Same boat until I was 6 or so. The "haha" funniest part is after my mom got the boot from the org, she tried to put the genie back in the bottle about Santa Claus. Sorry, sister, that ship sailed years ago.
Exactly. Like, once you see Christmas for what it is from the outside looking in, even if you have the luxury to join in, why would you?
My dad was a lifer born into the JWs so getting disfellowshipped fucked him up. My mom just went back to pretending her way of worshipping Jesus was just fine.
I'm an atheist.
That's actually kind of cool. You all remaining friends and all.
This all went down when I was young and my parents were splitting up anyhow. The town I grew up in I never went back to, and ended up moving around to dozens of places before graduating. Basically, I have no concept of what it means to maintain friendships, and I'm beyond socially awkward even though I'm extroverted and sorta gregarious.
Same lol! I love not celebrating Christmas though it’s always kinda felt like a waste to me
I’ve never once participated in the national anthem or flag.
I am super jealous of this solid flex. God, I wish it were me.
JWs are pacifists. The reasoning for not saluting the flag is kind of meh, but the fact they don't is awesome.
yeah I always hear about JWs getting in trouble in Russia. I actually watched a few of their recent vids because I got a written letter in my mailbox lol, guess with the Covid pandemic they weren't gonna be knocking :)
same lol. did u ever disfellowship people/ shun them? we did it to one girl once
How can I get JWs to stop sending me a handwritten fucking letter and a Watchtower every month.
How did they get my name and address?
If you're getting personalized stuff, someone most definitely signed you up. My grandma, who was a lifer, made sure to cough up all my personal information every time I moved. And I would get random letters and strangers knocking on my door who somehow knew my grandma clear across the country.
Fucking weirdos.
I bet it was my landlord from over a decade ago. The landlord and her family would come to our house every Sunday to give us a Watchtower and talk to us and we didn’t refuse because we were always behind on rent lol, so we were hostages.
I mean, I hate when Messianics steal holidays, but pentecost/shavuot isn't terribly pagan, discounting its role as a summer wheat harvest celebration. Why not celebrate pentecost?
How often did people confuse you with Mormons? Whenever I traveled outside of Utah, people always thought Mormons and JWs were the same thing.
Solidarity on being raised in an American cult :solidarity:
who is jehovah and why are they so interested in seeing them
John was the acid trip guy. Paul is the "Trust me I totally had a vision of Jesus I'm an apostle too!" guy.
Did you do any of the door to door stuff? How was it? Did anybody actually invite you in to talk about it?
Damn that sucks I'm sorry you had to go through that.
I always just took the pamphlet, said thanks, and goodbye. Could never imagine yelling at some poor kid.
I used to love those guys, when I was in my first apartment they used to do that area all the time. I'd just left a super religious home and was really bitter and had huge chunks of the bible memorized. I would go verse by verse tearing into their arguments but since I was actually engaging they would hang out for a while. I like pretend that I changed a couple of minds.
Why no blood transfusions, is it bc “if god wanted you to have blood you wouldn’t have gotten into a car wreck” thinking?
Funny thing is, almost every older JW will turn a blind eye if a loved one needs a transfusion. They just can't bring themselves to say, do it. But you better believe they won't complain if it sorta accidently happens and it saves their family member.
Huh, I seem to remember a supposed JW kid sitting gym class out for religious reasons, but maybe he was from a different cult.
Did you know any Seventh-day Adventists? How did those compare if so
i was raised SDA so i'll try to provide some comparisons. SDA churches don't do the door-to-door evangelism thing nearly as much as JW churches do; they're much closer to other protestant sects doctrinally (main differences are going to church on Saturday and that they don't believe in hell or that you go to heaven immediately after you die). they kind of have a Joseph Smith equivalent in Ellen G White (who claimed to have visions and wrote a bunch of books) but they don't have the same reverence for her that Mormons do for Smith; a lot of the younger members kind of ignore her entirely. most adventist churches are pretty small and insular; their membership is mostly elderly. a lot of adventists are vegetarian which I respect. my church was a bit larger, less conservative, and less insular than most SDA churches and was pretty diverse. based on my experience in the church i wouldn't classify it as a cult; people aren't really ostracized for leaving and the church doesn't beg for your money more than any other church would.
edit: oh yeah we got holidays too, sucks for you guys lol
