Anything scary happen after you left or joined another religion?

by lilbluekitty 21 Replies latest jw experiences

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  lilbluekitty

  I see I only get to post one thread a day so I'd better make this one count.

  Did anything scary or bad (besides shunning, etc.) happen to you after you left? What about if you decided to join another religion?

  I ask because I'm thinking of becoming a Christian (a regular one, not JW) and just thinking about it makes me scared. I believe there is a God, and I believe most of the Christian teachings (not so sure about hell and the trinity but whatever) but my parents always told me scary stories as a kid (and even as an adult) about what really happens when you "leave Jehovah."

  My sister in law had a crazy-sounding experience the day she "accepted Christ" but she's never been a JW. She was telling me all this stuff about a bright light surrounding her, hearing God's voice speaking to her, how she just randomly started speaking in tongues (she's a Catholic, not Pentecostal) and such and I was like, dude I don't want that to happen to me! I remember when my husband wanted to become born again (he was raised Catholic but never liked it and just kind of floated along for awhile) and I told my dad about how he was going to get baptized and stuff and my dad was warning me all these scary things would happen, like accepting Christ in your heart was not really Christ but a creepy spirit (I don't like the d word, it creeps me out) because he said "the devil disguises himself as an angel of light" so that people would really think it was Jesus but that it wasn't really, a lot of other crap like that.

  I have these anxiety attacks sometimes that I've left JWs for good and that my friends and family are getting persecuted but that I'm doing fine and then suddenly I'm about to be destroyed becaues I'm "on the wrong side of the fence" and want to come back but can't because it's too late and stuff. I've had this fear before I even really thought much about leaving the org, it seemed to start around the time I started flirting with my now-husband online I think, or whenever I did something "bad."

  Other times I tell myself that God sees all the horrible things that happened in my life and that he doesn't blame me for how I've turned out and just wants me to find him. I try and think about it that way as much as possible but it's hard becaues it's just so ingrained in me that I'm "going to die in Armageddon because I'm bad for having doubts" and what have you. And of course now I'm "bad" for going on websites and commenting on them made my "apostate" former JWs. I think I mentioned before, my parents told me once you're an apostate you can't come back. I used to ask my dad, but what if they want to come back and they're sorry? He was like no way, they can't. *shakes head*

  So did any of you try and join another religion? Did you have weird or scary experiences? Anything like that or am I just being paranoid?

  I've just been fading out but I keep getting tempted to say things on my FB lately. I've been posting scriptures like "obey God rather than men" (the "borg", I like that one btw, I'm a TNG Trekkie) and about how we're saved by grace and not by works etc. and the weird thing is my JW friends and family actually click "like"! Weird.

  OK, finally, a bit of humor that my husband and I really like from Family Guy. I want to use this as my avatar!! LOL.

  
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  charlie brown jr.

  Really Good question.......

  I think just realizing I was fed Bullshit For more than Half my life.......

  I was ready for Torment and abuse from Worldly People to eat me alive.........

  Lost my Children (shunning) is the only thing I saw from leaving the Protection Of Jehovah's Loving and Understanding Arrangement!
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  leavingwt

  Book Recommendation:

  The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment

  http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Certainty-Reflective-Christian-Commitment/dp/0830822372/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319054836&sr=8-1

  Do you feel equally uncomfortable with closed-minded skepticism and closed-minded Christianity? If so, then The Myth of Certainty is the book for you. Daniel Taylor suggests a path to committed faith that is both consistent with the tradition of Christian orthodoxy and sensitive to the pluralism, relativism and complexity of our time. Taylor makes the case for the reflective, questioning Christian with both incisive analysis and lively storytelling. His brief fictional interludes provide an alternative way to explore key issues of belief and vividly depict the real-life dilemmas Christians often face. Taylor affirms a call to throw off the paralysis of uncertainty and to risk commitment to God without forfeiting the God-given gift of an inquiring mind. Throughout he demonstrates clearly how much the world and the church need people--maybe people like you--who are willing to ask tough questions.
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  undercover

  : "My sister in law had a crazy-sounding experience the day she "accepted Christ" but she's never been a JW. She was telling me all this stuff about a bright light surrounding her, hearing God's voice speaking to her, how she just randomly started speaking in tongues (she's a Catholic, not Pentecostal) and such..."

  crazy is as crazy does. Did she remember to take her meds that day?

