by jambon1 20 Replies latest jw friends
Remember people making the comment "Can you imagine "not" ever becoming a Jehovah's Witness ?
Since I was born in I really never thought too much about it ....then one day I imagined my life being happy and less stressful and not afraid of Armeggedon right around the corner all the time , and i liked what I imagined so I made it my reality !
Marked.
I'm afraid all I can really do is mark this too. Very interesting.
Well, then again, I will add this. Slightly off topic.
I realized one day that I no longer wanted to go to any of the independent fundamental baptist churches in my home town. It was back in college when things were really beginning to look up for me.
One of the ladies that I knew and thought was really into the religion surprised me in class one day when she told me that she stopped going to that church. She explained to me that they made her feel like she was evil simply because she could not make it to church regularly. I was like, "Wow, I felt the same way and that is why I don't go there anymore."
The icing on the cake was when I went there one day during college and feeling quite depressed as I sat in church and listened to 'Pastor Limbaugh' preach his over the top, not based on the Bible, teachings. I knew then that I had had enough.
Seven years later I met the son of that lady I spoke to in my college class. He too seemed very religious and was singing in the choir and everything. He looked NOTICABLY different and when I asked him how his parents were doing he was like, "I don't know, they stopped speaking to me." When I asked why he said that it was because he was a dancer in a gay bar and that he lived with a drag queen.
Last years convention and walking around during intermission feeling out of place and alone. It all seemed like one big infomercial. And I just kept thinking how long do I put my life on hold for something that may not even be true. And two weeks after that I started posting on this board.
I had the same feeling when I was moved from a very active congregation into a very glum one. I realised that these people were no better than the worldly people God was supposed to be about to kill at Armageddon. I to started to think, "do I really want to bring people from their lives into this environment?"
... the day i got baptized
9-11.
I live in NYC. On 9-11-2001 I could look out at the horizon from where I was living and see the billowing smoke of the twin towers in the distant air. As I'm sure most of you remember, there was alot of uncertainty/ misinformation going around about just how serious the attacks were. People weren't sure if there were going to be more attacks, etc. for a few hours after the towers were struck. And of course most of us were stuck transfixed to our TV's for hours, not believing the devastation we were seeing (my family was fortunate to not have anyone hurt in the attack).
My witness family immediately went into religious overdrive. A few speculated that the "big A" might be starting, most at least thought there was some real significance to the terror attacks. If you remember, attendance numbers did spike a little in the US after this. If you have an even keener memory you'll remember that prior to 9-11 the Society had arrainged for some special meetings to take place around the country just after 9-11, meetings that originally were restricted to certain invited congregations to attend (of which my old congregation was one). Not suprisingly, when these meetings did occur (around 9-20, IIRC) way more people showed up than was originally planned for. My family arrived at Nassau Coliseum and had to stay in the car and listen to the program on the radio broadcast because all the seats were full in the building. (we had threads on this site about the event when it happened back then if you wish to do some kind of search)
Never at any point during the events did I fall into a JW mindset. I did not see the events as the beginning of "the big A", or a "sign of the last days" or as an indication that I should stop the then insipient stages of my fade out the organization. I saw the event for what it was; an unfortunate act of terrorism perpetrated by vile and delusional people in the name of a combination of blind religious fanaticism and a warped sense of political grieviance.
Literally, at some point late in the day of 9-11, it really hit me that I was definitely mentally out of the religion, almost certain to never return. My heart was with the families of the people who had lost loved ones (and at the time the few people still thought to be potentially alive in the rubble), I felt saddness for them, not worry about Armageddon. I felt anger at bin Laden, not Satan. I went to bed that night knowing for absolute certainty that the religion had zero control over me (up to that point I was only 95% sure ).
(If you remember, the special meeting turned out to be a total dud. IIRC, the highlight was some sort of useless JW resolution when everyone was expecting something "deep".)
I realized I didn't want to be a Witness when the elders in our hall came up with false accusations against me and my family to kick us out of the congregation. Although it was eventually all cleared up by the "brothers in bethel", it wasn't good enough for me. And as a matter of fact, nothing they do or teach is good enough for me. Gladly, ill never return.
Crownboy, 9-11 was a turning point for me too. After the event, my wife and I went to the service meeting and expected comfort, at least some discussion on the issue... but nothing! All they did was at the end pray for the brothers affected. That's it! Left such a void which slowly exposed the hypocracy in the faith.
The Revelation bookstudy in 88/89 started to put some doubt/questions into the mind of 12/13 year old me. I was perplexed how these worldwide events were fulfilled in the organization. The trumpet blasts = district conventions in the 20's?? Did the entire world know about these?? LOL Were these earthshattering??? LOL 11/95 generation change freed me.
