How Did Being Referred To As A Brother Or Sister Make You Feel?

The wanderer

How Did Being Referred To As A “Brother” Or “Sister” Make You Feel?

The term “brother” always reminded me of being in some militant or “holy” roller religion.
During my tenure as a Jehovah’s Witness, I brought it to the elder’s attention to refer to
me by using my first or last name when addressing me.

The Term “Brother” Used To Unite?

True, the Bible uses the term brother, but did the Society
use the term “brothers”and “sisters” to unite or further
indoctrinate?

What is your thought regarding the use of the term “brother” and how did it make you feel?

Respectfully,

The Wanderer

merfi

did the Society use the term “brothers”and “sisters” to unite or further
indoctrinate?

bingo.

At the time, I felt part of the 'club'. Now it kinda creeps me out.

~merfi

Highlander

Even in my 'believing' days, it seemed a bit weird. Later on, it was downright creepy. Now, in the rare instance that someone calls me a brother, I simply correct the person by telling

him/her that my name is NOT brother, it is...

purplesofa

merf, I was just going to say it was creepy.

It kept me from being attracted to a BROTHER, it felt incestious. I know it is weird, but having sex with

Brother XXXXX, or having sexual feelings just did not happen for me.

I truely thought of them as a brother.

I know this is not what you meant by your question.......but I hated the term in this way.

purps

j

choosing life

I fell for the feeling of being part of the pack at the time. Later, I just found it to be another badge of honor or title.

It really bothered me when a baptized jw would be called on at the meeting and be called Brother Smith and then an unbaptized adult would be adressed by their first name. They made class distinctions in every way they could think of.

It is really just another way to indoctrinate people and make them get baptized to feel as if they are part of the group.

bikerchic

True, the Bible uses the term brother, but did the Society
use the term “brothers”and “sisters” to unite or further
indoctrinate?

I hated it especially in public places where other non JW's were listening. It always made me cringe that and all the JW speak, like "new order", "worldly", "truth" and all those dubizms.

Looking back it was not only to indoctrinate us but to make us look unique as if we were part of some elitist society. I always felt we sounded stupid.

bebu

It really bothered me when a baptized jw would be called on at the meeting and be called Brother Smith and then an unbaptized adult would be adressed by their first name. They made class distinctions in every way they could think of.

Never having been a JW, I did not know that they only addressed those baptised by "brother" or "sister". That really sounds like class distinction to me, too.

bebu

monophonic

back in 1997, if you knew how to install an operating system on a computer you could make $60 being a sys admin, of course, continuing to come up to speed, but i did everything like baptism by fire.

corporate life sucked, i liked the money and the freedom of the money, but, i'm honest now and know i'm unemployable in that type of atmosphere. i looked around the board room in my 20's when i was leading a project and saw everyone in their 40's, rich as hell, but their faces didn't have an ounce of contentment on them or pleasure with what we were doing. the light bulb went off and i got out after that.

i lightened things up where i worked though, we were the windows NT server group, so i started calling everyone my NT brothers. the rest of the company had 'issues' with using NT b/c they had a stake in Unix, so we were a necessary evil. it was funny, after a few months, we were calling each other 'brother raymond', 'brother mike'. it was brothers of the NT. i almost bought white mechanics uniforms for us to wear w/ our names as brother ____ on them until the company went topsy turvy and changed direction.(forever the performer i was and trying to keep things fun in an idiot environment...thus, probably why the elders had it out for me from a very young age b/c i was trying to keep being a witness fun.)

i was still 1/2 'in' the org at the time.

it felt phoney w/in the org in many circumstances, and there were times when it felt authentic, while those times were rare, but so were finding authentic people in there.

i now call a few close friends brothers and sisters....actually kind of have a film related frat thing i was in where once you're in you're in for life and we refer to each other as brothers. that feels authentic.

the one book study i made a few years ago they called me by my first name. i noticed it. and everyone else was brother. they know my last name. so now, i think if you're inactive you can't be addressed as brother or sister from the platform.

yep, they can read hearts b/c hearts are readable by how many hours you put down on a time slip.

esw1966

The biggest feeling I can remember is that it made me feel INCLUDED as ONE OF THE GANG when I was called on as 'brother Weber' at the meeting when I would raise my hand and when they called me by my first name I was wondering about what THEY meant by NOT calling me 'brother'.

I guess it was a status symbol representing if I was an ACCEPTED member, a FAITHFUL publisher, and one WORTHY of association with.

Pretty sad, huh!

When I would be in a different state I would identify myself as 'brother' to indicate that I was 'one of them'. It was code talk.

greenhornet

A few weeks ago, I was eating in a restaurant about 120 miles from home. I used to go to the "meetings" in that small town. I bumped into 3 elders and two of them introduces me to the 3rd elder as this is brother **** from **** cong. Only if they knew! It kinda gave me the creeps this brother thing..20 years ago I was working at a JWs house and kids and the mother always called me brother ***** and brother all the time. I finally said my name is ***** (first name)please call me that.

How Did Being Referred To As A Brother Or Sister Make You Feel?