  But in answer to your original question... no, nothing scary happened. In fact, the further away I got from not only the WTS, but religion in general, the more clear things became and less scary. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes time to deprogram and find your true self that's been stifled while under the control of the WT cult. Since you've freed yourself of the control of the WTS, do yourself a favor before jumping into any other religion. Take time for yourself and figure shit out on your own. Don't let another group influence your thinking. Read and study the Bible on it's own merit...not what some other person or group tells you it must mean. And if you decide that you still want to be a Christian, why do you need to join another religion?
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  DagothUr

  Absolutely nada.
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  flipper

  Actually - nothing scary happened at all ! I actually ended up being happier, feeling much more safe in using my own freedom of thinking without being TOLD what to think by the WT society. And surprise , surprise ! I actually have a clearer thinking mind than the GB did in the WT society !

  KITTY- The WT society taught Jehovah's Witnesses falsehoods when they told them they'd have bad things happen if they left the JW beliefs. It's not true. Very good things happen. We all learn to think and use our minds again without being TOLD what to think. It's a FEAR tactic the WT society uses to keep us from exiting the Witnesses . So they try to MAKE us feel scared about the future . Which in reality- there is nothing to fear about exiting the Witnesses . Life gets much better
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  Band on the Run

  I was born-in and felt that Jehovah would strike me with lightning for entering a church. The first time I did was a tourist. My chest was so tight and heart pounded. To make matters worse, there was a wax figurine of a pope in special garments. I jumped so high. Nothing happened. Now I adore churches, esp. those with artistic merit. It feels so comfortable and home like that I can't believe all the years it took me to even ask questions.

  I joined a mainstream denomination that is not strict on dogma. Since no full human (excepting Christ) can ever know what is God, there is little of the HW lecturing. In fact, I wanted a very delinated answer to my doctrine questions. The priests refused to answer my questions in a certain, JW type way. I said that things like the Holocaust, my bro's cerebral palsy, and many others made me question God's existence. My feminism took hold and I wondered about God being only a perpetuation of male hierachy. He said he had the same questions and found no answers. Next, he said that asking questions was perhaps more important than neat answers and that the church is a community of people grappling with the same questions together.

  The people in my churches are diverse. Some have detailed Biblical, historical, and theological answers. Others know very little of Bible content, save the most popular cultural Bible stories, such as Moses, Joseph and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat and Jesus Christ, Superstar. One group does not seem better than another. How I live is more important than a precise Biblical outlook. The Witness control would never get started. Indeed, two parishes in which I was active had federal lawsuits going on about church governance.
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  Bella15

  I ditto ... undercover's last paragraph ... with double emphasis on reading the bible on your own. Get a different bible if possible.

  Take some time off organized religious services, hopefully you'll husband understand. Enjoy your freedom. Take plenty of time for yourself always thanking the Heavenly Father and asking him to guide you to His son if that it is really the desire of your heart.

  The only "scary" thing that happened to me after leaving the Watchtower Corporation was to discover its TRUE history: beginnings, founders, false teachings, false prophecies, pagan symbols, selective references, their "untruths", United Nations scandal, Malawi double standard, but most of all - that they say that Jesus is not my Mediator ... OMG! when I read this I almost fainted! That's not what the bible says. Moreover thanks to the Watchtower deception I now know for sure that the Devil exists ...and that's scary, to know that Satan controls religions like WTC to bring people to oppose Jesus as our Mediator, they have put Jesus aside and sit on his throne ... the only benefiting from this insult to Jesus is Satan, that's scary Kitty!
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  Knowsnothing

  No kitty. I, having left (not joined any other religion, thank God), am still having some trouble adjusting.

  But, as with most experiences, it really is a question of time. Investigate, investigate (the WT past).

  Get Crisis of Conscience as soon as you can.

  In fact, those phobias about dying at Armaggedon have largely ceased. I don't really feel guilty about small stuff anymore. I remember how guilty I would feel for not going to FS, or not being happy about going to FS. How I was supposed to be a 'role-model' for the congregation.

  I've come to realise that God could not possibly want to put that pressure on you. It was all fabricated in my own mind. The feelings of low self-esteem have beginning to be lifted, but it is a long journey I suppose.

  I wish you the best on your journey to self-discovery. Give your self time. If you seek to join a religion now, you may be yet in a vulnerable position and get sucked in. Or, you could probably look around and see it's all basically the same crap.

  Why do you need religion anyways?
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  transhuman68

  You can spend years listening to fakers and charlatans telling you that you have to be born-again and to accept Jesus into your heart; these people are unstable and slightly crazy- usually ending up in jail for fraud or tax evasion, or else they will run off with a pole-dancer and get married in Reno. Keep these crazy people away from you; if you need a church, find a mainstream one, with older (sensible) people in it. Don't lose sleep over any of it; live your life in an orderly way and let Satan & Jesus fight it out somewhere else- it's not your problem. The important things in life are cats and coffee : everything else is bollocks.