Were You a 100% True Blue JW Believer?

by minimus 29 Replies latest jw friends

  • jws
    jws

    I always believed I was in the right religion, but I started to wonder whether they had everything right when they said the heart literally was where your emotions came from. I disagreed as I had learned enough from grade school biology at that point to know better. My parents scolded me and warned me they never wanted to hear me say that again, especially not to somebody at the hall. It was a bit shocking to me. Here was an honest, intellectual discussion and my parents got stern and angry like I'd never seen them before. Well, maybe when I did something wrong, but for having an intellectual disagreement?

    I think it was a few months after the first artificial heart was used that the JWs changed their position and said the heart is really spoken of figuratively. Hmmm..., I was right all along!

    I also never really agreed with all the "modern day this", "modern day that" classes. I couldn't see where they got that BS from. I later learned that Fred Franz loved making those comparisons. But to me, they were coming out of thin air. I couldn't see any Biblical proof for any of it. It was like they were making this stuff up. Every time there was a new "greater Moses" or "greater Abraham", I just rolled my eyes and started daydreaming.

    Other than that, I never really had a love for it. I hated field service, boring meetings, and giving talks. Believed it, yes. But I never had that fire. I also kept worldly friends and was embarrassed to have people find out I was a JW.

    Maybe that's why when I read Ray Franz's book, I accepted it without much of a mental struggle at all. Sure, intellectually, the JW's were wrong and it would be wrong to stay. But maybe more so, it wasn't about right and wrong and finding what IS right to replace it. Ray's book gave me the excuse I had always been looking for to leave.

  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips
    Were You a 100% True Blue JW Believer?

    Yes I was. I was born in and believed it all.

    BTS

  • minimus
    minimus

    Now you're a true blue Republican.

  • yknot
    yknot

    Yes and No

    My first elders weren't completely partyline in doctrine, but I sincerely held to all the beliefs I had been taught by them until JWD.

    But hey being born at the end of 1973.... most of my indoctrination happened during post 75'-and Franz' Crisis of Conscience. Being very organizationally connected we too had a strong 'Berean' reawakening but remained dedicated to 'shaping' the Society.

    I am a heretic.

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    I TRIED to make sense out of it. If it didn't make sense, I didn't think about it.

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    I TRIED to make sense out of it. If it didn't make sense, I didn't think about it.

  • minimus
    minimus

    I was raised in it but the one thing I steadfastly would not accept is that by 1975, "The End" was supposed to be here. I remember hearing FW Franz on tape spouting how in the fall of 75, 6000 years of man's existence would be then and the 1000 year reign would immediately have to follow. Hogwash! The Bible never says such a thing. So I found myself discussing why I didn't believe the VP of the Society or others.

  • jaguarbass
    jaguarbass

    I was born in the tower.

    I dont think I was ever happy about that.

    It felt like a curse.

    The Big A was 3 years away.

    I wasnt supposed to get an education, when I tried the friends came out to the house and told my parents it would be a waste of money they said "I would never graduate before the end came."

    So because I had no direction or purpose my father beat me up and threw me out of the house. He put my bed and belongings in the trash.

    I married a witness when I was 19 in 1972.

    So for that period I embraced the faith. I thought the world was going to end and going to the kingdumb hall would save me.

    After 76, I was shattered.

    I cant even say I was looking for loopholes.

    I found a giant hole in my faith and belief.

    After 76, I was just trying to make sense of my life and looking back realized I was fading until one day I said I am never going back and dont talk to me like I am a JW anymore. That was 83, it took me 7 years.

    But there was no internet, there was a book "30 years a wactower slave." And a News letter "coments from the friends" which was my main support.

    But it wasnt interactive like JWD.

    So after I escaped I read the bible cover to cover 5 times and went to various churches.

    I started to see that everynoe wanted to control me and take my power.

    I really gave up on the bible and christianity after I saw the Bible thumpers played and used by Bush and pretty much destroy the America I knew as a young man.

    The bible thumpers will elect an idiot who lies about his views on abortion and goes out and shows himself to be a mass murderer.

    And they wont vote for an intelligent person who can talk coherently because he favors allowing a woman to chose whether to have a child or not.

    I really came to see the hypnotic effect the bible and religion have on people in the Bushwacked era.

    Which has driven me to explore spirituality, esoteric teachings and Gnosis. Hidden knowledge.

    And less than mainstream theories on mans origens.

    Call it paranoia or enlightenment, but I think the people with money and power are keeping the masses in the dark as to what is going on.

    http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Way-P-D-Ouspensky/dp/0394716728

  • Balsam
    Balsam

    Yes I can say I was for at least 10 of the 30 years. I would say I was between 100% and 50% back and forth over those years. I was so darn gullible and trusting. I'm wiser now but its a hell of a lesson to learn this way.

    Ruth

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    Initially, I thought the religion was sincerely trying to be the truth. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, because they were trying to go from a corrupt religious system of Babylon the Great to a more pure form of religion. And that process takes time, even if the leaders are actually sincere.

    But, once I started observing counsel for stupid things, the blatant lie from the platform that they wanted us to donate twice for the littera-trash and that it wasn't double donation, the incessant demands for more time in field circus, the stinginess of allotted free time, that they wanted me to listen only to the 225 songs, the Kingdumb Hell build that was not necessary, them tailoring rules to keep me away from anyone I tried attaching myself to, and the like, I began to realize that most of the rules were not necessary. If they were from God, they would make life in the New Dark Ages stagnant while I continually slaved for Almighty Baghead.

    Once they told me to just meet men at a$$emblies, it no longer mattered. If they were 100% the truth and I stayed in, I was in big trouble. Living forever in stagnation, with nothing but other men, and the guilt of being responsible for their being no "sisters" anywhere, was much much worse than simply getting destroyed. And so I had absolutely nothing to lose in turning apostate, save for forcing the hounders to waste their time and "holy spirit" trying to flush out the worldly music, rap, the 8 ball, inappropriate clothing, the Ouija board, "secret society" literature, the Christmas decorations, and my membership on apostate boards.

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