I'm sorry to hear about your child. I have two young boys. And I thank God that I never had to deal with any thing, such as the blood issue when I was a JW. Because at the time, I probley would have done what the org told me to do.
Tammie
JoinedPosts by Tammie
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9
Child Sacrifices
by XAPITI inwhere do i begin?
i have a problem here.
because of the teachings i had from a very young age, i refused to take a shot with blood in it.
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14
some fall photos
by crittersitter inwanted to share some fall pix...a few days ago i took these...now the leaves are gone..... .
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Tammie
I like those photos. Here in Kansas the trees are also turning very pretty colors. In my front yard, though I have a walnut tree. And this year it produced ALOT. So I have been raking up walnut for the past few weeks. My husband says that I am waisting my time. But he did not see what I saw. I have a 3 year old who like to eat the green part. YUCK. A while back I noticed that when the green part turns black, it gets these worms. So I told my husband that, and he still said that I was waisting my time raking up all them walnuts. He said because more will drop. So I told him, then I guess it is a waist of my time to clean the house, do the laundry, do the laundry. Because they would just get messed up again. He said I see your point. lol
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So Will This Be Your First Christmas?
by Englishman infunny how the prospect of christmas takes me back to my pre-dub days as a 7 year old.
christmas eve was spent making my present request list, duly guided by both my parents as to what to ask for.
once completed, the coal fire was stoked up and the precious list was allowed to be carried up the chimney where waiting elves promptly delivered my requests to santa.
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Tammie
Yes this will be my first christmas. YEA. I have started already by putting up some of the outdoor lights. I want to do it good, and I don't want to deal with the very cold air. But I do plan on making it a BIG deal this year. In two weeks my husband and I are buying an artifical prelited tree. We are really looking forward to it.
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Stupid things that happened as a Witness...
by ballistic inanyone got any stupid questions they were asked or things that happened as a witness?.
when i was at school, a kid asked me "if you don't celebrate birthdays, how do you know how old you are?".
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Tammie
I guess the most HATEFUL thing that was said to me when I was a JW. My husband had committed adultry with the next door woman, (I was pregnate with our second child at the time). I went to my mom and talked to her about it. This is what she told me to do. "Since you are the chirstan here, you need to go over and talk with that other woman, to take the bad light off of Jehovah's orgization." I never done that, because I wanted to kill that neiborly woman.
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Staying awake during the Watchtower study
by drahcir yarrum inhere's a question i always wanted answered during the years i was a witness.
what's the best way to stay awake during the watchtower study?
oh, furthermore, what's the best way to stay awake during any witness "snooze-a-thon" brainwashing session?
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Tammie
Heck, I never tried to hid the fact that I was bord. Use to embaris my mom to no ends. But I would konk out right during the meeting. Some times I would get smacked on the back of my head. But I remeber this one time, after I was married and pregnant with my first child. My husband and I was sitting by my mom and sisters at a district convention (6 months pregnant). I would fall asleep during the convention. My mom would try to get my husband to wake me up. And being the good guy at the time would not wake me up. So my mom would try, and he told her to back off. He said, "Don't you dare wake her up, she is quiet, and she needs her rest."
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8
My story
by Tammie inbut let me now tell you of my story.
just remember this, and i will come back to it later in my story.. in 1993, i got married to my husband.
that was my husband's doing.
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Tammie
For me the Jehovah's Witnesses faith was all I have ever known. And what ever your parents say, as a child you will take it at face value. But let me now tell you of my story. Around 1974, when I was 5, my mother became a Jehovah's Witness. And I would hear her say, things like Armageddon would happen before I started school. I started school in 1975. She honestly believed it. She had a cousin that studied with her, and showed her topics such as the hell fire doctrine, and the trinity doctrine. Those were two things she had a hard time dealing with when she went to church. So I am growing up, my mother is a Jehovah's Witness and my father.....well he never became one, but he backed up my mother.
During the course of time, I eventually get two more sisters added on to my family. And also my mother was inactive part of the time, but she was faithful all that time on not celebrating the holidays, or anything that went against the JW rules. So eventually in 1987, I got baptized, no pressure to do it. My mom always said when we get baptized it was up to us. I have always been thankful for that.
In the following year, right out of high school, I went into the full time ministry, called pioneering. In 1989, I started to work with a building crew to help in building of Kingdom Halls. I would have to say that both of those gave me a good learning experience on how to handle the bible. Also that really helped with my people skills. Before I did those things, I was a terribly shy person. I was so shy, that I would get pains from talking to people. So you can see why that was a good experience for me.
