Has anyone here had a bad or negative experience with the Jehovah Witnesses sect?

Question

Please share what happened to you.

JOYfilled has asked me to give my experiences with the JWs, so here it is:

My wife and I studied with this group for a long time, and at first they were quite pleasant. But as time went on, they became very demanding and harsh, and tried to order us around like we were a couple of peons and they were the dictators.

I know there are some fine people among the JWs, but I have also met plenty who were not. "By their fruits ye shall know them". I am not knocking their beliefs. I did not say anything about what they believe. But that being said, there are a number of things that they believe that I will never be able to share. It does not much bother me that they do not salute the flag, do not celebrate birthdays or holidays, don't believe in blood transfusions, and go from door to door trying to share their faith. It does bother me that some of their leaders try to run "Jehovah's organization" like a slave labor camp. I have been there and speak from experience.

I was criticized by the JWs (behind my back) for bringing a Bible case to the kingdom Hall that had an angel on it. My "teacher", who was a 90 year old man and one of the congregation leaders, told me that they did not want me bringing it there any more, because they felt it looked like I was a worshipper of angels. My wife was criticiszed for liking uniciorns. She once wore a pair of unicorn ear-rings to a meeting. She also has lots of pictures and figurines of the mythical beasts. She was told that those are pagan symbols. I told them that unicorns are mentioned in the Bible. Of course, not in their so-called modern language New World Translation, which we never could get used to. It was after I had to have an operation to have my appendix removed, and a large cist off my back, though that things really began to go sour for us. Our "teacher" and his wife said they would come and stay with my wife till I came out of surgery. They did put in a brief appearance, but then left.

After my operation, our teacher began to push my wife for us to "get back out in service". My wife told them that I had just had a serious operation and needed time to heal. She is in very poor health herself, with a bad back and is in constant pain, so "going out in service" was always very hard on her anyways. Then people at the Kingdom hall started to really acting cool towards us. Not all of them to be sure, but a substantial number, especially those who were among the leadership. This felt very weird and uncomfortable! At the last "Bible study" we had with them, I asked our "teacher" what was going on. He let out a gasp and practically screamed at me, "YOU PEOPLE ARE FAULT FINDERS!" Yeah, right. I just asked him a simple question. Also he got very upset with my wife one night on the phone, when she called him to cancel a study to visit her dying mother, who was a Baptist. He later apologized for that, but she never got over his harsh attitude.

SHELLBACK: I suspect that some JW did have something to do with that. It was removed, but not by me, and I got a notice that some of my content was in violation. Just what part I do not know, as they did not bother to explain, but I decided to try again, and leave out the word "cult", which some seemed to take offense at.

Answer 1

Yes, some here feel that their experiences with Jehovah's Witnesses were "negative".

It's sad when individuals have "bad" or "negative" experiences of any kind. Some people even pity Judas Iscariot and pretend that Jesus "was wasteful", or "argumentative", or "told Judas to do wrong", or "ruined Judas' finances", or "pushed Judas to suicide".

(Matthew 26:8-10) [Judas] became indignant and said: “Why this waste? ...Jesus said to them: “Why do you try to make trouble for the woman?

(John 13:27-30) Jesus, therefore, said to him: “What you are doing get done more quickly.” ...Judas was holding the money box... he went out immediately.

(Matthew 27:3-5) Judas...turned the thirty silver pieces back to the chief priests and older men... So he threw the silver pieces into the temple and withdrew

(Matthew 27:5) [Judas] hanged himself.


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20000622/

Answer 2

Matthew 7:13 13 “pass in by the slender gate; because vast and spacious is the line most appropriate off into destruction, and many are those moving into by it; 14 while slender is the gate and cramped the line most appropriate off into life, and few are those searching it. As a Jehovah's wittness we dont pass round putting down different religions or sexual oriantations or tell people to drink the punch and that god will heal your ailment and provides you us all of your funds. We prepare people without delay from the bible what Jehovah God stance on the remember is and we stick with His regulations. curiously people dont like that . they'd extremely analyze us from uniformed biased third events then to pass to one in all of kingdom halls or communicate with us on the door. Its so unhappy people sense this way yet Jesus reported it will be like that and time is operating out for individuals that're nevertheless on the vast highway.

Answer 3

Now, anyone can make up anything they want on here about JWs. Most often, without any reference to what congregation it took place at. This is a rather broad question.

I was disfellowshipped by the Corning, CA Congregation in 1982. I could have made good money since then to allow a ghost writer, or even to make up my own phony story about why I was disfellowshipped. I was because I was fooling around with two females. I was a long haul truck driver.

I imagine I could come up with something very believable, though it's not very hard to convince gullible people.

Answer 4

Please edit Harridan. I would like to know what happened to your original question like this one that I (shellback) answered. I can not find it anywhere. If you removed it for personal reasons then I am fine with that and no explanation needed but if it was something else I would like to know. I am sure I am not well liked by the JW's and I want to make sure they had nothing to do with it.

