Posts by Tameria2001

56

Things you will never hear a good Jehovah’s Witness say (to another Jehovah’s Witness)

by hoser in

i’ll start it off.

boy did we get drunk last night.

Tameria2001

Bless you

21

Muslims and the Jehovah's Witnesses

by Tameria2001 in

first i want to say that i don't know very much about the muslims, and what i am going to say is not attacking anyone, but instead, it was something that was said to me by a muslim man a few years back.. back in 2004 my husband and i found ourselves in a homeless situation.

his job had ended because the plant that he was working at, had shut down, and was sent off to china.

at the time our two sons were still very young, so we ended up staying at a couple of different homeless shelters until my husband could find another job, which took a total of three months before he found a new job, in a new state.

Tameria2001

@OneEyedJoe I believe he was talking about the conception about where their god(s) would destroy the vast majority. At least that was the impression I got.

The person who was responsible for cooking was a very spiteful person who tried on a few times to get my husband kicked out of the shelter, making up complete lies about things. One thing that bacon does not improve the flavor of was desserts, and he would add it to that as well, and it wasn't very tasty. I recall once they had served up was banana pudding, you know the dish that has the bananas, wafers, and pudding as the ingredients. It was also spiked with bits of bacon.

21

Muslims and the Jehovah's Witnesses

by Tameria2001 in

first i want to say that i don't know very much about the muslims, and what i am going to say is not attacking anyone, but instead, it was something that was said to me by a muslim man a few years back.. back in 2004 my husband and i found ourselves in a homeless situation.

his job had ended because the plant that he was working at, had shut down, and was sent off to china.

at the time our two sons were still very young, so we ended up staying at a couple of different homeless shelters until my husband could find another job, which took a total of three months before he found a new job, in a new state.

Tameria2001

First I want to say that I don't know very much about the Muslims, and what I am going to say is not attacking anyone, but instead, it was something that was said to me by a Muslim man a few years back.

Back in 2004 my husband and I found ourselves in a homeless situation. His job had ended because the plant that he was working at, had shut down, and was sent off to China. At the time our two sons were still very young, so we ended up staying at a couple of different homeless shelters until my husband could find another job, which took a total of three months before he found a new job, in a new state. At this point in time, we had been out of the JW organization for three years.

The second place we stayed in was the Salvation Army Shelter, where my husband and I met a man who also came there. His situation was he was on his way back to the country he was going to be living at. There were some legal issues he was dealing with and had to stay in the States until a certain date, then he could leave. He was not born as a Muslim but had converted a few years prior. My husband is a very sociable person, it doesn't matter what your background is; if he like you, then you have a new friend. He was like that even when he was a JW, although being a JW was never important to him. His parents became JWs because they fell for the 1975 lie. I'm not even sure why he ever got baptized, maybe peer-pressure.

As we got to know this man, he told us both his Muslim name and his "Christian" name. His Muslim name was just too hard for me to pronounce, so we asked if we could call him by his original name, which was fine with him. The original name that he had once gone by was Terry. We found we had common ground when he learned where we had come from before, and it was the same college town that he had attended the university for four years. His interest really popped up when he learned that we (my husband and I) were former Jehovah's Witnesses. He had actually studied with the JWs and came very close to converting to the JWs, but instead, he decided to become a Muslim. He said when he did that and informed his family, they had all disowned him. He said his family hates the Muslims with a passion and when he converted that was the last time he and they spoke, with a few not to kind of words thrown at him. Still even more common ground that we were standing on.

The thing my husband picked up on was how badly he was being treated at this shelter, was beyond reprehensible. For any who don't already know, but one thing Muslims don't eat or touch is pork. At this shelter, those people would purposely put pork in everything, even dishes that don't call for it. Their food was horrible as it was anyways. So what we would do, were take him to other places so he could eat a meal without it being contaminated. If we had the money we would pay for his meals.

This went on for about a month and a half, and it was about time for us to go our separate ways, he to his new home, and us to ours. It was so exciting to know I was getting ready to be back into my own home. :) On the next to last day, we were together at that shelter, I had to take him to a few places, mainly to get his bus ticket out of there, and a couple of other places. During the course of the day, we stopped at a place to eat, and that was where we had this conversation. My husband was working, and we needed to also kill some time before it was time to pick him up from his job.

