My fade story - how it all started

by Gorb 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  Gorb

  In the 90's my fading begun. It had a great impact on me, and took a lot of energy. Later on it gave me a much better life, also for my wife and children. We are free from the brainwash now!

  How did it start?

  It all came together those years:

  - 1995 generation change

  - alternative service

  - Weird Daniel prophecy books with unproven facts and a mix of history events that looked like the writers used a lot of liquids during the writing process

  - Aid Afrique, the France JW organisation, working together with UNHCR

  - JW protest march in France (had to be off the radar)

  - Watchtower advert in NY Times protesting against France tax laws

  - Blood fractions allowed

  - European JW and Watchtower working with OCSE

  - Watchtower working with UN (and support article in Awake)

  - Book Mankind in search of God went under the bus

  - Watchtower funding “neutral” movies and books about JW

  - JW media, James Pellechia, Jolene Chu and Johan Wrobel working together and research (great job!) with historician and university, and formal doctrine condemned higher education, CO did hate speech against UN, University, historicians.

  - Detlef Garbe's history book about jw's in Germany during the war, that gave so much insight (and different from jw view)

  - The Awake magazine about Paul Balzereit wrongly gets the blame in 1975 yearbook

  - JW publising and print ‘neutral’ publication about children rights

  All above and much more researched by me and proved correct.

  And knowing this, hearing CO and Bethel officials at conventions and assembly’s condemn the world, the university’s and research.

  It all started in 1995 for me, and I know because of all the research, it was the only right step to leave, for me and my wife and children.

  After 4 generations JW it was enough. We moved to another city and never came back.

  Johan Wrobel wrote on his website he left Selters “because it was time to do other things”. That’s the way I see it now, it was, after 4th generations, time to do other things.

  Did you had the same proces?

  G.
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  Diogenesister

  Gorb some of what you wrote I'm not familiar with - especially the France stuff. Is Johan Wrobel's website in German or Dutch?

  What happened with Watchtower and Aid Afrique?

  Very interesting! It's quite something to have four generations in Europe (especially As I'm guessing you're at least in your late forties/fifties?)
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  wannaexit

  Hey Gorby- a lot of what bothered you bothered me too. Some of of what you recount ,I didin't even know.

  Enjoyed your post :)
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  LostintheFog1999

  Thanks for your insight Gorb. Myself and my wife were both 3rd generation in. What started our fade? It's a combination of things.

  Mostly I think it began with my becoming seriously ill while still serving as an elder and suddenly seeing how quickly things in the cong were rearranged and (because I was suffering with severe clinical depression) how quickly friends distanced themselves from me. I wasn't even copied in to minutes from the elders meetings. Later I learned that it was because a lot of negative comments were being made about me at those meetings.

  A short while after my wife needed cancer treatment and again we couldn't get any help from the cong. It had us seriously evaluating "love is the identifying mark" .

  As an elder I had served on judicial and appeal committees where accusations of child abuse had been made against certain ones. We saw elders taken off but never disfellowshipped, and the society's "protect the congregation and Jehovah's name at all costs" stance used to irritate me beyond belief. I would come home annoyed and vent to my wife, probably opening her eyes to things she wouldn't normally have been aware of in the organisation.

  The new light on the overlapping generations bugged her, she said it was nonsensical. Why can't they just admit that they got things wrong!?

  There were lots of things I had always filed away under We'll Wait And See. Michael the Archangel being Jesus? Why?Types and Antitypes nonsense to apply it to a crowd of people in Brooklyn. And a host of other things.

  I started looking at "apostate" websites, and it was such a relief to realise that we weren't alone in our doubts. Up to then I had been wary because in the 70s two members of our family had read Crisis in Conscience and had left the Truth to join the Presbyterian church. They were shunned by the family and friends as a result. Ok, I didn't want to be treated as badly as they were. I now have a much better understanding of the struggle they must have faced and wish I could reach out to them (they both died a few years ago).

  No longer serving as an elder following a second serious personal illness, it became very easy to slide gently into obscurity. We're out for several years now, fully active (as much as health let's us) in local community advocacy groups promoting the best for our local community.

  My parents were Gilead missionaries. My wife's family were pioneers and served where the need was greater. Grandparents believed they were of the anointed class. Do I miss my times giving district assembly talks? Not in the slightest, at the time you thought you were special to have been picked, yet when I think about it now everything you said was from the organisation, you weren't allowed to diverge from the script. So I was only being a ventriloquist dummy for some faceless person in the Writing Committee in New York. It wasn't really me as it definitely is now.

  I regret the years I spent serving a lie. Although, the public speaking training I received has helped me in my post-JW life. We have real genuine friends in the local community and good self-esteem. We are our own people and our blessed in so many ways that before we became POMO we genuinely could not have imagined.
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  LongHairGal

  GORB:

  You really did some digging! You just gave people yet more reasons to walk away from the Witness religion!

  But, I am very glad to see that you ended four generations trapped there.👍🏻 The buck stopped with you. I’m the only dope in my family that got involved with the JWs, but I rectified that error years later when I left.

  As I mentioned to you, the shock of their 1995 Generation teaching was what made me finally walk away from the charade!.. Even their intrusiveness and attempted high-control criticism about my full-time job didn’t make me leave! Thankfully, I held onto that job until retirement.

  I’m sorry for others on the forum with worse stories who are suffering today.😞
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  Gorb

  Johan Wrobel has his biography online, in German and English. Here is the link: http://johanneswrobel.de/

  The German version, goes indept about leaving Selters, has all to do with Jaracks.

  Read the part The Wiederstand nimmt zu: http://www.jswrobel.de/rueckblicke-1.htm#widerstand

  About Aid Afrique:

  This relief organization was an initiative of 2 JW doctors in France. It was a huge succes, the France witnesses donated an mass for direct help in Africa half way the 90’s.

  At a moment in time it was taken over by the society. They used the netwerk of politician, ambassadors and the UN. There was a website with pictures that proved this all.

  It was for me a sign that watchtower became more and more a normal religion.

  And then everything was stopped, because it seized with watchtower interests.

  Orher events then in France were a protest march in Strasbourg and Brussels, JW’s were transported by bus to protest against tax laws in France. We had pictures to prove these events. Asking about it gave aggressive reactions from local elders. It had to stay under the radar.

  Same period the France headoffice was evacuated to London with all the tools, printing press and computer systems, just a day before the Governement would close it. It was presented by watchtower like a big victory. It crashed the relation between watchtower and France. All for the money. France jw’s were the victim, lost their government jobs.

  And so on, and so on in the 90’s.

  I have also in my archive a publication about children rights and sects, seems a neutral publication, but it was printed on jw press in Selters. Asked about it and the local elders saw water burning.

  Sonthe difference between the local jw religion and their deeds out of sight, this gap, became such a big issue for me, that I couldn’t stomage all that I heard in KH, circuit and assembly. It made me sick. The CO and DO gave at that time much pressure wit their anti government and anti education views.

  Gorby
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  ThomasMore

  Gorb, it is no wonder that France had such disdain for the JW's. I recall the evacuation of equipment in France and wondered why the govt allowed it to happen. Were they just glad to see them clear out?
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  joe134cd

  I’d be interested to see pictures of that JW political protest .
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  Beth Sarim

  Likely the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, then the ridiculous generation change in 1995.

  Daniel's 'vague' prophecy book in the year 1999,

  The expose of the UN involvement in 2001.

  Yes, the Mankinds Search for God book being turfed.

  Revelation Climax book flip flops, then ultimately being dumped.

  Blood fractions.

  Alternative military service.

  Yes, many parallels as outlined above.