Drearyweather:
I chose to become a JW (no one forced me)
If someone points a gun at you and tells you to leave a certain place. Were you forced to leave? Of course, you were. Well, nobody pointed a gun at me and told me to become a JW; JWs did worse than that. From the time I was a small child, they showed me graphic depictions of people being destroyed in violent ways in a supposed upcoming end of the world. I was taught that the death I would receive at that time due to not being a JW would be worse than death from a gunshot because it would be permanent. Where I grew up, we often had violent thunder/lightning/wind storms. My sister and I got scared and hid under tables during such because we thought Armageddon might have arrived.
When I got older, my motivation to become a JW broadened to include not only fear, but a genuine desire to see earthwide justice and an end to all suffering. I really cared about warning/helping others. I also was desperate to see an end to animal suffering.
So, I was taught (indoctrinated/brainwashed) from an early age that being a JW was the only way. I was taught that I would be killed (literally) if I didn't go that way. So, I think it's fair to say I was forced.
And another thing... I hate to hear people say, when I complain about the situation I'm in now due to having been a JW for decades, that I shouldn't complain because I chose my course in life. My own mother told me that. I was comparing my situation to a friend who was in my first grade class and that I've known ever since. He was not very smart book-wise (decent common sense, though). He went to college and got a degree with an easy major and then a master's degree in public administration at a small college (extremely easy).
He got a job as a state probation officer and then a year or two later, as a federal probation officer. He made really good money, had great government benefits, and retired at 54 with what he called "a great retirement". He never lifted a finger to help anybody and was very tight with money. His wife also has a great retirement; she was a specialist RN. They now live lives of leisure. My wife and I suffered and sacrificed for decades as JWs and will never be able to retire. We both work fulltime now and have low paying jobs with no retirement opportunities.
When I referred to this friend in complaining to my mother, she said "Well, he chose his life and you chose yours." That is LUDICROUS!!!. I DID NOT CHOOSE THE LIFE I HAVE NOW. I CHOSE THE LIFE THAT JWS PROMISED ME I WOULD HAVE BY NOW (actually that I should have been enjoying for at least 27 years now, considering that 1994 was the limit of the "generation" doctrine of the time).
It is stupid to say that I chose the life I have now as if when I was younger I sat around and thought "OK, let's see, when I get older, I want to have to work a low-paying, menial job; I don't want to be retired. I don't want to have any money. I don't want to be like my crazy friends who can wake up when they want and drink coffee and travel and never worry about finances or health insurance. Who would want that?"
Here's an illustration for illustration-loving JWs: You go to your doctor. He tells you that something is wrong with your right arm and that if you don't have it cut off, you will die soon. So you decide to have your arm cut off based on what you were told the future holds if you don't. After your arm is cut off, you find out that the doctor was wrong and that there was nothing wrong with your arm. You go to him and address the issue. He says "Hey, don't complain. You made the choice to have your arm cut off; I didn't force you."
Hopefully, the point is clear. Of course, you made the choice, but it wasn't just some easy, frivolous choice. It was a serious choice BASED ON WHAT HE (THE DOCTOR) TOLD YOU! You were given two options: Keep your arm and die soon or cut off your arm and live to old age. You weren't given the option to keep your arm and live to old age.
I was brainwashed and indoctrinated as a JW to choose between two options: Be a JW and live forever in paradise by, at the latest, 1994, or not be a JW and have a little while longer to live (maybe a few years or even a few months).
I did not choose the life I have now. I hate it and it slaps me in the face every damned day. I chose the life JWs promised me from infancy. JWs were wrong. I cut my damned arm off for nothing.
Rather than blaming the WT, it's just that I am reaping the results of my choices
I blame the shit out of JWdom, and I hate it. It took the prime of my life and has destroyed what would be my "golden years". I wish the worst for it, and if I find a way, I will contribute to its exposure and demise. I would like to literally open a can of whip-ass on the GB members, and I honestly believe that even at my age (60ish), I could take on all eight at one time.
I'm reaping the results of their falsehoods, their lies and deception, their evil, their lunacy.