While eating we both got to talking and had quite a bit of discussion about religion, Christianity, Muslims, and the JWs. It all started with him quoting the scripture that talks about not eating with an unbeliever or something like that. I can't recall exactly what it says. But I remember telling him that I was in a point in my life that I don't hold a person's faith against them. To me what is important is people and that the problem with things is because of religion, and how it divides people, makes people hate each other simply because someone chooses a different faith than the other. This he fully understood, because of his own family experience. Finally, after talking for a while, we got on to the subject of the JWs, and how he came very close to becoming one. But one thing he was also doing was while studying with the witnesses he was also studying with the Muslims as well. I forgot what he told me, but he did tell me what was the deciding factor on him choosing the Muslims instead. Then he said something to me, and I don't think I will ever forget his words as long as I live, now mind you, these are not my words, but what he said.

"When we (talking about the Muslims) take over the world, the Jehovah's Witnesses will be very easy to convert over, because there are only two things that separate us." Don't remember the first part, but the second part he said, "Their Jehovah, and our Allah is the same being." He said they have more in common than most people realize.

19

Do you remember this?

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

when g. was a litle kid, remembering the watchtower study at age 9, hearing all the stuff, the paragraph, the questions, the answers, about topics i could not understand, so it became so abstract that it was not entering my ears and brains.

it felt that i was no part of the group, someone alone on a distant planet.. do you remember this feeling?.

g..

Tameria2001

I don't remember anything like, but something similar. One thing they kept going on about was "You needed to study for the meetings." , which was something I very rarely ever did. There was one time I actually attempted it, and this was what happened. I studied the Watchtower, went through all the scripters that were in the article for the Sunday meeting. Three days went by, and when it came for the meeting, I did NOT remember a darn thing that I had studied. The bad part I was in high school, and studying for stuff in school I had no problems studying and remembering that stuff.

38

A question for you women; what was it really like for you being in the Org?

by Tallon in

hi there folks.. i took a bit of time out from the forum, however i'm back again.. what was it really like for you, your experiences good or bad, etc, in the org?.

if you were granted a listening ear by the gb, what changes would you like to see implemented?.

Tameria2001

Personally, for me, it wasn't too bad. I was baptized the summer between my 11th & 12th grade school year. Then the summer right after graduation I went to visit Bethel, it was one of those tour groups. That September I signed up to be a regular pioneer and got to go to where the need was greater for two weeks. It was pretty cool getting away from my mom for that time period. I got to go to pioneer school, and I stayed with a family in KC. They had the coolest house ever. It was an old two-story house that had hidden hallways that you would find going to the back of the closets of the home. I was a volunteer in the food service, which meant that I was able to go places that the majority was not allowed to go. This was a welcome relief because I really hate being around large crowds of people. During this time no one bothered asking me why I wasn't in my seat. Also, my friends were doing it the same as I.

Being a regular pioneer also opened up for me to be on the electrical crew for the Kansas Hall Builds. I did that for 3 years as well. It was an elder who...I forget what the correct term was called but he was part of the committee for the building projects. I learned a lot of very useful electrical knowledge, and I was able to get away in telling the brothers what to do because I was in charge of something. If I had a problem, I would just tell them to take it up with the elder who got me into it in the first place.

I remember there was this one time there was this brother, I don't know who he was, but he wasn't going to lower himself to following the direction of a sister, and this is what happened; At the time we were installing the light fixtures, and the power was on to the building. I informed him of this and told him whatever you do, DO NOT cut through all three wires at the same time. His response to me and these were his exact words, "I'm a small appliance repairman, I know what I'm doing." And at the very same time he said I know what I am doing, he took his wire cutters and cut through all three wires, and BOOM!!!, he went flying off his ladder, and the lights went out, and shortly after that he left the site. I was laughing my head off so much, and replied, "So you're a small appliance repairman, huh."

While in Kansas things were good for me, but later I met my husband who lived in Missouri at the time. After moving to the new congregation, I was treated like an outsider. There was only one brother who actually took the time to talk to me from time to time, he was one of my husband's groomsmen for our wedding. The sisters at that congeration were mostly a bunch of bitches, and that is putting it nicely.

But that was not what put me off with that "religion", it took another seven years before I finally had enough, and decided to do my own personal research on that group before I left.

32

How Effective Are Anti-JW Internet Sites?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think that once you get on the internet and you see evidence that shows jehovah’s witnesses do not have the real truth, it can jolt you.

but i don’t think simply going on an internet site typically changes a person’s direction—even if the information is very damning toward the witnesses.

i think it takes time to eventually get out.

Tameria2001

I think all depends on who is looking at them. First, a JW who is not even interested won't be on the internet looking for this type of information. But to those JWs who have questions, maybe someone said something to them in the past, maybe out in field service. Or there is just something that keeps nagging them at the back of their mind but is way too afraid of what would happen to them if they asked someone in the congregation. Also for those who have left or on their way out; sites like these can be very effective. If anything just having the information out there, and the proof to back it up, is extremely helpful.

