Do you feel guilty?

by new hope and happiness 33 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Heaven

  Recently i have been thinking my leaving strategy was rather selfish.

  new hope... all of us need to do the things that make us happy and healthy. If we do not look after ourselves first, we will be no good to others.

  Any way its too late now if i failed them

  Never say never. There may ones thinking of you and curious as to why you left as they may also have doubts. I think a lot of dubs have doubts especially ones who have been in long enough to see significant doctrinal changes. One day, someone may contact you for help. Hopefully you can be there for them.
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  prologos

  many hear have exhausted their life getting people into wt/guilt/hope think. that is enough work. I do not want to spend the rest of my life reversing the process for some.

  worse, like a drowining person can be a hazard for an untrained rescuer. the backlash at your de-programming attempt may really hurt you. but:

  " [be] always ready to make a DEFENSE-- for the [ false] HOPE that is [NOT] in you--" the adapted trueim in 1 Ptr. 3:15

  "The best defense is attack"--NO--it is not.-- adapted from Moltke's. military academy classic.

  No, I never felt guity because I did not do enough for WT, because I did,

  No, I strangely feel no responsability to combat error, delusion - in people-, fight it only on principle.

  my mission is to live, my children, LIFE. and her's.
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  Jomavrick

  No, I just feel sorry for those trapped by thier own ignorance, fear and weaknesses,,,,
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  mrsjones5

  No. I probably did at one time but thankfully I got over it. It takes time for the guilt to go away. I can't help or control my family members being in the bOrg so I try not to worry about it. That's hard. I recently had to put a cousin, who just got reinstated, on acquaintance status on FB because I was tired of his jw related status reports and the love bombing that resulted from jws on his friends list.
• 

  WTWizard

  About the only thing I felt guilty about was wasting 32 toilet papers a month on donating to a new hall. Never mind it was a pledge. Ever since I started doing that, I got nothing but bad luck--and that I was paying for negative value, it led to other issues. Soon after I started paying my bad luck bill, I got suckered into another job that just didn't work out. (Nowhere enough hours.) Then I got burgled a few times, taking away much of the things I had of value. Needless to say, I quit paying my bad luck bill (too bad joke-hova didn't cut off the bad luck once I stopped paying the bad luck bill). Now, if only I could get that money back with interest--and sue the washtowel for the burglaries and lost hours at work, which I feel stem from paying my bad luck bill programming my soul that money creates negative value.

  At least I learned from my mistakes. The dingbat that dragged me into the cancer didn't. That thing had just got a new job as a manager of an apartment complex. That thing sold me an air conditioner, and in the instructions envelope I found 200 toilet papers. Being that I was supposed to be honest, I let the dingbat know--and that thing had me throw it away! Right into the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund boxes! I do not know what happened to that thing within the 4 month window, but I do know it lost its job within 18 months. I also know it got disfellowshipped soon thereafter, and found itself living with its parents within yet another year (and having had problems keeping a job, or staying on its own). That idiot got a job in 1996 managing a maintenance crew, and kept right on donating. At that point, this idiot returned to the washtowel as an active witless (it had been inactive a few years prior), wasting much of its money on things that gave it negative value. Within a year, that thing got fired for something stupid. The lesson I learned is that it is bad luck to pay money for things that give you negative value. If you pay for something that ruins your relationship with the opposite sex, you get bad money luck.

  Now, joke-hova, that I am not paying my bad luck bill, I don't appreciate continuing receiving the bad luck. Give it, instead, to those idiots that do not learn.
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  hoser

  I don't feel one bit guilty. I have a family member who always bitches and complains about how they are treated by the elders and how the RBC is screwing over their congregation.

  I tell him " if you don't like how the rbc is handling the kingdom hall don't put money in the contribution box and if you don't like how the elders treat you, ignore them"

  Blank stare

  I really think they like being treated like $hit.

  Like I said I don't feel one iota of guilt
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  fresh prince of ohio

  I've never had guilt feelings about the ones left behind in the bOrg.

  I feel that most JWs are unreachable and are happy prisoners. Which is sad, and I feel bad about that, but not guilty.
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  NewYork44M

  I sometimes feel regret, but not guilt. I once participated in disfellowshiping a young lady. I regret that. I hope she is doing well.

  In regards to my friends in the "truth," I regret that I wasted my time on relationships that were contingent on my standing within the cult.

  There is a list of very few people that I would like to reconnect. But I am not sure if it is appropriate.
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  James Brown

  This is the information age. People that are trapped in want to be there.

  When the student is ready the teacher appears.

  Everything has a price and a cost.

  Those that are in probably have a lot of friends/ aquaintences and go out to dinner and

  parties more than I.
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  Coffee House Girl

  I remember feeling guilty when I first left that I was a bad person abandoning my family and friends (I also felt selfish)...but I was helped to realize that the guilt was the "cult-mentality" talking....we were taught in the org. that those who leave are being selfish and only thinking of themselves rather than our families (or abandoning our loyalty to the org). The idea and definition of "loyalty" was something I struggled with for a while, the word "loyal" is often thrown around in JW land and we defined ourselves by our degree of loyalness. We feel that we are a failure.

  But in reality, we all have our own life decisions and paths to take, just because we decide on one particular path does not mean that we are failing others...

  I do as many on this board do, I choose to love my family and friends even if they cannot reciprocate & I will always leave the door open if they want to talk or need help..but if they choose to leave it has to be for their own personal reasons-

  CHG