by Bonsai 24 Replies latest jw experiences
Wow thanks for telling your story, it's fascinating to hear the steps different people take in awakening.
The funeral story is outrageous, legalism at its worst.
have you been harassed on the way out, or have they let you leave quietly? It's great you have your wife's agreement, wish my husband would even consider that the GB might just be wrong.
Bonsai, thank you so much for your experience as a zealous JW. We all wasted so much of our lives in this mind-bending cult.
The notion of putting flowers on the deceased seems to be the most natural token in remembering loved ones who have died. There is even evidence from a Russian site that Neanderthals used flowers to say goodbye to their dead. With the paranoid GB, they forbid every natural human gesture only so that their followers will not forget to laud the leadership. It is sickening.
Thanks for your comments everyone. Here are a few more random observations that led to my awakening:
***The son of the deceased father was an elder. He was also disfellowshipped shortly after the funeral. Can you imagine losing your father and then being disfellowshipped yourself?
***I remember there was a sister who used to like practicing her English with me. She wrote a short book of bible poems that she was going to publish. The elders got together with her and discouraged her from publishing it. They said she would be taking due attention away from the Christ appointed organization and give undue attention to herself. This sister has battled terrible depression and is now battling breast cancer.
***In the country that I live in, up until very recently, df'd ones were assigned seats in the back row.
There is so much more that has contributed toward my disgust for all things JW, but I can only reveal them in bits and peices.
Well, somebody got it in their head to put a flower on top of the casket as they paid there last respects. The others in line decided to copy and each, in turn, put a flower on the casket. Well, when the C.O. later found out about this he was furious. Heads rolled. People were df'd, lost privileges, interrogated for weeks on end. The hammer came down hard on numerous individuals from numerous congregations who attended the funeral that day.
I'm curious about this part.
Why were so many DF'ed? On what grounds? Is "laying a flower on a casket" considered some sort of "false religious practice" there?
Bonsai
Loved your story. So many similarities to some things we have experienced. So glad you and your wife escaped this abusive cult.
Anthony Morris asked a question during his "Come back to Jehovah" talk @ the RC. He asked the ones if they are happier since they have left the troof. We answered a VERY LOUD.... YES!!!
I didn't sort it out until afterward, but the 2004 tsunami was important to me. It didn't make sense that God would let all those children just die, but that He would spend a great deal of his energy on aiding individual JW's or making sure that some Watchtower books got past border guards.
Bethel layoffs was an enormous problem to me. Just as you were sure that Jehovah would see your strong desire to go there, I was sure that those already there were a special type of family unit. Rather than send some home, it seemed to me that Jehovah would tell the organization to keep them as long as they wanted to stay.
