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a high-control religion consisting of a "governing body" (the people behind the scenes, aka "the Society"), and "the slave class" (those of the people in the religion -who worship the God, Jehovah -YHWY-). There are also two main kinds of people that the Witnesses talk about: those in "the Truth" and those in "the World." This means that, anyone inside of the religion that has been serving the "one True God" is in "the Truth," and those who are not serving "Jehovah" are of "the World," and are therefore sinners, and "lost sheep" who need to be saved, lest they perish in Armageddon. This religion is a definition of a cult.
In the religion, there are several types of JW's and JW terms:
Kingdom Hall - abbreviated KH, the place of worship for the J-Dubs
Meetings - the time where J-Dubs go and sit for two hours to listen to the brainwashing get drilled further into their minds. Currently people go twice a week, whereas it used to be 3 when I was growing up.
Unbaptized Publishers - those of the JW's who have been there for a while, and who have been deemed worthy of presenting info to the congregation about how you can talk to people, and what the religion is about, highlighting key points.
Baptized Publishers - those in the religion who are granted a lot of privledges -such as holding the microphones for people to answer study article questions- or handling the sound system in the place of worship and giving lots of talks.
Circuit Overseer - the guy (and maybe his wife if he's married) who is baptized, and sent out to give spiritual encouragment to JW's in the Kingdom Halls in a set area known as circuits. This contains several counties/districts/territories. The C.O. is pretty flippin high in the chain of command.
Elders - men who are baptized and have served in the religion long enough to be appointed -by the Governing Body, of course- to direct the other, lowly JWs about what they need to talk about to the congregation to, or reprimand those who have sinned, or just to organize things in general.
Apostates - those of the people in the religion who were baptized and then decided "F that!" and left, or who did something against the rules of the religion, leading to their *disfellowshipping*. These people are not allowed to be spoken to by the rest of the JW's who are still in the religion. If these Apostates decide they want to come back, they have to wait -usually for years- until the Elders decide that they have repented fully and can be *reinstated* into the congreation. These people usually don't get spoken to again, and tend to move to a different Kingdom Hall because JW's are lowly and don't like people who forsook their brainwashed cult.
Disfellowshipp(ing/ed) - like being excommunicated, where you have sinned and are considered a bad influence on other cult members.
Inactive - those who are in the religion, but decide to stop going to the Kingdom Halls for meetings. They cannot be disfellowshipped, and can go back at any time
Assembly - they have a few of these a year, which is usually a large gathering of 1000+ or - witnesses. There are two types: district and circuit.
District assemblies are for two or three congregations (Kingdom Halls, basically) to come together and get info straight from the Society. These last 1-2 days.
Circuit assemblies are for about 20 or 30 congregations to get together and get DIFFERENT info straight from the Society. These last usually 3 days.
Watchtower magazines - things that give you Bible-based studies that are printed at the JW HQ's.
Awake magazine - magazines covering topics of "the World" that aren't that bad, but still kind of annoying
Bethel - the JW HQ's. There are about 14 around the world. All of the JW literature is published here, and sent out from here. The congregations send in donations -willingly- to support the printing of the literature, and the workers are made up of volunteering JWs. However, you can only volunteer if you are baptized.
New System-of-Things - a time, JW's believe, when Jesus will rule the earth, the evil/non-believing/worldly people will be wiped out after being judged individually by God
This System-of-Things - known as the time while Satan is ruling, and shit is hitting the fan. (My grandfather loves to say "this system is going to end soon" a WHOLE lot =/ )
Service - when they go door to door, or to local businesses, and try to place magazines with you, or read you scriptures from their Bible and preach. If you let them, they will come back, even if you are not interested. Their goal -like a few other religions- is to try and convert you through things they have been brainwashed into thinking are true.
Pioneers -
auxilary pioneers go out in service for, I think, 30 hours a month.
full-time pioneers go out in service about 90 hours a month or they're supposed to get 300 hours a year....something like that
Don't get me wrong, though. A good deal of them are nice people, and can be quite fun. I would know. I was a J-Dub for upwards of 16 years or so. But, they are -as I said- brainwashed.
The Governing Body has changed their literature several times when things didn't happen that they claimed would, and anyone bringing up the old literature can face disfellowshipping for going against the cult's teachings. Not many of those in the congregations go looking for that stuff, because they've become complacent enough as a brainwashed JW to not question anything the Governing Body says, because allegedly, the GB is given direct instruction from Jehovah.
Now, as the oldest child out of my siblings, I was expected to set a good example for my little brothers. I was supposed to be dressed for meetings on time, have my Watchtower studied, help my brothers get ready for Meetings, help them find answers, not associate with people in "the World," make sure I proudly told people I was a Jehovah's Witness, abstain from birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, saying "bless you," to someone who sneezed, cursing, and a slew of other things. This being said, I never : went trick-or-treating, had birthday cake, got presents for my birthday or Christmas from my parents or gramps, on the basis that these were celebrating pagan/Worldly gods and demons, and that was just not acceptable.
Let me give you a little history: my mother was raised a JW, and my father came from "the World." We are told "do not love the things of the World, for they will soon pass away" or some shit like that, from the Bible. Well, when my mom and dad fell in love (my mom was 19, my dad was 21 I think), my mother got disfellowshipped because she had been baptized, and thus "knew better". Well, she felt bad and so she went back and dragged my dad into it with her. He eventually converted from Lutherin(sp?) to being a JW sometime after I was born. This means that I was brought up in "the Truth," from 1992 to 2007-ish.