But this where things get a little odd for me. Even though I was doing all I could for Jehovah's organization, I was always plagued with guilt over miner little things. Oh, it is nothing you would get disfellowshipped for. But I always felt like I was not worthy of God's love, and no matter how hard I would work. I just did not feel worthy of survival into God's new system. Just remember this, and I will come back to it later in my story.
In 1993, I got married to my husband. We got married at the Kingdom Hall. And I like to call this point the beginning of the end for me. After I got married to my husband, I learned that he only got baptized because his parents forced him into it. It was either get baptized or get kicked out of home. So at 18 he got baptized, because he was not ready to leave the nest.
I have had my mother ask me if I asked the elders about him. Yes, as a good JW Christian that I did. This is what happened when I talked to his elders (before we was married). I had asked the elders if he was in good standing in the congregation, and this is what they told me. Yes, he is in good standing. He goes to almost all the meetings, he goes out in service on a regular basis, and he does other things for the congregation. Well, I learned what they told me was all LIES. They also lied to his dad, who was concerned about him. He was inactive, the whole time we were dating.
So after we got married, I moved into that congregation. BIG MISTAKE!! This certain congregation does not except outsiders. They even had this rep back in the 1950's. I tired to be a good Christian, and over look all this. I thought, well it must be me, because I am a newlywed. I was never so wrong. We moved away, but in the course of time we ended up in this congregation 3 times. That was my husband's doing. And really it was not his fault, because he worked in that town. And the car we had at the time was always breaking down.
Every time we moved into this congregation things just got worse. I think it was because I had told the Circuit Overseer about them. They were always picking on me, about little things. To give you an example. At the time my oldest was just a new born, and cried a lot I would do my best such as taking the child to the second school, or to the bathroom. But this one day, I decided to sit in the back row, my child was being quiet this day. And he made some of those baby cooing sounds. Not loud mind me, it was on the soft side. This elder picked up my bags, and took my belongings to the second school. He told me that I had no business being in the main hall. So I went back there with tears in my eyes. I was so angry at him. Told my husband (at that time he was not there with me), I won't go back there again. But I did about 2 years later. But this time, it was my husband who was the one who got chewed out. This time our second child had come along. But our oldest was being very good. Oh granted we could not keep him in his seat, but we were in the back row, and he was quiet. This time the elders escorted my husband out of the hall. They came back in, but my husband and son was gone. After the meeting he came back for me. What had happen, there was another child in the hall who was making sounds and our son got blamed for it. To make a long story short....My husband told them to blank off. He had enough. That was just two examples of what we were dealing with.
And we had other problems, in other congregations, but I won't be going into that. By now we both were getting as you would call, very "spiritually weak". In fact, religion had taken a back seat. Except for the times I would get a phone call from my mother nagging about going to the meeting. Then I would go to a meeting or two, just to get her off my back. I got letters from mom, and one of my sisters telling me how I would die at Armageddon, unless I started going to all the meetings again. Those letters would make me angry and put me in tears.
My children hated it whenever we did go. They would cry, scream, and fight just so they would not have to go. I would drag them to the meetings at times, kicking and screaming all the way. And we are talking about preschoolers. As I thought about this, there had to be something very wrong. Because children can pick up things that are wrong, even when adults can't.
Remember earlier, I talked about how I did not feel worthy of God's love. This is where things start to take a turn. I decided to go against what the Watchtower said, and I went to the Internet. I read story after story of those who came out of the organization. And I felt like that they was talking about me. I noticed how you can stop at one story, and pick up at another story, and it would sound like one person telling their story. My Story. All those years in the organization, the Jehovah's Witnesses said "Don't read apostate information, you are just reading lies. I was going against what they were telling me to do. I decided to be on the safe side, I would read what they said against the organization, and then read it in the Watchtower, and other publications put out by New York. It was all true. I could not believe my eyes, and what I was reading.
By now I was so confused, and fortunately for me I found several web sites dealing with encouragement of leaving the organization. I talked to my husband and showed him what I was learning. I was not sure how he would take it. But to my amazement, he was in agreement, only after he saw the proof.
I then started to get into the Bible. By now, I did not even trust the New World Translation, so I got a NIV Bible. So I compared the two a lot. And learned that the organization even changed up some of the wordings in the Bible. One of the biggest changes was the word exercises when it should say believe. Here are some scriptures if you want to see it for your self: John 3:16, John 6:40, Romans 10:9,10,13
At Ephesians 2:8,9 it says, "By this undeserved kindness, indeed, you have been saved through faith; and this not owning to you, it is God's gift. 9 No, it is not owing to works, in order that no man should have ground for boasting." So you can see how it is God's gift to us, and a gift is free.
