To Ex-JWs: Do You Regret Learning it Was a Lie? (page 6)

yknot

Probably as much as a normal, healthy, and balanced 'worldly' adult wishing they still really believed in the Easter Bunny!

It cut deep to be liberated.... (I accidently clicked onto JWD)..... but 'accurate knowledge' about the WTS is like a salve.

jwfacts

I don't regret it at all, and couldn't bear to have been a JW for any longer. Yet I am not necessarily happier as I have lost as much as I have gained. Still I would never consider going back.

In regards to your comment on the other thread - I agree that it is not possible to force anyone to leave. I also think that most people that leave do so because they want to. It is very hard for a person to change another persons faith and beliefs. JW's that love being JW's have a cache of internal responses that allow them to ignore any evidence against their beliefs. Yet I still worry that one day I may influence someone's faith and they end up worse off because of my actions.

leavingwt

Yet I still worry that one day I may influence someone's faith and they end up worse off because of my actions.

Paul, you have a big heart and that is admirable.

Personally, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. You're shining a light on something hurtful and deceptive. The greater good is served. Your site helped me and many others. Just my two cents.

Another word about changing someone's belief. So much of this is about perspective. In other words, would Person X have joined in the first place, had he or she had access to the information that you're serving up on the Internet?

JRK

I wish I'd have learned sooner, so that I wouldn't have wasted a couple of decades.

JK

leavingwt

When a doctor breaks the news to a patient that he or she has a terminal illness, it's not the doctor's fault that the person is ill. This report may very well devastate the patient and make their life worse. Still, the doctor is not to blame. Does this analogy work?

dgp

Good point, Leaving.

Sunspot

I think we'd all have to admit that we did not like discovering we had been deliberately lied to by a very clever and deceitful organization, and I was devastated when my world came crashing down around me.

It took a while to pick up the pieces and go forward in a spiritual sense, (I felt very lost) but even though walking away from the WTS after 30 years of devoted loyalty to it.....and losing several family members who are still entrapped by it....

I am personally more content with my life, more at peace with myself and those around me, and have embraced a whole new spirituality through Christ that I never would or could have thought existed when I was a JW.

I am thoroughly enjoying making new friends and exploring new avenues without first having to check out "what the Society says" or choosing friends based on whether or not they worship exactly the way I do.

Although initially, the truth about the WTS HURT....it also set me free to enjoy the remaining years I have before me. My biggest regret was that I got tied up with and duped by the WTS back in 1969 when they first called on me and that I foolishly raised six youngsters with WTS hogwash.

To Ex-JWs: Do You Regret Learning it Was a Lie?

yknot

jwfacts

leavingwt

JRK

leavingwt

dgp

Sunspot

paul from cleveland

keeshondgirl

jacquicortez

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