Were You Ashamed To Be Identified As A JW? (page 3)

Farkel

: Were You Ashamed To Be Identified As A JW?

Of COURSE I was! After all, it IS a dang Cult!

Farkel

Never liked being identified as a JW. Always hated it when I would work for a company for several years and nobody knew my religious affiliation and then a gung ho JW would be hired who was on a convert making kick. Then he would tell everyone I was a JW too. So my coworkers would often remark, "Athanasius is a JW? I didn't knew that." As I never tried to convert my co-workers.

Fortunately I never had to work in the territory where I lived. The congregation that I attended didn't hold the territory where I lived. Anyway its sure good to be free of all that BS.

Sincerely,

Athanasius

blondie

Never liked being identified as a JW. Always hated it when I would work for a company for several years and nobody knew my religious affiliation and then a gung ho JW would be hired who was on a convert making kick.

I know that feeling, Athanasius. I figured no one came up to me and announced, hey, I'm a Baptist, Mormon, Methodist, etc. More problems were caused for me by JWs who were vocal and condescending at work but then were late and lazy on the job.

As a supervisor I had to reprimand a JW once, who said, "I have to put up with persecution from worldly people, I didn't think I had to expect it from YOU."

I read her this scripture:

1 Peter 2:18-20

18 Let house servants be in subjection to [their] owners with all [due] fear, not only to the good and reasonable, but also to those hard to please. 19 For if someone, because of conscience toward God, bears up under grievous things and suffers unjustly, this is an agreeable thing. 20For what merit is there in it if, when YOU are sinning and being slapped, YOU endure it? But if, when YOU are doing good and YOU suffer, YOU endure it, this is a thing agreeable with God.

Blondie

Edited by - Blondie on 7 January 2003 7:45:47

minimus

There's plenty of reason to be ashamed of a fellow Witness making your life difficult. I used to hate it when people would say, "Do you know So-and-so?. Are you like him"?......I'd say, "No, he's a baaaad Witness." Now they can ask a "good" Witness about me and the JW can give my old response.

RunningMan

Absolutely. I was raised as a Witness in a small town. When you are a teenage Witness in a small town, everyone knows when you go from door to door, even if you call only on strangers.

It was humiliating, and I probably carried that mindset my entire life.

Strangely though, now that I'm on the way out, I have no problem telling people that I was raised as a Witness, and technically still am one. I make a much bolder apostate than believer.

If anyone asks why a JW holds my unusual views, I simply tell them that I am reformed, whereas other JWs they know are likely orthodox.

yumbby

Eww, i hate to admit this but I was one of those true blue believers with a stick up my a**. I was devout, rabid and unflexible. I'd tell everyone, lest they try to make me do something unchristian. Maybe thats why I'm such a wild party girl now. I'll do anything, and I mean almost anything now. How do you find balance?? sigh...

YellowLab

I never felt comfortable identifying myself as a JW around others. It was always too embarrassing for me. I always want people to like me as a person, not by what religion I am. If people knew I was a JW, then they'd have more the reason to think I was strange or different. And I had plenty of that to deal with when I was younger.

Since I've left, I'm very open with people about my experiences and what I went through. I've had many people respond that they had relatives or knew of someone that was a JW and how screwy their beliefs were.

YellowLab

Scully

I recently came across a name of someone who was in my congregation while I was growing up while checking my old school's website. This person was looking for a mutual friend, so I posted something and invited him to send an e-mail.

I got the e-mail today, and he wanted to know if we both had the "same religious background" - I guess he didn't remember me, since I was such a little ankle-biter at the time he moved away. LOL.

Yeah, JWs are definitely embarrassed to admit to a possible "worldling" that they are JWs. It's like a club with a secret password or special handshake - only people who know the code words are "real" members of the club whom you can disclose things to openly. And even then, not all of them are trustworthy. Like the freakin mafia.

Love, Scully

acsot

I'd always berate myself for my "fear of man" because I hated identifying myself as a JW - I was totally embarrassed by it, yet at the same time I believed it (then again, maybe deep down I realized it was all crap but didn't consciously recognize it).

So much to be conflicted about! What a friggin' screwy religion!

LDH

No. When I was growing up I wore it as a badge of honor. See I bought into the whole thing down to my cells. So when I was heckled by the kids and teachers I viewed as confirmation that I was "in the truth". Yes, not one of my brighter thoughts I agree.

Agree totally.

Lisa

Were You Ashamed To Be Identified As A JW?

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