How Did YOU Finally Leave The Organization?

by minimus 38 Replies latest jw friends

  • Quillsky
    Quillsky

    Sprinted outta there, fast, and ducked the radar as I ran.

  • Little Bit
    Little Bit

    I started to slowly leave when I was 18. I did go back for a little while after I had my baby girl, but was only for a few months. I have been out for a few years.

  • LUKEWARM
    LUKEWARM

    Still going but only to give about 5 couples the opportunity to consider information while we remain in “good standing”

    The drip feeding process is going well – some of them have progressed to the stage of accepting “Crisis of Conscience” - hopefully in the next 12 months the remaining ones will be examining its contents and even “In Search of Christian Freedom”.

    Thank you Ray Franz for your labour of love in penning this information - may it help many more make informed decisions!

    The account below is my inspiration:

    *** yb88pp.126-128Ireland***

    During 1982 a particularly virulent form of apostasy developed, mainly in the Dublin area. Some brothers began to resent the authority of the congregation and to question the body of teachings that are accepted by Jehovah’s people as truth. They promoted the idea that each Christian should be able to decide for himself on various matters of doctrine.

    Quietly and surreptitiously they sowed seeds of doubt in the minds of others regarding doctrine. The integrity of members of the Governing Body was questioned. The dissenters who were serving as elders and ministerial servants minimized organizational instructions. From the platform, and at other times secretly, they disseminated their own ideas, undermining the confidence of others in Jehovah’s organization.

    John Barr, from the Governing Body, and Robert Pevy, who had pioneered in Ireland and who is now serving at Brooklyn Bethel, offered assistance. They took time from vacation trips in Britain to come to Ireland to talk with the brothers and encourage them. They reasoned at length with the brothers and discussed thoroughly many questions raised on doctrinal matters. It became obvious, however, that the questions raised by the disgruntled ones were merely a smoke screen. The real issue was whether this was, in fact, Jehovah’s organization or not.

    As this rejection of the truth became more apparent, the elders still tried to help those affected by apostate thinking. At the same time, though, they also saw the need to follow the apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy to “command certain ones not to teach different doctrine.” (1 Tim. 1:3) As Paul warned Timothy, the teachings of such apostate ones “spread like gangrene.” The elders were left eventually with no real alternative except to expel such ones from the congregation.—2 Tim. 2:17.

  • AllTimeJeff
    AllTimeJeff

    I resigned, blew up the bridge, and never looked back.

    As an elder, you are taught that if you ever have to write a letter, you should try to get it on one side of one piece of paper, with no smaller then a 10 point font and some margins... (I shit you not) So it gave me great pleasure to say all that I had to say on one side of one piece of paper.

    I know that sounds cool, and I smile as I type it, but it was painful. Nevertheless (I learned that word at the Theocratic Ministry School ) I couldn't have done it any other way.

  • Dagney
    Dagney

    I had a moment of clarity during a WT study. I stopped that day and never went back. I am so glad I did it that way. If I had thought about it I'm sure I would have stayed longer and prolonged the pain.

    Phew!

  • Twitch
    Twitch

    Started in my teens with too many questions whose answers didn't sit right or make reasonable sense.

    Got a job after high school, rented an apt which I stocked with the basics and moved out when I turned 18. Slowly stopped going to meetings. Was busted for smoking, had a sitdown with 3 elders who laid out the law. I responded by not responding. I was never baptized but they made some announcement from the podium about me being bad or some such shit. I never looked back.

  • StoneWall
    StoneWall

    Minimus I would like to say I appreciate the wording of this thread.

    It makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs and shake people when they say, what made you leave the "truth"?

    I never left the truth. That's what got me started on this journey. I was actively seeking truth when certain things from

    the organization didn't add up (compute).

    I was raised in the organization and told all my life that we were all taught from the same books,magazines,literature

    etc. When I found out about the Elders book published by the society, and that the regular publishers(rank and file)

    didn't have access to it, that was a big turning point in my life as a witness. If there was just one piece of paper printed

    by the society that the common witness could not have access to or read,then I knew it was a falsehood to tell others

    that we were all taught from the same literature.

    I can not say that was the only thing that got me thinking of things differently but it made a huge impact.

    With me it wasn't necessarily the one straw that broke the camels back, but rather a combination of things and that

    was one of the final straws on the load that broke the camels back.

    Reminds me of Jesus saying at Matt.11:30 about "For my yoke is kindly and my load is light."

    In the organization it seemed they liked piling onto your load and making it unbearable.

    Thus my family and I just started fading from their view over the last couple of years.

  • wobble
    wobble

    I stopped being a MS in Spring 2006

    I stopped going out in FS in Spring 2007

    I stopped going to Meetings in Spring 2008

    It is good to have a Spring Clean.

    Love

    Wobble

  • chickpea
    chickpea

    dealing with a huge HUGE devastating family crisis,
    i started a fade before i knew what a fade was...
    not with the intention of leaving, just recovering...

    but i tell ya, once you get away from the indoctrination
    and busy work that keeps you from thinking, it is like
    a slow leak on a tire.... eventually it goes flat

    i was agonized for months, in a spiritual anguish..
    felt like the psalms were the script of my life

    vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit
    called or not called, the god is there...
    i wept and begged to know the will of god

    i was ripe for the picking when i followed a series
    of links totally unrelated to JWs or <gasp> apostacy
    but i ended up on rickross.com and followed a link
    to a link and that was JWD.... the resulting severing
    of any lingering emotional attachment to the b0rg was
    mercifully swift and i wasted no time in telling my family,
    all of them "weak" or out/never "in" about the men behind
    the curtain and how all of it was a cult....

    that was it... i made one last stab at it for memorial
    in 07 i think.... never again!!

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    Why: Because they promised to help me meet the opposite sex and then welshed on it. I am willing to bet money that half the congregation is still praying to Jehovah for my continued celibacy, at least as much as for me to desire to return.

    How: I moved to another congregation that shared the Kingdumb Hell with the one I used to go to. I did not send my papers there, however--it was strictly an informal, unofficial thing--I still "belonged" to the original congregation. I started going to boasting sessions in each congregation in a pattern that was not predictable, so each side would have to assume I went to the other side. Gradually, I started missing boasting sessions altogether. I cut way back in field circus, down to one hour a month (around one month a year, I would put in 2 just to make them think I was headed back up, only to let them down on purpose by reverting back to one). I kept this up for several more years, as I also cut back on the a$$emblies.

    After a time, and I saw they were not aggressively trying to get the opposite sex into my life in a desperate attempt to get me back up, I simply pulled the plug altogether. At the end of 2004, I made my last regular boasting session (a book study). And, the last time I made any boasting sessions, it was for the REJECT Jesus Party 2005 (I inadvertently went to the wrong side for that). My last field circus was June 2005, which I didn't even bother reporting. Often, I would turn in separate slips for different months, just so they would have to hunt for a slip (that isn't there) only to have it turn up the next month.

    After June 2005, nothing. Gradually, I started getting more worldly clothing (at Target--this was before I had access to L.L.Beans, but I wanted more class than Wal-Mart). I tossed many of my suits, starting with the ones in bad condition. And, for 2006, instead of going to the REJECT Jesus Party, I got a Ouija board (on purpose). Then, I got an invitation to the Twelve Visions Party's forerunner and took that--they suggested I get a computer (because it would help me go through their training, to help me to lead myself instead of depending on religion). I got the computer, and before long I clicked onto an apostate web site on purpose. And now, between the Neothink Society/Twelve Visions Party and the apostate sites, I felt like the lights came on.

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