Posted by ANDY [ANDY] on November 08, 1999 at 15:40:24 {Nq8EnQ8RVAqTvkv3njLwxhvS/hG.LU}:
In Reply to: xJW haveUlterior Motives? posted by Just Asking! on November 08, 1999 at 10:09:09:
"The JW religous lifestyle";
Well let me see. From what I saw that "lifestyle" was:
1. Being judgemental towards all who didn't think the same.
2. Having to compromise your beliefs in right and wrong to go along with the elders.
3. Kissing up so you could improve you postion within the congregation.
4. Belonging to the "clique" in order to have "social" clout.
5. Getting involved in every new "quack" medical sham that came around.
6. Never being able to question anything that you felt was wrong, and if you did then you paid the price by being marked.
7. Being part of the "gossip" hotline, and if you weren't then you became the person they gossiped about.
8. Going to parties and consuming large amounts of alcohol.
9. Pretending to be happy when you weren't.
10. Putting in long hours at work, then coming home and having to go to meetings that were so boring you could hardly stay awake, and some didn't stay awake.
11. And the worst of all was going door to door with some pushy brother or sister who would always get an argument started, and you felt like you were about 4 inches high, because you knew the person they were aruging with.
I am sure that there are many other things that could be posted, but this will do for now.
So using the above as the "lifestyle" I guess you would say that was why I left. I just didn't fit in THEIR LIFESTYLE.
The only thing I do now that they disapprove of is celebrate holidays, if I wish, and not go to thier meetings. For this I get treated like a criminal. I was not DF'd or have I DA'd, but my family sure gets treated like it.
I actually feel like my family sets a far better example of being a good christian than most of the people in my old hall. We don't snub any of them, we don't call them names, we don't gossip behind their back, and we don't hate them because they think different than we do.
I no longer have to pretend that things are OK when they aren't, I no longer have to have elders, who have no qualifications to counsel, tell me that I need to change my thinking. I no longer have to be part of the "hpocrisy", and I can read the bible, understand it, practice it, all on my own without the society telling me what to believe.
So I didn't leave so I could practice all kinds of preverted things. I left so I could become the kind of person I felt God wanted me to be.
Thanks for asking.
ANDY: