well, i might have went a little too far this time, but when someone pushes me, i push back, that's just the way i am.. my parents worst saying, and was probaly one of the reasons that i left jw land was ..................."the worst person at the kingdom hall is better than the best person in the world.".
if i had a dollar for everytime i heard that growing up.. so, i asked my mom if she still felt that way, she said sort of (very carefully), i said so the jw child molesters are still better then people in the world, is that how you really feel ?
she started to cry, before it was the media just making up stories, now i think she is realizing that "some" of these stories are true.. she asked me why i hate the jw's so much.. i said i don't hate the jw's, i hate the organization and the lies.
Don't know if this qualifies but we had to call Lucky Charms: Fortunate Trinkets or they wouldn't buy any.
ROFL!!!!!! This reminds me of the verbal gynastics I perpetrated upon my children, in my loyal JW days. To avoid the stigma of speaking the proper appelation of those crunchy Chinese cookies called Fortune Cookies, I told my poor gullible little kids that they were 'message cookies' and that is what they called them for many years. One knows better now. ;) The other is still a JW. :(
there was only one person from sacramento who responded.
i am asking is there anyone out there from sacto who meets together and comfort each other from the abuse we lived through from the jw org.
wow, only one person.
Mole.....I live in the Modesto/Stockton area.
blondies post on an earlier thread re the gate crashers at the assemblies running to "save" the best seats got me to thinking..
just what constitutes a "good seat" at an assembly?
i've never quite understood that.
For my taste, the higher the better. Our family invariably went for the rafters.....right up against the ceiling if possible. Usually is was uncrowded up there, so you could spread out and the kids had plenty of room, possibly even a spot for them to spread a blanket and lie down in the afternoons, if you were lucky. It was usually dimmer up there, so you had more privacy, if you decided to close your eyes as well. You could munch on snacks without getting dirty looks from your neighbors, since most of the other inhabitants were little knots of giggling teenagers, and no one was glancing to see if you were following along in your Bible or WT. Sure the 'actors' in the dramas were the size of ants, but that just made it easier to watch their bad overacting without groaning at the insipid quality of it all. There was air to breathe that wasn't preheated by the jammed together bodies of the crowds down below.
What I really hated, was at a couple of the last conventions I attended, they actually closed off all the upper sections, forcing people to cram themselves knee to chin, in the lower sections, then after the start of the program, and everyone was seated, they began to open up some of the closed areas to accomodate latecomers. That just made me mad!
in one of metatron's insightful posts, a phrase jumped out at me.
he described a jw as having joined the religion in an act of repentance from a life of experiment in:.
sex, drugs, spiritism, and alcohol.. i guess i am feeling really rebellious tonight, because the thought came to me that i too have experienced a transformation, a conversion, and have truly repented.
Thanks all for your replys! Hey there teejay!
Cathy, although my original post was mostly supposed to be funny, some of the things you have 'repented' of are far more important, and I concur. I also repent of the narrow minded judgmentalism I had as a JW, and I repent of falling into the trap of thinking that the universe, and whatever creative force is its maker are so small that they could be defined by the legalistic and destruction oriented doctrines of the WT.
Smack...how's that repenting going?
in one of metatron's insightful posts, a phrase jumped out at me.
he described a jw as having joined the religion in an act of repentance from a life of experiment in:.
sex, drugs, spiritism, and alcohol.. i guess i am feeling really rebellious tonight, because the thought came to me that i too have experienced a transformation, a conversion, and have truly repented.
In one of Metatron's insightful posts, a phrase jumped out at me. He described a JW as having joined the religion in an act of repentance from a life of experiment in:
sex, drugs, spiritism, and alcohol.
I guess I am feeling really rebellious tonight, because the thought came to me that I too have experienced a transformation, a conversion, and have truly repented.
The difference is, that I have repented of a life spent in a peculiar sort of JW excess. I repent of a miserably narrow and unhappy JW sex life, of rejecting any and all of nature's herbal consciousness enhancers without so much as a trial run of personal experimentation,....I repent of labeling any spirituality but JWism as 'spiritism', and refusing to consider its time tested and practical value, and I repent of never knowing what it felt like to be actually intoxicated.
Yes, I have seen the light, and it is wonderful new light! And yes, brothers and sisters, not only have I repented, but I have carried out works befitting my repentance. Life is good!
i was starting to worry.
i dont post much but i usually check the site daily.
oh well, its nice to be here.. terry
Sorry, Gumby.......I would love to be from that area, but I am in the 'Big Valley', not too far from Stockton.
i was starting to worry.
i dont post much but i usually check the site daily.
oh well, its nice to be here.. terry
I live in Northern CA....central valley
how can anyone with more than a handful of neurons maintain confidence in the watchtower organization?.
as dumbing down of the organization deepens, together with stubborn rejection of compassion and good sense, the .
pressure on capable, half-way sane witnesses is intensifying.
Metatron,
This is a subject that really hits close to home for me. Despite some occasional evidence otherwise, I do like to consider myself a reasonably intelligent and aware person, even as a JW for the bulk of my adult life. I am well familiar with several of the tricks of mental gymnastics that you outlined from the thinking people with whom you have contact. It is a sad state of mind to be required to maintain in order to feel like you are 'with the program', a faithful sister/brother.
One of the most powerful mental pushes anyone gave me in the months before I finally woke up from the dream (or was it a nightmare) and left the Witnesses, was an off hand remark a sister made to me. I had been talking to her about my son's increasing distance from the JW mindset, and how he had several issues he had been thinking deeply about.
She said, "he's such a smart kid", and then told me that she had heard it said that it is difficult for really intelligent people to stay in the 'truth'. Now she herself, is not an especially deep thinker, but that casual comment went to my core. Why on earth would the god of everything, the ultimate intelligence in the universe, make stupidity, credulity, and gullibility not only a saturating feature of his one true avenue of approach, but almost a requirement to remain in its confines?
That just made no sense to me at all, and it rattled around in my brain for several months, till I finally found freeminds.org one day, and I understood at last the answer to my question. Wouldn't "God" want his human creations to use every ounce of their birthright of intelligence to understand Him, the universe, the world around them, the things they believe, rather than deny the obvious results of that thinking ability.......Yes, I decided. I could, I did, I left.
My first concert ever was Glen Campbell...that was around 1980.
Then 3 years ago, I saw "Weird" Al Yankovic.
Last year I saw TOOL!
Last winter I saw Tori Amos
Last month I saw the Moody Blues.
Last night I saw Fleetwood Mac.
On Saturday, I am going to see Santana.
Am I making progress? My favorite has been TOOL....they were completely incredible and awesome.
my sister-in-law's husband was raised as a jehovahs witness in north yorkshire and was educated at home by his mother along with his 5 brothers and sisters.
i remember many years ago when it first became common knowledge, many brothers and sisters thought that this method of education was ideal for witnesses who wanted to remain separate from the world, but all the kids from our congregatation had a state education.
i guess my question is, was home education only limited to my in-laws husbands family, or were any of you educated at home?
I do apologize for the giant block of text in my post above. It was in paragraphs when I pushed the 'submit' button, but showed up as you see. I can't seem to figure out how to edit that. Sorry, for the hard to read format.
