What were your reasons for becoming a JW?

by Narkissos 49 Replies latest jw friends

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  compound complex

  Dear Narkissos,

  So basic and relevant a question! I'm tardy with my response as I've been absorbed with my recent inter-planetary sojourns. I remember Sarek's comment about its seeming right at the time, but where were we? Oh, no matter.
  Talked Saturday with my best friend from high school. Very brainy sort, who went off to conquer the world and half-suceeded, IMHO. We are in constant touch, in particular discussing my deconversion processes. I was rather shocked when she said that my letters to her overseas sounded like religious tracts! I was in college but on the verge of quitting and going on to baptism and pioneering [8 years counting to '75]. Prior thereto, we were engaged in all sorts of scholastic pursuits, creative endeavors, and plans to better the likes of humanity. Well, she did just that through governmental, scholastic and other worldly-soon-to-be-destroyed-by-God agencies. She succeeded big-time, traveling the world and broadening her proverbial horizons. I wound up with a stack of un-placed WT and AWAKE! ragmags and a mortgage. Most of my family followed me to the TOWER.
  Lady friend's observation was that we were both idealistic and earnest youths. We both STILL are [not young, but earnest and idealistic]. She is an atheist and I am a Christian. I wanted to change people - the world of mankind - through the offices of the HS and 'the whole body of truth that is unique to Jehovah's Witnesses.'
  I need lots more time to sort through the last 40 years. Hopefully, I will catch up with dear, kind and patient Friend.

  CoCo
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  RubaDub

  I was given literature upon exiting the womb.

  Rub a Dub
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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I just want to say thanks to the idealists who posted. Who doesn't want a kinder and gentler society? That dream was a beautiful one, and now we know its to be pursued apart from Jehoober of the WTS.

  I grew up in a religiously divided home (Dad JW and mother Roman Catholic). My father demanded my sister and I follow the JW life and my mother demanded we get a catholic education. I think I already had a predisposition to seek solitude, but the inevitable clashes and conflicts made me, not only feel, but actually be an outcast in both "worlds". I also had/have a less than stellar relationship with my parents, who I have disappointed on many counts.

  Add to all of that this pertinent detail: Even from when I was fairly young, say 9 yrs or so, I never really believed anything I was being taught by either religion. Yet my whole family and so many people in the KH and the school were strong believers. Talk about feeling disconnected or alienated.

  I knew many of the key teachings of the jws were simply wrong and baseless, and catholicism had its share of unfounded doctrines too. But at the same time I still (and I'll admit at times even now) longed for some kind of inner experience, spiritual birth, what-have-you. I decided to take a leap of faith and get baptised as a JW (having my own private set of amended votives). Maybe my motive was simply an attempt at being within instead of on the fringe. I'd like to think a part of it was actually an earnest desire to find/kindle spirituality.

  I think this tin man is still without a heart. And if you're wondering why in the world I went with the JWs instead of the catholics, its because I also have the scarecrow's lack of brains.
• 

  compound complex

  Dear Mid-Sas,

  Pray, do not sell yourself short. I would prefer the friendship of straw-for-brains or hollow-man to that of the enigmatic man behind the curtain. We have moments of teetering between our new reality and the pseudoreligio-fantasy life of yore. Our lives, similarly, consisted of spiritual conflicts arising from bombardment from both the Holy See of Roma and the Oracle of Brooklyn. I perceive you will be all right.

  CoCo
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  KAYTEE

  Rubadub

  I was given literature upon exiting the womb.

  Is that why you came out screaming.

  Narkissos,

  I joined the witnesses because of;

  607 bce

  Millions now living will never die,

  This generation will not pass away,

  Organization that does not lie,

  Organization that was very Christian like,

  Paradise by 1975,

  No mortgage,

  No bad elements in org.,

  Healthy body,

  KT

  Ps Very ex witness
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  JH

  I wanted to live forever and get to know God at the same time.

  The JW's convinced me that the end was close.

  Oh, and I forgot to add, it was a friend that brought me into that religion. If It wasn't for him, I would never have joined, because it wasn't natural for me to belong to such a groupe.

  I guess I joined for the carrot.
• 

  Narkissos

  Here is an excerpt of Nietzsche's text I was alluding to (Thus Spake Zarathustra, 42. "Redemption"):

  And how could I endure to be a man, if man were not also the
  composer, and riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance!
  
  To redeem what is past, and to transform every "It was" into "Thus
  would I have it!"- that only do I call redemption!
  
