Do you feel embarrassed, humiliated, anger that you were a Jw?

by LouBelle 34 Replies latest jw friends

  • DanTheMan
    DanTheMan

    I don't really consider myself to be so much of a "victim" like I did when I first exited. What happened, happened. It's a pretty bizarre thing to have in your past, and so there is some embarrassment. I find that most people I meet now know little or nothing about JW's, and so when I discuss my past I just say that I went off the religious deep-end in my 20's, and leave it at that unless they probe for more information.

    There is a hilarious line from a Family Guy episode where Meg had joined a cult, and the leader asks her "Are you a confused adolescent desperately seeking acceptance from an undifferentiated ego mass that demands conformity?" I'm waiting for a situation where I can use it to help people understand where i come from, but with some humor.

  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips
    embarrassed, humiliated

    No. The only person that can take my honor and dignity away is me. And the past is past, I am not angry either.

    BTS

  • coffee_black
    coffee_black

    I'm not embarrassed about it.... I was born into it...had no choice growing up. Most people who know I was a jw seem fascinated by it. Had a girls night out Monday with girls I work with. Brought along my best friend who was also raised a jw and is out... We were deluged with questions about it...

    Coffee

  • jaguarbass
    jaguarbass

    I am angry that my mother raised me as a witness.

    I have gotten over it in the past.

    comming here and responding to post such as this shows me I still have embers smoldering.

    I am reasonably happy, and more successful and prosperous than most people on this planet.

    Still I will never get over the free will and energy the tower took from me and their audacity in doing so. The blatant lies and missleadings they told me.

    I know coming here yanks the chain on my sleeping dog from time to time.

    So, I must like it.

    It lets me know I am alive.

    Sometime I wonder if I was raised a catholic or baptist would I be angry and disturbed.

    It's possible.

    I've heard a lot of catholics and various bible thumpers say it fuxd them up.

    I think being disturbed is part of ones awakening.

    I am awakening, I know I shouldnt be disturbed.

    I know all the nice sayings and forgivings, similar to Jesus "Forgive them for they know not what they do."

    I know I am a victim of being blind led by the blind, sleeping people missleading sleeping people.

    But it takes work to say all those things and I figure if I have to say them they are not sinking in.

    My wife says I am doing much better this year.

    Thats because I was busy with the election.

  • Twitch
    Twitch

    No, but for a long time, I felt all of those things and more.

  • jws
    jws

    I felt embarrassed being a JW around worldly people. But for being suckered by it from birth until about 24, no.

    I guess so many people are suckered into religion of one form or another. I don't know the exact percentage, but I'll bet well over half the world claims to be of one religion or another. So it's not so unusual.

    Faith has it's place for a lot of people. Be it JW, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, etc. All of these religions require you to accept something that others aren't going to believe.

    I do feel bitter about some things though. I didn't like that my dad was always under so much stress and had a short temper trying to juggle being an elder, a blue-collar worker, and raise a family. I do resent the fact that my mother may have lived to see my kids and my brother's son if she hadn't opted for bloodless surgery. I do hate that the religion teaches my father that he's going to live in paradise without his sons and he aches like I can't imagine over that. And he believes he's going to see my mother again and have to explain to her how he failed to keep us in the faith.

    Yes, there is hurt and bitterness.

    The people? I don't really think about them anymore. They're no longer part of my life. I never see them. I suppose I could find things I really was peeved about if I think long enough about it, but why bother to dig just to get ticked off?

  • Mrs. Fiorini
    Mrs. Fiorini

    I do still feel anger, in large part because the damage done to me and my family continues to this day. None of my three siblings or their families will have anything to do with me since I'm no longer a JW. I am also seeing their kids being discouraged from college, which I think is an absolute crime.

    On the bright side, I graduated from college myself this month. It is twenty-five years late, but I'm still proud of myself for doing it. It will give me opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise, and the knowledge I've gained makes me a richer person. Also, I feel like I've gotten something back that the WT took from me.

    Maybe someday I'll get my family back too. I haven't given up!

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    I was raised in it..I would never have joined that "Sh*t for Brains Religion" on my own!!..LOL!!..................Laughing Mutley...OUTLAW

  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips
    I was raised in it..I would never have joined that "Sh*t for Brains Religion" on my own!!..LOL!!.................. ...OUTLAW

    I was raised in it too. But never say never. Smarter people have been taken. BTS

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    It was like any other scam, albeit that the consequences are much much worse than most scams. I have probably fallen for my share of scams, usually in the form of ordering something and it turning out to be a piece of crap.

    More importantly, I now see the witless religion as a whopper of a mistake--though no more difficult than buying a mop that you think is going to be a wonder mop, only to have it barely able to push dirty water around. It's the advertisement (at least I wasn't hounded and harassed into buying the mop).

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