My wife was raised with Jehovah's Witnesses. I met her when she was 12. We married when she was 19. I came into the Witness thing when I was 18. We spent the next 25 plus years on the JW merry-go-round. After we got off the ride in circles, we took some time to reflect ( a year so) We resigned in good standing from the JW's and became active in a local christian church. My wife and I are involved in teaching Sunday school and other church functions. We are very happy with our choice and it has been refreshing to know that there are folks involved in other religions that are not like the average JW fanatic cultist! We have decided not to get hung up on hard line veiws that we learned from the WT. We view our present church activity as a healing process and community service. Our advice is to let go of your JW past in a big way and start living. Become involved in your communtity in some way. Do not isolate yourself. Live life!
Thechickennest
JoinedPosts by Thechickennest
-
62
How many have left the WTS and joined another church/group?
by BLISSISIGNORANCE inat this point in my life i don't think i could trust any religious group.
i don't even feel the need to be a part of anything like that right now, and maybe never will.. but i know of some who have joined other churches/groups since leaving the borg.. why do some join another religion and why won't some ever get involved again?.
what makes us so different?.
-
-
Thechickennest
-
12
Did you ever work for a JW, while still in the borg ??? how was the pay ???
by run dont walk inmy nephew has been working for a jw, for about three years, part-time of course, has to do more service, pays him next to nothing, good training and learning experience though, but three years, and paying $7.00 an hour for maybe 20 hours a week, while the employer has a new car, and just bought a bigger house ???
yep, go figure ......................, that's the kind of person i want to work for, and the sad thing is, if he was to quit tomorrow, there are 20 little jw dubs ready to vulture into the job.
unreal !!!.
-
-
Thechickennest
Yes! I worked my tail of for the presiding overseer of our congregation. He was the city overseer at the time as well. I cleaned commercial floors for him late nights. The pay was pitiful. However, the worst part was the chemicals he sold to the same accounts I cleaned. He provided nuetral floor cleaner in 5 gallon pails. He had me drain off one gallon in each pail and fill it back up with water and retain the extra gallon to help fill the empty five gallon pails we picked up. A small little scam, but typical of him. I am glad I seen him in action. It really started to open my eyes up to the hypocritical ways of the overseers. I am wiser now for sure and glad to have all that JW crap behind me!
-
52
Door-to-Door Work - Most Inneffective Work of the 21st Century
by Black Man inknockin' on doors when nobody's home, processing ten of thousands of hours that u know are fake, refusing to embrace modern-technology to further the work just adds up to the most ineffective public relations campaign of the 21st century---yep, you guessed it the house-to-house work.........
-
-
Thechickennest
The door to door work sapped blood, sweat and tears from many of us.
Annie, congratulations on your first post! My family and I could retire on the wasted money, cars and time we devoted to the service just trying to average at least 15 hours a month to pay for our ticket to paradise! In South Dakota many times it was blood sweat and tears working rural areas in the hot summer or cold winter. We were so blinded! Yes, as someone said in an earlier post on this topic-if the WTS had to pay to get this work done, it just would be over so quickly. And to add insult to injury, recruit folks to a isolationist, cult! We should have at least offered cookies like the girl scouts! At least we could have made some friends and provided some thing harmless!
-
112
Back from the Memorial
by ScoobySnax inwell like i say, just got back from the memorial, have been going most years, but this year i went by chance (knew it was roughly at 7pm at the nearest kh) to my old congregation that i grew up in.
i didn't find the "evil" people spoke of here on this forum, or those too stupid to see.
all i did see was people i hadn't seen in years, and let me tell you, what lovely people they were.
-
-
Thechickennest
I think scooby and the former Iraqi information minister have some common abilities spin some good ones!
-
167
Was There Ever A Circuit Overseer That You Couldn't Stand?
by minimus ini know this has been discussed before but i think a fresh thread on this will be enjoyable.
-
-
Thechickennest
Timothy Bland. He was divorced and working a curcuit that included North Dakota. He and my sister-in-law who was at least 30 years younger than he was had a thing going. She was not even 20 years old at the time. She played that middle-aged brother like a fiddle. It was sad indeed. He was a real jerk. He once related to a car group I was in how he slapped around a young publisher who he deemed was acting up in his car. Also he no patience for ones suffering from depression. He was a real cowboy for lording his opinions over everybody. He so pissed me off, it was really the start of the end of my 25 year association with the borg. He gave my mother-in-law some of the most lame advice. He had her leave her husband really with out any good cause, only that he was disfellowshipped in the 60's for smoking. He should have never been turned loose on the flock.
-
47
Finally received our "shepherding call" today
by Jourles init was inevitable.
after dodging the bullet for a few weeks, the elders finally made their way to our house today.
the reason i think this to be so, is because he asked me what he should write down for my report.
-
-
Thechickennest
We recieved a pre-shepparding visit phone call from the elder apparently assigned to us. My wife was never mentioned in the call. She was just as inactive and baptized as me....I visited pleasantly with the elder, I pleasantly turned him down on all accounts. We mailed our resignations the next day. About a week later the same elder called again, said the "forms" had been sent to the society and we were considered disfellowshipped, and by the way he asked, "why did you resign?" I volunteered nothing to him. No mention again of my wife...So there you have it, The women in the organization simply are not recognized when it comes right down to the nitty-gritty. My wife was hurt and rightfully so. A form takes care of everything else...If they are looking for "heart conditions" it is only because it on their "forms"! What a sham! It is great to be disconnected from the crazy bastards. The organization of Jehovah's Witnesses is nothing more than a huge business operated by volunteers. My wife and devoted over 50 years of combined service to the borg. It is good we are still only just middle aged. We have time to regroup. I feel bad for ones that are older when the borg wants to get them in or out on the "forms". Yes, meet the bastards on your terms. Set the rules. No explanations are nessasary. Good Luck! Duane Wing.
