My experience as a JW for 37 years. I dogded the bullet that many of you experienced .

by smiddy3 8 Replies latest jw experiences

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  smiddy3

  Hi friend`s ,I just had to share my experience ,and surely there must be others on this board who had similar experiences that I had.

  I was a JW for 37 years ,been out for about 20 years or so .However we as a family never had the problems that so many of you seem to have had .

  None of our, my wife and I , immediate families have ever been JW`s.

  I converted when I was about 20 years old in about 1960 and as i say remained in converted my wife and brought up two sons in the "truth" for about 37 years .

  My 1st and 2nd congregations I attended in Melbourne Aust. were very conservative and not very wholesome looking back.

  However moving interstate to S.E.Queensland in Redcliffe was a whole new experience.

  It was far more liberal and relaxed.

  I befriend a couple of Elders and MS `s who enjoyed an ALE or two which was right up my alley.

  And we went on camping expeditions on both Fraser and Moreton Islands ,both just off the coast of Brisbane.

  I was a MS for many years there never pioneered or served where the need was great and always had steady employment in the world which probably kept my head above the clouds so to speak.

  None of my family ,wife two boys and their wives are JW`s ,we have all left many years ago.

  Anybody else had negative effects of being a witness for many years ?
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  Listener

  Thanks for sharing Smiddy. Can I ask what drew you in at 20 years of age?
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  Vidiot

  I never really had any bad experiences as a JW.

  I just realized I wasn’t particularly happy being one, and eventually figured out it wasn’t really “the Truth”, anyway.

  Lucky, I guess.
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  enoughisenough

  I was in 50 years and I used to tell my closet friend in the local congregation that I have no good stories. Even those that I would have thought good in my youth, when I look back on it, It is just older brothers and sisters taking undue advantage of me.
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  LongHairGal

  Hi SMIDDY3:

  I remember you once saying that you didn’t have the experience in the JW religion that people here in the USA had.

  You were able to have your job or career with no interference from elders and other busybodies in the congregation. (Of course, you are a man and men would be less likely to be bothered over this.). Maybe things in general are more liberal down in Australia(?).

  Here in the states people in congregations have been unfairly influenced in youth into making decisions which ruined their futures! Of course, they didn’t realize it at the time as they were caught up in the hoopla and getting praised and invited to gatherings.

  You’ve read of tragic stories on the forum and elsewhere of people broke in senior years who can’t retire. It was only the few of us here and there like me who refused to quit careers or full time jobs - and we paid the price by being ostracized. But, that means nothing now.. Just like it means nothing now if someone popular back then can’t retire now!

  Well, consider yourself very fortunate this did not happen to you and you had a ‘normal life’ in the JW religion - which is a very unusual thing.
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  Rivergang

  Lucky you!
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  Reasonfirst

  Curiously, Smiddy, I was recently thinking something similar. I wondered what sort of a person I would have been if I had not become a Jw? I cant arrive at any conclusion to that question. I was just 17, and a professed atheist, when a little crisis in my life caused me to listen to a JW.

  I can think of some happy occasions in my theocratic life - one day in a remote part of our (then) territory, we were all singing kingdom songs as we walked the long distances between houses. Another spring day, when my pioneer partner and I cycled some 10 miles to cover a village (about 50 houses). We felt so happy with the wind in our hair, and enough sunshine to make us feel great. No interest in the town - but that didn't dampen our spirits. There was a goods train in that little town's rail siding, and the driver gave us a lift back to the town we lived in.

  I've known some elders, I'd prefer not have met. And, some whose friendships were valuable. And for the guys at the top something similar. I've mentioned in a previous post that I found Ted Jarasz very cold, but other's whose names (after near 35 years out) mostly escape me were different. I took near 3 years before I got baptised and some were critical about that, but one District Ser., and American (in Jarasz's batch of assignments to Aust) by name of John Cutforth, spoke to me caringly and lovingly and said to take my time because it was an important step. John Wilson was another brother who I found a very caring guy.

  I got out of step with the Jws in 1975, after Nathan K, came out from the USA and told us that they'd been wrong about 19759 and that it was Freddie's fault. Well, considering the fervour about that failed date, what else could I think? It took a few more years but eventually I was kicked out. It too a few years to regain my equilibrium, but my godless life is far satisfying than my god-filled life.

  Generally, I did not find aussie witnesses (or, most elders) to have he same characteristics that are often described here.
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  Black Sheep

  Born in but never baptised, so I wasn't eligible for shunning.
  

  I was in Redcliffe in the late sixties, but was on my way out and didn't hang out with the 'In crowd' and don't have any fond memories of that congregation or it's members.
  
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  smiddy3

  Thanks for sharing Smiddy. Can I ask what drew you in at 20 years of age?

  Sure listener,

  I left school at 14 years of age and went to work ,in a factory of leather workers who took me on as an apprenticeship.

  In my work i met up with a fellow, a little older than i who seemed a little bit different than anyone else i had met.

  He rode his bicycle to work each day and this bike ,I kid you not, looked like it had just come out of the showrooms , after many years.

  He was of Spanish decent ,and after being inactive after may years was trying to get back in the "truth"

  And I was the victim.