by TimeBandit 21 Replies latest jw experiences
What I've learned from the posters on this site is, if you leave for anything other than
what the religion actual teaches to be false. you will be more likely to return
You have no real conviction as to why you left, if it's only because they way you have been treated
one shepherding call could convince you that you are wrong for turnin' your back on Jehovah
simply because you feel you have been wronged or felt neglected by another person
Yes I was having dinner with a disfellowshipped brother and he told me he was putting a letter to get reinstated and I asked him why the hell he would do that and all I got was a blank stare. Mind control works people.
I found that when the sisters (or the elders/brothers) were talking about "helping" some sister or brother, it was just an occasion for harmful gossip, discussing the salacious details, sitting in judgent, entertaining themselves, and any ways to "help" were voiced but never acted upon.
"[Two brothers] discussed how they might encourage him and personally help him out spiritually. One said to the other "We need to help that brother".
A nice conversation alright, but did they atually follow through and help the brother? Remember where this conversation happened - at a District Convention - a place where doing good works toward others was likely on their minds, but what happened after the DC?
I fully agree with posters above who mentioned there are many good, sincere JWs, I would even say the majority are, but even among the good ones what they say and what they do are often two different things. The brother may, in reality, have gotten no more help than you.
In the town where I live shepherding calls were always very rare, and usually happened just before the CO's visit.
I'm glad to hear that your exit has been successful.
A disfellowshipped brother who is working his way back to getting reinstated called me because he is worried about my spirituality and wanted to know how he could help me out. I don't know if I should try to give him info or just let him continue on his path back to his happiness.
It seems the majority of Witnesses that I have known offer their encouragement exclusively at the Kingdom Hall, and the encouragement tends to be "glad to see you here" ... that tends to be what many elders consider shepherding the flock as well.
As Don Henley said it, "Get over it".
Sorry ....that was just some tough love.
Life is so complicated today, and people do neglect the ones they love because they are caught in this rat race world.
Time Bandit, get a wife. Love her and she will love you back. She will become your best friend and encourage you when you are down. You don't need those stinkin brothers.
Generally, their idea of "we need to help that brother" means more like, "we need to badger him into doing more service and stepping it up at the meetings," or "we need to start snooping around in his private life and tell him everything he's doing wrong."
Sure, there are some really good people that are JWs, but they're too busy trying to take care of their own families, make a living, and trying to satisfy the cult leaders. They may have good intentions, but they mostly get lost under the sh!tload of WT control.
@ Billy: I agree. Not that I think about what you said. At the time though, I just thought they were talking about helping that brother the way I wanted to be helped. Now I'm glad I was ignored. It made my exit a lot easier.
Chris-
My wife's brother had a roommate who stopped going to meetings. By all appearances they were friends. When he stopped attending though my wife's brother's response wasn't loving concern. It was, "Oh well. If he wants to die at Armageddon, that's his problem."
Getting less and less time in field circus a sign of diminishing spirituality? I don't think so. Field circus actually takes time away from developing your soul. Instead of studying the truth and cross-researching things, you are wasting time spreading rubbish. You do a morning of field circus, that morning could have instead been spent doing other things. You could do a basic power meditation--trying to focus on one thing. You could read half the truth about Christi-SCAM-ity. You could do a basic physical yoga exercise. You could start working on opening a chakra. You could learn about how the soul actually works instead of wasting the time spreading rubbish.
And, for the same spiritual benefit of a morning of field circus, you could have spent the morning working. Clean the kitchen. Or start washing the windows. You could get a front door to close properly, or fix that drippy faucet, or get the contractor to fix that leaky roof or paint the house that needs it badly. You could go online and order those LEDs to replace those compact fluorescent light bulbs that are giving you a headache or go to a home improvement store and buy LEDs and install them. You could fix your bicycle, or possibly do a minor tune-up on your car. You could pull your old hard drive and install a new one, including installing a new OS on it. You could mow the lawn or plant part of your flower garden. Or, work at your job and make some money. True, your spirituality will not benefit--but at least you will have accomplished something worthwhile for your time.
Either way, field circus is the worst of both worlds. You lose the opportunity to benefit spiritually, and you gain nothing. And they are claiming they need to help that "brother(??)" to see the folly of gaining something worthwhile? And, after the morning, you still have those old headache bulbs, a dirty home, dirty windows, a leaky roof and peeling paint with no appointment to fix it, an outdated or dying hard drive (a real crash waiting to happen), an ugly yard, a front door that doesn't close all the way, and a drippy hot water faucet. And no improvement in your ability to focus your energy on anything. Obviously, the angels are moving these scumbag hounders to make everyone waste their lives.
