I'm not actually going to the meeting once a month, that's just what he said to me a while ago. We'll see what happens.
What's preventing YOU from stopping meeting attendance?
by nicolaou 45 Replies latest jw experiences
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Vidiot
Simon - "We left because we loved our kids and didn't want them to be brought up indoctrinated."
Big component for me, too.
Couldn't bring myself to raise them they way I was (decent, but definitely could've been better)... being required to teach stuff I knew wasn't true, denying them basic human life experiences, etc.
There was a fair amount of internal conflict about it, too... my parents met doing WT missionary work in northern Canada, so I sort of wouldn't exist otherwise.
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Vidiot
BTW, I always hated the "What's preventing YOU from getting baptized/pioneering/reaching out/etc...?" thing.
Even as a dumbass teenager, I could recognize the blatant psychological manipulation.
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LoveUniHateExams
What's preventing YOU from stopping meeting attendance? - there must be a variety of reasons for some to carry on attending.
Family still in, no support network outside the WTS or job.
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schnell
I felt incredibly uncomfortable at the meetings towards the end. I really didn't want to be there.
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NikL
I go for my wife.
I hold her hand during prayers massage her sore neck during boring talks and am just there by her side listening to men who read the watchtower at what appears a third grade level.
I would never go again if she didn't want to go.
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the-Question
I'm fighting that, too, Schnell.
But I love the bros and sis- and sometimes actually LEARN something...whereas in the past, it was impossible to go and NOT learn something!
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the-Question
Yep, NikL , the GB have turned meetings and assemblies into GB Readfests.
They can't deviate from their outlines- or even use different scriptures!
WT Parrots...
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undercover
I was lucky in a way. I was already mostly inactive when the light bulb first went off. Not that I faded completely out unscathed. There were elder visits, 'concerned friends' trying to 'encourage' me. Family members 'taking me aside' and trying to 'talk sense' to me.
By the time I was gone gone, no one really paid me much mind anymore though. I had raised just enough questions that it was clear I was not going to 'go quietly into that good night', and instead of harassing me, and trying to prove a point, they let me be. The downside to that is that I'm not officially DFd or DAd, just gone. I still have family in, I still see old JW 'friends' occasionally, not that we associate, but run into them (it's a small enough city, it's going to happen). So, while some actually shun me, others see the need to try to woo me back.
I took a hands off approach with my wife. She was inactive as well, but not mentally out. I knew better than to force the subject. You have to have your own doubts before you accept the facts about the WTS. So I figured if we stayed inactive, and made a life outside the JWs/KH, she would eventually come around on her own. I only dropped the occasional hint or comment. It hasn't worked. Her JW family keeps the pressure on her, and with the recent election, the fear of Armageddon is back, and she is leaning toward returning. I fear a showdown is in the near future.
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konceptual99
For me I can excuse it with a number of things, especially concentrated on family but I think Freddo is right when he said cowardice.
When push comes to shove if I am scared of going over that bridge of saying to my wife I don't believe it anymore and I am not going to go to the meetings. I've stopped the ministry and my meeting attendance is irregular but I have not gone the whole hog and said enough is enough.
