Thriving ExJW @thrivingexjw - Tumblr Blog

Posts

wisteria-grows-here

If you are an ex jehovah's witness, you may be entitled to financial compensation

callese

karowl

it is so unspeakably relieving not believing in Armageddon anymore

some-jw-things

Jehovah’s Witness childhood is just *loud construction noises* *reads a book* *fears for my cat* *reads a book* *wishes I had a different family* *goes to school* *reads a book* *thinks about the end of the world* *reads a book* *goes to meeting* *construction smells* *is extremely sad for no reason* *reads a book* *goes to school* *talks about religion excitedly* *wants to die* *reads a book* *reads The Literature* *reads a

pikaglove

Me @ the Jws after I realized I missed out on the fun things my friends got to do:

pikaglove

No one liked this and I'm sad

karowl

I think about this picture a lot

I think about how I would look at it when I was maybe five or six and be told that the people in it deserved what was happening to them. And how I tried to convince myself of that fact, how I tried to make myself believe it, and how I never could.

thrivingexjw

Whenever I would see this picture I would think of myself being the one with the hand reached out looking to grab something. Queerness and feeling out of place made it so that I never actually believed I was worthy of paradise, because we’re told none of us really are.

unwelcome-ozian

my0clonic-jerk

chamomilesaredaisies-deactivate

witnesses knocking door to door: Look at me, I am so beautiful and amazing. Would you like to know why? Well, its because I have the TRUTH, yes I have been cleaned and purified of all my sin and imperfections! Now I just glow and im SO beautiful! *points at innocent person* but see that person? They look so terrible because they are FILThY look at the wrinkles, do you see any wrinkles on me?? Its because I don’t sin! I would like to invite you to one of our meetings so you too, can be beautiful and perfect like me

gallusrostromegalus

Operation Bread Jesus is go.

gallusrostromegalus

Dough proofing in the oven, 90mins is enough time to watch a cheesy movie. I’m thinking an Godzilla.

shetanshadowwolf

Hey Gallus, since i feel like I’m late to the show, how big of a Bread Jesus are you making this unholy Easter-April Fool’s ?

gallusrostromegalus

…I’ll know when I take the dough out of the oven in an hour? I’ve never made Challah before and I’m not sure how much this will rise. But I have a slightly-smaller-than-average sized oven, so it’ll have to fit on a cookie sheet. Hence, Baby Bread Jesus.

gallusrostromegalus

Update: he’s beautiful. Also, I’ve made a serious tactical error in that I don’t know how I’m getting him on to the baking sheet.

cacklebarnacle

Do you have something flat without raised edges? Put flour on it and carefully lift Baby Bread Jesus bit by bit up and slide the flat item underneath. Then you can just transfer him onto the baking sheet.

gallusrostromegalus

I got him on via the silicone baking sheet, and he’s in for the second coming proofing and already beginning to distort into a monstrosity. I love him.

cacklebarnacle

That sounds awesome.

While he’s proofing, do you mind telling us, how you got the different colours of the dough? Different dough? Food colouring?

Is he filled with jelly?

gallusrostromegalus

The light color is regular Challah Dough, the darker color is the same but with a bit of molasses and cinnamon. I’ve done it before for other sweet doughs where I wanted a color change.

He’s not filled with Jelly becuase

1. I’m renting and don’t want to lose my damage deposit becuase there’s smuckers on the ceiling.

2. I try not to keep grape products in the house in general (the juice is a noted passover exception) because Mr. Charleston Chew thinks all things grape-related are delicious and Grapes are very, very toxic to dogs and I don’t want to have to put him in hospital for 3 days to pump his kidneys again.

gallusrostromegalus

Well, there’s definitely enough of him to go around?

rettaroo

HE HAS RISEN

gallusrostromegalus

SIGNIFICANTLY MORE THAN ANTICIPATED.

smells hella good tho. Candy googly eyes were a good choice too, I think.

some-jw-things

Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are the exact same thing just with a different aesthetic

some-jw-things

Jehovah’s Witnesses:

Latter Day Saints:

some-jw-things

Seventh Day Adventists:

jw-horror-stories

It’s Cults, babey!

-Mod Degurechaff

artisticlesbian

The Thing about leaving the Jehovas Witnesses after beeing born and raised in it is how everybody pretents you had a choice.

