So I'm curious.... :confused:
For those of us who were
1. Studying with Jehovah's Witnesses :read:
or...
2. Baptized Jehovah's Witnesses :bangin:
What was the final straw that caused you to leave them?
Hey Melancholymuse!! :clap:
Hows it going matey? :D:D:D
I have a slightly different selection. :blush:
Mine was that --
3) I was brought up in the truth and left and was studying to come back in to "the truth" - and would never be good enough to become one of Jehovahs Witnesses.
I had a major drug and sex addiction that I could not break (note...I did not know Jesus at this time), and I felt like a hypocrite and knew that if I would get baptised, I would not last very long before I got disfellowshipped.
Funnily enough, around the same time, I found e-watchman.com....and the rest is history! And once I found what was REALLY going on...well...need I say more! :cheer::cheer::cheer:
Cheers my awesome sister!! :giverose::giverose::giverose:
when my daughter was four she was molested by a family 'friend' who was going on a 2 week fishing expedition with my then husband.
She told me about it the next day beginning by telling me that she and Jimmy had 'secrets.' I went immediately to our PO who was a very good friend. After some conversation with this guy (he admitted what he had done) it was decided in the best interests of everyone he should be transferred almost immediately to Bethel. After being there a couple of years he was made an elder. I, at that time, went with the program even tho I knew in my heart this was mighty wrong.
I was told to help my daughter to 'just forget' and to do the same.
when my daughter was 12 her ministerial step-father (same guy)
committed a sexual assault against her. She got away by locking herself in her bedroom. It was a devastation long before she told me about it this time. It damaged her in ways affecting her whole life and in the short term she was holding this over his head while he was bribing her to keep her mouth shut. when she told me I went into a kind of furious breakdown yet had enough stength to confront it and face some of the wrongs in our life. He was a secret alcoholic (no such thing) as there are always those who know. I went back to the same PO and was enough older and wiser this time around and did not go with the program. That wasn't appreciated by my good friends--the elders.
Then came the judicial committee....a sad and sorry event. Even tho my then husband admitted his role in this the 'brothers' were holding to the two witness rule--I maintained there were two witnesses--him and my daughter. Bang your head against a cement wall for awhile and then you will know what it felt like talking to these 'wise men.'
It went on for a bit and many things were brought out, He was excused as he admitted this was done while he was under the influence. Witnesses came in that were questioned and many of them lied mostly to cover their own behavior. (there was alot of drinking going on on these fishing trips and they all knew things about each other--bad things.) The judicial committee was seemingly so lost. They couldn't tell up from down and it made me realize --for the first time--if Holy Spirit was directing these men everyone was in trouble as they couldn't tell truth from fiction and had no common sense even in the minimum. I knew there was no Holy Spirit leading these meetings--lots of ego, pride and politics but no Holy Spirit leading the way. At these judicial meetings I saw how out of their depth the elders were also and how they had no business getting involved in the lives of other people.
The end result was my daughter was thrown under the bus by the judicial committee. I was expected to accept what happened --again--to a young girl who was torn apart inside by one of the deepest betrayals that can happen. My now ex wasn't even counciled --or placed on restrictions--as he had said ''oops--sorry'' to the P.O.
It would be hard to describe my fury that night and I know I was pretty much alot to handle. I even told them I never dreamed that their standards and expectations were so low. I asked them all there how that happened and what had happened to all of them. This one particular meeting lasted a long time--and then the following week my ex lead a group going out in field service in prayer. That just simply revolted me.
I went home after the meeting and never went back into the Kingdom Hall for 3 years and--no elder came near me. Perhaps they didn't dare. Sisters did tho and came to tell me their stories. There is much shame hidden inside these Kingdom Halls. I knew things before I left and even more afterwards. After 3 years went by I felt a compelling to return--and I did--it was unfinished business and closure I was seeking although I didn't realize that at the time. I was warmly welcomed back except for the sick and cold feeling inside my own heart--and emptiness-- but I was still hanging onto the belief that I was among "God's' people' and was supposed to be there. I was trying to manage myself--mind over matter you know. One day I was looking around at the friends after a meeting and I could feel all the walls around me. I hated that feeling and that evening prayed to God for the walls to come down--not only between myself and the friends but also between me and God. I asked God to allow me to feel His breath on my cheek as I had read in a scripture. A few days later I was sitting in my livingroom deep in thought and the most wonderous feeling came over me--I realized then the walls I had asked to be removed between me and God were gone. It was an amazing moment --just surreal and what I had asked for--God's breath on my cheek. I felt lighter and the air around me brighter. It was very intense. I have since realized that was just the beginning of a very special part of my journey but that's another story. :heartbeat:
I expected the same thing to have happened between me and the friends and it didn't. I felt closer than ever to God and no difference between me and the congregation. I knew then what I had known for a long time and didn't really want to admit--I had been gone from them for a long time. It was a sad time. I had questions still and no answers and then in 2004 I found e-watchman and have always so appreciated that for his mailbag and got answers I could relate to through his answers to others who had questions like mine--
It is so isolated here and the only witnesses I have ever known were of my congregation so realizing the issues inside Kingdom Halls around the world was very eye-opening. I gave them the very best of me for years and always felt any flaws were within me so this has been quite the epic journey for me. I have always said I was there because I needed to be and left for the same reason--I needed to. I have flourished spiritually outside of the congregation tho and made my peace with most of it. However, talking about it just makes me sad--not angry--sad. But--this is why I left even tho it became a long, long leaving--and a really long good-bye. :grouphug: :heartbeat:
Oh my goodness sis Wolfski...I had no idea of the depths of what you and those in your life have been through...wow...I feel like I dont know what to say, except that I am glad to know you and am much better for it!
