by minimus 22 Replies latest jw friends
I think many JWs enjoy not having to think, make crucial decisions or dwell on what life is all about.
It's much easier to follow orders and be a "sheep".
When you were a Witness, were you independent or did you feel most comfortable being in the middle of the pack?
I was young but I was independent. I to this day do not like being told what to do from anyone. It's probably because of my JW background.
My mother, on the other hand, was a perfect personality for JWism. She liked being told what to do, not to have to think, or make crucial decisions or certainly not to dwell on what life was all about. Most of her family is like this also. Thus they are JWs.
I can't explain my father. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I'm reading the first Steve Hassan book by the way. I like it.
Independent personalities would have a very difficult time remaining in a cult.
I have always been way too independent and had great difficulty accepting the standard answer of "wait on Jehovah" whenever I asked an elder a question. I always felt that things just didn't quite make sense but nobody could give me answers.
OTOH, I know a woman who left the Dubs a year ago. She has read Crisis of Conscience as well as Captives of a Concept and still thinks the Dubs may be the truth! Right now, she's flirting with the Mormon church. She very much likes having everything laid out for her, so that she doesn't have to think.
Drives me nuts.
StAnn
When FACTS are indisputable, and someone wants to still believe in a lie, what can you do?
I have always had an obedient personality, so I don't mind being given direction, but only if I could see the sense of what was required.
I can only be pushed so far, and then I "rebel".
We like rebels.
Baaa, baaa, baaa....LOL
Actually they knew I was a rebel and didn't like confronting me about anything. I had turned the tides on them on more than one occasion and wouldn't pull any punches.
I never bought into the "we-say-so" mentality of the WTS. If there was not an obvious bible reason, I just refused to do it. I didn't need their approval when I had God's. I knew the WTS publications too well (pre-CD) for any elder to be able to put forth any reasonable explanation except we-say-so. I was fairly passive-aggressive. I had been out of the social loop for so many years because of having a non-jw father, that there wasn't much to "take away" from me.
Blondie
This is what's so ironic: my son was very independant & head-strong growing up and had a hard time obeying the rules of our household. (no one in our family were JWs)
Now, he's a member of the Watchtower cult that dictates to him what he can & can't think, what he can & can't say and what he can & can't do.....and swallows it hook, line & sinker!
Go figure......
