Lucky72, I see you don't post often, but when you do it belongs on the BEST OF!! Wow! One of the most practical, realistic posts I've ever read about growing up in a divided home. Congrats on getting out.
Realities of growing up in a divided home :(
Gypsy Sam
JoinedPosts by Gypsy Sam
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67
Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father
by Zana inmy wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.
my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .
sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.
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67
Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father
by Zana inmy wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.
my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .
sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.
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Gypsy Sam
Search "The Prodigal Son" dvd and you'll get a JW approved video that portrays what you're up against.
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how long before you felt refreshed and new?
by losingit inwaking up from jw-land is an extremely exhausting process.
about 3 years ago, i attended a month-long institute for grad school students.
during this time, i was surrounded by people from all over the united states and had active, deep conversations with so many about personal topics, such as religion and divorce.
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Gypsy Sam
When I need humor, old Friends episodes never fail me. I hope things impRove soon for you.
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Ahhh Dagnabbit
by Jon Preston inwell afyer two months i get a message from an elder wanting to go out in service a few nights a week and to hang out more....i must now be labelled in the spiritually weak and reach out to group in my hall.
my hall is very nice and so are the people but dagnabbit i hate small towns.... i wonder if i should say no or just nite the bullet on behalf of our fade...hmm decisions.
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Gypsy Sam
I recently learned how to block calls. It has been delightful to no longer worry about if I will be contacted by elders :)
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Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father
by Zana inmy wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.
my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .
sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.
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Gypsy Sam
Jgnat is right on queue.
This became an exhausting and annoying issue for me as some teens wouldn't associate with others, if they had already "judged" them to be weak. (I have a 16 year old)
For example, I had a teen (friends daughter) unwittingly comment that she wasn't comfortable at an event as some of the JW's were not good influences. I had learned TTATT yet, but was already thinking, so I asked what she meant. She commented that they weren't baptized and she was, so she needed to watch her association more. They were "too worldly". Keep in mind, these were all 13-15 year old girls. My daughter was 14 at the time and the other teen didn't realize my daughter wasn't baptized either.
My parents were always quizzing my daughter as to if she had commented at the meeting, was she out in service Saturday, had she been "mini pioneering" during tract work...on and on.
JW kids can almost never please their parents. I was valedectorian and pioneered straight out of high school. My parents still managed to be disappointed and wonder where they went wrong in raising me. My brother had a similar situation and married "in the truth". He's extremely active on RBC and switched halls to help a hall in need. However, he married a sister who had previously been married, which to JW parents of a virgin son, was a huge disappointment. Now she's in college, so they see her as "worldly" and since she's not pioneering that's another mark against her. (I'd say she's a liberal JW, too). It doesn't matter that the two of them are happily married and financially stable.
edited - my daughter did go through a period where she seemed into JW world, which was great at the time. Now that we are both awake, she told me she never believed it. She just went along to make me happy and knew how disappointed in her I'd be if she didn't follow the religion.
No child should have to feel that a parents love is conditional on a religious belief.
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BITING THE FOOD but getting caught on the HIDDEN HOOK
by Terry inwhat happened to all of us?.
we got shit out the ass end of a kingdom hall wondering what the hell happened to us.. we started our journey as believer in the bible and got turned into a steaming pile of apostate crap.. how did it happen?.
we smelled delicious "food" and bit, chewed and swallowed .
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Gypsy Sam
Terry, you have such great, thinking threads. You must be fascinating to listen to at parties. I especially like your point about the provenance as I recently joined an art history book club.
It's interesting to me to see how so many Americans remain extreme believers. If you keep reading science books and questioning, it seems you naturally realize the bible is just a book. The trend I see where people put more blind faith than ever in the Bible and use it to hold back rights for others is deeply disturbing.
Men use it to CONVINCE other men . . . and to imprison them inside their circle of authority.
So true!
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Our throw-away society
by zound incheck out this video if you have 20 minutes to spare - it really is awesome.
anyone want to add their thoughts on how to change societys throwaway mentality?.
the story of stuff.
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Gypsy Sam
What's wrong with being a treehugger?
If the photo doesn't attach, just picture Cindy Crawford, shirtless, hugging a tree.
Seriously, the throwaway cup and utensil concept needs to cease. We can use real items and wash them, at work, too!
Drinks taste better in glass than styrofoam.
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Hi Guys, I'm new here...
by Mikado inbeen lurking for years, but couldn't log on.
for some reason, my email spam filter is inaccessable, and ended up having to open another account, simply to become a member... wonder how many others have had a similar problem.. its been an eye opener reading everyones life experiences, often so similar.. i was almost a born in, with a hardcore family.
abusive stepfather who was one of the original jws in the area, so much so, that it was called the xxxxx family religion.... been out for 25 years, am glad every day for that!!.
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Gypsy Sam
Welcome, glad you joined Us!
Seems I missed a bunch of newbies. Great to see a new batch of no longer JW peeps :)
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My Experience and how I finally let myself see the truth
by OneEyedJoe infirst off - for those lurkers who feel guilty just for being on this site and reading this (even if you don't read any further, as it is your right to choose that course) i want you to know that you're not alone in what you're going through or in what you are feeling.
if you read on, i hope my experience may be of some small help to you.. this may be long, but i'll try to organize it in a way that doesn't make it painful to read.
to start, i feel it is most beneficial if i'm upfront and honest with my goals from posting this, which are (in order of the degree to which they motivated me):.
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Gypsy Sam
Welcome,
Have you read Steve Hassan's books, so that you can hopefully help your wife wake up?
A poster besty started an excellent thread on waking up his wife that used a different, upfront approach. It worked, but may not be for everyone.
I wish you all the best. Great intro post.
Carpe Diem!
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JWs in Florida and California. Is there really a difference?
by BU2B ini have heard over the years from many different people about how jws in those states are unlike elsewhere.
the parties they have, the way they dress and the permissive attitude.
i just heard from a sister that is from florida, that if you are not "spiritually strong" you will "fall out of the truth" down there.
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Gypsy Sam
I should have added, it was the regular pioneer group okay with all the above mentioned events, books, parties etc.
CA is my next choice for where to live. Thebiking and hiking are much better than here in FL :)
Quite true about the type of people you have to choose from as friends, too. Some days South Florida still feels 50 years behind.