by Seeker4 30 Replies latest jw friends
When I left, the Internet did not exist, but ironically, it was Barbara Grizzutti Harrison's book, "Visions of Glory" that made all the difference to me.
parakeet, that was the first "apostate" book I read. Never checked it out though, just went to the library and took it off the shelf and read in a quiet corner. That was 1980.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Grizzuti_Harrison
Visions of Glory online
Blondie
"That, of course, is one of the keys to survival of the organization Russell founded on soft mysticism, glorious visions and worldly disaffection. The Witnesses had nowhere else to go. Their investment in their religion was total; to leave it would have meant spiritual and emotional bankruptcy. They were not equipped to function in a world without certainty. It was their life. To leave it would be a death."
I think this is the reason so many stay unwillingly. In their mind, they have far too much to lose by leaving, so they stay in the spiritual comfort zone they have created for themselves, and stagnate intellectually. I guess it might be because wts teachings and practices just don't prepare you for life outside the org. Leaving is seen to be spiritual and eventually physical death, and no one wants to die. The key to getting them to think differrently is maybe to convince them that really don't have to go anywhere if they leave the org, but how to get them to accept that is the problem.
The internet may well be the way many will be convinced. It certainly helped me to get out of and then get over the org.
"Visions of Glory" was released in 1978. I would have been 26 and that was the year I was appointed as an elder, so I must have been an elder when I read it.
Part of what it helped me to see was that the WTS was not what it claimed to be, and that was a huge help for me as I served. I knew the Society had made lots of mistakes, and I never viewed it through rose colored glasses.
I did feel it had the closest thing to biblical truth I was likely to find, and on the rest I gave it the benefit of the doubt, "waiting on Jehovah" to set matters straight. All of this was laying a good basis for me when I finally decided that the WTS was never going to be "set straight" and that there was no Jehovah.
S4
blondie:
***parakeet, that was the first "apostate" book I read. Never checked it out though, just went to the library and took it off the shelf and read in a quiet corner. That was 1980.***
When the book was first published in 1978, I read a review of it in a magazine and knew I had to have it. It was not available in my small-town library, so I ordered it directly from the publisher.
That book saved my life.
When I told my JW mom about it, she demanded to read it and she did. When she returned it, all she would say regarding Harrison's research about the WTS was that Harrison wrote the book to spite her mother.
I still have the book, tattered and faded; one of my most treasured possessions.
Those of us that left the JW's may not have gone "anywhere" .
Another faith?
Science?
Atheism?
Agnostic?
Nothing?
We all went "somewhere".
aniron,
The point as I see it is that, when the Witnesses say, "Where else is there to go to?" they're asking that in terms of where else can I go where I'll have all the answers to everything. Where else can I go where, as BGH put it in that first post quote, I will be certain of everything?
"They were not equipped to function in a world without certainty," was how BGH put it.
Of course, there is no such place, and the Witnesses "certainty" of everything is only an illusion. Much of what they are so certain about are really lies and fantasy - but it gives them the feeling of knowing all and having all the answers. I remember how we used to talk about that, how nice it was to know what the future held, to know we'd never die, to know God's purpose for oursleves and the earth as well.
The huge step in leaving the Witnesses is realizing that you really don't know much at all, and that you will have to live with mystery and uncertainty all around you. So when some of us have written here about the fact that we didn't "go anywhere" as it were, I think we mean it in these terms: We didn't leave the Witnesses to go find another 'place' with all the answers for us. What we came to realize is that anyplace or anyone that claims to have all those answers is lying.
S4
seeker4
My point was that after leaving the JW's. We all end up "somewhere" whether some find another faith, science etc or just throw it all out the window. I've seen the whole range among ex-JW's from them becoming Catholic to following a hedonistic lifestyle. Last year I met with about 12 ex-JWs out of them only 2 had taken up being "Christian". The most of the others had no interest in becoming anything like that, but still professed a belief in a God. A couple had dumped belief in anything at all.
JW's don't usually leave to find "another place" its not in their thinking at the time. They are usually in shock from the fact they have left the WT. Thinking of going to another place is far from their minds. They don't think "I'll leave the WT and become a Catholic (or whatever)"
But we do find "our place" whether its is another faith or not. Many have found their "place" posting on forums like this. Some have made it their "place" to expose the Watchtower for what it is and warn others about them.
In my 25 yrs as a JW I very rarely came across a JW who lived in a "world of certainty" most had some degree of doubt. I've known seemly strong "spiritual" JW's who in private expressed grave doubts about WT teachings. Yes we all sat there discussing the "New system" etc but we never really knew for certain.
I never saw a time when I thought I would be out of this organization, but in the summer of 03' I had lost all desire to go to meetings. Totally disallusioned with their so-called Christian love that identified them as the only true org. I started surfing the net at work and at home when my family was at the meetings. I found one site where a guy had posted his "escape from the watchtower". It was in a book form with about 20 chapters. I was so engrossed in his story. He mentioned the "Crisis of Conscience" book (which I purchase and read immediately) Buying the book was made possible unexpectedly by my wife discovering what I was reading on the internet. (she would soon leave me because she deemed me a spiritual danger to our two sons.) At this point I knew I was never going back. For the first time I was outside the box and could see things I never saw before about the org. I guess it took a really bad expierence couple with years of turmoil as I serve as an elder and finally reading and becoming more informed via sites like these that helped me to take a stand not to be a part of them anymore. All in all I'd say these forums do indeed help people. If you leave this group one must realise that that is not equal to leaving Jehovah or more specifically Jesus. John 6:66-68 a passage they JW's love to quote to play on your mind. But the text states "to whom else" NOT where else, would you go away to. I realised I was not leaving Jesus. I was leaving a dangerous place, but not leaving Jesus. Actually my journey to the real Jesus had just begun.
Oy! I spent the better part of my first year in college (last year) going to my Professors and looking for direction. Until we said, um, enough is enough, stop selling crazy cuz we're all full up here; I didn't have an original thought in my head. I could relate every task I had to perform or tolerate as a mother,wife and active sheeple back to some talk or article I had read. I looked up every misgiving I ever had on the Watchtower CD and before that in our home "library." The last C.O. I remember Bro. Robert Archibald (anyone know him?) suggested that we should encourage our children to read books and look up the information in our home libraries or use the libraries at the Kingdumb Hall -- WHY? Cause that way you won't run into any dangerous material on the internet...that and you are teaching your children to appreciate books... In our meeting w/the brothers (after we wrote a letter to the society asking them, What UP w/UN and misc. other topics) where they would not let us even hold or read the Borgs response to us -- yes they actually read it to us, they demonized the internet w/an Awake from a bound volume predating the internet, that and of course Television because that was the picture that was actually in that article. I'm with everyone else -- who says you have to "go" anywhere? I'm exactly where I want to be, free! Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. Henry David Thoreau I think that quote speaks volumes and is especially apropos when analyzing any cult.
Stilla:
You are right about the comparison of the printing press and the RC church and the internet and JWs.
Back then, I am sure the church decried the printing press and made remarks about it. Even with the printing press, the ownership of books was still mainly limited to the rich or upper classes. But, in time, the influence of the church over ignorant and superstitious people grew less and less because the people grew less ignorant and superstitious. Knowledge was religion's enemy.
So, ignorance and superstition (or fear) are the two things that a religion needs to instill in people in order to have a strangle-hold on them.
LHG