-
28
What are the stages of walking away?
by logansrun inwell, it's been a good ten months since i walked away from the jws and it's been quite a journey.
i notice that the initial fears, self-doubt and rage are no longer with me.
when i first left i could hardly look at a wt or awake magazine without getting wave after wave of anxiety and frustration.
-
-
Thechickennest
Good job logan! You have made excellent progress. College is great. Fill your mind with all the new and fresh information you can get! About the being snubbed part...Do what I do. If it is a so-called lifer, strong JW. Go out of your way to get in their face with a friendly hello and smile. Make them squirm. Why play there game? I about give a young elder the other day a heart attack I think. He did not see me coming! I moved right into his space and gave him a hearty hello as if it were old times! He nearly lost his balance and was so damn flustered, he returned my greeting! He was the same elder I sent my resignation letter to. He was the same one who told me I would be treated as disfellowshipped! Have some fun logan! Congratulations! Duane Wing
-
7
Have You Tried To Contact JWs?
by RAYZORBLADE ini'm sure some of you on this forum have either attempted or perhaps succeeded in contacting other jws or xjws.
personally, i tried it 3x (times).
my first attempt was back in 1993.
-
-
Thechickennest
Rayz: My wife and I faded out over the last 13 years or so and just recently made our fade from the borg official with resignation letters. We were very outgoing and active in the congregation. We all parted ways with the borg when we were blessed with a new and only child as it turns out. Our lovely daughter was a handful at the meetings.We deicided not to abuse our infant just because she was a lively kid at the hall. Upon the advice of a good Dr. we just quit going to the damn hall. All the JW's thought the kid needed was a good beating. Anyway, we left behind what we thought at the time were a lot of close friends. WRONG! Once we were out of sight, we never heard from most of them again. We made new friends that did not have so much advice to give and judging to do for us. Our good Dr. also ask us early on if we had any "normal friends"? It was a wake up call for us and hard at times but, it really was for the best to move on. A few years ago we did find a dear sister that we loved a lot. We were disappointed that she was trying to make a comeback after being disfellowshipped. She sounded so weird to us....but we were right there one time too. SCAREY!
Thanks for your inquiry about looking up old friends. It really is interesting looking back at the odd, isolated way we used to live. JWism is a cult for sure.
Duane Wing
-
4
Re-activtion: Half-assed attempt!
by Thechickennest inwell, after 12 years of inactivity we got our call about three weeks ago on the phone for the borg's reassimulation effort.
a young elder and good friend of my wife and i called to invite us to the co visit, and by the way "is there anything we can do as do encourage you and moneic to return to the meetings?
" i said just plain "no".
-
-
Thechickennest
Well, after 12 years of inactivity we got our call about three weeks ago on the phone for the borg's reassimulation effort. A young elder and good friend of my wife and I called to invite us to the CO visit, and by the way "is there anything we can do as do encourage you and Moneic to return to the meetings?" I said just plain "no". He did go on to say that he had tried to stop by many times to see us but that we were never home. Not true, we work from our home. We are home more than we are away! There have been no attempts for sheparding calls or anything of the like for a long time. We really thought we had been forgot about and pleased really. We went ahead a wrote up letters of resignation and mailed them the next day to "young elder." A week or longer passed and then last Sunday afternoon "young elder" called to say that an announcement was made to the congregation of our desire to dissassociate and that the forms had been sent to the society. If we wanted to come back at some point we need to write again as we were veiwed as disfellowshiped. I said fine, thank you for honoring OUR request. His voice seemed cold and angry when he asked why we did this. I said I was'nt sharing with him reasons why, but I restated I appreciated his help in letting us out and that was all that was important at this time. This goes to show how much effort some congregations are putting into this reactivation plan from the mother ship. There was zero effort to rekindle us prior to this new program and zero effort after we sent our letters. We were just numbers in a big computer in New York that the "forms" took care of. My wife was insulted that never once did they ask to speak with her. She was raised from infancy in this congreagation. This also shows how the borg thinks about the women in the organization. We were good rank and file publishers until the PO advised me to beat our infant daughter to make her behave at the meetings, after all," that is what he did". That was the end for us. We never raised our daugter to be a witness after that. We just quit going. Our daughter is happy and well adjusted and unspoiled by the borg. We are done officially and it feels great!
-
18
The Thread that "kills" the WTS
by eyeslice inmany opinions have been expressed on this board as to what is killing the society today.
i am positive that issues such as the un scandal, the pedophile issue, etc.
are having a negative effect and contributing to a general slackening off and sense of malaise amongst the rank and file.
-
-
Thechickennest
Reading about your post concerning 1914 is interesting. JW's found me in 1976 when I was still in highschool. This was right after the 1975 boondoggle. In my subsquent study of the "Truth Book" I found there were enough other truths to still beleive in this organization so I gave it a good ol college try. Baptised in 1978. Regular in the service for the next 14 years. Then I started to see that 1914 was just like 1975, BOGUS DEAL!! My wife and I gradually faded away successfully and are now happier for the departure. We were never strong believers in the WT date setters. We had many good friends and were in many of the right cliques. Ignorance is bliss. Thank you for the 1914 commnentary. The WT borg is lousy at setting dates.