caballo,
Lovely post - well done for leaving and taking your precious family with you.
gorgia
hi friends,.
although i read the forum dayly, i rarely post.. but i had to tell you this!..
i have 3 children 2 boys and a beatiful girl... this is about my second boy.
http://tyneandwear.sky.com/news/article/90520/police-chiefs-letter-ignites-fresh-jehovahs-witness-child-abuse.
police chief's letter ignites fresh jehovah's witness child abuse rowby kevin donald location: washington.
gordon leighton.
my wife's brother died and an old friend i have known for years died also.
they both were within a few years of my age.
kind of scares me.. there were several others my wife knew died last week too.. ken p..
"however, it would be appreciated if such donations are made without restrictions as to where and how the funds may be used.
" additionally, at this time, there is no need for donations of food, clothing, or other items.
if such needs arise in the future, you will be notified accordingly.
a thread on another forum reminded me of a letter i wrote to the person that went to the elders and started the proceedings to have me disfellowshipped.
i stopped believing in the religion when i was 25 but continued going for about ten years.
i finally started to fade at 35, but about 6 months after i had stopped going to meetings, a person wrote a letter to the elders about my website, which at the time was anonymous.
my believing mother, with whom i've recently reconnected after twenty years, and i had a mostly pleasant conversation this weekend.
i had planned to visit one of these weekends before the weather gets rough and she called to warn me away this weekend - a vicious storm was coming through.. she mentioned that my uber-dub sister and her family would also be there.
i carefully and calmly explained that being there at the same time would not be a very good thing.
random thought #1:.
in primitive times humans got their ideas from observing cause and effect.. if somebody got injured with great loss of blood they would die.
even the dullest thinker would associate blood with life itself.. random thought #2. when you watch somebody at their deathbed event the cessation of breathing is the signal of death itself.. a primitive observer would connect the exhalation (death-rattle) with the going-out-of-life.. we get the word respiration (breathing) and the word spirit connected to the thought of an intangible soul.. in other words, something (spirit, soul, breath) leaving the body and going off and away at the point of death originated belief in the soul.. a big deal is attached to a simple thing in and of itself no big deal.. random thought #3. a lot of bogus ideas come from mixing things together which do not belong together.
are there any direct quotes from the watchtower's literature that discourages investigation into their past doctrines and practices?.
"there was a kid who turned down a college scholarship so he could pioneer.
how stupid!
i would do anything to have a scholarship.
a little background, i faded in 2007 and have been out ever since.
i started studying at 18 and have no jw realitives.
i'm returing because my life is heading in the wrong direction.
Space Madness,
My younger brother, who has gone through a lot since leaving the JDubs, says to me sometimes that he should go back to the religion, to straighten his life out. I try to tell him life isn't actually divided up into 'us' and 'them'. His options are not limited to strictly 'the world' or 'the JW's'. Memories of simpler times can tempt someone back to the JW's, but you know and my younger brother knows it isn't 'the one true religion' at all, and so you'd have to ignore a very important part of yourself if you went back: your authenticity.
Everyone's posts regarding joining a liberal church or community group, traveling or having some counseling sessions, are wonderful suggestions. It can seem so lonely when you still think the 'us' and 'them' mentality. I know I felt lonely, adrift, without any friends, for quite some time after I left the JDubs.
But please, I hope so much for you, and for my younger brother, that you both realize the world is wide and inviting and made up of all sorts of experiences that will encourage you to seek the truth for your life. Find your own discipline, don't rely on the WTS to keep you out of harm's way.
I wish you all the best.
gorgia