Am I The Only BLer who grew up a Jehovah Witness?

[motiv311]

Lol i've looked up and I've found quite a lot of conspiracy theories of mormons being masons and believing Jesus and Satan are brothers along with other weird stuff about temples having satanic and other occult symbols.

there is no conspiracy.... they are brothers ...

 

[CfZrx]

My mom used to bounce around different Christian denominations when I was younger. So for about 2 years, I was a Jehova's Witness. Hehehe.
I kind of like thought what I picked up in all these different ideologies that all came out of one source. It DEFINITELY made me question religion as I grew older, to the point where I am now. I basically define my spiritual beliefs as a mix of Spiritualism, Buddhist, Gnosticism, Agnosticism, Kabbalah and interested in Hinduism, Rosicrucianism and Paganism. I know, it's a mouthful. LOLOL!! I like to meditate, read up on consciousness and just read a bit about all these different ideologies. Mind you, I was baptized Catholic. Maybe that explains it all. LOL.

Yeah, I remember there were always single moms with kids on the fringe of the JW Kingdom Hall.

I was raised Jehovah's Witness (partially), I slowly realized the religion was absolute shit after none of it made sense, I was instructed to punch myself in the cock every time I experienced an erection, and was not allowed to have friends (Also the entire religion dealt with Armageddon, fuck all that I'm still alive & the worlds still turning). My drug abuse began in part because of my depression brought on by the religion, I was a social outcast, didn't know right from wrong (keep in mind you were punished if you associated with "worldly" people). So growing up I didn't have many friends. My family was completely fucked, and I already had a genetic disposition for drug addiction, my mother was banished from the church for weed and cocaine usage. So there's that... awful religion though, decent people who are highly misguided.

I too had a hard time as a teen trying to leave, but still wondering if it was the truth. I can't recall exactly when I knew down deep that it was just a shitbag cult. I think I tried to burn out my brain to erase their programming, and then had to deal with substance abuse props forever after.

Wasn't really brought up religious at all... There are some good videos on Youtube of ex-Jehova's Witnesses tho from a wide range of people...


Thanks Nutty!

The other day, a few of my students and I were at recess talking about our ultimate birthday fantasies. One of my bubbly girls was uncharacteristically quiet and seemed uncomfortable.. So, I asked her more about it later, and it turns out that her family is Witness.
So, since they don't celebrate secular holidays, she'd never had a birthday party before. In fact, she'd never been given a gift at all!
I feel sad about it.. I mean, it's not like kids NEED presents or anything. But, seeing her all mousy and forlorn as her friends and peers were ranting and raving about these giant celebrations and their favorite toys.. And she wasn't even bitter or angry.. just wistful. Girl broke my heart lol. I'm gonna get her something when her birthday rolls around soon.
Anyway.. that's my only personal encounter with the religion. Seems isolating and repressive..

Yes, isolating and repressive

I have two JW students right now in public school. They cannot participate in a lot of art projects (for instance a school-wide collaborative project making a traditional "Ofrenda" for Day of the Dead even though there is nothing at all religious about this) They are both very young and I do find myself wondering how this is going to go later for them. But I had a couple of students a few years ago that followed the Huichol tradition and I was surprised and dismayed to find out that they could not be around images of owls (being symbolic harbingers of death) on the day that I started a science illustration lesson drawing--you guessed it--an owl.

lmao! lol

Reasons Jehovah's Witness is a cult: http://www.cultwatch.com/jw.html
They list mind control, behaviour, and the doctrine.

Nice detective work Socko!

thats how I would describe my beliefs as well.... (my family would call me a satanist haha) I was raised hard core mormon. which is probably a step above Jehovah's witness honestly (haha mormons love to rag on JW's because they remind us of us in a not so good way lol) ... ( both mormons and Jehovah's witnesses go door to door , are passionate about their religion, both preach they are "the one true " , and have a monopoly on heaven)

although mormons are not supposed to use drugs , in utah drugs are pretty much the most popluar thing in the world... it used to be RX drugs only, but now mormon kids out there are really getting into smoking heroin, its like an epidemic. My mom use to beat us when we were kids for not being perfect mormons... she would threaten to "brain us" ...and often times would sick my dad on me, and he would pretend to hit me with a belt and I would shriek out , and it was all an act, but my mother thought it was real and that was what is important now.... She use to tell me that I would be never have a wife and family because no one could possibly love me , ( mind you that all this abuse was because I refused to be Mormon) ... she would wake us up at 5am to read the Book of Mormon as a family... She would turn on these live televised conference talks featuring sermons from the 90 year old mormon prophet and she would crank it up on the stereo system so loud that you could not escape it anywhere in the house, ney, the neighborhood!

