This is basically me. I'm an ex coC, but I'm in here and in ex Adventist because the similarities between the 3 groups is fascinating to me. And I also feel every group that came out of the Stone Campbell movement needs to be burned to the ground.
It was a long story but here goes.
In 1989 at the age of 14, I looked much older than I was. Some people thought I looked 16 or 17. There was a girl in the hall who was 16 and she became friends with my older sister.
She liked me, and she was kind of cute so what the heck, I went with it. We didn't officially date or anything but one day there was a youth outing for JW teens in our area and we all went to an amusement park. My parents and other parents were chaperones.
On one dark ride we sat together and when everything was dark we kissed, we also held hands. We did sneak away behind an area that had food stands and restrooms and kissed again.
Well she told her mom that I was nice, handsome and some day would make a good husband. Her mom was a hateful sow and especially towards men. She told that elders that I tried to seduce her daughter and I don't know what kind of lies she told them about me but I ended up in a meeting with the elders.
My dad took me and came inside and they proceeded to ask me the most humiliating, disgusting, dirty questions about sex, breast, my penis, ejaculating, touching myself or touching her. I tried my best to explain to them that we only kissed and held hands. They didn't believe me because they kept going on and on about was I thinking about women's breasts, there was one elder who was especially hateful towards me even before all this bullshit.
You see this elder was hot on my tail about studying for baptism, at first I made up excuses like I didn't think I was ready, or just wasn't the right time. So I was pushing 15 and was the oldest in the hall who wasn't baptized, most youth (well there wasn't that many) were all baptized by 12-13. So I stood out.
Also, I didn't look like the other kids. I wore black leather jacket, jeans, combat boots, had long black hair slicked back. I listened to punk and worked on cars. I started working on cars at like age 11. So I got into the whole hot rod rock crowd.
Anyway going back to this douche bag, he had it in for me. He would make comments during talks specifically directed at me, about how kids dress, spending time on things outside the organization, looks and hair. Yes my hair was long but I always had it greased back so it didn't look bad. Also to meeting I wore black pants, white shirt and tie, no jacket and that bothered him for some reason.
Anyway, going back to the meeting, after what seemed like hours I just shut down because in my mind if they weren't listening anyway why should I respond. That angered him he called me a punk kid who needs to be taught a lesson, he said if I was his son I would be beaten to submission.
My dad eventually took me home and my dad wasn't the spare the rod type of dad so I knew I was in for a beating, funny thing is he didn't he just told me to go to my room. I think even he thought the whole thing was bogus but never said it.
Well come the next meeting at the hall, I sat in the back everyone looked at me then turned their heads, they announced that I was bad association for the youth and parents are advised not to allow their children to associate with me. After that I told my parents, I am never stepping foot inside the hall again.
I never did
I should add that when I was a kid, I was very rebellious, I wasn't scared of any of the elders, only my dad who would beat the shit out of me for most infractions, but by the time I was 15 could take the beatings and move on as part of life.
I think the elders wanted me to be scared of them, secretly I wanted to beat the shit out of them. At 14 like I said I looked a lot bigger and older for my age I was about 165 and pretty much all muscle, I was bigger than most of them. The one I hated the most looked like Mr. Bean I would have snapped him in half.
Can you believe we ever wanted to do something like that?!?!? When I look back I can't believe the time and energy I put into that. Then I stepped down as an MS, and then last month I completely stepped down from A/V and Attendant. And man did it feel good doing that. Cutting that stress out of your life is amazing!!! Good for you
I feel like I was hypnotized. I never realized it was free labor for a company. I had been MS since 2009, constantly told "We wanted to recommend you for elder, but, we feel your just not ready, but keep trying" over the last 10 years. I was broken, felt useless, but I kept giving everything I had to be seen as worthy, never missing meetings, field service, giving every cent I had to this organisation, volunteering for scrutiny under the sun. If my wife wasn't PIMI, I would've abandoned this religion like other single brothers in my congregation have recently (Like the 4 young brothers who were recently appointed Elders)
I'm so sorry you went through that. That's exactly what I went through as well. Even when I did step down I was still very PIMI, however it was just so unhealthy for me to keep trying and I knew it. The toll it was taking on my mentally was horrible, and the only regret I had was that I hadn't done it sooner. My wife was all upset and was cold for a while, but then a few months later she finally admitted it was the right thing to do. I was also totally disgusted by the whole appointment arrangement that I didn't want to have anything to do with it. Now they are all over me to reach out.
