by This is my tigersuit 52 Replies latest jw experiences
I read it but unlike others I was not overly impressed. I will explain why. I was Agnostic when I read it.
Nothing pi$$es me off more then a 'christian' trying to convert a JW. That is what half the book is in a way.
The other half though is life experiances and the governing body structure and issues. This DID impress me.
I would give it a 7/10. By contrast The God Delusion is 9/10
Welcome Tigersuit! You are going to have a lot of emotional reactions as you deal with the fallout of knowing this stuff. Thinking something is wrong. . .is a struggle-but once you know, you need to make decisions. This is a good place to vent, question, holler, whine, cry and preach it! We are all in this together, one way or the other!
Tigersuit, I left in 1977 long before the internet era. There were some books out even back then I remember, but I knew it was totally wrong for me by that point so I wasn't interested in reading more about the borg, right or wrong. Wasn't until sometime in the mid-1990's.I happened to discover CoC in a bookstore - long after I'd dropped all the JW doctrine and crap - bought it, took it home, and was totally freaking ENRAGED by all I read. I remember year after year all the heart-rending stories about the friends persecuted in Malawi, dragged out of their homes and beaten, bicycle spokes stuck through their calves and forced to run, etc., etc. - the special talks at assemblies about all that - the letter-writing campaigns and so on. Then to read about how the Mexico thing was handled - WTF????? I was screaming at the walls, wanted to punch somebody! Plus of course all the eye opening stuff about the GB and 1914, etc., etc.
Now of course anytime day or night 24/7 you can pull all that and much more up on the 'net - and lots of good vids on YouTube - plus you know you are not the only one who can't stand the lies and guilt and mind-numbing crap any more. When I left there was none of that, all my good friends - spiritual brothers and sisters - dropped me like a hot potato altho I was not DF'd or DA'd - just stopped going. (We didn't even have the verb "fade" way back then.) So just to say all you are feeling right now is completely normal and you should be upset to discover all this time when you thought (as told over and over) that you were worshipping Jehovah God, you were really just worshipping a corporation and a bunch of manipulating, totalitarian liars.
And that bites big time - but the real truth does set you free. Don't look back like Lot's wife, just keep walking straight for the exit door. And when you get past it - run like hell. You will be glad you did.
keep in touch. All the best
I had a panic attack when reading CoC. I couldn't breathe. I almost lost it for a minute. Really strange how you just know it's the truth as you read the book. My wife and I exited. I did screw up in getting caught doing a holiday too soon. I wasn't successful, but I was almost successful, haha. I know what not to do now. You sound a lot like my wife and I. Send me a private message. Maybe we can chat on the phone? I'd like to tell you my story and hear yours.
Tigersuit,
Congratulations on your journey. Reading CoC was a defining moment for me. It helped tip the scales toward leaving Wally World. Like DJS, I shook my head and softly laughed out loud. (I read the entire book in one sitting at a university library) One thing that struck me is how Franz described how many, maybe most, GB meetings were about what should or shouldn't be disfellowshipping offenses. How trivial! In my naïveté I thought these all important meetings would be the GB coming together to intensely pray for wisdom, insight, "new light," and help so they could properly feed the flock. I felt so foolish having had so much trust in these mere men. On the other hand I felt relieved and pursued my new life of freedom. I enrolled at the university, eventually received my degree, moved up the company ladder, traveled, divorced my deeply entrenched-never-will-listen-to-reason-about wally world wife, set an example for my now exited adult children and now I'm living happily ever after. If I have any advice for newly exited ones it would be give yourself a little time to clear your head, don't waste time looking back and pursue the real new world ahead of you!
I have not read the book, out of a perverse desire to say I have read no books by apostates if ever asked, but know what is in it.
As my name suggests, anger was my response.
I am accustomed to being lied to in business, kind of expect it, but to be lied to by elders, by Bethel?
It gets worse; if you haven't researched their dunderheaded and criminal policies on child sexual abuse, you are in for a rude shock.
Their insance policies have made it possible for thousands of children to be exposed to pedophiles they hid in plain sight in the congregations.
Pistoff - You are reading writngs by all kinds of so called "apostates"
right here.!! So to claim you have 'not read" the writings of apostates
is already a lie, as you finish this sentence.
The value of Crisis of Conscience is that it is a sane and well
written and systematic dismantling of WT theology by an highly intelligent
insider who actually sat on the Governing Body and as the title implies, he
was a spiritually honest man who thought deeply about his own role
and the fundamental, core, false teachings of the Watchtower Society,
and unravels them brilliantly. This book has been the gateway for perhaps
millions to escape the spiritual bondage of the WT and not go around
secretly believing "they have the truth" They do not. If you are still "in"
you really do not understand who they are, at a core level.
VG:
What I said was, I wanted to be able to say I have not read any books by apostates.
It is the kind of technically correct but actually dishonest answer a WT writer would give; I like the irony.
I am not saying it is logical.
I know what the book says; I just have not literally read it.
And trust me, I know who the WT is.
I have spent my time instead reading books that deal with bible history, textual and source criticism, OT and NT composition, and historical Jesus.
I wanted to get at the core of the abrahamic faiths, rather than the intricate details of the WT.
That is more relevant to why I don't go to the hall anymore.
VG:
I haven't gone to meetings for about ten years.