When my older brother came home early from his mission , and when I refused to go, it nearly destroyed her. That and my older sister and her husband getting married OUTSIDE of the mormon temple! OMG absolutely crushes her soul those things.

That's rad you stayed true to your unbelief!

My mother went to a Jehovah's Witness church for a couple of months when I was a little kid. Other than being painfully boring and that I think it was at night, I don't remember much about it.

I used to pretend I crawling through the rafters killing everyone during those 8 hour "assemblies"

 

[MrRoot]

Missionaries from Finland:

 

[nuttynutskin]

 

[CfZrx]

Missionaries from Finland:

Rotflmao!!! lol u guys got damn jWs too?

 

[CfZrx]

LOL, New Fave!

 

[MrRoot]

Rotflmao!!! lol u guys got damn jWs too?

Yeah we do have and they have built churches around Finland but they look like bunkers for post apocalypse survival or something. One of my relative is quite high on their food chain but I don't want to be near him or his family as they are always saying I should try to find salvation too and pick up things on my life which are bad in their understanding. I don't like it of course. I do have to see him and his family on family meetings and I feel bad for his kids.

 

[CfZrx]

Yeah we do have and they have built churches around Finland but they look like bunkers for post apocalypse survival or something. One of my relative is quite high on their food chain but I don't want to be near him or his family as they are always saying I should try to find salvation too and pick up things on my life which are bad in their understanding. I don't like it of course. I do have to see him and his family on family meetings and I feel bad for his kids.

Lol, I can't believe they even have followers in Europe area. I think their main targets are uneducated people in 3rd world countries, SMH.

 

[Ziiirp]

There was a time, when every week there was a witness knocking on our door in order to recruit when I was a kid. Around here (central Europe) it is as popular/infamous as Scientology, having subsidiaries around major cities. You don't even have problems finding a job in and openly advertize your faith here.

 

[nuttynutskin]

Yeah we do have and they have built churches around Finland but they look like bunkers for post apocalypse survival or something.

Well they do believe in armageddon.

 

[CfZrx]

There was a time, when every week there was a witness knocking on our door in order to recruit when I was a kid. Around here (central Europe) it is as popular/infamous as Scientology, having subsidiaries around major cities. You don't even have problems finding a job in and openly advertize your faith here.

One of their Big stories is how the JWs were also targeted in Hitler's holocaust. Yeah I guess they've been strong in Europe for a long time.

Well they do believe in armageddon.

Lol, I don't think it's great for mental health to really believe large lies like this.

 

[LandsUnknown]

I did go to a catholic church as a kid for a few years. Not a cult exactly, but is Sunday school really that much different than one? As I've grown older I really have realized that there were serious flaws in their thinking (in my opinion). First off, their views were extremely black and white. Everything was either "right" or "wrong", with no real middle ground. Then, there was the fact that they had this belief that one has to "confess" their sins....... oh, and to do that they have to tell the priest the things and say a bunch of prayers in order to right themselves. There also was this general attitude to not question anything, which I felt created serious flaws in thinking and may have even had a negative influence on my overall development as a person even later on in life. This attitude of not questioning anything was so pervasive there were even a few geniuses in the congregation that thought the communion actually changed physical form when the priest blessed it

 

[CfZrx]

This attitude of not questioning anything was so pervasive there were even a few geniuses in the congregation that thought the communion actually changed physical form when the priest blessed it

Hehe, it's funny to think back on how we looked up to these church geniuses as kids I wonder how I would have seen it all if I could go back in time.

 

[xbandit07x]

Haha Jesus wants you to masturbate if that's what you like to do.

How did they misinterpret the bible so badly? Jesus was saying don't feel Guilty and you won't Be guilty.

It's not a free pass to do whatever you want, it's a decree to not defy your honest nature.

Stuff like Jehovas witness always wants to prove THEY have something for YOU, so I just call them Jews. And close my door.

 

[CfZrx]

Haha Jesus wants you to masturbate if that's what you like to do.

How did they misinterpret the bible so badly? Jesus was saying don't feel Guilty and you won't Be guilty.

It's not a free pass to do whatever you want, it's a decree to not defy your honest nature.

Stuff like Jehovas witness always wants to prove THEY have something for YOU, so I just call them Jews. And close my door.

Dear Bandit, Jehovah's Witnesses...where to begin...I can't believe people actually believe in it. I know of actual college graduates who became Jws. At least I assume they were because of their jobs at 3M,lol. Maybe they worked in the factory,lmao.