u/Ancient_Team_7007

In the weeks leading up to my removal, a few elders and non-elders reached out to me about my sudden disappearance. I was one of the best speakers they had. Whenever they came to my home, I would usually start by saying I was taking a break and didn’t intend to discuss the issue unless they really wanted to know.

Of course, they’d say they wanted to know, so I would raise questions that most JWs don’t have ready answers for. Rather than acknowledging that I might have a point, they usually defaulted to saying they would “get back to me.” I would often respond that they wouldn’t, since there’s usually no clear explanation for the contradictions in the JW Library - and of course they didn't.

Examples of topics they would say they needed to “get back to me” on include:

1. Slavery

2. The execution of women who did not bleed on their wedding night

3. God using deception by proxy in 1 Kings 22

4. God sanctioning the taking of David’s wives

It was interesting to watch their indoctrination pause for a few seconds before they reverted to their standard “get back to you” line.

As the subject states, we were having a discussion about why a god may not be necessary, and that even if a god exists, it does not necessarily mean that god is good.

One of his points was that “man was created perfect.” I immediately asked him to show me where the Bible explicitly says that, and of course, it wasn’t there. He then tried to explain that in the Genesis account, after God created man, He saw that it was “good,” which, according to him, implied perfection.

So I asked him: “Were the animals created perfect too?” He immediately responded, “No.” I then reminded him that Genesis says God saw all that He had created — animals included — and called it “good.”

So I asked again: if animals, despite being called “good,” were still created to get sick, grow old, and die, what makes him think humans were an exception? And why would it have been bad for humans to have been created with the same vulnerabilities as animals?

Unless, of course, he is arguing that creating animals that way was somehow a bad thing.

I could see the fear in his eyes as he scrambled to say "if that's how we we're created then it wouldn't make sense". Seconds later he reverted to his indoctrination.

He later ended by saying that some people do not require a god for them to act morally right, but some people's lives will fall apart once they take away the god figure, so I shouldn’t be the reason someone loses faith. I responded by saying "its always better to believe what's true over what's convenient"

Hi guys! Fresh out the cult after 30yrs. ✌️

Looking to connect with someone in Nigeria or Africa.

Open to meetups

Now I do have friends outside the cult and generally I'm not lonely. However, sometimes i desire to have one on one conversations with those who knows what its like to have been in the cult. In this part of the world (Nigeria), there are very few - if any - exjw meetups.

So basically, you guys here are all I've got for conversations like that and your experiences and posts keep me sane from time to time.

Hopefully, as time goes on and more people leave, they would remember how I left and reach out. For now, I'm just that lone wolf.

This is an update to this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/s/9aHaVX1m9x

So I found my wife crying today and it turns out her sister from another congregation called her to inform her that the elders from my congregation called their congregation to give them the news. So they had to inform everyone.

My wife was crying because she was told her dad was heart broken.

I guess the answer to my question came sooner than I expected.

I'm watching to see how things play out in the coming days.

So I recently got myself disfellowshipped for Apostasy. However this happened in a congregation we recently moved into (less than 2 yrs).

Now the bulk of my JW friends have come from previous congregation especially the ones who are close with my family. Now, while there have been rumors flying about concerning my spirituality or the lack of it, since I always post my views on socials(WhatsApp and X), a lot of the friends still talk to me (my very close friend blocked me).

I do not plan on attending JW social events but I also do not plan to avoid them if I do come in contact with those from my past congregations. I plan to keep the conversation cordial and avoid questions about my spirituality. My question tho is if the elders usually share my DF status with my previous congregation?