by acuragirl 26 Replies latest jw friends
Hello sweets welcome to the board, I so know how you feel bout loosing your folks, even tho ive faded for years now and my parents still talk to me, its still there in the back of my head when they find out i celebrate christmas and birthdays that they will no longer have anything to do with me. And it hurts like hell but i have made a decision on how i want to live my life and its up to them to decide to be happy with that or not.
We are here for you
es
Welcome to the forum Acuragirl!
What you are going through is completely understandable and given time I'm sure things will get easier. I remember going to the cinema watching 6th sense and I was SO SCARED that I couldn't even go to the bathroom on my own afterwards LOL. Now, a few years later, I think that film isn't that scary! Some people just don't like scary films and in the end if you don't want to watch something like that then just don't - I know lots of people who have never been JW and they hate watching horror because it scares them.
Sirona
New Horizon: Welcome!
You have some interesting views. I take it that your belief in spirits is based on your own experiences of them?
Respectfully I think you need to educate yourself regarding this:
The only thing I could tell you is to go by what you know. The JW religion has many faults just like all the religions in the world, but one good thing I did learn form them is history, all of the national holidays have a very awfal begining. As for you letting your children partake in these pagain holidays, is totally up to you, but just remember this, how would you feel if you've lost someone very dear to you like for example your mother, to some terible act of volicen, then the people that commited the violent act begin to rejoice and celebrate thier victory. as time goes by people soon begin to forget and take your mothers death as a day for celebration with little or no respect to the actual reality that a human life was take so violently, and that you and all of her loved ones suffered.
Just keep in mind that all of this holidays come from acient civilizations where people acted more like animals than people, in a time when human life was viewed as kills a roach. not taking into consideration that human suffering was taking place.
That is total and complete rubbish. The origins of holidays are pagan, but they are NOT based upon human beings acting like animals or killing each other with no respect for human life. For the origins of halloween see this page: http://www.neopagan.net/Halloween-Origins.html
Other festivals were based upon the cycle of the year - mainly to do with fertility.
When I first left the JWs it was quite an eye opener for me to actually consider what exactly is wrong with things that are pagan? As it turns out, pagan ideas are beautiful and are respectful (even celebratory) regarding all life. In times gone by, human sacrifice did occur, but that is not to say that in every pagan society it happened, nor that it wasn't a willing sacrifice (the individual volunteering for the honour). Plus, even though killings have occurred, that doesn't taint the current pagan thoughts and beauty therein. (its like saying you can't be christian because of the inquisition).
Sirona
I know it is very tough trying to figure out what to do. I agree with my husband Joel's advice to you about talking to the kids and asking them what they want to do. I did and found out that they would have stopped being JW's when they became 18 years old. They didn't want to stay JW instead they are very happy being Christians. Presently we don't belong to any church but we do pray to God.
About life being about suffering that is so totally wrong. God loves us and doesn't want us to suffer. I know that from your post it sounds as if you are caught between your mom and your husband. I was in that position once myself. My mom thought that I would abandon her when I became a JW and my husband was raised as a JW and agreed with me that was a religion closest to my own personal beliefs. Of course the more I studied, became baptized, lived it; the more I realized how wrong I was. So glad to have DAd and that I got out of it. Doing that brought my family closer together.
I would like to welcome you here. You will find lots of good advice and a very genuinely loving environment.
PanicAttack,
Great post. Quite the journey you've been on.
(((((acuragirl)))))) Welcome to JWD forum!
I was scared, scared, scared when I first made my exodus from the borganization, just like you, acuragirl. And one by one.....all my fears were proven to be unfounded in reality. It took time, but time has healed.
Did you ever hear counseling whether from the platform or just casually that it was very stressful to listen even to worldly newscasts? I did. Their reason given was that all the badness occurring in the world was on the news and it was very distressing, ergo stressful, for us to listen to the news and that if we quit watching/listening to it, our stress levels would go way down. Funny thing about that. After I made my exodus, my blood pressure went wayyyyy down and I was gradually much less stressed as all the indoctrinated WTBS claims were proven false.
Hugs,
Frannie
Hi acuragirl. Welcome to the board.
Cellist
