[INFJ] exJehovah’s witnesses

How do I get to your podcast is there a link?

 

So do jehovahs witness members not have free will? You said your stepmother wasn't "allowed" to talk to you..

 

So basically my take is you faced the same issues with being raised Jehovahs Witness that I did having been raised Roman Catholic. The hypocrisy of both the "book" and those that claimed to be catholic was just ENOUGH lol. Same with a lot of "Born Again Christians". They say one thing and do another, or treat the Bible like a bag of trail mix, what works is good, what doesn't won't be acknowledged. My mom has a cousin who is a head honcho at our local kingdom hall, she told me he let his wife die because a blood transfusion was prohibited. Later his daughter was shunned for reasons I can't remember.
It seems to me that regardless of whether it's Christianity, Jehovah’s Witness, etc. it all requires a type of obedience to some supposed mythical figure. What I saw in the Catholic church seemed like a trick "I'll give you free will, but at the end of the day it's in your best interest that you follow what I (God) say." Or "Sure have fun, but you're going to pay for that."
I was always told that Satan was the root of evil, with no follow up of why when I would ask. The answer I got from these devout Catholics or Christians was just "He is just evil." Yeah not enough info for me, so I took the liberty of finding out. Turns out all he really did was disobey and try to overthrow a tyrant in sheep's clothing. We all know the story, tossed from the heavens into hell and forever vilified. Your experience sounds like the hell we were taught to fear, and though you might have learned a lot through this I am sorry for what it took from you.

 

Seems like an insurance policy in a way, I've said this about Christianity too. In my mid twenties I started to think why do people need the benefit of eternal paradise to keep them in line? Is it too much to ask to strive for a solid character simply because it's the right thing to do?

 

Yes. The hypocrisy of the Church on a global scale is cringe-worthy. The wealth the Vatican hold and some of those Islamic nations hold is enough that they should have wiped out poverty almost everywhere. Instead it’s us Americans, the #1 world power, that is expected to enter into nations and leave them with clean drinking water and resources.

 

I grew up having a believing and non believing parent. I think what everyone has faith in is a part of their development. I don’t approve of doing negative things for the positive betterment of a situation. I do see how there are situations that leave absolutely no choice for the individual in question rather than the cult. It’s easier to be upset with a mass of people and lump them together than to see them for their individual struggles and stories and yes, this is a beautiful gift of all perceiving dominants.
I’ve grown up personally in a southern Baptist area and grew up with a Korean baptist mother. Never being forced into anything was the thing that ultimately helped me out to find my own belief structures about Christianity or anti theism. I’ll move to the next town straddling that line I guess. Hahahaha.
No. I’m not Jehovah witness. I allow them into my home though. Mormans included. And no I don’t care how anyone feels about that. Let people believe what they want to believe and adjust as life moves them and they change themselves. I’m okay with the fact that I’ve lost faith and hope in anything.

 

Been through this swamp of misery though only briefly due to family but do have to say that issues of this cult does highlight some deeper problems with the church as an whole regardless of denomination and style. Those who haven't really researched much less experienced anything like this are going to be clueless as they come as it is shockingly horrendous.

 

I’ll definitely do some research on it. I won’t ask you to share as I’m sure that’s personal to you.