The Memorial

TheDoctor

I saw some mention of this in another post, but i wasn't sure if there was a topic about it. Anyways. Being raised in the "truth" its always pointed out that even people who haven't been to meetings in years still come to the memorial. Ive noticed that a lot of time that is actually the case. Whats the reasoning? I'm trying to decide if Im gonna go this year or not...If i do it will only be so my wife doesnt have to go herself and so i don't receive grief about it from my family. Anyone else have anything to say about it?

oneairhead

That is probably the reason i will go as well. I am not so concerned about the family as i am about my wife and kid. I have a good time entertaining the kid outside so that she doesn;t have to sit through the meeting and be told shhhhh sit down be quiet for two hours. But I can only take so much having heard it all my life.

One

Cc81

a lot of people do go to the memorial for their families. thats probably the only reason i would go.

BFD

I'd love to hear the answer to this. I don't get it. Why go to the Deny Christ Memorial at all. Since coming here I noticed that many seem to want to go to this disrespectful occasion. I don't get it.

BFD

R.F.

I'd say it's usually because of pressure from their family to go since it's said to be the most important meeting of the year.

BluesBrother

Thats right, family pressure. That is whay they may get 17 mill. bums on the seats, but half will be wishing they were somewhere else.

Bumble Bee

For several years Mem and I did this. It was more to put in an apperance for the family. Both sets of parents are in different cities and really didn't know the extent of our fade. We'd go to my mothers and then word would get to his parents that we were there. I was so happy when finally I said "enough" and refused to go. It was torture to sit there through that.

BB

Open mind

Here's one possibility that I think it may be true for some dubs.

The whole "6 billion fellow humans are gonna get whacked at Armageddon" thing is hard for many dubs to swallow. My wife is one.

They console themselves with thoughts like "Jehovah is a God of love and is the judge." "Jehovah will execute his judgements selectively with love and perfect justice". Blah, blah, blah.

So, some JWs allow themselves the semi-conscious freedom to think that maybe Jehovah isn't actually as horrible as the WT paints him. At this point what's in their inactive/DFed relative's heart becomes important. If DFed Uncle Joe doesn't actually HATE the idea of eternal tiger-petting and is willing to sit through The Lord's Evening Non-Meal every year.......you get the idea.

Maybe, just maybe, this kinder, gentler, personal-fantasy version of Jehovah might just let old Uncle Joe squeak through the Big A afterall.

Just a hypothesis from an Awake! University Alumnus.

OM

Gopher

Aside from family pressure, it could be that many Jehovah's-bystanders go to the Kingdom Hall once per year -- at the Memorial, just like many casual churchgoers go to church once per year -- at Easter. It's to put in their one appearance, maybe to feel a little better.

OnTheWayOut

Here's my reasoning with the JW wife on the 2008 Memorial:
I am not one of the anointed, so what's the difference? Also, some of the research I have done recently suggests that the scriptures say to "keep proclaiming the day of the Lord, until he arrives." He arrived in 1914 according to the WT, so the Memorial should really be discontinued.

I don't want to appease my wife and keep her (false) hopes alive that
I will return to the meetings one day. Better to just keep her
hopes suppressed by not coming to ONE meeting.

The Memorial

Share this