i feel like, i don't believe in the majority of what the gb teaches, but all of my friends and family are invested in this organization and i feel it would be easier on me to just play the part and continue going through the motions then try to leave right now.
is this taking the coward way out?.
i just feel like i wouldn't have much to look forward if i stepped away..
Just asking, but
if you stepped away, what would you feel?
how would this differ from what you now feel?
I have a favourite saying which always inspires me, it is, if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.
Think about it. You have the answer.
we live about half an hour from the kingdom hall.
we had some snow last night and the roads are a little "iffy".
i didn't want my 83 yo mother driving on her own so i brought her in and dropped her off.
How nice that you can still support your mum but yet stand by your own beliefs.
were you a sought after associate?.
were you often invisible?.
did other witnesses view you as "exemplary"?.
It was exemplary until I turned 18, pioneered through my final s hool exams and after, always on platform for field service experiences and usually had a part every assembly. It all changed at 18.
..... you to stop attending ?
injustices ?
disagree with the teachings ?
In my first year of high school we studied the reformation and I was impressed by how people fought for their beliefs, but jw were not mentioned and I knew from the meetings they only made an appearance in the late 1800's. I wondered how the only true religion survived such a religious revolution as I understood Jesus etc to be jw. the seeds of doubt were sown in the thirteen year old me. However, I couldn't talk about it or question it due to organisational culture, you just didn't do that. I went on to get baptised at 16 and began pioneering. I still didn't believe this was the true religion but the pull of family and friends kept me in. To cut a long story (very) short, in my mid twenties I da'd myself. Couldn't be happier, however my mum wouldn't have anything to do with me so I returned to the meeting and after what seemed a near eternity I was re-instated. However at the meeting when it was announced there was no love bombing, no support, no bible study, no one to buddy me up in field service. Nothing at all. So I stopped attending, guess what, nobody bothered. No-one called on me, invited me to the memorial, gave me a shepherding call. I was simply ignored. This was despite my next door neighbour being a ministerial servant, he knew where i was alright. I thought about the parable of the lost sheep and how far the shepherd would go to find that sheep and if this was the true religion, I would be found; well I wasn't and so therfore this isn't the true religion. The next contact I had was five years later when they knocked on my the door shortly after the birth of my first son, at last I thought, they have found me. Anyway they only came to tell me that if I didn't come back to meetings my son would have no mother after Armageddon. I was crying and really upset at this. Enough said.
I now have a lovely, peaceful life with a non jw husband who doesn't beat me black and blue and prevent me from talking to anyone who is male, including my dad I have two beautiful children who give me joy every day, dressing in their superhero fancy dress and embracing their imagination. And hey guess what, I have a career to!!
... I should have trusted my instinct thirty years ago.
i am looking for the reinstatement guidelines for someone who has been actively trying to get reinstated for 2 years and have put in a reinstatement letter 3x in those two years but was denied everytime.
are the elders just making an example of them, have they permenately been kicked out, or maybe these people dont want to come back and this story is part of their fade.. .
has anyone ever heard of people not getting reinstated.
I went to every single meeting, including the book study which was held at the hall, and after about nine months the jw got together and said they wouldn't reinstate me as I hadn't tried hard enough. Did they want me to go on fs or what?! Anyway six months later they reinstated me. I think they make up their own rules as they go along.
the following is a true experience and my daughter gojira101 will verify that it happened to her.
an experience from our family's past that still haunts me and started my questioning whether this is the true organization of god or not.. my daughter, who has always been a good kid, never gave us any problems [she's an adult now] started regular pioneering.
within a few weeks of her starting, she fell on a steep hill and tore open her knee and had to have several stitches.
That is such an awful experience to have, especially since pioneering is voluntary. Others have done far worse and never been marked.
I was not marked, but reproved for going on a night out with other young people from the congregation, they all went into a nightclub and I waited outside, with another single brother. We were both pioneers and our crime was being alone together. The rest of them that came out drunk got off scot free. Well, I've learned my lesson since then ... Always go into the club and enjoy yourself.
Interestingly the elder who reproved us ran off with his bible study a few months later and left his family devastated. bet he put his hours in. Just shows!!
now that you realise how idiotic some of the jw beliefs are/were, do you feel ashamed of how gullible you were to believe them?.
if anything my past as an adult jw makes me understand how easily manipulated people are by the people and environment around them.
and that even intelligent people can be influenced beyond what is rational..
Yes, I feel foolish that I fell for that rubbish. However as a born-in, there are so many things that you don't question and when you do have that lightbulb moment and you feel this is all wrong, you are taught to keep these to yourself otherwise it demonstrates a lack of faith or satanic influence. What it is is common sense and you are taught not to trust it. Yes, I did feel embarrassed about my connections to jws, always downplaying it.
i remember as a kid reading an article - not sure if watchtower or awake - which terrified the life out of me!
i remember thinking at the time "ok, this may be true, but i'm just a kid, i shouldn't be reading this!".
some of the details remain imprinted on my mind decades later.
The most enduring memory I have is that orange paradise book which had that picture of armageddon in it. I recall the fright on everyone's faces as the world fell to bits.
i remember as a kid reading an article - not sure if watchtower or awake - which terrified the life out of me!
i remember thinking at the time "ok, this may be true, but i'm just a kid, i shouldn't be reading this!".
some of the details remain imprinted on my mind decades later.
The most enduring memory I have is that orange paradise book which had that picture of armageddon in it. I recall the fright on everyone's faces as the world fell to bits.
so the local jc decided to df my girlfriend because of basically premarital sex.. she confessed few weeks back to the elders, and the judicial system had its wheels rolling.. they confronted her today, and eventually came to the conclusion described above.. .
she told them that she regretted our sexual acts, and that we wouldn't perform that kind of actions before we're married.. they talked with her about getting married etc.
a week before the jc.. now the reason they decided to df her was not the sexual acts itself, nor the lack of regret,.
They should only df unrepentant sinners, but when you get three guys in a room together all trying to judge repentance, they are easily swayed. My experience of jc's was that they got off on the detail. They ask far too many intimate and irrelevant questions. In time, I'm sure your gf will recognise her life begins when she leaves this cult.