I am humbled deeply by what you have just shared.....quite gobsmacked at the mo! :shocked::crybaby::hug:
Much LOVE to you, dear sister....your friend and brother - beau! :cry::cry::cry:
Wolfie - wow. Your poor little girl, and you as a mother having these conflicting emotions, it must have been terrible and confusing. I'm so glad you're out now.
Any form of sexual assault rips you apart, but for me, I knew it was an enemy, outside of my family and friends - how much worse to have it within the circle of people who you are meant to trust. I'm not sure I could have coped as well as you did.
It certainly shows that evil people will be evil people despite what religion they belong to, in fact, evil people will use the rules and regulations and traditions of a religion to their own ends.
Bless God that he hears the faintest cry. :giverose:
Nothing as personal as Wolfies experience, though I was publicly slandered and libeled. I CAN OVERLOOK THAT.
The last straw for me was the UN involvement and the cover up, and child molestation cover ups.:rant:
Hi,
For me it was part of a process that took several years, but the last straw was in the early eighties when the WTS tried to purge all those who did not go along with the F&DS 100%. I quietly stopped going to meetings then, it was perhaps a decade later I/we disassociated ourselves only to find out relatively recently, after over a further decade later, we had been disfellowshipped in absentia.
I was already thoroughly well aware, when I stopped going to meetings in the early 80's, how alien to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ was much of their treadmill schedule, out of context teaching and intellectual dishonesty, but the emotional attachment of c.40 years held me for some time.
Derek
I had already become familiar with the UN NGO thing which disturbed me greatly.
It made me start to question everything.
Started to closely examine the baptism which in my opinion did not match what Jesus Christ commanded.
Coming across this 1955 Watchtower Magazine article was the last straw:
w55 7/1 p. 411 Christian Baptism for the New World Society
A Christian, therefore, cannot be baptized in the name of the one actually doing the immersing or in the name of any man, nor in the name of any organization, but in the name of the Father, the Son and the holy spirit.
In Christ
abe
It may seem subtle or trivial, but to spare you all of the extremely long and boring story of my life in the Watchtower, the "last straw" was when, after I was attending all the meetings trying to get reinstated for 9 months, an elder commented during a meeting that his garage sale "miraculously" produced just enough money to keep the electric company from shutting his family's lights off. Of course all the "credit" went to "Jehovah". He was totally capable of working but instead sat around all day adding to his bulbous waistline.
I felt that if his family was in jeopardy of having no electricity, he should have been flipping burgers (without eating them all) rather than sitting around wondering how Jehovah was going to pay his bills. Couldn't take it for one more minute so I up and left and never went back. That was in 2003.
''In the midst of winter I finally learned that in me there was an invincible summer.''
Your tag line fits you perfectly, sis Wolfie! :cold: :pray: :tanning:
thanks guys :friends:
so much of my healing has taken place right here on this discussion board thanks to all of you--everyone here and so many now gone have helped me understand and to grow and I have enjoyed a beautiful friendship with so many. I consider all of you a gift from God :heartbeat: ..You never know what you might say that will touch the heart of another. That is the beauty of it to me--that we might bring some light to the life of another struggling to make it through one more day or resolve some issue that seems unresolvable-I thank God and Jesus all the time that we have been given the gift of each other. Processing out of the organization is no easy thing. Those roots go deep and I don't know what I might have done or how I would have done it without the experiences and insights you all share--it is truly priceless :heartbeat: :grouphug: :cheekkiss:
Hi,
For me it was part of a process that took several years, but the last straw was in the early eighties when the WTS tried to purge all those who did not go along with the F&DS 100%. I quietly stopped going to meetings then, it was perhaps a decade later I/we disassociated ourselves only to find out relatively recently, after over a further decade later, we had been disfellowshipped in absentia.
I was already thoroughly well aware, when I stopped going to meetings in the early 80's, how alien to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ was much of their treadmill schedule, out of context teaching and intellectual dishonesty, but the emotional attachment of c.40 years held me for some time.
Derek
There are millions of inactive JWs that don't go to meetings. Are they to be DF'd also?!?
What do they do about inactive JW's nowadays anyway?
The last straw, hmm....
For me, the last straw was when I realized the implications of Jesus not returning in 1914. Although I didn't believe in the 1914 return thing for a while, like many here I thought, "I'll wait on Jehovah, he'll take care of it in His own time." Then one night, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. If Jesus didn't return invisibly in 1914, then he didn't appoint a faithful slave in 1918/19. If he didn't appoint the faithful slave in 1918/19 then the Watchtower's claims of authority, direction, and prophet-hood are bogus. Then I took notice of the Society's re-engineering of their own history to suit their current theology. Once that connection was made, I decided to leave.
Matt
Dear Matt
Will you pls. do me a favour and explain in a PM to me, how you came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ wasn't returning in 1914, due to your age and it was invisible.......but isn't it better to correct, rather than making the same mistakes decades after decades.
Furthermore that your conclusion and their authority was equal to the Pope and other religious leaders.......as elected and self deluted men, where you know what Jesus Christ he said: When a blind leads a blind, they both fall into the same pit.
The last straw, hmm....
For me, the last straw was when I realized the implications of Jesus not returning in 1914. Although I didn't believe in the 1914 return thing for a while, like many here I thought, "I'll wait on Jehovah, he'll take care of it in His own time." Then one night, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. If Jesus didn't return invisibly in 1914, then he didn't appoint a faithful slave in 1918/19. If he didn't appoint the faithful slave in 1918/19 then the Watchtower's claims of authority, direction, and prophet-hood are bogus. Then I took notice of the Society's re-engineering of their own history to suit their current theology. Once that connection was made, I decided to leave.
Matt