I have absolutely no respect for their beliefs, though I try very hard to respect my still-believing family members. They pretty much all know it’s not something I want to discuss!
I’m not sure what “martial” intercourse is, but it sounds rough.
Seriously, sex is only okay between husband and wife and I think that anything other than vaginal intercourse is frowned on.
Women are to subjegate themselves to their husbands completely, unless doing so would conflict with following God in some way.
Is that how you handle it- you just have a list of things you don’t discuss with certain family members, and religion is one of the items on the list? That’s pretty much what I, as someone who converted from Christianity to Judaism, do.
From Annie-Xmas’s link, it sounds like your JW relatives are supposed to keep contact with you to a minimum. Do they?
Is there anything about being a JW that you miss? Obviously not any holidays, which is something a lot of people miss when converting from one religion to another.
Did you used to go out and witness to people? What was it like?
Do you celebrate any holidays now? Do you celebrate your birthday?
This is roughly what my ex-JW ex-husband told me. Voting is compulsory in Australia but he used to abstain on religious grounds when he was still an active JW (he left the church before I met him). I think he said the procedure was to wait until the fine for not voting arrived in the mail and then send it back with a letter of explanation from the church, at which point it would be waived. His explanation was that JW’s don’t believe in earthly governments because they are flawed; they only follow divine governance.
I got along pretty well with most of my family, but I left the religion as a teenager, before I was actually baptizes. They don’t all approve of me or my “lifestyle”, but we do communicate and visit. I do have one sister that can’t wrap her head around me not believing in God; she thinks that I am rebelling or angry. :rolleyes:
I try to avoid religious conversations with her, but she keeps bringing it up.
Not that I know of. But the religion does not approve of homosexuality at all.
This is accurate, except for the part about keeping their “eyes on the heavenly kingdom”. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not vote, hold public office or join the military.
They also do not let their children join the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts.
A woman who is raped would not be punished for it, but she could be disfellowshipped if she was considered to have been behaving inappropriately or socializing with “worldly” people.
When I was growing up we were taught that we were partially responsible for the rape if we didn’t fight back. I think they eased up on that when research showed that it could frequently be fatal to fight a rapist.
JW’s are not supposed to associate with disfellowshipped people, even if they are related. It’s pretty much left up to an individual’s conscience whether or not they want to hang out with people who have left.
Apparently I don’t have that “God” gene!
I knew I didn’t want to be a JW before I knew I didn’t beieve in God (if that makes sense). Too many things were not answered satisfactorily for me for me to want to be baptized. I am also technically bisexual (nonpracticing!), so that became an issue for me pretty young.
All good Jehovah’s Witnesses are expected to go door-to-door, at least once in a while.
Even though they are definately against blood transfusions, they do not keep kosher or only consume kosher meat. I was an adult before I ever tasted a rare steak, however.
They do not give blood either.
This list is not very accurate. If I get time to go throught the whole thing, I’ll list the errors.
This is a MAJOR belief of theirs. It comes up frequently in meetings, in literature and in conversation. It is one of the biggest, if not the THE biggest, sins you can commit. Saying no to a blood transfusion, even if it kills you or your child, is one of the marks of a “true Christian”.
I don’t remember how I felt as a kid, but I can tell you that this has been so firmly implanted in my mind since infancy that I think I would have a hard time getting a transfusion. I have no logical reason for feeling this way, the indoctrination is just that strong.
They don’t believe in idols or adornment of any kind in their halls (they do NOT like the term church).
The no windows thing is for a different reason. They have a huge persecution complex and believe that windows make them vulnerable to violence and religious persecution. We had windows when I was growing up.
I’m not a JW and neither is my family, but I have a good friend whose parents were pretty hardcore followers. That being said, it seems like there’s different degrees of adherence to all of the rules, it doesn’t seem like it’s necessarily so strict as Annie-Xmas’s link implies. For instance, their 3 sons (who are all pretty devout) and daughter (my friend who has since stopped following the religion) were allowed to date and go to prom . I also don’t think they had any real qualms about surfing the internet or getting a post-secondary education. And although they preferred their children to only associate with other Witnesses, they were always really nice to me and all of their daughter’s non-JW friends (although one of her brothers has since implied she’s not welcome in group activities like pond hockey, etc. with him and his JW friends). So I guess my question is, is it common for people to be a little lax about the rules? Are they less likely to get eternal life because they like computers or is it more about the spirit of the teachings that should be obeyed?
Also, I remember my friend saying that even if a member of the congregation has done something wrong or leaves the church but wants to come back, if they really do want to be a part of the community it’s relatively easy for them to get back in favour with the church. Is this true in your experience or was her church community less insular than what is normal?
ETA: I see that you’ve mentioned that list is not very accurate, I’d definitely be interested to know what’s actually forbidden and frowned upon.
As a former JW, I can say the list IS accurate. Although some context in regards to some of the ‘rules’ may be in order. Which one’s did you feel were inaccurate?
With all due respect, it does not come up very often at meetings at all, and only then when the specific biblical principle governing the use of blood is brought up. In my case, I don’t believe I’ve heard in a meeting in so long a time I can’t remember. OTOH, it is not kept quite, and they handle the issue in an unflinching way.
I also have never heard anyone, in print, or from the platform ever say anything akin to refusing a blood transfusion is the marks of a “true Christian.”
Ever
As a current JW, the list is inaccurate.
As you noted, the list lacks some context, however.
The biggest inaccuracies involve how the list is divided up, among others.
I have never heard anyone ever say that they felt vulnerable to violence because of windows. 
While most of the churches I’ve seen had no windows, I’ve been in many that had them, and I’ve seen several built recently built with them.
It remains true that they have been victims of violence, including in western countries like the USA.
My WAG was that it was a “no distractions” thing but maybe they had skylights on the roof to allow natural light in. Funny, if the halls had windows, I might drive by without thinking they were anything but a residence.
If I awoke in the middle of the night and a fire were raging outside my BR door, I could exit through a BR window. If I didn’t have windows, I’d be trapped. Granted, ppl aren’t sleeping at the hall, but then, I don’t have large numbers of people to evacuate in an emergency.
Pretty much, although, as I said before, I have one sister who won’t let it drop.
I have just as much contact with my family as anyone else, maybe more. They are probably not supposed to have as much to do with me as they do, but I’m hard to ignore and even harder to get rid of!
I never, ever miss being part of that (or any other) religion. I really cannot find a way to believe in God, a Higher Power, or anything similar. My mind just can’t conceive of it. Belonging to a religion, especially a strict fundamentalist one like the Witnesses, made me feel like a fraud. I need to be true to myself to live comfortably and that, at least for me, means being able to be honest about myself.
I was forced to witness to people as a child and I absolutely hated it. I was an extremely shy little kid, so that had more to do with me hating it than any religious aspect.
I do celebrate holidays now, but only on a very superficial, secular and slightly pagan level. I’ve never gotten into the birthday habit however.
That was the reason given to me by my mother when they built a new Kingdom Hall in her town(without windows). Perhaps there are regional differences.