Are you now ashamed of how gullible you were as a JW?

by biometrics 50 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  WTWizard

  I place the blame right where it belongs. Back in the days when I fell into the scam, I didn't have a computer that I could type in the religion to a search engine and get unbiased research on it. I had to go by what they presented--a LIE-ble, a Suffer Forever book, and a scumbag that would not take no for an answer and wanted me to make the maximum sacrifice for the minimum reward. Upon confronting them about what appeared to be Jewish observances, they simply said that they are not applicable today (a lie; the rules are Pharisaic). They kept pushing me in the direction they wanted me going in, never letting up. I believe they even did spiritual rituals to bind my soul to joke-hova forever, even beyond this life and damning me to return in a devout witless family (an endless series of them) each time I am reincarnated. And given no possibility of escape.

  With all that going against me, I see no way I could have avoided this fate. Instead of me being ashamed, joke-hova should be. That parasite has to go.
• 

  ScenicViewer

  It is by far my greatest regret in life.

  I should have looked into the past of the Organization; it would have made a big difference.
• 

  erbie

  Yes, I guess I do feel ashamed of being so gullible. Worst of all, I let my children go along with it but at least they were happy when we left-better than a trip to Disney World I would imagine!

  Anyway, yes, second paragraph: agree with you entirely. It has nothing to do with intelligence so none of us must doubt ourselves. I know people who are still following the WT who are seemingly very inteligent. Perhaps they all are.

  I think of it this way; a mule is supposedly an animal of fairly low intelligence yet is very difficult to manipulate or train. Hence the saying 'stubborn mule, digging its heels in'.

  A dog, on the other hand, supposedly highly intelligent, is very easy to manipulate the behaviour of, not stubborn but always eager to please its master for the reward of 'food at the proper time'.

  Maybe the mule is actually more intelligent and consequently won't alllow itself to be manipulated and thus made a fool of
• 

  88JM

  I guess I was young so I got carried along by the inertia of being part of something - "peer pressure" I guess they would call it.

  I couldn't have imagined life without all the JW stuff - how else would I have made friends? Who else cared about me so much? I was really using it as a crutch.

  I definitely regret not getting out sooner. And I really regret getting baptized, when it felt almost wrong, and I wasn't feeling all the things you are "supposed" to feel. Some of it was just to please other people, and some of it was rivalry, and now that feels like such a stupid reason to have ruined my life, or at least many years of it.

  Ashamed? Yes perhaps - I think I should have known better. In one way I felt I was humble in serving other people, but in another way, I was really big-headed, thinking I was part of the "one true religion" that knew all the secrets. I feel ashamed that the belief gave me a sort of megalomania/superiority over people, and I feel ashamed that I disturbed many people's quiet Saturday mornings to pick a fight on their doorstep as a "glorified magazine salesman".
• 

  MMXIV

  Yes, ashamed, yes angry. Less so now that I know how it all works and that I've extracated myself from their control and learned to say no. It also meant that I was very gullible in my relationships - learned the hard way.

  mmxiv
• 

  inbetween

  yes, very much so, i even thought, for me, there to believe something I need to have enough proof.

  So I thought, becuase I only followed the reasonings of the WTS, hardly looked at "the other side".

  However, in time, some things didn`t click, but I buried all the doubts under the "wait for jehovah" thought-stopper.
• 

  cedars

  I don't feel ashamed of myself. I only feel shame at how easily manipulated human beings can be. Shame is something you feel due to your own individual weaknesses or shortcomings - but I was obviously not alone in being manipulated in the way I was. Also, I clearly had no control over what I was taught to believe as FACT when I was only a child.

  It would be a bit different if I had allowed myself to get sucked into the cult as a thinking adult - but there can be many extenuating circumstances even in this situation. Cults excel when it comes to exploiting periods of emotional vulnerability in converts.

  Being in a cult was something that happened to me rather than something that was my fault, so in that respect I feel no shame.

  Cedars
• 

  Borges

  Angry about my own foolishness, ashamed of what I did as a functionary of the WT while "serving" as an elder.
• 

  GromitSK

  I feel embarrassed to mention I was ever a JW but the anger has long since subsided. It did have a massive effect on my life in many ways, most of them negative. At the time, in the early 80s, when I was still in my late teens, access to information about them was much more limited and I didn't really have anyone who showed much of an interest in me or who acted as a mentor. I don't feel I was gullible, more vulnerable.
• 

  punkofnice

  Ashamed? No! Deep regret? Yes!

  I was born in so in many ways I feel bad that my parents were so deluded and they passed that delusion on to me. It was hell being a JW growing up...utter HELL.

  I missed out on a normal childhood and missed out on loads of punaani jooking.

  My parents did the best they could but I can't feel disappointed they brought me up in the cult.

  I'm sad that I brought my kids up in that scam too. I can't bear to think of what may have happened if one of the kids needed a blood transfusion.

  I vow that if ever I see a GB member in the street he'll get my fist snapping his jaw!