Were you born into the jw faith? (page 4)

NameWithheld

Another born and raised ... same old story here. Although, since none of the junk they were teaching ever made much sense to me, and I was mainly just extremely bored by the entire process of meetings, FS, etc, leaving was mentally pretty easy, but leaving and keeping family on speking terms was more difficult. Helping my wife dump the WT guilt train was the most difficult part, but once I was able (thank you 'net thang'!) to show her that the WT teachings were total bunk the guilt magically went away. Life is good now

Mary

Yep, I was born into it.......that's what makes leaving it very difficult. Most of my family (except 2 siblings) are all Dubs, my grandparents on BOTH sides of the family, which means my aunts, uncles, and cousins are also all Dubs.

It'd be a hell of alot easier leaving if I had no family in Dubdom Land........that's for sure.

IronGland

Born into.

flower

born and raised..third gen too.

yea i think its totally different for people born in to adjust to life outside. a lifetime of only one way of thinking and believing is hard to strip off. believe it or not i still occasionally have that sickening thought pop into my head saying maybe it is 'the truth'. rarely..but occasionally. its hard to fight a lifetime of brainwashin.

flower

Aztec

How funny that so many here were 3rd gen and then left! In my family all of us 3rd gen's have left by our teens. I wonder if it's a trend..LOL

~Aztec

jesussaves

Yes. Third gen. When I first left, I was depressed and suicidal, because I didn't have anyone around me. I felt as if I was alienated from God, and of course my family and friends avoided me. I can't say that I was shunned, because if I saw or ran into anyone they would speak to me if only briefly.

I couldn't go back, though. I was too ashamed. The elders and elder's wives grapevine had completely ruined my reputation, not to mention my ex-boyfriend telling all the details of our sordid affair to anyone who would listen. I had formerly been very theocratic (auxiliary pioneer) and I'm from a pioneer family. My family had no status though, because my dad (the son of a PO) divorced my mom when I was little. He never became an elder himself (much too vocal about his doubts).

Now, I finally became part of life again when my boyfriend invited me to his church. I would secretly attend services, even going so far as parking my car around the corner and walking a block and a half to the entrance. I'm completely out of the closet now, though. My family knows I'm a Christian, and some of them shun me (sister, aunts) but most of them just tolerate it.

Holidays still feel a little funny for me. Mostly, I end up sharing with my children the Christian origins for the holidays and kind of staying away from what is classified as Pagan. For instance, we celebrate Christmas, but without the tree and Santa Claus. We exchange gifts and talk about the birth of Christ. On Easter we go to church, eat a big dinner, and talk about the gift of Christ's ransom.

Thirdson

I was born in. My parents became JWs three years before I was born (1960). I grew up in the model JW family. Dad was a servant in the olden days, we had parts on assemblies, older brothers pioneered for a while etc. All six of us kids were baptized and all later married JWs, and boy did my mother boast about it!

Of the six, four have left the religion and two of us have gotten divorced. My decline began before I was appointed as an elder when I began to doubt a lot of teachings. I quit being an elder at the end of 1994 when I could no longer work with the corrupt elder body in my congregation. At the time I had retrained as a programmer and was considering a year long assignment in an eastern European country but a job came up in Minnesota and that was an opportunity to fulfill an almost life-long dream to work in North America. I was offered the job so I sold up and moved to the US. I associated with JWs for a while but was technically inactive. I went out in FS twice after moving to the US. After two years, my green card application was in the works so I bought a house and moved. I had stopped attending meetings by that time and I wasn't in contact with any JWs. Shortly after that my marriage broke up when my wife left me.

It was a drastic method to leave the religion but the path I choose was really just to get away from the JW community I had grown up in. But it did help separate me from former friends and made leaving the religion a lot easier. I was also aided by finding my new congregation extremely unfriendly and the meetings utterly boring. My parents said little about my lack of activity when they visited in the summer of 1998. They already knew my feelings on the 'generation' change as well. What really upset them was my dating a 'worldy girl' a year later. That caused some rifts because I answered their question as to whether I had left 'the truth' with the answer that 'the truth' cannot be based on lies and since JW teachings were based on lies it couldn't possibly be termed 'the truth'.

My JW upbringing has a lasting impact. I found it necessary to suspend all belief and discount the knowledge of JW doctrines. It has meant reading a great deal about the history and composition of the Bible, the history of the Christian church and the real history of JWs. I have overcome my fear of entering a church and have learned how to celebrate holidays without guilt. I sent my non-JW aunts and uncles Christmas cards for the first time in my life.

That 'worldly girl' took me to church, introduced me to a number of people of faith, taught me how to celebrate holidays and has gotten me to read several good books. Along the way I have gotten to know several priests, a talk show host, and I have gotten involved in a lot more volunteer activities.

I still keep in regular contact with my JW parents, they don't shun me. My one older brother and JW elder hasn't been in touch in two years now despite my occasional letters to him.

As for the 'worldly girl' she became Mrs. Thirdson two years ago. Our wedding was officiated by a female priest in an Episcopal Cathedral. The music was arranged and played by a friend who is the music director at a Roman Catholic Church. My parents declined to attend and I guess my mother doesn't boast at the Watchtower Study about three siblings and me anymore.

Thirdson

dannywalsh

i was born into the jw faith , and im glad that my parents introduced me to biblical christian standards , because that is what convinced me that the watchtower are false prophets and a deception and just plain wrong , forget bout them and dont let guilt and fear of the borg stifle your life

rocky220

Born into it. got out in 1975....when two things happened 1] I went to college and 2] Expected Armaggedon didn't come....in my house it was taught half truths= total lies.....that's how I started to see the WT...since my concience was clear on this point, the adjustment wasn't so bad, but my JW mom had a rough time with it and that will always be the point of contention between us...not even with the pedophile issue in the organization is she willing to concede that maybe, just maybe WT ain't what they pretend to be. Of course 50+ years in the Borg can put a mental hold on a person, but you never know....sooner or later the spell will break, maybe not.....rocky220

Were you born into the jw faith?

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