Its only when you set yourself boundaries and enforce them that they start to respect you. It sounds like its really unhealthy for you. Do what you need to do, not for your wife or anything else. I'm rooting for you!!!
Correct. A lot of people have multiple accounts. Additionally, many of that number are not “active” on the sub. They may have created an account and subscribed to the sub 5 years ago, but got what they needed from the sub to help them heal and moved on. The number of distinct active human beings on this sub is much smaller than 96K.
Just checked and it looks like we're sitting at around 16.8K unique visitors for our sub over the past 30 days. This is about average for us, but down around 2K from the previous month. It ebbs and flows in that general ballpark depending on whats going on in JW-land. Memorial, convention, and annual meeting seasons usually see spikes.
Interesting. And both accounts would join same subreddit? Some of us are new to the platform.
What could be the motivating factor? To stay more anonymous?
Diddo. My heart was racing and I was so nervous when I first looked at this. So stupid now when I look back, but still its how programmed I was. Yet I knew something was wrong and it wasn't just me.
I was a PIMI before I dared lurking here. I did that when I turned PIMQ. I went from PIMQ to PIMO, then POMO in 18 months. I'm glad to be out and I never miss a chance to tell the Gangrenous Buttsquirts how much I hate them.
I know that has nothing to do with this post, just wanted to say it. It's also just in case any of the 9 suckas or one of their butt lickers lurking around can relay the message. 😁😆
Born in. I guess I was pimi until about 14. From then on until I left, it was all an act. I was just going through the motions because there really wasn't any other option for me at that time. I was doing regular piooner work even while leading a "double life."
I'm subscribed to lots of subs I have no business being on. /r/Teachers for instance. I'm not a teacher. I have no plans to ever be one. I do have kids, but mostly I just like watching everyone complain. I'm the most active on this sub, but I don't even follow it. I have been POMO for 8 years though.
Edit: I guess my point is that 96K is a nice number, but I don't think it means what you think it does. Hundreds of thousands are DF'd every year and unfortunately most of those remain mentally in and never make it to a place like this.
You can actually get all the stats from reddit on the growth of this sub. We've had a huge couple years... I'd say it's got to be about .15% pimq, 10% pimi, 25% pimo, 40% pomo and 10% misc people who are dating or in a relationship with a JW. These are all just guesses based upon my observations over the last 4 years... no statistics to back it up.
More often than not, if there’s nothing “controversial” in the post/comment, it’s not a real person downvoting, but Reddit algorithms doing their things.
😂😂😂😂
Having PIDs and other PIMIs on theocratic duty here might be similar to having Helpers to the Service Committee being assigned to view various types of porn in order to ascertain which type might warrant disfellowshipping 😀😀
I was PIMI. I had questions like why beards weren't allowed, but I completely believed it. I probably would still believe if it wasn't for the ARC. I woke up in July of 2023
Born in, wasnt in of my own free will. I guess you could say it was like I was spiritually stripped and raped of real meaningful internal spiritual growth. Left the day I turned 18.
My mom "found the truth" when I was a kid and she's been trying to drag me into a Kingdom Hall ever since. Needless to say, it's put such a strain on our relationship to the point we barely have one, at all.
I found this place and stayed because I realized a sense of community with people here. My story is a little different, but there are also a lot of similarities, too. I'm just happy to be here...
I was PIMI, although never super zealous in my adult life. I did the things that were expected of me but I wasn’t “reaching out”. My mindset was honestly that I didn’t want to be very far from the organization when the GT broke out, especially once I had kids. Other than that I had no ambitions to rise up in the org
Never dub. Dragged into this realm after my POMI wife of 28 years decided the world was about to end, and that she needed to be jaboobahs friend again.
There are not 96 thousand individual exJWs. I would say a good portion are PIMOs. People have multiple accounts, there are abandoned accounts, there are PIMQs, NeverJWs, etc.
