Anybody attended the Memorial last night? What was your experience?

by Cindi_67 36 Replies latest jw experiences

  • skeptic1914
    skeptic1914

    I went also, although this is the first year I probably would NOT have gone, yet like TD:

    I go every year out of respect for my wife, her beliefs, her family, etc.

    I listen with a critical ear at ANY JW mtg. What struck me was the continued insistence on a literal 144,000, the obvious misapplication of Jesus ref to "other sheep" to an earthly class of Christians and (did anybody else catch this or was it just this speaker) the reference to the apostle Paul being a member of the "1st-century Christian Governing Body" ( in explaining why we were referencing 1st Corinthians instead of the Gospel accounts regarding the procedure to follow). Completely BOGUS since Paul was directly chosen by Christ.

    Skeptic1914

  • Mad
    Mad

    It was a BobbleHead Memorial (Head continuously bobs up & down as they read like a parrot...only not as good!). A Packed hall. A lifeless, uninspiring "Celebration of Christ's Death" as the idiot outline read, stated! It was a total disgrace to Jehovah, Christ Jesus- and all there!

    It really grieved me.

    Mad

  • nowisee
    nowisee

    i believe the last year i attended was 1976. what cracks me up is that my current husband (who is non-practicing catholic who once studied for the priesthood) always, when talking to others about jws, tells them that jws believe that only 125 people are going to heaven.

  • ?me?
    ?me?

    yeah, the outline was very different from previous years, or the brother did not bother with it. the talk was very boring, and we must have looked up 15 scriptures in a row, racing from one to the next with very little explanation.

    the only exciting part of the night was that a very popular current professional athelete was in attendance. so that made for a buzz after the memorial.

    me

  • veronica_mars
    veronica_mars

    I went... for my parents sake.

    I cried the entire time. It was very hard for me to be there.

    I felt like everyone was judging me, plus I was just so sad over my life.

    That, mixed with the fact that I was wearing the same dress as this "sister" I despise, was just too much for me...

  • steve2
    steve2

    I haven't set foot in a kingdom hall for 25 years, but I have a guarded admiration for those who go out of respect for family. That kind of touches me. I'm taken by other comments made that attendance in some halls was down on last year and that there don't seem to be as many adolescents.

  • Cindi_67
    Cindi_67

    This year it was apparently an entirely new outline. I had never heard this Memorial discourse before.

    The talk was slanted heavily toward JW's themselves. IOW Preaching to the choir. An interested person off the street would not have been able to follow the leaps in reasoning as the speaker jumped from the "Little Flock" of the Lucan account to the "144,000" of Revelation and from the "Great Multitude" of Revelation back to the "Other Sheep" of the Johannine gospel with no explanation whatsoever.

    Then it must be a new outline, because that is what I noticed in the talk given at the Memorial I attended. For the new ones there it must have been a very confusing talk. It was clearly said that only 144,000 partake from the emblems, and, we as part of the "other sheep" are only observers, both with the promise of everlasting life either in heaven or on earth.

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    We went while on vacation- I knew there was no getting out of the Memorial. The new outline
    was dissappointing. It wasn't a nice smooth, easy to follow talk. It was heavy on what it means
    to be anointed. There wasn't anything really new in the talk, though. They said the number of
    attenders and partakers last year. From what I read on JWD, it's not just one or two incidents, but
    all the speakers for this talk had less freedom to stray from their outline as they did in years past.

    Perhaps the new outline is not so different from the old one (I gave the talk on previous occasions)
    but is stricter in staying with the information provided. When I worked up the old outline years ago,
    I saw that there was time to develop information on the passover or Jesus' last night on earth or
    the ministry or whatever. There didn't seem to be time this year, as there were certain things the
    speaker seemed forced to say, and scriptures he must have read.

    The speaker ended with something like this: If you are not already a baptized witness of Jehovah,
    please ask the attendants or the people who invited you here how you can benefit from a free home
    bible study.

    It was so awkward how he said "not already a baptized witness" that it was clear that you need to
    become one. You can't just attend meetings, you must become a JW.

  • Frank75
    Frank75

    I guess it is free choosing that leads you guys back to the Kingdom Hall for one of the most ridculous black masses out there. Even though freedom of choice has nothing to do with our experiences in that religion.

    Got my invitation from an elderly man who actually said he didn't have time to talk with me as I had some questions about his beliefs. Seemed to catch him off guard as he was stuffing the tract in my door. You know coming by a house at 10:30 during the week in a typical suburban neighborhood. Who would possibly be home? Guess again.

    Nope, wasted enough time over the 40 odd years associated with the wacky witness religion, no way I will spend another second inside those walls.

    I will mess with any who enter my space though.

    Frank75

  • looking_glass
    looking_glass

    I didn't go this year either ... I have not been for a couple of years now. My mother sent me the "you are dead to me" ltr, so any invitation and possible guilt into going, was not there. What is interesting is that a friend of mine who is still a good little JW was at the same memorial as my mother, she said that my mother looked very worn and sad. My only comment was "well maybe if she did not cut out the only member of the family that actually helped her, she would not have the weight of the world on her shoulders. I hope the religion provides her with the family members she has kicked out of her life." I know, I know, a little bitter, but to me it seems some what hypocritical to go to the memorial ... something that is suppose to signify god's loving kindness for mankind, all the while this same group of knuckleheads are condemning everyone around them!

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