A question for converts (page 2)

CaptainSchmideo

Was that a Steve Ditko comic, by any chance? He's pretty heavy with Ayn Rand

"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?"

This struck a chord with me. My mom was/is a convert, and she said almost the exact same thing to me the other day. She is still in, but this is how she explained away things that I was questioning.

amicus

I, with many of my friends, became a convert in the early "70s.

The Vietnam war still raged and we children of the 60's were ready for change. Any religion that taught a solution to the screwed up world we westerners had developed was taken seriously. Unfortunately the WTBTS had scored a hit with the "Truth" book that some of us read when we were much younger. I first read it at 13 or 14 sitting on a rock overlooking a Topanga Canyon Creek pond. I read many books there, including Siddhartha.

When I again met witnesses in Aspen Colorado at the age of 18, the nonsense they spewed not only sounded interesting (Armageddon in 5 years?) but was reinforced by the silly things I had read so long ago while learning about "Eastern Religions".

In those days, most witnesses were "converts".

I faded in 1976 and tried again in the early 90's. That's when I saw the disconnect between the converts and the "born-ins". In the 90's there was no zeal, folks participated like it was a job. A job they didn't especially like. I used that second experience to understand why I had fled in the first place. I've never been back.

The early 70's were fun in a way because of the zeal, the 90's were hell.

Not Feeling It

Ditto, as a "pure-blood" i struggle to understand "new bloods"
Same here, I always thought converts were "religious weirdos" lol

HAHA, mudblood JWs.

// Not really a Hairy Pothead fan.

summer

Yes, Mickey. I had many questions! My study conductor was good about it, telling me to write down everything that bothered me so I would not forget to mention it. Most of the time, she had what I now see as a "programmed" response. And if she was not sure, she would do some research and always come up with a "satisfying" answer. And yes, there came a time when I thought "Something is not right here" What bothered me the most is that my conducter keept bringing me some litterature to do my own research. But I kept telling her "How can I search into a religion by looking only at their own litterature? It does not make any sense." And I started looking on the Internet for answers. It did not take long for me to put all this together. But I did not really want to face it. And I moved right along. So yes, I guess you can say I was studying to save face. But also because I was so lost and did not really know where to turn. I am now glad this is all behind...

beerose

Not a convert , but was raise around the JW's beliefs.This is for casper"don't fear the man who can kill the body" "fear the one who can raise the soul" I think I understand this one,when a man kills your body,he can't take your soul.Your soul goes back to God.God can raise your soul but he can destroy your soul too,so you fear the one who can raise the soul! I ran from a lot of the JW teaching but I heard some, mom's a JW.I have a study although shes afraid to come around sometimes lately"demons in my house thing" I have no idea if I have this right,but this is how I understood that one! But next time if I see my conducter i'll see what answer she gives me on that!

littlerockguy

I started studying back in the mid 80s as a teenager. Even when you went to the library to look up stuff to verify information when it came to dates and ancient history, books that contained the information you were looking for were few and far in between in libraries in small southern towns. Many of the publications the WTS used were reference books that were out of print or hard to get hold of. There were no "apostate books" that I knew of in the libraries in the town I lived in. Probably one reason it wasn't in the public library downtown where I lived was because a pioneer sister, wife of a PO of one of the congs worked in the library and I work in the college library and didn't see any XJW books.

LRG

JeffT

Very much what Amicus said. I got pulled into a Bible study in the fall of 1972, my senior year in college. The world looked like it was falling apart and the witnesses seemed to have all the answers. I knew little about Christianity or the Bible, and what they said seemed to be scripturally based. Some of what they said (neutrality, no hell fire) meshed nicely with my personal beliefs and made it easier to swallow the rest. When my wife and I started doing our exit research in 1988 we had to go to the library for information. It was VERY scary to go in to the religion section and research dubs.

The internet makes all of this a lot easier.

A question for converts