What Was The 1st Thing That Made You Question?

by minimus 102 Replies latest jw friends

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  Swan

  I was confused as to why the WTBTS would deny that they ever used the date 1975. In the late 70's or early 80's, just after the WTBTS came out with their denial, my Mom and a sister were talking about being sure they had read it in one of the books or magazines somewhere. I was pretty sure I remembered seeing it too. I remember my Mom talking about 1975 way back in the mid 60's when I was 5 or 6. I also remember the CO Bill Baxter talking about it coming in 1975, and he had a whole Saturday evening talk on it with dates and a chalkboard. People didn't bring out the chalkboard very often, so when they did, we kids tended to pay better attention. That just made me wonder.

  What made me doubt was when somebody after the book study pointed pointed out something I had missed in one of the Watchtower articles I had read. It was easy to miss, but when it was pointed out, you couldn't help but notice it. It was a picture of witnesses out on the street and an angel directing their work. Hidden in the picture was a demonic face! That floored me. They blamed it on apostates at Bethel. I had heard about Ray Franz being DFed. Now this. This was Jehovah's letter to us. That's how the WT was always described. God's communication. Then why would God let Satan put those pictures in his letter? To test us? Somehow I wasn't buying it. It was then I started waking up and paying attention to other things going on.

  Tammy
• 

  termite 35

  SHEFFIELD 2

  LEEDS 1

  Oops-sorry-can't contain myself tonight...YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

  Well, for me it was the incident when an elder at my hall stole lots of stuff from my never-jw-husband and also recounted his sex life and harassed many others he worked with and cheated a lovely brother whilst still doing the WT every Sunday, including the one about elders making sure they are exemplary examples to all..

  I told the rest of that loving arrangement what he was really like and after getting all the information they decided that as there were not TWO WITNESSES to the crimes of theft ;and that the other sexually offensive behaviour towards women that he worked with and the fact that he was a lying perverted git and was stumbling me , it did'nt really matter....

  They refused to tell me what he'd said in his defense and did'nt take away any priviledges..so I decided to go on the internet , something I was trying not to do...and found all the UN stuff and all YOU LOVELY LOT and never went back !
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  bay64me

  When I observed the way that a certain sister was treated by her husband. He physically and mentaly abused her and her children, the elders knew and gave her shit advice, like stay with him and be a better wife, blah blah blah.

  Final straw came when he hit her youngest child and threatened to murder her. She left him and went to a battered wives refuge and spent months living in just one filthy room with all of her kids.

  I was disgusted with the lack of support for her and her family.

  She no longer attends the meetings and I am the only person that bothers with her now.
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  Shakita

  No real defining moment here. After the first few years of zealous brainless dronelike behavior befitting an upstanding witness family, when the dinners and outings faded away with the newness of being lovebombed, when missing meetings to stay home to watch my favorite TV program with my kids curled up on my lap became more and more frequent, when feigning sickness on my part or my kids(kids are always getting sick), the group of "friends" at the kingdom hall all but made leaving easy.

  Remember when we used to call these people "the friends?" The JW's really have re-defined that word. JW Definition of word "friend"...........someone who is desirable of your affections only based on "being good association". All others are bad association and will be condemned by God with punishment of DEATH!
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  RandomTask

  The two things that got me to stop attending meetings was the lack of concern and genuine love for other people, even other witnesses. I saw people snubbed because they were irregular or were children who's parents were divorced or were dirt poor. There was an appaling lack of respect for life when something tragic happened in the news. This was before September 11 when I left, but even when that happened, the witnesses I knew were extatic and happy. That attitude made me sick.

  The second thing was the mind control that I could see the organization had on its adherents. Witnesses seemed to blindly follow whatever they were told, rejoicing at a change in doctrine like the generation change as if it were a blessing from god. At one of the last meetings I attended a woman answered at the Watchtower study about how since you can't be sure about any "worldly" reading material its best just to not read any of it at all! There was a rise in the emphasis to "guard against" independent thinking or maybe I was just paying attention to this stuff more. It seemed illogical to me for God to want humans that he created with the ability to think independently and who have a natural inclination to do so, to actually go against that which is so fundamental to our individual freedom as humans. I decided that I could no longer be a part of such an organization. I was raised in it, I never really had the chance to decide for myself whether it was the truth, now that I was an adult I made that decision and left.
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  terabletera

  This has been an interesting thread to read through.