When I had some doubts, and I won't go into the details, but the anti-JW sites that I found had information using the Watchtowers own publications. The sites told me which book, which page(s), and exactly where I could find the information (and I doubled checked with the publications I had) I needed to confirm what was digging at me from within the organization. At the time I had books dating from back to the early 1950s. It's not that I have lived that long, it was just older witnesses had given me those books from that time period.

I remember after I had discovered that I had been lied to, my first reaction was to throw everything away, and I did, a decision that I regret to even this day. Looking back, what I wished I had done was to give those books to someone who could put proper use to them, but I didn't.

9

Contaminated Thought System

by new boy in

jw
friends

in gathering the last little bits of info for my book i tracked down different people, that i have known for many decades.

some are still jws and many have made the break to freedom.. one of the people i contacted was a woman i knew over forty years ago.

she like myself was a "born in.

Tameria2001

" What is your "truth" and what do you believe in? "

My "truth" from what I have always believed in was and still is. I taught my boys this as well.

First, you treat people the way you want to be treated and second DO NOT take any bull from anyone, stand up for yourself, but be wise on how you do it.

9

Epiphany #2

by Solzhenitsyn in

so after much emotional struggle out into the open comes why my dear wife continues to want to stay with the wt organization.. i simply couldn't understand why someone so intelligent would suffer from such confusion wether to stay active or fade away when she has faced and accepted the anti-jw facts.

simply put: she was raised with such sick instability that jw life was the only thing that provided stability, the only thing she felt she could count on.

to this day this remains the primary reason she stays "in".

Tameria2001

I was thinking about the last part I mentioned, just wanted to add a little more to it. It happened at the point that I realized that the Watchtower was not who they said they were, you know "The Truth". I had this strong urge to talk to someone, but I didn't know who. It so happened that my husband's aunt was a Sunday School Teacher. She was the type of woman who knew her Bible, and she was quite honest about stuff. She had lived life to the fullest, and had plenty of life experience to back it up. During her lifetime she had also been a school teacher as well. She was able to answer every single question that I had; and any questions that had always nagged me, but I was too afraid to ask while a JW. She was very thorough on her research on the JWs as well.

9

Epiphany #2

by Solzhenitsyn in

so after much emotional struggle out into the open comes why my dear wife continues to want to stay with the wt organization.. i simply couldn't understand why someone so intelligent would suffer from such confusion wether to stay active or fade away when she has faced and accepted the anti-jw facts.

simply put: she was raised with such sick instability that jw life was the only thing that provided stability, the only thing she felt she could count on.

to this day this remains the primary reason she stays "in".

Tameria2001

I was one of those JWs, I had to figuratively be slapped in the face by those people a few times before I finally snapped out of it. It was when my children were being affected by that cult, that I finally decided for myself that I really had to figure out for myself what was more important.

I just remember something, something that important to someone who is a JW, even those who are "weak", has this very strong feeling of needing to feel like they need to belong to a group, for example; like a certain religion.

76

Family is now reaping what they sowed and they don't like it.

by Gemmel in

i resigned from the jw's in my 20's over 30 years ago, i was immediately shunned by my entire family and it's remained that way with a few exceptions ever since.

one of those exceptions was being contacted by a cousin a few years back and during that conversation i discovered that my mother had been and still was the prime mover in my complete and continuing shunning.

i then used what contacts i had left to confirm it.

Tameria2001

The way you handled it was perfect. If the shoe was on the other foot, and it was you who needed help, they would have either gave you some run around or flat out refused to help.

It got me to thinking about something that happened to my husband and me shortly after we left, maybe a year or two, can't recall the exact year, but my sons were still little guys around 5 and 7. My husband and were taking our children to a place they had always wanted to go. While still on the interstate our car broke down, the transmission went kapooie, ended up needing to be completely replaced. Anyways we were many miles away from our destination, and many miles away from home, and no cell phone. A kind woman picked us and took us to the nearest pay phone, and we first called my father-in-law, he only lived about 5 miles away from where we were calling. He told us he couldn't, but would call one of the other relatives, oh yes, he was an elder at the time. We waited, and waited, and after a few hours, we finally called another relative, in another state to see if they could help. They managed to get ahold of my brother-in-law also a JW, who also lived within 5 miles from where we were. I don't know what they said to him, but he did eventually show up. Found out from him that his father never called anyone to inform them of our situation we were in.

It was not so much me or my husband that bothered me, but he had the nerve to allow his young grandsons to be in that situation. My husband and I are also waiting for the day that we can return the favor. My family is also JWs as well.