Three long years!
How Long Were You "In Transition" Before You Left The Organization?
by minimus 51 Replies latest jw friends
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lawrence
Disassociated myself in 1978 after pioneering, traveled, and returned to meetings/assemblies elsewhere in 1980, then again in 1986, then once more in 1992, and one more time in 2001. Twenty three years of wondering thru all phases of life. Finally, no more doubts. Welcome Barbar.
peace and blessings,
lawrence
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Max Divergent
1 1/2 to 2 years or so... as far as any observer was concerned, there was a bit of a slowing down followed by sudden cold turkey withdrawl from religious life, but that wasn't quite the full story...
For me there was some in vino veritas (With wine, we speak truth) involved for the first real crack to appear in my 3rd Gen JW thinking.
We were staying with the worldly inlaws for 2 weeks a few years ago. I took a shower whilst as pissed as a fart (drunk) after another great night out, and mused again that what the WT says about worldly people wasn't always completly true...
I nearly passed out when it hit me that it was just as well not everything they said was true*, becauase then it'd be even worse!!!! Eg: they were pushing the line that the congregations were a forgleam of the eternal
prisonparadise on earth and thescrewselders were showing us the way life would be led forever underStalinismGod's arrangement... what a horrific thought!!!I could only stay in 'the truth' if I ignored at least half of what the organisation said and did.
Understandably, this idea (that being a JW was bad whether it was the truth or not, and that it was worse if what they said was actually true) was the beggining of the end for me - but took another 18 months or so of H2O, Franz, Freeminds, College etc to come around to the natural conclusion of stopping being a JW in my own mind and stopping going along with it.
Once I couldn't stand it anymore, I got deleted as an MS as quickly as I could without causing too many problems for myself (like having to say why; I let then be relieved I was stepping down), went to one more meeting after the announcement and never, ever went again.
That's 4 or 5 years ago now.
Max
* 'Truth' in WT speak is about the same as 'Stable', 'Plug & Play' or 'Compatable' in Microsoft speak... nice sounding, but the meaning in the corporate dialect varies from the English language meaning of the word... (though W2k isn't too bad)
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smurfette
I found it questionable at 5 when mom first signed up. Then solid faith until age 10 when I started reading the bible on my own. Then the elders made me feel like the little idiot girl for asking questions that weren't outlined in the book or watchtower we were studying. Lulled back until age 15 when I no longer had any doubt it wasn't for me. I stuck with it until age 18 because I didn't want to wind up in foster care with my other 2 friends who left the JWs as teens. Also wanted to spend time with my family and knew after I left our relationship was over. Two weeks after my H.S. graduation I was outta there!
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minimus
Barbar, I enjoyed your 1st post! Don't let ANYTHING get you so down that you lose your perspective. Think of the positives. There are many for leaving the organization.
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NeonMadman
Decades. Stayed in to keep my family together. It didn't work.
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Its so simple
Took me about a month or less. Which is about how long it took me to read and digest COC. But there were problems before that that raised a lot of questions. I just didn't have the unbiased perspective of any 'wicked apostates' to help me figure it out.
Anyone want to split a lottery ticket with me?
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BadJerry
for me it was 3 months, Jerry was slightly more because he was seeing things earlier than I and kept it mum.
from IMANALIENTO logging on to hubbys ID
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ikhandi
You need to be free of " I still think, what if they are right, sometimes "
j2bf
Hell I ask myself that question at times, and I have been out for four years and have no intention on going back. It's not wrong to still wonder.
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minimus
Isn't it wrong to wonder when the FACTS prove otherwise???