by Chemical Emotions 61 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Being an Elder and realizing that the things that I was supposed to teach didn't make sense from a logical or a scriptural sense. Realizing that I had to pretend I wholeheartedly believed it all until the Governing Body changed their minds.
Speaking to the legal dept about a molestation case and seeing that the Branch just wanted to cover their ass instead of protecting the congregation.
Leave "The Truth?"
Because I found out that was not what it said to be.........
There are many dubs who serve for exactly the same reasons that they deride those in Churches for having. It is simply their family religion, it is what they have always done, all their friends and family are within it..They do not need to consider whether or not it is actually true. They just enjoy the way of life, safe within their comfort zone with their own hierarchy of Pioneers, M/S and Elders to aspire to (or grumble about as the case may be)
There is another group to which most of us belonged who really care about the concept of truth and need to be sure that they are doing the right thing, following the right leader. These ones will change, and stop following a blind guide, even at great personal costs to themselves.......
What made you leave "The Truth"?
There was no one thing for me. There were always doubts and questions that I kept suppressed most of my life, waiting for that day when the light would become bright enough to explain it all.
But the 95 generation change was a turning point. And I didn't catch it on my own. I was in a car group of pioneers as they discussed it. As they went back and forth it got me to thinking about it and I realized that Armageddon had been indefintely postponed. Then I realized that if the old "thinking" about the generation of 1914 was out, no longer true, then we had been basically lied to for all those years.
Once I opened my mind up to that criticism of the WTS, it didn't take long to discover other problems, like 607. I tried hard to wrap my head around that one for a long time. Then shortly after 9/11 the UN/NGO connection was made. That was pretty scandalous in my book. For the organization that had been condemning the UN and any group that supported it to be found riding on the back of the Wild Beast the same as the churches they cursed and damned was unforgivable to me.
It wasn't an overnight epiphany either. It took time and effort to search through the evidence. It took even longer to fight through the cult programming that was deeply instilled in me.
And then I had to face the blood doctrine issue head on. By this time I was pretty much out and no longer looking back, but I had to stand up for what I thought, what I now knew, what I now believed...not what I used to think or believe or was expected to do. It's easy to say to yourself what you'll do or say in a situation; it becomes much harder when you face the actual situation. Even when you know you are completely in the right, by being all alone with absolutely no one to support you in your decision, it can break your resolve if you're not prepared. And the WTS/JWs prey on that. Isolate people from the real world and you'll be afraid to buck the tide...even when you don't believe or accept the notion you'll making yourself go along with it. Overcoming fear. Once you conquer the fear, then you're on your way to freedom from the cult. That's the key right there. Overcoming fear will let you overcome the fear-mongering message that the JWs market as "Truth".
The LIES, LIES, LIES...........
I agree with the other former Elders. The higher I climbed the more hypocrisy I saw. For all the time I invested in being a WT operative I received no support when I needed it. The pat responses to my concerns no longer worked on me and finally one day I said: "I'm out."
Bored and the lies that were exposed.
Thanks for the responses. They're great.
cult classic: I know what you mean! I didn't want to die at Armageddon, but I couldn't accept so many things I was being taught, and I certainly didn't want to be shunned by my family.
Was never one to get into deep study of scripture, so it wasn't anything regarding JW doctrines. It was a combination of starting to doubt the bible's divinity, questioning the existence of the god of the bible, and then rampant hyprocrisy in the congregations.
An intrinsic resistance of authority and a hate for wearing ties helped too.
"Rampant hypocrisy"...Yeah, that sounds like my congregation.
Resentment that a faceless group of men was controlling my life and taking up all my time without a valid reason. I became sick of living in the pocket of soulless, gossiping, small-minded people who claimed to "love" me but didn't seem to actually like me. And, after I read Crisis of Conscience, the stark realisation I'd been lied to for more than two decades about it being "God's organisation". Once I realised there was no God in Jehovah's Witnesses, the fear of consequences of quitting disappeared.
