Posts by Tameria2001

32

Hidden Doctrines

by jhine in

" religions do not volunteer their most offensive doctrines to newcomers ".

the above sentence was posted on another thread as part of a quote taken from jwfacts .

l commented that this was a sweeping generalisation of the kind often made about all religions .

This was involving my husband's aunt and several of his other close relatives. There were several who were actually studying to become JWs. That was until they saw the darker side of the organization. My husband's dad became a JW back in around 1974, and he was the first one of the family to become one. Shortly after that his mother (my husband's grandmother), and one of his sisters (aunt) also became JWs as well. There were a total of 3 biological sisters in this side of the family. The middle sister had studied with the JWs for a while but stopped because things just got to busy for this her. For a very long time, she thought that the JWs were a good route to go as far as religion is concerned. Now fast forward to 2001 she decided she wanted to see about getting going with the JWs again with a bible study, and eventually become baptized herself. At this point in time, she did not know about the shunning practices. In the fall of 2001, my husband and I left, and she got to see first hand how they treat their own children who disagreed with the religion, and it was not a pleasant site. Her family is very important to her and she could not even comprehend how a parent can turn their backs on their own children and grandchildren just because they don't see eye to eye on the same subject.

She did try very hard to get her current and former JW relatives in the same location but failed every time. The JW relatives would always make up some lame excuse and not show up if they knew we were showing up. This was what opened her eyes to the JWs, and she refuses to have anything to do with that group as a result. It didn't help their case and when they were saying untrue things to her about us as well.

20

Why can JW's attend funerals or weddings in a church?

by QuestioningEverything in

jw
friends

what is the reasoning/policy behind the practice that a jw can't attend an event such as funeral or wedding in another church?

i know of someone that didn't attend her older sisters funeral because it was held in a baptist church.

she waited outside until the service was over and then went to the family dinner afterwards.

Tameria2001

When I was still a JW and living at home with my parents, mom refused to even step in any church, even when for her niece's wedding, and a few short years later her funeral. My cousin was killed in a horrible traffic collision. We even sat out in the car outside the church during both times. Her answer was, what if Armageddon happened at the very moment we were inside a church, and God brought that building down on top of our heads? The ironic part was mom grew up as a Luthern and went to church every Sunday.

The very first time I ever stepped foot inside a church was much later, and the fear I had about that building falling down on my head was quite intense. But I decided to overcome my fears, and I'm glad I did because that was one less thing the Watchtower had control over on me.

13

12/31/2018 World-wide action “Escape from the watchtower" #escapefromthewatchtower

by AlexPancho in

good afternoon!

we are ex jehovah's witnesses.. in this video, we begin the world-wide action.

we call it action “escape from the watchtower”.. slavery in the united states was abolished on december 18, 1865. the fortress law in russia was abolished(аболиш) on february 19, 1861.. but jehovah's witnesses are still in captivity, in fear that they or their loved ones will ban communication through a procedure known as disfellowship.. we offer three easy steps to release:.

Tameria2001

I recently found out that by writing a letting is a very bad thing to do. When a person does this, they give up their civil rights regarding the Watchtower.

This was where I learned this from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCAOW9mrTV8

12

Do You Watch Late Night TV ?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to watch the tonight show starring johnny carson and jay leno.i loved the show.

it was funny, well written and timely.

back in the day ,i used to watch arsenio hall and sometimes letterman and conan.

Tameria2001

What minimus said is exactly why I don't want it either. The thing that really irritates me about it - one side is always complaining about how mean and nasty the other side is being to them, and then they turn right around and are doing EXACTLY to others what they are complaining about.

26

What was the last thing you said to your jw family?

by caves in

jw
friends

7 years ago i had my last conversation with the toxic jw that mostly raised me.

every conversation was toxic for my entire adult life with her.

the last time we spoke was right before the memorial 7 years ago and she was laying on the usual heavy guilt and fear mongering about how jeho counts his people at the memorial.

Tameria2001

The last thing I ever said to my JW mother was this. But let me back up a bit. In 2001 I dissociated myself from the Watchtower, and at that time I told my mom that the JWs were nothing but false prophets, and can not be truly God's organization, and used that scripture in Deuteronomy. That was a face to face conversation, Then a few days later she decided she didn't want me to have the last word, and she sent me the most hate-filled letter. She ended it with how she wished she never gave birth to me and signed off from the woman who gave birth to you. The things she wrote in that letter felt just like she ripped out my heart.

But that was not the end, oh no, not by a long shot. In 2005, she decided to reach out to me, but she was being kind ~~~Mind Tricks~~~. For a while, she would talk to me on the phone, and we would converse by letters. Then after getting my hopes up, she would ask me if I am coming back to Jehovah's organization I would say no, and that would be that I wouldn't hear from her again for a little while. This repeated itself several times during the next three years. She would always ask are you coming back to Jehovah's Organization, and finally I replied, "No mom, I'm never coming back because I accepted Jesus and my Lord and Savior. And yet the mind games continued with her, until December 2008. In 2008, my husband and I bought our home, and when we moved to it, and I stopped replying to any of her letters for a year. That was how long it took for the mail carrier to stop forwarding her letters to me.

