I've been a faded JW for 10 years I left because of my failed first marriage, I'm no hypocrite and realised I had left completely so I embraced the world and dived in, Only christmas and birthdays I could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if I suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.
1/ All the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, I've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.
Of course you can find all those criticisms in the world, where do you think the witnesses got them? Look, there are bad people in the world, that's a fact. Since you're not being very specific here, I can't go into any more detail, either.
2/ I got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, I got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later I am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and I was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.
I think you're falling victim to the "us versus them" mentality of the witnesses. You are using the lingo, calling your bad boyfriends "worldly" as if all non-witnesses are gambling alcoholics. I hate to say it, but the "truth" is no better than the "world." You can just as easily get married to an alcoholic Jehovah's Witness. It seems you're blaming all non-witnesses for your bad taste in men.
3/ Parents-in-law! I have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, I had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.
That's their choice. Ask yourself why you really want a relationship with relatives who love a book publishing company more than you.
4/ I miss the honest friendships of the truth, I had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after I left but I was determined to fade so moved away completely, but I find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( I've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.
You did not have honest friendships in the truth. Real friends stick by you no matter what, and they don't drop you because you stop believing in their religion. If they "genuinely cared" for you, they'd still be your friends. All those people, ages 14 to 80 cared for you because they're required to. If it was anything more than that, again, they'd still care for you.
5/ My recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, I thought why not find out about it, Harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when I said to him how does he clear that with God, he replies "As long as I repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.
Then don't date people like him. That's the great thing about not being a witness: YOU HAVE CHOICES! All "worldly" people are NOT the same. They are NOT all evil. If you really looked, you'd find a lot of good.
6/ I recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, It wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their Religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in God, It's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it. They said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and I thought "well if this is reality I've had enough of it"
Sorry to tell you this, but atheism isn't something you just "look into." Being a skeptic is about appreciating reality. It sounds like you're viewing atheism as a religion, it's not, it's the opposite of it. Also, not all atheists are the same. This is at least the third time you've made a broad generalization about people. You're looking for something to take the place of religion. Atheism doesn't do that. It's like that scene on the Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo the Red pill: "Remember, all I offer you is the truth, nothing more.
So here I am feeling like the prodigal daughter and thinking being among warm-hearted if strict people who will accept me back and give me a sense of community again that I haven't seen in any other christian faith for all I've looked, has gotta be better than being shoved and shunned and used by people who have stopped caring for each other and only think of themselves. Your thoughts please?
Remember that the people shunning you are the witnesses. Going back to the witnesses is like a battered wife going back to her abusive spouse. It's Stockholm syndrome of the worst kind.