Its how everybody pushed you forwards to doing everything you can, to go from door to door to talk to stangers about a high control cult you didn’t fully believed in yourself yet. How they made you go to these meetings three times a week where they burned the thoughts into your brain that this is the only right thing and everything “worldly” was bad and evil.

How they frown upon you and the elders talk to you for accidentaly singing a christmas song you heard or for not paying attention at the meetings. How they completely screwed up your definition of right and wrong on the basis of a manipulated believe.

This and so much more before you’re even a teenager. Before you even understand the word brainwashing, it had happened to you.

And then, when you are lucky enough to stumble upon something that made you question this whole thing, its your fault. Its Satans fault. Its the fault of this world. And as ridiculous as it sounds, it scares you to your core.

And when it finally happens and you decide to leave, the only truly own choice you ever had in this cult, you are blamed for making the wrong choice. Because questioning “god” is wrong. It makes you the evil one.

And once you’re out, you should feel happy but you’re not. You are scared. You are angry. You are hurt and confused. Because now you have to try to live the live that has been taken from you for the last 20 years.

And sometimes I wish I could stop this cult from ever doing this to another child again.

theelderskid

I love when parents say all the bullshit of “no one forced you to go,” “you could have said something,” “if you really hated it, why were you always up for service then?”- as if they weren’t the ones yelling at you for being sick and not wanting to go to the meetings/preaching, as if they weren’t the ones who’d punish you or take away freedoms for not obeying the church. They think we’re stupid - they think we don’t see how people treat and talk about other bros/sis’ who “do wrong” (whether disfellowshipped or disciplined), and how it’s all a threat to keep us in line “out of love.”

shepherdtheflockofqueers

“Why did you get baptized just a few months earlier if you were just going to change your mind”

Because I was scared, of Armageddon, of dying, of being judged for being 15 and not baptized yet.

Well then it was my fault for not having the right reasons to get baptized.

It’s never their fault. It’s never the orgs fault, it’s always yours. You decide to leave god, and all your loved ones.

It’s fucked, as if you really had a choice over those things in the first place.

thrivingexjw

My aunt when I came out said:

“I guess you didn’t really pay attention to what was said at the meetings” WHICH IS BULLSHIT, why do you think I’m so fucking traumatized and it took me going to college for me to realize I was gay and even longer for me to come out??

#exjw #ex jehovah’s witness

watchower

From this topic in /r/exjw

Very true!

A lot of people choose to stay and act like a jw even if they don’t believe anymore because they know that if they leave they’ll loose their families and friends still in.

About the Governing Body reaction I’m:

EDIT : Here’s the twitter link

tears-in-the-screendoor

concept

i come go the meeting with the word HERETIC written on my face like prince wearing this:

i raise my hand to comment during the watchtower but in a shocking turn of events i usurp the stage and give a speech on the witnesses covering of child abuse and failed prophecies as well as contradictory teachings. from my bag i pull a several page report on the perils of the cult and nail it to the kingdom hall door a la Martin Luther before yeeting away in a black cloud of smoke and never come to a meeting again.

wherebirdsandfishlive

JW Facts

FACT: Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe bad people go to hell

FACT: Jehovah’s Witnesses are not against equal rights (religious rights, race rights, gay rights). You’ll never see JWs protesting since we are politically neutral.

FACT: Jehovah’s Witnesses accept numerous blood alternatives (i.e. thinners, volume expanders, cell salvage)

FACT: Jehovah’s Witnesses are not forced to become members with baptism (such as child baptism). They have to make that decision for themselves only.

FACT: Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t just shun people.

FACT: Jehovah’s Witnesses do not want to force their beliefs on others. (If you don’t want to hear their message…don’t answer the door. It’s that simple.)

I hope that clears up some misinformation about my faith. We really are not crazy doomsday-ers. Most of us live very ordinary lives and enjoy hanging out, having fun, and pursuing creative interests. I know plenty of friends from school who were surprised to discover I was one. They just assume based on what they’ve heard from others that we are abnormal people. If you have further questions, try asking a JW yourself when they go knocking at your door. Promise…we don’t bite :). Our service is not “convert based” as some state. We really just want to share spiritual encouragement with our neighbors. Otherwise, try the library on JW.org which is the only official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

artisticlesbian

Bullshit. And I was an JW till yesterday for the past 20 years of my life. You know these are lies and I cant even start to tear these statements apart.

tears-in-the-screendoor

@comicsandrock i got u fam

FACT: jehovah’s witnesses believe that their all-loving/all-powerful god will slaughter all those that don’t serve him.