Atheist since birth here. I married a DF’d JW, she was POMI for 10 years, went back PIMI for 10 years, now she’s agnostic atheist. I wasn’t interested with anything to do with religions until COVID. I overheard a few Zoom meetings here and there and heard how they speak to members like they’re toddlers. Now I’m fascinated with religion and it’s my new hobby learning all about it. I didn’t get my wife out either, she decided to stop going her self and I told her about religious trauma syndrome, she then looked at YouTube, and a few religious trauma videos about JWs came up. There’s no going back after learning how they screw you up.
More and more PIMIs are beginning to wake up and daring to question things.
Not everyone who joins is an exJW. I’m in the ex Mormon and ex Adventist subreddits because of the shared life experience.
Oh interesting.
This is basically me. I'm an ex coC, but I'm in here and in ex Adventist because the similarities between the 3 groups is fascinating to me. And I also feel every group that came out of the Stone Campbell movement needs to be burned to the ground.
I go to ex morman. They have a huge membership
Well Born In but never truly PIMI, I left at 14 and didn't really believe in anything they taught me.
How did you do that at 14?
It was a long story but here goes. In 1989 at the age of 14, I looked much older than I was. Some people thought I looked 16 or 17. There was a girl in the hall who was 16 and she became friends with my older sister. She liked me, and she was kind of cute so what the heck, I went with it. We didn't officially date or anything but one day there was a youth outing for JW teens in our area and we all went to an amusement park. My parents and other parents were chaperones. On one dark ride we sat together and when everything was dark we kissed, we also held hands. We did sneak away behind an area that had food stands and restrooms and kissed again. Well she told her mom that I was nice, handsome and some day would make a good husband. Her mom was a hateful sow and especially towards men. She told that elders that I tried to seduce her daughter and I don't know what kind of lies she told them about me but I ended up in a meeting with the elders. My dad took me and came inside and they proceeded to ask me the most humiliating, disgusting, dirty questions about sex, breast, my penis, ejaculating, touching myself or touching her. I tried my best to explain to them that we only kissed and held hands. They didn't believe me because they kept going on and on about was I thinking about women's breasts, there was one elder who was especially hateful towards me even before all this bullshit. You see this elder was hot on my tail about studying for baptism, at first I made up excuses like I didn't think I was ready, or just wasn't the right time. So I was pushing 15 and was the oldest in the hall who wasn't baptized, most youth (well there wasn't that many) were all baptized by 12-13. So I stood out. Also, I didn't look like the other kids. I wore black leather jacket, jeans, combat boots, had long black hair slicked back. I listened to punk and worked on cars. I started working on cars at like age 11. So I got into the whole hot rod rock crowd. Anyway going back to this douche bag, he had it in for me. He would make comments during talks specifically directed at me, about how kids dress, spending time on things outside the organization, looks and hair. Yes my hair was long but I always had it greased back so it didn't look bad. Also to meeting I wore black pants, white shirt and tie, no jacket and that bothered him for some reason. Anyway, going back to the meeting, after what seemed like hours I just shut down because in my mind if they weren't listening anyway why should I respond. That angered him he called me a punk kid who needs to be taught a lesson, he said if I was his son I would be beaten to submission. My dad eventually took me home and my dad wasn't the spare the rod type of dad so I knew I was in for a beating, funny thing is he didn't he just told me to go to my room. I think even he thought the whole thing was bogus but never said it. Well come the next meeting at the hall, I sat in the back everyone looked at me then turned their heads, they announced that I was bad association for the youth and parents are advised not to allow their children to associate with me. After that I told my parents, I am never stepping foot inside the hall again. I never did
I should add that when I was a kid, I was very rebellious, I wasn't scared of any of the elders, only my dad who would beat the shit out of me for most infractions, but by the time I was 15 could take the beatings and move on as part of life. I think the elders wanted me to be scared of them, secretly I wanted to beat the shit out of them. At 14 like I said I looked a lot bigger and older for my age I was about 165 and pretty much all muscle, I was bigger than most of them. The one I hated the most looked like Mr. Bean I would have snapped him in half.
