need to be around. These are the people you need to copy if you want any fulfillment in life.

I'm only just learning this myself but I will tell you for certain that the JWs are a spiritual wasteland. It is really ridiculous to imagine that God, in 1919, did an inspection of religions and chose the bible students! Its even more ridiculous to suggest that he continues to approve of them - the religion with a sordid history of false prophyseys, destroyed lives and families, abused children and a trail of blood behind them which is always covered up! They don't even follow their own rules and beg for forgiveness for the millions of people they have hurt.

You just need to make the effort to find people out there who are truly spiritual. You might not find them in the first Christian church you visit, either.

Sirona

65

KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE between what is real and what isn't.

by Terry in

the reality of our life stands in stark contrast to the imagined.. we can imagine whatever we like.

but, life intrudes.

and, by life--i mean the unavoidably real events we cannot wish away.. each of us is capable of avoiding unpleasant thoughts.

Sirona

You have a point, Terry, but I disagree with this:

Our world view, our belief system, our sense of how the world works can only come to us in two distinct ways:
1.We are alert. We focus our senses. We ask questions and demand provable answers. We test things. We remain skeptical. We refuse to choose hearsay over testable facts.
or
2.We refuse to investigate beyond our comfort zone. We only read what reinforces our prejudices and opinions. We don't list to counter argument; only prepare our rebuttal. We accept our peer group's opinions. We operate on ideology. We go along to get along. We buy in to feel-good opinion. We embrace the supernatural. We tickle our ears with New Age mysticism. We readily gravitate toward the mysterious and the unexplainable and cozy up to the unprovable and titillating side of things.

No, it isn't just down to two options. A person can be somewhere between these two. There are a million shades of colour in between.

For instance, everyone knows that I am pagan and I believe in some things which are considered to be "supernatural". Does this mean that I am NEVER skeptical? No. Does it mean that I NEVER read scientific books? No. Does it mean that I never investigate beyond my comfort zone? No.

I read quite widely. Some books I read are about spirituality. Some are information - history, science, philosophy. I have read Carl Sagan. I have read Stephen Hawkins. I have read Dion Fortune, Freud, Oliver Sacks, Richard Dawkins.

I don't fit into your neat little categories. I am fairly well educated, I accept evolution as fact, but I have spirituality which allows me to believe in something extra (an afterlife, for instance).

Sorry to burst your two rather restrictive bubbles.

Sirona

98

Torn between being Gay and the Truth.........

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

is there anything worse than this?

sometimes it is ok, other times it sucks.

Sirona

If JWs are "the truth" this means that Jehovah God is going to soon destroy 99% of mankind.

Only JWs and possibly a handful of other people will be living to watch the birds eat everyone else's corpses.

Then in the new system, Jehovah will tyranically make sure that noone steps out of line (no individuality, no true freedom) AND will subject humans to another test of Satan (I wonder if that one will last the same length of time as the last test since adam?)

To be really honest with you, I do not want to be in this "new system" and I certainly don't want to serve such a god.

Back when I had doubts and wondered "is it the truth?" this reasoning finally freed me. Nowadays after researching I know that it is not the truth.

Sirona

24

disfellowshiped jw's relationship

by vat152 in

hi all i'm new to this so be patient with me please.. i'm not a jw and never will be but my partner is although she was disfelllowshiped some years ago for adultry with someone other than me which jed to a divorce from her husband (who is still a jw), this happpened about 8 years ago, she then went into a relationship which turned violent and abusive, this ended a couple of years ago.. i met her just over 12 months ago and fell head over heals in love with her and i have proposed to her and we are due to be married in july this year, we have a good relationship except for one thing, the bedroom activities.

she tells me that it makes her feel dirty and cheap and refuses to put her arms around me unless i am covered up with clothes or the quilt, any type of skin contact is a no no, we do occassionaly make love but she hates it.. the thing i want to clear up is this, she is devout about the religion and the wt although she doesn't attend any meetings.

i am led to believe that if a disfellowshiped jw shows repent they are allowed back into the kingdom hall, i know that she would like to be allowed back into the religion, do you think that she is trying to show repent by not making any skin contact with me whilst we are out of wedlock?.

Sirona

JWs don't see the difference between the Watchtower and God because they think that the "society" (Watchtower society) is Gods mouthpiece on earth and they are the only ones who teach the "truth". This is why she denies being bothered about the watchtower and just says she is trying to serve god. For her, serving god is going back to the JWs (Watchtower) because they're the only ones with the truth.

