What went against your nature

by Satanus 13 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Satanus

  In the dub life, some things that were against my nature that i did were giving talks, door to door selling, classroom debates, exclude myself from school activities, shunning dfd ones, not doing the pagan/christian celebrations, and um,, abstaining from sex.

  On the other hand, some stuff i liked was studying some of the ideas in the books, although my enjoyment of this tapered off. I sometimes enjoyed arguing doctrine and attacking evolution. Many of the get togethers were fun. We did lots of things like hiking, camping, canoing, skiing, trips all over the world, scavenger hunt, masquerade party, dances, sports, etc. What about you?

  S
• 

  donald

  i truley hated it when you would go to a door and the person at the house you were at...really did not want you there but was too timid to say and would try to get rid of you nicely......and youd push it and out ot exsaspertion they would take the stuff you were pushing...and id leave knowing what id done.....donald
• 

  love11

  Going to football games to watch "the boys" pretending to be into it, I felt like a ninny. It was like unless you acted like an airhead, they would counsel you for being too independant.
• 

  Purza

  Overcoming objections at the door. I really hated pushing the literature and I rarely ever did. I can recall standing at the doorin shame as this one pioneer sister I worked with on occassion forced the issue. I hated that!

  Purza
• 

  Quentin

  There was zero goodness outside the Scociety.
• 

  Lady Lee

  1. going door to door
  2. writing and giving those stupid talks (although now I am an excellent speaker and have give 3 hour lectureswithout notes!!!)
  3. being different (I had enough "different things going on - JWs was 1 more I didn't need)
  4. being submissive and not correcting brothers or sisters for that matter when they used the wrong sign while interpreting
  5. spanking my children - I stopped that as soon as I left
  6. praying in public parks and restaurants when eating out
  7. having to explain rwhy I could not do normal things like celebrate someone getting married if the party or gifts were on a holiday theme
  8. having to shun family
  9. why I couldn't go into a religious building
  10. and on and on

  All I ever wanted was to be normal -- still working on it
• 

  mamochan13

  A lot went against my nature, and like Lady Lee, I'm still working through much of it. Two things stand out.

  1. disfellowshipping. I always hated this. Where possible I tried to make contact with people who were df'd, to encourage them and help them.This was long before it ever happened to me.

  2. not being able to be involved in community support activities. I always wanted to be part of my student union, engage in protests, vote, write letters, participate in social change, join committees, make donations, and help other people. I never fully subscribed to the notion that going door-to-door and offering bible studies was all that god required of us when it comes to social obligations.
• 

  Daunt

  I never accepted the notion that everybody that wasn't a witness was a terrible wicked person. Just couldn't. For years the only friend I had was a non witness boy, couldn't imagine him dieing at armeggedon and not being in heaven without him, just didn't compute with me. Couldn't accept it.
• 

  GentlyFeral

  What went against my nature?

  Nearly everything about field service, except home Bible studies. Of course, I never started any of my own, and rarely got to sit in on other people's; but I've always been articulate, a natural explainer and popularizer - if I didn't have to impose my beliefs on my audience.

  Assuming that all worldlings were bent on my destruction was unnatural.

  I knew a few brothers who were proud that they read nothing but the Society's literature, and a few more who aspired to do so. That was entirely unnatural to me. I did censor my reading, but I never quit "secular" books. One of my favorite things to do was read all the books the Society quoted in its literature. Some people didn't understand it, but I (and a couple of other sisters) thought it was fun.

  I always felt bewildered when I walked into a home and saw no secular books in the living room. (Actually, walking into a house where there are no books at all in the living room feels strange to me. A properly furnished house has books in every room. ;)

  Not being allowed to talk to disfellowshipped people at all, not even to encourage them to come back. When a dear friend of mine was DF'd for The Usual Reason, she began attending meetings at the hall shortly afterwards. I told her "come back soon," - that was literally all - and I was so f*cking obedient I actually SPELLED IT OUT IN ASL rather than saying it!

  And the freaking elders pulled me aside and asked for an explanation! These were men I respected, too! This was in 1974 or so, before the big apostasy paranoia.

  Not being able to give to charity.

  I understood not voting, but I didn't see how you could not have any political opinions at all. Now that one was honored more in the breach than the observance }:)

  gently feral
• 

  LongHairGal

  Feral:
  
  I agree with everything you mentioned. But it especially got to me about not having other reading material. Now, really! They really are in a bubble. I met a few who didn't have tv either. I think their belief system is so flimsy that they have to maintain a pseudo-spiritual atmosphere or else doubts will creep in!! They have to maintain a controlled environment - like an insane asylum!!
  
  Also, the one about not having political opinions. How can you be conscious and alive and not have at least a small opinion! Oh, I realize that with the high level of uneducated people there they would not be as sophisticated but a thinking honest person would have some opinion.