Hi Simon,
Happy to be able to speak to you for the first time. Yes, I would indeed like to have my posts swapped over to the "truman" screen name. Thanks a lot, and thanks too for this board for us to enjoy!
Truman/LMR
truman
JoinedPosts by truman
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5
Necessary change; my distressing situation
by LostMyReligion ini just need to let everyone know that i need to change my screen name.
if you read my topic on "help!
my son wants to tell elders about me", then you know that i had an email from a board friend inadvertantly get into my family mail box, and was discovered by my jw son while visiting.
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truman
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Escaped with my life!
by truman ini wanted to give an update to all those who kindly offered suggestions on how to deal with my jw son's ultimatum' "go tell the elders, or i will".. these last few days have been an intense crash course in life for me.
having experienced my firstborn son, whom i gave birth to, wiped his behind, dried his tears, and helped to grow to adulthood with loving support, threaten to turn me over to the "authorities" (elders) for wrong thinking and wrong speech, has been a deeply disturbing experience.
learning the truth about the "truth" was shocking, but this is just a crying tragedy.. after he found a short email from a board friend, which inadvertantly got into our regular email box instead of my private one, i was given a week to go to the elders.
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truman
I wanted to give an update to all those who kindly offered suggestions on how to deal with my JW son's ultimatum' "go tell the elders, or I will".
These last few days have been an intense crash course in life for me. Having experienced my firstborn son, whom I gave birth to, wiped his behind, dried his tears, and helped to grow to adulthood with loving support, threaten to turn me over to the "authorities" (elders) for wrong thinking and wrong speech, has been a deeply disturbing experience. Learning the truth about the "truth" was shocking, but this is just a crying tragedy.
After he found a short email from a board friend, which inadvertantly got into our regular email box instead of my private one, I was given a week to go to the elders. The note was not very, very incriminating, but problematic, containing a couple of cynical comments about the conv., and a reference to support discussions. This combined with what I had unwisely confided in him a few weeks earlier about my doubts, pumped up by recent convention exhortations about loyalty to Jehovah rather than to family, were an explosive combination.
Many here offered helpful insight and suggestions, and most importantly support which helped me feel a little less alone. I also recieved some invaluable guidance from a private correspondence with a reader of the board. I was advised how to get through it without losing everything. So I went pre-emptively to a kindly elder, told him of my depression, concern over the generation issue, and a little about the note, telling him that my son had given me the ultimatum. I tried to be as honest as I could without revealing anything really harmful. By going ahead of my son, I was able to control the information from the start. The elder was sympathetic, told me I needed to do more personal study, and tried to comfort my fears. At this point, I am cautiously optimistic that it will go no further.
Having to deal with my son in this adversarial manner is very hard, but after seeing how he has chosen to treat me, and some of the things he did, I am more firmly resolved to protect myself from future incursions of his zealousness. Not only did he read an email addressed to me in my home, he made a copy of it, and showed it to an elder friend in another cong. (This one said he would take no action, but let my son handle it.) Then he had the nerve to tell me he was put off by the blunt way I asked for it to be returned as my property. I told him, I was pretty put off by what he had done. I tried to pacify him by telling him a little of the elder conference, but he did not seem very satisfied. I think he was expecting me to get in a lot more trouble. He expressed the thought that he did not think everything got told. I said what did he want, me DF'd, He said no, he wanted me to go back the way I was before.
We tried to make peace, but things are somewhat strained. There is now a level of distrust which I know is more or less permanent, not only of him for me, but me of him as well. Anyway I have to be very careful, so I needed to go back to the "Truman" screen name I used when I briefly posted a couple of months ago. We also changed our password on the computer, so he no longer has access. What a shame to have to deal so with beloved family members! Even my husband who is still basically a believer, though long inactive, was pretty appalled by the way my son acted. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and I see now his is a WT wasteland.
Truman (Tru-wo-man) (formerly LMR)
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Poor JW children again (touching a sore tooth)
by Mommie Dark ini've been reading the thread about children and brooding over the whole issue of kids-n-cults for a couple of days now.
yesterday i had to outwait a group of immovable amish youth blocking the doorway out of the local grocery store(to many local amish, 'english' are generally invisible unless they want to sell us something.
), and they got mixed into the brain stew with the jw kids and the recent moral self-righteousness of certain jw posters here.
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truman
Mommie Dark mentions the Paradise book. I have always been appalled at that book. My first encounter with it was at about age 14 or so when the JW mother of one of my mom's friends gave me one. Being the kind of person who always starts reading at the back of the book, it did not take long to come across the horrifying depictions on pg 208-209 and the accompanying quotes from Zachariah about eyes and tongues rotting out. I did not become a witness for more than 5 more years and in another city, but the memory of that book has always disturbed me. Also,after talking to me a couple of times about such things as evolution and miracles, this woman told my mother (who told me) that I was an example of the failure of the American school system. I should have hung on tighter to these bits of info, but my mother died when I was eighteen, and I was in distress over that, when I learned all the "answers" from JW. Now it is almost 30 years later.
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I hope this is a friendly place
by truman ini hope this is a friendly place, because i could sure use some friends.
this is my first try at posting on a discussion board, though i have been lurking here and at a few others on the same subject for a few weeks now.
about 4 weeks ago i took the plunge and decided to see just what all the mystery and danger of reading "apostate" material was all about.
