Ex Jehovah's Witness here...

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GungHo

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Greetings.

If anyone wants to pick the brains of a former JW, feel free. I was raised in what I came to understand is a high control cult, and will try to answer any of your questions.

But just remember…friends don’t let their friends become JW’s. 😃
 
GungHo said:
Greetings.

If anyone wants to pick the brains of a former JW, feel free. I was raised in what I came to understand is a high control cult, and will try to answer any of your questions.

But just remember…friends don’t let their friends become JW’s. 😃
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Where are you now GungHo?
 
GungHo said:
Greetings.

If anyone wants to pick the brains of a former JW, feel free. I was raised in what I came to understand is a high control cult, and will try to answer any of your questions.

But just remember…friends don’t let their friends become JW’s. 😃
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Thanks for checking in, GungHo. I don’t know much about JWs, but I’d like to learn, so will be paying attention.

I’m glad you got out alive.
 
Where are you now GungHo?
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Mentally or physically? 😃

Physically I’m in the Pacific Northwest. Mentally, I feel free for the first time in my life. But being raised a JW has scarred me in more than one way. For one, I just don’t know WHAT to believe in. And right now, all I see is blackness at death.

It was also very hard to to come to grips with the fact that the end was not just around the corner…or as they say now “so close you can touch it with your tonge.” I was raised to not worry about the future, because “the end” will come first. I was told not to worry about doing well in school because “the end” would be here soon. Don’t go to college…higher education is the work of Satan. Then it was don’t worry about the draft. Then don’t worry about getting a good job. Then wait to get married in the “new system.” Don’t buy a house. Why buy property. All you really need to to do is go out in “service” more. GEEZ!!! It is a wonder I amounted to anything at all!
 
BTW, a lot of things “normal” people do all the time, I have done for the first time in my life. Here is a partial list, and keep in mind that ALL of the below would get me disfelloshiped and cut off from all my friends and family. They would not be allowed to talk to me, or heaven forbid EAT with me…

I gave blood.

I voted.

I smoked a cigar.

I posted on forums such as this and JWD.

I questioned JW doctrine.

I support our troops.

And they really don’t like you to live your life like “the end” is not “just around the corner,” and I have done that for a long time.

BTW, I did the long slow “fade” from the “Borg.” I was never disfellowshiped. But since I would not attend one of their kangaroo courts called a “Judicial Commitee” if called, I may be one day. (Even if I went, I would be history, as I could not help but call them what they are…a cult.) Each member is supposed to “spy” on other members, so one day I might be caught doing something evil like clicking glasses together in a toast. Yeah…DF offense. (I’m just surprised my wife has not turned me in…they are expected to after all.)
 
I can’t say that I am. Religiously scarred maybe. But I did just recently order several copies of a real Bible…the KJV. I have already seen for myself how the NWT is a complete crock.
 
Well, congratulations on your long fade. There is life on the other side.

Something that might be of interest to you is a website of one of the posters here, Jeff Schwehm. He is a Catholic convert from JW. There’s a lot of interesting stuff to read. He also has posted on that other website that you mentioned on another thread.

catholicxjw.com
 
GungHo,
Glad to see you here! I’m very active on another Catholic forum in a discussion with a man who has all but broken with the JW’s and is seriously considering the Catholic faith. Because of that, I’ve become particularly knowledgeable at understanding the differences between Catholicism and the JW’s lately. I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Let us know what we can do to answer your questions. (I’ve sent you a private message about the other Catholic forum too.)
 
GungHo said:
I can’t say that I am. Religiously scarred maybe. But I did just recently order several copies of a real Bible…the KJV. I have already seen for myself how the NWT is a complete crock.
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Welcome Gung Ho!

Now, the KJV is a great improvement from the NWT–and a good for the time translation–but it is (except for the most recent, approved for Catholic version) incomplete.

You need a Bible that does contain the Deuterocannonical texts that were in the Septuagint, the OT (Tanach) that is most cited and refered to in the NT

The RVSE Catholic edition is very good–but a Duoay-Rheims, or even a NAB will work too
 
Welcome brother! 👋

I am an ex-JW also. I’ve been out for about 14 years now. I would honestly say it has taken me this long to get them out of my brain. Occasionally I will still have nasty flashbacks. Someone recently asked me what my favorite hymn was and I said “From house to house… from door to door…” YIKES… that was from my Watchtower days! Nevermind!

