Living as a former JW (page 2)

R.Crusoe

My advice - involve your children in the outdoors and nature in general - wildlife, animals and things of growth that are a reality! Avoid the imaginary opression that subdues the mind and soul with personal doubts and unfathomable preoccupations! They aill wear humans down year by year decade by decade!

Expose them to festivals during the year - pagan and others you may feel appropriate - in order to share in an experience of culture and humanity - to see what is real and being lived - to mix and talk with and experience people and diversity in our world!

There is no need for commitment to any dogma or doctrine! Simply mingle and mix and be who you are and join in life!

It's what I haven't done though I so was ready for it - time and again but life had other plans - the why nots are tedious so I will spare you the boredom!

I hope you explore what is there rather than embrace or are bound by what is not!

lookingnow25

Ignoring holidays due to their pagan roots always sounded retarded to me. Yesterday I'm doing a job at an investment firm. The owner says "Have a happy easter Looking!", and I said "Happy Easter Owner!". Why did I say that without hesitating? Because the man was being friendly and thoughtful. Hell maybe he was a pagan, I don't know. But he was being genuinely nice. Whether I ever "celebrate" or not? Who knows, I'm still "active" after all.

Pagan origins...whatever JW's...eff you and your pyramids.

Looking

Gopher

The "pagan origins" teaching is overblown. If JW's were to eliminate everything with pagan origins -- they'd have to go after calendars and wedding rings, just for starters.

The JW teachings on holidays were just because Joe Rutherford wanted to build artificial barriers between his people (Joe Hoover's Witnesses) and the outside world. His intolerance for SOME things of pagan origin and not others smacks of control and arrogance.

Earlier in this decade, the Awake magazine had an article on pinatas, formerly frowned on by JW's. The article said it was a matter of conscience, and that PAST meanings of things (like pinatas) are irrelevant. I wonder if they would apply that to birthdays?

It felt odd the first few times I observed holidays and birthdays, but I mostly do it for the social aspect.

IP_SEC

Happy easter Ynt. Congratulations on setting a goal with a date to stop attending.

Im not a christian anymore. Not religious in any sense. Holidays are just social occasions to me. Im cool with pagans anyway. Modern pagans are usually more peaceful & tolerant than other religious types.

I think the most important part of the removal process is not viewing yourself as a former JW. You used to be a child but you dont go around thinking of yourself as a former child do you? It will come with time.

jamiebowers

Life can be difficult, even as a non-jw. Take the time to celebrate everything you can. There are lots of things that have pagan origins, but we and the jw's still use them (names of days of the week, months of the year, lipstick, etc). When I started celebrating holidays, I made it a point to do something or include someone who had no one/nowhere to go. We celebrate every holiday to the fullest, (except St. Patrick's Day, because we don't drink) with big dinners, cookouts, etc. Our summer parties are legendary in these parts. I found that there are many avenues to encourage spirituality and provide moral lessons to kids. Something on the news, problems at school or with friends, etc. Good luck and God bless (and don't feel uncomfortable accepting my good wishes for you!).

The Last Nephilim

If you still believe in God after being a JW, then the Bible and your conscience would have to dictate what you do. I, for one, still teach people that holidays and birthdays are pagan and therefore COULD be disapproved of by God, but I don't tell them they need to stop celebrating in order to continue worshipping God. That's their decision. I still don't believe the Bible teaches the trinity, but I think there's more evidence pointing to a cross rather than a stake. However, I still think a cross is classified as an idol. I believe that the FDS is everyone who slaves for God, not just a select group in Brooklyn. I believe that going house to house to convert people is not what Jesus had in mind when he said "Go therefore and make disciples..." and that it's not vital to your salvation. I don't think that "Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together..." means you must attend meetings regularly at the KH. I also do not think that not attending means you will lose your salvation or that you are drawing away from God (that's all I've heard from the few who have bothered to call or come by since my wife and I stopped going). I see nothing wrong with having a neat beard. If anything, why does the GB frown upon beards when it clearly was God's standard for men in the Bible? Isn't it society in Satan's system that promoted the idea that beards are "unsightly" or "unclean"? I have only told a few people that I'm not a practicing JW, and those at work have to keep it to themselves because there's another JW that works there. I don't want to be DF'd before I have a chance to reveal more to my son, and I want to leave on my own terms, not the bORG's. I have found it liberating to read the Bible (even the NWT) without the taint of the bORG's literature or thinking to mess it up. Independent Bible reading ALONE can lead one away from the JW religion, let alone the politics and favoritism that occurs with it's adherents and leaders. I say read the Bible and let your conscience guide you. Tell people why YOU feel this way or that without telling them that they must conform to your thinking or they will not make it. Be happy knowing that other people are using their free will that God gave them to make their own decisions about how to worship Him. I find that this approach is much more fulfilling, less abrasive, and less stressful for you and the persons to talk to!

WTWizard

One thing, I now accept that people celebrate their holidays. I have tons of Christmas decorations, and do not hesitate to deploy them (when I was going into the cancer, I threw away quite a few out of the kind of disgust that one would feel for something that was robbing them of life). And now I got all new ones, and more than I had before.

I listen to any kind of music I feel like. I no longer worry about whether a song is "bad"--if it's "bad", I play it anyways. I have rap with gunshots and swearing, that glorifies using drugs, and play it anyway without worrying about it. Before, any slight hinting at immorality would have shelved the song.

Field circus is another nice thing to do without. I haven't been out in field circus, nor have I had to worry about rushing home to put in at least one damn hour, since 6/2005. Also, I haven't worried about being at a boasting session since 2005.

Alas, when it comes to fornication, the window of opportunity has probably closed up forever on me. That is a bummer, since it will still tempt them to forcibly recapture me and force me into that damn Value Destroyer Training School that they had planned for me all the while. And they wonder why I am in such a race to ruin the Watchtower Society--before the Watchtower Society ruins me.

Living as a former JW