Posts by life is to short

46

45 Minute Bethel Video about Changes (downsizing) at Watchtower

by OnTheWayOut in

i don't see this posted elsewhere, and i don't have the links besides this facebook one.. but here is a 45-minute long bethel talk about the changes at bethel including addressing the hard feelings of people who were given the axe.

basically, everything must change.

we gave remaining bethelites saturday off to do our bidding in "the field" and we give bethelites over 70 an extra day a week off (if you can find any such bethelites).

life is to short

Thank you I cannot wait to see it all the way through.

LITS

15

What would happen if...

by StarTrekAngel in

in an effort to excuse yourself from elder persecution, you present an argument.

whether at a jc or just in an average elder shepherding call.

most people who have confronted a jc, have tried to explain to the elders about what they know of the org but the incriminating questions always come up.. when confronted with the question, do you still believe the gb is the f&ds?

life is to short

I was just asked this question and how I responded was would I have not had children even though I really wanted them, if I did not think the GB were being used by Jehovah? Would I have served where the need was great and lived on nothing? Would I have taken a vow of property? etc, the idiot asking me was dumbfounded and said OH sister, sister I did not mean to offend you.

That settled it. I never said I do not believe it now, I just used what I did in the past and he was just did not know what to do with me. I loved it.

LITS

72

Waking up - introduction

by Dreamerdude in

i am a male, born into the jw cult(ure), baptized as a teen, now mid fifties.

most of my life i dreamed of hugging pandas and lions, punctuated at times by nightmares of armageddon or jw drama and politics.

still going through the motions for still-in wife.

life is to short

Welcome I am also in my early 50's and my husband is still, though there is talk that they might DF him for not saying hi enough to some of the elders. Crazy

I wish I knew what would wake someone up but I have finally come to realize that you have to do it on your own.

Glad you are here.

LITS

29

One Person Baptized at Circuit Assembly

by Simon Templar in

i went to the circuit assembly with my wife yesterday.

i have to keep peace in the family.

there were less than 1,000 people for both the morning and the afternoon sessions.

life is to short

It is the same where I am on the west coast, my husband had his special day last week and he was saying that only three kids got baptized they all looked to be about 15 and under.

There always used to be well over 1000 at these special days and he said that it topped 700. He of course attributed it to people not wanting to know the truth and lead their debouched lives but still it has differently slowed down where I am at. When I was in my teens we always had 20 or more getting baptized and the summer assemblies 30 to 40 if not more, that is not how it is now.

LITS

20

Any here who didn't rebel as a teenager and were a goody two shoes instead?

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

when i was a teenager in the borg i was a dyed in the wool, goody two shoes, squeaky clean,"spiritual " sister.

alot of my peers around me were rebelling and going off the rails but not me.

i was constantly praised for this and even felt a little smug about it ha!.

life is to short

That was totally me also. I did everything I was told and never questioned a thing. I also went to a few JW parties and was appalled at how worldly they got, many of the elders kids were so drunk it was unreal. One party I went to the pioneer mom was there, the dad was not a JW but the pioneer mom had alcohol and you could drink as much as you wanted. I was just so shocked and felt so betrayed. One JW pioneer did a pole dance and of course all the guys were all over her. One of the elder son's who could not walk as he was so drunk tried to drive home and another elder kid took his car keys away they wound up in a fight in the front yard.

It was sort of surreal. The place I worked had a employee party and I was forced to go to keep my job, I felt like I was betraying Jehovah for associating for the world and yet I had the best time, there was no drinking and just young people fun.

My gut always told me something was wrong but of course I never listened to my gut. One of my main wises was to go to other churches and just see for myself how horrible they were instead of being told that they were but of course I was to goody, goody, two shoes to do that as it was breaking Jehovah's law to ever set foot in a church.

I do not regret that I did not party as that was and is just not me, but I do regret that I did not have a life, have fun, go house back ridding, go bike ridding, jogging, spend a Saturday morning in a coffee shop reading a book.

All of those things were forbidden, seriously forbidden as if you had time to read you should be reading a JW product, if you took a day to go on a bike ride you could have used it to go in service and who knew that a Angle was wanting you to call on a home and save someone but you selfishly spent you time enjoying yourself when lives were at stake.

I bought into all the garbage and never enjoyed my youth. I live in total regret.

LITS

42

What Are the Top JW Issues That Just Burn Your Buns the Most?

