Keep on the watch

"Lord, to whom shall we go?" John 6:68 If you're an exjw you've likely had this phrase hurled at you by a current member in an attempt to darken the path you've chosen and scare you back into the fold. The idea here is that everything you've learned about the watchtower may be true, yet where else could be better? If you ever find yourself on the other end of this verbiage understand that this is an unconditional surrender.  Yes, it is the severance of reasoning and suspension of resistance to the notion that their are any redeeming qualities available for use in regaining a "lost sheep". It is also a false choice and a dishonest question.  It's asking you to suspend whatever notion you have of free will and consider all that you stand to lose.  It's telling you that being controlled is the only context in which you can live. That you must leave here and follow someone.  Finally, it is telling you that there is no place c...

I don't know my Mother's birthday. I know the year my father was born but not the day. I don't know my 2 out of 3 of my sister's birthdays. I celebrated my best friend's birthday for the first time last year. I don't know the ages of any of my cousins, Aunts, Uncles or Grandparents. I don't know because it was never something that was deemed important. In fact I was told that celebrating the birth of a human person was "creature worship".  Imagine not even referring to a human as a person, but a "creature." 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses p. 161 Even though I mentioned and quoted this term as something I was taught. I don't remember hearing the phrase itself. So much of what I was told or taught at one point or another was so ingrained into my being that even after the words themselves have faded, the ideas linger and when the ideas fade, a kind of general discomfort replaces it.  I've read stories of other f...