39

What Are The Differences Between JWs Born In and Converted?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i tend to think that many jws who joined the religion in their later years feel foolish or are embarrassed by their decision to become one of jehovah’s witnesses.

.

i’m not embarrassed by my years “in the truth “ because i was raised from infancy to believe everything was god’s word and who are we to question jehovah and his organization?

Tameria2001

I wouldn't call them mentally ill but are being made sick by that religion. Now why I say this is because a few years back I was a member of a smaller ExJW forum. There was a former JW who talked a bit about her life. She was raised as a Catholic, but was swayed by the JW teaching and eventually became one. She was a witness for several years, and during the course of time she ended up on different medications, one of them being for Manic Depression. Eventually, she saw through the lies of the Watchtower and left. By the time one year had passed, under her doctors care, she was able to come off of all the medication she was on for all her issues. She said when she told us that several years had passed by, and even to that day she still had a clean bill on her mental health.

39

What Are The Differences Between JWs Born In and Converted?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i tend to think that many jws who joined the religion in their later years feel foolish or are embarrassed by their decision to become one of jehovah’s witnesses.

.

i’m not embarrassed by my years “in the truth “ because i was raised from infancy to believe everything was god’s word and who are we to question jehovah and his organization?

Tameria2001

minimus, Don't worry, she is a very toxic woman. It is ironic, getting shunned by that woman actually saved my sanity, and marriage.

39

What Are The Differences Between JWs Born In and Converted?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i tend to think that many jws who joined the religion in their later years feel foolish or are embarrassed by their decision to become one of jehovah’s witnesses.

.

i’m not embarrassed by my years “in the truth “ because i was raised from infancy to believe everything was god’s word and who are we to question jehovah and his organization?

Tameria2001

I was around 4 1/2 when mom became a JW, and at the time I couldn't figure out why certain things were happening to me, until much later. My mother was one of those JWs who would be very zealous for a while, then she would totally stop attending for a while. Then after some time would go by as an inactive witness she would start back being the zealous JW again. My whole life growing up was like this. There was even one time she actually threw all her Watchtower literature into the dumpster. Dad (never was a JW) and my younger sister went and dug it all back out again. I could never figure out that man, he didn't want anything to do with it, but then he would turn around and do stuff like that.

Whenever mom was what you would call inactive, I would be able to go to sleep peacefully. But every single time she would go back to those meetings, I would start having these awful and horrible nightmares. They always revolved around very graphics visions of death. At the time I couldn't understand why I was having those nightmares, it was so bad that even if I closed my eyes during prayer, I would see stuff. So I asked my mother why is it every time we would go back to the meetings these night terrors would wake me up. I can recall a couple of times where I woke up screaming from them. Her response was this, "Satan is losing his grasp on you, so he is attacking you in your sleep." Later my thoughts turned into something else, and it was, "If this is God's true religion, isn't he stronger than Satan, why can't he protect my sleep?" I had constantly prayed before I went to sleep that I wouldn't have any nightmares.

At the time I couldn't figure out the connection, until much later on when my own son at the age of 5 started having the very same night terrors as I had, and this was a major reason why I decided to research this religion that I was in.

Looking back on what I had endured with those night terrors, and the reason behind them was the Watchtower religion, their publications (the artwork), and their fascination with death and destruction at Armageddon.

43

A Cult Tactic: Removing Guilt By Dehumanising Others

by pale.emperor in

in the real world, very few parents would disown their own children simply because they read a magazine that told them to do it.

very few people would forever completely ignore their own parents because an elder got up on a platform one day and announced that they no longer follow the same religion as you.. in the real world it just doesn't happen.

and yet, for 8 million jehovah's witnesses it's very a normal part of their world to treat "other people" differently than they'd treat each other.

Tameria2001

When Simon said and what the OP said, it brought back a memory of what my JW mother told me. She said if it was not for the law of the land, and she would go away for murder, she would have no problem stoning me to death. This goes way beyond not being invited to the family BBQ.

21

It baffles me why they would even say this

by Tameria2001 in

back in 2001, i left the jws rather abruptly.

i had discovered things about the watchtower that really made me quite angry, angry because i had been lied to, and it took me just to darn long to figure it out.

before i had left, my husband and i wrote 3 letters, one to the elders at our congregation, and two to our parents.

Tameria2001

That makes total sense, jwundubbed. My mother is still with my father even after all the bull he put her, and me through. He cheated on her a number of times, and there was at least once where the other woman confronted my mother right in front of her children. He had no issues in even trying to hide what he did. He even told his own children that he didn't love mom, and never did. I never even understood why my parents stayed together. I don't know how many kids out there felt this way, but I was one who wished mine were divorced. It was pure hell growing up in my household.