Most people ponder from time to time about what they would do differently if they had the chance to do their life over. And we all have regrets. Focus on the future now and what you can experience without the restrictions on your life that you have been used to. You?re still one of the lucky ones. There are those who never manage to break away from the Watchtower Society. Count your blessings.
Steve Lowry
JoinedPosts by Steve Lowry
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29
wasted life
by littlemike inleft 2 years ago and surf nearly every night.
i was an elder for 11 years did circuit assembly items etc.
in fact i did everything the society said.
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8
Maturity....
by logansrun infrom alexei panshin's "rite of passage".
"it was only after i came back from trial that i came to a notion of my own as to what maturity consists of .
maturity is the ability to sort the portions of truth from the accepted lies ad self-deceptions that you have grown up with.
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Steve Lowry
I think even good manners can be immature if you're just doing what you were raised to do, without questioning whether it makes sense.
I don't know that I can completely agree with this comment. While good manners may not necessarily be the criterion of maturity, I can't imagine how using good manners would hinder someone from acting maturely. If someone ?thinks? they are using good manners but in reality they aren?t then they have been trained improperly and act so. Good manners are always welcome and I believe are a good sign of maturity.
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Maturity....
by logansrun infrom alexei panshin's "rite of passage".
"it was only after i came back from trial that i came to a notion of my own as to what maturity consists of .
maturity is the ability to sort the portions of truth from the accepted lies ad self-deceptions that you have grown up with.
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Steve Lowry
By the same token: a person who has come to see, and know, himself as self-centered, rude, and impossibly obnoxious, and accepts himself as such, offering no gratuitous apologies for such, is mature in the way that he has come to serenely accept the truth about himself, and is able to live with it. Other people may not see him that way, but then, he believes they aren't mature enough to handle his maturity.
I dunno, I just think that makes him an asshole.
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24
Ray Franz
by oscar inhello everybody i was just wondering if anybody knows how raymond franz is doing or how he is continuing his life outside of the org.
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Steve Lowry
Man, I read Crisis of Conscience in like three days. Couldn't put it down. It's a must read for former JW's.
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9
questions from a newbie!
by lfwalli inok i'm too impatient to look through all the old posts..so hear me out.. i'm studying with witnesses, but not yet baptized.
i was raised around the truth.. i've looked through some of the old posts and i have heard alot about the shunning of former "members".
i've been told that this is not a scriptural practice.
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Steve Lowry
Ok, I?m not gonna go look up scripture to attack their claim about shunning. Don?t need to. Their claim is as if it doesn?t really exist (at least this is the position of most JW?s). I have been dealing with former JW?s for more than a decade and I can tell you that shunning is alive and well among the JW population. It is after all just a very simple but effective way of protecting the ?flock? from unwanted outside influences. Don?t buy into the whole, ?its an act of love? thing. No it isn?t, it?s a ?self preservation? thing for the Watchtower Society. Look, there?s no graceful way to leave the Watchtower Society religion of Jehovah?s Witnesses. Once you leave, any friendships you may have developed with JW?s will be gone. Once they have determined you won?t be coming back, you will be disenfranchised.
If you continue on the path you have selected and you follow it to its natural conclusion (getting baptized as a JW) then when the day comes that you leave (and for any reason), then you?ll understood what I?m telling you today.
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Ray Franz
by oscar inhello everybody i was just wondering if anybody knows how raymond franz is doing or how he is continuing his life outside of the org.
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Steve Lowry
Seems to me I talked with him about six months or so ago. I asked him how he was doing and we talked about our ages. (I'm in my forties). Then Ray said, " Your forties are the old age of your youth, and your fifties are the youth of your old age". Very wise indeed.
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Think about it...we are special
by findingme inwhen we were an active jw, we thought we were special, right?
we felt we had the holy spirit, truth, and the priviledge of preaching.
we drew a lot of attention from others because we were...different (special, unique, whatever).
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Steve Lowry
"We need the reassurance that we are not "bad" like the JWs want us to believe."
In time, you won't feel the need to be reassured that you're not ?bad?. In time, you will fully understand, on the emotional level as well as the intellectual, that no one is 'good' simply because they belong to a certain group. But this takes time. It took me a while but I know fully well that I am not ?bad? because I left the Watchtower Society. It was simply an evolutionary step in my personal development (not one I volunteered for however).
Don?t make the mistake that I did (sounds like you aren?t). For years I just put the whole Watchtower experience out of my mind and psyche, only to realize that at like ten years out, I had unresolved issues. Acknowledge and even embrace the possibility that maybe you feel insecure about being a ?bad? person because you?re no longer a Jehovah?s Witness. Then start weighing that feeling with reality, and in time you?ll know on every level that being ?good? isn?t contingent on belonging to a group. Life will teach you this lesson. Trust me on this one.
Let me tell you something. YOU make your way in this world. YOU pay your bills. YOU get up and go to work everyday. YOU pay your taxes. YOU raise your children. YOU provide the three basic needs for you and your family (food, shelter, and clothing). The Watchtower never put a CRUMB of food on your table. You think about THAT the next time you feel ?bad? because you?re no longer one of it?s followers. You don?t need the Watchtower. It needs you! It places subliminal messages in its literature that makes it followers believe they are bad people if they ever leave. It?s just a simple mind control technique, and it works pretty well.
Now, do I think JW?s are ?bad? for being in the Watchtower Society? Nah, but I DO think they?re pretty stupid.
Steve
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7
Had a Nightmare
by Undecided inlast night i dreamed i had to prepare some type of talk for the meeting at the kh.
it went on for most of the night it seemed.
on the way to the kh i noticed i had on a tee shirt and had to go back for my white shirt and tie.
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Steve Lowry
I never ever dream of anything concerning the Watchtower Society anymore. But that comes with being out for twenty-five years, I guess.
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Maturity....
by logansrun infrom alexei panshin's "rite of passage".
"it was only after i came back from trial that i came to a notion of my own as to what maturity consists of .
maturity is the ability to sort the portions of truth from the accepted lies ad self-deceptions that you have grown up with.
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Steve Lowry
When you can pee into a can and drive at the same time, then you're mature! (Jus? kiddin?)
No really now, I think being mature starts with the child, and his or her ability to make decisions that involve self-sacrifice (even small ones) as well as the ability to recognize the needs of others as well as himself or herself. I think it kinda starts there and develops. When I think someone is acting immaturely it?s usually when he or she is acting inconsiderate and rude. When I see a young person being polite and courteous then I think that that young one is acting like a mature adult. Conversely, when I see an adult acting like a self-centered self-absorbed three-year-old, then I think he?s acting immaturely. I see this in traffic everyday.
I think a harder question may be this; How does a boy know when he?s become a man? What is the litmus test for this answer?
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Steve Lowry
Sometimes when I can?t sleep, I close my eyes and I imagine I'm in a small cabin set deep in the woods, way back in the mountains. It's the dead of winter and the snow is several feet deep outside. I can hear the sound of the cold wind whipping just outside my door, as I imagine how cold it must be, yet inside I'm nice and toasty in my bed and I hear the occasional crackling noise form a dying down fire from the fireplace. I'm alone and responsible for no one but myself. I think the solitude of this imagery helps me to fall asleep. It?s very peaceful.