Another survey from Lee

by Lady Lee 54 Replies latest jw friends

  • Badger
    Badger

  • What year did you leave?

    • 2003-2004...depending....

  • How old were you when you left?

    • I'm still 30

  • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave?

    • The Internet (this site in particular) was more like the finishing touch.

  • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision?

    • None.

  • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing).

    • The treatment of myself by my "friends" and the many contradictions of the organization....and getting tired of having to put so much into so little.

  • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind?

    • This site.

  • flower
    flower

    I left in 2000 at the age of 27 still believing I was leaving God and his only true organization. In Dec 2001 I surfed the net and found Randys site and a couple of other sites before finding this one. I bought and read Crisis of Conscience and some other books as well as listened to testimonys from many other ex witnesses and I knew after a couple of weeks that I had not left god but had truly been decieved by a organization run by men.

    The thing that helped me the most was knowing that there were so many thousands of people out there who were feeling just like me and had been through similar experiences. Knowing that I wasnt alone.

  • JH
    JH

    • What year did you leave? 1991 was the turning point. I became inactive since not DeFfragmenteD.
    • How old were you when you left? 31
    • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave? No
    • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision? None, only my good judgement
    • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing). Lack of love and true brotherhood and false prophecies
    • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind? Life

  • Lady Lee
    Lady Lee

    Hmmmm so far your answers are fascinating and not at all what I expected. I love that!!! I'm learning a lot from your answers so please keep them coming.

    My answers

    • What year did you leave? 1985
    • How old were you when you left? 35
    • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave? No because I wasn't on the net then
    • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision? I was too scared to read any anti-JW material
    • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing). abuse in the organization and the cover-ups by the elders
    • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind? I still believed for another 10 years after I left. Then I got on the internet and had my eyes opened
  • mouthy
    mouthy

    1 >>>>>>1987 2 I am now 76 You work it out....I was kicked out cos I cant do my arithmetic. 3 NO 4 "Crises Of Con" David Reeds "Answers ti o the WT Jean Easons Book ( A JW finds the truth) 5 1914 6 Witness Now For Jesus Convention in Pennsylvania

  • mouthy
    mouthy

    How the heck do I make spaces between the words. ??????

  • seedy3
    seedy3

    • What year did you leave?
      Hmmm, wow, that was a long time ago, but I really didn't have an exact date I just left, I drifted out for about 3-4 years, they DF'd me somewhere in or about 1980/81 I think

    • How old were you when you left?
      Early 20's maybe 23 too long ago to remember LOL

    • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave?
      No it really didn't exist then

    • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision?
      None, I just left

    • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing).
      The control, I hated being told what I shuld be and not be doing

    • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind?
      I'm not sure in my adult life I ever thought it was the truth

    Seedy

  • Winston Smith :>D
    Winston Smith :>D

  • What year did you leave? DA'd myself Dec 2003
  • How old were you when you left? 32
  • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave? No. I decided on my own to leave by reading the Bible and studying WTS literature. What the Internet did [specificly this board] was to give me the support and stregnth to see that I was not alone and that my decision was right, as others had come to similar conclusions as I
  • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision? Saw from studying about Babylon history from a library book that 607 was a false date. Everything fell apart from there as I studied the 1975 problems in the WTS literature. Then I came to the Internet
  • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing). I left to be true to myself.
  • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind? n/a
  • asleif_dufansdottir
    asleif_dufansdottir

  • What year did you leave?

    • 1992 was when we stopped going regularly...took a couple of years to consider ourselves "out forever"

  • How old were you when you left?

    • 29 & 30

  • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave?

    • no

  • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision?

    • none. The crap that was allowed to go on in the congregation proved to us that the society wasn't what it claimed to be. I was so frustrated that things weren't taken care of the way they were supposed to be that I knew something was up. There is no substitute for personal experience!

  • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing).

    • When we quit going to meetings, we were relieved! We'd seen and bitched about the flaws (which we thought were just weaknesses in our particular congregation), but it evolved from relief that we didn't have to go to a particular meeting, to resistance about going to any, to finally admitting to each other that it was a load of crap and certain people (power hungry small minded bullies) could just kiss our @$$.

  • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind?

    • Once I got my mind completely back, started thinkin for myself, and wasn't afraid to question or consider the possibility that they weren't who they claimed to be, I just reasoned it out for myself.

  • Mysterious
    Mysterious

  • What year did you leave?

    • 2003

  • How old were you when you left?

    • 17

  • Did the internet have anything to do with your decision to leave?

    • Yes

  • If you left before you got on the internet what reading did you do about the WTS or cults that helped you make your decision?

    • N/A

  • What was the one most important reason that helped you decide to leave (even if the decision was made for you through a DFing).

    • Their policy on sexuality.

  • If you left and still thought it was "the truth" what helped you change your mind?

    • By the time I left I didn't think it was "the truth". Before that it was mostly sites like freeminds and JWD but also sites of the type that examine what the JWs believe and compare it to the bible. When I realized they could win arguments just as well as the witnesses that was it.

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