Posts by neverendingjourney

51

Categories of Former Jehovah's Witnesses

by neverendingjourney in

jw
friends

i was never disfellowshipped, but it's been about 10 years since i was an active jw.

i've made an occasional meeting or half-day at an assembly here or there, strictly at the behest of family (maybe once a year), but i'm completely disconnected.

more importantly, mentally i'm 100% free.. we all have a tendency to project our views and beliefs onto others, and tending to believe that other former jws share our views is no different.

neverendingjourney

Well this thread has taken a turn toward the weird.

51

Categories of Former Jehovah's Witnesses

by neverendingjourney in

jw
friends

i was never disfellowshipped, but it's been about 10 years since i was an active jw.

i've made an occasional meeting or half-day at an assembly here or there, strictly at the behest of family (maybe once a year), but i'm completely disconnected.

more importantly, mentally i'm 100% free.. we all have a tendency to project our views and beliefs onto others, and tending to believe that other former jws share our views is no different.

As for me, I'm certainly a category 4 type. The process of discovering that it wasn't the truth was long and torturous. I fell into a deep depression and had thoughts of suicide. Not having many people outside of online forums who understood what I was going through was rough. Thankfully, it's all a distant memory now.

Jamie:

I didn't know there was a separate inbox. I sent one of the guys a facebook message (we were not facebook friends), but I have no way of checking now since i deleted my facebook account a year or two ago. I sent the other guy an email to an address that was posted on a non-facebook website. It was the email to his business.

29

We shall dress with modesty (1Tim2:9), why dress like rich lawyers or wealthy financiers?

by Mr Fool in

in my point of view, modest clothing is simple and humble.

so why are jw-men dressed like they own a big company or are challangers to the president post?

.

neverendingjourney

There was an elder at my old hall who absolutely loved playing dress up. Before he was an elder his wife told me she knew he would "accept the truth" because Witnesses would walk around in suits looking important. That was right up her husband's alley.

Before they became witnesses, they had jointly run up their credit cards and maxed out every credit line they could get. They lived like upple middle class folks, but he made 10 dollars and hour and she worked two office cleaning jobs. After they became witnesses they downsized and went into a debt consolidation program, but they always wanted to appear to be of a different social class.

This is a very long way of saying that while their dress code is mostly a negative, there are some who are drawn to it because they like to feel important.

35

Most Irritating Thing About The Jw's

by integ in

for me it is the smugness.

it's their inability and refusal to admit they are wrong....ever...even in the face of irrefutable evidence.

isn't pride a sin?

neverendingjourney

I would have much more respect and admiration if they would just be HUMBLE enough to say "Hey. We don't have all the answers but we're trying our best.

How could they justify excommunicating disobedient members if they admit to only having a best guess of what god might want from them?

29

We shall dress with modesty (1Tim2:9), why dress like rich lawyers or wealthy financiers?

by Mr Fool in

in my point of view, modest clothing is simple and humble.

so why are jw-men dressed like they own a big company or are challangers to the president post?

.

neverendingjourney

The problem is, the WTS has not updated its dress code from the fifties. Nowadays, jeans are the uniform.

Outside of the big New York law firms, the vast majority of attorneys don't wear suits anymore. Of course, you need to wear a suit to go to court, but the vast majority of attorneys rarely, if ever, go to court.

The flowery dresses and suit nonsense is, as you said, a relic of the past. The religion is ossified. It won't update its preaching methods much less its dress code.

51

Categories of Former Jehovah's Witnesses

by neverendingjourney in

jw
friends

i was never disfellowshipped, but it's been about 10 years since i was an active jw.

i've made an occasional meeting or half-day at an assembly here or there, strictly at the behest of family (maybe once a year), but i'm completely disconnected.

more importantly, mentally i'm 100% free.. we all have a tendency to project our views and beliefs onto others, and tending to believe that other former jws share our views is no different.

neverendingjourney

Great thoughts so far.

Categories are just constructs to help us organize information. There isn't any truth inherent in the construct itself, it's just a tool to help us think about certain subjects.

The folks who've mentioned specturms, is the spectrum an anger/bitterness/trauma specturm? The angrier you are, the more likely you are to want to talk about your former religion?

I think there is certainly some correlation. The longer I've been out, the more I've healed, the less I'm on websites such as this one, but there are people who feel little to no trauma and enjoy talking about their experience. Conversely, there are highly-traumatized people who hold in a lot of anger and simply don't want to talk about it.

51

Categories of Former Jehovah's Witnesses

by neverendingjourney in

jw
friends

i was never disfellowshipped, but it's been about 10 years since i was an active jw.

i've made an occasional meeting or half-day at an assembly here or there, strictly at the behest of family (maybe once a year), but i'm completely disconnected.

more importantly, mentally i'm 100% free.. we all have a tendency to project our views and beliefs onto others, and tending to believe that other former jws share our views is no different.

neverendingjourney

I was never disfellowshipped, but it's been about 10 years since I was an active JW. I've made an occasional meeting or half-day at an assembly here or there, strictly at the behest of family (maybe once a year), but I'm completely disconnected. More importantly, mentally I'm 100% free.

We all have a tendency to project our views and beliefs onto others, and tending to believe that other former JWs share our views is no different. I recently started thinking about this subject because I found a former "prominent" elder online who is clearly no longer a JW. He has a beard, a trendy haircut, and has pro-gay rights stuff on his facebook page. I sent him an email in an attempt to reconnect and let him know I was no longer a JW. The email went unanswered.