Well, that being said, I did still associate with my non-Witnessy family members, but I was rather oblivious to their existence and the fact that these worldly family members actually had names until I was about 12. I could never remember their names, but I knew their faces. One time, I was dragged to an actual church (which to me, seemed like an unforgivable sin in Jehovah's eyes) by my non-believing aunt, and I was scared to death that I was going to die in Armageddon because of it. Needless to say, you are brainwashed into being scared of displeasing God, and thus trained at an early age to be obedient and behave.
Like I said, I went to public school, with other worldly children, and made friends there, which seemed alright to do in my mind. I never told my worldly school friends that I was a JW. It was embarrassing. But, I was lucky. Most JW children are privately schooled or homeschooled, and thus lack the proper coping and social skills when it comes to other people. In the religion, you are expected to only associate with other JWs, and most of the time, other JWs will get you hired under work with other JWs.... Sound a little like the "perfect race" scheme Hitler had? =/ Cult behavior.
Anyways, so as I grew, I gained knowledge, and I was in all "honors" classes -like pre AP for those of you who haven't grown up in that time- which turned into my analyzing things. I began to hate the religion because my parents would frown upon the worldly friends I made, saying they were bad influences and such, and this was bullshit in my mind. It was not fair. I began to hate the religion for it's control and time consumption. I couldn't go to school dances. I couldn't date. I had to stay home a lot, and I couldn't spend the night with worldly friends. I hated having to study, when my parents KNEW I had homework. I hated growing up in a Kingdom Hall where I was stuck between the older teens and the younger toddlers. I had no friends my age. I DID, however, grow up next to the deaf congregation. I used to watch them, and I would pick up sign language from doing so. I think that was about the only thing that I found cool.
I remember having to go out in service on the weekends. When normal kids and people were sleeping or watching cartoons, I had to wake up around 6 A.M., dawn a dress, and go "preach the good news" as per instructed by the Bible. There were times where I would wake up in the trunk of my mom's van with a dress laying next to me, and I'd have to change back there -whether the car was full of "brothers" or "sisters" (because we are all God's children)- and climb up into the very back seat. This was back in the mid 90's, by the way. I never liked going door to door, I never liked talking to complete strangers, and I never liked being dragged out, unless the cute older guys from the Kingdom Hall were in our service group for that morning. When I hit 13, I remembered thinking it was unfair that the cutest guys there were too old for me (they were like, 20-something).
What I DID like, however, was that my mom had lots of "fluff days" in service, meaning we'd run around for an hour, leave a few magazines at bus stops or laundry mats, and then go and sit in the bagle shop for another hour or so and call it quits. The other JWs frowned upon this.
Well, then my mother decided she wanted to become a Pioneer. I was in awe.
Now, I grew up in the middle class, until I was 12. Most of the other families in my congregation were of the upper class, and so thus pretty damn shallow. They didn't treat my parents too well, and the only reason they liked my brothers and I was because they were like other parents to us -at least, that's my theory- and we were young and cute. Suddenly, everyone in the congregation wanted to associate with my parents. They were proud of her. They would speak to me and tell me such. I viewed my mother as my role model, and it was "totally awesome" to me that she was doing it. I wanted to do it. My dad got baptized sometime later, and then everyone associated with them like they were regulars.
And then we moved. It was winter break of my 8th grade year, giving us two weeks, and we moved about 20 minutes away. We had been looking around all the summer before for new houses, because we were financially set, and had found the place that we lived in for the next 5 years, and it was finally built. Well...then my dad lost his job. We moved congregations, however, and so I found out there were at least 4 other people my age!!! I was ecstatic. I suddenly went from hating the move, to loving it! It was quite epic. I finally had friends that wouldn't lead to my being killed in Armageddon, and they'd be a good influence, and I suddenly had 2 of them that I could date! I was thinking SWEET! ..... Yeah.... if only I'd known.
One girl turned out to be a total bitch to me. I hated her. She was uptight and thought she was all that and a bag of chips, despite being chunky and fugly. She corrupted my -now close- guy friend's attitude, and so thus he was an asshole, too, while being snarky and sarcastic. He made me cry once, and my closer and only girl friend in the new congregation chewed him out. I idolized her. The other guy I knew was someone I wanted to date, so that my soul wouldn't be damned and such. That didn't work out.
Well, my 10th year of school, my parents decided to stop goin to meetings. They were thinking about divorce, which was a disfellowshipping offence in the religion. In 11th grade, my best witness girl friend stopped being a witness, the bitch girl of the congregation moved and dropped out, and I wasn't allowed to hang out with the guys alone, so I stopped doing such. Suddenly this awesome place was going to shit, and I was bored with it. So, when my parents stopped going, I stopped going. This led to many events, and now I have been formed into the person that I am.... I went through hatred of both parents, and then neither parent.
I felt the need to share this about me, as part of healing. I lied to a few people
because of being a JW, and now, I am hoping to correct it with this story. I want to give
people insight as to what my life was like, why I am the way I am, and move on.
This religion deprived me of a normal life, and may explain to some why I do some
of the things that I do, or did, and give some clarity into the religion anyway. I'm not
saying that you should hate JW's. I know they're annoying, but they just think that their
religion is right, just like other religions think theirs are right. Everyone needs somethin
to believe in. This is just the story of my experience, and why I left. Feel free to comment.
I don't know what you guys will think, but it's something I felt I had to do.
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