Any former Jehovah's Witnesses out there in DU?

[Forever Free]

I was raised as one in a very strict conservative family. My parents were very devout Witnesses, we hardly missed any meetings during the week and we would always go out in field service every weekend.

I left the Society because I disagreed with them over key issues like the blood and worldy influence factors. I thought it was hypocritical and un-Christian. So enough of my spiel, any of you out in DU that were or are Jehovah's Witnesses?

[murielm99]

1. Not me, but my uncle and his entire family are JWs.

The rest of the family was horrified when he converted.

Do JWs vote?

Is it true that they discourage higher education?

[eleonora]

3. they do discourage higher education

More so before than more recently though. And no, they don't vote.

[eleonora]

2. Yes, me

I was raised a JW since I was 6 till I left when I was 17, and that was 10 years ago. At least I'm not the only one here!

[Forever Free]

5. Hey I left and I'm 18!

Good to meet another one out there!

In response to the question about higher education, its not so much as they discourage it outright. Its just not promoted. Rather, we encourage young people to engage in the full time ministry. Higher education is seen as a means to an end, in order to get a job to support one's family.

Higher education is more generally looked down upon because it can be a corrupting influence. Scientific and rational thinking can force a young Witness to rethink his beliefs, while secular philosophy and reasoning classes can erode his faith.

[ET Awful]

4. Yup, from the time I was 5 to the time I was a freshman in high school

Fortunately I got out early enough to avoid the mind warpage that comes with really long-term exposure, as did my mom (she was actually disfellowshipped because my dad left, and she filed for divorce. Filing for divorce is a big no-no, apparently they felt she should have tracked him down and stuck by his side).

Of course, if it wasn't for that, she probably would have left anyway because of the blood transfusion policy and the fact that it almost killed my sister (they didn't want her to have a blood transfusion while she was having brain surgery to remove a tumor). She died a year later when the tumor grew back, but with their beliefs we wouldn't have had that extra year.

Of course, I won't go into their history of predicting exact dates the world will end (I think they've given about a dozen different exact times so far).

[murielm99]

6. Is everybody supposed to be resurrected,

to come back and live on earth all at the same time, during the millennium?

And do only a select number get to go to heaven?

I think I remember my mom talking to my uncle about it at one time. They were arguing, actually.

[eleonora]

8. I don't know if this is the same now

but 10 years ago 144,000 were supposed to go to heaven and the rest would be resurrected on earth for 1000 years right after Armageddon (which was supposed to happen when the last of the 1914 generation dies..but this has changed since)

[Forever Free]

10. Its still true now

I left about a year and a half ago, and the doctrine is still the same. I forgot about the 1914 generation and that Armageddon would start after the last ones die and ascend into heaven.

[Forever Free]

9. Yup you're right

According to the Witnesses' belief, all the dead people throughout history will be resurrected after Armageddon to live on a paradise earth. They contend that God's original purpose for mankind was to live on earth in utopian conditions, but that Adam and Eve derailed that plan.

Yes, a select number (144,000 to be exact) go to heaven. They are chosen from God's flock on Earth. Only those part of the 144,000 or "annointed" know if they're chosen, its something that's personal that comes to them. These 144,000 will rule with Christ in heaven as co-rulers and priests for a thousand years.

The rest of humanity (those that survive Christ's second coming) will live on earth in paradise conditions, like God intended.

[eleonora]

11. there's a book you should read

It was written by Raymond Franz, a former member of the governing body. It's called : Crisis of Conscience.

Basically it explains the inner working of the organization. A great great read.

[Forever Free]

14. I wonder...

if that Raymond Franz is related to Frederick W. Franz, the former president of the Watchtower Society. Mhmmm

[eleonora]

15. Yes, that's his nephew

;)

[murielm99]

18. My mother gave me a book once, called

Forty Years a Watchtower Slave.

It was an autobiography of a man who started out as a JW in Germany, and later came here, because Hitler put them in concentration camps.

He described his life, and demolished some of their doctrine, using Biblical quotes.

It was actually a pretty fascinating read. My mother even wrote to the author. She got a nice letter back from his wife, because he had died since writing the book.

It was something I read when I was in my twenties. My mother had it at home, because of her grave concern for my uncle. Since he has been a JW for about thirty years, I think the family has grown more tolerant of him. I know my mom does not argue with him any more.

[soothsayer]

17. That number cracks me up! The number is "really" 144, isn't it? But

that wasn't high enuff, so they stuck on the 000 (what's a few zeros, right?)

Organized religion is fun, you gotta admit. ALL of 'em are fun!

On edit, fun, and also poignant. Cuz there's just so much we don't know about who we are and why we are and where we came from and where we go. It's tuff being human.

[eleonora]

19. revelation 14:1 in fact

"Then I looked and behold a Lamb standing on mount Zion and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand having His Father's name written on their foreheads"

Hey, I can still search the Bible it's scary lol

[Forever Free]

20. Lol

Very nice, i wonder if i still can. Probably...

