would you stop buying nike products because you didn’t like their politics?
conversely, would you give business to a company because you liked their political stand on a matter?
would you stop watching an entertainer because you disagree with their political perspectives?
The only place I stopped "shopping" at is planned Parenthood. I used to get birth control from them because it was cheapish and I don't have insurance. But after learning more about abortion and all of that I get my birth control from New Zealand.
*I don't judge anyone else for supporting them, I just don't feel right about it for me.
after posting on another thread it became apparent to me that it can be difficult for some ex jws to totally shake off all wt teaching , even after leaving the org.
do you still feel guilty going into a church for a wedding or a funeral .
can you bring yourself to celebrate birthdays or christmas .
Christmas took a while. I fought it as much as I could. Every year I say that we should just skip it, but it comes. Some years I really get into it, trying to find that present that will make someone feel special.
One year, I called Christmas the Riddle family gift exchange and did it on a different day so that my Jehovah's witness family could come, but they all said they were too busy that day.
My birthday is nothing special, but I do like to go out to eat and pick the place. I try to make as big of a deal as I can for my husband and son's birthday.
I have been going to my church for over 10 years, but that first time was weird. Nothing bad happened when I went and so I kept going and I still enjoy it!
I get medical marijuana and the first time my husband and I did it, we went to the book store and I noticed that in the Christian section I was feeling weird and I realized I still had some indoctrination left in me. When I was a teenager, I got the cd from Jars of Clay because I liked their song flood on the radio. When I listened to it, I discovered it was a Christian band and immediately threw it away because, y'know, it was "satanic". Meanwhile, I kept all of my Nirvana stuff and Soundgarden, which probably actually was satanic...
due to the fact there are about 27,000 members of this religion that are known pedophiles, and the information about it is kept in a secret database file, i wonder how many lurking jw's as well as others are aware of the severity of this problem?
remember, it's 27,000 pedophiles that they know about.
what about the thousands that don't get caught?
My great grandpa was a Jw and molested my grandma and my mom. We lived in the same house as him for many years, but thankfully he never molested me. I didn't find out until I was 18 when my mom told my sister and I. When my grandma found out my mom told us, she was furious. If I had known sooner, I would have understood why my mom acted like she did and had more compassion towards her. I was kind of mad, too. I am glad she told us, but he was never exposed while he was alive. They probably wouldn't have believed my grandma anyway. But by not telling, my mom got molested, so that's why you have to tell the cops.
why the shunning if someone leaves?
why are they working so hard to keep everyone in?
is it money?
It feels like they are going to disappear one day, making people think they were taken up to heaven, but really retiring to a tropical island somewhere drinking scotch, haha!
why the shunning if someone leaves?
why are they working so hard to keep everyone in?
is it money?
So, do you think the governing body really believe in this or do you think they are, with malice, keeping people in what they know is a scam. I think they are evil, but maybe they are just that delusional? It's hard for me to believe that there are people who want to hurt other people on purpose. I have seen it first-hand, though, so I know it exists.
i’m just curious if you think your past life either adversely or positively affected your relationships?.
When I was in 3-4th grade, for instance, I started making friends, but since I wasn't allowed to hang out outside of school, they all eventually dropped me as a friend and told everyone I was weird. I took them to the guidance counselor and wrote them letters to try to keep them as friends, but it didn't work.
I was an outsider at school and since I wasn't gung ho about being a Jehovah's witness, I was an outsider at the kingdom Hall.
I have some friends now that I could hang out with more, but I mostly choose to be by myself. My husband and son are the closest to me.
why the shunning if someone leaves?
why are they working so hard to keep everyone in?
is it money?
Why the shunning if someone leaves? Why are they working so hard to keep everyone in? Is it money? My son asked me and I said money, most likely, but is it just that they would lose that per month donation? Is it so that they can look at all the numbers to trick people that it's the truth? Because, really, if a bunch of people left, then they can sell off more kingdom halls....?
dear friends.
i didn't post for a while, but i still enjoy the great jwn community.. just wanted to share a "gem" from the november 2019 study watchtower.. paragraph 8 from the article "are you maintaining your large shield of faith?".
satan, “the father of the lie,” uses those under his control to spread lies about jehovah and about our brothers and sisters.
It's funny because "apostates" are usually the ones telling the truth - showing the lies straight from the magazines. And I noticed in some of the videos where someone shows an elder something from a magazine that goes against the Bible, the elder will show from the Bible that the thing in the magazine wasn't true and he, at the same time, misses the point. Watchtower is false religion. "But where else would we go"
were you so indoctrinated that you just couldn’t leave?
was it due to family pressure?
was it your friendships that you didn’t want to lose?
Looking back, I always hated being a Jw, from having to tell teachers that I couldn't color the holiday page or whatever I wasn't allowed to do in front of the whole class, or getting called into the back room when I was 10. But I did get baptized at 14, not knowing the seriousness of what I was doing (I knew I would get a party and a new Bible after baptism, not to mention all the love and attention). I hated field service and I was scared of the elders. I escaped at 19. I was still mentally until 2007 when I began to wake up. Got invited to a church, been attending for over 10 years. Though, as a born-in, I still had doubts like "what if they are right" up until about over a year ago and was kind of having a panic attack about it and I just had to come to the conclusion that I don't have to know what is right, that Jesus saves me and that has to be enough. Then I no longer denied that I believed Jesus is God and literally, I felt different. Like when rain instantly turns to snow is the only way to describe it. I had a boldness to tell my mom about the trinity and tell her my real beliefs without fear. Then a few weeks ago, I boldly told an elder what I believed, got disfellowshipped and here we are - shunned. :)
the wife and i were expecting a health worker to call at our door 10:30 this morning and about 10;35 two women appeared at our door so i opened up thinking they were who i expected ,so i was take back a bit being caught off guard when they identified themselves as doing a bible work.. this is just the gist of what took place & not a word for word conversation.. a woman about in her fifties her companion about her twenties.the older woman did most of the talking as she read to me the scripture from her phone " in the last days critical times hard to deal with...etc.etc.and she went back and emphasised that we were living in the last days because of what that scripture said.. i made the comment that the scripture just about sums up human history in any given time.then i went on to say that this day and age is the best time in human history overall given the advances in technology ,medical procedures ,the overall standard of living being higher and so on .but they insisted on we were living in the last days.then i said different religions have been claiming that for the past couple hundred years.. then to throw them a curve ball i asked if they were mormons ?
oh no we are jehovah`s witnesses.had i been prepared for them and not caught out unawares i would have taken a different tact.i then asked the older woman how long she has been a witness and she said 36 years so i then said to her you must have seen a lot of changes in your religion during that time which she agreed with.
( the light gets brighter).
"One thing I forgot to mention and when I thought about it later it really surprised me . And that is they never offered me any literature at all"
My dad told me that they just want to have a conversation and don't offer much literature anymore.