As for sex. I hate to say this but have you considered that if she didn't have this JW dilemma (these feelings of guilt) she wouldn't actually be marrying you ? She might be wanting to get legally married JUST to be able to continue the relationship with you and have sex with you without guilt......and not because she is 100% sure of the marriage itself. Also if she is married she can go back to the hall and they will let her back in....but they would NOT let her back in if she was not married to you. Please don't be annoyed at this suggestion. I have known EX JWS who have had boyfriends and live with those boyfriends and even though they don't TRULY want to marry the guy they still talk about marrying them just so that they can be approved of by the JWs or their JW family.

So if she is faced with either leaving you or marrying you, she will pick marrying you even if she isn't really sure.

Sirona

2

Blood Info.

by Outaservice in

jw
friends

what is the web-site that deals with jw's & the blood issue?

a doctor wants to know.. outaservice (post here or pm me).

thanks.

Sirona

www.ajwrb.org

30

No Bible = No God ???

by Sirona in

jw
friends

something has gotten on my nerves a bit recently.

there are numerous discussions regarding the validity of the bible which usually result in the following:.

* an exjw who has doubts about the bible concludes there is no god .

Sirona

Dave,

I agree that the argument depends largely upon what we mean when we say "God".

Thanks for your clarifications.

Xena, I assumed you were still a bible believer, for some reason. You post made sense

Sirona

33

What makes a 'true' christian?

by Caedes in

there are some very sensible christians on this board and some that are not so sensible, what i dont understand is why there isn't more protest when the likes of real one and hibiscusfire claim to know what makes a 'real' christian.

it annoys me and i'm not even a theist, a recent thread on a bible topic had a christian claiming that the bible was worthless unless you believe it to be infallible.

apart from insulting the study of the bible as an important part literary history it also undermines the perfectly valid faith of a majority of christians whose view of the bible isn't so blinkered.. i suppose it is not much different from people claiming that they know what my morals are because i'm an atheist.. what does everyone else think of this kind of fundamentalist thinking.

Sirona

Real one said Christianity is "love one another"...

Well so many other religions have this rule that you cannot identify christians by it. Pagans show love to others.

IMHO a "christian" is someone who believes in the salvation of Jesus Christ - that he is needed to save mankind and a Christian puts faith in this.

I must say, I've met and spoken to some Christians who are indefinable from Pagans except for a kind of afterthought about God choosing them or something. It doesn't make any sense to me. I really think that some of these individuals don't have the backbone to actually choose paganism (or some other faith) and for many reasons (social, psychological) they have to still cling to Christianity and saying publically that they are christian.

Some of these individuals even say they don't really believe in the bible. They reject it, but somehow still think that Christ is their saviour. My argument here is - how would you know anything at all about Jesus if not for that book? And these are people who go to church and have the community thinking they are a "good christian".

Sirona

31

Why can't US witnesses wish "good luck"?

by kifoy in

i've often read here on jwd that a jw can't wish someone "good luck".

i've searched this forum and i've searched the wt library, but i have not been able to find anything.

can someone please explain why?

Sirona

I'm in UK and we were not allowed to say "good luck" or Bless you

31

Has the Org gone witch-hunting those who are gone, but not Dfd?

by cyber-sista in

hey it's been awhile since i've left--almost 5 years now!

i haven't visited this site for quite a while now.

i was never dfd, but i have little contact with anything to do with jws.

Sirona

Let's not start any lynch mob rumors.

Many on this forum can testify that a few years back (3? 4? I cant remember exactly) there was a "push" among the JWs to visit those who were inactive.

At the time, some inactive ones were asked to confirm to two elders that they "no longer consider themselves Jehovahs Witnesses" and then those two elders took this statement as a disassociation.

At the time I wondered how true this was, until local elders asked to see me....I refused. I'd already been out for about 3 years.

Does anyone else remember this?

Sirona

30

No Bible = No God ???

by Sirona in

jw
friends

something has gotten on my nerves a bit recently.

there are numerous discussions regarding the validity of the bible which usually result in the following:.

* an exjw who has doubts about the bible concludes there is no god .

Sirona

Much of the Civilized world promotes a top down, hierarchical view of the Universe, basically systems of domination and control justified by the concept of theism. The gods of the worlds major religions seem more preoccupied with maintaining the established social order while pacifying the masses with promises of heaven, paradise, or nirvana.

It seems easy for you to stick all religions into one basket. There are many religions which do not have this top down idea - and their god is nothing like the one you suggest.

You ask "why should i?" well I'd suggest you should because you need to educate yourself.

Sirona