[soothsayer]

21. No kidding? I stand corrected...!

[DemBones DemBones]

22. I have a horrid memory of my mother's JW funeral

(actually a memorial service as she was cremated) because of the Bible searching.

An old friend of hers was preaching and, naturally, throwing out scriptural chapter and verse right and left, and everyone in the congregation, aside from her heathen children, was flipping through their Bibles to read it for themselves. My husband said they must have special extra noisy paper in their Bibles. It bothered me so much I wanted to stand up and say, "Excuse me, but I know the books of the Bible, too, and I can flip to book, chapter, and verse, too, but I don't have to show it off at someone's memorial service." But that would have been disrespectful to my mother's memory, and made my father mad, so I said nothing. Of course, I know that it's normal in their services, and it's kind of funny to hear flip, flip, flip all over the Kingdom Hall.

[Forever Free]

7. I don't think they have actually...

Since I've been there, I don't think the Witnesses ever gave a direct time period for the end of the world. They always say, like most Christians, that the end "will come iike a thief in the night" and that "only the Father knows the exact time" of the end.

There was a big stir about 1975 being the end time. But it turned out to be a misinterpretation by some Witnesses over some wording in an old Watchtower article or something.

[ET Awful]

12. No, they used the "only the Father knows" bit to cover their tracks.

I was there in 1974, and that's the reason my mother joined was because they told her the world would end the next year.

You're repeating the propaganda they spewed to conceal the lies they told :).

I suggest you do some research (readily available on the web). Their first prediction was that the world would end in 1914

It's also worth noting that within the past 10-15 years, they've changed the vow people take when baptised from swearing to follow God's law to swearing allegiance to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society as God's chosen organization on Earth.

A good place to start (with actual excerpts from original Watchtower tracts, etc. from the time) is http://watchtower.observer.org/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040312/DOCTRINE2/9999494

Notice the actual tracts said that Christ had already returned in 1914, they also predicted as early as 1979 that he would without a doubt return in 1914.

They also taught that WWII was going to develop into Armageddon, and at the time referred to "these last few months before Armageddon" in their publications.

[Forever Free]

13. Hehe

Maybe you're right...I'm still a newly liberated soul. I haven't heard about that new baptism oath.

[eleonora]

16. the site you mentioned is a great site

I found myself on it many many times.

[DemBones DemBones]

23. My parents joined in 1969 and they were told 1975 was The End.

Absolutely, positively, no doubt about it. Fortunately for me, I was already on my own and married. It was very bizarre to have my mother dote on my daughter, who was born in 1970, and talk about her future, "when she goes to school, when she grows up," etc., and simultaneously assure me that she believed the world would end in 1975 and my husband, daughter, and I, along with my brothers and the rest of the family on both sides were doomed and damned.

I have thanked God many times for keeping my parents from joining while I was still at home, as my younger brothers were. I don't know how I would have dealt with it.
It must have been hard for you who were raised in it. I can't even imagine. :-(

I don't like to be disrespectful of anyone's faith, always tried to be my supportive of my parents' choice, but it was hell on earth for me.

[eleonora]

24. I pity those who are slaves of the Watchtower organization

But I absolutely despise those who are at the top. One thing about JWs is that we never are told of what the inner workings of the Watchtower are like. We're even told not to read older Awakes and Watchtower books because "interpretations of God's works always evolve". 1975 is all but one date. There were others before.

They know how to keep people from questioning the behind the scenes. Innacuracies are brushed off as 'ongoing interpretations'.

Some things I found out after I left just floored me. JWs are not a religion but a manipulative cult. They are responsible for thousands upon thousands of deaths with their beliefs on blood. And the worst thing is that they use pictures of the victims (often children) in their brochures to glorify their deaths and call them true servants of God. It's disgusting.

[Forever Free]

25. I agree

unfortunately all of my family are still all JWs. I'm literally the black sheep in the family. I don't think my parents ever accepted me ever after I left.

[DemBones DemBones]

26. I have to agree that JWs are a manipulative cult.

I was able to observe the process as closely as one can from the outside from the time my parents joined in 1969 until their deaths two decades later. They were brainwashed, IMO.

I'm glad all of you in this thread managed to escape. I KNOW it was difficult because of the structure; going to the Kingdon Hall three times a week precludes much contact with non-JWs and you know you'll be shunned by the JWs if you leave.

I salute your courage. :toast:

[TheDebbieDee]

27. Hello, everybody.

I'm glad to see that I am not alone, afterall.

My Mother was a JW from the early 60s until her death in 1985. And, although I loved her very much and miss her like crazy, I still resent the fact that she felt that she needed that much guidance and structure to make it from one day to the next. Some Witnesses function on the same level as a zombie would, and this is encouraged by the organization.

Anyway, I've always been curious why Witnesses have such a bad image. I've known or heard of many people in many other religions that also exhibit zombie-like, extreme devoutness and obsessive behavior, but none of these religions get rapped as hard as the JWs. What's up with that?

Sorry for the tangent, but I'm hoping I'll be able to participate in more of the discussions here in the future.