  Will- so is the emancipator and joy-bringer called: thus have I
  taught you, my friends! But now learn this likewise: the Will itself
  is still a prisoner.
  
  Willing emancipateth: but what is that called which still putteth
  the emancipator in chains?
  
  "It was": thus is the Will's teeth-gnashing and lonesomest
  tribulation called. Impotent towards what hath been done- it is a
  malicious spectator of all that is past.
  
  Not backward can the Will will; that it cannot break time and time's
  desire- that is the Will's lonesomest tribulation.
  
  Willing emancipateth: what doth Willing itself devise in order to
  get free from its tribulation and mock at its prison?
  
  Ah, a fool becometh every prisoner! Foolishly delivereth itself also
  the imprisoned Will.
  
  That time doth not run backward- that is its animosity: "That
  which was": so is the stone which it cannot roll called.
  
  And thus doth it roll stones out of animosity and ill-humour, and
  taketh revenge on whatever doth not, like it, feel rage and
  ill-humour.
  
  Thus did the Will, the emancipator, become a torturer; and on all
  that is capable of suffering it taketh revenge, because it cannot go
  backward.
  
  This, yea, this alone is revenge itself: the Will's antipathy to
  time, and its "It was."
  
  Verily, a great folly dwelleth in our Will; and it became a curse
  unto all humanity, that this folly acquired spirit!
  
  The spirit of revenge: my friends, that hath hitherto been man's
  best contemplation; and where there was suffering, it was claimed
  there was always penalty.
  
  "Penalty," so calleth itself revenge. With a lying word it
  feigneth a good conscience.
  
  And because in the willer himself there is suffering, because he
  cannot will backwards- thus was Willing itself, and all life, claimed-
  to be penalty!
  
  And then did cloud after cloud roll over the spirit, until at last
  madness preached: "Everything perisheth, therefore everything
  deserveth to perish!"
  
  "And this itself is justice, the law of time- that he must devour
  his children:" thus did madness preach.
  
  "Morally are things ordered according to justice and penalty. Oh,
  where is there deliverance from the flux of things and from the
  'existence' of penalty?" Thus did madness preach.
  
  "Can there be deliverance when there is eternal justice? Alas,
  unrollable is the stone, 'It was': eternal must also be all
  penalties!" Thus did madness preach.
  
  "No deed can be annihilated: how could it be undone by the
  penalty! This, this is what is eternal in the 'existence' of
  penalty, that existence also must be eternally recurring deed and
  guilt!
  
  Unless the Will should at last deliver itself, and Willing become
  non-Willing-:" but ye know, my brethren, this fabulous song of
  madness!
  
  Away from those fabulous songs did I lead you when I taught you:
  "The Will is a creator."
  
  All "It was" is a fragment, a riddle, a fearful chance- until the
  creating Will saith thereto: "But thus would I have it."-
  
  Until the creating Will saith thereto: "But thus do I will it!
  Thus shall I will it!"
  
  But did it ever speak thus? And when doth this take place? Hath
  the Will been unharnessed from its own folly?
  
  Hath the Will become its own deliverer and joy-bringer? Hath it
  unlearned the spirit of revenge and all teeth-gnashing?
  
  And who hath taught it reconciliation with time, and something
  higher than all reconciliation?
  
  Something higher than all reconciliation must the Will will which is
  the Will to Power-: but how doth that take place? Who hath taught it
  also to will backwards?
  
  -But at this point in his discourse it chanced that Zarathustra
  suddenly paused, and looked like a person in the greatest alarm.
  With terror in his eyes did he gaze on his disciples; his glances
  pierced as with arrows their thoughts and arrear-thoughts. But after a
  brief space he again laughed, and said soothedly:
  
  "It is difficult to live amongst men, because silence is so
  difficult- especially for a babbler."
• 

  myelaine

  interesting piece Narkissos...

  Something higher than all reconciliation must the Will will which is
  the Will to Power-: but how doth that take place? Who hath taught it
  also to will backwards?

  love michelle
• 

  RubaDub

  Rubadub

  I was given literature upon exiting the womb.

  Is that why you came out screaming.

  Kaytee ... Yes, that may have been the case ... plus that nauseating feeling I had all over when the nurses were looking at me and I felt I was exposing myself and may have to discuss the issue with the elders.

  Rub a Dub
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  oompa

  as a fourth gen brainwashed from birth born in........once i leaned to reason, and it caused me internal conflict i could not deal with........i quit being a jw........oompa

  i never had REASON for becoming a jw....i just only ever remembered being one