- What year did you leave? 1994
- How old were you when you left? 48
- Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave? No
- If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision? The Bible
- What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing). Their views on sex, new clothing styles, new partakers at the memorial, the "Greatest Man" book.
- If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind? I had had questions about various things and would put them out of my mind. I finally got fed up with the lies and perversions, and their blame the victim attitude, and DA'd myself, even though I had no idea where to go from there (remember "we - the WTBS - have sayings of everlasting life). I since became a "born-again" Christian - Praise God!
aunthill
JoinedPosts by aunthill
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54
Another survey from Lee
by Lady Lee inreading simon's post about how things used to be i started thinking about how the internet has changed things.
many believe the internet and the freedom of information it contains will be the undoing of the wts.. when i was a jw, there were a few dfings but maybe one a year or even less.
people drifted away but we really didn't pay a lot of attention unless it was a close friend.. in here we see new people coming in all the time.
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aunthill
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40
Where were you when you decided to quit being a JW?
by Steve Lowry infor me, it was at the hall.
it was an evening meeting.
i felt a kind of mental surge within me brewing and i got and went to the men?s room.
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aunthill
For years I felt so unworthy - that I wasn't "good enough" and would never "qualify" for surviving Armageddon. Also, I would think "what if this is all a big cosmic joke?" Not to mention the many things that I disagreed with the Society on. The thing that sent me over the edge, was a combination: The WT's refusal to acknowledge that any "new" partakers at the Memorial might actually be of the heavenly class, and their interpretation of the "eleventh hour workers" in one of the books published around 1990 - 1992. It (the interpretation) was so far fetched and totally inapplicable as far as the scripture was concerned, that I was livid. I finally faced the fact that they were just a bunch of old men more concerned with maintaining the status quo and their comfortable lifestyle, than in the welfare of the people they were supposed to have under their care and DA'd myself in 1994.
Not to mention the "love" that was shown me by the congregation overseers, when I was ill or discouraged.
Aunthill
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Crude
by simplesally innow who would want to claim this toilet in their house?
well turns out that mess is not what it looks like.
its oil.
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aunthill
OMG, that looks remarkably like the toilets (yes, plural) in the house I used to rent, before we moved in. Didn't even bother with the seats - just removed them (using rubber gloves, of course) and bought new. We got credit for cleaning up the place and painting, otherwise I would have turned around and walked out. I must've gone through three pairs of rubber gloves!
Aunthill
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Are You Still Torn, Wondering Whether You Made The Right Decision To Leave?
by minimus inare you 100% sure you're doing the right thing??
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aunthill
Absolutely 100% sure.
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13
just a thought
by jukesjoker inthis is a question that keeps bugging me, if a non-jw were charming or good looking enough would the jw have a relationship with that non-jw?
or would the jw think it was a test and stick to his or her guns and still reject that person.
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aunthill
Congratulations, Insomniac! on your release from the bOrg and your good luck to have a guy who would stick with you through all that!
Jukes, concerned mama is right - amazingly, unbelievably and even stupidly lucky!
Aunthill
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Letting Go.......
by ScoobySnax ini was thinking today about my old grandad who passed away 6 weeks ago.
my sister had pulled out of the cupboard a couple of camcorder films of him taken in the last 10 years, and before now i felt it was way too soon to watch them but felt that now i'd be ok now.
we sat there for a bit, finger hovering over the play button.....go on i said play it, lets see him again.
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aunthill
((((((Scooby)))))
I was very lucky with both my parents: My dad had to have emergency open heart surgery and I dropped everything at work and went to the hospital to see him. Don't ask me how, but I knew he would not walk out of that hospital, but at least I had one last chance to tell him I loved him. I also had the opportunity to take care of my mother and be there when she died. As I said, I am lucky that I am able to say that I have no regrets.
The first year is the hardest. My heart goes out to you.
Aunthill
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What will you say to God in your defense?
by fearnotruth22 in.
suppose god holds us accountable.
what will you say to him in your defense to plead you cause?
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aunthill
"Jesus is my defense attorney!"
Aunthill
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anybody go to another church yet?
by littlemike inhaving left 18 months ago .
i still feel a spiritual need in the way that i do beleive there is a creator and after having done a lot of research on bible arecheaology i beleive the bible is correct.
however we have been taught so much dogma amongst christianity have any of you got to the point yet of going to any other religious meeting.
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aunthill
It took me several years to go to a church - all the indoctrination that the churches are Babylon the Great, etc. But I finally went to a non-denominational Christian church, which, BTW, sings more of the modern worship songs, and very few of the traditional hymns. I moved on to a more charismatic church, and, after 9/11, my husband decided he wanted to go to church, we began attending the first non-denominational church I had gone to. He got baptized 2 years ago, after 44 years of not going to a church of any kind!!! and we are still going and have become very involved in church activities. The people at our church are, by and large, non-judgemental and loving - something I never got from the JW's.
I couldn't go back to the ritual of the Episcopalian or Catholic churches, but that is my gut-reaction, so I recommend attending several different churches, even among the same denomination, as Little Toe said, and find one that you are comfortable in, and you feel is teaching the word of God.
Aunthill
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How far back do you remember?
by dh inwhat are your first memories?
i started to write a post about this the other day but it turned into a bio, so i deleted it.. my first memory is my mom carrying me into a house and putting me on the floor with another boy, and talking to some guy behind me while i watched the other kid playing with a board game.
it turned out that the other kid was my older brother, the man was my real father who i never met, and because of the time frame of events i was well under a year old when this happened.. i also remember being rocked to sleep as a baby by my mom, and trying to tell her i wasn't tired but not being able to.. do you have early memories?
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aunthill
I remember being all bundled up in lots of clothes, my mother pushing me in a stroller and a black dog (cocker spaniel?) ran up and barked at me. I stood up and barked back and the dog ran away. I confirmed this with my mother a few years ago, and she said it happened before I was 2, probably late fall 1947 since my birthday is in December.
I also remember a big snow the winter I was 3. I wanted to go to my friend's house down the street and my mother put my snowsuit on and I tried, but I had to turn around and go home because the walks hadn't been shoveled and the snow was too deep. That was probably in 1948 or 49 and we were in Ohio.
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Whats the first thing you wanted to do?
by Strawberryfieldsforever inafter learning the truth about the truth, whats the very first thing you wanted to do?
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aunthill
LOL at DY. It took me a little longer to register to vote - Republican, of course!
Actually, I submitted my letter of DA in July, and in December I bought a small potted Xmas tree at Costco and a couple of strings of lights. My husband was flabbergasted when he came home! The next year I really went all out, with a full sized tree and all the decorations - now I have too many, but I bring them all out anyway.
That's my evil heart's desire, I guess.
Patty