by Doubting Bro 98 Replies latest jw friends
I'm having a hard time imagining how a semi-secretive, authoritarian, apocalyptic millennialist high-control group can adapt - that is, change - to survive and accomodate the realities of the information-saturated, technologically forward, WikiLeaks-level-transparency-craving socio-cultural environment of the 21st Century, though.
Amazing.
marking for later.
Great thread!!
A schism with a moderate denominational spinoff group might be possible but it would have to be led by an intelligent and ambitious person at the GB level.
I'm not sure such an animal exists.
Franklin Massey - "Amazing."
Thank you.
I have a huuuge family in the so called "truth." Over 11 aunts, 11 uncles, 50 first cousins, 2 grandmothers, 1 grandfather, and extended from that is their families they are all married to. Some of my cousins spouses have families as big as ours.
I've been shunned by all of them for being disfellowshipped. My family is hard core, it would take something absolutely amazing for them to change. I'm not saying they wouldn't, I'm just saying I still haven't heard 1 small peep from them about doubts or leaving. :(
Being just a non-attending fader,or "inactive" in JW speak, I have contact, though very limited, with my JW family.
They seem more in to it than ever. Sigh.
I'm just saying I still haven't heard 1 small peep from them about doubts or leaving. :(
Employees an stockholders of Exxon were just like that, hanging on until the end when until the company folded and their stock value was zero. They were so thoroughly invested, the only thing they could think to do was hold on and pray for a miracle. And never, ever admit they were wrong or had been duped.
The Kingdom Hall is full of "Exxon shareholders."
Welcome, infpalex.
I'm so sorry to hear how your family is treating you.
I'm so sorry to hear how your family is treating you
Thank you for that! It's been a while since I left, but as I try to explain to people who don't understand JW's... it's not something you ever just "get over."
It's truly a difficult thing to explain. I don't even just mean the pain, I mean the pure craziness and complexity of it all.
JW's and the control they have over your brain and life is like a torture. It's a mind control in most cases from birth, where you don't know you have other options available to you. If you don't or can't live up to the unrealistic standards that supposedly "Jehovah" expects from you, then you are wicked. You go day by day living in guilt, even if you are obeying as many rules as you can, because no matter what God can read your heart and they beat it into you that none of us are good. It's basically up to Jehovah if he will save you or not. You literally live in fear, you just survive day in, day out, waiting for armageddon. You don't live, you survive, it's fight or flight mode every day.
Most days I don't know how I escaped. The thing is, even if you do, we will always be "Ex-JW's" like survivors of the holocaust.
The difference between them and us is, I know right now today, there are people including my brother, and family living in that "holocaust."
They are being mind controlled and told things that are ludicrous. My family has disowned me because of the mind control. Most of us have had to get out of that mess by giving up every single person who ever supposedly "loved" us. And now every day that we live, we have to continue to make that decision.
We have to decide we are worth more than that. It's not easy having no family. It's not easy when others have tons and take them for granted. It's not easy because when we are down, we don't have family or friends that we grew up with to rely on. Friends are great, but when they HAVE a family, the relationship will never mean the same thing to them as it does to us. That is our reality, that is what the organization has done and is doing to peole every single day.
I've made a great life for myself with someone who loves me very much in the past 6 years since I've left. I'm an incredibly happy person, with people that do love me. But I will always continue to tell my story. Even if just one person makes it out, I will have done my job. :)
as I try to explain to people who don't understand JW's... it's not something you ever just "get over."
It's truly a difficult thing to explain. I don't even just mean the pain, I mean the pure craziness and complexity of it all.
Right on! That's why I enjoy this forum. You can't just talk to someone at work or a "worldly" friend about the things we were taught all of our lives. They don't understand. My wife doesn't even understand how even though when someone leaves, they still love the people they knew who they spent hours and hours with in Field service and at conventions, and the fact that these other witnesses were our entire social world. Only we know what it's like, and to me this site is therapeutic for that reason.
