Hi Everybody

Y I Man

Hi Everyone,

Ive just registered and im happy to be a part of this Forum. Just to tell you a bit about myself im 27 and was brought up as a JW from birth. My Mam & Dad have always been JW's & my bro & sis still are. We lived in a small town and I was the only JW at school and as a result got a lot of grief off the other kids due to this. I went to all the meetings & field service but I never realy accepted or understood what I was told and I hated my Mam & Dad cos of the way the other kids treated me.

Anyway, I got baptized at the age of 16 as it seemed to be the right thing to do in my Mam & Dad's eyes. Because I hated the 'truth' so much I started to rebell. Started smoking, (still do), got in trouble with other kids, smoked dope, got involved with girls etc etc. Anyway I was disfellowshiped when I was 17, moved out of home into a bed sit, started work and never saw my parents. I got heavily into drugs, nothing serious, just dope & pills and I never looked back. I moved to the city, better job, better money, & better girls! and here I am today.

I finally got in touch with my parents 2 years ago who were so pleased to hear from me and they do accept responsibility for they way I was treated in my childhood. They dont seem to be as strict now and we get to see eachother now and again.

I really can not accept their way of life, im so much happier now, however, I still have all the thoughts in my head about what I learned at the meetings. It has messed my head up big time because I just dont know if the 'truth' is the truth. My Mam & Dad are reasonable people, pretty much down to earth & clever. My Mam is a solicitor & my Dad is a housing manager for the council & everyone who went to the meetings are sensible, they arnt brainwashed or wacko's. Why would they continue to go to the meetings if it was a load of rubish? Ive been asking myself that for 10 years now.

I could never go back to the meetings, I enjoy my way of life too much and could not conform to their way of living. But i cant help but think that what they believe might be right. (signs of the last days & all that).

But thats it for now, have to get back to work.

I look forward to chatting to you all

Gavin

Dansk

Hi Gavin and WELCOME!,

Nice to see another Brit on the board.

They dont seem to be as strict now and we get to see eachother now and again.

Excellent!!

I suggest you just peruse the site, especially the archives, as all your questions will be answered.

Ian

fullofdoubtnow

Hi Gavin, and welcome to the board.

Great to see you here.

Linda

Crumpet

Hi Gavin - as soon as I saw your name I thought - "wonder if he's from newcastle"? And you are! Welcome to the board mate.

This is a good place to come to unlearn a lot of stuff. There are some books that you could read too - just take your time and I would recommend the "Best of " section to find out soem fundamentals as wel as experiences. I came here believing too although like you I was dfed very young - 16. Now I am very happy to be free mentally but its sad that my folks are all still in.

signs of the last days & all that

I think generally once you dig a little at the statistics you'll find this is an unsubstantiated claim by dubs. There are not more wars or earthquakes or famines now than there have been in the past. You must equate the deaths claimed by such measured against population and the earth has never been so heavily populated as it is now.

Simple stuff like that - no rocket science and yet I could never have worked that out for myself - you can have left physically but it takes a lot longer to leave mentally!

Great to see you here, looking forward to your posts and maybe you'll come along to one of our meet ups - known as apostafests where you'll meet some cool peeps like Dansk and I!

crumpet x

Y I Man

Thanks for making me feel so welcome guys.

Id love to come to one of your meetups & see you in the future

Gavin

x

deeskis

Welcome Gavin

I understand what you are saying, I had been away from the org for many years but still deep down felt that there was elements of truth in it.

Then I found this site, read some incredible information, devoured Crisis of Confidence, which is a book everyone should read, and I know I made the right decision to leave all those years ago.

Best wishes

Dee

chuckie77

Hey there matey and welcome!

If you havent seen it already, this site might help you out a bit, its a really interesting read

www.jwfacts.com

Its the site of one of the posters on here, a really good guy with lots of knowledge and rational thinking.

Cheers mate

katiekitten

Hey, welcome to the board. Glad you found us.

Why do intelliegent people stop in? Its not a logical thing. I think its more that it fills some kind of need - need for structure, need for belonging, or importance, or comfort. It could be any number of things. But the real truth is that lots of intelligent people stick with things that are not neccessarily true.

unique1

WELCOME!!! Hope to see more of you here.

Legolas

Welcome to the board Gavin!

Hi Everybody

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