FACT: jehovah’s witnesses think members of all other religions are serving the devil, and that gays are an abomination and have brainwashed themselves.

FACT: a 12 year old girl died because of refusing a blood transfusion, and the watchtower was proud for it.

FACT: jehovah’s witnesses believe that if you are not baptized when armageddon comes, you will not be saved.

FACT: if you openly disagree with the jw teachings or act contrary to them, you are kicked out of the religion cult, and completely cut off from everyone, including friends and family.

FACT: jehovah’s witnesses are instructed not to have close relationships with people they are not trying to convert.

FACT: the australian government investigated the witnesses after 1006 incidents of child sexual abuse went unreported to the authorities

FACT: bears eat beets

jws literally just put out a book about the end of the world so don’t try to sugarcoat what they are.

“ During the war of Armageddon, Jehovah will execute people, not in a cold, clinical manner, but in a “great rage.” (Read Ezekiel 38:18.) He will direct the explosive force of his anger, not against one army or one nation, but against countless individuals living across the globe. On that day, those slain by Jehovah “will be from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth.”

https://www.jw.borg/en/publications/books/pure-worship/survives/what-provokes-gods-great-rage/

artisticlesbian

@tears-in-the-screendoor Thank You!

wherebirdsandfishlive

Hi everyone. A few years ago I made this blog post in a very, very different head space. This may(???) be the most reblogged post I’ve made on here, and I wish I could delete it b/c it blew up and has become such a visible post in the Jehovah’s Witnesses tag (for some reason Tumblr won’t allow me to delete my own post tho <3). I now recognize that this post is full of dishonest language and doesn’t accurately depict the JW organization.

I was born and raised in the organization. I learned to minimize any cult-y JW policies by saying the stuff in that blog post like “JWs don’t just shun people” and “JWs are not against blood alternatives” and “JWs believe in equal rights.” If you’ve got time to kill, please check out the “How Would You Answer?” articles on the JW online library, because they basically teach JWs how to respond to non-JWs with language that preserves JW beliefs but also protects the image of the org in the public eye. All the things I said in the “JW Facts” post sounded nice and weren’t *technically* wrong, but it wasn’t really honest either. I thought I was being a good JW by using this PR-language on social media, and it is effective at pacifying people that have no prior experience with the organization. But anyone that has been associated with the org can see it’s full of hot air.

When you grow up in a certain culture you accept your circumstances as normal. JW life was my normal. I knew nothing else. So when people told me I was in a cult I thought - I’m normal! I’m reasonable. I have love towards others. These people just don’t have the facts about JWs. I’ll fix that by making a blog post full of nice-sounding-PR-speak to set the record straight.

It took some time, but I now realize that bending the facts and using careful wording to give off the appearance of a more welcoming, open organization isn’t benefitting anyone. People deserve to know about the organization for what it really is - not a whitewashed image. There shouldn’t be a need to spin the facts or have a separate way of speaking for public and internal dialogue. Here are the facts: JWs practice disfellowshipping which is shunning and family are not an exception, JWs have a hardline no-blood stance 100% of the time, LGBT is 100% wrong and there is no support system for them, and JWs regularly pressure very young, impressionable people to get baptized (which is like a contract with the JW org you can never ever get out of…fun).

Growing up I had quite a few school friends that said to me that I was so normal and friendly despite being a JW. Again, I thought that I was setting the record straight and showing people the REAL truth about the org by my conduct at school. It turns out that I had it completely backwards. My school friends thought I was normal because I don’t act like JWs are supposed to. I have always been on the fringes of the org b/c of my interest in school and friendships with “worldly” people. I have always valued critical thought and logic. My mental journey to waking up was a give-in, but I wasn’t there yet when I wrote this blog post. I guess I was still trying to convince myself that my personal views and the views of the org weren’t incompatible. Obviously they were, but sometimes it’s easier to tell yourself lies than confront the truth.

tears-in-the-screendoor

waking up is a bitch but i’m glad you did. if you need any emotional support or to vent about it hmu. i’m sorry that you’ve had to have your life eaten up by this cult and hope that you can successfully find a way out. best of luck dude.

watchower