But then some one would say James 2:26 where it talks about faith without works is dead. But if you go up and read verses 14-25, It is talking about giving them the necessities of clothing and feeding those who are lacking. How Abraham was going to offer up his son Isaac in an offering to God, and how Rahab hid the two spies. So that scripture is talking about good deeds.
And the last scripture that really got me to thinking about the changes over the years in the organization is Deuteronomy 18: 21, 22 How shall we know that Jehovah actually said it. He tells us that if a prophet says something is going to happen and it doesn't happen. God tells us not to worry, because he told us not to get frightened of that person. Now mind me I just paraphrased it, so you will need to read it yourself. Now, just think of all the times Jehovah's Witnesses said something was going to happen and it did not.
I have been saved, and my faith in the Lord is stronger than ever. And if you are wondering, since then I have told my children that we will be going to Church and not the Kingdom Hall. At first they was not sure, because of the unknown, but after the first day of Church they love it. Their interest in spiritual things have started to bloom. As far as my husband we are going through this spiritual journey together. We are finally united as a family serving God.
My brother-in-law learned that my husband and I were going to church. He said that he would tell everyone, and that we would get disfellowshipped. He was very rude, and cussed a lot at us. Any how, I don't know about you, but I like to have some control over my life. So we told him that we was going to DA ourselves. And that made him even madder. So announcement was made from the elders and that is that. My mom said that I am now dead to her, and I am going to loose out on my family. But for some reason, I am not that sad now. I was at first. I am now having relatives that I have not seen in a long time calling me up (they are not JW's) and now telling me that I can be part of their family now. They understand the JW shunning and stuff. In fact I have an uncle who is a Baptist preacher who wants to help me through my trials. I do believe that God is watching over my family and me, and telling me not to worry. He will make up for what I have lost, with something better. I am already seeing it. I am praying that he will allow my JW relatives to see the real truths of the Bible, as he has allowed for me. I pray that one day, they will get saved as I have. I am not angry at them; my aunt says that they are fooled by the devil. Who can appear as an angel of light.
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Anyone ever wanna do this during a meeting?
by Stiffy injust jump up on stage, rip off your suit to reveal a punk rocker out fit.
pull out yer guitar... and play stairway to heaven?
durring the middle of an assembly, jump out of your seat, fly around the auditorium screaming , "satan is my king!
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Tammie
Well I never thought about flying around the hall. But I did have a dream that I was naked at the meeting and giving a talk. Then I woke up, then I went back to sleep. Then I dreamed that every ones else was naked. Scary. lol
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Questions for our brand 'Newbies'
by LDH incould you please tell us all how long you lurked before you decided to join us?.
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and if i missed anyone, i'm sorry.
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Tammie
It is not really how long I have been "lurking", but how many times I read the post. I guess I would be about the 6th time I came to this site.
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No Natural Affection
by radar inreliance on the watchtower for understanding, often lead to uncertainty in the congregation of jws, as to what is acceptable behaviour and what is not.. example: some years ago i recall one sister who was troubled by the fact, that she, had happened upon her daughter while out visiting with friends one day.
it troubled her(conscience) because she wasnt sure if she should have spoken to her or not.
her daughter was dissfellowshiped.
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Tammie
I find it very intresting how the JW's are so quick to say things like lack of natural affection when they hear of stories in the news, such as abortion or such. But they don't apply it to themselves when they shun their family members. I don't see any difference when a mother aborts her baby and when a mother will tell her child, "You are now dead to me." When she or he chooses to leave that orgization. (That happen to me with my own mother.) The last letter I got from my mom, was sighned, "From the woman who gave birth to you." And the last thing she ever said to me was, "I don't need no bible reason for shunning, I would do it any way."
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Up comming assembly
by Tammie inhi, i have read some of the post in this site, and i find it intresting.
but this is my first time posting here.
i have had come across this question in another webb site.
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Tammie
Hi, I have read some of the post in this site, and I find it intresting. But this is my first time posting here. I have had come across this question in another webb site. According to them there is an assembly comming up in October. I don't know the date, but it will be held on the same day all around the earth. All congerations will be going to it, in different locations. I was raised in the JW org. since I was 5 (1975) and have just receintly left the org. Now in all the time I was in it, I don't remember them ever doing anything (other than memoral) like this. Does any one know why they are doing this? Because in the circuit I was in, up till just a couple of months ago this was not even planned. So I know that this is something fairly current.