Edit update: First off I want to state that I object to your question and our honest answers being remove because a group does not like the truth staring them in the face. If YAHOO did this then they are forgetting our first amendment rights. It is only slander if they can prove what we said is a lie. My mother being converted during the time of her near death with cancer, at a time of great weakness, under sedation by a JW sibling is not a lie. OK, so I will leave the word cult out but what other type of religion would encourage JW members to do something so disrespectful to their own parent? One more thing, I will lay you odds elders are forbidding the weaker lambs from going to this web site because of people like us. Thank you for the truth Harridan.

Edit update to Papa Bear: Please get this dude, I am not nor would I make something like this up. There is not a single thing I have discussed here at YAHOO answers in all the other threads that I have answered about JW's that was a fabricated lie. This is about my mother and my father in law (who I loved very much as well) for gosh sake, why would I lie about two very important people in my life? I am a much better person than that. I am angry yes but lying? Absolutely not.

Answer 5

Why? It's a religious organization whose members do house to house witnessing. They don't try to convert you to their faith but ask you if you want to have a bible study. They give you these magazines for a nominal fee that covers the cost of printing and printing materials. Some people find them irksome because they are always at your door, knocking and wanting to have some few minutes off your time. And if you are in the middle of doing something, you get flustered because you have to stop and talk to them, unless you ask them to come some other time. They are persistent in wanting to talk to you because they believe that it's their mission to impart to you messages of importance regarding salvation and the One True God. No, I don't find them tiresome, I can understand that they're just trying to fulfill their mission.

Answer 6

Well, there was the attempted murder thing... That was Pleasant Hill, California. My JW husband trying to kill me was only worth a bit of a lecture to him from the elders. When I left him and took my 3-year-old son to my parents, he was good enough to move a woman into the house almost immediately, thereby negating any concerns I might have had about being free to divorce or remarry. Otherwise, I could have been getting lectures about being forgiving and staying with him.

That would be the biggest single thing.

I had friends who went back and forth about divorce issues because of the way the society at one point was defining "fornication." Couples who split up even when neither of them really wanted to. Walnut Creek, California.

There was the sister who was date-raped by a witness man who had just offered her a ride home from Starbucks. She would never have known, but he bragged to other witness men, one of whom told her. She was actually disfellowshipped for about three weeks for being a "loose woman." Fortunately, for her, I guess, one or more elders fought to have it reversed. Neither disfellowshipping nor reinstatement had any explanation with it and she bore the stigma. Tustin, California.

That enough?

Answer 7

Dear Harridan,

First let me say how happy I am to see you here. I answered your very similar question about a week ago and then couldn't find it yesterday. I can still remember some of the answers and I'm hoping that the others who answered will return. One of the answerers (Suzanne if I remember correctly) told about how her first husband tried to kill her. They were both jws although she eventually saw the Truth and left the organization.

For me my experience with Watchtower Witnesses was unpleasant but not life-threatening. My mom became a jw before I was born but my dad took me to a Christian church where he was very active. Every Sunday Mom single-handedly waged World War III in our household. Seeing so much hatred spewing out of Mom's eyes as I was growing up was horrible. Having Mom tell me over the course of a couple of years that I would not be saved unless I became a jw before Armageddon took place (she used the date February 3, 1962) was horrible as well. I wasn't even a teenager but I couldn't wait to grow up and get away.

Thank you for asking. I would like to hear about your experience as well.

Edit: Dear Harridan5
Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us. I hope my asking does not put your question in danger of being removed once again!

The negative experiences mentioned and the negative comments made about those experiences reminds me of something I heard Leo Buscaglia say many years ago -

My experience of my experience is my experience of my experience.
Your experience of my experience is not my experience of my experience.

My experience of your experience is not your experience of your experience.

So please listen while I tell you about my experience.
And then after a little while I would like to have you tell me about your experience.


Edit 2: Shellback, I knew there had been some good answers to the previous question but I didn't remember who beside Suzanne had answered. Since I can't email you I had put a star on this question hoping that my Contacts would see it. I'm glad you found it again and I hope you are able to remember your original answer so you can share your experience with the rest of us.

Edit:
Just to let you know Harridan5's question was not the first one regarding negative jw experiences that was removed.

I answered a question asked by Oshihana 2 months ago and it was removed twice. It came close to being removed a third time but View from a Horse stepped up to the plate.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AleMi6Zrt4CAde7JmbJAKsLty6IX?qid=20070402221104AAYGHq8&show=7#profile-info-BaZJlSKfaa

For His glory,
JOYfilled

Answer 8

I have. Because I am a Witness I was often treated rudely at school. Asside from that, not really. I have had my share of disagreements with fellow Witnesses, but nothing outside of what I have had with nonWitnesses, after all we are ALL human.

Answer 9

I was born and raised in it.

I owe the life we lead now to it - and I respect it, believe in it - and still worship it. But only in my heart...now. I was "kicked out".

I understand how many see it as "hard" - because it is HARD to be "good" in this civilization.

However, I still practice the ways. They are honorable and true.

And that's all I have to say about that (to quote Forest Gump).



.

Answer 10

The only problem with Jehovah's Witnesses is their habit of knocking on people's doors at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning with their Watchtower magazine