by Mickey mouse 17 Replies latest jw friends
As I was born in I have no experience of this...
When you were studying do you remember coming up against things you questioned? Did you ask your study conductor and what responses did you get? Was there ever a point where you thought "Something isn't right here" but you carried on studying because of pressure/to save face?
Mickey.
As a fellow born-in I can't answer from personal experience. However, I have asked what it was that attracted converts to 'the truth'. JWs usually find a listening ear from people who have emotional issues, personal fears, or serious questions about their church's teachings.
JWs receive, as you know, extensive training in how to target their very unique brand of the 'good news' to such ones. From what I've been told, finding answers to their questions in the Bible was a comfort. And when it came to issues like the 1914 doctrine, for example, they simply accepted such a teaching because the JW had already revealed established truths from the Bible. Why doubt all the other stuff?
I did ask questions, but was patiently bombarded with reasoning and answers.
Occasionally, an answer was not satisfactory so I was told that it would be
cleared up if I just trusted Jehovah. I really feel duped.
Ditto, as a "pure-blood" i struggle to understand "new bloods"
I found them to be perplexed at the question as to whether Adam & Eve had a belly button. They couldn't answer it, yet undaunted, I soldiered on and became a dubass anyway.
Dismembered
I became a witness at the age of 28...
Before baptism, I studied off and on for two years, back then they were like a dog with a bone...
I questioned everything but, not having the internet, and no real Bible knowledge...most things I just excepted after awhile.
The one thing we rangled about the most was the scripture about "can kill the body, but not the soul" (or something like that). I finally just let it go.
I was so gullable back then.
Cas
Ditto, as a "pure-blood" i struggle to understand "new bloods"
Same here, I always thought converts were "religious weirdos" lol
I was born in and forced to go to meetings. I think the Wactower must have a hard time recruiting living ones today.
Back in the 60's, 70's, 80's information was hard to come by.
You had to get off your can and search for limited data.
I left in 83. Bookstores in Florida were small. They were not big like Barnes and Nobles and Borders are today. You'd be lucky to find a shelf of books on God and religion.
And there was no internet. The net is what will open everyones eyes.
Not really.
A lot of people in America still think Bin Ladins in Iraq along with the weapons of mass destruction.
A lot of people love being sheep, zombies walking around in a trance. Living the unexamined life.
A lot of them will get fleeced.
jaguarbass: Back in the 60's, 70's, 80's information was hard to come by.
This is a very important point for the young ones who may have a hard time understanding why it was easier to become part of the machine back in those days. I too, asked several questions but I always seem to get an answer that would suffice for the moment or assured that it would be answered as I "progressed in the truth." In the pre-internet days, you had to venture outside your home and go to the library to look for material critical of the Society or worse a "Christian" book store. In either case, you were always looking over your shoulder to make sure no Witness was within eyesight.
Then after finding such books, you had to jot down the contact information in the back of the book and write (not e-mail) a letter asking form more info. Then you would have to use your work address or a non-JW friend to have the materials sent to because you did not want any of the bretheren finding out.
Today is an information paradise for those questioning the Society. From the comfortable chair in front of your computer, you can google or yahoo a few words and pages and pages of material are instantly displayed just waiting for you to Click.
Born-In here too
Left in 1980
Us "Older" folks know it was
next to impossible to get any
answers.
If the library didn't have it
If the book stores didn't stock it
We got nothing
I remember when I was little
I found a copy of an old comic book
In the back was an ad for a book
by Ayn Rand,Objectivist.
I sent away for it.
Got it in the mail
Dad saw me looking at it
You would have thought I was
Dahmer caught under the house
with the family cat
Got grounded
Confiscated all my books, magazines,
music. Lost it all
But I remembered...........
Couldn't take that away
