How Long has it Been since you Last Attended Meetings and What Caused... (page 9)

ÁrbolesdeArabia

When does the desire to stop attending the Memorial usually kick in?

ItsMyLife

I've left twice! First time when I was in my late teens, because I wanted to be 'normal' and have fun, date guys, go out clubbing.

Came back as didn't know where else to go when I got pregnant, and still kind of thought it was the best thing to do.

Realized that I actually didn't really care all that much, really resented meetings & ministry and it was brought home to me every time I was child-free for a day that I didn't actually have a single real friend in the cong that I could call to do something with.

Got sick back in Oct and didn't attend for a few weeks, since then I've been to one and a half meetings and not been out on the ministry at all. When I went to those meetings it was only to please my Dad, and I felt so oppressed sitting there, it really felt like I had a boa constrictor wrapping itself around me. Since I made the decision to not go back, I have felt such a huge weight off my shoulders, and I can view it all objectively. The stuff I've found out amazes me, the amount of contradiction there is blows my mind. I've always had a habit of arguing in my head against what was being said from the platform, sometimes it just was such utter bull.

My parents and two siblings are still in though, very deeply in. My poor old Dad is an elder, he has so many responsibilities with meetings, JCs, shepherding visits plus full-time work and caring for his family, and he still berates himself for not getting enough service in (he does 6-8 hours a month). What kind of a yoke is that? Certainly not light and kindly!

innerpeace

Last year was my last memorial, I won't be going this year. Don't remember my last meeting, it was 2-3 yrs ago. I was raised a witness, my parents were very loving and I got to do a lot more than some other witnesses my age, which I am thankful for. But the indoctrination was very real and there. I always tried to make an effort going to some meetings and the memorial through my 20's and some of my 30's. After learning ttatt about a year and a half ago, I was able to finally let go of all the fear and guilt I had and I knew I didn't want my kids to have that fear I had felt for so long, fear of armageddon which is unhealthy. I love the peace of mind that has followed, I am no longer torn inside which is how I felt for a long time. I am able to celebrate a birthday or holiday without thinking Im going to be destroyed. Just to live life without that fear, it's wonderful.

Xanthippe

I last attended a meeting 24 years ago Flipper.

So many reasons it's hard to know where to start.

Very briefly, I pioneered for 10 years from age 16 and in my early twenties I told the Circuit Overseer I was tired and ill all the time and wanted to stop. He got his wife to work with me in field service and she said 'I'm tired, my husband's tired, we're all tired but we just have to keep going'. So I did.

A few years later when I became seriously depressed I told an elder who was a friend. My husband was an elder at the time. This elder friend got his wife to work with me in field service and she told me that people who get depressed and throw themselves in front of trains are terrible people because the train driver never recovers!

My husband could only stand four years as an elder because he thought they would be discussing helping the brother's at elders meetings and arranging shepherding calls! We were so naive. All the elders did was fight among themselves and vie for power and prestige.

One day we were so in pieces we prayed to Jehovah to tell us what was going on in his organization and then we went to the library. We found Crisis of Conscience. We read it through and were totally shocked. We disassociated ourselves a few weeks later.

Pickler

Hey flipper, I attended my last meeting in 1992. I caught the train to the assembly. Once I was there I met up with people from my congregation and they said "sit with us" and pointed to rows of chairs with bags & books on them. Everyone was being especially nice & encouraging to the spiritually weak sister.....

I smiled & shook my head & said no its ok, and walked back to the train station.

It was the greatest feeling of freedom & release that I had ever experienced up to that point in my life!

i never went back.

got DF'd a few weeks later.

finallysomepride

memorial 2002

20 years knowing that it is total BS

WildeLover

November 2012......

family not in, so am losing close friends but they were always conditional....

the wool was pulled over my eyes for so long bu it was basically the 607 articles in 2011 that pushed me over the edge and the way they lied, misquoted etc...... i never plan on going back and not even the memorial in the spring!!

no way !

WildeLover

Think About It

When was the last meeting I attended? I don't remember exactly, but it was back in the 80's. I do remember it was a Thursday night, and during the Service Meeting. I was feeling blue and bored out of my gorde. Finally I reached my breaking point, and just had enough of the Jehovah Witness crap.......so, I jumped up and screamed "FUCK THIS WATCHTOWER SHIT"!!! Then fast as I could, I ran out of the Kingdom Hall, stole a car from the parking lot, and was never to be seen in a Kingdom Hall again.

Signed,

DemonizedSmurf

flipper

ARBOLESDEARABIA- I guess the desire to not attend the Memorial kicks in at different times for different people exiting the Witnesses. It probably depends on how " religiously " inclined a person is or if they believe Jesus was God's " son " - or the other thought like I have that Jesus was just a special person in history who had intuition and insight - nothing more, nothing less. Some may believe he never existed at all that he was made up by Christians. I went to only one more Memorial in 2004 after I stopped attending in late 2003. Never went again. But it may be different for each person.

Thanks for all the experiences ! You've all made this a really good, informative thread so exiting JW's can see that YOU all had courage to leave- so maybe they can too ! Keep em coming ! Thanks again. Peace out, mr. Flipper

Phizzy

I don't have the time to read the whole thread, so I am not sure if I have posted already but here goes ( maybe again !).

I went to my last D.C in 2006.my last C.A in 2007, my last Memorial in 2008, and straight after that, a couple of days, my last ever Meeting.

I left because of the 1914 doctrine not being in scripture, and what I perceived as the deification of the Governing Body.

I see nothing to change that view, JW's worship the GB, and denigrate Jesus.

Shame on all 7 plus million of them !!

I have had sincere JW's call on me and beg me to attend the Memorial, I will not do so out of principle, it is a disgusting parody of the Christian celebration, which also I do not subscribe to, but the Christian version has history, scripture, and cultural acceptance on its side, the Rutherfordian influenced "Let's do a Satanic Mass type response to Christianity" (simply to be different), that is the JW Memorial, is simply repulsive.

I would also never attend that, or any other Meeting, because of seeming to give credence to their claim of having the "Truth", they do not, in any way.

And yet, if you attend, JW's think to themselves "He believes it really" .

Think about that, you who go along "for family", you are reinforcing their ties, not loosening them.

A very very close relative, lifelong JW, passed away last year, I only went to the graveside, not to the K.Hall service, or the after party.

I will do nothing that supports or seems to even excuse their "faith", it is a disgusting web of lies from start to finish, I am not lowering myself to that "low sink".

How Long has it Been since you Last Attended Meetings and What Caused...

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