by HereIgo 19 Replies latest jw experiences
my mother got religion when i was about 8 years old. was dragged along to meetings from age 10.
baptised at 14 because all my mates were.
pioneer at 16
servant at 19
d/a at 23----after long consideration that there is no god and everything the watchtower cult stands for is pure bullshit.
I was born in. My mother's mother had converted when my mom was a child; my mother's father was an unbelieving mate. He insisted his children have a choice in the matter and that they all be allowed to have holidays and birthdays. This was way back in the day when sisters were told to stay in subjection to their unbelieving husbands. So, conveniently for my mother and all of her sisters, they got to have it both ways growing up. For some reason though, all 4 of them converted once they were grown and married off, and all 4 became religious narcissists. This is always hard for me to understand because my grandmother was a genuinely kind and humble woman. Anyway, my mother married my father, a worldly young man just out of the army, and moved to the state where his family was. I think she was lonely when a kindly old JW gentleman knocked at her door and she immediately started studying and quickly became a dub. A few years later she dragged my father in and he eventually became an elder and congregation overseer, as it was called back then. He was a very intelligent man but emotionally immature and out of touch, and he ended up having a classic midlife crisis and fall from grace, and was DFed, my parents divorced and my mother quickly found another brother to marry, and my father was eventually reinstated and was married 3 more times before he died 20 years ago. I was baptized at 14 and my parents split up when I was 15. Having witnessed a whole lotta hypocrisy with the other elders jockeying for my father's position, not to mention the mess around the divorce itself, I stopped going to meetings after my mother remarried and I was living with my DFed dad. I was Dfed myself after a date rape at age 17....of course I and my 'worldly associations' were blamed. Somehow this didn't seem right to me, so when they gave me a choice between coming back to the meetings and being Dfed, I chose the DF. Over the years I had an off and on relationship with my mother and was usually shunned after the shunning conventions. It was very difficult, as most of you understand. She died earlier this year, and at her funeral the COBE who officiated found it necessary to announce from the podium that I and my never baptized younger brother had 'turned away from Jehovah'. What a comfort that was. I had been at JWR for several years off and on and had read CCMC and COC...but it was after my mother's funeral that I dug deeper and found out about all the lies and the protecting of pedophiles. So I'm here to watch JW.org go down and to offer support to others when I can. Sorry so long, but I don't think I've ever really told my story here.
born and raised in it. Three siblings, 2 of whom are still in and one parent still in.
My doubts started very young and by 15 I told my parents I did not want to be a JW (never goes down well) I was 17 when I went to one last meeting after much begging from my parents.
I have since been vocal about my issues with the ORGANISATION, which has affected relationships with me being unofficially shunned by my siblings still in. My Dad doesn't shun never really did at least to us children. My mum has left the ORG and has a new partner. I love my family still in but there is a neurological issue that cannot accept reason, you show evidence and they cry satan is tricking me with science but they are quick to call on science when it suits there own argument (which is always weak as piss)
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/206164/story-punkofnice-overlapping-that-finally-got-me-out
Since this was posted, I am now divorced as a result of the WBT$. I am now atheist.
This info would be good to put in your profile bio. Here's what mine says:
"Born-in, never baptized. The problem of theodicy, why an all-loving, all-powerful God allows suffering and evil, began when I was around the age of 10 due to the Ethiopian famine in the early 1970s and God's inability and/or indifference to resolve this massive scale of suffering. As I moved into my teen years, I began to disagree with Watchtower doctrine and beliefs, as well as the Bible itself. Misogyny does not sit well with a teenage girl. I was also having difficulty with Watchtower's doctrinal flip-flops - one that I recall was about Evolution. For 15 to 16 years of my life my mother vehemently and adamantly denied the Theory of Evolution and then one day said to me "You know Heaven, there may be something to Evolution after all." I was gobsmacked. I definitely did not agree with Watchtower's blood policy. Even as a teenager, I could not reconcile elevating a symbol of life above life itself."
I was born in, and I didn't start leaving due to the abuses or corruption. I started leaving because it was apparent that I don't think the same way as the JWs around me and I got sick of being dishonest. So I started looking into science and the Bible itself. It was vividly clear right away that the philosophy of history and worldview of the Watchtower are not at all accurate. The Watchtower's use of desperate AND disparate prooftexting assumed that the Bible is all inspired of God, and that's just not true.
