Moe,
i take execption to the statement that JW's are generally a good people. As persons themselves? Certainly. But AS Jw's? No. As JW's their whole demeanor changes. I've seen friends drink till they pass out (to be future Ministerial Servents) at age 15 (while counseling me about my "attitude", and a friend who a week before had become a Min. Serve. had messed around with my sister the weekend of his announcement. Of course, his dad and brother covered it up and it became a "family issue."
I guess it's the "dont ask dont tell" policy that affects all execpt those of privilidge. Now i don't believe that people should be eternally punished for being weak. We all have our vices, but I can't take the double -standard.
Witness had their golden time, about 1945 to the mid sixties. They were a good congregation, and generally were a good people. But they are nearing the end of the curve, and the double-standard has become the rule. And this makes them bad, at least in the sense that they are bad when working under the direction of the GB.
They want to love God and people, but number crunchers have put quantity in front of quality. It's not even a question of doctrine, although that is a whole issue in itself. Many churches have bizzarre doctrine.
But it's the people you worship with that makes the atmosphere of love in the congregation. If there is derision, division, hate, and shunning, love will be buried, and the congregation as a spiritual whole dies.
I hope they all just see what's happening and don't lose faith. I don't want to see family and friends go through the heartbreak of having their faith shattered. It happened to me, and it's not pleasant. of course, i'd prefer if they left the JW's of their own accord and happily so, but I dont think it's going to happen. People will leave shattered and careworn, and they will feel like they have no place to go. They will be even more trapped then they are now, because they'll see their broken faith as the ultimate sin-sinning against the spirit.
I have yet seriously to pray to God since I left,and it's been two years. And it's because of the collective guilt that's been thrust upon my wife and I by family and friends, and we're not even df'd. Just marked, as I'm told. they made sure the word got around that we're not wanted unless we have some serious groveling to do.
Moe, individuals make the whole of the witnesses. And if the whole is rotten, I don't see how, even generally, the witnesses can be good people. I still love them, but I don't like them, because they feel proud when shunning, gossip with derision about people they use to call brother, and pity those who are not to be pitied.
People say there are no bad people, just bad emotions and deeds.
The body is a cask filled with these things. Empty of emotion and deed, it is dead. If it is filled with bad or unkind things, then the whole is unkind. If people think bad things, they are bad.
You're right, they're not all bad, but I had known thousands of witness in my time there, and they follow the same pattern, kind or hurt people join, become strong emotionally again, andthen become spiritual bruisers-then some sin down the road takes them down a few steps. Either they become monsters after that or they are shunned-formally or informally. Just a cycle.
I just read what I wrote-maybe my argument makes the witnesses just a confused people. Good in their hearts, badness in their actions. I don't know, Moe-what do you think?
"I pray that I may never see the desert again-hear me God."-Robert Bolt