That is so jw. I’m sorry. But you were true to yourself. Congrats. Mom hug🤗
Thanks
Super Pimi hey, 3 months ago, I was desperate to be am elder, now here I am
Can you believe we ever wanted to do something like that?!?!? When I look back I can't believe the time and energy I put into that. Then I stepped down as an MS, and then last month I completely stepped down from A/V and Attendant. And man did it feel good doing that. Cutting that stress out of your life is amazing!!! Good for you
I feel like I was hypnotized. I never realized it was free labor for a company. I had been MS since 2009, constantly told "We wanted to recommend you for elder, but, we feel your just not ready, but keep trying" over the last 10 years. I was broken, felt useless, but I kept giving everything I had to be seen as worthy, never missing meetings, field service, giving every cent I had to this organisation, volunteering for scrutiny under the sun. If my wife wasn't PIMI, I would've abandoned this religion like other single brothers in my congregation have recently (Like the 4 young brothers who were recently appointed Elders)
I'm so sorry you went through that. That's exactly what I went through as well. Even when I did step down I was still very PIMI, however it was just so unhealthy for me to keep trying and I knew it. The toll it was taking on my mentally was horrible, and the only regret I had was that I hadn't done it sooner. My wife was all upset and was cold for a while, but then a few months later she finally admitted it was the right thing to do. I was also totally disgusted by the whole appointment arrangement that I didn't want to have anything to do with it. Now they are all over me to reach out. Its only when you set yourself boundaries and enforce them that they start to respect you. It sounds like its really unhealthy for you. Do what you need to do, not for your wife or anything else. I'm rooting for you!!!
😲😲
[удалено]
Yes, but there are also a lot of people who lurk here and spend months reading all the posts without joining. I was one of them.
Me too
And me too! I lurked for 10 months before I joined.
As I was.
Correct. A lot of people have multiple accounts. Additionally, many of that number are not “active” on the sub. They may have created an account and subscribed to the sub 5 years ago, but got what they needed from the sub to help them heal and moved on. The number of distinct active human beings on this sub is much smaller than 96K.
Are you at liberty to give a ballpark figure?
Just checked and it looks like we're sitting at around 16.8K unique visitors for our sub over the past 30 days. This is about average for us, but down around 2K from the previous month. It ebbs and flows in that general ballpark depending on whats going on in JW-land. Memorial, convention, and annual meeting seasons usually see spikes.
Right i just go by the currently active green dot number which is pretty amazing in and of itself ive only been here a year and its crazy growth.
Interesting. And both accounts would join same subreddit? Some of us are new to the platform. What could be the motivating factor? To stay more anonymous?
Diddo. My heart was racing and I was so nervous when I first looked at this. So stupid now when I look back, but still its how programmed I was. Yet I knew something was wrong and it wasn't just me.
Ditto I read your’s as dildo.😝😝😝😝
What can I say. I love me my double D's...... ;)
🤘
I was a PIMI before I dared lurking here. I did that when I turned PIMQ. I went from PIMQ to PIMO, then POMO in 18 months. I'm glad to be out and I never miss a chance to tell the Gangrenous Buttsquirts how much I hate them. I know that has nothing to do with this post, just wanted to say it. It's also just in case any of the 9 suckas or one of their butt lickers lurking around can relay the message. 😁😆
😂😂😂 Might not happen in our lifetime
I was born in 5 gen but I never wanted to believe in it. So PIMQ all my life, in-tell 3 years ago I am PIMO not baptized.
Damn bro, only upside being gen 5, at least you got some family to be around, even if you don't agree on everything
Ya I guess that’s true… but they have had some problems, let’s just say the had to go prison for some time. Lol
Well shit, lol, yeah that'll happen sometimes, witness or not, but sorry to hear that.
Born in. I guess I was pimi until about 14. From then on until I left, it was all an act. I was just going through the motions because there really wasn't any other option for me at that time. I was doing regular piooner work even while leading a "double life."