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

which ones make you the maddest?

covering up of abuse, shunning, failed end of world predictions?.

my list is long and heavy, but the top 3 that set me off the most are:.

life is to short

1 Child abuse cover up

2 Lack of Love

25

NOW it's Important

by TheLiberator in

i have spent 45 years of my life sacrificing my soul to the watchtower.

twenty-five of those years as a ms/elder.

i gave every moment to them.

life is to short

I totally understand where you are coming from. My husband and I lived on nothing $3,000 a year when we were first married and that was in the US in 1987. My husband was gone all the time being an elder we never had a true marriage. We had all the crazy ones in the hall dumped on us. We were hit up for money and rides all the time.

We went to Bethel and were there for over two years which fact just seemed to make a lot of the JW's mad. I will never forget one elder laughing at my husband and myself saying that we were lying when we told him we lived on $200 a month. I got to ride around in the car listening to everyone having date nights with their husband and buying new cars, and homes etc while we crammed 5 to 6 people in our Honda Civic because no one else would use their cars.

I am bitter now looking back at all we gave up and for what, so I totally get where you are coming from.

LITS

33

"But WHY would you want to know those things??"

by stuckinarut2 in

i ran into an older sister who has always been very sweet.. it was a friendly chat...yet she pushed for a reason why my family have been missing from meetings for some time.

the question was deflected, until it just had to be said: "well, there have been some troubling and disturbing issues about the society especially the way things were handled during the royal commission, as well as many other issues".. she quickly cut in and said "but why would you want to know these things?

its best not to research and look at those sort of things - so we don't get upset!".

life is to short

I was told by an elder's wife that I think to much and that I try to understand things that I really should not.

I was just blown away and this was not by an old person this was by a women in her late 40's at the time and she was not a stupid person if you were to just met her. She actually came off as a real thinker.

I was just speechless.

LITS

23

"What IS True Love?" Watchtower Propaganda Review/Commentary

by WatchtowerReviewz in

my latest review for watchtower's most recent feature length propaganda film.

(not safe if sober.).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn6lxfw_qp8.

life is to short

I was that stupid when I was young, I really did think that we would live a life of serving Jehovah as a happily married couple until the first week after our wedding when I had to sit in the car for two hours waiting for my husband to get out of his elder's meeting. Than reality hit hard.

We never saw each other, pioneering was hell, everyone in the hall demanded everything from us, we had no life, we never saw each other. We or my husband I should say could never please anyone, I would get phone calls all the time demanding not asking but demanding that my husband come over to help them with what ever problem they had. It was all my husband's fault that their kids were not in the truth as it was his duty as an elder to see to it that the kids wanted to be a JW, or it was his fault that they had marriage problems, or what ever problem.

We never had money as we used every penny to pioneer.

None of the true problems of pioneering and living where the need was great were addressed in this video only that they fly off into the sunset to go to pioneer school. It was just a propaganda video painting a unrealistic view of a horrible life. I just really wish I could have a do over of my life, what I waste of my youth. I would tell anyone who would listen to RUN from this video.

LITS

14

"I should have known" moments

by dubstepped in

i got ready for the meeting.

my wife did too.

we drove out to the kingdom hall and the closer we got the higher my anxiety would spike.

life is to short

It was the same for me. My husband was an elder and we went to were the need was great for elders, than to Behtel, than back to our home congregation and each congregation I had some sort of anxiety causing problem plus severe depression. We pioneered in the first hall and it was hell. I was so depressed and tired all the time, so tired that it just came in waves and I would fall asleep if I was not moving.

At Bethel I would get major headaches at the meetings so bad that I felt like my head was going to explode, sick to my stomach, etc. When we came back to the hall here my heart would race at the meeting so bad that I thought I was going to pass out. The next hall anxiety attacks so bad where I could not breath. I would feel like I was chocking to death. I could not get any air in my lungs, if felt like I was dying. All the other problems only happened at the hall but this breathing problem started to happen all the time sometimes when I was driving I would have to pull over as I felt like I was going to pass out.

I still get that kind of anxiety when ever I run into a JW now but for the most part it has ended, I have never gotten a headache like I did in the hall while we were at Bethel since I left that hall, my heart never races,

On Friday, we were at Costco and we were talking to this sale's person about buying a product. This lady comes up who looks sort of familiar but I could not place her and we were right in the middle of giving the sales person our address and such and really, really not a good time while this lady just barges in and starts saying HI, I am like looking at her like we are kind of busy here and I really do not know who you are and could you wait a minute but no she processed to demand to know what congregation we go to now. It was than that I realized that she was a JW. I just thought how rude and tired to ignore her but I mumbled where I had attended and that satisfied her and she moved on.

After something like that I will sometimes wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air feeling like I am chocking to death again.

I just wish I could have realized what my body was telling me so many years ago. It has been so horrible and I am so glad to be away. I feel so much better.

LITS