Does anyone remember the big 6 month Bible study push during the mid 1990s?

by neverendingjourney 43 Replies latest jw experiences

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  neverendingjourney

  I will never forgive myself for what I did to this man

  Don't beat yourself up over this. I don't blame the man who was most influential in getting me to baptism (you could say he brough me into "the truth") even though he's a complete asshole. Day after day he worked on getting me to buy into a picture of JWs that simply didn't exist. I got baptized at 16 years of age. He then cheated on his wife and was disfellowshipped one month after I was baptized. He was probably cheating on her during the time he was indoctrinating me. I was the first person he spoke to after his judicial committee. And he was an elder at the time. The last time I saw him about a year ago. He's reinstated now but has never climbed back up the ranks. He was in full elder mode, though, despite the fact that he's pretty much inactive himself, and began interrogating me about my personal life. Even though I was only 16 at the time I made the decision, I only have myself to blame.
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  darth frosty

  They ramped it up like the end was soooo close we had to hurry up and get thru a single book with people so they could than be qualified to go out and make converts. They used the reasoning from Acts that 3000 were baptized in one day without extensive instruction.
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  betterdaze

  This is how my mom got swept in prior to 1975 with the blue Truth book. I can confirm that some were still practicing the six-month
  cutoff as late as 1986 with the Paradise on Earth book because it happened to me!
  
  But it had more to do with an ambitious young pioneer sister married to a former Bethelite whose goal was to put as many baptism
  notches in her belt as she could. Her husband was only an MS and she wanted elderette status.
  
  Last I heard, he was an Overseer out West. I was just a pawn in her rise to power, some hours marked down on a sheet, easily discarded.
  
  Since I was raised in it, the study went rapidly. But in only six months, we still had two chapters to go. She dropped me like a hot potato.
  
  Witnesses (particularly 3rd and 4th generation ones, in my experience) will pick and choose which rules they follow. They conveniently
  sidestep or forget all other teachings from a past era, but will pull out an old rule from the same era if it suits their personal agenda.
  
  ~Sue
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  bluesbreaker59

  Yeah I remember we had a CO and an overzealous elder that thought it was great presentation if you just went up to the door, knocked and said: "Good morning, would you like a free home bible study?" We were told that we had to do this, I remember saying to my parents that it was the dumbest approach I'd ever heard of.
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  VM44

  Six months to "study" the Bible? Isn't that pushing things too fast?

  Or is it rather, "six months" to indoctrinate the student to become a JW?

  Why aren't they up front with the people as to the real purpose of the so-called "Bible Study"?
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  New light for you

  I feel so honored and privledged....

  I was babtized in 90, and almost not.... the Pioneer sister that brought us (my mother and i) in the truth, DROPPED us as a study because we "wern't progressing fast enough" ... we studied religiously (hahha) for a year, went to all meetings, i believe we were even out in service at that time, just about baptized then she dropped us.

  We were SOOO upset! It was almost like it was a "test" to see if we would just leave (of course not stupid us) or have the faith to continue on....

  So next meeting we talked to the elder we sat in front of and he decided to study with us... how sweet.

  I still remember how absolutely horrible we felt when she dumped us. We had already given up all worldy holidays, worldy friends, and then.. thrown us away.
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  VM44

  "wern't progressing fast enough"

  Right at the start of the "Bible Study" does the Witness explain to the student that he has to make a certain amount of progress within a certain amount of time?

  Does the JW explain EXACTLY what is the purpose of the study? Is it simply to study the Bible? Or is it to convert the individual?
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  Mary

  Outlaw said: Fast Spiritual Food at your local "McKingdom Hall"...."I`d like an "Elder Burger"..A side of "JC Fries"..And..A super-sized "Armageddon Cola".........

  Would you like some Governing Gravy on your JC Fries?
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  Gozz

  neverendingjourney: you certainly aren't crazy. What you described firmly happened in the 90s; could've been repeated earlier, though. I recall me sitting in a KH, and telling myself there's no way this's going to happen: I was 'bible study' then, and hated and resisted the read-and-answer-the-question-format. The man who studied with me made a point of agreeing there could be exceptions...
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  SnakesInTheTower

  I remember that time... I had come off the list in 1991... and got back on during the peak of that nonsense..I never had a study progress..... I kept studies just for grins in the winter... the ones that studied for years and never did anything...I called them PB S...Professional Bible Students....for them, it was the social interaction...nothing more....

  The elders were always trying to force me to study with the teenage and preteen boys in the congo to get them to baptism so they could have some more hamburger flippers microphone handlers fast food cashiers, field service drones, mickey d managers elders, etc.... so that they could say all their pioneers, MS, and elders were conducting a bible study..... I refused to push those kids..thankfully...NONE of them are dubs now... though I feel bad for one teen that was "raised in" that I really pushed to baptism (though I didnt study with) before I faded out.... he was already resigned himself to loser status ....unfortunately....in his early 20s now..still living at home..not going to college..working a part time grocery job...plays video games in his spare time.... sleeps in a bed while his mom has to sleep on a couch... idiot...

  Snakes ()