by JH 13 Replies latest jw friends
I used to hang around with the marginal witnesses, the ones considered weak. Those that missed meeetings occasionally, like me.
I used to go out in the service mostly with them and give them a lift to and from the hall.
It's as if I fit in better with more humble witnesses.
The Pioneers. I was one for many years. Lilly
Well, I hung out with most everybody. As a reg pio, of course the pioneers / elders. I didn't miss meetings, but I hung out with the misfits to some degree as well. Guess you could say I had a lot of friends. I wouldn't have left on my own - glad God gave me the shove I needed to get out.
I am noticing here a lot of Ex-JWs who were pioneers. Wonder what the percentage is?
I hung out with the kids puttin on aires as jws but behind closed doors were the wild ones that still some how found it okay to tattle to the elders about other kids. I remember hanging out with kids that my parents had heard alot about ..sorta rich and servicy kids. Then at an assembly i got permission to ride with them to get lunch and the cd that they chose to play was madonnas new cd. The one with "waiting for you". The dominatrix cd. I had NEVER heard music like that before and felt very uncomfortable. That was my first realization that people aren't what they seem.
I was a pioneer and also in Bethel for a year. I've been out for 22 years and am so glad. I hated everything about the organization, except the friends I had.
I was known, by people in many towns surrounding my home-town, as a clique-buster. I despised (and still despise) cliques.
I hung around everyone. I encouraged everyone to hang around everyone. I organized volleyball games and get-togethers and skating parties and the only rules were "bring a bag of chips or a snack food" ... I was counseled (oh, I should add that one to TheWanderer's thread) against having certain "weaker" people attend these events and responded that until and unless they were no longer identified as one of Jehovah's Witnesses they would be welcome.
I now wish I hadn't even had that criterion.
I sort of brought together people that never interacted.
Respectfully,
AuldSoul
I had 2 best friends in my congegation that I hung out with. But, we were young, I left when I was 18. Other than that, when i was reinstated in a new congregation, I went for 6 months, and never hung around anyone.........so I left lol
As a child I hung out with the sincere misfits. One was the daughter of a single working mother like myself, goofy, not real bright but we were all we had as latchkey kids. My other friend was wild, beautiful and untamed heading for d'fing.
As an adult they were my age, with children the same age as mine mostly that went to the private JW run school my kids went to. Since my hall attendance wasn't real great (thank God for my special needs ADHD son's birth, I refused to beat him) there wasn't lots of hanging out. We worked together on a cleaning crew, but hang out...not really.
Does anybody really hang out as adult JWs? My mom did, she had a few friends, single JW women like herself that went "coffee shop hopping" as she puts it. But in the 80,s and early 90's I think it was being frowned on more and more, unless it is a pee stop while out in service and maybe luch after.
I guess some do, my friend's JW family goes out boating and drinking with other dubs.
Being a "fringie" myself, I generally hung around with similar ones. I got marginal association with some older couples who were very nice and real christians. It seems the younger ones and those in mid-life have the most hang-ups about single women and really tend to avoid them or rip them apart in gossip.
LHG
