Why are EX-JW's and JW's in doubt(faders) so ''afraid" of the elders?

booker-t

I have been out for years now but I still tremble alittle when I run into an elder at the store or run into an elder on the street and my post question certainly applies to me as well but why do I still have fear of JW's elders? I have been DA'd for so many years but that fear still comes up. And reading alot of the post here I still see ex-jw's and jw's faders living a pretended JW life or pretending to be happy when they are miserable in the WT. A poster once referred to the WTS as a ''abusive" husband and how the wife still has fear many years after leaving her husband. I know for myself I just could not stomach the WTS any longer and I had to leave. I feel this was the best decision I could have made. I don't get anything in bashing the WTS like so many posters do but that is their thing. I just graduated from college with my Associate in Science Degree and now I am going to work on my BA degree. My family acts distant with me now but I just don''t care anymore I have to live my life. But why do so many posters here still attend meetings and assemblies? It is like what free2bme said in one of her earlier post going to the meetings is like going to a trash can and eating contaminated food. You know the food stinks and is dirty but you still go. I just loved that expression "free2bme" it is so true.

Sweetp0985

I used to be like that..get a lil nervous feeling when I see any JW's but now I'm over it...But I did get that same feeling again recently when I subjected myself to attending the memorial I guess because I felt I was on "their turf"...but when I'm out and about and I see one, if they see me fine if not fine...I make no effort to hide or scutter away. Some (like my own auntie once) I looked right through her the same way she was looking through me as if I wasn't there. I had to come back to add...I went to the memorial to give my newly df'd dad a lil support...I know how it is being "out".

Calliope

just yesterday i was telling a friend about that fear.
even down to going to the grocery store has become a chore.
and it's not that i care if witnesses see me. i just don't want to see them.
she could relate.

anyone else feel this way?

calliopé

stillajwexelder

I am not afaid - but I find it far easier to remain in and post etc. Easier on family that is in

Jourles

I used to have that feeling as well. I figure it might have had something to do with me *thinking* they knew more than I did as regards the "truth." This is certainly no longer the case. I would welcome any confrontation with ANY witness these days. But alas, I haven't spoken to one witness since I've been df'd.

daystar

When you have realized just how much of a joke their "authority" is, you may find that they appear very differently to you. Their authority is only relevant if you are still living within the paradigm in which it exists. Look to that for the solution. Solve et coagula.

Warlock

fullofdoubtnow

I do not fear the elders now I'm da'd, I have no reason to, I am no longer a jw. I used to have a fear of them when I was a jw though.