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truman
Thanks larc and riz. I sometimes am a reasonably intelligent and sane person. But fear and paranoia founded or unfounded, that is where I am at this moment. I appreciate the encouragement, and of course you are right. By the way, just to clear up any confusion which may be caused due to my user name, I am of the female persuasion. I chose the name Truman because I identified so strongly with the movie character in the Jim Carrey movie, "The Truman Show".I see so many reflections of my present struggle in that story. I was not trying to be fooling anyone. Sorry if there was any misunderstanding.
Truman
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I hope this is a friendly place
by truman ini hope this is a friendly place, because i could sure use some friends.
this is my first try at posting on a discussion board, though i have been lurking here and at a few others on the same subject for a few weeks now.
about 4 weeks ago i took the plunge and decided to see just what all the mystery and danger of reading "apostate" material was all about.
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truman
Thanks, Patio34. I have not revealed anything to him yet, and am trying to keep on as much of an even keel as I can for as long as I can. I am scared stiff, about everything. Right now it is the middle of the night and I cannot sleep from worrying that I have revealed too much in my messages here and that somehow it will boomerang on me. I came in to edit and delete things I was too worried about. Someone mentioned a rollercoaster. How do I get off this thing? I feel like I have become what the WT says, something evil that complains and beats his brothers. It is all very distressing.
Truman
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child exploitation?
by truman infirst, thanks all who welcomed me to this board.
i appreciate your kindness.
i am kind of shy, and fearful, but my keyboard makes me powerful!
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truman
First, thanks all who welcomed me to this board. I appreciate your kindness. I am kind of shy, and fearful, but my keyboard makes me powerful! I have so many things I want to say, discuss, thrash out, complain about. I hope that I don't try everyone's patience in case this is ground you have all covered before. I will start with this one.
Has the aspect of child exploitation in field service ever bothered anyone as much as it does me? By this I mean playing on the fact that many householders are charmed into taking literature from neatly dressed, cute, scripture-quoting, Watchtower-offering young children. (Even as young as 5 years old.) Mostly this is done with parents or others looking on silently, but at times kids are sent to the door without adults (who may keep an eye out from the car).
I remember once as a child myself, and not a JW, having a witness child come to my door alone while his parents sat in the car at the curb. I was extremely disturbed for him at the time, and never really got over it. I hated having to practice this with my own children, and did it as little as possible, even though I was told that I was denying them the opportunity to express their faith. They, the kids did not seem as bothered by it as I was though. I never was very comfortable with it though. Is this just a personal hang-up on does anyone have similar feelings?
Truman
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Elders' Gems of Wisdom
by stephenw20 inmy dad asked the co about this one.
mat 27:52-53. and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, .
and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
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truman
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after so long....
by 30years inthis is my first post in any network such as this.
i have been "lurking" around the "apostate" sites for the last year or so.
i am glad i have!
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truman
Hi 30years,
I just made my first post today too. It has also been nearly 30 years for me. I do not know where I am going, but I cannot go back. At least not in my thinking and knowledge, although I will have to go back to the KH probably for some time. I have good days and bad days. Right now, the difficult ones are prevailing, as I am caught in a nether world of neither in nor out. Having an outlet to speak about my concerns, even one I just began tonight has already lifted my spirits. I hope it will do the same for you.
Truman -
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I hope this is a friendly place
by truman ini hope this is a friendly place, because i could sure use some friends.
this is my first try at posting on a discussion board, though i have been lurking here and at a few others on the same subject for a few weeks now.
about 4 weeks ago i took the plunge and decided to see just what all the mystery and danger of reading "apostate" material was all about.
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truman
Thank you all for your kind words of welcome! Patio34- I am glad someone(you) got my movie references. Zev, I have the book you mentioned on order to arrive any day, along with several others. I am also reading R. Franz' 2nd book "Christian Freedom" , and have spent many many hours reading online as well. I am sure you are all correct in saying that gradually is the way to go. I have to work on it. I would very much like to tell my story as Zev suggested, as I have found writing to be very theraputic. Please excuse the newbie dumb questions, but do I do something like that in "Main" or is there someplace else that is better etiquette-wise.
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I hope this is a friendly place
by truman ini hope this is a friendly place, because i could sure use some friends.
this is my first try at posting on a discussion board, though i have been lurking here and at a few others on the same subject for a few weeks now.
about 4 weeks ago i took the plunge and decided to see just what all the mystery and danger of reading "apostate" material was all about.
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truman
Greetings!
I hope this is a friendly place, because I could sure use some friends. This is my first try at posting on a discussion board, though I have been lurking here and at a few others on the same subject for a few weeks now. About 4 weeks ago I took the plunge and decided to see just what all the mystery and danger of reading "apostate" material was all about. It was a "revelation"! In just about 2 hours of reading, mainly at the Freeminds site, almost 30 years of "faith" evaporated before my eyes. I had taken the red pill. The curtain had been pulled aside, so that instead of the great and powerful, I percieved only a funny little old man pulling my levers. I was stunned and am still reeling. Most days I barely make it through. And I am in agony about what to do about my son. The one who always did just the right thing and what was expected of him. The one who pioneered out of highschool, went to Bethel, and is now a MS in our cong. I have a BOOK STUDY IN MY HOME! My best friend is the presiding overseer's wife. Where do I go from here?