I remember being right where you are… not wanting to bother with any other “religion” - and I too bought a KJV Bible, which by the way is sort of a tricky read. There are other translations that are much easier to “get.” Just keep praying for God to show you the way… He will.
Also, this is a very nice site… the questions & answers are very interesting - I think you could learn alot - but all in good time - first you need to purge your brain of all the junk they filled it with. It’s a difficult process… I will pray for you. 🙂
 
Welcome GungHo!

I’m an ex-Mormon myself… I understand what you mean by being scarred. Keep an open mind. The god that you and I were taught in our respective cults is NOT the God who truly exists. Try not to give up on Him. He hasn’t given up on you!!!

in Christ
Steph
 
GungHo said:
BTW, a lot of things “normal” people do all the time, I have done for the first time in my life. Here is a partial list, and keep in mind that ALL of the below would get me disfelloshiped and cut off from all my friends and family. They would not be allowed to talk to me, or heaven forbid EAT with me…

I gave blood.

I voted.

I smoked a cigar.

I posted on forums such as this and JWD.

I questioned JW doctrine.

I support our troops.

And they really don’t like you to live your life like “the end” is not “just around the corner,” and I have done that for a long time.

BTW, I did the long slow “fade” from the “Borg.” I was never disfellowshiped. But since I would not attend one of their kangaroo courts called a “Judicial Commitee” if called, I may be one day. (Even if I went, I would be history, as I could not help but call them what they are…a cult.) Each member is supposed to “spy” on other members, so one day I might be caught doing something evil like clicking glasses together in a toast. Yeah…DF offense. (I’m just surprised my wife has not turned me in…they are expected to after all.)
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I find some of what you put down to be interesting. I did not know that giving a toast was a DF offense. I am guessing that you mean disfellowshipping? This stuff all strikes me as curious, the complaints of people who call themselves ex Jehovah’s Witnesses that is. They seem like they are really trying to do what the bible says to do. Maybe they are to strictly adhearing to the bible. Is that what you mean by controlling. I am trying to find a reason not to investigate them more and all I hear is that they are too prudent, or restrictive or many different was of saying that they basically deprive themselves in the interest of trying to be God fearing, or Jehovah fearing however you put it.
Let me ask you something else. This thing about the end, are you saying now that you don’t believe that things willl end in Armagedon? Are you guys really not allowed to get married and go to college? If that is the case I wonder if the JW"S I know from school are DF’d?
 
Is that what you mean by controlling.
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No. Much of what they dictate cannot be found in the Bible at all. A good example is birthdays. JW’s are not allowed to celebrate them because in the Bible only bad things happened at them. They have MANY rules and regulations that just are not found in the Bible, and many more things they “say” are a conscious matter…but you better make the “right” choice or you are looked down on as bad association. And when I say high control, I mean high control…they even try to tell a man and wife how not to make love. They get in every aspect of your life…or try to.

Oh, and yes…DF means disfellowshiping.

BTW, they say toasting is linked to spiritism. And of course Christmas is a pagan holiday.

BTW, get this…their Governing Body now say they are NOT inspired…but they are “spirit directed.” Sounds like the same thing to me, but your average JW just doesn’t get it.
 
This thing about the end, are you saying now that you don’t believe that things willl end in Armagedon? Are you guys really not allowed to get married and go to college? If that is the case I wonder if the JW"S I know from school are DF’d?
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It depends on what your deffinition of Armagedon is. As for getting married and college…at one time the thinking was that you should wait until the new system to get married. Maybe it still is. As for college…the thinking was and still is that 4 year universities are not for good little JW’s. Higher education for the most part is thought very poorly of. But neither of these things were a DF offense. Marraige especially. But if you went to college, you were thought of as spiritually week, and maybe bad association. Again, some congregations were different, and your millage may very.
 
Heres another little tidbit…did you know that giving or receiving blood is a DF offense? And even if one is needed to save your childs life, you are expected to let him die before you allow him to be giving blood?

I lost my Mom a few years back because she refused blood.
 
RNRobert said:
I know that JWs and other sects use Genesis 9:4 (“Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.”) to reject blood transfusions. I’m confused…http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l... and small stick like ppl/th_3confused.gifcan anyone explain how this verse about eating meat with blood in it have ANYTHING to do with blood transfusions?
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And the JW would say that getting a blood transfusion is, in a sense the same as “eating blood” because if you couldn’t “eat” food, they would give you food through an IV - so see, it’s the same thing.

Don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger.
 
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