If you never have used the internet, would you have returned to the borg or stay in the organization?

by Iamallcool 47 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sseveninches

  The internet is why I'm slowly making my exit. Like Midwich, I was searching on the internet for things that were unrelated, and stumbled on incriminating information about the WTS.

  I think the internet is going to claim lots more young minds, and I have a feeling that a lot of the people at the hall that are my age know something already. Their behavior is quite suspicious to me - one of them was a regular pioneer, but has quit, moved out of her parents' home, and has become relatively quiet at the meetings. I've "caught" others doing things among themselves that other witnesses would frown upon (before I started having doubts), but I didn't interfere, because I wasn't exactly a saint myself.

  As for the 1914 issue, it's still a very important date, but the problem is that most witnesses aren't aware of the "overlapping generation" nu light. They still think it's just that one generation that was alive during 1914.
• 

  panhandlegirl

  NO, I left in late 70s-early 80s. I was greatly upset when the WTS wrote that only the 144,000 had Jesus as a Mediator. I knew that was a lie. Then they said Paul did not have an understanding on Hebrews where it states that

  Abraham and others were looking for a better place, the heavenly one. I knew they were not telling the truth. I got df'd for apostacy because I told the JC the WTS was lying. There was no internet then but somehow I did get the

  book CoC. I realized then that I was not the only one that rejected the WTS's teachings. Although I have been online since the Mid-90s, I never thought to look for other x-jws until this year when I came across a brochure

  from the Witnesses for Jesus, which I had had since the early 80s. Before coming to this site, I still believed the WTS was just another religion that did a lot of publishing.Now I believe it is nothing more that a cult that uses the

  r/f to sustain it's publishing and real estate. When I left I never considered going back. Now that I have learned more about them on this site, I have nothing but disdain for them. I only hate that the majority of my family is still

  in and I do not expect any to leave. So sad!
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  WOW! I'm surprised of the numerous replies where the internet had no bearing on their decision.

  The internet was the catalyst for me. I would have never gone through the pains of doing all that research that is now so easily available with the click of a mouse. Frankly, I think there are more lazy people like me -- that were content to have WTS to the research for them, believe it all hook, line, and sinker. Now, easily available for them is, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story".

  The flop-flopping doctrines and intentional misrepresentation and misquotes should make it clear that this is a business. And to add to that, it is run by poorly organized and poorly educated MEN. Perhaps they are sincere "captives" themselves, but still MEN. NOT GOD. NOT GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT.

  Once you realize that, you realize there is nothing SPECIAL about it.

  Doc
• 

  I quit!

  No way! I left before the internet but never had any intentions of ever returning. However I do believe I was fortunate to live is SoCal at that time because I think I still had a lot of Watchtower garbage running through my mind even though I no longer believe it to be the truth and there were plenty of xjws around here to help me get rid of it.
• 

  WTWizard

  I was already out before going online--I got my computer roughly one year after my last trip to the Kingdumb Hell. However, I might have still felt as if there was just a tiny chance of getting destroyed--even then, it would be better to die than live forever as a witless.
• 

  clarity

  Oh wow .... without the internet I would have staggered around wasting more time,

  still thinking it was me ...me being "weak". Had stopped going to meetings etc but really

  had no idea of the fraud that was going on!!

  Would not have returned but the stupor and depression would have still have interfered with my life!!

  c
• 

  JRK

  Flip a coin. It was the internet where I found out about the UN/NGO scandal.

  JK
• 

  LongHairGal

  lamallcool:

  If I had never found out the religion's secrets on-line would I have left the religion? Probably. I would have just drifted away as a "fade" except less deliberate than what I planned in actuality after I learned the whole dirty deal on the internet.

  The 1995 changed teaching on generation was what ultimately turned me off mentally to the JW religion and this was years before I ever went on-line. I knew in my heart it was really over and they should have packed it all in as far as I was concerned. In my eyes, the religion had NO credibility at this point and I saw them as manipulative liars. I felt like I got sucker punched.

  As some others have mentioned, what I learned on the internet for the most part only reinforced what I already knew or suspected. The only new things I learned were the U.N. scandal and the extent of the child abuse issue. When I realized I could no longer in good conscience go door-to-door telling people the religion was "truth", I realized I had to get out of there.
• 

  blond-moment

  Hard to say. I was already having issues that I wanted answered from the bible, that weren't getting answered "lets see what the WT has to say". For the first time, that was giving me the creeps. Why can't they be answered biblically? It was a serious issue for me.

  The internet definately helped speed it along. I couldn't get answers from them, I started to look. Ironically, because I was going to look on the internet, I geared myself up. Like a good girl, I went to the WT website and did some reading. particularly the manipulation of information, protect yourself from the media etc (june 22, 2000 awake!) I wanted to protect myself from you big bad lying apostates you see.
  To further protect myself, I listened to last years DC talk on Beware enemies of the kingdom: Apostates. Color me shocked, when all that I read about propaganda, and manipulation, etc, was used in that talk. That boltstered my courage to look more, I was a tad bit miffed to say the least.

  The UN was the deal breaker. The UN led to the pedophilia and the gloves were off. I dove into research.

  My observation of the Awake article and the talk on apostates.
• 

  iceguy

  I was in the process of being re-instated when I discovered sites likes this. Had I not had the internet, I'm sure I would be back in and wondering why I was still not happy.