This isn't the first time this has happened. I reached out on facebook to a guy my age who was a pioneer around the same time I was. He later went to Bethel. Again, his facebook page made it clear he was no longer a JW. I reached out to him and got nothing back.

Not everyone who leaves the JWs behind is like me. I get that. I'm mostly over the mental baggage that the religion saddled me with. I realize none of it is true and enjoy having someone to talk to about it since there are so few people out there who are in the position to understand what I've been through. From my personal experience, though, I believe I'm in the minority. Most former JWs either never fully shed the indoctrination or don't care to rehash the past.

With that said, how many different groups of former JWs are there? I can think of four main groups.

1. People (mostly born-ins) who never bought into any of it. By the time they're adults they drift away and lead normal lives. They have very little interest in being part of the XJW community since they were never really a JW to begin with. It was something their parents forced them to do and they went on to lead their own lives as soon as they could. There might be converts who fit this description. Mostly people who converted to please family members or spouses, but who never embraced the religion fully. Once the marriage fell apart or once the family pressure subsided, they drifted away.

2. People who continue to believe that JWs have the truth, at least in some capacity, but they believe they are simply too weak and sinful to remain part of the organization so they give up and lead a "worldly" life because they're doomed anyway. Sadly, far too many of the kids I grew up with whom later drifted away fit into this category. A lot of them have been disfellowshipped multiple times. Sometimes they give up. But they're one terrorist attack or one natural disaster away from banging on the door of the kingdom hall. A good number of them sink into depression, alcoholism and/or drug use. They feel dirty, like they're not worthy of God's love.

3. People who decide to leave, whether because they mentally realized it was not the truth or because they lost the emotional/societal attachment, and don't want anything to do with the religion anymore. They realize they wasted a lot of years and don't want to waste any more time rehashing the past. Many of the people who fit this description try hard to hide the fact that they used to be JWs. Some don't hide it, but don't have a lot of desire to talk about it, either.

4. Similar to group 3, but the difference is disconnecting from the JWs was generally more traumatic. I consider myself a part of this group. A lot of people in this group suffered great trauma from realizing they'd been deceived. Discovering that the central premise in their lives was false left them with a huge emotional and spiritual void. They feel angry and confused and benefit from talking it out with like-minded people. Others in this group suffered great emotional or physical abuse at the hands of JWs. They realize that the true religion would not treat them this way and they seek the comfort of sharing their experiences with other. Many if not most in this group soon realize the lies inherent in the teachings and this becomes the final nail in the coffin of their attachment to the religion.

This is a possible explanation for why these people I've reached out to have not responded to my emails. Not every former JW is in Group 4. And even if these were Group 4 XJWs, maybe they didn't trust me. Perhaps they thought that I was a Group 2 and would eventually try to convince them to go back to "the truth." Or maybe they didn't want to risk the chance that I still have connections to the witnesses and I'd take what I learned about their lives and disseminate it among the nosy active JWs.

By no means do I believe that the above is a comprehensive list. What do you think? Am I missing other categories? Am I oversimplifying things?

443

The 1914 generation is still going strong 100 years later - 2014 study article.

by THE GLADIATOR in

january 2014 watchtower study article.

let your kingdom comebut when?.

this generation will not pass away.

neverendingjourney

I believe there was an article that contained " Six lines of convincing evidence.

Yup, that's the article I was referencing in my earlier post. Found a summary of it here:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/47398/1/Six-Convincing-Lines-of-Evidence-that-the-WTS-was-RIGHT#.Um_mXXCkp1U

443

The 1914 generation is still going strong 100 years later - 2014 study article.

by THE GLADIATOR in

january 2014 watchtower study article.

let your kingdom comebut when?.

this generation will not pass away.

neverendingjourney

It is absolutely a mechanism to ensure the sense of imminance and urgency is the default setting for the entire congregation of Witnesses worldwide.

One of the main reasons the WT was able to move on from the 1975 debacle was that it was still in full-on growth mode. Most JWs today weren't around in 1975. The influx of new members ensured that any 1975 bitterness was mostly buried.

It's different this time. Their growth has slowed and the bulk of the Witnesses for decades to come will be keenly aware of the WT's flip-flopping on this issue. The internet has also made it harder for the WT to hide its old teachings. Witnesses will be confronted by it either through their own research or through "worldly" people. That's not to say that there will be mass defections, but it's going to be very difficult to reinstill that sense of urgency.

443

The 1914 generation is still going strong 100 years later - 2014 study article.

by THE GLADIATOR in

january 2014 watchtower study article.

let your kingdom comebut when?.

this generation will not pass away.

neverendingjourney

I noticed they did not even attempt to provide a scriptural basis for this new criteria.

It's an "evidently" on top of another "evidently" on top of another one, until their "biblical truth" bears little to no resemblance to what's actually in the Bible. They do this a lot, by the way, on a wide variety of subjects.

Evidently, Matthew 24 has a secondary fulfillment in the distant future. Evidently, the end times started in 1914. Evidently, the generation applies to the anointed. Evidently, there are not one but two groups of anointed. Evidently, those groups overlap. Evidently, the second group are contemporaries of the first group.

You get the picture.