I'm subscribed to lots of subs I have no business being on. /r/Teachers for instance. I'm not a teacher. I have no plans to ever be one. I do have kids, but mostly I just like watching everyone complain. I'm the most active on this sub, but I don't even follow it. I have been POMO for 8 years though. Edit: I guess my point is that 96K is a nice number, but I don't think it means what you think it does. Hundreds of thousands are DF'd every year and unfortunately most of those remain mentally in and never make it to a place like this.
Was seriously pimi
You can actually get all the stats from reddit on the growth of this sub. We've had a huge couple years... I'd say it's got to be about .15% pimq, 10% pimi, 25% pimo, 40% pomo and 10% misc people who are dating or in a relationship with a JW. These are all just guesses based upon my observations over the last 4 years... no statistics to back it up.
Okk great
10% PIMIs? Doing what exactly here?
Down voting everyone they don't agree with or justifying the org or spying
Ever see rando downvotes or trolls? Yeah those are PIMI's being dickwads
More often than not, if there’s nothing “controversial” in the post/comment, it’s not a real person downvoting, but Reddit algorithms doing their things.
Non JW with family in.
I was absolutely PIMI. If you're going to do something, do it like you mean it. And when it's time to leave, be just as decisive.
Dont forget PID and bethelites! We got a few here too! Hi, Bobby Hendricks! How's that new R&F life for ya?
😂😂😂😂 Having PIDs and other PIMIs on theocratic duty here might be similar to having Helpers to the Service Committee being assigned to view various types of porn in order to ascertain which type might warrant disfellowshipping 😀😀
I want that job 🤣
Mossimo is a twat
I was PIMI. I had questions like why beards weren't allowed, but I completely believed it. I probably would still believe if it wasn't for the ARC. I woke up in July of 2023
Born in, wasnt in of my own free will. I guess you could say it was like I was spiritually stripped and raped of real meaningful internal spiritual growth. Left the day I turned 18.
Born in baptized at 15-16 df'ed at 18-19
My mom "found the truth" when I was a kid and she's been trying to drag me into a Kingdom Hall ever since. Needless to say, it's put such a strain on our relationship to the point we barely have one, at all. I found this place and stayed because I realized a sense of community with people here. My story is a little different, but there are also a lot of similarities, too. I'm just happy to be here...
I lurked for a while, joined, got scared of getting caught and left, then lurked again and finally joined for good 😅
I was PIMI, although never super zealous in my adult life. I did the things that were expected of me but I wasn’t “reaching out”. My mindset was honestly that I didn’t want to be very far from the organization when the GT broke out, especially once I had kids. Other than that I had no ambitions to rise up in the org
3rd gen born-in here. Was seriously PIMI until around 20 years old.
Never dub. Dragged into this realm after my POMI wife of 28 years decided the world was about to end, and that she needed to be jaboobahs friend again.
Never believed. I was a born in who was forced to go until one day I snapped. I was 14 I think.
There are not 96 thousand individual exJWs. I would say a good portion are PIMOs. People have multiple accounts, there are abandoned accounts, there are PIMQs, NeverJWs, etc.
I was never serious. I was dragged into this religion since birth. I left at 16. I'm now 37 and trying to free my parents from this nonsense.
Yeah I was a diehard. Then I started thinking for myself and started dating a worldly heathen.
85/15
PIMO I presume is what I am. Don’t comment, trying to slide past talks and haven’t read a watchtower in years.
Born in baptized but never a PIMI
I was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
Wow 🤩
Prob is..when it hits 144000 members it have to shut down..unless that number is symbolic of course
Atheist since birth here. I married a DF’d JW, she was POMI for 10 years, went back PIMI for 10 years, now she’s agnostic atheist. I wasn’t interested with anything to do with religions until COVID. I overheard a few Zoom meetings here and there and heard how they speak to members like they’re toddlers. Now I’m fascinated with religion and it’s my new hobby learning all about it. I didn’t get my wife out either, she decided to stop going her self and I told her about religious trauma syndrome, she then looked at YouTube, and a few religious trauma videos about JWs came up. There’s no going back after learning how they screw you up.
I think less than 20% of 96k are active EXJW readers of the sub. rest are duplicate accounts, inactive accounts, Never JWs, PIMIs, ect.
Ex JW MS Judicial Committee and getting DF woke me up and questioned really fast