  I think mine was back at a talk some visiting "brother" gave about the family unit. Now I was never a big feminist but he said, "The fall of the family unit began, brothers, (didn't ever say "and sisters") was women's liberation. Once the women chose to leave their place in the family unit, it was doomed to failure" I was sitting there with my jaw on the floor. I looked slowly over to my husband who by then was giggling (as he does when he sees me get pissed about something, for some reason he thinks I'm cute when I am mad). I whispered, "did you hear that? Are you hearing this?"

  he nods and smiles ear to ear. I did not think it was funny. I looked around the congregation and saw all the stepford wives just nodding their heads "yup yup, aint that so true...a sister needs to stay home away from worldly gossip, go out in service, find interested leads that we hand over to our more intelligent husbands" Gag gag, putoooey!

  After that little episode (and I did mention this to the PO who used their "we are not perfect men" disclaimer) I started to hear a LOT of things that rubbed me the wrong way. At the assembly, the big convention one, a woman told a story about how she had had so many strokes and could not be around flourescent lighting anymore or she would pass out. BUT she still went to the hall (all flourescent lighting folks) and she passed out. She did this THREE times until it put her in a coma. This was the testimonial they had up there for our example of "christian determination". Good god! I was floored. My husband said," Those are the sort that will strap a bomb to themselves and run in to a church of contrary teachings" two months later, the 9-11 attacks. Things just fell apart from that day on.
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  DanTheMan

  Good posts!

  I was always popular with the kids at the hall. I guess I'm the playful sort, I'm good at making kids laugh. I thought that it must be a terrible thing to be raised a JW, unless you're home-schooled and every blood relative that you know of is JW. And I knew that if one of those kids were mine and they needed a blood transfusion to live, I wouldn't hesitate.

  Also, some of the asinine stuff that they were putting in the publications. I cracked up at the intro to the Proclaimers book, how they say that surely the WT is the most qualified to give a candid, objective history of itself. Big LOL! I thought, God they must think we're so stupid! Unfortunately most dubbies read a statement like that a don't give it a second thought.
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  HadEnuf

  When I found out that the witnesses think that you have to be baptized to be considered a believer. For crying out loud.....you mean all those years growing up and standing out like a sore thumb at school for not saluting flag, not participating in anything...and the years raising my kids the same way...and to think that we did all that and we weren't even considered true BELIEVERS until we were dunked? How can you preach something (if you're an unbaptized publisher) and not BELIEVE in what you're preaching? And NO elder could really explain from the Bible where they came up with that theory. What a crock. (Plus...every scripture I read on this while doing research showed that a person had to believe and THEN he was baptized.) Yuk...I'm glad I'm OUT!!!!!!!!
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  freedom96

  I could not believe that God would destroy people who truly loved Him, and that led Godly type lives, but yet were not witnesses. Just does not make sense.
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  madison149

  Feeling that women were treated as inferior. I'm not even necessarily a huge feminist or anything, but I read some article from the 1960s in the Awake called "What About the Education of Women" or something like that. It said that even though women might be smart enough for college, it would only raise false hopes and in the end would only end up being a disappointment, when a woman realized she couldn't use anything she learned at college while at home being a wife and mother or out in the ministry. (I would love to find that article and read it again just for laughs.) Anyway, I was appalled, and that was my first major doubt. There are numerous other examples of sexist thinking from the WTS and even from the Bible (such as the blood cloth to prove the virginity of a woman, which she could be stoned without), which were a major cause of "stumbling" for me, but they would take too long to list in detail.

  I also always resented their negative view of higher education, especially after giving up a few scholarships, which I still hold a grudge about to this day.

  After that, it was the change of position on blood fractions and the meaning of "this generation".

  Then it was the way I was treated when trying to get reinstated. This is a long story, but my appeals for reinstatement were grueling, I was put off for no good reason. Finally, the circuit overseer was brought in and a least one elder lied to him. I understand the CO got things straightened out, and soon after I was reinstated. However, after seeing the mind games and the lack of human compassion on the part of some (SOME JW's were actually very kind to me during the whole ordeal), I just lost all motivation to be a JW. While I was DF'd (18 months), I realized how cruel the shunning thing was, and I knew if I ever got reinstated, I would never ever be able to shun anyone again. I had always hated the shunning, especially since my sister has been df'd for many, many years, but I had always obeyed like a good little girl, NO MORE.

  After that, I got on the internet, and then it was just all over. I'm so so screwed, because there's no going back for me now. My whole family is in (except for the one sister) and so I'm just fading out and keeping my mouth shut about all the things that I disagree with.