I just ran across this post at another, non-religion-related website. The OP of the thread was basically asking why people hate JWs. He got a range of answers, and buried deep down on page 2 or 3, I found this gem, which sums it up perfectly for me:

"Any Witness or Mormon knocking at our doors unbidden is the equivalent to any other pushy salesmen who presumes to tell us we're doing it wrong. "Look, your yard looks terrible, you ought to be doing this our way" "Your house is a wreck, you can't be happy and satisfied while living like oblivious slobs, let me show you what you are doing wrong" "Listen, we are convinced we are right and that you are doomed unless you behave exactly as we do."

Religious pedlars tell each other they are providing a service, but it's a service that comes at the cost of our privacy and our peace and quiet, and besides the annoyance, the cost of what you are selling is exorbitant else we would all be on board. We don't want to carve ourselves off from the world; this is a wondrous place of beauty and love. We don't want to isolate ourselves or shame our family members for believing differently. We don't want to allow minors to suffer and perish; we want to take advantage of modern medicine. We don't want to spend our Saturdays annoying people. We want to continue to text our friends and lovers, we want to continue enjoying oral sex, we want to occasionally masturbate and watch television and movies without the looming, invasive, disapproving oversight of judgmental elders. We occasionally want to sleep in on Sunday, or spend a Wednesday night with our families. We want to enjoy the beauty and variety of this incredible Earth, and we want to enjoy small pleasures that cause others no harm. We don't join you because we don't want a small group of sanctimonious old men to direct our every action and control our every thought and shame us for deviating from a rigid, unforgiving routine. We want to embrace our brothers and sisters, including those brothers who love brothers and sisters who love sisters. We want to continue to attempt to improve the political environment and living conditions for our fellow man, and for some of us that means voting, running for office, or even joining the military. We feel we are doing good work by participating in the community at large rather than operating inside a shrinking pool of insular people.

Your Satan-ruled World is a dismal, ugly place fraught with forbidden music, forbidden art, forbidden acts of love. Your World is fraught with imaginary dangers and temptations that cause no mortal harm, and many of those imagined dangers and temptations serve to bond us to our fellow humans. Your world is risky when people die for foolish reasons and denial of simple cures. Your world is exacting and rigid and missteps are punished more harshly than any Worldy prison. We don't want any part of the metaphysical prison you inhabit. I should say "I". I don't want any part of your ugly, hate-filled, paranoid, small world."

Nor do I. Any mormon who thinks nevermos look at them and are touched by The Spirit™ or are inspired in some way are deluded.

Dam*. That's perfect. Thx for sharing!

This was excellent. Really quite beautiful. Thanks for posting!

I know that in all my years in the church my nonmember friends never thought the church was a good fit for me, and it's because I loved and gave up a lot of things in this post. As I start to navigate my way out it's nice to be reminded what I will regain.

I loved what you said about their Satan ruled world. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I went with her friend(a transexual man/woman) to a dance in Provo for Gay Pride day in Provo. While we were sitting there waiting for her friend to arrive this gal came and sat next to me and started trying to sell me a CD she had made with original music.

One of the songs was about "the adversary". Ooooo scary. She asked me if I knew who "the adversary" is. I said "well I know who Christians and those who believe in the bible think the adversary is but I don't belong to any of those religions so I don't believe "the adversary" is any more real than I believe Jesus Christ was a real person.

She said "oh I see well thank you for your time. I love your beard by the way." And she went looking for someone else to sell her religious music to, at a bar celebrating Gay Pride. Funny how people think isn't it?

Excellent. Way to spell it out in such succinct terms. I love your description of the "Satan ruled world." That is powerful.

+1
I love this.

That was great! Whooo!

And I tell you what a TBM would say to that.

"They know it's true, they are being hard hearted, they just don't want to change" ~ This is their thought process after you decline to get baptized.

Good stuff, dogzilla. I agree with everything in that person's post, and I'm not a nevermo. Mormons and JWs do live in an ugly world. No wonder they spend so much time dreaming of paradise in another life. What they're experiencing here is just awful.

My TBM husband gives up so many things he would love to do--he has a great many hobbies and interests, but NO TIME to do them because the cult is always pulling him to do this or that. He had FOUR "callings" for a long time, plus HT and moving people and splitting with missionaries and blessing people etc. They expect him to have twice the number of meetings his current "calling" is supposed to have, "just because the stake guy ordered it". He "happily" obeys, but he is a very miserable person inside. I hate the cult.

bravo! exactly!

That beautifully sums up my worldview since leaving Mormonism. Thanks for reposting it here.

The real rational world sees Mormons and JWs as freakish hateful and narrow minded. Why?

Because they behave and talk from a freakish, hateful and narrow minded point of view.