And then I came here and found out about everything else.
Born in. Im from a large family and my uncles, aunts, cousins were witnesses too. Those who wern't were dead to us so to this day i dont know who/where they are.
Baptized at 19 because you couldn't get a girl if you wern't baptized. Believed it but still thought there must be more to it that will become apparent later.
Doubts came when i was 20, they were quashed by my mum and family digging out Watchtower articles from yester-year and asking that old question "where would you go without the truth?"
Major doubts came in my late 20s when i saw first hand the social cliques, elders not giving a damn, the ever changing rules and i couldn't marry up 1914, blood and non-birthdays with any bible verses. Plus i genuinely believed we should be loving to everyone, no matter of their religion or sexual orientation.
Started my fade at age 30, my "apostate views" were discovered and i was disfellowshipped. Best thing that ever happened to me.
LoveUnihateExams: It contained both the 1995 generation change article and an article on child abuse that basically stated that if a molester is asked by the elders about allegations and he denies them, nothing could be done about it
Oh my God!! I had read the generation articles on that magazine a few times, but never the child abuse allegation one. Talk about a terrible issue of the Watchtower! This paragraph says it all:
If the accusation is denied, the elders should explain to the accuser that nothing more can be done in a judicial way. And the congregation will continue to view the one accused as an innocent person. The Bible says that there must be two or three witnesses before judicial action can be taken. (2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19) Even if more than one person “remembers” abuse by the same individual, the nature of these recalls is just too uncertain to base judicial decisions on them without other supporting evidence. This does not mean that such “memories” are viewed as false (or that they are viewed as true). But Bible principles must be followed in establishing a matter judicially.
Anyways, not to hijack the thread, I'm a newbie myself Herelgo, having only started to fade earlier this year. I'm a born-in, 1984. Parents were and continue to be really "spiritual". I was baptized 1995 at the tender age of 10. Served as elder from late 2010 till early 2016 when I stepped down due to doubts.
As others here, my doubts involved various points, the biggest point at first being how a supposed merciful and loving God could A) Allow his creation to suffer for thousands of years just to prove a point B) Destroy billions of his children because they didn't worship as Jehovah's Witnesses commanded them to.
Ran into CoC online and the rest is history.
Born in. Father an elder - 2 brothers & 1 sister - all gung-ho JWs with various degrees of self -righteousness & who now shun me as "bad association". Parents now very elderly in late 80's.
Almost left as a teenager but decided to "give the truth a chance" ( yuck ) at 20 as I wasn't allowed to go to university & pioneered , became a MS ,went to Ministerial Training School , got married then became an elder. Climbed the greasy pole to give talks at special assembly days etc but always focused more on traditional "Christian" qualities rather than Society dogma and Pharisaical rules. Always had doubts though & being an elder , seeing all the hypocrisy , politics etc at first hand was a huge eye opener. Once you see behind the curtain , the show is never quite the same.
When the kids were 6 or 7 , people in the congregation started to put pressure wondering why the kids weren't unbaptised publishers and I realised it would be wrong to bring them up & force them potentially to become JWs if I didn't really believe it myself. So I started with a blank page trying to give the WTBTS the benefit of any doubt , took a deep breath & googled "Jehovah's Witnesses".
Took a couple of years of researching - JWFacts , COC , JW.com etc. Final straw was a question box ( about 8 years ago) that scolded JWs who were learning Hebrew or Greek or doing any research outwith Society publications. Came off as an elder & quickly & quietly faded ( mainly due to the need to keeping on caring for my elderly parents as my siblings don't really care & are too busy with JW activities. ) .
Like many leaving "the truth"- the marriage didn't survive the turmoil & my ex had a mid life crisis & left me & the kids & is now DFd with a new boyfriend. Kids both in Uni now. Onwards & upwards...to infinity & beyond!
POI, you are one of the coolest dudes on this Forum. Characters like you are usually JW lifers -Seems to me that something must have hurt you seriously hard to leave JW, (in your case that is).
