by LostGeneration 33 Replies latest jw friends
I continue to be stunned by posters reporting on the convention, lamenting the convention, complaining about going in serve-us and meetings, and yet continuing to participate in these activities.
A simple question. How long have you done these things, fully knowing it is absolute bullshit?
I couldn't handle it for more than six months before I basically outed myself. How long have you been doing it?
Or if you are 'out', how long did you do it before you quit, meaning no FS/Meetings/assemblies.
100%? Well over a year. 50%? Maybe 2 years before.
I had to plan a proper departure.
I gave up going to the meetings before knowing the tatt.
I just knew about the un/ngo thing.
I stopped going because I was mad at Jehovah over my dear wonderful Mom's painful death and I had no friends there.
I found out the truth about the truth AFTER I stopped going.
Some of use are in for family. I learned t do it wi humor and mail witnesses DVDs on ERVS... 4 fsmiles have bacome inactve becuse of me and no on knows why...
I think "howthebiblewascreated" has stubby fingers, or a busted keyboard....tehe....
In retrospect years later, I think most of us wish we'd quit cold turkey as soon as we realized it was all BS, or even when we originally had misgivings. I know I do. Occasionally someone brings out their wife or children by slow-playing, but I think that's the exception rather than the rule, though there have been plenty of examples here.
Leaving has always been difficult. WT manipulation runs deep and goes beyond believing in their doctrines. If you follow their directives, you have no friends, no life, no nothing outside the organization. Everyone outside has impure motives, is vicious, and waiting to take advantage of you. If you leave, you are doomed to a life of materialism, drug abuse, and STD's. Fear and guilt are their most powerful motivators, not love for fellow man or a paradise earth.
Especially if you are a born in, the repetitive indoctrination trains you much the way it trains a dog. Perception and expectation have a bad habit of becoming reality. For every 18-30 year old JW I grew up with that left it behind and found their way relatively easily to a better life, I know 4 or 5 that became exactly what the JW's said they would: drug abusers or deadbeats or "immoral" with multiple children by multiple partners outside of marriage. Expectation becomes reality because most are unaware of any alternative. In the face of that, it's hard to leave if that's the only reality you're presented with.
I heard from many people when I was in, "Even if this wasn't the truth, we wouldn't leave, because this is the best way to live." And before the internet, when all you had to go by was observation of individuals who left your local congregation or circuit and what you heard from the platform, it was easy to believe.
I would like to think it's a little bit easier now with the internet. There are now countless examples of those who left and have had successful and happy lives. There are many places, such as this forum, to find support.
But at the end of the day, they still have your family. They still have your friends. They still have your whole way of life until you create a new one, regardless of if you believe their teachings any longer. And the fear of the unknown is the strongest fear of all.
Fear of the unknown can keep people sitting on the fence for a long time.
When I found the real truth,
I went 3 more times and left.
They DF me about 11 years ago.
Too Long.....ahhhhh
When I stopped attending I did not know TTATT, I was simply aware that because the 1914 Doctrine was non-Biblical nonsense the JW's did not have the Truth.
Within a short time of having made that decision to leave forever I began to learn TTATT, form RayFranz's books and this Site mainly.
My conscience would not allow me to have anything further to do with the WT/JW's once I learned they were false.
I left when I was 18. I didn't know TTATT but none of my questions were being answered and I couldn't stand the constant manipulation any more.
I think the constant control makes young people vulnerable when they first leave. They are told they will get hurt when they leave but it's the WT that makes that true not the "world".
When I left the JWs I left home as well because my mother was a strict JW and so was the arsehole she had recently married.
I found a place on the opposite side of town.
When I told my mother I was leaving, she started shouting at me, threw me on the ground in a headlock, hit me a few times and told me I would be raped and murdered within a week.
