I keep meaning to write something here, because I think both people who read this blog enjoy my extremist views on life. Alas, I have been quite busy with a number of personal pursuits which I\u2019m sure would bore you if I discussed them any further.<\/p>\n
In amongst all the things that have kept me busy lately, I have had a couple of very interesting conversations. In one of them, I was talking with an ex-Witness. This ex-Witness, in particular, was in the religion far longer than I. He rose to the position of Elder and even considered himself one of the anointed (i.e., going to heaven when he dies). During the course of our verbal exchange, he asked me:<\/p>\n
When you were a Witness, did you ever do anything for which you should have gotten into trouble?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good question, primarily because many JWs I speak with delight in \u2018blaming\u2019 my exit from their religion on the fact that God\u2019s spirit \u2018left me\u2019. Of course, this begs the question: Why did God\u2019s spirit leave me? Their answer is usually something like: \u201cYou must\u2019ve done something wrong\u201d. So I\u2019m gonna take this opportunity right now to spell out everything I did wrong as a JW and I will leave you, the reader, to decide if any of this warranted a termination of God\u2019s (whoever you feel God is) love.<\/p>\n
I first want to point out that I\u2019m listing off absolutely everything here. So, unless I list it off, you can assume I never did it. For instance, I never murdered anyone, so even though that is against JW policy, I was never guilty of that sin. Second, there are really two time frames here: 20th Century James, who believed in the Watchtower Society and the inerrancy of the bible and 21st Century James (2000-2006) who didn\u2019t believe it was true but still did it anyway for reasons that would make this a phenomenally long story (trust me). I will divide my sins appropriately. Third, any JW will admit that all JWs sin all the time; maybe they told a white lie, or they stayed home from the meeting when they shouldn\u2019t have, or they had a \u2018bad\u2019 thought about someone else. I\u2019m not gonna list those tiny sins because, well, for one, I don\u2019t remember them all and, two, no JW ever got into trouble for those silly little things, they were just told to pray for forgiveness.<\/p>\n
1. I drank to excess.<\/strong> 2. I watched rated-R movies.<\/strong> 3. I went too far with my girlfriend.<\/strong> 4. I didn\u2019t turn people in.<\/strong> 5. I held contrary opinions.<\/strong> Who wants to cast the first stone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I keep meaning to write something here, because I think both people who read this blog enjoy my extremist views on life. Alas, I have been quite busy with a number of personal pursuits which I\u2019m sure would bore you if I discussed them any further. In amongst all the things that have kept me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Between 1995 and 1999, I was over the legal limit (probably) 20 times. I want to point out that I never drank with the intention of getting drunk, it just sort of happened when I was enjoying a particularly strong Long Island Iced Tea. I never fell asleep on the floor or vomited or woke up the next morning unable to go to work, so I was never THAT drunk, but I was tipsy to the point where I shouldn\u2019t have driven. And, don\u2019t worry, I never did drive.
Between 2000 and 2006, I was over the legal limit (probably) 10 times. On one occasion, my wife had to pull the car over so I could puke. <\/p>\n
In the 20th century, I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest, The Godfather Trilogy, Schindler\u2019s List, Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love and Braveheart. Real trashy stuff. Funny thing, though, most JWs have also seen these movies \u2013 they either do so in private (going to great lengths to hide their contraband) or they just watch them on TV where they can still get the benefit of all the violence, but are saved the God-hating images of bare breasts.
In the 21st century, I (like many other JWs) decided the Society\u2019s rating policy was asinine and took to watching whatever the hell I felt like watching (though I still abstained from spiritistic movies and porn).<\/p>\n
No, we never hit a homerun in those days, but we did more than what you see in the Young People Ask Book. Now I go too far with her all the time.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s right, I wasn\u2019t a tattle-tale. I really couldn\u2019t care less if other JWs got drunk or slept with other people. As long as no one got hurt, I didn\u2019t feel it was my job to run to the elders telling on people. For example, when my sister-in-law and her boyfriend slept in the same bed together one night, my wife got all upset and said we should tell the elders. I didn\u2019t feel like making a big fuss over it. This means I now have a lot of dirt on a lot of people.<\/p>\n
From 1975 onwards, I disagreed with their love of neckties. From 1985 onwards, I disagreed with their stance on beards. From 1985 onwards, I disagreed with their belief on dinosaurs and proto-birds. From 1997 onwards, I did not believe Noah\u2019s Flood was global. From 1998 onwards, I knew the Watchtower was wrong about certain dates. From 2000 onwards, I disagreed with their teaching on biblical genealogies and the age of humans.
I also disagreed with individual elders on occasion. For example, when the elders\u2019 decision on a matter caused my favorite Aunt to leave the Kingdom Hall in tears, I felt they were wrong. When the elders told me I was not qualified to perform a wedding ceremony, I knew they were wrong (as this contradicted a Watchtower article I had in my pocket). When some elders discouraged a couple of young men in the congregation from informing the authorities about molestation they experienced at the hands of another JW, I felt they were incorrect. When Mike Lewis suggested to my fianc\u00e9 and me that we should not have \u2018worldly\u2019 music played during our wedding and that we should not have a limo to drive us from our wedding to our reception, I thought he was wrong. In fact, since my grandfather (also an elder), paid for and surprised us with a limo at our wedding, I knew<\/em> Mike was wrong.<\/p>\n